“Catastrophic Decline In Human Rights in Egypt” says Amnesty International

Maybe the new boss isn’t the same as the old boss. Maybe he’s worse. That seems to be the judgment of Amnesty International. (The quote above is from the BBC.)

Amnesty International calculates that the number of people rounded up and imprisoned in political repression since the military coup one year ago, led by new dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, overthrew Mohamed Morsi (the first democratically elected president in all the thousands of years of Egypt’s existence) is at least 16,000, of whom a minimum of 80 have died in prison.

Human rights in Egypt are now said to be as bad as during the worst of the Mubarak reign.

Not a problem for the U.S. and Israel. Both governments are secretly relieved to be rid of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi. Indeed, Egyptian democracy is regarded by those governments as a threat. Because Israel isn’t popular with the Egyptian masses, and the Egyptian people have no reason to aid the repression of the Palestinians imprisoned in the Gaza open air concentration camp. So democracy in Egypt poses a threat to the Egyptian-Israeli de facto alliance, an alliance underwritten by billions of dollars in military equipment given to the Egyptian military every year by the U.S.

It's rather a shame that the U.S. doesn't use its immense power for the benefit of humanity. Of course, it acquired that power in the first place by being an enemy of humanity. But were it to be a leader in improving the level of global civilization, that would be a way for atoning for how it acquired its power. But its elites show no inclination to do any such thing. They are utterly lacking in moral and existential clarity, so they won't be doing that.