Free Republic

Corruption determined to not be an obstacle to taxpayer moneyMillions of children will be targeted to improve their reading skills over the next five years under a new Obama administration literacy program in nearly 30,000 public and private primary schools. But the schools are not in the U.S., they’re in the Republic of Kenya. The tentatively titled Kenya Early Grade Reading Project, or KEGRP, seeks to implement national curriculum standards, deploy more than 1,000 trainers to assist tens of thousands teachers and improve the ratio of textbooks to students. The Obama administration didn’t reveal the cost of the program.

Official UN Twitter account follows busty German porn star in X-rated videos @PBDBigBustyStar was one of only 537 people followed by @UN — until the account got busted by Eagle-eyed tweeters at Constitutionschool.com. A United Nations staffer has been so busted. The official Twitter account was mixing business with pleasure by following a busty German porn star. Penelope Black Diamond — who regularly posts X-rated videos via @PBDBigBustyStar — was revealed to be among only 537 people followed by @UN. Rubbing virtual shoulders with dignitaries and heads of states, the adult actress was placed three accounts beneath World Bank Africa...

For a man who regards Brussels as the biggest threat to Britain’s freedom since the Second World War, the choice of beer for Nigel Farage was obvious when we met at the Westminster Arms on Friday: Spitfire. It is brewed by Shepherd Neame in Kent to celebrate the Battle of Britain. Farage, a man of Kent, gulped down the first pint in 15 minutes, ordered a ‘reload,’ polishing off his second in another ten; and the moment we stepped outside, he lit up a fag.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel Aerospace Industries says it has signed a long-term contract with U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin to produce wings for the F-35 next-generation fighter jet. The state-owned company said Tuesday the contract is for 10 to 15 years and could generate up to $2.5 billion in sales. It says the wings will be made at an Israeli facility that already produces wings for Lockheed's F-16 warplane. The F-35 is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program, with an estimated cost of nearly $400 billion. The program aims to replace a wide range of existing aircraft for the U.S....

Late Richard Holbrooke, the first US special Af-Pak envoy, was fully aware that the Pakistani generals were lying to him on their support to the Islamic extremist groups against India, but he was against cutting off military aid to Islamabad, a new book has said. In his latest book "Beyond War: Reimagining American Influence in a New Middle East", the two-time Pulitzer winner David Rhode said Holbrooke wanted massive aid for Pakistan and launch some signature big projects there, in the absence of which he increasingly became frustrated with the USAID. "While publicly praising the Pakistanis, he was tough- minded...

Despite the organization being linked to Al-Qaeda and after having several pictures surface online of fighters grilling a decapitated human head, the United States pledged to give Syrian opposition forces $123 million in new defense aid – doubling the aid previously pledged by the Obama Administration. The announcement was made early Sunday morning by Secretary of State, John Kerry, who is meeting in the Turkish capital with opposition leaders. -snip Dave Frederick, a defense analyst is baffled by the administration’s behavior. “This is a true embarrassment for our country and something the Obama Administration should be very ashamed of. In...

Pyongyang wants withdrawal of all UN sanctions and US pledge not to engage in 'nuclear war practice' with South North Korea has issued a detailed statement on its terms for dialogue with the United States, after weeks of tensions. The demands from the North's top military body include the withdrawal of all UN sanctions imposed due to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests, and a US pledge not to engage in "nuclear war practice" with the South. It said denuclearisation of the peninsula should begin with the withdrawal of US weapons. Seoul was swift to dismiss the North's conditions as incomprehensible...

President Obama decided this week that the Muslim Brotherhood-linked regime ruling parts of Somalia out of the capital city Mogadishu is eligible to receive U.S. military aid and weapons. Obama Paves Way to Arm Muslim Brotherhood-linked Regime in Somalia The New American 12 April 2013 President Obama decided this week that the Muslim Brotherhood-linked regime ruling parts of Somalia out of the capital city Mogadishu is eligible to receive U.S. military aid and weapons, sending a memo to Secretary of State John Kerry announcing the new finding and laying the ground work for even more foreign entanglements in Africa....

John Hawkins of Right Wing News sent me this link, and I knew a better one could be made that actually illustrated the very good point.

On Friday, the United States released nearly $500 million in aid that had been frozen for months to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Following this announcement, Israel claimed that it would restart regular monthly tax transfers to the PA, which it has been withholding since the U.N. bid for Palestinian statehood in November. Like Israel, the U.S. Congress froze $200 million in aid to the PA in 2011 as punishment for seeking statehood at the U.N. When Palestine was admitted as a non-member state last November, Congress once again froze the request for funds. During Thursday's meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud...

