Tens Of Thousands Of Americans Stranded In Lebanon...US Govt. Making Citizens Pay For Evacuations...

CNN July 18, 2006 at 05:35 PM
READ MORE: Tony Snow, Lebanon, Iraq

Before being evacuated on U.S.-chartered ships, Americans are being asked to sign promissory notes to repay the U.S. government for the journey.

That demand outraged House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who said the United States has an obligation to get citizens out of harm's way without "quibbling over payment."

"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. "I call upon the president to remove one worry from the minds of stranded American citizens in Lebanon and their families back home by declaring immediately that their country will bear the costs of bringing them to safety."

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Tuesday that the payments -- or "reimbursements" -- to the State Department were mandated under the 2003 Foreign Relations Authorization Act passed by Congress.

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Another 25 thousand American Nationals, that will learn what it was like to be in New Orleans when Katrinas devastation, took over their lives. Your lives and your families lives are in the hands of loser, who considers you colatoral damage.

Parents and children hear bomb explosions all night
By Kate KingCNN
Tuesday, July 18, 2006; Posted: 10:46 p.m. EDT (02:46 GMT)

(CNN) -- The Esseily family was winding up a vacation in Lebanon when the airstrikes began. Nearly a week later, they're still looking for a way to get back to California.

Tony and Monika Esseily and their three children were asleep in their apartment, nearing the end of a month-long holiday, when Israel began bombing Beirut.

"It was an extreme shock when I woke up and -- actually, we heard it," Monika Esseily told CNN. "3:20 in the morning, we got up, and the whole sky was just alit. And I'm like, 'Oh no, oh no, oh no.' "

Beirut's airport was closed after Israel warplanes bombed its runways, and every night is punctuated by the sound of airstrikes. (Read story on recent airstrikes)

"I have two kids [and] a baby, and they're scared. I'm scared," Esseily said. "First time I've ever encountered something like this."

The Esseilys are among tens of thousands of Westerners stranded in Lebanon Tuesday waiting for help to arrive. Monika Esseily said she's in contact with many other Americans in Lebanon and that all of them want to get out. (Watch how frustration is growing over the evacuation of Americans -- 1:41)

"They're pulling out their hair, they're crying, they're saying 'What's going on?' They're being rejected from the American Embassy," she said. "The American Embassy is still saying, 'We will call you.' That's all that they will say." >>cont

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