US blames Egypt NGO crackdown on 'Mubarak holdovers'
The United States stepped up its criticism of Egypt's raids on pro-democracy groups on Tuesday, saying the crackdown was "unacceptable" and driven by remnants of former President Hosni Mubarak's regime.
"We had been assured by leaders within the Egyptian government that this issue would be resolved, that harassment would end, that NGOs would be allowed to go back to business as usual and that their property would be returned," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. "It is frankly unacceptable to us that that situation has not been returned to normal." (Reuters)
