White House cancels Obama safari in Tanzania
WASHINGTON - The White House has canceled a safari that US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were due to take in Tanzania over budgetary concerns, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
Like the cost of a safari is going to make a blind bit of difference to the American deficit.
The newspaper, citing a Secret Service planning document, said the excursion scheduled during a tour of Africa that Obama will undertake later this month would have required agents protecting him to take extraordinary precautions.
The safari "would have required the president's special counter assault team to carry sniper rifles with high-caliber rounds that could neutralize cheetahs, lions or other animals if they became a threat," the paper reported.
Well actually no but I am sure they could provide adequate cover for the Presidential safari
Outlining the vast security preparations made for Obama's trip to Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa, the document was provided to the Post by a person "concerned about the amount of resources necessary for the trip."
It did not provide cost information.
That has got to be about stupidest thing I have read this week. And I am on Facebook.
The Post said the White House canceled the safari Wednesday after the paper inquired about the "purpose and expense." The Obamas had been expected to spend more than two hours at Tanzania's Mikumi National Park.
The White House was not immediately available for comment, but a spokesman told the Post that a trip to South Africa's Robben Island, the site of the prison where anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela was held, had taken precedence.
"We do not have a limitless supply of assets to support presidential missions, and we prioritized a visit to Robben Island over a two-hour safari in Tanzania," said the spokesman, Josh Earnest.
The most secure facility the Apartheid era governments of South Africa were able to come up with, so I am guessing that securing it isn't beyond the US Secret Service.
"Unfortunately, we couldn't do both."
Useless bastards occurs to me.
The Post said Obama's Africa tour, his first since taking office in January 2009, could cost the government between $60 million and $100 million, based on cost of similar trips in recent years.
The report comes as many government agencies struggle with mandatory budget cuts that took effect in March because US lawmakers failed to strike a wider budget deal.
Hundreds of Secret Service agents will be dispatched for the president's visit, along with a Navy aircraft carrier or amphibious ship, with a fully staffed medical trauma center stationed offshore, the report said.
It would seem to me that America might have ignored Africa for a bit to long. This is overkill. It so over the top I am actually unsure if it is accurate.
Dozens of vehicles will also be brought to the three countries by military transport planes, along with sheets of bulletproof glass to cover the windows of the hotels where the Obamas stay.
"Fighter jets will fly in shifts, giving 24-hour coverage over the president's airspace," the report said, citing the Secret Service document.
Actually I think it might be African airspace. I guess there would be bugger all point in going on a safari with fighter jets buzzing the trip.
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