Who’s tending State Department’s cash cow?

EXCLUSIVE: The U.S. State Department has been handing over billions of dollars in grants for foreign projects -- ranging  from cultural exchanges to “climate change” activities -- without adequate oversight or adequate assessment of the risks involved, and sometimes without knowing whether the money was actually spent, according to the department’s Inspector General.
Moreover, these money-management problems have been going on for years, despite specific warnings, according to the watchdog IG’s office. It says it has designated State’s oversight of grants, contracts and “interagency agreements” (where State spends money on another department’s behalf) as one of the department’s “major management challenges” every year since 2008.
In a special “management alert” issued last month, the IG’s office reports that 61 out of 156 of all the watchdog’s inspections since 2010 of the State Department’s widely varying branches  have found “specific grant-management deficiencies,” such as lack of oversight, absent or incomplete documentation, or a lack of proper final closeout for the projects.
The overall implication of the alert is that State’s top managers, especially in the departments charged with administering the bureaucracy, have not been doing anywhere near enough to clean up the longstanding mess. 
The alert cites around 20 critical audits and inspections  in the past two years alone -- not to mention a previous management alert last March on “contract file management deficiencies,” which identified some $6 billion worth of contracts where files were “incomplete or could not be located at all.”

The State Department's top managers have not been doing anywhere near enough to clean up the longstanding mess

