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USAID Defunds International Abortion Provider Posted on October 04, 2008, 12:36 PM | Deal W. Hudson For those who think, erroneously, the Bush administration has done little to reduce abortions during its two terms, I would draw attention to the announcement that USAID has withdrawn funding from Maria Stopes International. Invoking the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, Kent Hill of USAID explained the action based upon the "coercise abortion practices" of Maria Stopes. Four years ago I met with a group of Catholic legislators in Peru -- the purpose of the meeting was to hear their complaints about U.S. funding of Maria Stopes....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2008 – The Defense Department and U.S. European Command stand ready to assist as required to save lives and alleviate human suffering during the humanitarian crisis in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, a senior EuCom official said yesterday. “Working side by side with the republic of Georgia and international organizations, U.S. European Command is providing immediate life-saving support and restoring essential life-support systems as part of a coordinated interagency effort,” Michael Ritchie, EuCom’s director of interagency engagement, said in a teleconference with bloggers and online journalists to discuss the relief effort dubbed Operation Assured Delivery. Operation...

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary August 13, 2008 Setting the Record Straight: President Bush Has Taken Action to Ensure Peace, Security and Humanitarian Aid in Georgia The Wall Street Journal Inaccurately Claims The Administration Was Slow To Respond To The Conflict Between Georgia And Russia The Wall Street Journal asserts that "U.S. credibility is … on the line as the Bush Administration stumbles to respond to the Russian invasion of Georgia. So far the Administration has been missing in action." (Editorial, "Bush And Georgia," The Wall Street Journal, 8/13/08) President Bush and his Administration have taken aggressive...

Aid to Pakistan Evaporates by: Audra Taylor, July 25, 2008 Much of the financial assistance donated by other countries toward the betterment of Pakistan’s health and population sectors is not being utilized efficiently, according to Dr. Samia Altaf, who worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Islamabad. Despite the $58 billion in assistance Pakistan has received from 1950-1999, Pakistan has little to show for it, said Altaf, the author of Aid Without Development: A Tale of International Consultants, Aid and Development. At the Woodrow Wilson Center, where Altaf is now a scholar, Altaf described her perspective on...

BASRA, Iraq, June 20, 2008 – The provincial reconstruction team for Iraq’s Basra province, along with the Gulf Region South district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the United Nations Development Program concluded a two-day budget execution support workshop June 18 at the international airport here. The event provided a clear understanding of how the international community can support the provincial governor’s office and technical directorates for the design and implementation of projects for the rest of the year, said Army Maj. Daniel George, a PRT engineer assigned from Gulf Region South’s...

US aid to Palestinians to total $550 mln - official WASHINGTON, May 21 (Reuters) - The US government will provide $550 million in direct financial support to the Palestinian Territories in 2008

There is an emerging mini-me of Hugo Chavez — Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia. And his country is starting to pay the price for it. Bolivia may end up not merely fragmented but wracked by bloodshed if Mr. Morales continues to emulate the senseless and destructive policies of his patron. Mr. Morales has turned frequently to the Chavez playbook on "revolutionary" brinkmanship for policy guidance. From promoting a bespoke constitution, which removed inconvenient term limits, to undermining democratic institutions, to approving populist measures that hurt poor people the most, he has made all the moves favored by his role...

Attention all prospective Republican lobbyists: K Street kingmaker Grover Norquist has announced his wedding date, so you’ll know when to send gifts. Problem is, the location and the gift registry are still up in the air. Norquist, 47, will exchange vows with 31-year-old Samah Alrayyes of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Saturday, April 2, 2005, he has revealed, although he told The Hill last week that he promised his bride-to-be the wedding will not turn into a political event. A source at USAID said Norquist joked that the couple should register at Costco. It makes sense, given...

