No fee to flee Lebanon

[politics, Lebanon]

CNN reports the Bush administration is waiving the requirement that
Americans have to pay or reimburse the government for being evacuated
from Lebanon, quoting aides to two senators.

The announcement came after stranded Americans, along with
politicians and their families back home, expressed anger with the
situation.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi criticized the billing policy,
accusing the government of "quibbling over payment" rather than
finding the most expeditious means of getting Americans out of harm's
way.

"A nation that can provide more than $300 billion for a war in Iraq
can provide the money to get its people out of Lebanon," the
California Democrat said in a statement earlier Tuesday.

Fellow Democrat, Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, said: "We must not
abandon American citizens in a war zone. Our government should be
focusing on the fastest, safest way to get Americans home, not how
much to bill them once they get there." She had said she would
introduce legislation to get the fees waived.

But on Tuesday night Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice addressed
the billing issue, telling Sen. John Sununu that she was waiving the
requirement, Sununu's office said. The New Hampshire Republican is of
Lebanese descent and had joined Pelosi and Stabenow in lambasting the
fee.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/18/lebanon.evacuation/

Frankly I am shocked that Halliburton didn't get a no-bid contract
for this.