Kirk just yesterday wrote a great article detailing the way that the U.S. strategy is moving forward to deal with political reform in Egypt. I think linking our aid to moves in the direction of sustained political openness is definitely the best way to go. In light of reading his article, I though I’d check to see if there have been any immediate after-effects, and indeed, it appears as if Mubarak has allowed a protest to go unhindered by the riot police.

CAIRO — Egyptian police opened the streets of north Cairo yesterday to political protests for and against President Hosni Mubarak, giving the opposition a chance to argue its case with ordinary people.

For the first time since anti-Mubarak street protests began last December, the Egyptian authorities did not deploy riot police to pen in an opposition demonstration.

The Popular Movement for Change, which overlaps with the better known Kefaya (Enough) Movement, took advantage of the vacuum to march through the streets of Rod el-Farag, a working-class residential quarter north of the city centre.

Several hundred protesters, chanting ”Down, down with Mubarak” and other slogans, paraded down a main artery and then back to where they started.

A smaller rival group of Mubarak supporters marched down the other side of the street, chanting allegiance to the president.

The organizers said they were surprised at the absence of the usual lines of hundreds of riot police in black uniforms.

They linked it to a visit to Cairo on Monday by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who criticized the government for allowing violence against demonstrators. Traffic police officers at the scene said they had no explanation.

I think it’s fair to say that the situation was indeed simply cause and effect., at least in the short-term of allowing this protest. To the government, this would have been a test of what would happen should a protest be allowed to be held. Given the peaceful element and lack of dramatic incident during the protest itself, I can imagine that this may be the first in a series of test situations in which the government opens up by testing the waters. In a place where even testing the waters is generally rejected as a policy, this is a good development. With enough time, it will also help to soften the extremism of such groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and strengthen the hand of pro-democracy groups like Kefaya.