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KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. officials say the White House is announcing an aid package to Ukraine of $1 billion in lost energy subsidies as it seeks to extract itself from Russia’s influence. The announcement came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry landed in the Ukrainian capital Tuesday to show American support for Kiev’s military and political struggle against Moscow.

Contractors, others in billion-dollar programs facing terror threatsThe successful provision of $1.2 billion in Nigerian-assistance programs requires heightened attention to the security of U.S. mission and contractor personnel, the Obama administration concluded. Increased safety is particularly critical for staff traveling in the predominantly Muslim northern states, where the majority of U.S. aid is targeted, according a government planning document that WND located via routine database research. The administration wants to extend that umbrella of protection to aid recipients, too. Consequently, in order to assess and address those security needs, the U.S. Agency for International Development will deploy a private contractor-adviser...

No word on how much money was spent helping the Third World fight ghosts, a problem that like Global Warming doesn’t exist, but is much more entertaining. Just compare The Day After Tomorrow to Paranormal Activity. American taxpayers spent $7.45 billion to help developing countries cope with climate change in fiscal years 2010 through 2012, according to a federal government report submitted to the United Nations on a subject that Secretary of State John Kerry described as “a truly life-and-death challenge.”That sum of $7.45 billion, which reached more than 120 countries through bilateral and multilateral channels, met President Obama’s...

President wants to deliver American culture to Islamic regimeThe proposed easing of sanctions against Iran represents the most visible enticement by which the United States and five other nations intend to guide the Islamic regime toward peace. The Obama administration, however, has another tool in its diplomatic arsenal that it intends to leverage against Tehran. Hollywood. The responsibility of producing a California-centered news and entertainment program “appealing to Farsi-speaking youth in Iran” soon will be fall into the hands of a contractor working on behalf of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, or BBG, according to planning documents that WND...

Newest plan for stabilizing economy not intended to help U.S.The Obama administration is launching a program with the ambitious goals of sparking business investment, reducing investment risks, and creating and sustaining new jobs. However, the beneficiaries are Middle Eastern and North African nations, not workers in the United States, WND has discovered. The MENA Investment Initiative, or MENAII, “will provide needed support to early stage businesses in order to create and sustain jobs,” according to a Request for Information, or RFI, that WND discovered via routine database research... The provision of matching capital to private-sector investors is one of the...

The European Union believes that of the many obstacles Egypt faces in its ongoing transition to democracy, the absence of security is the greatest cause for concern. The EU maintains that failure to adequately address the security vacuum in the country could result in instability throughout the region. James Moran, the EU’s ambassador in Cairo, has said that Egypt is going through a new phase in which the greatest challenge is security. Moran added that the EU is concerned about the situation in the Sinai specifically, and therefore considers the reassertion of security there to be of paramount importance. The...

A federal judge is demanding to see a copy of a government-wide foreign-aid-policy order President Barack Obama issued three years ago which administration lawyers have argued is protected by executive privilege. The Obama administration acknowledges that the Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development the president signed in 2010 is unclassified, but officials have steadfastly refused to make any portion of it public, even after a watchdog group filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the document earlier this year. (The White House has released a fact sheet about the order.) On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle ordered...

An Egyptian delegation visited Moscow last Thursday to strengthen ties between the two countries, reports Haaretz, just a few days after America announced the suspension of $250 million in military aid to Egypt. With the return of the delegation from Moscow, Egypt expressed intentions to buy MiG-29 planes and other military equipment from Russia in a $15 billion deal. Some reports indicate Saudi Arabia—which is itself experiencing something of a crisis in its relations with the Obama administration—will help finance the deal. …

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has quietly decided to release more than $1.6 billion in military and economic aid to Pakistan that was suspended when relations between the two countries disintegrated over the covert raid that killed Osama bin Laden and deadly U.S. airstrikes against Pakistani soldiers. Officials and congressional aides said ties have improved enough to allow the money to flow again. American and NATO supply routes to Afghanistan are open. Controversial U.S. drone strikes are down. The U.S. and Pakistan recently announced the restart of their "strategic dialogue" after a long pause. Pakistan's new prime minister, Nawaz Sharif,...

Egypt’s Foreign Minister said on Thursday that his country will “find other sources” of funding after the U.S. announced it would suspend its military support to Egypt. At the same, Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy warned in an interview with CNN that the U.S. would hurting itself if cut off aid to Egypt. …

CAIRO (Reuters) - A U.S. decision to curtail military and economic aid to Egypt to promote democracy may ultimately backfire, pushing Cairo to seek assistance elsewhere and giving Washington less leverage to stabilize a country in the heart of the Middle East. Washington faces a dilemma in dealing with its major regional ally: Egypt controls the Suez Canal and has a peace treaty with neighboring Israel but its army overthrew the first freely elected president, Islamist Mohamed Mursi, in July. The United States said on Wednesday it would withhold deliveries of tanks, fighter aircraft, helicopters and missiles to Cairo as...

