State Dept. Redacts Big Chunks of $22.8 Mil Contract to Resettle Muslim Refugees

Judicial Watch ^ | May 23, 2017

[jazusamo]

The U.S. government spends billions of dollars to “resettle” foreign nationals and transparency on how the money is spent depends on the agency involved. Judicial Watch has been investigating it for years, specifically the huge amount of taxpayer dollars that go to “voluntary agencies”, known as VOLAGs, to provide a wide range of services for the new arrivals. Throughout the ongoing probe Judicial Watch has found a striking difference on how government lawyers use an exemption, officially known as (b)(4), to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to withhold records. All the cases involve public funds being used to resettle foreigners on U.S. soil and Americans should be entitled to the records.

The (b)(4) exemption permits agencies to withhold trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person which is privileged or confidential. Depending on the government agency and the mood of the taxpayer-funded lawyers handling public records requests, that information is exempt from disclosure. In these cases, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) disclosed a VOLAG contract to resettle tens of thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) that entered the U.S. through Mexico under the Obama administration while the State Department withheld large portions of a one-year, $22.8 million deal to resettle refugees from Muslim countries. Most of the UACs came from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala and the Obama administration blamed the sudden surge on violence in the three central American nations. The agency responsible for resettling the minors and issuing contracts for the costly services is HHS.

As a result of Judicial Watch’s work HHS furnished records with virtually nothing redacted. Disclosed were employee salaries of VOLAGs contracted by the agency to provide services for the illegal immigrant minors, the cost of laptops, big screen TVs, food, pregnancy tests, “multicultural crayons” and shower stalls for the new arrivals. The general contract was to provide “basic shelter care” for 2,400 minors for a period of four months in 2014. This cost American taxpayers an astounding $182,129,786 and the VOLAG contracted to do it was government regular called Baptist Children and Family Services (BCFS). The breakdown includes charges of $104,215,608 for UACs at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and an additional $77,914,178 for UACs at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

HHS rightfully provided all sorts of details in the records, including the cost of emergency surge beds ($104,215,608) for just four months; food for the illegal alien minors and staff ($18,198,000); medical supplies such as first aid kits, latex gloves, lice shampoo and pregnancy tests ($1,120,400); recreation items such as board games, soccer balls and jump ropes ($180,000); educational items like art paper and multicultural crayons ($180,000); laptops ($200,000) and cellphones ($160,000). Hotel accommodations for the BCFS staff was $6,765,000, the records show, and the salary for a 30-member “Incident Management Team” was $2,648,800, which breaks down to $88,293 per IMT member for the four-month period. It was outrageous that the Obama administration spent nearly $200 million of taxpayer funds to provide illegal alien children with the types of extravagant high-tech equipment and lavish benefits many American families cannot even afford for their own children.

This has become a heated issue for the government which may explain why other agencies aren’t as forthcoming in providing specific figures, thus abusing the (b)(4) exemption. The State Department, for instance, redacted huge portions of records involving contracts with VOLAGs to resettle refugees from mostly Muslim countries. The files illustrate the disparate redaction treatment given by different government agencies to the same types of records. The State Department paid a VOLAG called United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) a ghastly $22,838,173 in one year to resettle refugees that came mostly from Muslim countries. Unlike HHS, the agency redacted information related to what the USCCB charged the government for things like furniture, personnel, equipment and other costs associated with contracts to resettle refugees. Why did one government agency hand over the same types of records that another agency claims are trade secrets? Judicial Watch is challenging the State Department’s (b)(4) exemption and will provide updates as they become available.

HHS and the State Department work with nine VOLAGs to resettle refugees and the voluntary agencies have hundreds of contractors they like to call “affiliates.” It’s a huge racket that costs American taxpayers monstrous sums and Judicial Watch is working to pinpoint the exact amount. Besides BCFS and USCCB, other VOLAGs with lucrative government gigs to resettle refugees are: Church World Service, Ethiopian Community Development Council, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, International Rescue Committee, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Lutheran Immigration Refugee Services and World Relief Corporation.

[jazusamo]

We not only invite illegal aliens and terrorists into our country but put them up in style.

[jazusamo]

Off the Wall Ping!
Contact to be added.