Ahead of talks with Washington, Israel’s military is concerned that David’s Sling, Arrow-3 may lose funding because of the sequestration Defense officials expressed concern Wednesday that American financial cutbacks may result in drastic cuts to military aid to Israel and could put anti-missile defense projects such as David’s Sling and the Arrow 3 on the chopping block. Israeli and American officials are expected to begin negotiations over a new, multi-year military aid package in the wake of US President Barack Obama’s visit in the region last week. “Our current agreement lasts through 2017, and we’ve directed our teams to start...

If humans did in Star Trek what America has been doing in real life Earth would be destined to become Klingon.

The Obama administration recently issued warnings to contractors of potential sequestration-related spending cuts, but in the meantime federal spending continues unabated, domestically and globally. Some of the apparently indispensable projects include a survey of the gopher tortoise, alternative energy outings to Turkey and the purchase of gold pellets. USAID recently advised vendors that the agency “is taking every step to mitigate the effects of these cuts, but … it is likely that your company’s workforce, revenue, and planning processes may be affected.” But that is not stopping USAID from reaching out to contractors to carry out its new $700 million...

A $500 million reading-skills project has been unveiled by the Obama Administration. And young readers all around the globe—except United States citizens—will benefit from it. The Assistance to Basic Education Learn to Read Now, or ABE LEARN, program is seen by the administration as a key step in carrying out the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Education Strategy 2011-2015. According to a Request for Proposals that Patriot Update located via routine database research, ABE LEARN specifically is aiming to attain Goal One of that plan: Improve the reading skills of 100 million primary grade-school children globally.

Lawmakers have seized upon a domestic spending bill as a chance to tighten controls on how Egypt's Islamist government can use well over $1 billion in military and other aid that Washington sends to Cairo each year.[snip]Washington provides $1.3 billion per year in military aid to Egypt. The United States also said early this month it would give the country $250 million in budget aid after Mursi promised to make the painful economic reforms necessary to secure an International Monetary Fund loan. The senators - Rubio, fellow Republicans John McCain, James Inhofe, and Rand Paul, and Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy,...

At the opening of CPAC 2013, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) picked up where he left off in his 13 hour filibuster last week. Paul took off the gloves and went after Barack Obama on indefinite detention, defending the Constitution, and unlawfully killing American citizens. He also spoke on debt and foolish and frivolous spending and when he touched on foreign aid he said, “I say not one penny more to countries that are burning our flag.” As he took to the stage with his folders from last week’s filibuster he joked that he was only given twenty minutes, but brought...

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) blasted the Obama administration on Wednesday for suspending tuition assistance benefits for Army and Marine Corps servicemen, and called on the White House to restore funding to the program by paring back U.S. assistance to Egypt. “We are not under any obligation to continue to provide [Egypt] with over a billion and a half dollars in aid every year. Re-prioritizing this funding to our soldiers and Marines is the right thing to do,” said Coffman. Coffman has proposed trimming $500 million from unspent foreign aid to Egypt, and reprogramming the funding to the military tuition...

Pakistan’s most urbanized province lacks the “political commitment” and resources to properly educate its people, so the Obama Administration is stepping in to offer a little of both. Obama through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the five-year Community Mobilization Project (CMP) which will deploy contractors to advise officials and communities in Pakistan’s Sindh Province. CMP represents one component of the broader U.S. –funded Sindh Basic Education Program (SBEP), for which the White House last year pledged to infuse about $86 million toward improving targeted Pakistani educational systems.

**SNIP** The president says that he is "under no illusions" about the situation in Syria, where government forces and rebel groups have clashed for two years. But he says Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime continues to weaken and will eventually come to an end.

Small businesses soon can expect a boost of support from the Obama Administration, which is launching the Growth Oriented Local Development, or GOLD, program -- in the Southeastern European nation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Obama through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) last week alerted vendors to potential program-contracting opportunities via a presolicitation notice that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located during routine database research. Despite an end to civil war fifteen years ago -- and in spite of about $8 billion in post-conflict, international donor support -- that nation continues to lag "behind its neighbors’ political and economic progress," USAID...

