Boeing Whistleblower, Gerald Eastman, Issues Press Release

News Release—No Bounds—Boeing’s Powerful Outside Hired Gun Attorney, Perkins Coie’s Marc Boman, Uses His Close Friendship with Assistant United States Attorney Carl H. Blackstone to Pressure Blackstone to Prosecute Me in Federal Court, Absent a Case. 

Friday, June 27, 2008, 10:46 AM
Posted by Administrator

 

Note: those getting to this page by coming from the www.thelastinspector.com website will want to skip the following section and begin reading just after the seperation line below it if they have already read this intro to my Press Release on my website main page:

This is my first ever Press Release (just issued in a very raw form on Friday). It concerns major developments in the continuing war by Boeing executives and their hired outside counsel (both private and public) against whistleblowers like me that is shown in detail in my individual case of Boeing whistleblower retaliation–possibly the most severe case of Boeing whistleblower retaliation in the United States, if not in the entire world.

The following Press Release details both how and why my case is now threatened to be taken to the federal level by yet another U.S. Attorney of highly questionable integrity, who is only resorting to such threats in response to his extremely rich and powerful close personal friend’s request.

The noted U.S Attorney couldn’t possibly have reviewed the facts of my case before he acted to accede immediately to that improper request from someone who just happens to be the high level Perkins Coie partner that Boeing hired to guide me into prison without nary a trial, and who’s arse is still smarting, apparently, from losing the last trial Boeing and him thought they had so far in the bag, due to similarly illegal and extremely unconstitutional shenanigans, that they started to celebrate their win even before the jury had begun to deliberate on the merits of the case presented to them in court.

They had began celebrating much too early what they thought to be an impending long prison term for me, a whistleblower they saw as a serious danger to the continuance of their own fraudulent schemes and a serious threat to them personally being rightly exposed for the powerful and eminently corrupt RICO-esque group they were.

They indeed also celebrated so heartily and so far before the “gun” of that trial’s jury’s deliberations over my guilt or innocence had even been “fired” because they thought they had just Aced their own “get out of prison” cards by engaging in the heavy handed rigging of the King County “justice” system they also had unfair (and illegal) access to the “controls of” behind the scenes.

And this Press release shows that they hired this high level Perkins Coie partner quite apparently also in order to work such unethical if not illegal “magic” behind the scenes of both propriety and legality to ensure Boeing remains forever on the offensive against all whistleblowers like me–whistleblowers who, perhaps, are only now just starting out on their one way “whistleblower journeys” as hopelessly naive as I once was at that same point.

Perhaps such “beginning” whistleblowers naively fully expect their senator, representative, CEO, and/or relevant government oversight agency to act to stop the fraud they report rather than simply ignore those reports (however detailed and obviously serious is the reported fraud), just as my reports were ignored by those whose job and responsibility it was to investigate them in an unbiased manner.

Perhaps they also naively trust that Boeing’s CEO won’t arrogantly direct Boeing’s Chief Counsel to retaliate against them to stop them from further “protected” whistleblower actions if their identity as a whistleblower against Boeing fraud becomes known to Boeing’s CEO, as was unfortunately my experience in my case of whistleblowing on the deadly serious fraud I witnessed as an inspector at Boeing.

Perhaps these naive whistleblowers are just now beginning to form even the first tenuous train of thought about bringing their intimate knowledge of just a tiny part of Boeing’s vast plethora of frauds across the enterprise to the light of day for relevant action in order stop just the one fraud that they have intimate knowledge of.

If so, then the actions noted in this Press Release as performed by Boeing, Perkin’s Coie, the King County Prosecutor, and now apparently even a much, much too friendly U.S. Attorney to one of Perkin’s Coie’s chief partners that Boeing hired to ensure that this whistleblower was sent to prison by hook or by crook, are meant to not so subtlety deter such whistleblowers from coming forward and endangering Boeing’s continuing fraudulent activities, however unlikely such endangering of Boeing’s continuing fraudulent activities is in today’s changing but still extremely compromised political and agency oversight landscape.

What such potential whistleblowers incorrectly assume (as I once falsely assumed to be the case in my case of whistleblowing, as well) is that the fraud they witnessed was only committed by a few of the lowest level Boeing management layers and such fraud was therefore unknown and unsupported by every layer of Boeing management from Boeing’s CEO on down.

Nothing could be further from the truth still in today’s eminently corrupt Boeing management culture, rotten from the CEO on down, where whistleblower hunting is a blood sport enjoyed as much by these corrupt executives as their blue-blooded forefathers enjoyed the sport of fox hunting.

