[CTRL] Rumsfeld goons celebrate 9/11 with march, assault
-Caveat Lector- http://www.total911.info/2005/09/rumsfeld-goons-celebrate-911-with.html A report from a the DC Antiwar Network's Luke Kuhn: Today, members of DAWN and MAYDAY DC confronted Rumsfeld's crude attempt to link 9/11 with Iraq. In the process, Genevieve from DAWN was assaulted and shoved and another protestor was punched in the guts by an assailant who took off running.Barricades separated the checkpointed spectator area from the march. The punches and shoves were thrown across the waist-high barricades, as any terrorist strike could also have been(some security!) Instead of arresting the assailants for assault, they badgered Genevieve, saying she could not hold a sign against the fence. She held it farther back at that point, the banner reading your war shames us.A police report was filed, but given that the cops permitted the assailants to escape without being challenged, I am guessing that that report and a dollar will buy you a quart of gasoline on 9th st.Genevieve and two other protestors were together after entering by a spectator checkpoint. Several members of MAYDAY DC managed to join the march itself(presumably by preregistration). They too faced wierd shit. At the start they linked up with two more groups of antiwar youth. Cops approached one of the other groups and warned against disruption.Next, the cops (Park Police) approached MAYDAY DC members and one warned thatany disruption will lead to your arrest., and another said they would be lucky if you don't get your asses kicked. They were then followed around by undercover Secret Service. Presumably the cops hated the MAYDAY DC T-shirts reading support troops who shoot their officers and fragged officers are my heroes. Still, we got the job done. Someone got within arm's length of Donald Rumsfeld and shouted into his face. [...] I met up with DAWN and we set up a presence at the spectator entry checkpoint. We had one person dressed as Bush with blood on his hands while I held a sign with mission accomplished and a picture of a hurricane on it, along with references to DC, NYC, and New Orleans.At this point, one right-winger threatened me, and I told him to step right up and try it. He walked away. Interesting-they say they march against terror, but when challenged by someone Ted Koppel called a terrorist on the air, they were all talk.Genevieve's preliminary estimate for turnout is about 5,000-less than 1/20 of our LOW estimate for September 24th! The Washington Post's Website only claims several thousand, a far cry from the 30,000 Rumsfeld was hoping for when he planned this event to promote the spurious linkage of 9/11 with Iraq. --Posted by Total to 911info at 9/11/2005 10:58:00 PM -- www.total411.infowww.total911.info www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/ A HREF=""ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] No-Bid Contracts Win Katrina Work
-Caveat Lector- September 12, 2005 POLITICS AND POLICY No-Bid Contracts Win Katrina Work White House Uses Practices Criticized in Iraq Rebuilding For Hurricane-Related Jobs By YOCHI J. DREAZEN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL September 12, 2005; Page A3 WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is importing many of the contracting practices blamed for spending abuses in Iraq as it begins the largest and costliest rebuilding effort in U.S. history. The first large-scale contracts related to Hurricane Katrina, as in Iraq, were awarded without competitive bidding, and using so-called cost-plus provisions that guarantee contractors a certain profit regardless of how much they spend. Contracts for temporary housing have been awarded to politically connected companies like Fluor Corp. and Bechtel National Inc., a unit of Bechtel Group Inc., leading congressional Democrats to renew charges of cronyism they first leveled when the firms won lucrative work in Iraq. 1 See complete coverage2. In response, there have been bipartisan calls in Congress to establish a new government agency to manage the Louisiana rebuilding, and possibly have it run by a prominent figure such as former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani or former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Separately, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) yesterday said she supported the creation of an antifraud commission to oversee government contracts issued in response to the disaster. Some are questioning as well whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- which has a small procurement staff responsible for spending a relatively tiny amount of federal money each year -- is capable of effectively disbursing tens of billions of dollars. In Iraq, several audits found that contracting problems were exacerbated by overworked and inexperienced government procurement officers who weren't up to the difficult work they were entrusted to carry out. You can easily compare FEMA's internal resources to what you saw in the early days of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq: a small, underfunded organization taking on a Herculean task under tremendous time pressure, said Steven Schooner, a contracting expert at George Washington University law school in Washington. That is almost by definition a recipe for disaster. FEMA already is under fire for its poor initial response