State’s outright bestowals of grant money to individuals and organizations, as opposed to its broader aid and development programs, has been growing:  from $1.6 billion in fiscal 2012, to $1.8 billion last year. The number of individual grants, meanwhile, rose from about 14,000 to 16,800 over the same period.
Grant-making has been on the rise in part because the State Department has been moving, often with much fanfare, to rely more on private individuals and non-governmental organizations to carry out a wide variety of social, humanitarian and environmental tasks -- often because of the corruption risks and inefficiencies associated with governments in developing countries.
Spending on such new areas of business as “climate change” has also accelerated, with warnings of attendant widespread oversight problems getting flagged two years ago. 
One of the main reasons for the continuing mess: the number of State Department officers overseeing the cash gusher has been nowhere near up to the task.
Only some 570 grant overseers work at State, with more than 500 of them abroad. In many cases they are under-trained, and in virtually all cases overworked -- the alert cites one overseer who is managing 500 grants -- and they usually perform their oversight part-time while doing other Foreign Service jobs. Turnover among the overseers is high, which, the alert notes, “hampers the development of institutional memory.”
The continuing bureaucratic inaction, after numerous warnings about the lack of proper care for a pile of cash that by definition is bestowed without formal contracts, is the major reason behind the special warning sounded by the department’s aggressive new Inspector General, Steve Linick, who was appointed just more than a year ago.
Management alerts, an innovation under Linick, don’t break new ground but are intended to underline the “serious nature” of the issues involved, and flag the topmost reaches of the State Department about problems.
The current management alert is essentially a lengthy compilation of lapses, poor practices and inattention outlined in previous audits and inspections that have failed to spur managers into changing the situation, at least to the Inspector General’s satisfaction.
This particular alert goes further, by also citing a series of reports from the independent Government Accountability Office, or GAO, which run along similar lines.
In the most recent GAO report, published  in July, the outside watchdog noted  that a numbing array of State Department offices were authorized to hand out grants -- some 27 offices and bureaus, not to mention a wide variety of consulates and embassies.
Much of the cash, however, was spent by fewer than a dozen bureaus and agencies, including the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs ($397 million in 2012), the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration ($352.6 million) and an office in the Bureau of Administration ($393 million).
GAO did not investigate all of the spending, but examined a sampling of about $172 million worth of grants and similar hand-outs by State in fiscal 2012. The result was not reassuring.
GAO’s bottom line:  A combination of poor and often missing documentation and “inadequate” analysis of the risks involved in handing out the cash meant that State “cannot be certain that its oversight is adequate or that it is using its limited oversight resources effectively.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE GAO REPORT
For example, GAO noted that none of the State Department risk-assessment checklists for evaluating grants mention corruption as a factor for evaluating whether to award a grant, even though side notes in a grant file might mention that corruption was rampant in the country where the money was being handed over.
Since corruption wasn’t on the official checklist, any observations about it did not factor into the overall determination of the riskiness of the grant -- nor did they show up “anywhere else in the grant file documentation,” the GAO observed.
Even when grant recipients themselves had bad records for prior financial mismanagement, the GAO report noted, grants were awarded “without addressing how the risk could be mitigated.” In many cases, over plans for how to monitor grants both for performance and for financial probity were simply missing.
The Inspector General’s alert found many of the same things in its own review of the inspection record. Only 6 of 37 files examined to see if they contained proper documentation to close out a grant award -- meaning that the project and the money had been properly accounted for -- had anything like the proper paperwork, the alert discloses.
Even worse, out of 60 sample files requested for inspection, “10 had been prematurely destroyed, 3 were missing and one was mislabeled.”  In another State Department office, intended to monitor and combat trafficking in persons, more than 280 grant awards “could not be closed out because of missing documentation.” 
In all, the alert notes, “since 2013, nine inspections have identified grant documentation deficiencies.”
The lack of paperwork, the alert emphasizes -- citing its previous management alert on contracts for emphasis -- “creates conditions conducive to fraud, where corrupt individuals may attempt to conceal evidence of illicit behavior by omitting key documents from grant files.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE ALERT
What to do about it? Given the growing size of the problem, the Inspector General’s office saw the solution as relatively simple, starting with hiring more people to watch over the money. 
The watchdog’s recommendations, addressed to State’s Under Secretary of State for Management, Patrick Kennedy, and Assistant Secretary of State for Administration, Joyce A. Barr, also called for more training, and a quality-control program that would sample the paperwork on grant projects to see that it was properly completed. 
The results of the sampling, the alert said, should be fed back to the bureaus that handed out the cash, to ensure that overseers “are held accountable” for their performance.
The State Department’s response was also simple. All of the alert’s recommendations have been accepted. What that means, however, will take a while to tell.
To ensure that the number of grant overseers increases appropriately, the State Department says it will  create a portentiously-named Grants Human Capital Plan to match spending with oversight capability on a department-wide basis --something it has never done before.
The new plan, a State Department spokesman told Fox News, “will provide information needed by bureaus to request staff and funding to implement their individual needs, and allow the department’s management to review individual bureau requirements in an overall context.”
The grants planning mechanism will start grinding into action in fiscal 2015.
The department also has developed a “mandatory internal control documentation checklist” to be completed before any grant can be closed out, and created a new job -- the File Audit Coordinator -- to audit its treatment grant files. 
Additional staffing will be “considered as needed,” the spokesman told Fox News -- not exactly an enthusiastic affirmation of the Inspector General’s concern about the size and importance of the State Department’s cash giveaway problems.
George Russell is editor-at-large of Fox News and can be found on Twitter: @GeorgeRussell or on Facebook.com/George Russell

