Washington Times – by Dave Boyer
The White House Friday defended the first family’s upcoming weeklong trip to Africa, which could cost taxpayers up to $100 million, as “great bang for our buck.”
“There will be a great bang for our buck for being in Africa because when you travel to regions like Africa that don’t get a lot of presidential attention, you tend to have very longstanding and long-running impact from the visit,” said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Obama.
The Obamas’ trip, at a time of “sequestration” budget cuts, will take them to Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa from June 26 to July 3. Citing a confidential planning document, the Washington Post reported that the trip will cost between $60 million to $100 million.
The excursion will involve military cargo planes airlifting 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines, and three trucks to carry bulletproof glass panels to cover the windows where the first family is set to stay. A Navy aircraft carrier or amphibious ship with a fully staffed medical trauma center will be stationed offshore in case of an emergency.
Fighter jets will fly in shifts to provide around-the-clock protection over the president’s airspace. The trip will reportedly involve hundreds of Secret Service agents.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama also had planned to take a safari in Tanzania, which reportedly would have required a special counterassault team to carry sniper rifles in the event of a threat from wild animals. But the safari was canceled in favor of a trip to Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner.
Mr. Rhodes said Mr. Obama already has traveled extensively to Asia and to Latin America, and he said some people think the president’s trip to Africa “is overdue.”
“Africa’s a critically important region of the world,” he said. “This is a deeply substantive trip and one that has been highly anticipated on the continent. And, frankly, there’s been great disappointment that the president hasn’t traveled to Africa until this point, other than a brief stop in Ghana.”
Presidential travel is expensive; the cost alone of operating Air Force One is about $180,000 per flight hour. President Clinton’s trip to Africa in 1998 cost about $42.8 million. President George W. Bush made two trips to Africa during his two terms, although cost estimates aren’t available for those visits.
Mr. Obama is expected to spend part of the trip emphasizing the importance of global health programs, including HIV/AIDS prevention.
“We have huge interests there,” Mr. Rhodes said. “You’ve got some of the fastest growing economies in Africa. You’ve got a massively growing youth population. You’ve got key security and counterterrorism issues that we work on with African countries.”
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/14/white-house-defends-high-bills-africa-trip/#ixzz2WEkqScyK
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maybe South Africa will arrest him like they said
The One People’s Court supposedly issue an international arrest warrant for obama and billy clinton. maybe we will get lucky and they will get arrested for their alleged crimes. 100 million dollars of the taxpayer monies is another crime to add to the list made by the One People’s Court.
““There will be a great bang for our buck for being in Africa because when you travel to regions like Africa that don’t get a lot of presidential attention, you tend to have very longstanding and long-running impact from the visit,” said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Obama.”
This justifies the 24/7 surveillance of aircraft over the Presidents area? I’m sorry, but I don’t see the Queen of England coming to our country or even the Mexican president coming to our country and forcing us to have jet aircrafts circling their area 24/7 while they visit or bring up over 15 sheets of bullet proof metal to cover the hotel windows. Or even China’s Xi Jin Ping. It’s an act of war to a country at the highest level!
I mean, I don’t know, call me crazy, but something tells me that with that much gear being sent, I think the people of Africa are seeking to go to war with Obama, not make peace with him. I don’t know. I’m just throwing the idea on the table here. Common sense, and all.
By the way, speaking of Obama. Another idea that I’m throwing out here is that how many of you think that Obama has something implanted into his heart by the CIA that basically is a button that allows every nuke to be set off worldwide if he dies and that is how he is staying in office and how they are protecting his ass like a beast in a cage. Maybe that’s why no one will touch him. Maybe the CIA/MIC implanted something in him as leverage or a backup in case all else fails.
I’m just thinking of an episode of “Nikita” in which the character Percy implanted himself with a chip in which if he dies, all his black boxes around the world, containing every secret piece of information on the U.S government goes online for the whole world to see. What if Obama has the same thing but has a nuclear chip inside him that tells all the nukes to go off if he dies? Or something along those lines? Just throwing that out there. Any thoughts?