Passportgate: Maura Harty Reviewed 9/11 Terrorists Visa Applications

[Avalux]

One of the most damning examples of failures within the government can be attributed to Maura Harty. It was to her that the 9/11 terrorists’ visa applications came for review.

According to analysis done by Joel Mowbray, nearly all the terrorists’ visa applications were obviously defective on their face. For example, that of Abdulaziz Alomari (one of the hijackers of the plane which hit my son’s building) did not fill in the space requiring him to name the school he was claiming to attend; he did not fill in fields requiring him to name his sex or his nationality. Many of the hijackers did not provide the US address where they would be living, as is required. One listed his destination city as “no.” One claimed his occupation was “teater.”

Evidently, no one in the Bush Administration considered Ms. Harty’s failures to be serious. When Mary Ryan left her position, Sec. Powell and President Bush promoted Ms. Harty to fill that vacancy. The Senate docilely confirmed her in lame duck session.

http://www.911fsa.org/resources/congressional_testimony_2004jan26.html

Apparently after this, she was promoted:

Maura Harty, formerly Executive Secretary of the Department, is the new Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs at State, succeeding Mary Ryan, who has retired.

http://www.academyofdiplomacy.org/publications/newsletter_archive/newsletter_issue_56.html

[KittyWampus]

Mata Hari?

[anamandujano]

1. That's a Wow!

[Fresh_Start]

2. so they gave her a position supervising data entry.....

and she screwed that up as well

[FyurFly]

3. Gonna be a long road to November n/t

[blonndee]

4. More evidence of incompetence by Harty...remember this?

Maura Harty's folly
By Joel Mowbray
June 25, 2007

During a contentious Senate hearing last week, consular chief Maura Harty took personal responsibility for the backlog of two million passport applications that has wreaked havoc on honeymoons, family getaways and business trips.

<snip>

The mess occurred because Mrs. Harty's office prepared for 16.2 million passport applications this year, but that number proved too low by roughly 1.5 million. When questioned at the hearing about how she could have missed the mark so badly, Mrs. Harty tried to shift the blame, responding, "e predicted 16.2 million based on our study with BearingPoint."

The BearingPoint study, however, did not produce the 16.2 million figure; Mrs. Harty and her staff did. The results of the report, in fact, would have lead to a calculation of approximately 18 million applications this fiscal year — just slightly over the number expected to be filed.

On the heels of creating a backlog of two million passport applications and then misleading Congress about it, Mrs. Harty is poised for a promotion. And unless the White House acts to stop it, Mrs. Harty could soon ascend to one of the top positions at the State Department.

... full story at http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/EDITORIAL/106250005

[KittyWampus]

5. Ah, progress! Here we have a white WOMAN failing upwards.

[Avalux]

11. Yep - she is responsibe for the backlog of passports.

Why does this woman even still have a job??

[Tatiana]

6. Alright. I think we can officially put Harty in the REPUBLICAN camp. n/t

[Frank Booth]

10. Don't think so.

She owes the best job of her life to the Clinton administration.

[Tatiana]

12. That doesn't mean she wasn't stealth, nor that her ultimate loyalties weren't to the GOP.

If the wake of incompetence, she got promoted under Bush. WHY?

[Frank Booth]

16. Someone in another thread says she has known Ms. Harty for years

and that she's a vocal Democrat. Not that I should believe anything on read on the internet.

Still, you look at Harty's career arc, and it definitely peaks at the ambassadorship.

[Tatiana]

20. True... n/t

[mmonk]

7. A lot of corruption at the State Department.

Just opens up more questions.

[better tomorrow]

8. smells like a new YouTube video to me....

hey, what about that Passport from the terrorist aboard the airliner that was found that wasn't damaged or burned or anything but just laying in the street????? Smells like this lady to me....

[meow mix]

9. the plot thickens...

:popcorn:

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. The employees are from Dyn corp... A blackwater type company

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=DynCorp

[EFerrari]

14. Dyn Corp is doing our passports?

We are screwn.

[better tomorrow]

17. Oh brother....

I have never had a passport and hubby is retiring and we are taking our first cruise this Fall and so for my birthday I asked my girls to just give me and hubby dollars to buy them since now you have to have one to cruise (and at our ages we don't need knickknacks...) I'm not so sure I even want one now.....but you can't go anywhere without one....

Is DynCorp bad?

[EFerrari]

18. They are a huge defense contractor and I wouldn't bet popcorn

on their ethics.

I'm in your boat. We better get our passports soon, that's all.

They really have no oversight, that's the real problem.

Have fun on your cruise, better tomorrow!

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. Yeah they are bad I gave a link... however the story

is breaking and not verified yet, this smells like Repuglican crap to me
or to the highest bidder type deal



LINK to Dyncorp

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=DynCorp

[Peace Patriot]

21. DynCorp is the major contractor for "Plan Colombia"--arming the death squads

and Colombian security forces, who have slaughtered thousands of union leaders, peasant farmers, political leftists, human rights workers and journalists.

-------------

Good for DynCorp

The premise of the policy (Plan Colombia/"war on drugs"), that revving up the Colombian military to fight the guerrillas who protect coca plantations will affect the street price of cocaine, has been thoroughly discredited. So we might ask: Who, besides the corrupt Colombian military, has benefited from the $5.5 billion appropriated for Plan Colombia since 2000? The No. 1 beneficiaries in dollars are the U.S. companies that produce Blackhawk gunships and run the program of chemical warfare in Colombia’s coca fields. These include the companies providing the U.S. government with “services” to aid the Drug War.

DynCorp Interntational has signed contracts with the State Department for about $150 million annually since 2000 for its operations in Colombia. It also also handles most of the operations at the Manta base. The company’s corporate offices, like those of many of the growing band of mercenary outfits, are located in suburban Virginia, outside Washington. (The company’s headquarters are in Falls Church, which is adjacent to the Congressional district of Representative Frank Wolf, the ranking Republican on the House of Representatives Foreign Operations subcommittee that marks up the hundreds of millions of dollars in funds that Congress approves for DynCorp.) The company in turn has consistently given thousands of dollars to Wolf’s campaign. Such a blatant conflict of interest is another demonstration of Plan Colombia’s corrupt underlying dynamics, which should be cause for a fundamental re-casting of the policy.

If the 2008 elections yield a Democratic victory, renewing the party’s majority in Congress and winning the presidency, the next administration will get a chance to not only re-examine the premises of failed economic, military and narcotics policies in Latin America, but to re-shape those policies to engage the new majorities emerging throughout the region. Democrats, to be true to democratic values, should undertake such a fundamental shift in policy. But don’t hold your breath. Democrats and Republicans are likely to only react reflexively, unless people in the United States actively press them to do so.

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5042

[better tomorrow]

15. OMG, we were just joking about this in another thread....

I think it was the Colonel Mustard thread....

Blackwater, really?