ON reTHUG cronyism and the HUD crisis ..

From Center for American Progress -

many fine links throughout ..

Alphonso Gets Evicted

This morning, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced he is stepping down effective April 18. While the White House has so far refused to give a reason for his departure, Jackson faces ongoing probes "by a federal grand jury, the Justice Department, the FBI and the HUD inspector general." Earlier this month, Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) sent a letter to President Bush "urging him to request Mr. Jackson's resignation, arguing that accusations of wrongdoing had made him ineffective." Their calls joined similar ones from Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) in 2006. Jackson was one of Bush's few remaining holdovers from Texas, after a parade of these loyalists -- including Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, and Dan Bartlett -- left the White House last year. Like so many of Bush's Texas friends, Jackson's legacy will be one of incompetence, corruption, and political cronyism. While he was busy awarding lucrative no-bid contracts to his golfing buddies and erecting giant photo homages to himself, the nation was spiraling into the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression.

A PHILADELPHIA STORY: One of the most recent scandals to come to light focuses on Jackson's willingness to retaliate against employees unwilling to participate in his cronyism. In 2006, Jackson allegedly demanded that the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) "transfer a $2 million public property" at a "substantial discount" to Kenny Gamble, a developer, former soul-music songwriter, and friend of Jackson's. When PHA director Carl Greene refused, Jackson and his aides called Philadelphia's mayor and "followed up with 'menacing' threats about the property and other housing programs in at least a dozen letters and phone calls over an 11-month period." For example, Orlando Cabrera, then-assistant secretary at HUD, suggested in an e-mail that the agency "make his [Green's] life less happy." Kim Kendrick, an assistant secretary who oversaw accessible housing, proposed that they "[t]ake away all of his Federal dollars." According to Green, Jackson's politically motivated plan to remove federal funds from Philadelphia "could raise rents for most of its 84,000 low-income tenants and force the layoffs of 250 people." "This kind of stuff undermines public confidence in our officials," Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) said to Jackson during a recent congressional hearing.

LOYAL BUSHIES ONLY: In May 2007, Jackson testified to Congress, "I don't touch contracts." In retrospect, that statement appears to have been at best a gross inaccuracy, and at worst, an outright lie. In 2006, Jackson told a group of business leaders in Texas that he refuses to award contracts to people who disagree with the President. During this controversial speech on April 28, 2006, Jackson recounted a conversation he had with a prospective contractor who had a "heck of a proposal." This contractor, however, told Jackson, "I don't like President Bush." Jackson said that he thought to himself, "Brother, you have a disconnect -- the president is elected, I was selected." Jackson subsequently refused to award the man the contract, despite the merits of the proposal. A former HUD assistant secretary also confirmed that Jackson told agency employees to "consider presidential supporters when you are considering the selected candidates for discretionary contracts." He also said that he "did not want contracts" awarded to certain "political groups," which included "Democrats." Jackson's actions appeared to violate the Federal Aquisition Regulations (48 CFR 3.101-1), which states, "Government business shall be conducted in a manner above reproach and...with complete impartiality and with preferential treatment for none."

CRONYISM OVER COMPETENCE: In Oct. 2007, federal investigators looked into whether, after Hurricane Katrina, Jackson lined up an emergency "no-bid contract" at the HUD-controlled Housing Authority of New Orleans for "golfing buddy" and friend William Hairston. According to HUD, the emergency contract paid Hairston $392,000 over a year and a half; Hairston's partner companies also received "direct contracts" with HUD. One of the companies which received a contract in New Orleans, Columbia Residential, had "significant financial ties to Jackson." Jackson's wife also had "ties to two companies that did business with the New Orleans authority." Atlanta lawyer Michael Hollis, another Jackson friend, "appears to have been paid approximately $1 million for managing the troubled Virgin Islands Housing Authority," despite having "no experience in running a public housing agency." A "top Jackson aide" reportedly made it clear to officials within HUD that "Jackson wanted Hollis" for the job. Curiously, Hollis received more than four times the salary of his predecessor.

Company run by Bush brother under scrutiny
MSNBC - 7 Nov 2007
Ignite, which makes educational software, was founded in 1999 by Neil Bush with the backing of his father, former president George HWBush, ...

Spending Look Eyed for Neil Bush Company The Associated Press - 7 Nov 2007 ... general says he will review whether federal money is inappropriately being spent on programs by a company founded by Neil Bush, the president's brother. ...