WASHINGTON - An aide to President Bush has resigned because of an alleged misuse of grant money from U.S. Agency for International Development and his former employer, a Cuban democracy organization. Felipe Sixto was promoted on March 1 as a special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affair and stepped forward on March 20 to reveal his alleged wrongdoing and to resign, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said on Friday. The matter has been turned over to the Justice Department for investigation, Stanzel said. He said Bush was briefed on the case and felt that the approriate action was being...

The Bush Administration’s search for partners to promote “peace” and “democracy” within the Palestinian Authority (PA) resembles Lord Charles Bowen’s “blind man in a dark room looking for a black hat – which isn’t there”. For the first time, the Bush Administration plans to give $150 million in cash directly to the Palestinian Authority (PA) Treasury, as part of a $496.5 million “aid” package, including $410 million for development programs. This added to the $86.5 million for CIA “security training”, which Congress authorized in April 2007. The CIA has apparently assumed the Palestinian terrorist-training role previously held by the former...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A small group of Indonesians in their late 40s who attended the same elementary school in central Jakarta recently gathered for a reunion and to pledge their support for an absent former classmate -- Barack Obama. Obama's late mother came to Indonesia with her young son in the late 1960s to join her second husband knowing next to nothing about the huge, developing Southeast Asian nation. While her son left after four years to study in Hawaii, for the Kansas-born mother of the Democratic Party presidential hopeful the relationship with Indonesia was to grow into a lifetime...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government's humanitarian relief agency will significantly scale back emergency food aid to some of the world's poorest countries this year because of soaring global food prices, and the U.S. Agency for International Development is drafting plans to reduce the number of recipient nations, the amount of food provided to them, or both, officials at the agency said. USAID officials said that a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months has generated a $120 million budget shortfall that will force the agency to reduce emergency operations. That...

GRAND COLLINE, Haiti (AP) - Far from the spreading slums of the Haitian capital, past barren dirt mountains and hillsides stripped to a chalky white core, two woodcutters bring down a towering oak tree in one of the few forested valleys left in the Caribbean country. Fanel Cantave, 36, says he has little choice but to make his living in a way that is causing environmental disaster in Haiti. And these days, he and his 15-year-old son, Phillipe, must travel ever farther from their village to find trees to cut. "There is no other way to get money," the father...

FOR A FEW FLEETING moments Monday night--what should have been vivid and affecting moments--television coverage of President Bush's final State of the Union address fastened on the image of a mother and daughter from Moshi, Tanzania. They sat, their faces alive with hope, in the first lady's box seats. Viewers were not told, and no one seemed inclined to tell them, that Tatu Msangi and her daughter Faith quite literally owe their lives to the Bush administration. After Msangi became pregnant, she went to a clinic at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center and learned she was HIV-positive. Five years ago...

BAGHDAD — With nearly five years of war taking a toll on Iraq’s domestic poultry industry, overall chicken and egg consumption is down in the country, while 40 percent of the commercial eggs consumed in Baghdad are imported. But with recent security improvements, achieved through the cooperation of local residents and a counter-insurgency strategy implemented by Coalition Forces, an opportunity has been gained to resume production. In Mahmudiyah, an agricultural community south of the Iraqi capital, and a traditional hub of Baghdad province’s poultry industry, some of the most violence of the war effectively halted production of a variety of...

A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.

Former Michigan congressman Siljander indicted by Gazette Staff and News Service Reports Wednesday January 16, 2008, 4:41 PM Gazette fileFormer U.S. Rep. Mark Deli Siljander A former Kalamazoo-area congressman was indicted Wednesday for his part in an alleged terrorist fundraising ring that is accused of sending more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. Mark Siljander, a former Three Rivers resident who represented southwestern Michigan from 1981-87, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He allegedly lied about lobbying senators...

A previously unknown militant group claimed responsibility on a militant Web site for the slaying of a U.S. diplomat in Sudan on New Year's Day, according to an intelligence group monitoring extremist groups. "We can't authenticate this communique, which is posted by a member of the forum, but at the same time, because there is a claim of responsibility, we chose to send it out to our subscribers," Rita Katz told The Associated Press. Katz is the director of monitoring institute, SITE Intelligence Group. Katz added that she had never heard of the group before. The group calls itself Ansar...

