by JustAnAmerican » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:04 am
I work for the US government here in Cyprus.
Here is how a trip like this works. A US Senator says, “ I want to visit Larnaka, we say no problem.” His arrangements, hotel, security and food are all arranged by us but paid for by his office. It all looks very seamless, the fighter jets that escort his aircraft are US Air Force fighters, as well as the transport plane. But, all of these aircraft and the crews are paid for out of what is known as a “Fund cite”. We arrange for the planes to be refueled and rearmed, but the cost including fuel is billed back to the US congressman’s office. Even the overtime for the local police force working security and traffic issues is paid for by the visitor’s office.
If the President’ want to visit Cyprus, his office would supply a fund cite to pay for all of his associated costs. A presidential delegation is very expensive. The Secret service will not allow us to use any local transportation or local helicopter transportation. Yep, that is right, he brings it all. Clinton used 17 aircraft, plus Air Force 1 in a trip to India. All of the cars, SUV’s and the helicopters were enormous. Also, you have to position all of the crews and security people a week in advance of the party.
The trip last week to TRNC was very different. First off, they said they wanted to come. We said that it was a bad idea. They still said that they would come. We said, “Fine, but we are not going to support it.” This Turkish-American interest group provided money and arranged for everything. They put people here in advance an arranged for all security and hotel concerns. We actually did nothing.
Like I said, the US government or the State Department did not support this trip.