Pilot dies in crash of air tanker fighting northern California wildfire

The pilot of an air tanker fighting a wildfire near California's Yosemite National Park died Tuesday when the aircraft crashed.
California Fire spokeswoman Alyssa Smith said in a statement that crews reached the wreckage several hours after the crash and confirmed the pilot's death. The pilot's identity was not released because all immediate family had not yet been notified. 
"This crash underscores just how inherently dangerous wildland firefighting is and the job is  further compounded this year by extreme fire conditions," Chief Ken Pimlott, Cal Fire director, said in the statement. "We have secured the crash site and will be cooperating with the NTSB on their investigation."
Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman told the Associated Press that the plane went down at approximately 4:30 p.m. local time less than a mile from the western entrance to the park. 
 California Highway Patrol Sgt. Chris Michael said he was stopping traffic along state Route 140 at the west entrance to the park about 4:24 p.m. when he witnessed the crash.
"I heard a large explosion, I looked up on the steep canyon wall and saw aircraft debris was actually raining down the side of the mountain after the impact," he told The Associated Press by telephone. "It hit the steep side of the canyon wall. It appeared from the direction he was going, he was trying to make a drop down the side of the canyon when he hit the canyon wall."
The fire was spreading up the canyon wall, and it appeared the pilot was trying to lay down fire retardant to stop its progress, Michael said.
"It most definitely did disintegrate on impact," he said. "It was nothing. I didn't see anything but small pieces."
Pieces of the aircraft landed on the highway and came close to hitting fire crews on the ground nearby, but no one on the ground was injured, he said.
"It came pretty close to hitting them, but they were far enough away that it missed them, fortunately," he said.
The airplane, manufactured in 2001, is an S-2T air tanker, which is flown by a single pilot and normally has no other crew members. The tanker uses twin turbine engines and is capable of carrying 1,200 gallons of fire retardant, said another CalFire spokesman, Daniel Berlant.
Don Talend, of West Dundee, Illinois, said he also may have seen the plane go down. Talend and friends were vacationing at the park when they stopped to snap some photographs of the fire, which was several miles away.
The plane "disappeared into the smoke and you heard a boom," he told The Associated Press by phone.
"I couldn't believe what I saw," Talend said. "There was actually a ranger there behind us. ... He had a look of disbelief on his face."
The pilot is an employee of DynCorp., a contractor that provides the pilots for all CalFire planes and maintenance for the department's aircraft, California department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Janet Upton said.
The fire had broken out about 90 minutes earlier Tuesday near Route 140, which leads into the heart of the park. It had grown to about 130 acres by Tuesday evening and forced the evacuation of several dozen homes near the community of Foresta.
FAA records show the plane is registered to the U.S. Forest Service, which originally provided the plane to CalFire, Upton said.
The last time a CalFire air tanker crashed was in 2001, when two tankers collided while fighting a fire in Mendocino County, killing both pilots, Berlant said.
The agency had another plane crash in 2006, when a fire battalion chief and a pilot were killed while observing a fire in a two-seat plane in Tulare County.

White House reportedly frustrated with Turkish inaction against ISIS

The White House is growing more frustrated with Turkish inaction against Islamic State fighters as Kurdish forces desperately battle to keep the Syrian border town of Kobani from falling into militants' hands, according to a published report. 
The New York Times quoted a senior administration official who slammed the Ankara government for "dragging its feet to act to prevent a massacre less than a mile from its border."
"After all the fulminating about Syria’s humanitarian catastrophe, they’re inventing reasons not to act to avoid another catastrophe," the official continued. "This isn’t how a NATO ally acts while hell is unfolding a stone’s throw from their border."
The Times reported that Secretary of State John Kerry had spoken with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu multiple times over the prior 72 hours in an effort to resolve tensions between the two sides. 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the U.S.-led coalition's air campaign launched last month would not be enough to halt the Islamic State group's advance. Turkish troops have been massed near the border since the assault on Kobani began, but have so far not taken an offensive posture.
"Kobani is about to fall," Erdogan told Syrian refugees in the Turkish border town of Gaziantep, according to The Associated Press. The Turkish president called for greater cooperation with the Syrian opposition, which is fighting both the extremists and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"We asked for three things: one, for a no-fly zone to be created; two, for a secure zone parallel to the region to be declared; and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and equipped."
The Times reported that President Obama prefers that Erdogan not tether the fight against Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS, to the effort to overthrow Assad. U.S. officials also tell the paper that Erdogan's demand for a no-fly zone against the Syrian Air Force is meaningless on the grounds that the airstrikes have created a no-fly zone in all but name. 
On Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said that five strikes against ISIS positions and hardware near Kobani had been carried out over the past two days. The BBC reported that the strikes represented the most sustained coalition action in the area since the airstrikes began Sept. 23. A BBC reporter said that fighting in the city had died down Tuesday afternoon, and only occasional gunfire could be heard. Reuters reported clashes on the north and northeastern edges of Kobani, with one Kurdish official saying ISIS was using heavy weapons and shells to hit the city. 
 Also Tuesday, the United Nations envoy for Syria issued a call for "concrete action" to prevent "humanitarian tragedies."
"The world has seen with its own eyes the images of what happens when a city in Syria or in Iraq is overtaken by the terrorist group called ISIS or Da'esh: massacres, humanitarian tragedies, rapes, horrific violence," Staffan De Mistura said. "The international community cannot sustain another city falling under ISIS.
"The world, all of us, will regret deeply if ISIS is able to take over a city which has defended itself with courage but is close to not being able to do so," De Mistura added. "We need to act now."

