Reply #12: Speaking of New Orleans...

[robertpaulsen]

HALLIBURTON/KATRINA CONNECTION

Halliburton gets another $33 million for Hurricane Katrina clean-up
12 Oct. 2005

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (HalliburtonWatch.org) -- The U.S. Navy awarded $33 million to Halliburton for clean up work at naval air stations damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the Department of Defense announced last night.

The money will be added to the $12 million awarded to Halliburton on August 29, the day Katrina made landfall. Both awards, totalling $45 million, require the company to repair structures and remove debris at naval air stations in Pascagoula and Gulfport, Mississippi and in Louisiana.

On Sept. 14, the Navy announced another $15 million for Halliburton to support the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in pumping water out of New Orleans, restoring utilities and constructing temporary morgues.

The Navy assigned the work to the company under the $500 million "construction capabilities contract," (or CONCAP), awarded in 2001 and renewed in 2004 after competitive bidding.

Last night's announcement brings the current value of Halliburton's Katrina contracts to $61.3 million, a number that is likely to grow as new task orders are issued in the future.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/katrina2.html

Why Didn't the Buses Come?

Bush-Linked Florida Company and the Katrina Evacuation Fiasco

By TIM SHORROCK
Counterpunch
January 21 / 22, 2006
Memphis.

The U.S. Department of Transportation may hold the key to one of the biggest unanswered questions from Hurricane Katrina: Why did it take nearly a week for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to mobilize private buses to evacuate thousands of city residents desperately seeking rescue from the horrific conditions in the Superdome, the Convention Center and the open tarmac of Interstate 10?

Clues to that mystery will come in the form of an audit into a FEMA contract for hurricane evacuation services awarded in 2002 to the Federal Aviation Administration. An initial report on the audit, which was quietly opened last October by the DOT's Office of Inspector General, is nearing completion and will be released to the public soon, a DOT official told Reconstruction Watch.

So far, the IG's office suspects that that the FAA "did not verify that the services were performed," said David Barnes, a public affairs officer in the Office of Inspector General. As a result, the IG "has raised questions about the FAA's internal controls."

The audit is also focused on Landstar Express America Inc. A trucking and logistics company based in Jacksonville, Fla., Landstar is a politically well-connected corporation that's risen to the top of the U.S. transportation industry without actually owning any trucks. Chairman Jeffrey Crowe served until recently as head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and last April Florida Gov. Jeb Bush appointed him to his Advisory Council on Base Realignment and Closure.

SNIP...

Landstar, however, has not been reticent to talk about its profits from the contract. Last October, the company disclosed that $129.8 million of the $676 million it earned in revenue during the third quarter of 2005 was directly attributable to its "disaster relief" contract with "the United States Department of Transportation/Federal Aviation Administration."

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/shorrock01212006.html

DOT overpays Landstar $32 million

by Terrence Nguyen, web editor

Jan 23, 2006 3:06 PM

A recent report by the Dept. of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) suggests that the Federal Aviation Administration (FFA) needs to overhaul its emergency transportation contracting procedure-- it reportedly overpaid Landstar Express America $32 million for providing buses to evacuate New Orleans residents following Hurricane Katrina. Landstar issued a $32 million check to FFA the day it provided the agency with documentation to support its invoices.

Landstar quoted the FAA $137 million to provide 1,105 buses each day at a cost of over $5,000 per bus for Katrina evacuations from Aug. 31, 2005 to Oct. 7. On Sept. 23, FAA paid Landstar a partial payment of $59 million based on bus services from Sept. 23 to Oct. 7.

An OIG request for documentation led to the discovery that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) actually required an average of 400 buses per day and that the cost per bus was around $1,550. On Nov. 7—the day Landstar provided that documentation-- Landstar issued FFA a $32-million check, which represented the difference between the partial payment and the actual cost of bus services.

“The nature of those types of exigencies illustrates the need for careful and thorough review of all associated paperwork after an emergency has passed,” stated the OIG report, signed by David A. Dobbs, Assistant Inspector General for Aviation and Special Program Audits.

Landstar CEO Henry Gerkens said that a down payment was required to pay its contractors for accepting such a large task, adding, “to characterize that as an overpayment is a gross inaccuracy.” The government still owes Landstar about $200 million, Gerkens said.

