As Egyptian protests continue to rage and thousands of people in that country continue to demand democratic reforms, many commentators are rightly calling upon the international community to show solidarity with the demonstrators and join them in battling the Mubarak regime.

However, there is at least one powerful, multinational entity that has continually stood by Mubarak and the Egyptian elite and has continually fought efforts to democratize the country. As ThinkProgress previously reported, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce maintains a network of foreign affiliates known as Amchams, “which are foreign chambers of the Chamber composed of American and foreign companies.” In Egypt, this foreign affiliate is known as the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, known in short as AmCham Egypt.

AmCham Egypt’s relation to the Mubarak dictatorship stretches back decades. In fact, the Egyptian dictator even personally intervened to create the organization. In 1981, Mubarak issued an order to allow for the creation of the AmCham by giving it an exemption from Egypt’s strict NGO laws — which help limit the influence human rights and democracy promotion organizations. Since then, the chamber has grown to have hundreds of members. While roughly 75 percent of the organization’s members are Egyptian businesses, many of them are also large Western multinational corporations, like Coca Cola and BP. The Chamber’s member companies account for nearly 20 percent of Egypt’s GDP.

When a powerful corporate-backed entity like the AmCham Egypt gains favorable treatment, it is natural for it to try to protect its patron. So last year, when a group of U.S. Senators — lead by Russ Feingold (D-WI) — introduced legislation that called on the government of Egypt to end crackdowns on pro-democracy activists and hold free and fair elections, AmCham Egypt, at the behest of the Egyptian dictatorship, sprung into action.

As Al Masra Al Youm, a major Egyptian paper, reports, the Mubarak regime tapped AmCham Egypt President Shafik Gabr to do its bidding. Gabr was “dispatched expressly” for the purpose of scuttling the bill:

American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Egypt President Shafik Gabr arrived in Washington on Wednesday to meet with members of US Congress in an effort to persuade them to refrain from issuing a resolution demanding that Egypt “hold fair elections, allow international monitoring of elections, and respect democracy and human rights.”

Informed sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Gabr, who is also a leading member of the ruling National Democratic Party of President Hosni Mubarak, had been dispatched expressly for this purpose by the Egyptian government.

By asking a non-American who technically worked for a nongovernmental organization to do their advocacy for them, the Mubarak regime successfully skirted numerous laws dealing with lobbying disclosure, making it easier to hide its role. But thanks to the intervention of AmCham Egypt as well as a multi-million dollar official lobbying campaign by Mubarak, the bill died a quiet death as it wasn’t brought to the floor before the Senate’s recess.

And stunningly, just days before massive protests erupted all over Egypt demanding democracy — protests which were widely expected given events in neighboring Tunisia and the upcoming anniversary of a police massacre at the hands of British colonizers — AmCham Egypt hosted former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who blamed the media for its “sensational coverage” of the Tunisian revolution and said it was in American interests to “continue to support ‘our friends’ in the region, such as Egypt, Jordan and Gulf countries.” “Chaos is in no one’s interest,” he concluded, disparaging the protests:

Negroponte said it will be crucial for US interests to continue to support “our friends” in the region, such as Egypt, Jordan and Gulf countries. [...]

During a brief question-and-answer session at the conclusion of his address, Negroponte said he was surprised by the unrest in Tunisia that ended the 23-year presidency of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He said that what happened in Tunisia is “not necessarily transferable” to other countries. He blamed the news media for sensational coverage of self-immolation protests in Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania, and urged “a little bit of patience.” “Let’s hope the country doesn’t descend into chaos,” he said. “Chaos is in no one’s interest.”

While backing dictatorships is nothing new for Negroponte, it should be noted that he has financial interests at stake in Egypt as well. He is on the board of Agility DGS, a defense company that has major operations in Egypt.

