Free Republic

Peruvian natural resource managers have questions about how to protect their country’s forests, and they came to Summit County for answers. A U.S. Forest Service division called International Programs, which promotes sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation in foreign countries, brought top-level Peruvian officials for an educational tour that started Monday in Washington D.C. and ends Friday in Denver. ... In 2009, a U.S-Peru free trade agreement stipulated that Peru must curtail illegal logging, which undercuts the U.S. timber sector, and sustainably manage natural resources, said Erin Carey, who worked with the Forest Service International Programs for the last five...

Getting lucrative government contracts is easy – if you know the right people.  And in the case of former ambassador Joe Wilson, husband of former CIA officer Valerie Plame, it was Hillary Clinton who greased the skids so that government contracts could go to business associates and friends. Is this really in the job description of the secretary of state? Daily Caller: Wilson’s requests for help — on behalf of an American engineering contractor he consulted for called Symbion Power — is a recurring theme in each monthly Clinton email dump. The latest two batches of records are no different....

The US Agency for International Development (USAID), a taxpayer-funded aid organization, is giving a $100,000 federal grant to an Islamic charity banned in Israel for giving aid to Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Grant information on the USAID endowment reveals the massive allotment to Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) will be given in 2016 for various foreign projects. IRW was banned in Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2014, after investigations revealed it was a fundraising front for Hamas, channeling its donations to funding attacks and paying terrorists. It also was found to be tied to the Muslim Brotherhood,...

First Lady Michelle Obama arrives at the Hamad Airport in Doha, Qatar, Nov. 2, 2015. U.S. first lady Michelle Obama arrived in Qatar on Monday as part of a two-country Mideast tour, with plans to visit a crucial air base in America's war against the Islamic State group and give a speech on the importance of girl's education. Obama touched down in Doha, the Qatari capital, on Monday night, the state-run Qatar News Agency reported, without elaborating. While in Doha, she'll visit the al-Udeid air base with comedian and late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien. The base hosts the forward...

Washington: US secretary of state John Kerry shakes hands with Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif before their meeting at the State Department in Washington. (Reuters Photo) The US has decided to discontinue monetary support to Pakistan under a military plan for not doing enough to counter terrorism, according to media reports in Pakistan. But there was no announcement or confirmation of it in the US defense secretary Ash Carter told reporters on Thursday: "That hasn't come to me yet, quite honestly." Also, the White House has once again said it has no announcements about President Barack Obama meeting Prime Minister...

Newly released financial disclosures reveal Bill Clinton received $16.46 million in payments from a George Soros-backed for-profit education company, as Hillary Clinton’s State Department funneled tens of millions of dollars to a group run by the company’s chairman. With $4 billion in annual revenue, Laureate Education is America’s largest for-profit college company. From 2010 until just days before the 2015 release of Clinton Cash, Bill Clinton served as Laureate’s “honorary chancellor.” When the Clinton campaign team obtained a copy of the book and its Clinton-Laureate connection revelation, Bill Clinton abruptly resigned. Laureate’s chairman and longtime Clinton crony, Douglas Becker, is...

Planned Parenthood lobbied the Department of State many times during Hillary Clinton’s tenure there and received tens of millions of dollars from foreign policy agencies over the past few years, according to a new report. As secretary of state, Clinton attacked the Mexico City Policy, which bans federal funding of abortion overseas. Her husband revoked the policy during his administration and President Obama lifted the ban upon taking office in 2009. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is tied to the State Department, steered more than $100 million in funding to Planned Parenthood, its international affiliates, and...

WASHINGTON DC, May 28, 2015 (C-Fam.org) -- A source within the federal government has informed the Friday Fax that the White House is quietly moving forward with a policy change that will require charitable humanitarian groups to accept LGBT applicants in order to qualify for government funding, even those religious groups that might have religious objections.The policy change is linked to an executive order President Obama issued last July that prohibits federal contractors from discriminatory hiring practices based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Faith-based groups were already wrestling with that order.Things are about to get exponentially worse for faith-based groups who...

Warren Weinstein, pictured above, is a 70-year-old Jewish American and former USAID worker who was kidnapped from his bed late August in Pakistan. Now, a newly released audio message from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri claims responsibility for Weinstein’s disappearance and says the militant Islamist group is holding the man hostage. This supports a U.S. official’s claim that ”it’s entirely possible that al Qaeda or one of its militant allies may be holding Mr. Weinstein.” In the 30-minute long statement, which is reportedly circulating on jihadi-websites, al-Zawahiri states: “I tell the captive soldiers of al Qaeda and the Taliban and...

