Company Blog

Leaders from the Group of Eight Nations ended their annual two day summit, held at the Lough Erne resort in Northern Ireland, on Tuesday. The eight nation group includes; the U.S., the U.K., France, Japan, Germany, Canada, Italy and Russia.

Early last month, and with little fanfare, Secretary of State John Kerry approved $1.3 Billion in U.S. tax payer aid to Egypt. That is an enormous amount of money, especially for a Country on the verge of bankruptcy, to pledge to any foreign entity. Because of the enormity involved, certain restrictions were put in place, and those restrictions had to be adhered to before the aid was disbursed.

The U.S. government has been providing non-lethal aid to rebel forces in Syria, and just last month, Secretary of State Kerry said the U.S. was ready to increase that amount of aid to $250M. It is likely that the U.S. will soon be supplying the rebels with body armor, night vision goggles and armored vehicles. In addition to these items, the rebels are asking for weapons and ammunition, drone strikes, and the establishment of no-fly zones.

By a margin of 15-3, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday, voted for legislation that would allow the United States to overtly supply arms to Syrian rebel forces. Up until now, we have been led to believe that our government has provided only non-lethal aid in the two year old conflict. And speaking of non-lethal aid, it was just last month that Secretary of State Kerry said the U.S. was prepared to increase the amount of the aforementioned assistance to $250M!

Last week The New York Times reported that the CIA has been delivering large sums of cash to the Karzai led government of Afghanistan. The sum of the payments, which have been ongoing for the last ten years, is said to be in the tens of millions of dollars. The U.S. currency is packed in suitcases, plastic bags or backpacks and delivered to members of Karzai's administration on a regular basis.