http://nycdailymail.com/2013/07/27/obama-signs-executive-order-sends-500-million-to-terrorists/
At first I thought this was a hoax. I went to http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/executive-orders to see if this executive order exists. Last one published was July 15, 2013, about the HIV Care Continuum Initiative.
However, later I saw that it was linked and it went to the Press Office instead as a Presidential Memorandum. What's the difference between a Presidential Memorandum and an Executive Order? Well, if a Presidential Memorandum is considered a Presidential Directive (which, from the sound of the next link, I assume it is), there is no difference in substance. http://www.justice.gov/olc/predirective.htm However, there is a difference in where it is filed, as it is not filed as an Executive Order.
So, the Presidential Memorandum, issued on a Friday in the wake of the Royal-Baby-and-his-name media frenzy... and where the $500 Million comes from, I don't know. But if $500M is a true figure, then We The People need to be asking how we can afford it, in the wake of sequestration and budget deficits, welfare benefits being cut, military losing education, and needed services being furloughed, all for what? So we can fund terrorists? Another question to ask is why did he use a Presidential Memorandum instead of an Executive Order? To sidestep the general public who watch executive orders? Even the source of the article was fooled into calling it an Executive Order, when in fact it's called something else and listed in a different place.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
Presidential Memorandum -- Waiver of Restriction on Providing Funds to the Palestinian Authority
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE
SUBJECT: Waiver of Restriction on Providing Funds to the Palestinian Authority
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7040(b) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2012 (Division I, Public Law 112-74) (the "Act") as carried forward by the Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (Division F, Public Law 113-6) (the "CR"), I hereby certify that it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive the provisions of section 7040(a) of the Act as carried forward by the CR, in order to provide funds appropriated to carry out chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act, as amended, to the Palestinian Authority.
You are directed to transmit this determination to the Congress, with a report pursuant to section 7040(d) of the Act as carried forward by the CR, and to publish this determination in the Federal Register.
BARACK OBAMA