ISIS Strategy Cartoon

Peterson reportedly used charity funds to pay for sex party

The public perception of embattled running back Adrian Peterson — already banned from NFL activities following allegations of child abuse — has taken another hit as allegations surface that the former Minnesota Viking’s charity had financial improprieties.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Peterson was the center of an incident in an Eden Prairie hotel room that ended with a rape accusation and a lengthy police investigation that did not end in criminal charges. But, according to a 38-page police report on the 2011 incident, two relatives, including Peterson’s brother, a minor, were involved in a night of drinking and sex that Peterson’s relative told police was paid for using a company credit card for Peterson’s All Day, Inc.
“As the night wore on, the report says, one woman who said she knew Peterson previously became upset when she saw him having sex with another woman,” the newspaper reports. “She started an argument that lasted at least an hour. According to the report, when she told him that she was ‘emotionally attached to him,’ Peterson reminded her that he was engaged to another woman and had a baby.”
Prosecutors chose not to file charges following the rape accusation, which was first reported by TMZ on Sept. 26.
Peterson, who has fathered at least six children with six different women, and those children live in at least three states — Minnesota, Georgia and Texas — according to court records reviewed by the Star Tribune. In a 2013 interview, Peterson declined to say how many children he had.
“I know the truth,” he told ESPN. “I’m comfortable with that knowledge.”
Peterson’s indictment has also led to increased scrutiny of his charity, which focuses on at-risk children, particularly girls. The charity’s 2011 financial report showed $247,064 in total revenue, and listed just three organizations that received money. A fourth outlay, titled simply “clothing for needy families,” listed “unknown” for the number of recipients, the newspaper reports.
In 2009, the charity said its largest gift, $70,000, went to Straight From the Heart Ministries in Laurel, Md. But Donna Farley, president and founder of the Maryland organization, told the newspaper it never received any money from Peterson’s foundation.
“There have been no outside [contributions] other than people in my own circle,” Farley told the newspaper. “Adrian Peterson — definitely not.”
Furthermore, the East Texas Food Bank, based in Tyler, said it received money from Peterson’s foundation in 2009, although the foundation’s tax filing for that year listed just one donation to a food bank — the North Texas Food Bank, based in Dallas.
Colleen Brinkmann, the chief philanthropy officer for the North Texas Food Bank, told the Star Tribune that while her agency partnered with Dallas Cowboys players, she could not recall ever getting money from the All Day Foundation.
“Was he with the Cowboys before?” she asked of Peterson. “I’m not a football fan.”
Peterson is scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednesday.

Supreme Court paves way for gay marriage in several states, leaves issue unresolved nationally

