Egypt’s leading government newspaper has accused the United States of dropping genetically altered food to needy refugees in Afghanistan into areas littered with land mines.
According to the Middle East Media and Research Institute, located in Washington, D.C., the Al-Ahram newspaper has launched “an offensive against U.S. media and the U.S. government” after Egypt was criticized in major U.S. dailies for its lack of support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
Al-Ahram’s editor, Ibrahim Nafi, accused the United States of dropping Afghani aid in dangerous locations, according to a MEMRI report released Friday.
“American planes drop humanitarian aid from the air on Afghani soil, as aid for the starving Afghani people, while American fighter planes, bombs, and missiles crush other regions in Afghanistan. This method poses serious risk … for the Afghan people, because [it] is dropped in areas full of land mines, which cause damage to the Afghani citizens trying to gather it up,” he wrote in an editorial.
And, Nafi said the food aid being sent had been genetically modified to the point where it poses a health risk.
“There were several reports that the humanitarian materials have been genetically treated, with the aim of affecting the health of the Afghani people,” Nafi wrote. “If this is true, the U.S. is committing a crime against humanity by giving the Afghani people hazardous humanitarian products, as it was said in those reports.”
U.S. officials have stated emphatically that the 800,000-plus meals dropped by American cargo planes into Afghanistan thus far have not been altered and are safe for consumption.
Also, officials have said that while some meals may have been dropped into dangerous areas, charges that they have been intentionally dropped into minefields are untrue.
Nafi decried what he sees as attacks on his nation by the U.S. media.
“Recently … we have encountered a deranged attack by many American papers on Egypt’s position in the current crisis.”
“We have noticed intentional attempts to artificially create structural disagreement between the U.S. and Egypt,” Nafi said. “The situation has reached such a state that these newspapers incite the American government against Egypt.”
“Some of the most prominent columnists in the American papers, such as Thomas Friedman, took part in these attacks. If we look at the attack launched by The Washington Post as an example of the barbaric attack against Egypt, we will find that it is based on a biased misapprehension of the Egyptian position,” Nafi wrote.
The Al-Ahram editor accused the Post as well as The New York Times of anti-Egypt bias.
“The [Post’s] accusations are ludicrous, but at the same time they reflect ignorance, misapprehension and arrogance,” he wrote. “What is strange is that the authors of these articles do not realize that it is the U.S. policy that aspires to turn governments in most of the countries of the world into dictatorships when it demands that they blindly support American measures, while ignoring their own national interests and public opinion.
“The American government and media ignore one essential fact: Egypt is a sovereign state with principles, independent positions, and highly realistic views about the international problems and the crisis,” the paper said.
Egypt is one of the largest recipients of U.S. military and foreign aid, receiving some $3 billion annually. Israel is the largest recipient.
“I do not know how the Americans dare to speak in this way, primarily in light of the fact that they have no reason to think that Egypt is obligated to adopt the American positions absolutely.” said Nafi.
He accused U.S. media and government officials of “misinterpreting” Egypt’s position on terror.
“Egypt expressed complete sympathy for [the victims of] the disaster in America and strongly condemned the terrorist action. It called on the U.S. to consider the crisis of Sept. 11 in an objective and balanced manner,” Nafi wrote in his editorial.
“Egypt stated that terror should be struck with full force. … [At the same time] Egypt emphasized that efforts to strike at terrorism must not lead to damage to innocent civilians, in Afghanistan in particular and in the world in general,” he said.
