Free Republic

A U.S. government effort to discourage students from dropping out of secondary and even primary school has been extended, giving a federal contractor two more years to achieve the Obama Administration's goals in this program. The initiative, however, focuses on students in the Middle East and Asia. Creative Associates International since 2010 has carried out the School Dropout Prevention Pilot program (SDPP) in Cambodia, India, Tajikistan, and Timor Leste on behalf of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which awarded Creative a three-year task order with a $51.5 million maximum ceiling. The contract balance is projected to remain around...

Obama Bankrolled Attack On The Benghazi Consulate AUGUST 22, 2013 BY KRIS ZANE VIDEO-Obama Bankrolled Attack On The Benghazi ConsulateIt has been widely reported in Egyptian media that one of the leaders in the attack against the Benghazi consulate on September 11, 2012 was Mohsen Al-Azazi.According to Ahmed Moussa, a former high ranking intelligence official with the Egyptian government and several other sources, Al-AzaziÂ’s passport was found in the house of Khairat Al-Shater, the Number Two man in the Muslim Brotherhood hierarchy, now under house arrest in Egypt by the Egyptian military. Al-Azazi has been implicated as the actual assassin...

Project is to assess south-of-the-border social conditionsThe Obama administration intends to keep contractors on stand-by to help officials evaluate conditions on the Mexican side of the U.S. border, but U.S. companies are not allowed to apply for the work. Tracking remittances – funds sent over a distance – from the U.S. to Mexico is one of several possible research and consulting services that Obama through the U.S. Agency for International Development may solicit. Such a task will not support, for example, tax- or drug-enforcement operations. Instead, it would help determine the extent to which the funds subsequently are “invested into...

Four more F-16 fighter jets left the U.S. on Thursday headed for Egypt as part of a foreign aid package that has generated controversy given the political upheaval in the Mideast country. Critics say the military aid should stop because the president Egyptians elected last year has led the Muslim Brotherhood, called President Obama liar and urged that hatred of Jews be instilled in children. US gives 4 more F-16 fighter jets to Egyptian government despite outcry By Maxim Lott Published April 11, 2013 FoxNews.com Debate over US sending F-16 fighter jets to Egypt How dangerous are US F-16 fighter...

Project is to assess south-of-the-border social conditionsThe Obama administration intends to keep contractors on stand-by to help officials evaluate conditions on the Mexican side of the U.S. border, but U.S. companies are not allowed to apply for the work. Tracking remittances – funds sent over a distance – from the U.S. to Mexico is one of several possible research and consulting services that Obama through the U.S. Agency for International Development may solicit. Such a task will not support, for example, tax- or drug-enforcement operations. Instead, it would help determine the extent to which the funds subsequently are “invested into...

WND examines some of Obama's proposed aid for regionContradictory claims of total dollar figures for U.S. foreign aid circulate around the Internet, containing oft-repeated figures that may or may not reflect reality. In response to those conflicting claims, WND has compiled a list of significant U.S. aid totals based on a review of congressional and Obama administration documents and databases. As the debate often focuses on whether the U.S. receives, in financial parlance, an adequate return on its investment, WND decided to first focus on arguably the world’s greatest hot spot, the Middle East/North Africa, or MENA, home to three...

Harpoon missile among weapons aboard patrol vesselsThe U.S. Senate has rejected an effort to crack down on U.S. taxpayer monies being forwarded to the violence-ridden nation of Egypt, and now the Obama administration is preparing to send more heavily armed, missile-equipped naval patrol ships to the interim government there. For that purpose, Washington is hiring private contractors to make the transoceanic delivery on its behalf. This shipment of Fast Missile Craft, or FMC, comes at a time when congressional interest in suspending U.S. military aid to Egypt had heated up – to the point there was a Senate proposal to...

President Obama’s multi-billion-dollar “Power Africa” initiative aims to double citizen access to electricity and other power sources across Sub-Saharan Africa. But it plays down the creation of a new public-private bureaucracy needed to overcome the pervasive corruption and incompetence of African governments and power utilities. A significant portion of the Kenya-based endeavor is designed simply to administer the program. Segments include efforts to sway public and congressional opinion in favor of the initiative, according to a new planning document WND located through routine database research. The U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, will hire a contractor or contractors primarily...

Obama strategy implements expansion of previous aid programThe Chinese business sector must be in trouble. Why else would President Obama be sending taxpayer dollars there to modernize China’s energy grid, hire private-sector consultants to help its Ministry of Environmental Protection and separately help to modify the nation’s corporate laws? The U.S. Trade & Development Agency, or USTDA – technically designated as an “independent” White House agency – is funding these and other initiatives, all of which aid China while simultaneously benefiting U.S. contractors.