Why is Obama arming the enemies of freedom? This cat is dangerous and scary. Why the support of Islamic revolutions whose stated goal is sharia and a universal caliphate? What's he doing to protect the oppressed religious minorities in peril? America, time to remove your morphine drip. Wake up! More tanks for Egypt this year than the entire Marine Corps has... For the new Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood dominated government, the Obama Administration is ensuring another $1.3 billion annual shipment of state-of-the-art weaponry. More Perspective... This year alone, Obama will be sending the Egyptians 200 M1A1 Main Battle Tanks. Egypt already...

Congress and the Obama administration have averted, for now, plunging the nation over the so-called “fiscal cliff” by postponing spending cuts and raising taxes on American families by $620 billion and confirming plans to try to bill taxpayers for another $1 trillion. Now the White House is spending millions collected from those same taxpayers to avoid another “fiscal cliff” – this time in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The payments are going to contractors who are tasked with keeping Jordan and other similarly situated nations from falling off those financial precipices. Part of the solution rests in more privatization of...

If financial aid to Israel were slowly decreased over time, it would increase the Jewish state’s sovereignty because they wouldn’t need to get permission from the U.S. every time they need to defend themselves against aggressive neighbors, Sen. Rand Paul said on Monday. Paul said that while he knows the idea of decreasing any kind of foreign aid is a “minority opinion” in Washington, it will be a lot harder for America to help others “if we are out of money,” reported Fox News. …

Egyptian lawyers today accused the Muslim Brotherhood of taking 10 billion Egyptian pounds (U.S. $1.5 billion) from the Obama Administration. Egypt’s Chief Public Prosecutor Talaat Ibrahim has ordered an investigation in an accusation against the Muslim Brotherhood of receiving 10 billion Egyptian pounds from the United States, asking for the sources of the Brotherhood’s money to be revealed. According to Aswat Masriya, the two plaintiffs claimed that the United States granted the Brotherhood the money illegally to back its interests in the region.

A U.S. Department of State-funded “tactical village” soon will be built in Beirut in conjunction with Lebanese Security Forces, the latest step in a series of military aid packages from the Obama Administration. State today acknowledged that it awarded a $9.3 million contract to Zerock Construction Lebanon S.A.L. to build the “practical training facility,” though technically Zerock secured it Dec. 11, according to an award notice that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located via routine database research. The original pre- solicitation notice described the project as the “Construction of a Tactical Training Village, an Outdoor Shooting Range, and External and...

A $20 million contract to spark "private sector competitiveness" in Ethiopia has been awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). As U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor reported earlier this year, the agency's Finance and Business Services (FaBS) Project seeks to increase Ethiopian industry's access to financing in order to drive "sustainable economic growth" while reducing poverty (Monitor, April 26, 2012). CARANA Corp., an Arlington, Virginia-based consulting company, will carry out the project for USAID over the next five years. CARANA in October separately secured a $12 million USAID contract to execute the Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport (NEXTT)...

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified Congress that it intends to sell Israel some 6,900 tail kits which can turn "dumb" bombs into satellite-guided "smart bombs," including bombs capable of penetrating hardened targets, Bloomberg Business Week reported. Some of the hardened targets one would immediately think about are those underground nuclear plants the Iranian government has been so chatty about this past decade or so. According to BBW, the sale will includes 1,725 all-weather satellite-guided Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM tail kits with BLU-109 bombs, which are 2,000-pound, hard-target penetrators. Bombs delivered this way are among the most...

US aid to Indonesia unharmed by crisis (Indnosia is timy and recieved over $205 Million in 2011, which was as much as Afganistan recieved) Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | World | Fri, July 06 2012, 6:58 AM The US, through its biggest international development organization, has pledged that aid funds for Indonesia would be maintained at about the same level as in the past year, or around US$157.35 million annually. Donald Steinberg, the deputy administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said on Thursday that the assistance from his organization to Indonesia would be constant...

Egypt’s army deployed tanks outside Cairo’s presidential palace on Thursday following overnight clashes between supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, which killed at least three people, according to the Interior Ministry. Overnight clashes between supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo killed at least three people and wounded more than 270, the Interior Ministry said Thursday, deepening the political crisis over expanded presidential powers and a controversial draft constitution. Pitched battles erupted Wednesday afternoon outside Cairo’s Heliopolis presidential palace and continued into the early morning Thursday in the first civilian clashes between the rival camps...