See the noted Press Release to see the actual email this apparently quite compromised U.S. Attorney sent off (only per his rich and powerful close personal friend’s face to face request) to threaten me with a similarly biased and unbalanced federal prosecution if I did not accede to his corrupt friends’ wishes and sign away my rights to a fair trial by a jury and/or judge in their effort to do an end run around such a jury or hypothetically unbiased King County Superior Court judge.

This is an obviously “last gasp” effort on their part in order to get me sent to prison without the “inconvenience” (to them) of a constitutionally required fair trial on the patently unfair charges against me.

All they would need to do after I was pressured by the compromised U.S. Attorney into signing their meticulously crafted to entrap me agreement would be for them to get any one of several biased King County Superior Court Judges to pronounce I had technically violated the agreement–an easy task for these people that find it absolutely normal after too many years of all too corrupting power for them to work only for corrupt Boeing management’s every whim (no matter how illegal or unethical each such “request” is on its face) and to therefore to work in opposition to the public’s interests they are statutorily and constitutionally instead supposed to be serving.

Could this be an echo of the U.S. Attorney corruption scandal of the recent past where politics, money, and power entered into the decisions and even the very appointments and terminations of U.S. Attorneys that are supposed to be above such reproach? I think it may quite well be. That U.S. Attorney corruption scandal is not yet fully investigated due to foot dragging (literally) by the executive branch of “our” government, nor, therefore, have corrective actions taken place in full or even in partiality, it seems, from this U.S. Attorneys actions as noted in my following Press Release:

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http://eastmans.web.aplus.net/pblog/index.php

For Immediate Release: Friday, June 27, 2008
Contact: Gerald Eastman, gerryeastman2477@msn.com

In these last few months before what appears to be a landslide that will sweep corrupt politicians of the present out of power, you would think that entities that depend on those doomed politicians’ corruption in order to continue to perform their chosen frauds would be beginning to throttle back on such illegal relationships.

Not so–at least not so in the case of Boeing’s continuing reliance on the ongoing corruption of our elected and appointed government officials to continue to allow them to engage in their frauds of choice.

Boeing is arrogantly even now “putting the pedal to the metal,” not only on the frauds they continue to commit (as they know there is still no politician or government entity uncorrupted enough not to just continue to look the other way), but also in their connected attempts to retaliate against any whistleblower like me (who they were unable to intimidate into keeping quiet and to look the other way on perhaps the most deadly serious and systemic fraudulent act that Boeing is involved in at the moment–the Boeing Quality Assurance management fraud as noted on my website, www.thelastinspector.com, that makes Boeing’s Production Certificate and related certifications and FAA delegations such as Boeing’s ODA delegation and each individual airplane’s Airworthiness Certificate, effectively worthless pieces of scrap paper).

Arrogantly bold and baseless threats and illegal punitive actions against even the most obvious of protected messengers–whistleblowers like me–are the course of action chosen by corrupt Boeing management even to this very day.

These are actions taken by Boeing against whistleblowers like me who are/were naive enough to try to end those Boeing frauds themselves in the political and agency climate of the past several years that was so conducive to abetting such corporate fraud, however serious and deadly it was.

I learned this continuing effort by Boeing and its outside counsel at whistleblower retaliation was being kicked up to a whole new level as of last Thursday, when my attorney sent me the following email concerning my continuing legal persecution by Boeing’s King County Prosecutor’s Office, and we later discussed it:

From: Ramona Brandes
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 11:59 AM
To: gerryeastman2477@msn.com
Subject: New info on federal jeopardy

Gerry-
See Below.

Ramona Brandes
Attorney
Northwest Defenders Association
Ramona.Brandes@nwdefenders.org
206-674-4700 Ext 3116

This message is intended for the use of the individual or entity to which it is emailed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable laws. If the reader of this communication is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribuiton or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by phone or email. Thank you.

—–Original Message—–
From: Peterson, Scott
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 11:00 AM
To: Ramona Brandes
Subject: Eastman

Ramona,

I just got a call from Carl Blackstone, US Attorney’s Office, who asked about Eastman’s case. He said they may be interested in prosecuting him federally if he won’t resolve the case here. He said you could call him to discuss, 206-553-2905.

Scott

(End of email)

Interesting, huh?

Needless to say this new threat against me in the long and continuing saga of Boeing’s illegal retributions against me for my ground breaking whistleblowing against Boeing’s both illegal and unethical conduct in the Boeing/FAA fraud as noted on my website, www.thelastinspector.com, piqued my interest, to say the least.

But what I learned outside this email later was several times more shocking.