to Katrina. Its chief, Michael Brown, was removed on Friday as head of the direct relief effort. (See related article.3) Officials at the agency, a division of the sprawling Department of Homeland Security, said they are up to the task of ensuring that the money will be spent efficiently. FEMA has extensive experience in acquiring the products and services required to make sure that the support needed in response and recovery operations is secured quickly to meet the needs of disaster victims, said James McIntyre, a spokesman for the agency. In Iraq, audits have uncovered evidence that hundreds of millions of dollars were misspent by some contractors willing to stretch or break rules, while government officials were unwilling or unable to prevent abuses. Government reports have detailed systemic management failings, lax or nonexistent oversight and alleged fraud and embezzlement by officials charged with administering the rebuilding, as well as questionable activities by the contractors they employed. For example, audits have found evidence of procurement officers paying contractors twice for the same work and spending tens of millions of dollars with little to no documentation. Officials from Bechtel and Fluor declined to discuss comparisons between their work in Iraq and the Gulf Coast. Bechtel spokesman Howard Menaker said the company's deal with the government was still being finalized and declined to comment further. A Fluor spokesman referred questions to FEMA. The administration has allocated more than $62 billion to the regions hit by Katrina, and the final price tag is expected to soar to more than $100 billion. Already, at least seven contracts have been awarded for the post-Katrina effort. The Army Corps of Engineers late last week announced a $100 million deal with Shaw Group Inc. of Baton Rouge, La., for relief operations including the pumping of flood water out of New Orleans. Halliburton Co.'s Kellogg, Brown Root unit, also prominent in the Iraq reconstruction effort, is doing repair work at three U.S. Navy facilities in Mississippi as part of an existing Pentagon contract. FEMA, meanwhile, has announced four major contracts with firms charged with providing emergency housing relief in storm-battered areas of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. The $100 million contracts with Bechtel, Fluor, Shaw Group and Denver-based
[CTRL] repressed memory case
-Caveat Lector- scroll Missouri high court weighs repressed-memory case By Robert Patrick Of the Post-Dispatch 09/08/05 Jefferson City "The question of whether people with repressed memories can collect from the Roman Catholic Church on new claims of old sex abuse was argued before the Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday, after lower courts could not agree. The eventual decision is sure to have a significant financial impact on the church in Missouri and on those trying to win damages over allegations of misconduct by priests that may date back decades. The case involves accusations that two faculty members at Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis County sexually abused a teenage student named Michael Powel in the early 1970s. The case centers on whether it is too late for Powel to sue the faculty members, Chaminade and the Marianist Province." http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/EF1FDE8D37FF6E0E86257077001B4C6D?OpenDocument www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/ A HREF=""ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] Bush Buddies Land Fatcat Contracts for Katrina Relief
-Caveat Lector- From Capitol Hill Blue FUBAR Bush Buddies Land Fatcat Contracts for Katrina Relief By Staff and Wire Reports Sep 12, 2005, 06:39 Companies with strong ties to President Bush are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast. One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton. Bechtel National Inc., a unit of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., has also been selected by FEMA to provide short-term housing for people displaced by the hurricane. Bush named Bechtel's CEO to his Export Council and put the former CEO of Bechtel Energy in charge of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Experts say it has been common practice in both Republican and Democratic administrations for policy makers to take lobbying jobs once they leave office, and many of the same companies seeking contracts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have already received billions of dollars for work in Iraq. Halliburton alone has earned more than $9 billion. Pentagon audits released by Democrats in June showed $1.03 billion in questioned costs and $422 million in unsupported costs for Halliburton's work in Iraq. But the web of Bush administration connections is attracting renewed attention from watchdog groups in the post-Katrina reconstruction rush. Congress has already appropriated more than $60 billion in emergency funding as a down payment on recovery efforts projected to cost well over $100 billion. The government has got to stop stacking senior positions with people who are repeatedly cashing in on the public trust in order to further private commercial interests, said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight. Allbaugh formally registered as a lobbyist for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root in