The U.S. government plans to spend another $1 billion in Uganda through 2015 -- and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will devote an additional $17.5 million specifically towards helping its Uganda unit to become more "adaptive, modern" and "effective." The $1 billion figure is part of the Obama Administration's $3.5 billion 2011-2015 Ugandan strategy, which aims to cut that nation's poverty in half ("$3.5 Billion 'Plan Uganda' Seeks to Cut Poverty in Half -- While Reducing 'Cattle Raiding,' Too" ; U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor, 5/18/11). The agency will hire a private contractor to carry out this "monitoring,...

Against GOP objections, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced that the Obama administration is sending $147 million in funding to the West Bank and Hamas-run Gaza. Despite a “hold by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.,” the administration is arguing the money needs to be sent on humanitarian grounds. They did not, however, explain how they plan to force Hamas to use the money for humanitarian purposes. And while “administrations generally do not disburse funding over the objections of lawmakers on relevant committees,” those associated with Obama have proven more than willing to sidestep Congress to place...

Less than a week after Hurricane Sandy plunged much of the mid-Atlantic region into darkness, the Obama administration unveiled a new initiative aimed at mitigating the impact of “unreliable grid power.” Not across ravaged coastal New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, but in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The direct beneficiary of the administration’s generosity is a publicly traded Pakistani cement and concrete producer, according to a planning document that WND located via routine database research. The Lahore-based Pioneer Cement Limited, or PCL, requested a grant from the U.S. Trade & Development Agency, or USTDA – an independent White House entity –...

Brief(under 3 mins.) video re Obama's ring proclaiming there is no god but you no who. Wore this ring at least since law school and was then put on his finger by his lovely bride.

I'd like to see one member of the press corp ask Obama about this. It certainly jives with Obama's islamophilia and his pro-sharia foreign policies, and with his extensive Muslim background, as detailed in my book, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America. The implications of Obama's ring aside, the level of his dishonesy is breathtaking. Jerome Corsi over at WND has this blockbuster story. Obama's ring: 'There is no god but Allah' He's worn it on his wedding-ring finger since before he met Michelle Barack Obama's gold band NEW YORK – As a student at Harvard Law...

It comes as a surprise to many when anti-Semitism is propagated by people and denominations operating under the banner of Christianity. The latest incident comes from a letter sent to the United States Congress by the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Mark S. Hanson, and his liberal church cohorts telling the Congress to investigate Israel and consider halting military aid to them. That letter was broadcast far and wide by the ELCA News Service, with the subtitle “ELCA, other churches call for investigation of military aid to Israel.” So make no mistake, this is a call...

A $90 million contract to build up the Iraqi national education bureaucracy has been awarded to the Washington, D.C.-based firm Creative Associates International, which likewise will be tasked with the standardization of teacher training systems across that nation. As U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor reported earlier this year (April 16, 2012), the U.S. Agency for International Development launched the Arabic-themed USAID/Ajyal (“generations”) initiative to bring about “systems improvements to deliver quality instruction and safe learning environments.” The program will pay special attention to “expanding educational opportunities for girls, and other vulnerable populations and minorities so that they might enjoy higher...

Continued modernization of the Mexican criminal justice system purportedly will help stem "the drug-fueled violence that has threatened citizens on both sides of the border," according to the Obama Administration. Obama through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) consequently has launched a new program called the Mexico Promoting Justice Project, also known as PROJUST, which will attempt system reform in several Mexican states. PROJUST will infuse an unspecified level of additional taxpayer dollars to "support comprehensive criminal justice reform that adheres to Mexican and international human rights standards implemented at state and federal levels." USAID/Mexico seeks to enhance broader...

Exclusive: Joseph Farah compares billions given away to what's spent on border security It may be an apocryphal quote attributed to the late Sen. Everett Dirksen: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” There’s really no credible citation one can find that suggests he actually ever said those famous words – though I swear I can still hear him saying them when I was a child. Those words were reverberating in my mind again this week as it was revealed that Barack Obama has increased spending on foreign aid by 80 percent through last...

Many of these countries forcibly enlist child soldiers. Obama not only sanctions this, but also he is now using American tax dollars to finance it. The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America. Obama Changes Bush Era Ban on Providing Financial Aid to Countries Using Child Soldiers Duane Lester While the left is doing its best to damage Mitt Romney because he doesn’t bring his garbage man Gatorade’s, the CEO of ObamaPhone, Inc. is now shoveling money to countries that arm children and put them on the front lines. From WhiteHouse.gov: Presidential Memorandum — Presidential Determination with respect to...

