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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PROLIFE who wrote (724436)	2/12/2006 6:42:45 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

New Orleans still waiting for aid … and answers From Russ Baker in New York IN his dramatic speech from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast and left more than 1300 dead, President George W Bush promised massive and speedy federal aid to the stricken area. Five months later, most victims are still waiting to see results. New Orleans – 80% of which was flooded – remains a complete wreck. Hundreds of thousands still lack housing, and many evacuees are facing eviction from their temporary, government-subsidised shelter in hotels. In the vacuum left by Washington inaction, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin has started looking for help from other nations in rebuilding his city. The White House, which came under heavy condemnation for mishandling the initial response to the storm, has refused to release to Congress internal memos that could shed light on what the President and his top aides did and did not do in the crucial days immediately before and after the storm. Suspicions that the Bush administration has something to hide were bolstered by a new investigative report published last week by the Real News Project (www.realnews.org). This report uncovered a sordid back-story that explains how and why Michael Brown, a man without appropriate credentials, could have been put in charge of the agency responsible for helping Americans in the aftermath of all natural and man-made disasters, including terrorist attacks. When George W Bush came to Washington after the 2000 elections, he appointed his close aide and campaign manager Joe Allbaugh to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). As his first hire, Allbaugh brought in a little-known fellow Oklahoman named Michael Brown. Allbaugh fast-tracked Brown to be his top assistant, then left the agency, making Brown the director. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf states, Brown’s inexperience and lack of qualifications quickly became apparent in Fema’s disastrously slow and chaotic response. Bush initially expressed his support for the embattled Brown, famously declaring “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”. But with criticism reaching fever pitch, the President – who almost never jettisons subordinates – forced Brown out. Little more was heard about Brown, or how such an inappropriate choice could have ended up running such a crucial agency. The RealNews investigation, encompassing scores of interviews and hundreds of documents, reveals a lifelong secret business relationship between Brown and the man who brought him to Washington. After naming Brown to head Fema, Allbaugh left government to launch a career as a consultant and lobbyist. Many of the clients he signed up received lucrative government contracts – from Fema. The relationship between Allbaugh and Brown goes back to the 1980s. As ambitious young men on the make, they left a trail of unpaid debts, a personal bankruptcy and questionable business ethics that they tried to cover up on their arrival in Washington. Then, when Allbaugh brought Brown to Fema in 2001, he presented him as a man of high character and substantial credentials. “I hired him solely on his ability as a strong ethics attorney,” Allbaugh said in an official Fema press release. “He is very experienced, knowledgeable and professional and will be a great asset to the agency and to myself.” But the facts contradict this assertion . Brown’s most important job before coming to Washington was his 10-year stint as an investigator for a private association of Arabian horse owners, a job he was forced out of following accusations of shady dealings. This was not his first brush with impropriety: as an attorney, he was successfully sued by a former office-mate for non-payment of rent. And Allbaugh himself was no paragon of business acumen or probity. In 1990 he and his second wife declared personal bankruptcy, writing off about $300,000 in debts. He would also later be accused by an elderly widow of not repaying a loan she made to him. Yet when the two men faced confirmation hearings in the Senate, both swore under oath that they had never been involved in civil litigation. Once at Fema, Allbaugh began dismantling a professional team of managers installed by President Bill Clinton and replacing them with political operatives loyal to President Bush, but totally lacking in emergency disaster experience. Fema soon began awarding contracts to politically connected firms with no track record in disaster relief. In August 2004, Hurricane Frances ravaged Florida. Fema, under Brown, handed out tens of millions of dollars in disaster aid to counties that had experienced little damage, but which were crucial to Bush’s political prospects in the November presidential election. While Katrina victims look in vain to Washington for assistance, Allbaugh continues to sign up clients worldwide who wish to do business with the US government, including a subsidiary of the giant military contractor Halliburton, which has enormous contracts for work in Iraq, and for the Katrina clean-up. After a brief period following his ousting, Brown, too, announced that he was becoming an industry consultant. continued.......... sundayherald.com