But first, to understand events, you must be brought up to date on what has happened since the King County Prosecutor, Dan Satterberg, Boeing, and one of Perkins Coie’s most powerful partners failed to secure what they thought would be a walk in the park style conviction against me in April, when my trial on 16 felony counts of first degree “computer trespass” ended in a 10-2 mistrial that began as a 9-3 mistrial early in the jury’s deliberations.

Even before those deliberations had begun, the gleeful “embrace” (which was a female version of the “male” high five, I suspect) by Vanessa Lee (Boeing Legal’s attorney who sat in the courtroom next to Perkins Coie’s partner Marc Boman through the trial while she desperately tried to help ensure my conviction by any means possible from that back court bench) of Scott Peterson, King County Senior Prosecuting Attorney, just after Peterson’s closing statement to the jury in that trial, was the beginning of the “celebrating before the game was up” that I noted in the introduction to this press release.

Incidentally, during the trial, Boeing and their bought and literally paid for King County Prosecutor’s office had pulled out every stop in order to prevent me from even being considered a whistleblower, or my whistleblowing activities and whistleblower laws from even being considered during the trial by the jury. The jury themselves thought this was wrong, as they sent a question from the jury room to the judge asking whether they could consider such whistleblower protection laws during the deliberations.

After the disappointment and inconvenience of the jury’s mistrial, instead of the pre-rigged win Boeing thought they had ensured by the unfair trial they “guided” by spending vast sums of money on Perkins Coie’s best available counsel (partner Marc Boman) before and during the trial, Boeing was not as happy and giddy as they were before their expensive inside and outside counsel had remembered (apparently only after the announcement by the jury that deliberations were deadlocked) that I had to be pronounced guilty by the jury before they actually had me in prison with that trial’s very friendly County Superior Court Judge to both Boeing and the prosecution’s every whim.

A short time later, the King County Prosecutor put forth an “offer” for me to plead guilty to lesser charges of 2nd degree criminal trespass, the same kind of trespass someone would be charged with if a prosecutor wanted to prosecute someone for stepping on somebody’s lawn, in order for me to avoid the added insult of a threatened second and similarly unfair trial.

I refused that “deal.” It was clear that Boeing badly wanted me to accept one of these “offers,” which were obviously not in my best interests, as I had done nothing wrong other than “the crime” of being too naive in thinking that some politician, government agency official, and/or Boeing Board of Directors member would do something to end Boeing’s fraud that placed (and still places) untold lives at much extra risk in order to maximize the bottom line. I certainly thought one of those numerous powerful people I contacted before my arrest would at least grow a spine and do something to make things right for the public’s sake well before I would find myself thrown to the wolves that are corrupt Boeing management and those that they hold the reigns of in “public” office for the whistleblower retaliation that was the trial I was put through per Boeing’s “requests” and for the current King County Prosecutor’s Boeing and Perkins Coie donations to his campaign.

But before the prosecutor set the case for the second trial, my attorney decided to negotiate a “continuance for dismissal” with the King County Prosecutor’s office.

My attorney and the prosecutor Scott Peterson have been negotiating such an agreement since then, at least up to Thursday’s throwing of a monkey wrench into the deal by Marc Boman’s calling for the favor of a federal prosecution of me from his close friend, U.S. Attorney Carl H. Blackstone, before the case setting hearing Thursday that my attorney and I attended at the King County Courthouse.

Read the last draft of the “continuance for dismissal” my attorney and the King County Prosecutor were working on before Marc Boman (Perkins Coie) and Boeing killed any chance of such an agreement with Thursday’s shenanigans to try to threaten and intimidate me into taking the agreement just as they had rewritten it by threats of a federal prosecution by a buddy of theirs in the U.S. Attorney’s office if I did not accede and sign it, at the following link (under construction):

Link (in work).

In a nutshell, the continuance for dismissal would have brought the lesser charges of 2nd degree criminal trespass against me and leave them hanging over my head until January, 2008, upon which all charges against me would be dropped, if I kept to the terms of the agreement.

Those terms were to sit down to an interview with Boeing where I would answer all questions, keep the contents of that interview confidential, keep the exact method (already public) I used to remove the files from Boeing for my whistleblowing activities a secret, show them exactly where the files were on my seized computer that I had given to the Seattle Times, and my attorney making a good faith effort to retrieve those same files from The Seattle Times.

In the agreement they are trying so desperately to coerce me into signing, however, there was a trap—-the central and only part of the agreement that I strongly believe Boeing, Perkins Coie, and the King County Prosecutor actually wanted. That clause stated that I, by signing the agreement, gave up the right to a jury trial or trial before a judge on the charges against me if they determined I had violated the agreement. One of the stipulations that would be a violation is if I “committed another crime” during the term of the agreement.

