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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.

Obama pushing Kenyan 'peace' projects -- Plans in place to stage 'reflective workshops' for murderous tribes The Obama administration is launching new peace initiatives in and around Kenya, but acknowledges that chronic cattle rustling and other cultural practices – such as killing rivals “to prove their manhood or impress young women” – serve as impediments to progress. Obama, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, nonetheless intends to hire private contractors that would, hypothetically, offer services such as “reflective workshops” and “trauma education” to warring clans and tribes, according to an agency concept paper that WND located through routine database...

The State Department will have to stop humanitarian aid to millions of people, cut foreign assistance to Israel, and delay efforts to ramp up diplomatic security abroad after the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, if sequestration goes into effect next month, according to Secretary of State John Kerry. At the beginning of March, across-the-board cuts to all discretionary spending accounts will go into effect, based on the 2011 Budget Control Act and the failure of the "supercommittee" to agree upon discretionary budget cuts in 2012. Congressional appropriators are planning to reorganize those cuts when the continuing resolution that has been...

Documents from an inspector general’s probe last June allege that a top-level USAID official interfered with an investigation of possible contract rigging by the foreign-aid agency’s general counsel. The alleged obstruction occurred while the inspector general’s office was investigating whether former USAID general counsel Lisa Gomer had worked with former chief financial officer David Ostermeyer to design a contract that would go to Ostermeyer after he retired. The inspector general’s office said in an internal memo that Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg, who ranks No. 2 at the U.S. Agency for International Development, told investigators that their efforts to gather information...

Gen. Carter Ham is head of the U.S. African command. An Army brigade from Fort Riley, Kan., will begin helping train African militaries beat back a growing terrorist threat posed by al-Qaida. An Army brigade from Fort Riley, Kan., some 4,000, soldiers, will begin helping to train African militaries. The idea is to help African troops beat back a growing terrorist threat posed by al-Qaida. The American troops will head over in small teams over the course of the next year. The Dagger Brigade returned to Kansas last year from a deployment to Iraq, where it trained and advised that...

Private contractors capable of helping the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) prepare for potential future actions in Syria still are being sought by the agency. USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) last week extended until Dec. 28 the deadline for Personal Service Contract (PSC) applications for two positions based in Turkey: OTI Country Representative-Syria (Solicitation #SOL-OTI-13-000010) and OTI Deputy Country Representative-Syria (Solicitation #SOL-OTI-13-000011). USAID in 1994 created OTI: as a distinct operating unit within USAID to help local partners advance peace and democracy in priority conflict-prone countries. Seizing critical windows of opportunity, OTI works on the ground to provide...

The Obama Administration is planning to build multiple health-services facilities across the African nation of Mozambique, where up to sixteen facilities will be constructed in rural locations. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) this morning unveiled the Health Infrastructure Development Program (HIDP) via the FedBizOpps database, where it issued an announcement seeking to pre-qualify construction firms. The general goal of HIDP is to support the Mozambican Ministry of Health (MISAU) in the provision of improved health care services, according to the presolicitation notice. Each of the rural health centers will contain "a maternity unit, an attending or exam unit,...

The Obama Administration is continuing its push to expand citizen access to health care--and it now seeks to accomplish that task on behalf of the citizens of Uganda. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) acknowledged this morning that soon it will seek a contractor to run its new Ugandan health program. According to a presolicitation notice released today that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located via routine database research, USAID around Dec. 20 will release a Request for Proposals for the endeavor. The stated intermediate goals of the initiative are: 1) Expanded availability of health services by private service...

Two dozen Americans in Israel are suing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for negligence in allowing the United States to fund the Palestinian Authority, which used money for terror. The suit was filed in a federal U.S. court in Washington by the Israel Law Center (Shurat HaDin), which has revolutionized the war against terror through “lawfare,” winning colossal lawsuits against terrorist organizations and banks that handle their funds. The Federal suit alleges that the U.S. State Department violated the Anti-Terrorism Act, and abandoned Congressional safeguards, transparency and reporting requirements. Clinton allegedly ignored congressional safeguards and transparency requirements attached to...

Dual US-Israeli citizens filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and the State Department claiming that the US administration provided the Palestinian Authority with billions of dollars in aid money which were used to fund terrorist groups such as Hamas instead of supporting humanitarian causes, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. According to the lawsuit, the State Department ignored congressional safeguards and transparency requirements attached to US aid to the Palestinian Authority. The White House, it was claimed, did not comply with the regulations and reporting obligations governing presidential waivers which facilitate emergency funding to the Palestinians. Evidence collected by the plaintiffs indicates that...

Up to $300 million in additional federally funded infrastructure projects have been approved by the Obama Administration across the republic—the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, that is. Obama through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) last week revealed that the Pakistan Infrastructure Program Management Services program over the next five years will dole out awards for various projects each valued in the $5-$50 million range. Continuing a growing trend of excluding U.S. companies from competing for USAID contracts, this infrastructure program explicitly limits awards to local — meaning Pakistani — firms.

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...

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...

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...

The Russian government gave the US until 1 October to close the mission, accusing it of meddling in politics. USAID has worked in Russia for two decades, spending nearly $3bn (£1.8bn) on aid and democratic programmes. The expulsion follows a government crackdown on pro-democracy groups. USAID was due to spend around $50m on its work in Russia this year. The head of Golos, Liliya Shibanova called it "a bad signal", saying there were very few other sources of funding for election monitoring groups, and that she expected to see other NGOs leaving Russia.

With $83 million in Indonesian education projects, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is looking to hire a local citizen as an Education Specialist to assist in these initiatives.The local-hire only position, which requires prior teaching experience and/or a college degree, entails information dissemination responsiblities to promote USAID as well as to offer consultation to U.S. government employees, Indonesian officials, and NGO personnel involved in USAID education activities. The selected candidate will help support the Prioritizing Reform, Innovation and Opportunities for Reaching Indonesia’s Teachers, Administrators, and Students, or PRIORITAS, program. PRIORITAS, as U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor previously reported,...

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.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy on Tuesday, tore down the American flag and burned it during a protest over what they said was a film being produced in the United States that insulted Prophet Mohammad. In place of the U.S. flag, the protesters tried to raise a black flag with the words "There is no God but God, and Mohammad is his messenger", a Reuters witness said. Once the U.S. flag was hauled down, some protesters tore it up and showed off pieces to television cameras. Others burned the remains outside the fortress-like...

SNIPPET: "On Friday, Mubarak Hamed, the former director of the now defunct Islamic American Relief Agency-USA (IARA) based in Columbia, Missouri, pled guilty to three counts of a federal indictment charging that he illegally sent more than a million dollars to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions, conspiracy, and tax violations. Federal agents raided IARA's offices in 2004, seized its assets, and said it was part of a global network of similar Islamic charities that supported terrorist organizations. As part of his plea agreement, Hamed admitted the U.S.-based charity was part of this international network, with the IARA branch based...

Five-and-a-half million textbooks destined for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders in Ethiopia are being provided through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which today revealed that it awarded a $5.9 million contract to a South African company for the material. Kadimah Education, an affiliate of the Cape Town-based Kadimah Trading Corporation, within 90 days must deliver the books -- whose covers and inside jackets are to be adorned with the Ethiopian flag as well as the logos of USAID and AAMU (Alabama A&M University). AAMU in 2009 received a separate $13 million grant for an Ethiopian literacy project, which...