CONTINUED...

http://fleetowner.com/news/topstory/dot_landstar_overpay_truck_bus_katrina_012306/

KATRINA: DOT Audit Probes Katrina Evacuation Fiasco

by Tim Sharrock, Reconstruction Watch
January 19th, 2006

The U.S. Department of Transportation may hold the key to one of the biggest unanswered questions from Hurricane Katrina:

Why did it take nearly a week for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to mobilize private buses to evacuate thousands of city residents desperately seeking rescue from the horrific conditions in the Superdome, the Convention Center and the open tarmac of Interstate 10?

Clues to that mystery will come in the form of an audit into a FEMA contract for hurricane evacuation services awarded in 2002 to the Federal Aviation Administration. An initial report on the audit, which was quietly opened last October by the DOT's Office of Inspector General, is nearing completion and will be released to the public soon, a DOT official told Reconstruction Watch.

So far, the IG's office suspects that that the FAA "did not verify that the services were performed," said David Barnes, a public affairs officer in the Office of Inspector General. As a result, the IG "has raised questions about the FAA's internal controls."

The audit is also focused on Landstar Express America Inc. A trucking and logistics company based in Jacksonville, Fla., Landstar is a politically well-connected corporation that's risen to the top of the U.S. transportation industry without actually owning any trucks. Chairman Jeffrey Crowe served until recently as head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and last April Florida Gov. Jeb Bush appointed him to his Advisory Council on Base Realignment and Closure.

SNIP...

In the end, the bus companies did their best without FEMA's help. In the days that followed the hurricane and the disastrous flooding of New Orleans, said Pantuso, the bus association and its members quickly put together spreadsheets of companies with available buses and dispatched them to the storm zone as quickly as they could.

CONTINUED...

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13142

White House Was Told Hurricane Posed Danger

By ERIC LIPTON
Published: January 24, 2006

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 - The White House was told in the hours before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans that the city would probably soon be inundated with floodwater, forcing the long-term relocation of hundreds of thousands of people, documents to be released Tuesday by Senate investigators show.

A Homeland Security Department report submitted to the White House at 1:47 a.m. on Aug. 29, hours before the storm hit, said, "Any storm rated Category 4 or greater will likely lead to severe flooding and/or levee breaching."

The internal department documents, which were forwarded to the White House, contradict statements by President Bush and the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, that no one expected the storm protection system in New Orleans to be breached.

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," Mr. Bush said in a television interview on Sept. 1. "Now we're having to deal with it, and will."

Other documents to be released Tuesday show that the weekend before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Homeland Security Department officials predicted that its impact would be worse than a doomsday-like emergency planning exercise conducted in Louisiana in July 2004.

CONTINUED...

http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://gk.nytimes.com/mem/gatekeeper.html&OQ=_rQ3D1Q26URIQ3DhttpQ3AQ2FQ2Fwww.nytimes.comQ2F2006Q2F01Q2F24Q2FnationalQ2FnationalspecialQ2F24katrina.htmlQ26OQ51Q3D_rQ513D3Q5126orefQ513DloginQ5126orefQ513DsloginQ26OPQ3D6d08911fQ512FQ5126h.xQ5126q,n82,,KwQ5126weerQ5126edQ5126wQ5120Q5126Q5124)K0,Q5124)bQ5126Q5124)K0,Q5124)b81.n0)bQ5126wQ5120N)K20Q5124)-Q513CKzb&OP=6ae42f05Q2FZoQ5EQ2BZQ20pSQ5E8k4Z0SQ2F8Q24Q24Q20gZQ24(Q7CSQ5E0SQ5EkZt8SQ5EYQ5EQ5EQ24Q5E(I0SQ2F

FBI Uncovers Post-Katrina Fraud

JACKSON, Miss. Jan 23, 2006 (AP)— The FBI has uncovered fraud by public officials in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and has created a task force to investigate corruption as federal money pours into the Gulf Coast region, Mississippi's top agent said Monday.

"We are seeing public officials facilitating some of the fraud," John G. Raucci, agent in charge in Mississippi, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's not widespread, I will say that, but we have seen it and we have begun addressing it."

Raucci would not give details.

