September 17, 2005
"Let’s all be clear about one thing," writes Josh Marshall.
"President Bush has now put us on notice, the Gulf Coast reconstruction
effort is going to be run as a patronage and political operation," the
same way Iraq is, and with the same disgusting corporate
players—Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater, Shaw Group, Bechtel, the entire
roster of carpetbaggers and opportunists who have soaked and defrauded
the American people in the past, treating the bamboozled American
taxpayer as an oblivious cash cow. Disaster and human suffering is
considered an "opportunity" for the likes of Joe Allbaugh, Bush’s
former campaign manager and former head of FEMA. As if to demonstrate
political patronage and cronyism knows no bounds, Bechtel’s CEO was
named to Bush’s Export Council and put the former CEO of Bechtel Energy
was put 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," notes CNN.
Of course, this practice should be illegal, and in the case of New
Orleans local business and workers should be involved in the rebuilding
of their city. But then, as the War Street Journal tells us, the new
New Orleans will exclude the poor and concentrate on catering to the
rich and tourist middle class. Katrina was the perfect excuse to
cleanse New Orleans of undesirables, more than a few of them
African-American, thus giving the impression of racism. It’s really
about class, however, and the rich corporate elitists who will lord
over the new New Orleans are not concerned about skin color, for they
view the world through green-tinted glasses.
It’s really
unfortunate the political left, mired as they are in government-loving
myopia, do not see the military and "security firm" occupation of New
Orleans for what it is—an incubator and testing ground for a
long-sought after police state. For instance, Jeremy Scahill,
Democracy Now! producer and correspondent, has provided us with an
excellent overview of the military and paramilitary occupation of New
Orleans, and yet he is bereft of obvious conclusions, instead
concentrating on contracts doled out by the Ministry of Homeland
Security and opportunistic Republican patronage. His comments, however,
are worth examination:
It’s interesting, we talked
earlier this week about the Blackwater mercenaries and I talked about
my hour-long conversation with them when they had first arrived here,
and I reported that they were saying they were on contract with the
Department of Homeland Security. This, of course, was denied by the
federal government. Well, now they have been forced to admit, the
federal government, that Blackwater is on federal contract with FEMA to
protect—so-called protect, its rebuilding or reconstruction efforts in
Louisiana. This is just one of the firms that is getting now federal
money. I think that these firms view the current situation in Louisiana
as the biggest pot of federal money.
Blackwater
is not in Louisiana exclusively to "protect" the so-called federal
"rebuilding or reconstruction efforts" (at the behest of corporate
elitists), but rather as an experiment in privatizing and farming out
functions of police state control. As Scahill notes elsewhere,
Blackwater mercenaries are involved in "general law enforcement
activities including ’securing neighborhoods’ and 'confronting
criminals,’" in other words turning out the remaining residents, who
become "internees" in FEMA organized concentration camps around the
country, and killing residents who refuse to leave or who forage for
food and water, as the government has stated its intention to not
provide assistance and instead engage in a medieval-like siege of the
city in an effort to depopulate it in preparation for the vision of the
new New Orleans as planned by the corporate elitists and their business
interests.
Scahill tells Amy Goodman:
I
remember the other night you called me and you alerted me to this
[spraying of the city with pesticide], and just today I had seen what I
thought were some sort of spy drones because really, what we have seen
here is sort of—some people are calling it "New Oraq" instead of New
Orleans, because of all of the various forces, the Halliburtons, the
KBR’s, the Blackwaters that are here now, the connections to Iraq are
so incredible. The same looters who have raided the federal funds in
Iraq, U.S. funds in Iraq, are looting federal funds here in New
Orleans. Yes, I saw the drones flying overhead. I’m concerned, very
concerned of the toxic waste that they’re now dumping on the city in
addition to the horribly unsafe waters that flow through the city and
continue to flow through the city.
