A recent BBC report has exposed an extremely insidious operation to drive cash strapped third world counties into deeper debt. A shadowy group of companies, known as the “vulture funds”, purchase outstanding debts from these countries at bargain prices and then turn around and use legal extortion to force these companies to pay the original debt with interest. For example, Zambia’s outstanding debt of $40 million was purchased for a mere $4 million and will likely be forced to pay $40 million to these extortionists. A number of these lawsuits have been referred to the US courts. Under the US Constitution, the President can prevent these vultures from conducting their dirty business with a stroke of his pen. Unfortunately, a number of these high rolling vultures have contributed large amount of money to the Republican Party to gain legislative favors. It is therefore up to the people to ensure that President Bush follows through on his promise to provide debt relief to the poor nations of the world.