Biden pushed ahead with Gaza pier construction despite warnings, watchdog says
Fox News contributor Gen. Keith Kellogg examines the latest news on Middle East tensions and reacts to former President Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery on the third anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal.
The Office of Inspector General for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has released a report finding that “several” agency officials were at odds with the Biden administration over its decision to build a humanitarian aid pier off the coast of Gaza.
Office It released the report on TuesdayThe report found that “several USAID officials” had initially expressed concern that the construction of the pier could undermine broader efforts to convince Israel to open a “more efficient” land corridor that is a “proven method” for transporting aid. But the report said that “once the president issued the directive, USAID's focus shifted to [the pier] As effectively as possible.”
The construction of the $230 million pier comes at a time when the US has been under pressure from critics to send aid to Gaza residents amid fears that famine is setting in. Aid has been flown in, but President Biden aimed to step up support by giving the green light to the pier construction project. It was a joint effort between the Biden administration's Department of Defense (DOD) and the US Agency for International Development, which is tasked with distributing the federal government's foreign aid.
But just a week after it was up and running, the pier began to face problems: high winds and rough seas caused it to collapse multiple times, and workers distributing relief supplies faced hostile forces trying to loot the supplies as they arrived. The pier was ultimately closed on July 17 after 20 days of operation.
Biden's $230 million Gaza dock quietly closes as US senator denounces project as 'national embarrassment'
This photo shows the floating dock after it was damaged during severe weather in May. (Daud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Even before the pier was operational, critics worried there were alternatives that were more efficient and cheaper than both the airdrop and the pier, while Republicans blasted the move to build the pier as an effort for Biden to win back support from progressive voters.
“I think he's worried about losing to Michigan in November, [something] … Particularly to Michigan’s Muslim American voters.” Congressman Pat Fallon (R-Texas)“We're not going to build the pier,” he said. “We're not going to build the pier. We …
Anti-Israel protesters marched near Chicago's United Center during the recent Democratic National Convention. (Fox News Digital/File)
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Fox News Digital reached out to USAID for comment but did not receive a response.
Sean Sabet, a spokesman for Biden's National Security Council, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the temporary pier, for all its shortcomings, “has actually been effective” and is “part of a comprehensive response to the dire humanitarian situation in northern Gaza.”
Sabet noted that before it was closed, the pier delivered about 20 million pounds of food and water that would otherwise not have reached the war-torn region, claiming that this was “the largest amount of humanitarian aid the Department of Defense has ever been able to deliver in the Middle East.”
“We said from the beginning that this wouldn't be easy,” Thabet said, “and we were honest and transparent about the challenges. But at the end of the day, given how dire the humanitarian situation is in Gaza, the United States is doing everything it can to get more aid, and this pier played a key role at a critical time toward achieving that goal.”