Sheila Thorne, an FBI agent in Louisiana, said the bureau has set up task forces in each of that state's three districts to deal with hurricane-related fraud. "As allegations come in, they will be investigated," Thorne said in a separate interview.

Thorne said agents are looking at all levels of fraud in Louisiana, including public corruption.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1533999&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Auditors: Katrina waste could top $2 billion

• Waste after Hurricane Katrina could top $2 billion, government auditors say
• Wasteful spending already has been tabbed at $1 billion
• Contracts valued at $500K+ have been awarded with little or no competition
• The auditors expect to release their report in January

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The tally for Hurricane Katrina waste could top $2 billion next year because half of the lucrative government contracts valued at $500,000 or greater for cleanup work are being awarded with little competition.

Federal investigators have already determined the Bush administration squandered $1 billion on fraudulent disaster aid to individuals after the 2005 storm.

Now they are shifting their attention to the multimillion dollar contracts to politically connected firms that critics have long said are a prime area for abuse.

In January, investigators will release the first of several audits examining more than $12 billion in Katrina contracts. The charges range from political favoritism to limited opportunities for small and minority-owned firms, which initially got only 1.5 percent of the total work.

more...

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/12/26/katrina.waste.ap/

FEMA Secretly Funneling Katrina Donations to Pat Robertson's Diamond Mine Cargo Planes Charity

FEMA Hiding Rev. Pat 'Charity'

from Sploid

Hours after Sploid reported that FEMA was directing Hurricane Katrina donations to a shady charity run by extremist televangelist Pat Robertson, the federal emergency agency has begun quietly replacing its Web pages that prominently displayed links to Robertson’s front company.

FEMA disaster Web pages and press releases updated on Aug. 29 encouraged donations to three charities by prominently linking to those organizations at the top of the Donations section of the Katrina disaster site.

The first was obvious: The American Red Cross, a disaster relief agency that defined the role of disaster relief agencies around the world.
The second was less familiar: Operation Blessing — as was another religious-sounding group, America’s Second Harvest, which turns out to be a food bank network funded by various corporate farming and restaurant businesses.

After that first screen of three “top charities,” there was a plain alphabetized list of American charities, many of them religious in nature, all but a few familiar to most Americans.

So what is Operation Blessing, and who runs it?

The shady charity is run by the Rev. Pat Robertson, his wife, his son and a few other board members...not that you’ll find Robertson’s name on the official site.

CONTINUED...

http://godlesswonder.blogspot.com/2005/09/fema-secretly-funneling-katrina.html

Hurricane Katrina: The Scandal Karl Rove and the GOP Don't Want Us To Discuss

1. The President and Congress knew this was a growing problem yet still thought our money was better spent removing Saddam Hussein and "stabilizing" Iraq with the National Guard.

The devastation that we saw was not unexpected in any way, shape, or form. On a PR appearance, Bush said, "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." This is a lie. Everyone involved anticipated the breach of the levees.

A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a hurricane, but Bush ordered that the research not be performed. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters facing the U.S. Even so, two years later the federal funding for flood control in the area dried up as it was diverted to the Iraq war.

The very next year, the Bush administration cut by more than 80%, the funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze.

2. George Bush and the Republicans anti-environmental policies ravaged the wetlands that were the first line of defense from this disaster.

It is well known that the Republican agenda favors corporate interests and money over preserving wetlands. Typical Republican talking points are to bad-mouth wetlands as useless swamps that are not needed and not useful. It is clear now, more than ever before, that this anti-environmental stance is wrongheaded. Louisiana's wetlands, which would have helped absorb some of the brunt of the storm, were making a comeback until Bush turned over the wetlands to land developers in 2003.

3. Bush and Republicans cut funding for the levee projects and diverted it into Iraq.

Last year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers essentially stopped major work on the levee system after Bush cut funding for the project. It was the first such stoppage in 37 years. Federal flood control spending for southeastern Louisiana was chopped nearly in half in 2005.

When area lawmakers fought to restore the funds, the same lawmakers the GOP is now pointing fingers at, the White House rebuffed the requests. In 2001, the New Orleans district of the Army Corps of Engineers had $147 million to spend on flood and hurricane projects. This year, after budget cuts, the district has about half that. In fact, the Bush administration proposed further cuts for the district for fiscal year 2006.

