[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Judge Sameh Abou Zeid claimed the NGOs’ work is "purely political and nothing to do with civil society.” Photo credit" Daily News Egypt"][/caption]

His comments came as the Pentagon announced that its most senior general will visit Egypt in an attempt to defuse tensions over Cairo's crackdown on non-governmental organizations. But a negotiated resolution seems unlikely after the judges investigating the case today threatened new raids on civil society groups and promised to extend the investigation to foreign funding of Islamist groups.

"Egypt will apply the law ... in the case of NGOs and will not back down ...