The Supreme Court on Monday turned away appeals from five states looking to prohibit gay marriage, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in those states and likely others -- but also leaving the issue unresolved nationally. 
The justices rejected appeals from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. The court's order immediately ends delays on gay marriage in those states. 
Couples in six other states -- Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming -- also should be able to get married in short order. Those states would be bound by the same appellate rulings that were put on hold pending the Supreme Court's review. That would make same-sex marriage legal in 30 states and the District of Columbia. 
In Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert said he was "surprised" and "disappointed" by Monday's development. But the Republican governor said that "while I continue to believe that the states do have the right to define marriage and create laws regarding marriage, ultimately we are a nation of laws, and we here in Utah will uphold the law." 
With no other state cases currently pending before the court, the decision to reject the appeals means the justices -- for now -- will not be considering the question of same-sex marriage nationwide. 
Experts and advocates on both sides of the issue believed the justices would step in and decide gay marriage cases this term. The justices have an obligation to settle an issue of such national importance, not abdicate that responsibility to lower court judges, the advocates said. Opting out of hearing the cases leaves those lower court rulings in place. 
Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, called on the high court to "finish the job." Wolfson said the court's "delay in affirming the freedom to marry nationwide prolongs the patchwork of state-to-state discrimination and the harms and indignity that the denial of marriage still inflicts on too many couples in too many places." 
Ed Whelan of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, an opponent of same-sex marriage, also chastised the court for its "irresponsible denial of review in the cases." 
However, several other lower-court cases still are percolating and eventually could make their way to the Supreme Court. 
Two other appeals courts, in Cincinnati and San Francisco, could issue decisions any time in same-sex marriage cases. Judges in the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit who are weighing pro-gay marriage rulings in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, appeared more likely to rule in favor of state bans than did the 9th Circuit judges in San Francisco, who are considering Idaho and Nevada restrictions on marriage. 
The situation, meanwhile, was changing rapidly Monday in the states affected by the court's latest announcement: 
-- Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, said the fight against same-sex marriage "is over" in Wisconsin. "With the Supreme Court's announcement today, it is clear that the position of the court of appeals at the federal level is the law of the land and we're going to go forward enacting it." 
-- Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, said marriage licenses could start to be issued to same-sex couples as early as Monday afternoon. 
-- In North Carolina, lawyers for same-sex couples said they planned to ask a judge Monday to overturn the state's gay marriage ban. 
-- In Oklahoma, the clerk in the largest county said he would await a formal order from the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before he begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. That court had placed its ruling striking down the state ban on hold. 
It takes just four of the nine justices to vote to hear a case, but it takes a majority of at least five for an eventual ruling. Monday's opaque order did not indicate how the justices voted on whether to hear the appeals.

Ebola strikes Spanish nurse who treated priests, 30 people under surveillance in Madrid

A Spanish nurse who treated two missionaries for Ebola at a Madrid hospital has tested positive for the virus, Spain's health minister said Monday.
It is the first known transmission of the current outbreak of the disease outside West Africa.
The female nurse was part of the medical team that treated priests Manuel García Viejo, who died on Sept. 26, and Miguel Pajares, who died Aug. 12, at the hospital Carlos III de Madrid.
The infection was confirmed by two separate tests, Health Minister Ana Mato said after an emergency meeting held Monday afternoon in Madrid.
According to El País newspaper, the woman checked herself Monday morning in a hospital in Alcorcón, a suburb southwest of Madrid, with a high fever. The identity of the woman, who according to El Pais is 44 years and has no children, has not been released.
Health officials quoted by the paper say 30 people are currently under surveillance, and it is still being determined who she has been in contact with.
Nobody apart from the woman is in quarantine at the moment.
They said the woman went on vacation after García Viejo’s death, but did not disclose the destination. She led a normal life in recent weeks and her only symptoms were a fever and fatigue, Antonio Alemany, Madrid director of primary health care, said in the news conference.
"We do not know yet what could have failed, we are investigating the mechanism of infection," he said.
The World Health Organization confirmed there has not been a previous transmission outside West Africa in the current outbreak. WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told The Associated Press that so far there have only been confirmed cases in West Africa and the United States, and no known transmission outside West Africa. The organization is awaiting official notification of the case from Spanish authorities.
The woman will be transferred for treatment to Madrid's Carlos III hospital, where she has been a nurse for 15 years.
The virus that causes Ebola spreads only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person who is showing symptoms.
Spanish authorities said they were investigating how the nurse became infected at a hospital with modern health care facilities and special equipment for handling cases of deadly viruses.
More than 370 health workers in West Africa have become infected in this outbreak, and more than half of those have died. Doctors and nurses there have worked under difficult conditions, treating patients in overflowing wards, sometimes without proper protection. But even under ideal conditions, experts warn that caring for Ebola patients always involves a risk.
WHO estimates the latest Ebola outbreak has killed more than 3,400 people.

Ex-Fed chief Bernanke denied loan to refinance his home

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke revealed last week that he was turned down when he tried to refinance his home loan.
According to Bloomberg News, Bernanke, in speaking at a conference in Chicago Thursday, told the crowd, “I recently tried to refinance my mortgage and I was unsuccessful in doing so.”