4. George Bush demoted FEMA from its prior status under Clinton and appointed political hacks to lead the agency with no experience handling disasters.

Bush has almost completely decimated FEMA since taking office. In particular, Bush slashed funding for the agency's mitigation programs, which include measures taken in advance to minimize the damage caused by natural disasters.

Alphaliberal.comAfter years of steady leadership under former FEMA chief James Lee Witt during the Clinton years, Bush tapped two completely inexperienced FEMA heads since taking office. Indeed, the current head of FEMA was an estate planning lawyer in Colorado before taking over the agency. The New Orleans district of the Army Corps of Engineers was preparing a study to determine ways to protect the region from a hurricane. Because of budget cuts, the study was shelved.

While no one, except perhaps Pat Robertson, blames any American, including the President, for a hurricane, and many fault George Bush about how he handled himself after the hurricane, the real scandal is how the Republicans managed our Government in the years before the hurricane. While this list is not exhaustive, it is clear that Republican priorities have contributed to weakening this country, by diverting our money to foreign ventures, by political cronyism and corruption, and by wrongheaded policies that make disasters like this more likely.

Now Republican officials are pointing fingers down the chain of command, just as they did in the Abu Graib torture scandal. While a lack of accountability may be a staple of this Republican administration, the voters will have the final say on whether they will be accountable. Most Americans understand in a business, as in Government, when things go wrong it is the boss that must take ultimate responsibility. When a boss starts pointing fingers down the chain of command when things go wrong, that is typically a boss that will soon be looking for a new job.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/08/164320.php

Who's in Charge? Karl Rove!

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, September 15, 2005; 12:00 PM

All you really need to know about the White House's post-Katrina strategy -- and Bush's carefully choreographed address on national television tonight -- is this little tidbit from the ninth paragraph of Elisabeth Bumiller and Richard W. Stevenson's story in the New York Times this morning:

"Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, was in charge of the reconstruction effort."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/09/15/BL2005091501098.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

Karl Rove: Hurricane Katrina Reconstruction "Czar"
From SourceWatch

Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's "top strategist" and Deputy Chief of Staff, often called "Bush's brain," is the man Republicans say is in charge of the Hurricane Katrina reconstruction effort. <1>

"The President literally changed horses in the middle of the stream last week, putting 'Heckava Job' Brownie out to pasture and wagering his last bit of political capital on a nag by the name of T-Blossom, who is used to slogging it out on a muddy track. Yes, Bush saddled his favorite political steed, Karl Rove, with the enormous political and economic task of rebuilding the Big Easy. To make the job more alluring he threw in—for starters--$200 billion to excite all the participants," Jean Carnahan wrote September 19, 2005.

"For now it looks like Karl is the go to man for the job. Lord, help us," Carnahan said. "'Brownie' was simply harmless and dull, but 'Dr. Evil' is brilliant, cunning, and loathsome. Never mind that this is not Karl's line of work. But it might be his salvation. Who would indict a man engaged in so noble a work? The administration gets a 'double whammy:' Karl's atonement and Bush's revival."

Unofficially Speaking

Bush dispatched Rove and "other aides to assemble ideas from agencies, conservative think tanks, GOP lawmakers and state officials to guide the rebuilding of New Orleans and relocation of flood victims," Jim VandHei and Jonathan Weisman wrote in the September 14, 2005, New York Times. "The idea, aides said, is twofold: provide a quick federal response that comports with Bush's governing philosophy, and prevent Katrina from swamping his second-term ambitions on Social Security, taxes and Middle East democracy-building."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan "indicated" that President Bush would not use his September 15, 2005, address to the nation "to name a 'reconstruction czar' to oversee the effort," the New York Times Elisabeth Bumiller and Richard W. Stevenson reported September 15, 2005. "A number of White House officials have advised the president to name such a czar, with Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of forces in the 2001 war in Afghanistan, being a favorite of Republicans who are pushing the idea."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Karl_Rove:_Hurricane_Katrina_Reconstruction_%22Czar%22


I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. So again, I say to Chairman Waxman:

INVESTIGATE. IMPEACH. INDICT. IMPRISON!