February. In lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Senate, Allbaugh said his goal was to educate the congressional and executive branch on defense, disaster relief and homeland security issues affecting Kellogg Brown and Root. Melissa Norcross, a Halliburton spokeswoman, said Allbaugh has not, since he was hired, consulted on any specific contracts that the company is considering pursuing, nor has he been tasked by the company with any lobbying responsibilities. Allbaugh is also a friend of Michael Brown, director of FEMA who was removed as head of Katrina disaster relief and sent back to Washington amid allegations he had padded his resume. A few months after Allbaugh was hired by Halliburton, the company retained another high-level Bush appointee, Kirk Van Tine. Van Tine registered as a lobbyist for Halliburton six months after resigning as deputy transportation secretary, a position he held from December 2003 to December 2004. On Friday, Kellogg Brown Root received $29.8 million in Pentagon contracts to begin rebuilding Navy bases in Louisiana and Mississippi. Norcross said the work was covered under a contract that the company negotiated before Allbaugh was hired. Halliburton continues to be a source of income for Cheney, who served as its chief executive officer from 1995 until 2000 when he joined the Republican ticket for the White House. According to tax filings released in April, Cheney's income included $194,852 in deferred pay from the company, which has also won billion-dollar government contracts in Iraq. Cheney's office said the amount of deferred compensation is fixed and is not affected by Halliburton's current economic performance or earnings. Allbaugh's other major client, Baton Rouge-based Shaw Group, has updated its Web site to say: Hurricane Recovery Projects -- Apply Here! Shaw said on Thursday it has received a $100 million emergency FEMA contract for housing management and construction. Shaw also clinched a $100 million order on Friday from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Shaw Group spokesman Chris Sammons said Allbaugh was providing the company with general consulting on business matters, and would not say whether he played a direct role in any of the Katrina deals. We don't comment on specific consulting activities, he said. © Copyright 2005 Capitol Hill Blue www.ctrl.org DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith
[CTRL] People Die While Bureaucrats Lie
-Caveat Lector- From Capitol Hill Blue FUBAR People Die While Bureaucrats Lie By PERRY BEEMAN Sep 10, 2005, 08:33 Hurricane Katrina presented not only a human tragedy, but also one of the biggest environmental stories of the new millennium. Even after days of criticism that the federal government didn't do enough to help hurricane victims, federal agencies compounded the problem by failing to respond adequately to journalists' environmental questions. The event gave the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a chance to show that it had learned lessons from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when the agency was broadly criticized for withholding information and playing down risks. Instead, EPA appears to have taken the same tight-lipped approach in responding to Katrina, denying the public crucial information collected with taxpayers' money on behalf of taxpayers in the first place. Mark Schleifstein of the New Orleans Times-Picayune was one of the reporters who in 2002 warned of his city's high risk of the type of damage that has now happened. His own home flooded, Schleifstein reported on Katrina even as he moved to higher ground. That work was made much more difficult when EPA largely ignored Schleifstein's requests for detailed information about chemical releases and other environmental problems. Any member of the public, including a journalist, should expect fast action by EPA. This case was particularly troublesome considering Schleifstein has been in high demand for media interviews because of his expertise, and EPA's staff probably was busy re-reading the Times-Picayune's disaster-manual-in-advance, Washing Away. Frustrated, Schleifstein filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act, which sets off a slow process that won't help Americans who need answers now. Seth Borenstein of Knight-Ridder, and others, filed their own FOIA requests. The Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), a 1,450-member Philadelphia-based professional organization and a leading champion of open records, then sent a letter to EPA and other federal offices demanding quick action on the information requests. That was on Tuesday, Sept. 6. The day after, EPA held a news conference at which little was revealed except that there had been oil and gas releases _ a fact that anyone with a TV could have surmised by watching CNN's tape of the floodwaters, which clearly showed slicks. EPA mentioned high levels of bacteria and some other pollutants, but didn't back the statements up with data. The agency mentioned it had tested for 100 chemical compounds and other pollutants, but didn't release the data. Many journalists didn't learn of the press conference until it was nearly at hand, or already over, due to delays in EPA informing them via email and other means. What we need to know is what exactly is in the water. Which bacteria and how much? Which gasoline and