KHARTOUM, Sudan - An American diplomat and his driver were shot to death Tuesday in the Sudanese capital, the U.S. Embassy said, a day after a joint African Union-United Nations force took over peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region. It was not immediately known if the motive for the attack was political or a random crime. "This afternoon, the American officer succumbed to his injuries and passed away," said Walter Braunohler, the spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum. Braunohler said the diplomat, whose name was not released, worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Sudanese Foreign Ministry identified...

WASHINGTON - The agency that distributes billions of dollars in American foreign aid cannot "reasonably ensure" that its money does not wind up in terrorist hands, an internal audit has concluded. The United States Agency for International Development funded groups with ties to terrorism on at least two occasions, the agency's inspector general found in an audit. That included approving $180,000 for a Bosnian group whose president was on a "watch list" that barred him from entering the United States, and $1 million for an aid "partner" who later pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about his involvement with...

Al Gore’s campaign against global warming is shifting into high gear. Reporters and commentators follow his every move and bombard the public with notice of his activities and opinions. But while the mainstream media promote his ideas about the state of planet Earth, they are mostly silent about the dramatic impact his economic proposals would have on America. And journalists routinely ignore evidence that he may personally benefit from his programs. Would the romance fizzle if Gore’s followers realized how much their man stands to gain? Earlier this year Gore experienced a notable public relations debacle. The Tennessee Center for...

The United States' relationship with the United Nations is complex. The U.S. has vast and varied national interests in every region of the world, and the U.N. and its affiliated organizations have potential utility in helping the U.S. address foreign policy priorities... Foreign Aid Does Not Promote U.S. Policies at the U.N ... -U.S. foreign assistance has not led recipients to support U.S. positions in the U.N. On the contrary, on non-consensus votes and non-consensus important votes, most recipients of U.S. assistance vote against the U.S. more often than they vote with the U.S. -Economically free countries are more likely...

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), is a private, nonprofit organization, was founded in the early 1980's under the influence of Ronald Reagan for "supporting democracy abroad". So we've had that going on for years. The NED basically does overtly what the CIA used to do covertly. It funds civil society groups and organizations that fit within U.S. strategic interests in various countries.

The Bush administration has decided to defer the start of a new security screening program for thousands of officials of organizations seeking funds from the Agency for International Development until it reviews all the comments from those affected, according to USAID's acting deputy administrator, James Kunder. Although USAID said in a Federal Register notice last month that the program would become effective yesterday, Kunder said that it "would be effective, but not operational" until there is "a systematic review" of the views of the private organizations involved. The screening plan would affect top officials and board members of foreign aid...

The Eritrea Consulate's office in downtown Oakland was shuttered to visitors Tuesday after U.S. State Department orders, the latest salvo in an escalating diplomatic conflict with the impoverished East African country state. The State Department informed Eritrea last week that the consulate must be shut down by Nov. 8, citing restrictions imposed on diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Asmara, including travel curbs, the refusal to grant visas to U.S. officials, and the non-delivery of diplomatic pouches, which is in violation of international protocols. By Tuesday morning, however, the Consulate Office in the Tribune Tower on 13th Street in downtown...

Israel Cabinet: US Increases Aid, No Poverty For Holocaust Survivors By Israel News Agency Staff Jerusalem ----July 29..... The following was communicated by the Israel Cabinet Secretariat to the Israel News Agency. At the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem today Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert discussed several issues on the agenda. Olmert noted that over the weekend, the US officially announced an increase in security assistance to Israel over the next decade, at a rate of NIS 3 billion per annum. In practice, security assistance to Israel will grow by 25% over the next decade. “This increase was made possible...

