Congress made the bill with fees, but the WH just waived the charges...
White House waives fee to flee Lebanon
Americans will not have to pay for evacuation, senators' aides say
Tuesday, July 18, 2006; Posted: 9:45 p.m. EDT (01:45 GMT)
.
INFORMATION HOT LINES
U.S. Embassy in Beirut:
(+961) 4-542-600
(+961) 4-543-600
State Department in Washington:
1-202-501-4444
1-888-407-4747 (Call this number toll-free from inside the U.S.)
Americans in Lebanon and family members outside the country can obtain information at www.travel.state.gov YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- The Bush administration is waiving the requirement that Americans have to pay or reimburse the government for being evacuated from Lebanon, aides to two senators said.
The announcement came after stranded Americans, along with politicians and their families back home, expressed anger with the situation.
Some complained about the process and what they saw as the slow pace at which the State Department is evacuating Americans from Lebanon. Others were outraged that the evacuees were going to have to pay for the ride.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the government would have charged evacuees commercial rates to take them out by plane or boat.
Maura Harty, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, said that a 1956 law requires that the State Department be reimbursed. She added that Americans unable to pay could sign a voucher to reimburse the government.
"No U.S. citizen will not be boarded because they left their checkbook or credit card at home," Harty said. "I need to get people out of harm's way first, and that's what we're going to do."
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.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee was notified of the decision as well, said his spokeswoman Amy Call.
By early Tuesday evening, the State Department had helped about 350 Americans flee the Lebanon. Others had found their own way out, so it was difficult to determine how many of the estimated 25,000 Americans there remained, the State Department's Harty said.
Americans will be taken to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, about 100 miles northwest of Lebanon.
The State Department has arranged for six CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters, which collectively can ferry about 300 passengers a day, and two commercial cruise ships, which can carry about 2,200 total passengers, to help in the evacuation effort. (Watch American children in helmets flee Beirut -- 2:19)
The helicopters are reserved primarily for medical emergencies and were used Tuesday to airlift about 60 of the most vulnerable people from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, the embassy said.
The cruise ships, one of which already was docked in Beirut on Tuesday night, will depart for Cyprus on Wednesday, Harty said. The State Department has said the U.S. military will escort the ships.
Stuck in Lebanon
Several of the Americans in Lebanon wrote e-mails to CNN, expressing their frustration with the evacuation process.
"We are desperately trying to evacuate and have become more and more disappointed and angry with the way the evacuation is being handled," said Lina Fleihan, of Greensboro, North Carolina. "We hear more about what's going on from CNN than we do from the U.S. government and the American Embassy here."
Natalie Kerlakian of Denver, Colorado, wrote that she had not heard from the embassy in a week.
"I hope this response will be better than that of Katrina," she wrote, referring to the heavily criticized government response to the hurricane that struck the Gulf Coast in August.
Susan Omar, of Clifton, New Jersey, wrote that she has family stuck in the southern Lebanese city of Maryajoun, and her phone calls to various governments' offices have been fruitless.
"We have begged and pleaded with anyone and everyone, but our kids still don't have water, food or medicine," she wrote. "The media is telling everyone that those with medical necessity have already been evacuated. I guess that only means those lucky enough to be near Beirut!"
Kellee Khalil of Los Angeles, California, wrote that she was trapped in Lebanon while vacationing with her father, who has diabetes and a heart condition.
"The embassy has not put him on a priority list," she wrote. "It has been several days of airstrikes and the United States seems to care little about the 25,000 Americans that are trapped here."
However, the U.S. State Department has warned Americans against traveling in Lebanon for the past several years. The Web site for the U.S. Embassy in Beirut reminds travelers "that the U.S. government does not provide no-cost transportation but does have the authority to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need."
The embassy issued a statement Tuesday saying that Americans were being contacted about departing Lebanon via sea and air. The statement added that Americans should not move until contacted by the embassy staff.
"Those who wish to leave should ready themselves immediately," it said.
The U.S. military does not charge for evacuations. Nor do the governments of France, Ireland, Britain and Italy, which already have ferried hundreds of their citizens out of Lebanon.
Help on the way
In addition to the warships and helicopters, nine U.S. Navy ships have arrived in Lebanon to help with the evacuations, as well as ships from the Spain, Italy and Britain, said Brig. Gen. Mike Barbero. The Pentagon said Tuesday that the destroyer USS Gonzales will escort one of the cruise ships.
"These operations are taking place in a war zone," Barbero said. "They involve passage through a strict blockade and are limited by the capacity of the ports and the degraded infrastructure in Lebanon."
Many Americans were already aboard one of the cruise ships Tuesday, said Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs.
Video footage from the U.S. Defense Department also showed women and children boarding a military helicopter on what appeared to be a building's rooftop.
More than 100 Europeans and Americans joined at least 800 French citizens on one of the few vessels to arrive in Lebanon to carry evacuees to Cyprus. From there, people were flying to their home countries.
The ferry docked Tuesday in the Cypriot port of Larnaca and is to return to Beirut on Wednesday and again later in the week to evacuate others if the French military deems it safe, the French Foreign Ministry said.
Burns called the evacuation effort well-conceived and methodical.
"People go out when they want to go out," he said. "We have an open line to all American citizens. We're in touch with them by Web site. Those Americans who wish to leave will obviously go out. Those who are in critical need of leaving over the weekend have left through the air bridge."
CNN's Elise Labott, Andrea Koppel, Larry Shaughnessy, Deirdre Walsh and Jamie McIntyre contributed to this report.
Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, |