[PGR88]

Uh Oh - without this government-subsidized business, Catholic Charities will go bankrupt.

[proust]

Judicial watch does such a great job. 👍

[DoughtyOne]

FReepers, it's time to get serious about retiring this FReep-a-thon.


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...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

[GnuThere]

What are multicultural crayons? If they don’t like our crayon colors, to he!! with them!

[Liz]

Obama in the Oval Office and Hillary at the Stat Dept okayed Muslims cashing in bigtime:

OBAMAS CASH-IN TO THE TUNE OF 100 MILLION TAX DOLLAR ---Pres O gave Mrs O $100 million tax dollars to take to Morocco to (cough) "teach Muslim Girls".

The 100 million tax dollars came from the State Dept's slush fund----the Millennium Challenge Corporation (chaired by Hillary).

Notice that the 100 million tax dollars does not stay in Morocco---- it is to be help by and doled out by the post-presidency tax-exempt Obama Foundation.

Michele, her daughters and her mother in Morocco's palace. Look at
that smile---100 million tax dollars to spend on anything she desires.

[jazusamo]

Thanks again, D1! That's a great FReepathon post.

MAGA!

Please bump the Freepathon or click above to donate or become a monthly donor!

[JerseyDvl]

Yes indeed. They are the only source that tells the truth.

[SgtHooper]

Yes, they do! Thank GOD for JW!!

[GOPJ]

...huge amount of taxpayer dollars that go to “voluntary agencies”, known as VOLAGs, to provide a wide range of services for the new arrivals.

As a taxpayer I resent the crap out of this type of liberal elite scam...

[jazusamo]

I believe these two grifters are going to do their best to swindle more than the Clintons.

[Liz]

This'll give you nightmares, people.....counting up the endless line of Huma's cousins w/ their greedy Muslim hands in the State Dept cookie jar.

UNDER HOUSE ARREST---This smirking creep is Huma's first cousin AKA a serial swindler
He subsidized businesses w/ our tax dollars looted from Hillary's State Dept. Six million dollars is missing.

EXCERPT--“Thanks for getting in touch. Would love to arrange a meeting,” Huma Abedin replied in a June 23, 2009, email to her cousin Omar Amanat and Shamil Idriss, who heads New York-based Soliya Inc.

In May 2010, then-Secy Clinton helped Soliya get access to U.N. funding by making the U.S. a participant in a U.N. high-tech media initiative called the Alliance of Civilizations. Then in October 2010, the State Department directly awarded Soliya $1.25 million for a media technology project. “Huma helped Omar make KIT appear more valuable because of its association with the Alliance of Civilizations, which was approved by Hillary and funded in part by U.S. grants (tax dollars),” said an attorney familiar with the case.

“This helped Omar raise money for KIT, which he and his brother misappropriated for other purposes. Approximately $6 million has vanished.”

Amanat took KIT Digital public in August 2009. At the time, Amanat, known as a “serial swindler,” was in personal bankruptcy and being sued by other investors. Despite his reputation, he still managed to gain special access to US government tax dollars thanks to his ties to his well-positioned cousin and the Clinton Foundation.

THE MONEY LAUNDRY Records show that Amanat and several other family members and related charities have together donated as much as $1.2 million to the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative, as well as the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Amanat, who personally contributed as much as $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation, was appointed to the Council on Foreign Relations during the time that Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary of state.

While the FBI has apparently closed its espionage investigation into Clinton’s unsecured private email server (the House has reopened it), its public corruption investigation into the Clinton Foundation remains open.

It’s not clear if this still-active probe overlaps with the Amanat fraud investigation. However, investigators reportedly continue to look into alleged “pay-for-play” schemes involving the Clinton State Department and the Clinton Foundation and its wealthy donors, as well as entities that paid the Clintons millions of dollars in speaking fees.

Judicial Watch and other government watchdog groups have charged that the Clinton Foundation was a pay-for-play operation that rewarded its benefactors with State Department favors.....and cash.

[jazusamo]

Amen! And a liberal elite scam is exactly what it is.

[Grampa Dave]

How many of these so called Churches could keep their doors open if they didn’t get paid big time make their illegals so happy?

How much do the administrators and everyday workers get paid to shelter/feed the illegals?