Major concerns in US, over proposed US aid of $20 billion dollars to "friendly" Arabs Today, Sunday, On CNN's LateEdition (with Wolf Blitzer), Both Rep. Charlie Rangel & D-New York Rep. Charles Shays, R-Connecticut, were voicing concerns against proposed US aid in $20 bn. to Saudi Artabia. Charlie Rangel: 'They have no been our friends, it includes Arab nations such as: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, as well, and Israel should be nuts to agree to that "deal"'. http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/late.edition/index.html It should be available later on on: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/le.html

http://70.47.124.114/node/751 Editorial: Mahmoud Abbas the Moderate? July 3, 2007 - 11:43am Extras By Don Winter Yesterday, I had the unexpected pleasure of watching the great Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian people bemoaning the violence that has been planned against his person and the de-facto violence that has been committed against his own goons by Hamas. Yet, during the speech he didn’t miss an opportunity to blame Israel as the reason for the violence. If some Jews on this globe decide to view Abbas as a benevolent moderate, they must be the same ones who believed that the Nazis...

http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/13376/ What They Are Saying What They Are SayingJune 28, 2007 - Jonathan S. Tobin, Executive Editor Like a Ship That Sinks? Investing in Fatah Calls to Mind the 'Titanic'Historian and Shalem Center fellow Michael Oren writes in The Wall Street Journal (www.opinionjournal.com) on June 20 that backing Fatah isn't the answer: "America and its Middle Eastern allies have every reason to panic. The green flags of Hamas are furling over Gaza, and the Fatah forces trained and financed by the United States have ignominiously fled. Fears are rife that Iranian-backed and Syrian-hosted terror will next achieve dominance over the...

In this INTERVIEW WITH HAMAS CO-FOUNDER MAHMOUD ZAHAR : - American aid has reduced the price of bullets to 35 cents apiece in Gaza (from $12.07. - Hamas intends to form an Islamic state. - in his opinion, if there were free elections, all Middle East states would be Islamic. - Hamas got over $70 million from Iran since the Hamas government was formed. ... SPIEGEL ONLINE: The international community plans to release all the aid money it has withheld from Palestinians for over a year to the Fatah government in the West Bank.... Zahar: Fatah in the West Bank...

JERUSALEM – Hamas' official websites the past few days have displayed prominently a WND article in which the terror group listed what it claimed were hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. weaponry and equipment seized during this month's takeover of the Gaza Strip. Hamas-run media also have been featuring an interview in which the terror group told WND it seized large quantities of CIA security files from Gaza-based U.S.-backed Fatah security organizations of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas' Palestine Times and it's Palestine Info website has kept as one of its top stories the past few days an...

Quick Takes: News From Israel You May Have Missed http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/21905/Quick_Takes%3A_%3Ci%3ENews_From_Israel_You_May_Have_Missed%3C%2Fi%3E.html By: Aaron Klein Wednesday, June 20, 2007 More Aid To Abbas Even after the Hamas takeover of U.S.-backed Palestinian security compounds in Gaza and seizure of large quantities of American weapons, the Bush administration is contemplating sending more weapons to the Palestinians and is asking Israel to make security concessions to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli and Palestinian diplomatic sources said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the U.S. will resume "full assistance to the Palestinian government," lifting an economic and political embargo against the Palestinian government enacted after...

Friday, June 14 Tawi-Tawi Island, Philippines — As the 10 men approached, the crowd parted in front of them. When they were about 20-feet away, I noticed that they were all wearing the uniform of the Moro National Liberation Front — not long ago considered a vicious terrorist organization. The U.S. Navy SEAL standing beside me edged closer, his short-barrel carbine at the ready. "We want to tell you why we are here,” said the apparent leader of the small band of men wearing the insignia of the MNLF on their collars...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush moved Monday to replace Randall Tobias, the State Department official who resigned abruptly after being linked to a Washington call girl scandal. Bush nominated Henrietta Holsman Fore to be the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, subject to Senate confirmation. Fore will also be the acting administrator, meaning she can start serving immediately. USAID is an independent federal agency that receives foreign policy guidance from the secretary of state and works to advance U.S. foreign policy goals.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A top State Department official resigned Friday after revealing to ABC News that he had been a client of the alleged "D.C. madam's" escort service. A State Department official, on condition of anonymity, confirmed to CNN the reason for Randall Tobias' departure as director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The State Department said that Tobias, 65, resigned for "personal reasons." ABC reported on its Web site that Tobias, 65, said Thursday that he had used Deborah Jeane Palfrey's escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to...