Actually, the
name "New Oraq" is a perfect fit, since the military seems to be using
the same tactics they use in Iraq against the American people—or at
least (for now) the most expendable of the American people (and no
doubt, for the Blackwater mercenaries, there is little difference
between the people of New Orleans and those of Fallujah).
Goodman
mentions "reports of the spraying of the city with pesticide that’s
never been used on urban populations and they’re mixing it with blue
dye so that the pilots can see where they have sprayed, I think its
called something like NALID." Actually, the pesticide is called NALED
(it is an organophosphate insecticide) and it is used for mosquito
control. It is well established that such chemicals are carcinogens and
induce "structural chromosome aberrations" in human immune system,
according to research located at the University of Florida Medical Library.
As this research indicates, NALED and other pesticides are often
applied to vast areas with helicopters and other aerial vehicles.
Obviously, with all the standing water in New Orleans, mosquito
infestation is an issue. However, the military seems to be using NALED
(and who knows what other chemicals) with the same cavalier disregard
they used Agent Orange (a herbicide) in Vietnam. "On January 23, 2003,
the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine officially
released the fifth comprehensive report in a series entitled Veterans
and Agent Orange" and reported
"that there is ’sufficient evidence of an association’ between
herbicides used in Vietnam and chronic lymphocytic leukemia." On
January 30, 2004, lawyers from the National Lawyer’s Guild in
association with the Vietnam Lawyers Association, filed a lawsuit
against Dow, Monsanto, Hercules, Diamond Shamrock, and the other
chemical companies, alleging the companies that produced the herbicides
used in the Vietnam war were in "violation of international law and war
crimes." (On March 10, 2005 the Brooklyn Federal Court dismissed the
lawsuit.) It is unconscionable that the U.S. military would use a
dangerous pesticide in an American city where people still live. But
then, as reported on numerous occasions in the corporate media, the
military and their paramilitary allies consider hold-out residents of
New Orleans "insurgents" the same way they consider the Iraqi people
insurgents.
Scahill also notes the involvement of a "security
company" called B.A.T.S. in Alabama (Bodyguard And Tactical Services).
"I was talking to his head of security, I told him I was from New York,
he said, I’ve been to New York during the daily news strike, referring
to the strike the at the New York Daily News," Scahill told Goodman.
Democracy
Now! co-host, Juan Gonzalez, is a Daily News columnist [and] was one of
the leaders of the strike. I told him that Juan Gonzalez was a
colleague of mine and he told me that he spiked Juan Gonzalez’s car. He
said he had put sugar in the gas tank of Juan Gonzalez’s car. The man’s
name is Michael Montgomery, and he is the head of security for B.A.T.S.
Security in Alabama, bragging about spiking the car of Juan Gonzalez
and other strike leaders in the New York Daily News strike. He is
heading up security for the Decatur Hotel chain, owned by Patrick
Quinn, a major businessman in New Orleans, his wife a Republican state
senator. This is just one example of cronyism that we see on the ground
where the wealthy Republican contributors are being considered now for
these tremendous federal contracts.
It should not
be surprising goons such as Montgomery (that is if Scahill’s story is
correct) are employed against labor organizers and strikers—and are now
used against the people of New Orleans, or rather the untouchables the
corporate elite (in collusion with the federal, state, and local
government) are in the process of driving (or maybe the Israeli term
"transfer" works here) from the city with military tactics similar to
those used in Iraq. "One of the [Blackwater] guys had just gotten back
from Iraq two weeks ago. These are some of the most highly trained
killers, professional killers in the world. And they had served in Iraq
in a number of cities and in a number of capacities," Scahill told Goodman on September 12th.
And
one of them was wearing a golden badge, that identified itself as being
Louisiana law enforcement, and in fact, one of the Blackwater
mercenaries told us that he had been deputized by the governor of
Louisiana, and what’s interesting is that the federal government and
the Department of Homeland Security have denied that they have hired
any private security firms, saying that they have enough with
government forces. Well, these Blackwater men that we spoke to said
that they are actually on contract with the Department of Homeland
Security and indeed with the governor of Louisiana. And they said that
they’re sleeping in camps organized by the Department of Homeland
Security.
