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Can you say kickback?
CIRCA 2013---Obama pledges $7 billion to upgrade power in Africa (CNN) — U.S. President Barack Obama pledged $7 billion Sunday to help combat frequent power blackouts in sub-Saharan Africa. Funds from the initiative, dubbed Power Africa, will be distributed over the next five years. Obama made the announcement during his trip to South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy.
“Access to electricity is fundamental to opportunity in this age. It’s the light that children study by, the energy that allows an idea to be transformed into a real business. It’s the lifeline for families to meet their most basic needs, and it’s the connection that’s needed to plug Africa into the grid of the global economy,” he said.
Two-thirds of the population of sub-Saharan Africa lacks access to electricity, including more than 85% of those living in rural areas, the White House said. “A light where currently there is darkness — the energy to lift people out of poverty — that’s what opportunity looks like,” Obama told students at Cape Town University. “So this is America’s vision: a partnership with Africa for growth, and the potential for every citizen, not just a few at the top.”
The program includes $1.5 billion from the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation and $5 billion from the Export-Import Bank, the White House said. Sub-Saharan Africa will need more than $300 billion to achieve universal electricity access by 2030, it said.
The preliminary setup will include Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique.
“These countries have set ambitious goals in electric power generation, and are making the utility and energy sector reforms to pave the way for investment and growth,” a White House statement said.
Obama’s three-nation African trip started in Senegal and will end in Tanzania this week. The visit aims to bolster U.S. investment opportunities, address development issues such as food security and health, and promote democracy.
It comes as China aggressively engages the continent, pouring billions of dollars into it and replacing the United States as Africa’s largest trading partner. Obama applauded China’s investment in Africa, saying he is “not threatened by it.”
Africa’s greater integration into the global economy will benefit everyone with the potential creation of new jobs and opportunities, he said. “I’m here because I think the United States needs to engage with a continent full of promise and possibility,” Obama said. “It’s good for the United States. I welcome the attention that Africa is receiving from China, Brazil, India and Turkey.”
However, he urged African officials to ensure that those who invest in the continent and its natural resources benefit Africans in terms of jobs and other assets.
Obama also visited Robben Island, where anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela spent a majority of his 27-year imprisonment, on Sunday. And he spoke at Cape Town University, the site of a famous speech by Robert F. Kennedy at the height of apartheid in 1966.
Obama heads next to Tanzania, where he is scheduled to attend events until Tuesday.
Liz: That $7 billion figure made me remember I had read something else about kickbacks from African “energy” projects — and it was from you!
Post 8 in this thread:
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3459668/posts
You wrote:
“Cheryl Mills’ BlackIvy is developing a privately-financed dry port that will be located 56 km outside of the Port of Dar es Salaam, and will use shuttle trains to take transit and upcountry cargo to and from the Port,” BlackIvy spokeswoman Erin Pelton confirmed to Breitbart News.
“BlackIvy is focused on in-land logistics, not operating seaports,” (no mention that BlackIvy is running into opposition from the Tanzania Ports Authority).
“So how did BlackIvy, a brand new firm with no discernible track record of building ports, manage to become an overnight player in the East African energy market? It turns out Clinton’s former aides had some help from a company called Symbion Power, which was created to profit off rebuilding efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan after the U.S. invasions. Symbion Power happens to be a very good friend of Hillary Clinton’s.
. . .
“In one confidential e-mail to Clinton, Blumenthal was clearly colluding w/ onetime Amb Joe Wilson (Valerie Plame’s hubby) to help himself to the tax dollars in the State Dept cookie jar.
“Amb Wilson pumped himself up as a ‘director’ of Symbion Power-—an outfit seeking millions of dollars in contracts from an obscure government agency chaired by Hillary....the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC)
“In September 2010, Hillary’s MCC awarded Symbion $47 million tax dollars for (cough) ‘power projects in Tanzania.’
“EVER WONDER how much of the $47 million tax dollars got to Tanzania....after the players divvied it up among Blumenthal, Wilson, the Clintons, Obama?
“NOTE Millenium is also the source of the 100 million tax dollars Michele gave to Morocco “to teach Muslim girls” . . . “
Thanks for the research!
A few million on this scheme, a few million on that one, and pretty soon there’s none of our country’s $7 billion left to go to the African nations after all.