BUSH INC. has Shelled Out Over $33 Million to Security Company in New Orleans
Saturday, May 20, 2006 at 01:55AM 
In the Black(water)
by JEREMY SCAHILL
From the Nation on 5/18/2006
Tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims remain without homes. The environment is devastated. People are disenfranchised. Financial resources, desperate residents are told, are scarce. But at least New Orleans has a Wal-Mart parking lot serving as a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center with perhaps the tightest security of any parking lot in the world. That's thanks to the more than $30 million Washington has shelled out to the Blackwater USA security firm since its men deployed after Katrina hit. Under contract with the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Protective Service, Blackwater's men are ostensibly protecting federal reconstruction projects for FEMA. Documents show that the government paid Blackwater $950 a day for each of its guards in the area. Interviewed by The Nation last September, several of the company's guards stationed in New Orleans said they were being paid $350 a day. That would have left Blackwater with $600 per man, per day to cover lodging, ammo, other overhead--and profits.
Shortly after the hurricane hit, Blackwater "launched a helicopter and crew with no contract, no one paying us, that went down to New Orleans," says company vice chairman Cofer Black. "We saved some 150 people that otherwise wouldn't have been saved. And, as a result of that, we've had a very positive experience." Indeed. It was only days after the company arrived that it started reeling in lucrative deals.
According to Blackwater's government contracts, obtained by The Nation, from September 8 to September 30, 2005, Blackwater was paid $409,000 for providing fourteen guards and four vehicles to "protect the temporary morgue in Baton Rouge, LA." That contract kicked off a hurricane boon for Blackwater. From September to the end of December 2005, the government paid Blackwater at least $33.3 million--well surpassing the amount of Blackwater's contract to guard Ambassador Paul Bremer when he was head of the US occupation of Iraq. And the company has likely raked in much more in the hurricane zone. Exactly how much is unclear, as attempts to get information on Blackwater's current contracts in New Orleans have been unsuccessful.
"We saw the costs, in terms of accountability and dollars, for this practice in Iraq, and now we are seeing it in New Orleans," says Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky, who has been one of Blackwater's few critics in Congress. "They have again given a sweetheart contract--without an open bidding process--to a company with close ties to the Administration."
After The Nation exposed Blackwater's operations in New Orleans this past fall [see "Blackwater Down," October 10, 2005], Schakowsky and a handful of other Congress members raised questions about the scandal. They entered the report into the Congressional Record during hearings on Katrina and cited it in letters to DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner, who then began an inquiry. In letters to Congressional offices in February, Skinner defended the Blackwater deal, asserting that it was "appropriate" for the government to contract with the company. Skinner admitted that "the ongoing cost of the contract...is clearly very high" and then quietly dropped a bombshell: "It is expected that FEMA will require guard services on a relatively long-term basis (two to five years)." Two to five years? Already most of the 330 federally contracted private guards in the hurricane zone are working for Blackwater, according to the Washington Post. Another firm, DynCorp, is also trying to grab more of the action, offering its security services for less than $700 per day per guard.
The hurricane's aftermath has ushered in the homecoming of the "war on terror," a contract bonanza whereby companies can reap massive Iraq-like profits without leaving the country and at a minuscule fraction of the risk. To critics of the government's handling of the hurricane, the message is clear.
"That's what happens when the victims are black folks vilified before and after the storm--instead of aid, they get contained," says Chris Kromm, executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies and an editor of Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch. "If officials really cared about protecting the people of New Orleans, they wouldn't be giving millions to scandal-ridden contractors. They would have given the city money to rebuild their levees to withstand more than a Category 2 Hurricane. They still haven't done that--and hurricane season is upon us."
Kromm alleges that vital projects that have "gotten zero or little money" in New Orleans include: job creation, hospital and school reconstruction, affordable housing and wetlands restoration. Even in this context, DHS continues to defend the Blackwater contract. In a March 1 memo to FEMA, Matt Jadacki, the DHS Special Inspector General for Gulf Coast Hurricane Recovery, wrote that the Federal Protective Service considered Blackwater "the best value to the government."
While companies like Halliburton may have raked in more profits since George W. Bush took office, few have seen growth as dramatic as Blackwater's. The firm has been at the front of the line at the domestic and international taxpayer-funded feeding troughs and has recently hired some high-profile former government officials, like Cofer Black, former chief of CIA counterterrorism, and former Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz. In March Black represented Blackwater at a conference in Jordan, announcing that the company was seeking to broaden its role in even more conflict zones. Blackwater is rapidly expanding its operations, creating a new surveillance-blimp division, launching new training facilities in California and the Philippines, and increasingly setting its sights on the lucrative world of DHS contracts. It is clamoring to get into Darfur and has also hired Chilean troops trained under the brutal rule of Augusto Pinochet. "We scour the ends of the earth to find professionals," company president Gary Jackson told the Guardian. "The Chilean commandos are very, very professional, and they fit within the Blackwater system." The business magazine Fast Company recently named Jackson one of its "Fast 50," predicting that the company and its president are in for "a very strong (and long) decade."
