WASHINGTON -- As the number of civilian protesters killed in clashes with Egyptian military forces continued to climb this week, members of Congress began to question the $1.3 billion dollars a year in U.S. foreign aid the Egyptian military receives every year.

On Sunday, both Democrats and Republicans said the deaths of hundreds of supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi were unacceptable. "We need to exercise our influence by saying we're going to [suspend aid] until you restore democracy,” said New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Cutting off United States military aid to Egypt is easier said than done, however. It could jeopardize a decades-long alliance between Washington and Cairo, which is believed to receive more than 80 percent of its weapons procurement budget from U.S. dollars. It could also jeopardize the billions of dollars in taxpayer funds that major defense contractors get paid annually to manufacture weapons for the Egyptian military.

two shitty ass groups of people coming together and killing people they got to believe them. and these shitty ass people got armed from other shitty people. a song as old as time, a tale as old as rhyme.

The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows ship transport between Europe and Asia without navigation around Africa.

SCA owns the Suez Canal and all areas, buildings and equipment pertaining thereto.

SCA issues the Rules of Navigation, fixes the tolls for the use of the canal and collects them. The tolls are expressed in XDR and collected in USD, GBP, EUR and other currencies.

In 2008, the total revenue in tolls was 5,381.9 million USD for the passage of a total of 21,415 vessels - resulting in an average toll of 251,314.5 USD per vessel.

I don't think ptb would allow the Suez to be closed...