In addition to Blackwater, the Steele
Foundation apparently has a role in New Orleans. "Global Rapid
Response, a Steele Foundation service, has mobilized a Crisis Response
Team to support those trapped in New Orleans and neighboring cities and
states to assist clients in the recovery efforts of Hurricane Katrina,"
a PR Newswire
reported on September 2. "In addition to the incident management team,
several Quick Reaction Security Teams and multiple Damage Assessment
Teams have been activated to travel into New Orleans to protect client
personnel and to help secure assets," in other words the Steele
Foundation was hired by the corporate elite. It should be noted that
Steele, as Blackwater, "is made up of former US special forces
soldiers, intelligence officers and other security experts. The company
has been on a State Department-approved contract with the Haitian
government since 1998," according to Pacifica Radio.
It appears Steele played a role in the abduction and removal of
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the democratically elected leader of Haiti.
Steele also has a role in the "vibrant marketplace" of Iraq where
"hundreds of multinational and local companies" are "combating the
security threats," in other words the Iraqis don’t want them there.
(See David Barstow’s Security Companies: Shadow Soldiers in Iraq.)
"The experience gained by Steele’s staff at the FBI and Secret Service
have forged the techniques of Forensic Behavioral Analysis to identify
everything from ransom notes to potential employee eruptions," explains
SourceWatch.
"The Indirect Profiling System of the FBI has been refined by Steele to
reach into problems beyond law enforcement." Is it possible these
"problems beyond law enforcement" include how best to intimidate and
dispossess the remaining residents of New Orleans who stand in the way
of bulldozing flood ravaged neighborhoods and beginning construction of
luxury hotels, time-shared corporate condos, and casinos?
Finally,
private mercenary firms are only one component of the emerging police
state in New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast "As the White House
unsuccessfully insists on seizing control of the Louisiana National
Guard to institute full-blown martial law in New Orleans, it has
brought in foreign troops moving on the Western and Eastern borders of
the state," notes Total Information, citing an Associated Press
story datelined September 9. "Two separate credible sources known to
Alex Jones have reported that armed combat ready Mexican troops have
entered Texas," reports Prison Planet,
contradicting the AP report that the Mexican soldiers were unarmed.
"However, the [AP] report was only specific to one convoy. The convoys
reported to Alex Jones are said to be fully armed with Heckler &
Koch German assault rifles…. Another source known to Alex Jones called
the Austin Police Department and they said that they knew about the
armed troops. The police asked if the troops had threatened the caller.
The caller said they threaten the sovereignty of the country and the
police laughed and hung up." In addition to Mexicans, Dutch troops are
being used. "A contingent of about 70 Dutch Marines also landed on the
beach in Biloxi on Thursday to clean up neighborhoods," Knight Ridder reported on September 9.
Bush’s
attempt to commandeer state National Guards, working with corporate
elitists to hire mercenaries and privatize the police state emerging in
New Orleans, allowing foreign troops in to conduct "humanitarian" work
(as they carry Heckler & Koch German assault rifles), and doling
out no-bid "reconstruction" contracts to corporate cronies—these are
distressing signs of how the Bushian police state will unfold across
much of America in the wake of "disasters," either natural or
unnatural, the latter in the form of a nuclear attack on America, as
our corrupt and fascistic plutocracy continual promises. New Orleans is
nothing short of an authoritarian motif designed to eliminate the
First, Second, and Sixth Amendments of the Constitution in other
American cities and subject millions of Americans to the jackbooted
thugocracy Bush’s handlers and their transnational corporate
benefactors have in mind. As the recent Jose Padilla ruling warns, if
you happen to disagree, you may very well end up "disappeared" in a
military brig or worse, never heard from again, or at least not heard
from until the bogus "war on terrorism" is over, say in a hundred years
or so, certainly not, as Cheney tells us, in our lifetimes.
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