oil constituents and how much? Which carcinogens? Which pathogens? Americans need to know what specific threats exist and what the government is doing about them. They are paying for the raw data, and they deserve to see it. Now. And they should be able to draw their own conclusions from the data, rather than have it filtered by the government. Katrina brought an incredible week of suffering, and it's long from over. People died by the hour. A famous and cherished American city stood flooded, destroyed, silent. Americans across the country paid high gas prices as petroleum products washed down streets once known more for high bar tabs. And as bodies continued to float, as crews pumped what is surely a toxic brew of chemicals and floodwaters into local lakes, journalists and other Americans waited for answers to a whole range of environmental questions. Were the bacteria in the water capable of making people sick? Were chemicals present in concentrations large enough to do harm? What the public got instead of water-sample results were sound bites. EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and others have to do a better job of informing the public. SEJ already had supported broad changes in federal Freedom of Information Act to make it easier for Americans to get information _ the whole point of the law. The changes also would punish agencies that play games and insist on secrecy, in some cases arrogantly ignoring legitimate requests for information. Those calls for action take on added weight in light of EPA and CDC's dismal early response to questions. Some questions might not have answers yet_ but merely offering silence, or the next thing to it, is less helpful than explaining why the information isn't available, or when it will be. The agencies simply must do better. Lives may depend on it. (Perry Beeman is president of the Society of Environmental Journalists and an environment writer for The Des Moines Register in Iowa. For
[CTRL] Jeff Parish Sheriff Lee commandeers Wal-Mart from FEMA
-Caveat Lector- http://www.total411.info/2005/09/jeff-parish-sheriff-lee-commandeers.html [ http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09_11.html#078842 ] Times-Picayune Sept. 11, 2005 : Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee said he has commandered the Sam's and Wal-Mart stores in the parish and ordered them to open as soon as possible.Lee said he took the action after he learned that a Wal-Mart store wanted to open recently but was told by FEMA officials that it could not.I am upset with FEMA and some of their regulations, Lee said. After talking about the situation concerning the Wal-Mart on Thursday, Lee said he briefly talked to Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-New Orleans on Friday. He asked her to check on the situation and find out if there was a legitimate reason to keep the store closed.But because of communication difficulties, he did not hear back and took the situation in his own hands.Lee said he gave handwritten notes to Wal-Mart stores in Harvey and Kenner saying they were ordered to open as soon as possible. Lee said Parish President Aaron Broussard agreed with the decision.Lee said anyone from FEMA who tries to close either store will be arrested by deputies.We're encouraging the businesses to get up and going. [...] -- www.total411.infowww.total911.info www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/ A HREF=""ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] Why aren't the environmentalists behind this technology?
-Caveat Lector- It's the Integrated Gasification Combined cycle. check out http://www.cogeneration.net/IntegratedGasificationCombinedCycle.htm It's a method to utilize coal biomass and other carbon based materials to not only generate electricty cleanly, but to synthesize othe useful products like gasoline using the fischer-Tropisch method and other useful materials like feed stock to the chemical industry with zero emmisions. Why aren't you guys shouting on the roof tops promoting this technology? Could it be that it would put into effective competition to opec? With an estimated 460 BILLION TONS of coal? Well it's self evident isn't it? It would provide fierce competition to opec, provide americans jobs (primarily in RED states), It would provide a clean and effective way to dispose of trash, provide electricity cheaply and cleanly, reduce dependence on opec oil Hmmm I wonder could this be the motivation behind the environmental movement? Remember:More people have died in Ted Kennedy's car than have died in United States Commercial Nuclear Power plant operations visit my web site at http://www.info-quest.org Visit my energy page at http://www.info-quest.org/Energy.html Check out the latest on the anwr drilling project http://www.anwr.org visit my blog at http://info-spectrum.blogspot.com My ICQ# is 79071904 See the Pledge of alleginace to the flag that the 9th circuit court of appeals doesn't want you to say. for a precise list of the powers of the Federal Government linkto: http://www.info-quest.org/Enumerated.html www.ctrl.org DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'âwith its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsâis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/ A HREF=http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/;ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