If they later got any one of numerous “friendly” King County Superior Court Judges to determine that I had violated the agreement in any way, then that judge would simply read the “facts” of the case as written in a “Stipulation of Facts” of the case agreed to by my attorney and the prosecutor’s office and then immediately decide if I was guilty or innocent of the charges. Upon a guilty decision by the judge, I would go straight to jail or prison for the term decided by the judge.

It is my strong belief that their only interest in this “continuance for dismissal” was for that clause in which I would give up my right to a trial if I “violated” the agreement.

Boeing, Marc Boman of Perkins Coie, and their similarly corrupt puppets in the King County Prosecutor’s office, wanted simply to get me to sign the agreement so that they could then find a way to claim that I had violated the agreement, at which point they would get the case before a friendly judge in King County Superior Court.

In so doing, they would have thusly steered around what they saw as an insurmountable problem hereto now. They knew that no jury would convict me as there would always be several people on the jury that actually deliberated the trial on the facts my attorney and I put forth at trial rather than just the mistruths that Boeing, Perkins Coie’s attorney, and the prosecutor had made up and/or had allowed to be put forth to the jury and judge.

Too bad I saw through their plot. In fact, I believe that Boeing had Marc Boman talk his close personal friend, U.S. Attorney Carl H. Blackstone, in order to ask Blackstone to make the threat of a federal prosecution if I didn’t fall into that trap easily on my own, which made the agreement all the more unreasonably a risk for me to sign.

Then, interestingly, before I left for court yesterday (and before I ultimately found out that it was Marc Boman, Boeing’s outside counsel and Perkins Coie partner, that had called on his own personal friend, U.S. Attorney Carl H. Blackstone, to threaten me with federal charges if I did not take the noted entrapment deal) I thought a bit more about the prospect of such federal charges and sent the following email both to my attorney and King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg’s office to ensure that she shared the full message with their office:

From: gerryeastman2477@msn.com
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 12:48 PM
To: attorney.prosecuting@kingcounty.gov
Subject: Fw: New info on federal jeopardy

From: gerryeastman2477@msn.com
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 12:38 PM
To: Ramona Brandes
Subject: Re: New info on federal jeopardy

Ramona,

I just thought of something important “Federal Jeopardy” I see could be a good thing. Boeing is not popular in Federal Court. If my case is brought before a prosecutor that is not bought and paid for literally like Satterberg and Peterson are, it may well be Boeing that ends up being prosecuted, and not me. As Boeing’s GSA expires sometime in August, it would only take one charge of a high ranking official at Boeing to get the whole GSA invalidated, and Boeing prosecuted as the criminal entity they are (and narrowly avoided culpability for with that GSA). They are also up on all of the numerous Federal whistleblower protection laws, and so, if Peterson forces it into that realm because he is being unreasonable and I think not treating you with the respect and credibility you deserve by trying to use such thinly veiled threats to force your hand, even if you or Peterson don’t believe I am a whistleblower, I think I can show them I am, and show both Peterson, Satterberg, and Boeing were retaliating against me illegally (with the email they sent to themselves on 4/12/06 and everything they did to me before and after it. So, it could come out that if Mr. Blackstone is not in Boeing’s or Satterberg’s pocket securely enough that Mr. Satterbeg, Mr. Peterson, and Boeing may end up being the one’s prosecuted. I suggest strongly you have Mr. Peterson take these facts into account and clear his actions in this regard with Boeing before he places both himself and Boeing at significant Federal jeopardy themselves. Certainly, if Peterson or Satterberg feel they could do no federal time for their actions in following a corrupt corporations every illegal whim against me, then they still owe it to Boeing to advise them of the risk he would be placing them in (criminal charges filed against them as a corporation and any of numerous Boeing executives involved in the original fraud Mr. Satterberg never took an interest in even looking into himself, much less prosecuting, and the retaliation lodged against me by Boeing for trying to bring their Southwest Airlines/FAA-like fraud on steroids to an end) by breaking the GSA) by thusly “taking it up a notch.” Because I still care about Boeing’s employees (not its largely and provably corrupt management), please have Mr. Satterberg or Peterson get word from Boeing that they want to “take it up a notch” thusly. If they do want to force it to Federal court, I may finally be allowed a real hearing, absent all of the withholding of evidence and bias by King County Superior Court of the past.

Thanks,

Gerry

(End of email)

I do not wish to repeat all of the points I made in the email again here, so I will let you take from the email what statements within it are of interest to you.

