Steve Peacock's U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor

Disturbing Truth Behind Obama's Travel Madness (WND)

My latest from WND. -- S.P.

Supporters of Barack Obama tout his dedication to the responsibilities of the presidency by noting that he had taken 96 days of vacation at the point in his term that President George W. Bush had taken a reported 335.

But they admit that 51 of Bush’s trips were to his Texas ranch, while records show that Obama’s destinations have ranged from exotic European and African locales to pricey digs to Hawaii, where he’s sometimes traveled separately from his family, effectively doubling transportation costs for taxpayers.

The records released are partial, meaning no firm travel-expense total can be assembled. But individual cases are revealing.

Continued at WND.com...

ALSO SEE: CNN Rips Off U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor Story on Biden's Plush Parisian Jaunt

 more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/11/the-disturbing-truth-behind-obamas-travel-junkets/#SMBd76Lp60bvCSCW.99

How Much Did it Cost to Send VPOTUS Biden to Paris for a Day?

 

The U.S. Department of State spent $585,000 on hotel rooms and racked up $322,000 on intra-country transportation costs for Vice President Joe Biden's recent trip to Paris, according to contracting documents that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located through routine database research.

Despite the availability of contracting awards granted to Hotel Intercontinental Paris Le Grand and Biribin Limousines, respectively, no other procurement documents currently are available. Consequently, it remains unknown just how much State spent on Biden's European mission, which also included stops in Berlin and London.

According to the White House Blog:

In Paris, French President Francois Hollande hosted a lunch for the Vice President to discuss the French and African mission in Mali and their broader counterterrorism cooperation in the region. The two also exchanged views on Syria, Iran’s nuclear program, the Eurozone, and the U.S.-E.U. economic partnership.

A verbatim transcript of his remarks revealed Biden struggling to explain "on behalf of President Obama how much he looks forward -- how much he looks forward to working with you and France, because there’s not a single issue that affects us on the international -- in the international arena that does not -- where our interests do not intersect.  And we look forward to a very, very close relationship between our administrations."

Biden in Munich delivered remarks at the 49th Munich Security Conference, where he: 

held a series of bilateral meeting with world leaders.  His speech stressed the continued importance the U.S. places on the transatlantic relationship…

In his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Vice President Biden emphasized the importance of the two countries working together in the interest of international peace and security, including in Syria.  The Vice President noted that while the United States and Russia will continue to have serious differences - including, among other things, on human rights and Russia's recent ban on U.S. adoptions - U.S. and Russian leadership is necessary to achieve practical solutions to the challenges facing the world today.

He also met separately with UN and Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, and Moaz al-Khatib, the president of the Syrian Opposition Council, to discuss bringing about a transition that leads to a peaceful, inclusive and democratic Syria, where the rights of all Syrians are protected.

Then in London, according to the WH Blog:

the Vice President held meetings with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Prime Minister David Cameron and participated in a meeting of the United Kingdom’s National Security Council.  The meetings focused on array of economic and foreign policy issues, particularly Afghanistan and Pakistan since the Prime Minister had just hosted a UK/Pakistan/Afghanistan summit a few days before the Vice President arrived in London.

Source documents:

Contract award #SFR63013D0004.

Contract award #SFR63013D0003

U.S. Forces in Europe Procuring Tens of Millions of Gallons in Fuel

Over 40 million gallons of fuel are being ordered for military bases in England, specifically for Royal Air Force (RAF) bases used by the U.S. as forward operating locations for bomber units, ammunition supplies, and intelligence-gathering operations, U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has learned.

The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency this afternoon uploaded a solicitation (#SP060011R0223 ) to a federal contracting database seeking potential vendors to supply these mass quantities of petroleum products over the next three years. The destinations for the fuel include RAF Menwith Hill, RAF Mildenhall, RAF Lakenheath, RAF Alconbury, RAF Croughton, RAF Welford and RAF Fairford.

The U.S. military has occupied several of these sites since the end of World War II, originally as a means of building up a deterrent in Europe against the Soviets,” according to GlobalSecurity.org.

It remains unclear whether the volume of fuel for this solicitation is typical or is indicative of an increase in magnitude, as a database search did not produce comparable requests for multi-base procurements in the United Kingdom. Prior fuel acquisitions found in the database were limited to single-purchases of no more than 1.2 million gallons.

In the absence of that data, the Monitor offers the following summary of the primary functions of the sites for which the fuel is destined.

RAF Menwith Hill is known as one of the largest communications intercept stations in the world. According to the Federation of American Scientists, Menwith Hill is jointly operated by the U.S. National Security Agency and the British Ministry of Defence and is capable of handling up to two-million worldwide communications-intercepts per hour.

RAF Mildenhall touts itself as one of the most diverse bases, housing units from four major commands: Air Combat Command, Air Force Special Operations Command, Air Mobility Command and U.S. Air Forces in Europe. It also accommodates U.S. Navy operations as well.

RAF Lakenheath houses units such as the 48^th Operations Group, which “provides three flying squadrons of F-15C/D/E aircraft capable of accomplishing fighter operations worldwide…” according to a U.S. Air Force official website.  It also is home to the 48^th Medical Group, which “provides direct and operational Expeditionary Medical Support (EMEDS) Capability to the United States European Command, Africa Command and Central Command.”

RAF Alconbury hosts the 423^rd Air Base Group, which provides a variety of “mission support” services while RAF Croughton is home to the 422^nd Air Base Group, which “provides command, control, communications and computer support to Department of Defense and civilian agencies across the European theater…” The Croughton facility “operates one of Europe's largest military switchboards and processes approximately a third of all U.S. military communications in Europe.” Both groups are part of the 501^st Combat Support Wing. 

RAF Welford is a key ammunition compound serving U.S. forces across Europe.

Aside from delivery destinations, the contracting document offered little else with the exception of the fuel category breakdown: “The types of fuel and estimated quantities are: Premium Unleaded Gasoline: 26,241,871 USG; Super Premium (High Octane) Gasoline: 3,816,000 USG; Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel: 11,752,987 USG; Kerosene  Class C2: 10,000 USG.”

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