In 2006, AmCham Egypt, in a particularly outlandish move, put out a statement in its Business Monthly that bragged that President Mubarak “became Egypt’s first president to be directly elected in a multiparty contest” in 2005 — a reference to an election where almost all the independent opposition was banned and Mubarak won 88 percent of the vote. For years, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been using its massive amounts of corporate money to distort American democracy. Let the record show that its foreign affiliates appear to be dead set on doing much worse in foreign countries, even if it means backing a brutal dictator like Mubarak.

Following the tragic shooting in Arizona, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik became the target of right-wing criticism when he noted that his state is “the mecca for prejudice and bigotry” at a local news conference. “I think that people who are unbalanced are especially susceptible to vitriol,” said Dupnik about the person suspected of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).

Dan Baltes of the Salt Lake City-based Americans Against Immigration Amnesty wasn’t too happy with Dupnik’s remarks. In fact, he is now spearheading an effort to recall Dupnik even though he is not even a resident of the state of Arizona where the sheriff lives and works. The Pima County elections director has indicated that his efforts can indeed go forward. Fox11 reports:

In the wake of the Tucson tragedy, not everyone is thrilled with the job done by Pima County sheriff Clarence Dupnik. In fact, some want to remove him from office. Pima County elections director brad nelson announced this afternoon an effort to recall dupnik will go forward.

Salt Lake City resident Dan Baltes, head of Americans Against Immigration Amnesty, filed the appropriate paperwork, and can begin compiling signatures. Baltes said Dupnik’s comments on the day of the shooting spurred the decision to begin the process.

Watch the report:

It’s still unclear whether the hate and vitriol that Dupnik cited played a role in the Arizona shooting. However, Dupnik’s assessment of the environment in which Giffords was carrying out her work in Arizona was spot-on.

Meanwhile, groups like Baltes’ have contributed to the hate and vitriol which has spread across the nation. His own organization’s website once stated, “Many of those seeking amnesty refuse to assimilate to our culture or language and refuse to respect our citizens and laws. Rather, they demand we assimilate to them and their culture, teach our children their language and shamelessly fly their country’s flag over ours.” It also falsely claims that immigrants commit higher rates of crime, specifically sex crimes. At Glenn Beck’s rally last year, Baltes told USA Today, “It’s time for Americans to let themselves be heard instead of being spoken to or spoken for by people who don’t represent us…the government has a deaf ear to our best interests.”

The focus of Dupnik’s controversial statements was not immigration. However, it is no coincidence that Americans Against Immigration Amnesty is going after one of the most vocal critics of Arizona’s immigration law.

Yemen has now apparently joined Tunisia and Egypt on the list of Middle Eastern countries experiencing large anti-government demonstrations:

Thousands of Yemenis took to the streets in the country’s capital and other regions on Thursday to demand a change of government, in demonstrations that organizers said were inspired by protests in Tunisia that toppled the president there.

At least 10,000 protesters led by opposition members and youths activists gathered at Sana University and around 6,000 more elsewhere in the Yemeni capital of Sana, according to local news media reports.

The government responded by sending a large number of security forces into the streets, said Nasser Arabyee, a Yemeni journalist in Sana reached by phone.

While it’s good to see the Obama administration coming out more strongly behind the protesters, it’s imperative now that the administration formulate a more robust and strategic response to these events. While I think it’s generally correct for the U.S. not to simply inject itself into the demonstrations, it’s also worth noting that the U.S. has significant influence, and, given that we’ve sponsored them for decades, responsibility to pressure these regimes away from violent crackdowns.

Many progressives were thrilled by what we saw as a promise in the president’s Cairo speech to move away from a Middle East policy in which political freedom was subordinated to the perceived imperatives of counter-radicalism, in which “democracy promotion” amounted to little more than a cynical veiled threat to get regimes to do what we want. We’ve been likewise disappointed at the lack of follow through. These continuing uprisings offer the president an opportunity to make good on that promise.

To that end, it’s worth revisiting a paper written by my colleague Brian Katulis back in February 2009 urging President Obama to reclaim the mantle of democracy promotion, and offering a number of steps that the administration could take toward developing a more progressive strategy for the region.