The focus of this short essay is a review of Dambisa Moyo’s book Dead Aid, written in June 2009. Moyo’s main thrust throughout her thought-provoking book is criticism against foreign aid to Africa. What makes her book standout is that these are thoughts from a native African. As a citizen of Zambia and a trained economist, one must consider her thoughts and consider them honestly. Moyo represents a new force, which is a rising intellectual body that is reexamining the state of Africa and the issues that affect its people. However, instead of tackling the plethora of ills that affects...

A protester denounces President Obama during a march near Cairo's Tahrir Square on July 7. Bitter rivals in Egypt tend to be united in opposition to the U.S. government, which has been a leading aid donor to the country for decades.Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty Images To figure out which countries dislike the U.S., one quick way is to simply look at which ones are getting the largest dollops of U.S. aid.This wasn't the focus of a recent survey by the Pew Research Center. But it did emerge when Pew spoke to people in 39 countries about the U.S. and China, asking...

The Obama administration continues to ramp up its military-response capabilities in Africa, where it is now looking for contractor support to transport U.S. Africa Command troops, weaponry and explosives. The U.S. Transportation Command on behalf of AFRICOM is soliciting help from private aircraft providers who can move U.S. troops and supplies in the Central African nations of Uganda, Central Africa Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. The development comes at a time when the Department of Defense simultaneously is strengthening its ability – also with contractor assistance – to retrieve soldiers trapped and injured in hot spots...

Prepping for 'climate change' floods everywhere but in U.S.The Obama administration wants to spend as much $650 million to improve urban- and local-government service delivery, which includes the development of strategies to adapt to climate change and respond to natural disasters. The endeavor will target cities and towns around the globe – with the exception of those in the United States. Many coastal cities around the world are ill-prepared to deal with rising sea levels and extreme weather events that the administration expects from “climate change.”

Four more F-16 fighter jets are slated for delivery to Egypt’s military as part of a U.S. foreign aid package that is apparently unaffected by the army’s overthrow of the North African nation’s president last week...

You pay taxes? You contributed to the $2 billion your government gave Egypt this year. And last year. And every year -- for 30 years. Most of it went to Egypt's military. How's that worked out? Now our government will "cautiously" support anti-government rebels in Syria, even though some are openly allied with al-Qaida. Years before, we paid to arm and train the Mujahedeen, the Islamic holy warriors battling the Russians in Afghanistan. That conflict led to the rise of al-Qaida. One of the Mujahedeen factions went on to become the Taliban, with whom we now fight. Advocates of foreign...

The Obama administration is proceeding with the next phase of its plan to modernize the Egyptian Air Force, coinciding with the White House claim that continued aid to Egypt is in the national interests of the United States. That modernization will start with new facilities and upgraded infrastructure in support of Egypt’s F-16 fighter jet program, according to procurement documents that Patriot Update located through routine database research.

The bullies and hypocrites took to the air waves today regarding the "Importance of Trust". For example, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff complained today Snowden’s disclosures have undermined ‘importance of trust’ with other countries. The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman says NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s disclosures about U.S. surveillance programs have undermined U.S. relationships with other countries and affected what he calls “the importance of trust.” Gen. Martin Dempsey told CNN’s “State of the Union” in an interview broadcast Sunday that the U.S. will “work our way back. But it has set us back temporarily.” The head...

Israel is concerned that cutting US aid to Egypt because of a military coup could jeopardize the peace treaty. Israel is concerned that the Obama administration will suspend the $1.3 billion annual military aid to Egypt following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, and that suspension of aid could jeopardize the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. Israel may ask the US to find a way to continue the aid program, even though US law bans financial aid to regimes that seized power in a coup, US sources told "Globes" yesterday. The sources familiar with the complicated three-way US-Egyptian-Israeli relationship said that keeping...

U.S. spending now includes farm bill for cold storage projectsAlthough the House and Senate remain in a stalemate over what to cut or keep in the controversial Farm Bill, the Obama administration is proceeding with its own plan for farmers – in Kenya. The East Africa Regional Construction initiative overall could cost U.S. taxpayers $210 million. Pack-house and cold-storage facility construction “appropriate to the Kenyan rural environment” is the first step, according to a Request for Proposals from contractors that WND discovered via routine database research.

Education system products lack capability of making nation 'center of innovation'President Obama wants to ensure all American adults obtain at least a year of college or career training while regaining America’s role as “world leader in college completion,” the U.S. Department of Education recently touted. The Obama administration then launched a new program to bring about such developments – in Egypt. According to a U.S. Agency for International Development “concept paper” that WND obtained through routine database research, “Egypt now confronts a serious knowledge and skills deficit” that impedes its ability to compete globally. U.S. taxpayers, some of whom this...