Neil Bush's Firm Under Federal Scrutiny The Associated Press - 7 Nov 2007 Neil Bush founded the company about a decade ago. ___ Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government: http://www.citizensforethics.org/ Ignite! ...

New York Times

Inquiry Set Into Purchases From Bush Brother’s Firm New York Times, United States - 6 Nov 2007 Luis M. Alvarez/Associated Press Ignite Learning is owned by Neil Bush, the president’s brother. John P. Higgins Jr., the inspector general, said he would ...

Bush ed-tech firm under fire eSchool News, MD - 9 Nov 2007 Learning, which Neil Bush founded and chairs. The group asserts there is no proof the company's products are effective and claims that schools in at least ...

Bush Vote Divided in GOP Race Washington Post, United States - 5 Nov 2007 One of the president's brothers, Neil M. Bush, attended a Texas event for Romney. In a brief response to an e-mail inquiry last week, Jeb Bush said: "I ...

Neil Bush Still Has Scandal on a Short Leash Conde Nast Portfolio, NY - 8 Nov 2007 Fast-forward through the Neil Bush stories of sex scandals, questionable trades, voodoo practices, and lucrative consulting contracts to 2007. ...

Neil Bush's education firm investigated Earthtimes, UK - 7 Nov 2007 Neil Bush owns Ignite Learning of Austin, Texas, which markets a portable electronic classroom called Curriculum on Wheels, known as Cow. ...

Education, IG to review spending on products of Neil Bush company
Team 4 News, TX - 7 Nov 2007
... The Education Department's inspector general says he'll review whether federal money is being misspent on programs by a company founded by Neil Bush. ...

More on oversight of BLACKWATER and its current PR campaign

Blackwater delivers supplies to wildfire victims in

California

By BILL SIZEMORE, The Virginian-Pilot
© October 26, 2007

The California wildfires have come within a quarter-mile of the property where Blackwater wants to build a West Coast training facility, but the company's on-site manager isn't worried. He says the fires won't deter Blackwater from moving ahead with its controversial plans.

Meanwhile, the company is helping deliver food and other supplies to burned-out residents of the rural community. Opponents of the Blackwater West project say they're grateful for the help, but it won't deter them from the fight.

<

Brian Bonfiglio, project manager for Blackwater West, said Friday the devastating fires haven't touched the site of the proposed project, and he doesn't expect that to happen.

"It's all grazed grassland," he said. "There are no trees or buildings. It won't burn."

Bonfiglio said the Moyock, N.C.-based security company remains on track to build a training center for military and law enforcement personnel on the 800-acre chicken and cattle ranch near Potrero, a hamlet 45 miles east of San Diego near the Mexican border.

The project has drawn vocal opposition from a coalition of rural residents, environmentalists and peace activists. Some have suggested that the proposed facility - which would include firing ranges with live ammunition - would pose an increased fire risk.

Not so, said Bonfiglio: "There will be no explosives training and no tracer ammunition. Lead bullets don't start fires."

On the contrary, he said, the proposed facility would benefit the community if it is threatened by fire again. He said it could be used as a "command center" with bunkhouses for evacuees and water tanks with a 35,000-gallon capacity.

Bonfiglio said Blackwater has made three deliveries of food, water, personal hygiene products and generator fuel to 300 area residents, many of whom have been trapped for days without supplies.

The fires came within 30 feet of Jan Hedlun's back door, flattening a chaparral forest. She said her property looks like a "moonscape."

Hedlun, a leading Blackwater opponent, said she still believes the proposed training facility poses an increased fire risk.

"It didn't take anything to set this one off," she said. "It only took one spark."

Nevertheless, she said, she is grateful for the company's relief efforts.

"We're in survival mode now," she said. "We'll get back to the political arena later."

In other Blackwater-related developments:

n Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who pledged this week to strengthen oversight of Blackwater and other private security providers in Iraq, says she didn't act earlier because she didn't want to "second-guess" State Department personnel on the ground in Iraq.

But newly revealed e-mails show that top officials were warned more than two years ago about repeated incidents of Blackwater guards killing Iraqi civilians.

"Do you think you made a mistake by taking so long to recognize that the oversight of Blackwater was woefully inadequate?" Rep. William Clay, D-Mo., asked Rice during a congressional committee hearing Thursday.