However shocking the news was I later learned, that Boeing and Perkins Coie’s Marc Boman had used Boman’s personal friendship with a U.S. Attorney to communicate threats–threats he wouldn’t have obviously have made absent his close friend’s urgent request. And these were threats he made while absent the facts of the case, as U.S. Attorney Carl H. Blackstone couldn’t possibly have had full access to those facts at the time he decided to act exactly per his close friend Marc Boman’s overtures and improper requests.

I believe it is quite common knowledge that the U.S. Attorneys have been politicized under this administration for Republican and special interests–as in their penchant for being biased for giving even demonstrably corrupt corporations like Boeing whatever they want, no matter how corrupt their wants are. One only has to stay reasonably informed by reading the news to understand that.

Could this pressuring of U.S. Attorney Carl H. Blackstone by his own personal friend for his friend’s client, Boeing, be yet another of numerous such illegal if not highly unethical acts?

Was it an act based not on the merits of the case, but instead only on who knows who, who has the most money, who is perceived to have the most power, who is Republican and who is not, and/or who is a corporation and who is just a common citizen trying to stand up to and end corporate corruption?

Of course.

It almost assuredly is thusly unethical if not illegal.

Everyone knows that power corrupts, and the longer that someone has unbridled power, as in Boeing’s case, the more corrupt they seem to become. Let’s just say that U.S. Attorneys, Boeing, the current King County Prosecutor, and even a Perkins Coie attorney, apparently, have much too much power, for far too long.

Well, that is it for now. I will be adding to this News Release constantly, so check back often, especially if you are a reporter or editor.

I do think this is newsworthy. I hope you decide it is as well.

I think that the public has the right to know just why such back alley deals, as occurred in my case between Boeing’s hired counsel, Marc Boman, and an apparently ethically and/or legally challenged U.S. Attorney, Carl H. Blackstone, are made (based on powerful and not so moneyed friends helping powerful and moneyed friends in the personal interests of friendship, abuse of power, and quite possibly even the transfer of money and/or power from the moneyed friend to the not so moneyed friend at a present or future date, rather than the actual consideration of merits or lack or merit of the case imposed on one friend from another) and therefore serve the opposite of justice.

The public also needs to know that corrupt and arrogant corporations like Boeing will not relinquish such corruption or arrogance even if their corrupted friends in government will be swept from power in just a few months.

Contact me as noted above if you wish to cover these latest important twists in this important case for every other of numerous other potential whistleblowers at just Boeing itself, not to mention those at other corporations that similarly resort to try to “kill the messenger” when that messenger attempts to communicate their frauds to the relevant organization in order to have them stopped before consequences occur, like more people and troops dying because of such fraudulent activities, as are the consequences for the fraud continuing that I tried to stop as noted on my website.

Of course, I will take the actions outlined in my email and attempt to rightly have Boeing and certain officials in the King County Prosecutor’s office prosecuted for their corruption if my case is moved to the federal arena (or even if not at this point).

Any possibility that there was for the agreement noted above being signed by me has been killed by Marc Boman’s possibly illegal and certainly unethical actions on the behalf of Boeing, as well as my knowledge of the likely intentions of the true criminals involved in this matter–both Boeing and the King County prosecutors from Dan Satterberg on down in the hierarchy there.

My goal would be to have the Boeing GSA (the Boeing Global Settlement Agreement for the Boeing CFO/Druyun tanker fraud and the Lockheed competition sensitive data theft by Boeing which was then used by Boeing to rig and win the EELV (Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle) contract competition) entered into in August 2006 invalidated by such rightful (based on the facts, and not just friendships) charges against the corrupt Boeing executives involved in covering up the fraud I attempted to bring to light by falsely testifying against me and colluding with a similarly corrupt King County Prosecutor in order to ensure that I (the “protected” whistleblower) was the one confined to prison before I saw to it that they and other Boeing management were rightly sent there by a fair and “facts and data” based prosecution for their fraud in which they intentionally placed the public at much greater risk by ignoring the laws and regulations meant to protect the public’s very lives simply in order to maximize the bottom line.

Federal prosecutors may actually interview me and check into Boeing’s corruption as documented on my site and in letters to Congress and federal agencies before they decide who it is that committed the actual wrongdoing in this matter that merits prosecution. That was something the King County Prosecutor’s office never did or even considered doing as they were so beholden to the unbridled power and money that is Boeing for their own personal interests, and they therefore intentionally hid behind a similarly biased Seattle Police Department’s “investigation” into this matter that also intentionally only focused where corrupt Boeing management wanted them to look, and came to the conclusions that Boeing management wanted them to make.