It's hard to imagine that the cronyism that has marked the Bush Administration is not at play in Blackwater's success. Blackwater founder Erik Prince shares Bush's fundamentalist Christian views. He comes from a powerful Michigan Republican family and social circle, and his father, Edgar, helped Gary Bauer start the Family Research Council. According to a report prepared for The Nation by the Center for Responsive Politics, in all of Erik Prince's political funding generosity since 1989, he has never given a penny to a Democrat running for national office. Company president Jackson has also given money to Republican candidates. For his part, Joseph Schmitz--the former Pentagon Inspector General turned general counsel to Blackwater's parent, The Prince Group--lists on his résumé membership in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a Christian militia formed before the First Crusade. Like Prince, he comes from a right-wing family; his father, former Congressman John Schmitz, was an ultraconservative John Birch Society director who later ran for President. Joseph Schmitz was once in charge of investigating private contractors like Blackwater, but he resigned amid allegations of stonewalling investigations conducted by his department. He now represents one of the most successful of those contractors.
Schakowsky charges that the Administration has written Blackwater "blank checks," saying that the internal DHS review of the company "leaves us with more questions than answers." She points out that the report fails to address the major issues stemming from deploying private forces on US streets. In her testimony this past September, Schakowsky said, "Ask any American if they want thugs from a private, for-profit company with no official law-enforcement training roaming the streets of their neighborhoods. The answer will be a resounding NO."
Blackwater's ascent comes in the midst of a major rebranding campaign aimed at shaking its mercenary image. The company is at the forefront of the trade association of mercenary firms, the International Peace Operations Association, which lobbies for even greater privatization of military operations. Blackwater and its cause have clearly found serious backing in the Bush Administration. Hiring Blackwater, says Schakowsky, "may be legal, but it is not a good deal for taxpayers and Gulf region residents in particular." Blackwater's sweetheart deals, both domestic and international, are representative of how business has been done under Bush. They are a troubling indicator of a trend toward less accountability and transparency and greater privatization of critical government functions. It's time that more members of Congress ask tough questions about Blackwater and its rapid, profitable rise. [MORE]
- Pictured above: Art of War : Katrina by Larmee [MORE]
Reader Comments (1)
Honorable Mayor
C. Ray Nagin
New Orleans City Hall
1300 Perdido St.
New Orleans, La, 70112
Honorable Sir:
Even though you may never get to read this letter, I felt that I should try and write to you anyway and hope that the Holy Spirit guide it into your hands. I wanted to write so that you could understand the events- or rather more precisely the failure of certain events to take place surrounding the disaster and its aftermath. The same methodology has been used in the past- for instance the 'Hoover Dam'. I don't believe that any individual no matter how well informed and how kind-hearted can achieve their purpose- even if it be noble; if they are operating within a crucible that is constructed to achieve opposite ends: unless they understand the opposition and the stratagems employed so that efforts can be made BOTH to do what you intend and defense against the undoing of those noble efforts you endeavor and persist in. What I am writing to you about is a very seditious method- that does not involve action but rather purposeful inaction. The facts are clear and without dispute, however the larger view has perhaps escaped the belief of good-hearted people who could never believe the depth of wickedness in the hearts of those whom you live amongst: just ask the first nations people or contemplate the past enslavement of peoples and then it will be easier for you to understand.
