By Wayne Madsen
Wayne Madsen Report.com
9-6-5
“Team Bush” is still refusing international aid.
* Russian rescue crews on four cargo planes with helicopters on board sit idle at an airport near Moscow waiting for green light,
* Cuba has 1500 doctors with 26 tons of medical supplies and Bush is refusing them entry to U.S.,
* Venezuelan disaster rescue teams wait for a “go,”
* Dominican Republic crews with hurricane recovery experience wait and wait and wait.
It’s the same scene at airports around the world.
Meanwhile, FEMA turned back 8 buses from Washington, DC that were to bring 400 evacuees to the DC Armory which has been stockpiled with just about every need. The Bush regime has finally reached the crescendo of evil.
And why is FEMA so incompetent? It was turned into a political patronage agency by Bush for Bush’s campaign lickspittles. This from a disaster recovery specialist with inside contacts at FEMA:
Mike Brown was Joe Allbaugh‘s college roommate. (Allbaugh was Bush’s first FEMA director). Allbaugh is now a consultant who makes tons of money for greasing the skids for companies to get business with the federal government in Iraq and with FEMA.
Note to Federal law enforcement: You might want to investigate the relationship between Allbaugh and IEM, Dewberry, and URS — the companies that took $500,000 to develop a “Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana,” a plan they never delivered and a project for they fraudulently included James Lee Witt Associates as one of their team partners. The sleazy revolving door spewing out money spins very fast with the Bush administration.
Mike Brown had absolutely no experience in disaster management. When Allbaugh became director in January, 2001, he politically cleansed FEMA of anyone who was associated with outgoing director James Lee Witt, who had done an excellent during the Clinton administration. Allbaugh was charged with cleaning out of FEMA because of the neocon desire to rid the Federal bureaucracy of FEMA and replace it with charitable giving as a means of disaster relief.
So, Allbaugh’s first priority was to gut FEMA. This became an even greater priority after the Democrats (especially Joe Lieberman) forced Bush to create a Department of Homeland Security. FEMA was rolled into DHS. Allbaugh was caught by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) using the FEMA Boeing 737 aircraft for private purposes, including numerous personal trips to Florida and political trips around the country. The Republican National Committee reimbursed FEMA for the political junkets, but the embarrassing trips hit the pages of the New York Times and Allbaugh chose at that time to leave and set up his own consulting business. He left without any pressure from the White House.
In early 2001, The American Arabian Horse Association fired current FEMA director Mike Brown as its executive secretary after a non-productive period of employment. Admittedly, Mike Brown had spent a large part of 2000 campaigning for Bush rather than doing his job, but the bottom line for the horse association was that Brown neglected his duties and day to day responsibilities.
Brown was lucky. His old college roommate, Allbaugh, appointed Brown as his number 2 within days of his firing by the horse association. This cozy relationship was noted throughout the Allbaugh period. Upon Allbaugh’s departure, Brown was designated by Bush to succeed him as FEMA director. He is called “Brownie” by Bush.
“Brownie” has few supporters in FEMA. In fact, the general commentary is that he lacks basic organizational and management skills and he is a bullshit artist, not a leader.