“I recently tried to refinance my mortgage and I was unsuccessful . . ."- Ben Bernanke

The audience reportedly laughed, and Bernanke responded: “I’m not making that up.”
“I think it’s entirely possible” that lenders “may have gone a little bit too far on mortgage credit conditions,” he said.
Bernanke also told the conference of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care that the first-time homebuyer market is “not what it should be.”
Bernanke was paid $199,750 annually as head of the central bank and reportedly earned $250,000 in March for his first public speaking engagement since stepping down in January.
He also reportedly received $1 million in a deal to write his memoirs.

Shipment of medical supplies to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone reportedly delayed for weeks

A shipping container filled with approximately $140,000 worth of medical equipment needed to fight the spread of the Ebola virus in the West African country of Sierra Leone has sat untouched on the docks of the country's capital for nearly two months according to a published report. 
According to The New York Times the shipment of hospital linens, protective suits, face masks, and other items arrived in the port of Freetown Aug. 9, but has still not been cleared by government officials.
The Ebola outbreak has killed over 3,000 people, with the vast majority of deaths occurring in Sierra Leone and two other West African countries, Liberia and Guinea. Local health officials have been overwhelmed by the spread of the virus, and some say the case of the delayed container is a vivid illustration of how government corruption has undercut efforts to fight Ebola as well. 
The Times reports that the shipment was organized by Chernoh Alpha Bah, an opposition politician in Sierra Leone. A government official told the paper that approval of the shipment may have been delayed to prevent the opposition from scoring political points about their response to the outbreak. 
The paper also reported that the $6,500 shipping fee for the container had not been paid by the Sierra Leone government, resulting in three other other containers of supplies being kept at the docks by the shipping company. According to The Times, government officials disputed the fee before arguing that proper shipping protocols had not been followed. An official at the country's health ministry said the shipment should have been cleared with them first, before adding that the supplies would be cleared "very soon."
Meanwhile, another would-be donor, an expatriate Sierra Leonean living in Canada, tells the paper his shipment has been delayed for over a month because of the government's unwillingness to pay a $5,000 shipping fee. In context, the government official told The Times that the country has received over $40 million in cash donations to help fight Ebola. 
Sierra Leone is still recovering from an 11-year-long civil war, and the country's health ministry was beset by corruption charges levied at dozens of health officials over misappropriation of vaccination funds.

Biden issues second apology of weekend, after offending US allies in fight to destroy Islamic State

Vice President Biden on Sunday issued his second apology of the weekend for remarks that offended allies that the U.S. needs in the fight to destroy the Islamic State.
Biden apologized by phone Sunday to Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, saying he never meant to imply that his country was supporting Al Qaeda fighters in Syria. Al Nahyan is also the deputy supreme commander of the United Arab Emirates’ armed forces. 
Biden made the remarks at a speech Thursday, suggesting U.S. allies including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had funded and armed extremist groups linked to Al Qaeda. The UAE was exasperated and requested a formal clarification.
"The Turks … the Saudis, the Emirates, etc. What were they doing? They were so determined to take down (Syrian President Bashar) Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war," Biden said during the speech at Harvard University.
"What did they do?” he continued. “They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad -- except that the people who were being supplied were al Nusra and Al Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world."
The White House said Biden clarified his remarks Sunday and recognized the UAE's strong steps to counter extremists and participation in U.S.-led air strikes on the Islamic State, also known as ISIL and ISIS.
On Saturday, Biden apologized to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for also saying during the speech that the Turkish leader admitted his country made mistakes by allowing foreign fighters to cross into Syria.
Biden also spoke directly to Erdogan -- to “clarify” his comments and to apologize for “any implication" that Turkey or the other allies had intentionally supplied or helped in the growth of the Islamic State or other extremists groups in Syria, the White House said.
Erdogan denied making such remarks and said Biden would become "history to me" over the comments unless he fixed the situation.
The speech was an especially bad event for the vice president, who has a history of gaffes and unscripted, problem-causing remarks.
Biden also took a question from a student who identified himself as being the vice president of the student body by jokingly saying first: "Ain't that a b-tch? … I mean ... excuse me, the vice president thing?”
In 2010, after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law on national TV, Biden was caught on a live microphone saying to the president this is "a big f---ing deal."
Turkey, a NATO ally, is expected to define the role it will play in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State militants who have captured a swath of Iraq and Syria, in some cases right up to the Turkish border.