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WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is expected to visit Afghanistan with the top U.S. aid official to spotlight America's aid work there, officials said on Thursday. Political commentator Mary Matalin, a former White House aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, will also be on the trip. She said she was not being paid to go and would pay her own way to Dubai but she believed the U.S. government would cover the cost of her visit to Afghanistan from there. The Bush administration has come under sharp criticism for the Education Department's...

France angered by US aid chiefs comments AFP: 12/31/2004 WASHINGTON, Dec 31 (AFP) - The French ambassador to the United States has angrily condemned the head of the US government aid agency for critical comments the official made about France's humanitarian aid. "I was surprised to learn of the shocking and uncalled for comments you thought fit to make during an interview" on Wednesday with Fox news television, said the ambassador Jean-David Levitte, in a letter to Andrew Natsios, administrator of the US Agency for International Aid. "I would be interested in learning your reasons for misguidedly impugning France this...

I won't post the whole transcript. Click the source link to read it. I saw this reaired on C-SPAN today. Realplayer video is available on their website, or try this link: http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/archive/iraq/iraq102103_natsios.rm As always Natsios was excellent and, as usual, he took no shi'ite from the press. Here's the exchange with the financial times reporter: QUESTION: Alan Beattie from Financial Times. Mr. Natsios, as you know, there's been quite a lot of criticism of the lack of transparency of the -- of USAID's and the CPA's operations in Iraq -- MR. NATSIOS: I'm not aware of any criticism of AID....

Call-InRebuilding IraqC-SPAN, Washington JournalWashington, District of Columbia (United States) ID: 177253 - 3 - 07/03/2003 - 1:02 - $29.95 Natsios, Andrew, Administrator, U.S. Agency for Intl. Development Mr. Natsios will discuss rebuilding efforts in Iraq. Mr. Natsios is just back from a trip to Iraq where he inspected rebuilding work by USAID and other relief agencies.