"These are decisions that were made on the ground by people who were reviewing the circumstances and I'm not going to second-guess them here on the spot," Rice replied.

Later Thursday, ABC News revealed State Department e-mails detailing a series of shootings by Blackwater convoys in May and June 2005 in which three Iraqis were killed.

In an e-mail to his superiors in Baghdad, Michael Bishop, a State Department security officer in Al Hillah, warned that failure to address the issue would come back to haunt the United States.

"Not resolving these situations in a quick and decisive manner is counterproductive in regards to accomplishing our foreign policy objectives, ensuring our safety (and)... maintaining the continued good will of the Iraqi people," he wrote.

n Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., called Friday for an expanded investigation into alleged tax evasion by Blackwater.

Earlier in the week, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., alleged that Blackwater has avoided paying millions of dollars in taxes by misclassifying its workers as independent contractors rather than employees.

In a response, Blackwater said it had relied on a ruling by the Small Business Administration. Kerry chairs a Senate committee that oversees the SBA.

In letters to Senate colleagues and Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, Kerry said SBA rulings have no applicability to questions of tax liability.

Now for the NON Mainstream media take .. from Huffington Post

Blackwater Wants To Build Live Fire Facility In Middle Of San Diego Fire Zone

October 26, 2007 11:02 AM

---

While San Diego County has been lit up for days, Blackwater USA has been heavily involved in putting out fires of its own. The controversy provoked by the killing of 17 Iraqis in September and other violent incidents has prompted the company to send out an e-mail Wednesday to its supporters calling on them to "Tell the Blackwater story."

This note from Blackwater, perhaps ill timed, is provoking outrage among California activists who are trying to prevent the private security company from building an 824-acre training facility near Potrero, California in San Diego County. While the company is hoping to become a major part of the community with its giant military-style facility, one activist told the Huffington Post that Blackwater has not yet announced any donations to relief efforts or supplied resources to assist firefighting activities in the area.

"This is a simple demonstration that these people are interested in their own greed and have no concern for the local community," said Rick Jacobs who heads up the Courage Campaign, a group that is assisting local residents who are organizing to fight construction of the Blackwater facility.

Blackwater staff did not answer multiple phone calls requesting comment on whether or not they had donated to relief efforts or assisted firefighting in the area.

While Blackwater was calling on its supporters to help promote its work in Congress, it shut down a local effort to promote "Blackwater West." An announcement on Monday night at the blog Cafe San Diego showed that Blackwater Vice President Brian Bonfliglio had canceled a live blogging question and answer session scheduled for Tuesday because of the fires.

Jacobs and others charge that building the base in an area he described as a box canyon with only two exit points would only create more major fire hazards.

The Harris Fire in San Diego County has burned 81,000 acres, reportedly destroyed 155 homes, 2 commercial properties and 17 outbuildings, and caused one death and 25 civilian injuries. The fire burned buildings in Potrero, which is only a couple of miles from Blackwater's proposed site.

"The mere fact that there would be live fire exercises very often in this tinderbox is of great concern to people who live there," he warned. "If a spark can cause a wildfire, what about a bullet? And if you have stores of ammunition, and the fires were raging, you'd get a huge explosion."

Jacobs was also angry that the company was claiming it would make Potrero safer.

"What they say here is the same as what they say in Iraq," the Courage Campaign director said. "They say they are making Iraq safer for America, but they've caused a lot of civil war. Now they like to say they'll make Potrero safer from fire. It's probably an analogous statement. They say what they have to say."

And all this from Wired's Noah Schactman ..

Blackwater = Fire-Fighter?

By Noah Shachtman October 26, 2007 | 3:34:02 PMCategories: Homeland Security, Mercs

Blackwater guns-for-hire famously took over security on some New Orleans streets after Hurricane Katrina. Now, the company is saying that it wants to help fight California's forest fires.

Here's the background. Blackwater, as Salon notes, "is planning to build an 824-acre military-style training complex in Potrero, Calif., a rural hamlet 45 miles east of San Diego." If the private military contractor gets its way, it'll "turn a former chicken ranch into 'Blackwater West,' the company's second-largest facility in the country. It will include a multitude of weapons firing ranges, a tactical driving track, a helipad, a 33,000-square-foot urban simulation training area, an armory for storing guns and ammunition, and dorms and classrooms."