Congress Agrees to Train and Equip Abbas' Security Forces By Julie Stahl CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief April 11, 2007 Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Congress has cleared the way for millions of American taxpayer dollars to be spent on security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas -- despite Abbas' involvement in the new Fatah-Hamas unity government. The U.S. and Israel support Abbas and his Fatah faction as "moderates" in the region, and they were backing him in his power struggle against Hamas until he joined forces with the terrorist organization. Now the U.S. Congress has agreed to beef...

Rival comrades unite to slam ‘CIA’s bourgeois Kerala media’ RAJEEV PI Posted online: Saturday, April 07, 2007 at 0000 hrs 50 yrs after first Communist govt, Cold War sweeps Kerala, comrades say critical papers funded by US spooks Kochi, April 6: Fortunately for Kerala, and world communism, V S Achuthanandan has no beard—nor does Pinarayi Vijayan, his arch party foe and CPM state secretary. They don’t need to worry about the CIA trying to de-beard them, as it famously did with old Fidel in Cuba to make him and his ideology less popular, during the Cold War. But short of...

YATA, West Bank -- One slip, and Issa Abu Shakr's 5-year-old nephew plunged into the fetid stream of sewage that flows outside the family's West Bank home. The contact with the filthy water required multiple blood transfusions and a 10-day hospital stay, Abu Shakr says. A few miles away, Maisoun Seidat picked up a blue bucket for one of her three daily trips to a communal cistern. People shouldn't have to fret about something as elemental as water, Seidat says, but in the parched West Bank, it's a constant worry. These are the human face of the toll exacted by...

The Sweet Water Canal was rendered nearly useless from neglect by Saddam Hussein's former administration. Photo courtesy USAID. BAGHDAD -- The United States Agency for International Development, better known around the world as USAID, is making drastic improvements to the Iraqi infrastructure and improving the quality of life for millions. The agency maintains a myriad of projects at any given time, and spends millions of dollars to see them through from start to finish. Whether it’s improving Iraqi canals, ensuring local populations have clean drinking water or restoring city markets, the USAID footprint is prominent and welcome here.One such undertaking...

EUFAULA, Alabama — Here in this courtly, antebellum town, Alabama’s condom production has survived an onslaught of Asian competition, thanks to the patronage of straitlaced congressmen from this Bible Belt state. Behind the scenes, the politicians have ensured that companies in Alabama won federal contracts to make billions of condoms over the years for AIDS prevention and family planning programs overseas, though Asian factories could do the job at less than half the cost.

There are a few similarities between Iraq and Vietnam. First and foremost, in both cases, considerable United States military and economic resources were and are being expended on foreign soil for reasons that are not fully understood by most Americans. Vietnam and Iraq have border states who provide(d) aid and sanctuary to the insurgents. Additionally, the US news media took and has taken a decidedly negative approach to reporting the events in both conflicts. In Vietnam and now in Iraq, our government has failed to convince the American public that our commitment is worth the sacrifices in blood and treasure....

FBI agents yesterday raided the suburban Detroit headquarters of LIFE for Relief and Development (LRD), the largest Islamic charity in the country. I first wrote about the group for The Post in 2003. Back then, FBI Director Robert Mueller was set to give an award to Imad Hamad, who heads the Midwest chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). But, after my Post article pointed out that Hamad was a subject in over a dozen terrorism-related investigations, the FBI revoked the award. One of those investigations concerned Hamad's close ties to LRD. Both the FBI and the then-U.S. Customs...