Thanks for your time,

Gerald Eastman

The Last (Boeing) Inspector

www.thelastinspector.com

 

Bush’s View on Wiretaps Rejected by CA Judge

 Considering this California Judge’s ruling on the wiretapping issue, it will be interesting to see how the various parts of our legal system view the expanded Terror Watch efforts (See article posted earlier today, 7-6-08).  It does appear to this observer that enlisting emergency personnel and local law enforcement in local communities, often small departments in small communities with limited resources (for training etc.) is a very bad idea.  

I have heard there are problems now with being able to effectively and safely coordinate certain types of law enforcement responsibilities between various federal agencies and local departments.  The types of training and focus are often quite different depending on the stated mission and set of responsibilities each department has, and often local personnel do not have the same perspective as certain types of federal personnel, which may create more of a tendency to use a checklist to jump to unwarrented conclusions.  I keep thinking about the problem some people had after 911 with realizing all people who wear turbans (Muslim or not) are not “terrorists.”

 It really makes little sense, particularly, since in this case, it really does seem to be a poorly disguised effort to get past the Constitution to get into the average citizen’s home.  I suppose, they’ll be quartering soldiers in our homes next.  -GFS

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From Truthout.Org

Judge Rejects Bush’s View on Wiretaps

Thursday 03 July 2008

 

by: Eric Lichtblau, The New York Times

A federal judge ruled that Bush’s views on wiretapping were beyond the constitutional authority of the president.

 

    Washington – A federal judge in California said Wednesday that the wiretapping law established by Congress was the “exclusive” means for the president to eavesdrop on Americans, and he rejected the government’s claim that the president’s constitutional authority as commander in chief trumped that law. The judge, Vaughn R. Walker, the chief judge for the Northern District of California, made his findings in a ruling on a lawsuit brought by an Oregon charity. The group says it has evidence of an illegal wiretap used against it by the National Security Agency under the secret surveillance program established by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

    The Justice Department has tried for more than two years to kill the lawsuit, saying any surveillance of the charity or other entities was a “state secret” and citing the president’s constitutional power as commander in chief to order wiretaps without a warrant from a court under the agency’s program.

    But Judge Walker, who was appointed to the bench by former President George Bush, rejected those central claims in his 56-page ruling. He said the rules for surveillance were clearly established by Congress in 1978 under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the government to get a warrant from a secret court.

    ”Congress appears clearly to have intended to – and did – establish the exclusive means for foreign intelligence activities to be conducted,” the judge wrote. “Whatever power the executive may otherwise have had in this regard, FISA limits the power of the executive branch to conduct such activities and it limits the executive branch’s authority to assert the state secrets privilege in response to challenges to the legality of its foreign intelligence surveillance activities.”

    Judge Walker’s voice carries extra weight because all the lawsuits involving telephone companies that took part in the N.S.A. program have been consolidated and are being heard in his court.

    Jon Eisenberg, a lawyer for Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, the plaintiff in the case, said the legal issues Judge Walker’s ruling raised were significant. “He’s saying FISA makes the rules and the president is bound by those rules,” Mr. Eisenberg said.

    A Justice Department official said the department was reviewing the opinion late Wednesday and would consider its options.

    Officials at Al-Haramain say they were mistakenly given a government document revealing the N.S.A. operation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation demanded the document back, and Judge Walker’s ruling made it more difficult for Al-Haramain to use what it claims to have seen . But he refused to throw out the lawsuit, giving the charity’s lawyers 30 days to restructure their claim. “We still have our foot in the door,” Mr. Eisenberg said. “The clock is a minute to midnight, but we’ve been there before and survived.”

    The ruling comes as the Senate is overhauling the foreign intelligence law. The measure would reaffirm FISA as the exclusive means for the president to order wiretaps through court warrants, but it would also provide legal immunity to phone companies involved in the eavesdropping program. A vote could come Tuesday.

    The immunity issue would not directly affect this lawsuit because Al-Haramain is suing the government, not the phone companies. But the nearly 40 other lawsuits against phone companies that Judge Walker is overseeing would almost certainly have to be dismissed if immunity is signed into law, legal analysts say.

 

 

Local Emergency Personnel Enlisted in Terror Watch Operations

 BIG BROTHER GAINS MORE HANDS, AND EARS, AND EYES…

    It is of concern to think of all of the emergency personnel being used to collect warrentless data and reports on the U.S. Citizens in our states.  Imagine how that would change how people view a 911 health emergency call, or a domestic violence call or a fire emergency call.  When you read the quick and dirty  list here of things to look for, that list, put into the hands of undertrained and in many cases under-qualified local police and emergency fire  and safety personnel could make the current concerns about racial profiling seem a clearly defined issue by comparison.  This sounds like more trouble for the the taxpaying citizens.  It is carrying fear mongering and the alleged snooping and violating of the citizens constitutional rights to a new low.  Does anyone have knowledge of the full list of states participating or considering cooperating with this scheme? 