The Obama administration has released details of a plan to infuse another $300 million into West Bank and Gaza construction projects, spending it deems critical toward attaining the “success of a future Palestinian state.” Despite combined U.S. and international donor-community efforts, a significant portion of the public infrastructure currently under Palestinian Authority control remains in need of expansion or repair, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the USAID. Obama, through USAID, is stepping in to meet the need as a successful Palestinian state “depends upon an infrastructure system capable of providing basic services to a growing population,” the...

The Obama Administration is unfolding its latest plan to address lackluster economic growth, an action it seeks to accomplish partly by reforming national trade policies and regulations. National, that is, specific to the nation of the Philippines, where the U.S. Agency for International Development has launched yet another program to help improve the ability of that country’s business sector to compete internationally. The Trade�Related Assistance for Development (TRADE) project, as the endeavor is known, is the latest effort of the U.S.-Philippine “Partnership for Growth,” or PFG , according to a solicitation that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located during routine...

Redistibution means taking away from one person to give to someone else. It is Theft. It is Wrong, no matter how "fair" you think you are being. Just ask your kids- if you take something away from one to give to the other they will instantly know "that's NOT fair" But it is WORSE than that- it is the destruction of potential wealth. Just like the "Broken Glass" theory is 100% back-asswards, so is "redistribution" Let me use my favorite example. Two people in a fictional closed system containing a starting value of $100. Alan has $100 and Bob has...

I just watched Romney's speech at the Global Initiative Conference and I was blown away. Foreign aid should be tied to getting people employment. All free enterprise - all the time. It was impressive. He even got a few digs in about Obama. It is a must see.

By a vote of 81 to 10, the Senate on Saturday defeated legislation that would have suspended foreign aid to Pakistan, Egypt and Libya in the wake of the violent anti-American demonstrations in those countries. All 10 supporters of the bill were Republicans.

Maybe this isn't really important news, but I believe it bears mentioning. For several weeks, Senator Rand Paul, R-KY, has threatened to filibuster all Senate business, unless his bill to cut off foreign aid to Pakistan was allowed discussion and a floor vote. After the attacks on our embassies in Egypt and Libya, he added those two countries to his list of nations to which he wants to cut off foreign aid, unless certain requirements are met and followed. Concerning Pakistan, Senator Paul wants to continue foreign aid only if the Pakistani government releases Dr. Shakil Afridi. He is the...

The following is a quick rundown of several recently unveiled foreign aid contracts and projects through the U.S. Agency for International Development. Links to additional information can be accessed by clicking through to the Monitor website.:THE PHILIPPINES: USAID may spend up $43.5 million over five years to promote tourism and agribusiness in the Philippines. The Advancing Philippine Competitiveness, or COMPETE, Project seeks to "contribute to higher growth through the better provision of infrastructure, increased competitiveness of key industries, and increased access to credit," according to a modified solicitation released Sept. 21. The agency is accepting proposals through Nov. 2 (Solicitation...

By now my colleagues in the Senate are familiar with the tragic story of Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi. Since Dr. Afridi was taken into custody by Pakistani officials in May 2012, I have been fighting for his release. I have also been working for a vote on a bill that would cut foreign aid to Pakistan until they free this ally of America. In the weeks leading up to that attack on the compound by SEAL Team 6, there was a doctor in Pakistan who helped us determine Osama bin Laden’s exact location. Dr. Afridi risked his own life to...

Although the Obama administration claims U.S.-funded power infrastructure projects in the nation of Georgia will boost energy security and stability in the former Soviet republic, WND has uncovered corollary beneficiaries of this foreign assistance: Arab royals. Promoting the development of the Poti Free Industrial Zone, or Poti FIZ, on the Black Sea coast is a driving force behind the Georgia Improved Transmission, or GIPT, project, according to several procurement documents that WND found during routine database research... However, the agency is not advertising the fact that one of the United Arab Emirates monarchies manages the zone. Indeed, Poti FIZ is...

The nation faces a critical need to "overcome a number of serious problems" related to economic development and growing energy needs, particularly because of its "strong dependence on energy imports," the Obama Administration has concluded. Consequently, it has launched a project to increase "competitiveness and energy security" while reducing "greenhouse gas emissions via greater clean energy investments" across the nation. Across the nation of Macedonia, that is.

Although the mission of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is to create programs that “improve the health of the Nation,” the Obama Administration apparently is taking liberties with which nation the NIH should be helping. Indeed, a project aimed at influencing parental decision making—attempted via songs, stories, and posters encouraging “consistent shoe wearing” in Ethiopia—reveals the notion of “the Nation” is open to interpretation.