Quote Originally Posted by Beelzebubalicious View Post
I'm also curious and a bit worried about what "slightly used cattle" are...
Simple story really.

Before he became Sec Def, then Senator Les Aspin was always a severe critic of US assistance programs, unless of course they benefited his state. In the late 80s Wisconsin dairy industry had excess stock so some bright individual in the former senator's office came up with the idea to "donate" such cattle to Egypt. The mechanism used was a 100% tax write off for the donors and a 100% offset out of the Egyptian aid package that year. In essence, the Egyptians got to buy these used cows. The real kicker was of course that the life of a Wisconsin dairy cow--air condtioned barns, sterile conditions, etc did not prepare them for life in Egypt. As I recall we are talking about 100 cows, "valued" by the donors at $100K per cow for a $10 million package. They were all dead within 18 months.

Another Guiness moment. Brilliant!

Tom