Jordan: Militant Sentenced for Attack By JAMAL HALABY – 4 hours ago AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan's military court convicted an al-Qaida militant Monday of involvement in the deadly suicide car bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Iraq in 2003 and sentenced him to death. Muammar Ahmed Yousef al-Jaghbeer, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, was arrested in 2005 upon his return from Iraq and charged with the embassy attack, which killed 19 people. Al-Qaida in Iraq, which was then headed by Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the attack. The court dropped charges against al-Zarqawi on Monday, citing his...

Should have let him rot there... Cuban prisons are lovely. Remember recently when Obama was attempting to snuggle-up to the vile Castro regime? And how they laughed at our lil' useful idiot -took whatever they could- then asked for much, much more?  While offering us nothing of any significance whatsoever -not even a meager apology for almost bringing the world to the cusp of WWIII in the 1962's Cuban Missile Crisis...? Oh, except they released Alan Gross, the US government contractor working with USAID who smuggled computer equipment and satellite dishes to Cuba's small Jewish community on four separate occasions--...

In the latest of many scandals involving U.S. aid for Afghan social issues, tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars have been wasted on programs to supposedly assist women in the Islamic country escape repression yet we have no idea if it’s made a difference because there’s no accountability or follow up. During a two-year period from 2011 to 2013 the U.S. blew $64.8 million on 652 projects, programs and initiatives to support Afghan women though details of how the money was spent and the effectiveness of the costly experiments aren’t available, according to a federal audit. The cash flowed...

<p>DIA senior intelligence analyst Ana Belen Montes originally came under suspicion of being a spy for Cuba's communist government in 1994. However, DIA and FBI counterspies could not prove she was engaging in espionage and Montes continued passing secrets to Havana until she was discovered in late 1999.</p>

African visitors to U.S. conference to be taught about subsidies, assistancePresident Obama has begun touting his upcoming “U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit” as an opportunity for African nations “to become partners with America on behalf of the future we want for all of our children.” The event, according to the White House, will “build’ on the president’s trip to Africa in the summer of 2013 in which U.S. taxpayers paid $60 to $100 million for the Obama family’s lavish comforts and entertainment. While the summit’s official theme is “Investing in the Next Generation,” a close inspection reveals that U.S. taxpayers again ultimately...

CAIRO - The US is sending $47 million in humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip to help tens of thousands of Palestinians.....

Solution is to spend more tax money thereAmerican taxpayers are sending some $1.5 billion to Egypt annually, but the Obama administration is finding it difficult to fulfill its policy goal of awarding contracts to companies in the Middle East nation and in others that receive aid in an effort to improve their economies. The problem is simply that there aren’t enough foreign organizations qualified to help in the U.S. effort, especially in Egypt. So a “simple” solution has been implemented: spend even more taxpayer funds to teach other governments and NGOs – as well as the U.S. government itself –...

The United States is boosting aid and speeding up deportations to cope with the growing number of migrants from Central America. Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras will all receive millions of dollars to combat gang violence. The money will also be used to help citizens repatriated from the US The White House said it would also step-up the removal of illegal migrants from the country and open additional detention centres. But, in a statement, it added it would protect the rights of those seeking asylum. From October 2013 to 15 June, 52,000 unaccompanied children arrived on the US border with...

It’s not often that a U.S. government agency gets caught red-handed abiding by its charter and performing its publicly-avowed and legislatively-approved duties. But last week the AP "broke" a long and breathless story from Havana that nailed the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) for just that. In their own words, "a secret plan aimed at undermining Cuba’s communist government," was courageously exposed by the AP’s intrepid Havana bureau. Such is the magnitude of the scandal that a red-faced and snarling Senator Patrick Leahy is now chairing hearings on Capitol Hill where he grills USAID director Rajiv Shah on...

Russia claimed Tuesday that 150 specialists from an American private military group are in eastern Ukraine, the region where pro-Russia protesters are clashing with government forces. A woman who identified herself as an employee of the group, the security contracting company Greystone, declined comment. She also declined to provide her name. Greystone, on its website, identifies itself as a “provider of aviation and protective support services and training” formerly part of Xe Services, the security contracting company once known as Blackwater. A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Americans were wearing the uniforms of Sokol, a Ukrainian...

The profound and pervasive crisis in Ukraine is a matter of grave concern for Russia. We understand perfectly well the position of a country which became independent just over 20 years ago and still faces complex tasks in constructing a sovereign state. Among them is the search for a balance of interests among its various regions, the peoples of which have different historical and cultural roots, speak different languages and have different perspectives on their past and present, and their country's future place in the world. Given these circumstances, the role of external forces should have been to help Ukrainians...