Hillary listens

"Gamila Ismail, a prominent politician who joined the protest movement, opened the meeting with a pointed critique of American support for Mr. Mubarak, which continued until the eve of his departure.   As much as the administration eventually pushed for Mr. Mubarak to step aside, many Egyptians remember more vividly Mrs. Clinton’s remarks on Jan. 25, as street protests boiled over into an uprising. “Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people,” she said then.  Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, who also attended the meeting with Mrs. Clinton, said Wednesday that those remarks were “a cause for widespread disappointment and criticism in Egypt.” At the meeting here, he said, she spoke of the “difficult balance” of the American role as a result of decades of diplomacy.  “She acknowledged the legitimacy of this concern,” he added, referring to the support for Mr. Mubarak, “but she stressed that the U.S. has done more to promote democracy in Egypt than any other country.”  Those in the meeting also raised the subjects of American support for other autocratic rulers in the region, the violence in Libya and Bahrain and the perception that the United States had failed to press for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr. Bahgat said he urged Mrs. Clinton to use the United States’ “unparalleled access” to Egyptian military leaders to bring an end to military tribunals and the torture of detainees in the country."