Local groups opposed to the complex said, before the latest conflagrations near San Diego, that Blackwater West's "regular detonation of firearms would be a risk both to the fire-prone landscape as well as to the wildlife that currently calls that area home, including the golden eagle and the California condor."

Au contraire, Blackwater execs answer. Brian Bonfiglio, vice president of Blackwater West, notes that the complex's proposal includes water tanks capable of holding 35,000 gallons. "I see a tactical operation center for East County fires," he says. "Can you imagine how much of a benefit it would be if we were operational now?"

Sounds to me like the company is going to need yet another logo.

On a semi-related note... The other day, we noted the many changes that Blackwater's web site has undergone, over the years. Reader PS reminds us that the Wayback Machine has archives of the company's online presence, all the way back to 2002.

(High five: Kris)

ALSO:

* Vote: Blackwater's New Logo
* Blackwater Goes Grass-Roots, Scrubs Site
* The Times' Blackwater-Air Force Conspiracy
* NATO Wants Outsourced Air Force
* Pentagon vs CIA over Blackwater
* Blackwater Ordered Out of Iraq?
* Blackwater's a Black Sheep?
* Blackwater: Whose Side Are They On?
* The Private Military Company Happy Meal
* Condi Can't Afford to Lose Blackwater
* Video: Blackwater's Ad Campaign
* Blackwater and Friends: America's Achilles' Heel?
* A Kinder, Gentler Blackwater?
* Blackwater Hits the High Seas
* Blackwater: Japan's Missile Defense Force
* Blackwater's Hired PR Guns: Hillary's Helpers
* Disaster Outsourcing
* Blackwater: It's the Money, Stupid
* Blackwater's X-Wing Fighters
* Blackwater Hearings Ain't No Superbad
* Watch Blackwater Dig Its Own Grave
* Blackwater Author on Blackwater Shootings
* Addicted to Blackwater
* Black Days for Blackwater
* Blackwater: From Bad to Worse
* Top 10 PR Moves for Blackwater
* The Merc Cartoon
* Blackwater "Bitch Slap": Right Move?
* Blackwater Mess Fencing Diplos In
* The Blackwater Backlash
* Blackwater Ban "Inevitable"
* Blackwater: Banned in Iraq?
* Blackwater: The Vote
* Blackwater Goes Down the Rabbit Hole
* Blackwater Buying Counter-Insurgency Aircraft
* Blackwater Sprawl
* Inside the Belly of the Blackwater Beast
* Officers, Mercs Brawl
* Mercenary King, Revealed

Army to review Iraq contracts for fraud

By RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A team of specially trained investigators will hunker down in an Army office north of Detroit on Monday to begin poring over hundreds of Iraq war contracts in search for rigged awards.

This team of 10 auditors, criminal investigators and acquisition experts are starting with a sampling of the roughly 6,000 contracts worth $2.8 billion issued by an Army office in Kuwait that service officials have identified as a hub of corruption.

The office, located at Camp Arifjan, buys gear and supplies to support U.S. troops as they move in and out of Iraq. The pace of that operation has exploded since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

Based on what the team finds, the probe may expand and the number of Army military and civilian employees accused of accepting bribes and kickbacks could grow, U.S. officials told The Associated Press. Nearly two dozen have been charged so far.

Signs of trouble include contracts continually awarded to vendors without the usual competition and awards that were competed but went to the bidder with the highest price rather than the lowest. A mismatch between the original product to be purchased and what was actually delivered is another red flag.

"Is there anything in there that might indicate to us that there might be some potential fraudulent activity?" Jeffrey Parsons, director of contracting at Army Materiel Command, said in an AP interview. "If there are patterns that we start to identify, then we're going to do further review."

Contracts with significant problems will be forwarded to the Army Audit Agency and the Army Criminal Investigation Command. If there's credible evidence of wrongdoing, the FBI and prosecutors from the U.S. Justice Department are called in.

In Warren, Mich., home to a large Army acquisition center, the contracting review team will examine 314 of the Kuwait contracts, each worth more than $25,000 and issued between 2003 and 2006.

In Kuwait, a separate team of 10 at Camp Arifjan is already going through 339 contracts of lesser value and awarded during the same time period, according to Army Materiel Command at Fort Belvoir, Va.

Both reviews are to be finished before the end of the year.

A probe of 2007 contracts out of Kuwait has been completed; investigators found numerous problems with the office, including inadequate staffing and oversight, high staff turnover, and poor record-keeping.