  -GFS

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Terror Watch Uses Local Eyes; 181 Trained in Colorado

Saturday 28 June 2008

»

by: Bruce Finley, The Denver Post

Federal “Terrorism Liaison Officer” training is now conducted in eight states for local law enforcement, emergency responders and private companies. Civil rights advocates argue such involvement by local officials and private interests in federal intelligence operations undermines public trust and threatens individual privacy. (Image: dawizofodds / thewizardofodds.blogspot.com)

    Privacy advocates worry that officers’ snooping will entangle innocent people.

    Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as “Terrorism Liaison Officers” in Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt for “suspicious activity” – and are reporting their findings into secret government databases.

    It’s a tactic intended to feed better data into terrorism early-warning systems and uncover intelligence that could help fight anti-U.S. forces. But the vague nature of the TLOs’ mission, and their focus on reporting both legal and illegal activity, has generated objections from privacy advocates and civil libertarians.

    ”Suspicious activity” is broadly defined in TLO training as behavior that could lead to terrorism: taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value, making measurements or notes, espousing extremist beliefs or conversing in code, according to a draft Department of Justice/Major Cities Chiefs Association document.

    All this is anathema to opponents of domestic surveillance.

    Yet U.S. intelligence and homeland security officials say they support the widening use of TLOs – state-run under federal agreements – as part of a necessary integrated network for preventing attacks.

    ”We’re simply providing information on crime-related issues or suspicious circumstances,” said Denver police Lt. Tony Lopez, commander of Denver’s intelligence unit and one of 181 individual TLOs deployed across Colorado. “We don’t snoop into private citizens’ lives. We aren’t living in a communist state.”

    Local Watchdogs

    Among recent activities the Colorado contingent detailed:

·  Thefts of copper that could be used in bomb-making.

·  Civilians impersonating police officers and stopping vehicles – of particular concern with the pending Democratic National Convention in Denver.

·  Graffiti showing a man holding an AK-47 rifle.

·  Men filming the Dillon dam that holds Denver’s water.

·  Overheard threats.

·  Widespread thefts of up to 20 propane gas tanks.

    Future terrorism “is going to be noticed earliest at the most local level,” said Robert Riegle, director of state and local programs for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington.

    Civil liberties watchdogs warn of unprecedented new threats to privacy.

    ”The problem is, you’re drafting individuals whose job isn’t law enforcement to spy on ordinary Americans and report their activities to the government,” said John Verdi, director of the open-government project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

    In Colorado, TLOs report not only illegal but legal activity, such as bulk purchases along Colorado’s Front Range of up to 150 disposable cellphones. TLO supervisors said these bulk buys were suspicious because similar phones are used as remote detonators for bombs overseas and can be re-sold to fund terrorism. Taking photos or videos can be deemed suspicious because “surveillance is a precursor to terrorist activity,” said Colorado State Patrol Sgt. Steve Garcia, an analyst in Colorado’s intelligence fusion center south of Denver, which handles TLO-supplied information.

    Colorado, California and Arizona are among the first to deploy TLOs after establishing robust state-run fusion centers, which initially relied on tips from private citizens. Federal security agents now sit in 25 of those centers, including Colorado’s.

    Florida, Illinois, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., also have deployed TLOs, and authorities in dozens of states are preparing to do so, said Norm Beasley, a retired Arizona trooper who has popularized the practice.

    181 in Colorado

    In Colorado, TLO training began last year, with FBI assistance. A three-day seminar presented material on how to recognize and stop suicide bombers and included discussion of civil liberties.

    State officials declined to release the course syllabus or say specifically how far TLOs are allowed to go in search of information without a warrant.

    The 181 TLOs in Colorado were deployed without any announcement over the past year and are posted widely from Durango in the mountains to metro Denver to La Junta on the eastern prairie.

    ”The thing that’s surprising is how much stuff is out there,” said Denver West Metro Fire Capt. Mike Kirkpatrick, who declined to specify observations he has submitted, saying some led to investigations.

    National intelligence chiefs who coordinate the CIA and 15 other agencies launched an initiative this month to define “suspicious activity” for TLOs and develop a process for handling TLO information so that basic freedoms and privacy are protected, said John Cohen, information-sharing spokesman in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

    Training is crucial “because what we don’t want is just people documenting innocent activities. We don’t want police officers focusing on people because of their ethnicity and religion,” Cohen said.