Officials and experts in Israel responded on Wednesday with a mixture of disappointment and alarm to the news that the United States planned to reduce its military aid to Egypt in response to this summer’s brutal crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and the continuing violence it has spawned. Israel views the aid as part and parcel of its 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, and essential to the maintenance of stability in the region. But one Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate diplomacy involved, warned that the implications of punitive cuts in Egypt’s aid could...

Feds plan to spend $100,000 to help give away more moneyIt’s an expenditure of only $100,000 – mere pocket change in the vast labyrinth of federal spending – but the funds are for the creation of a manual to teach people how to get more money from the U.S. government. And the recipients aren’t even citizens of the United States. The U.S. Trade & Development Agency, an independent White House agency, is laying the foundation for the government of Mexico to infuse hundreds of billions of dollars into modernizing its roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure. While it remains to...

... forensic scientists who use DNA say the technology isn't always available where it's most needed, like in poor countries, or in war zones like Syria. The technology is often too expensive, and where there are large numbers of unknown dead, you need far more than just DNA profiling equipment. You also need sophisticated computer programs to match DNA samples from numerous family members, as well as experts to read the samples properly. Alex John London, a medical ethicist at Carnegie Mellon University, says that while there are numerous groups that do DNA identification worldwide, and the process is often...

The imminent breach of a promise by EU states to spend 0.7% of their gross income on overseas aid by 2015 is sparking calls for the UN to be given ‘coercive’ powers to force rich nations to honor future aid pledges.The secretary-general of the Africa-Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states, Alhaji Mumuni, and the chairwoman of the European Parliament’s development committee, Eva Joly, both told EurActiv that they favored giving the UN stronger policy-setting powers. … Calls for strengthening the UN’s aid enforcement regime will be given a shot in the arm by new figures from Concord Aidwatch, a...

The US government has funded eight P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, 2,000 TOW anti-armor missiles, 14 older model F-16 fighter jets, 59 T-37 trainer jets, one missile frigate, six AN/TPS-77 surveillance radars, and 20 Cobra attack helicopters among other weapons for Pakistan. ------ In the context of the recent continuous tensions on the LOC, it is useful to take a hard look at the unhealthy US-Pakistan relationship of dependence, if only as a reminder of how some things never change. The Pakistani military's signals to India are clear and present. The continuous attacks along the Line of Control are an...

USAID soaking taxpayers to support growing 'humanitarian' effortsThe Obama administration is seeking additional U.S. taxpayer funds to provide more health services to Kenyans through a massive assistance program that has already grown so “rapidly and exponentially” the U.S. government now needs help from outside contractors to oversee it. A Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm known for its work with the United Nations Development Program, the European Union and the World Bank has been hired by the administration to monitor, analyze and improve the foreign-assistance program, known as the Evaluation Services and Program Support endeavor. The U.S. Agency for International Development has...

Nearly two months after Egypt’s June 30 Revolution, it is interesting to note how the final dialogue between ousted President Morsi and General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi—full of threats and vows of determination on both sides—have all come to pass, including in the very details, specifically the U.S. government’s role. On July 5, the Arabic language, Egyptian newspaper El Watan published what it said were the final words between the two Egyptian men, as transcribed by an eyewitness, before the general put the president in prison. The relevant portions of the dialogue between Sisi and Morsi follow, interspersed with my retrospective...

Military planning for ways to haul supplies, weapons to and from EgyptThe Obama administration suddenly is hunting for contractors to help haul military equipment and supplies to and from Egypt and other nations within the U.S. Africa Command’s area of responsibility, WND has discovered. The endeavor comes at a time of heightened tensions in the Mideast and North Africa, as U.S. warships already have arrived in the Mediterranean and warships from Syrian ally Russia reportedly are on the way. Though it remains unclear which specific operations the initiative may support, the Army nonetheless is rapidly moving toward obtaining private-sector assistance...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Obama Crosses ‘Red Line’ by Supporting Jihadi TerrorismPosted By Raymond Ibrahim On August 29, 2013 @ 12:21 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 4 Comments By now it should be obvious that whenever the U.S. interferes in another nation’s politics in the name of “human rights,” that that is only a pretext. So it is in Syria, as Obama prepares to plunge America in a war with that nation, and, inevitably, its allies. The United States’ stated reason for intervention, as articulated by John Kerry, is that Syrian President Assad used chemical weapons on the...