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Gold9472
09-26-2005, 10:16 PM
Katrina relief contracts come under investigation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/hurricanes2005/story/0,16546,1579175,00.html?gusrc=rss

Jamie Wilson in Washington
Tuesday September 27, 2005
The Guardian

Billions of dollars of reconstruction contracts awarded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are being investigated amid concerns of cronyism and abuse.

More than 80% of the $1.5bn (£850m) in contracts signed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) were awarded without bidding or with only limited competition, including enormous deals with Kellogg Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton - the former employer of vice-president Dick Cheney - and the Shaw Group. The lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, George Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of Fema, has represented both companies.

Richard Skinner, the inspector general for the department of homeland security, told the New York Times that 60 members of his staff were examining Hurricane Katrina contracts. "We are very apprehensive about what we are seeing," he said. "When you do something like this you do increase the vulnerability for fraud, plain waste, abuse and mismanagement."

Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the most senior Democrat on the house homeland security committee, told the newspaper that Fema and other federal agencies were delivering too much of the work to corporations with political connections instead of local companies. "There is just more of the good old-boy system taking care of its political allies," Mr Thompson said. "Fema and others have put out these contracts in such a haphazard manner, I don't know how they can come up with anything that is accountable to the taxpayer."

Contracts signed so far include more than 15 that exceed $100m, including five of $500m or more, mostly for debris removal along the Gulf coast devastated by the hurricane four weeks ago. Congressional investigators are looking into a $568m contract awarded to AshBritt, a Florida company that was a client of the former lobbying firm of Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi.

Meanwhile, helicopters continued to scour flood waters in Louisiana looking for anybody trapped in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita, which struck the Gulf coast at the weekend with less force than had been predicted. But several towns along the Texas-Louisiana border were destroyed. Officials credited the epic - albeit chaotic - evacuation of 3 million people for saving countless lives. "As bad as it could have been, we came out of this in pretty good shape," said the governor of Texas, Rick Perry.

The fresh flooding in New Orleans from levee breaks was mostly restricted to areas already destroyed, and the authorities said they estimated it would take less than a week to pump the city dry.

PhilosophyGenius
09-26-2005, 11:00 PM
Here we go again!

911Eyewitness
09-27-2005, 12:20 PM
FEMA
Somebody (shit I have enough to do!) has to expose this organization. Does anyone know where this medusa head came from?

There was an upstate Rockefeller property near Niagara falls that became real contaminated with a new danger that the government had made enough money on already and was willing to part with the income - Radon. So they started this group to find the hidden menace RADON in all our basements.

Now, I have not done a tree growth to see how they gained so much power, as a kid I remember them as the simple guys that found Radon. But as they pop up the day before 911, and now seem to control the whole show, this may be a place to find out where to point some fingers.

FEMA basically screwed the whole thing up. I have just posted the pictures AP does not want up, and go look now before they make me take them down in news at http://www.onlinetv.com/nuke (http://www.onlinetv.com/nuke) as you read that and see the horror weeks after the storm (how would you like to wait for that aid from your government?).

Tonight I will post the same horrible stuff of censored pictures for Rita.

I actually would now be happy to gain any real knowledge into the growth of this agency. Remember an agency has delegated authority from our representative but answers to no one.

I put up some footage in the downloads at OnlineTV. Chubby Checker dancing and hugging and partying with Tom Ridge (original homeland security) while Dick Clark looks on. I have some unusual stuff huh? It is in the free downloads/ebooks/politics you can find the pdf for the very unpatriotic Patriot Act. But these pictures I have of Katrina and Rita, they are deadly. No wonder. You do not understand how hard they are to get, and how hard they are to keep up once you do have them there. So, feeding frenzy please. Let's hope they don't close them down to fast. You can copy, just give me credit.

911Eyewitness
09-27-2005, 12:34 PM
Here we go again!

By the very fact that nothing has changed that is how it will be. In the shoes of FEMA, how can you walk any other way? There has not been some dramatic (I rather use cathartic as that is what is needed) change where this would be unexpected.

Until the agents of the government are pulled to task within a responsible and full liability manner they make their own rules and we suffer their consequences (without representation). They have the friends they do business with, just as any of us do, and that is the way it is. IF there is a problem, something would happen. I for one have seen nothing happen to stop them. Did I miss something? They seemed to have grown into a monolithic monster that originated from the Love Canal clean up crew.

So, here we go again, and there will be more. When GW allows the next 911 style event so he can remain in his throne we can say that again too.

To me it is more "Bastards! They killed Kenny."