September 18, 2006 BREAKING: Largest U.S. Islamic Charity Raided by FBI Printer Friendly By Debbie Schlussel I've been writing about LIFE for Relief and Development for years, and I think my columns (especially this one), have finally made a difference. Ditto for my complaints about LIFE to Assistant U.S. Attorney for counterterrorism, Ken Chadwell. Less than half an hour ago, the FBI began raiding LIFE and hauling out documents. Well, it's about time. LIFE--the largest Islamic charity still open for business in America--openly admitted on its 1995-'97 taxes to be a major funder of HAMAS. Headquartered in the Orthodox Jewish...

International experts are touting the widely banned pesticide as a best bet to save millions of human lives threatened by malaria. The disease, which kills mostly children and pregnant women, is largely spread by mosquitoes. The overwhelming majority—90 percent—of malaria victims live in Africa, where the disease plagues both human and economic health (Africa facts, maps, more). In May the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) endorsed the use of DDT for indoor antimalarial treatment in the developing world. The World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to do the same in short order, according to a comprehensive report published in...

Via email from Gabrielle Goldwater. U.S. Government: Arafat personally approved 1973 attack on U.S. diplomats in Khartoum   Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, Volume E-6, Documents on Africa, 1973-1976 Released by the Office of the Historianwww.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/e6/67234.htm THE SEIZURE OF THE SAUDI ARABIAN EMBASSY IN KHARTOUMSummary In the early evening hours of 1 March 1973, eight Black September Organization (BSO) terrorists seized the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum as a diplomatic reception honoring the departing United States Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) was ending. After slightly wounding the United States Ambassador and the Belgian Charge d'Affaires, the terrorists took these officials plus the...

Congress eliminates aid to Saudi Arabia Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 9, 2006 The House of Representatives voted Friday to forbid US aid to Saudi Arabia, a statement of far more symbolic importance than economic. The 312-97 vote was to eliminate $420,000 from the $21.3 billion Foreign Operations Appropriations bill. The money has financed $20,000 in military training and education and a $400,000 anti-terrorism program. President George W. Bush considers Saudi Arabia a vital ally in his campaign against terror, which he began after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The Bush administration has praised the...

US: PA gov’t will collapse without aid American sources say Hamas-led Palestinian government will collapse within three months if transfer of monetary aide to Authority is not resumed; Western diplomatic sources in Washington say it was also decided to open bank accounts for Palestinian Authority officials so they may receive theirs salaries without any money passing through the PA government Roee Nahmias Sources in the US said the Hamas-led Palestinian government will collapse within three months if the transfer of monetary aid to the Authority is not resumed. The sources confirmed to the London-based al-Hayat newspaper that the EU, Jordan...

Thursday , May 04, 2006 By Steven Milloy The U.S. Government has finally begun to reverse policy on the insecticide DDT. Let’s hope that this policy shift represents the beginning of the end of what can only be called a crime against humanity: the decades-old withholding of the world’s most effective anti-malarial weapon from billions of adults and children at risk of dying from the disease. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) told the Washington Times this week (May 3) that it endorses and will fund the indoor spraying of DDT in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria kills more than one...

Coverage of the Iraq war continues to be overwhelmingly negative. If anything, the pessimism of the mainstream media has increased since the attack on the Golden Mosque in Samarra. This isn't because of any dearth of good news, though. For whatever reason, the abundant good work and progress accomplished each day in Iraq are either not reported or underplayed here at home. Talk of civil war continues in the media even now, in spite of reports that life in Samarra is returning to normal, and in spite of the fact that last week General Casey said that the worst had...

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The United States will continue sending humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people even after a Hamas government is formed, a senior U.S. envoy told Palestinian leaders during the first high-level meeting between the two sides since Hamas' election victory. State Department envoy David Welch said the U.S. continues "to be devoted to the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people and we shall remain so." Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Welch told Palestinian officials that U.S. aid would be redirected, but Welch did not specify how. Erekat noted that hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid...