Uh...does this surprise anyone? Sad...what a waste...and likely there are even people now who could use it, after Rita. A waste...not to mention offensive and insulting.

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia

Fran posted this here in the European Breakfast thread when the report came out on September 19th.

Has anyone heard what has happened since?

This is an old rehashed story from a British Tabloid that I dug into a little over a week ago.  Here is what I found at that time:

While there is some truth in the Daily Mirror story, it is a recycled story written on September 19 that is at least 9 days out of date.  For those of you not familiar with the Daily Mirror, it is a British tabloid, and I'll let you go to their website for yourself and draw you own conclusions.    reference
I'm not sure what stories will be highlighted when you look, but some of you may enjoy "Dad killed mum,,,,but I've forgiven him" and "Rick Parfitt: My big mistakes on booze..I ended up in bed with an electrician called Nigel and his wife"

I find the London Times to be a much better source of news, and it was the only other source I found with the story.  reference September 10th article

Obviously read it yourself rather than accepting my summary, but I would highlight the following points:

1.    The problem was solved as of the September 10th Times article: "But last night, five days after the first batches of aid arrived from Britain and after negotiations with the British Government, the agency waived the ban, paving the way for the food to be distributed to those who need it."
   
2.    The ban was related to regulations related to "mad cow disease".
   
3.   The US government has taken this very seriously, even to the point of banning certain people from giving blood in the US.  US citizens who lived more than 6 molnths in the UK in the late 80's can not donate blood in the US, for example.  Many other countries have taken this position on British beef, and on blood transfusions.   I believe the ban went into effect in the first Bush administration and has been supported by the Clinton and current Bush administration.  It may be that the policy was developed in the Clinton administration, I'm not sure.  But it's not a Republican vs. Democratic issue.
   
4.    It is true that some of the Brits are furious with the US delay on this donation. The article is headlined:British aid is held up in US fiascoBy Ben Hoyle.   MoD left furious as ban on EU meat keeps ration packs sitting on runways after urgent delivery by the RAF.  I imagine some of their outrage is due to the US delaying delivery of the food.  But some is undoubtedly reaction against their policy on their beef--the policy really aggravates them, to say the least.

So is a five day delay unacceptable for a product banned by a government--in one sense certainly yes, but in another, it's pretty darn fast for government work.