The facts that are not in dispute:
1) FEMA analysts had already generated an extremely exhaustive study and simulation of the scenario that in fact came to be. This analysis which addressed the weaknesses in the levy and pump system both as to their present and optimal ability to deal with a category 5 hurricane. This analysis provided a 'mock' scenario which in fact was worse than the real event that was to occur;
2) Not only was nothing done of recommended action to: address the inability of present condition levy and pump systems- ineffectiveness to manage even lesser events
: address the inability of optimal condition existing levy and pump system- ineffectiveness to manage event as simulated
: prepare for aftermath due to systems failure- breach of levy and overload/ failure of pump(s) system; But in fact as is seen FEMA is being dismantled and the evidence of this inaction is being 'massaged' and the purpose for this deliberately obscured
3) Congress has appropriated massive funds and relief efforts through charity has also generated a large monetary fund
4) Infrastructure is not being restored for neighborhoods based upon need; but upon influence
5) Poor people are being housed elsewhere;
These facts simply have various interpretations that are generated mainly by political affiliation; socio-economic standing; personal interest. Many of the interpretations have grains of truth in them. Just as the 'truth is too horrible to speak' causation of the Iraq war and the INTENDED CIVIL WAR that has been generated there under the 'Kissinger doctrine' of 'manageable chaos': what other way to control that country and it's assets without taking casualties that would force withdrawal through domestic political pressures-via Viet nam? Simple: go there as 'liberators' and be 'forced' to stay there due to the 'civil war' -by killing Sunni's and blaming Shia's and vice-versa- The U.S. troops can then sit in the background with 'acceptable' casualties.
The 'unspeakable horrible truth' about your city is a tale that mirrors the 'land grab' surrounding the Hoover Dam, (if you like your history easy then see the Polanski film: "Chinatown" with Jack Nicholson). That was a similar land grab for pennies, (while the project was delayed-'planned'), and then once the Colorado river was diverted- this same land overnight was worth billions- see title holders and their occupations.
New Orleans, like Iraq has a serious problem- it has resources. The think tanks generate analysis and it is up to the politicians to be honorable with that information; unfortunately the corruption of the political classes is seemingly an ever present burden to humanity.
A group of very wealthy and very powerful people convinced those around them that their interests in 'saving' the country required certain unpleasant necessities and thus it is that the geographic areas of the world that contain oil, and natural gas reserves were deemed 'National security areas of consequence and interest' I am sorry to inform you that the gulf and your city in particular were on that list.
Thus when the FEMA analysts' did their work believing that they were providing the necessary causes and recommendations for resource allocation to address both the failing systems that existed and the inadequacy of the systems existing even at optimum performance for an event, (very probable), as predicted- they had no way of knowing that this good work would be used in such an obtuse and seditious manner.
The decision had been made that due to National Security concerns 1/5 th of all domestic energy production could not be allowed to continue 'unmanaged'. Who can blame someone for: 'An Act of God'- see: your own speeches!
Who can assert negligence in a court of law for affirmative actions the federal and state governments did not take- in a time of war; based upon analysis and recommendations that have for the most part disappeared from the public record, analysis generated from a government institution that ceases to exist with the purposely appointed idiot fall guy already 'dishonored' and dismissed- with the doctrine of sovereign immunity controlling?
You see the perfect murder... like the state troopers standing over the body of Bessie Smith as she bled out over the roadway...Like the secret service stripped from JFK's motorcade... it isn't what you do-you can be blamed for that... it's what you purposefully do not do! Who is to judge that failure!
That is why everyone is being housed NOT in their own homes. That is why your city WILL NOT BE a 'chocolate city'. The mortgages will not be met and the property will return to the banks and lenders- all that land had for pennies on the dollar- then like the agricorps that arose on the west coast- the few will manage these resources... For the public good...of course!
I hope you received this letter and have read it through so you will ask yourself: how is it we can send spacecraft throughout this solar system, walk on the moon, build modern cities for our military in hostile occupied countries... yet we cannot get water to people in New Orleans... yet we cannot get them back in their homes- 1 month; 1 year, 1 decade- no never!
Those neighborhoods will not be re-settled by their original inhabitants- their will not be a 'chocolate city' Just a sterile and innutritious white bread white sugar city with a few Judas chocolate chips for dressing... You wouldn't give your child a white sugar, white bread sandwich and con him into believing it was a good snack by throwing in a few chocolate chips would you?
That is exactly what is going on in your city and that is why everything that did, is, and is going to happen, will so result- unless good-hearted people see what these insatiable seditious wolves are up to. I hope you will prevail and New Orleans will be exactly as it was before- maybe then we can use our analysis and equity to address injustices and make the country what it is supposed to be- instead of purposefully creating injustices and then using that as an excuse to 'write-off' whole communities and peoples' lives using the money and methods to correct injustice and avert disaster:
INSTEAD TO GENERATE DISASTER AND FURTHER INJUSTICE AND THEN CAPITALIZE ON THE SUFFERING, PAIN, AND DEATH THAT RESULTS.
I will continue to pray for you and the people of New Orleans- you will need the Holy Spirit and a whole lot more to succeed against the evil and wicked-hearted people who are the cause of the troubles- They are few but nothing is too evil or wicked for them to do- Please be careful and pray for me as I pray for you and yours.
A Friend
October 12, 2006 | Liam Brent Kelly