In the midst of those shortcomings came billions of dollars in war funding, creating an environment ripe for misconduct and malfeasance.

The teams in Michigan and Kuwait will go through paper records and also use data-mining tools to electronically search data stored on computers.

"Do we have contractors with different names but the same address?" Parsons said. "That would cause some suspicion."

Tips from individuals familiar with the contracts are another tool for finding flawed awards, he said.

The contract review process isn't foolproof, however.

If a contracting officer and a vendor are determined to break the rules for personal gain, it can be difficult to pinpoint corruption, according to Parsons, who also is serving as senior adviser to a contracting task force recently established by Army Secretary Pete Geren.

"You can have a contract file that is pristine — all the documentation is there," Parsons said. "Just going through the contract files doesn't necessarily give you 100 percent assurance that something else might not have been going on."

The efforts in Michigan and at Camp Arifjan are parts of a broader inquiry being conducted by the task force, which was formed by Geren following a spike in the number of criminal cases related to the acquisition of gear and supplies for U.S. troops.

Many of the cases stemmed from fraudulent or mismanaged contracts issued by the Kuwait office, prompting Geren to call for a detailed probe of the work done there.

The Army Criminal Investigation Command has 83 ongoing criminal investigations related to contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, according to spokesman Chris Grey.

Grey said 23 individuals have been charged with contract fraud and more than $15 million in bribes has changed hands.

One of the largest cases involves Army Maj. John Cockerham, who is accused of bribery, conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction. Prosecutors allege Cockerham, along with his wife and sister, took at least $9.6 million in bribes in 2004 and 2005 while Cockerham was a contract officer stationed in Kuwait

From the 6,000 Kuwait contracts flowed 18,000 transactions - numerous orders could be placed on a single contract - for items such as bottled water, laundry services, barracks, food, transportation, and warehouse services.

In 2005, Lt. Gens. Steven Whitcomb and John Vines, then both top Army commanders in Iraq, became so concerned over allegations of corrupt contracting that the Criminal Investigation Command established field offices in Iraq and Kuwait.

Deceiving the checks and balances in the federal procurement system takes careful planning, Frank Anderson, president of the Defense Acquisition University at Fort Belvoir, said in a separate interview.

"You had some smart bad apples," said Anderson, who leads the organization that trains the military's acquisition officials. "It had to be someone who understood the business well enough to figure out how to get around the system."

Federal spending .. GREAT WEBSITE!!

You have a right to know how the federal government spends our money.

This website, created by OMB Watch, is a free, searchable database of federal government spending. To begin searching, select either the Grants or Contracts tab at the top left side of this page. You can easily switch back and forth as you search.

The data below on total federal spending was taken directly from the FedSpending.org database. With over $14 trillion in federal spending, this more open and accessible tool for citizens to find out where federal money goes and who gets it is long overdue. We believe this website is a good first step toward providing that access.

New Version of FedSpending.org Released

On September 20, 2007, OMB Watch released a new version of FedSpending.org, including updated data for FY 2006/2007, and some upgraded features. Learn more about the new features in About This Site.

Summary of Federal Spending:
Financial Assistance and Procurement in Billions of Dollars

	FY 2000	FY 2001	FY 2002	FY 2003	FY 2004	FY 2005	FY 2006* (partial year)	FY 2007* (partial year)
Contracts	$208.8	$219.8	$262.3	$304.1	$342.8	$385.4	$415.0	$146.7
Grants	$294.5	$330.7	$406.2	$493.3	$449.6	$441.0	$325.4
Loans	$108.0	$141.8	$216.8	$210.8	$154.8	$118.8	$74.1
Insurance	$431.3	$492.2	$556.6	$567.2	$603.9	$653.2	$510.3
Direct Payments (e.g. Social Security)	$768.3	$839.6	$841.5	$947.9	$965.5	$1,004.1	$823.4
Other	$2.8	$2.7	$0.2	$0.7	$0.4	$0.3	$3.7
Total	$1,813.7	$2,026.9	$2,283.6	$2,524.0	$2,516.9	$2,602.7	$2,151.9	$146.7

We hope you will explore this site. But mostly we hope you will use the data to hold our elected leaders and government agencies accountable for their actions.

*Note: FY 2006 only includes the first three quarters for federal assistance. FY 2007 contains only the first two quarters of federal contracts data.