[xrmusn]

The worst thing is-

Because of the built in immunity no one will DARE touch them- BOs or HRC -once an investigation starts ‘they’ will start with the ‘its only retaliation’, ‘if BO weren’t Black’, ‘if HRC weren’t a girl’....etc....etc...etc...

President Trump is probably our ONLY hope to clean this crap up and put the GROSSEST of the offenders in jail.
An insider will do NOTHING to put a halt to the gravy train.

ANY Lib or establishment puke will not pursue and you can bet that will probably be the ONLY thing that steps into power once ‘they’ shed themselves of President Trump.

[Liz]

"Tale of Sid."

THE STATE DEPT SLUSH FUND--Longtime Clinton family crony and Secy Hill's top aide is US govt employee, Cheryl Mills. Govt employee Mills also ran a far-off side business.

Mills' "BlackIvy Investments," is developing a privately-financed dry port that will be located 56 km outside of the Port of Dar es Salaam, Africa, and will use shuttle trains to take transit and upcountry cargo to and from the Port.

So how did Mills' BlackIvy, a brand new firm with no discernible track record of building ports, manage to become an overnight player in the East African energy market? (And here did State Dept employee Mills get the development money?)

It turns out Mills had some help from a company called Symbion Power, which was created to profit off rebuilding efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan after the US invasions.

Symbion Power operators happens to be very good friends of Hillary Clinton.

Hillary's pal, Sid Blumenthal was the conniving Clintons' bagman---a $325,000 employee of the Clinton Foundation, he had numerous paid side interests----promoting any number of foreign deals and schemes in which he had a financial interest.....many of which were predicated on the toppling of Libya's Khadaffi.

Blumenthal was ambidextrous---chronically emailing Hillary Libya foreign policy messages w/ one hand....his other hand firmly in the State Dept cookie jar.

In one confidential e-mail to Clinton, Blumenthal was clearly colluding w/ onetime Amb Joe Wilson (Valerie Plame's hubby) to help himself to the tax dollars in the State Dept cookie jar.

GAME ON Amb Wilson pumped himself up as a 'director' of Symbion Power---an outfit seeking millions of dollars in contracts from an obscure government agency chaired by Hillary....the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC)

In September 2010, Hillary's MCC awarded Symbion $47 million tax dollars for (cough) 'power projects in Tanzania.'

EVER WONDER how much of the $47 million tax dollars got to Tanzania....after the players divvied it up among Blumenthal, Wilson, the Clintons, Obama?

NOTE Millenium is also the source of the 100 million tax dollars Michele gave to Morocco "to teach Muslim girls" to be held by, and "administered" by the Obama Foundation.

===========================================

FREEPER FEATURE--DO THIS NOW: demand the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) books be opened. We demand to know the financial details and the scope and dimension of individuals connected to these outrageous State Dept giveaways.........govt parasites profiting at taxpayers' expense.

PRESIDENT'S OFFICE----PHONE NUMBERS
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

FBI TIP PAGE---https://tips.fbi.gov

CONTACT CONGRESS: Capitol Switchboard 1-866-220-0044

===================================================

Report State Dept Millenium Challenge Corporation MCC Fraud here:

https://oig.usaid.gov/content/mcc-hotline-report-fraud-or-corruption

[GOPJ]

It was outrageous that the Obama administration spent nearly $200 million of taxpayer funds to provide illegal alien children with the types of extravagant high-tech equipment and lavish benefits many American families cannot even afford for their own children.

When reputable people find a child they don't 'buy them gifts' and keep the children. Honest people find the parents and return the children or call the police and let the police find the parents. No one 'keeps' the kids. This is one more example of Obama and Comey being nut jobs.

Minor children?

Turn them over to authorities, contact parents, put them on a plane and send them back to their parents. Any other choice is bordering on evil.

Many of these children wound up 'lost'. Filling up Chicago's whore houses? At least with 'Catholic Charities' the children weren't damaged. The 'Charities' just ripped off the American taxpayer.

Oh, and it ain't 'charity' if they're subsidized with money stolen from taxpayers.

[rawcatslyentist]

Easy way to cut costs, instead of settling them to continents, settle them to oceans.

[Bigg Red]

What are multicultural crayons?

***
I am picturing colors called “Behead Red” and “Stoning Grey”.