THE PEACOCK REPORT (TPR)

US-Funded Kenyan AIDS Project Could Be Cash Cow for Multinational High Tech Firms

Though the U.S. may consider suspending some financial assistance that it sends to Kenya, such a freeze is not slated to affect a large-scale HIV/AIDS initiative that the U.S. plans to embark upon in that embattled African nation, a State Department spokesman said today. Consequently, multinational corporations such as Lockheed Martin, MAERSK Line, Bearing Point, and Chemonics likely are breathing a sigh of relief, as the technology divisions of those companies are seeking a piece of the $500,000,000 "Pharma Project" pie.

Dozens of representatives from these and other government contractors in Nov. 2007 attended a State Dept. conference in Nairobi to discuss potential contracting opportunities related to the endeavor, according to documents that The Peacock Report located through a routine search of the FedBizOpps database. However, this half-billion-dollar segment of the Pharma Project "will not entail actually procuring laboratory materials and equipment such as rapid test kits, reagents or machines," a presolicitation document shows. On the contrary, the document notes that funds instead will be used "to establish and operate a safe, secure, reliable, and sustainable supply-chain management system [emphasis added] to forecast, procure, store, and distribute the drugs, supplies, and equipment needed to provide care and treatment of persons with HIV/AIDS in Kenya."

AP: N.J. State Police to Review Arrests of Protesters

The Associated Press today reported that the New Jersey State Police intend to "review circumstances" of the arrests of protesters outside of a public meeting attended by Gov. Jon Corzine (Asbury Park Press, 01/24). Police last week charged radio personality Seth Grossman and former mayor of Bogota Township Steve Lonegan with defiant trespass after holding up signs and distributing protest literature, respectively, outside the meeting in Middle Township.

A video clip of the arrests is avaialable via the MoreMonmouthMusings blog.

Federal Education Program Seeks New Leadership

The federal government is recruiting a new "Education/Investing in People Program Leader," a position that pays in the $81,093-$105,420 range. According to a personnel solicitation dated Jan. 15, candidates for this leadership position will be tasked with overseeing initiatives whose "education strategic objective" is the improvement of "the quality and relevance of basic education and of lower level vocational training to enhance job placement opportunities or subsequent level education. The program aims to increase the participation of young people "in social, economic, and political life through the acquisition of life skills gained by both in-school and out-of-school youth."

The program will take place in Morocco, for Moroccan youth, courtesy the U.S. taxpayer.

Condition of New Baghdad Embassy Worse Than Reported

In addition to the spiraling cost of the New Embassy Compound (NEC) in Baghdad, the U.S. State Dept. now is contending with fire safety problems that threaten the well-being of embassy staff, the Washington Post reported today (see Baghdad Embassy is Called a Fire Risk; free registration required). According to a State Dept. source with whom The Peacock Report (TPR) interviewed, the situation is even worse than is being reported: "Some personnel living at the compound are sleeping with military flak jackets on at night," the source said. "They're hyper-aware that the housing is shoddy enough for a mortar to pierce their thin bedroom walls like butter."

It remains unclear whether the reported cost of the compound -- which has risen from an initial estimate of $592 million but now stands at $736 million -- includes hundreds of millions in additional operation and maintenance costs. According to a review of contracting documents available via the FedBizOpps database, TPR learned that State's Iraq Project Coordination Office last April awarded a $177 million contract to the Los Angeles-based PAE Government Services for such services.

As TPR reported (and the Centre for Global Research further disseminated) prior to the contract award, the project also was slated to contain a $1 million annual budget solely for shrubbery and landscaping services.

U.S. Weighs Financial Backing of Oil Refinery Modernization

The U.S. government may offer financial backing to the private sector to build new oil refineries and to modernize existing petroleum-production facilities -- in China.

According to a planning document that The Peacock Report has obtained, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) -- a White House agency based in Arlington, Va. -- intends to send private consultants to China to assess the status of that nation's refinery capabilties. This USTDA "definitional mission" will produce recommendations on whether U.S. taxpayers should financially assist -- and ultimately modernize -- the Chinese oil industry.

The agency is pursuing this project despite "significant expansion activities" upon which China's largest refinery operators, PetroChina and Sinopec, already have embarked. According to the document, which is dated Jan. 2, these ongoing efforts:

have mainly allowed both companies to keep up with existing demand [in China] with little room for anticpated demand increases. Industry analysts estimate that China will need to construct at least twenty large refineries capable of handling high-sulfur crude over the next seven years in order to meet anticipated demand, an investment expected to approach $30 billion.

A corollary aim of the project purportedly is to "facilitate China's transition to higher vehicle emissions standards," the document says. As a matter of policy the agency claims that it is tasked with the dual mission of increasing U.S. exports while "contributing to the improvement and security of the physical, financial and social infratsucture of the developing world."

It should be noted that The Peacock Report previously uncovered a separate USTDA initiative to pay for a feasibility study that likewise would benefit the Chinese petroleum industry (TPR, May 16, 2006); however, in that case the agency was helping to subsidize a project to facilitate the construction of the world's largest petrochemical in the world -- a facility jointly owned by the Saudi Arabian royal family and Dalian Shide Group, a Chinese conglomerate with more than $2 billion in annual revenues.

If interested in obtaining a copy of the above-mentioned planning document, send an e-mail request to The Peacock Report via stevepeacock@yahoo.com.