    ”What we’re advocating for is developing a standardized process that can be put in place across the country so that frontline police officers (and others) are trained to recognize behaviors associated with certain activities related to terrorism,” he said.

    Major city police chiefs are participating.

    ”You can’t profile. So you have to have behavior-based indicators of criminal activity where it’s terrorism or activity that supports terrorism,” said Tom Frazier, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association.

    Civil libertarians questioned why firefighters, paramedics and corporate employees – such as Xcel Energy and railroad officials in Colorado – are drafted into the effort. They say public trust in emergency responders will suffer.

    The emerging TLO system “empowers the police officer to poke his nose into your business when you’re doing absolutely nothing wrong. It moves the police officer away from his core function, to enforce the law, into being an intelligence officer gathering information about people,” said Mike German, a 16-year FBI agent now advising the American Civil Liberties Union.

    ”Where are we going to draw the line?”

    ———

    Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com

»

 

WA Lawmakers Dance to Boeing’s Tune…Again

Washington Lawmakers are planning their moves to keep Boeing jobs and projects in Washington State.  Tom Captain, a principal with Deloitte consulting firm explained that when considering the Dreamliner, “You have to pay to play” which Washington State did in order to keep work and jobs here.  Captain continued, saying that looking ahead to keeping work here is equally important, “We did that [for the 787].  Now the imperative is, you have to pay to stay.”  Perhaps this is why such a public display of posturing and breast-beating took place over the recent debacle over the refueling tanker contract controversy.  Legislators are possibly thinking, just as Representative Jeff Morris said “The expectation with the Dreamliner was that Washington State had to pull a rabbit out of a hat, so it’s a good idea to have an earlier start this time.” 

 

Lovely…apparently no price is too high.

 -GFS

 

 

 

State leaders talk about tax benefits for Boeing

Link to Seattle Times:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008017862_aerospace26.html

 

Nightmare Episode for Boeing’s Dreamliner

Here are two articles from the Seattle Times regarding Boeing’s woes with problems of quality of manufacturing and damage to their new project, the “Dreamliner.”  The damage was reported to be “incorrect fasteners which were improperly installed in the wrong holes causing damage to the composite structure during the join process.”  “It was further reported that ‘each fastener “splintered out the hole,” causing the carbon-fiber threads in the composite structure to break out from the plastic resin.’  I’ve linked the two Times articles for your ease in linking. 

 

My main question is, why is Boeing being so hard on their employees, (ex.  Gerald Eastman, former Q.A. Inspector in Seattle), who report manufacturing or parts problems?  People who report problems should not be out of hand labeled whistleblowers, and then targeted for misery.  They are after all, looking out for the best long-term interests of their company, as well as for the safety of the American public and military, not to mention others worldwide. 

-GFS

 

 

Link to original story:  Damage to Boeing 787 fuselage piece at S.C. plant may delay flight tests.

 

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/boeingaerospace/2008026631_dreamliner01.html

 

 

 

Link to original article:  Boeing 787 supplier halts work for 24 hours after FAA audit

 

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008028693_global020.html

 

 

 

Boeing Fined for Violating Acquisitions Value Limits

Boeing Agrees to Pay $3 Million Fine for Violating Foreign Parts Acquisitions Value Limits

 

As reported in Chicago, Boeing was found to have exceeded value limits on purchases of parts from foreign suppliers for it’s military products.  The laws violated by Boeing were manufacturing license agreements which are required under the federal regulations which govern international arms sales.

 

Boeing has agreed to “work closely” with the State Department to “tighten its procedures” and also has agreed to “report its progress” to the State Department over the next three years. 

 

The suppliers Boeing was dealing with when it committed these violations were in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria.

 

Link to story in the Seattle P.I.:  http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_il_boeing_fine.html

 

Lax Nuclear Security Identified by Air Force

This is another case of documenting and official notice of problems in nuclear security, this time DoD, and in the past several cases involving DOE.  The question is, will something be done to solve the problems now?  In the past, it appeared that corruption, cover-ups and lack of responsible oversight hampered successfully resolving DOE’s problems.  Anyone have any insight into this?  -GFS

——————————————

Air Force Finds Lax Nuclear Security

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 2, 2008; A02

Most overseas storage sites for U.S. nuclear weapons, particularly in Europe, need substantial improvements in physical security measures and the personnel who guard the weapons, according to a newly available Air Force report.

“Most sites require significant additional resources to meet DoD security requirements,” according to the final report of the Air Force Blue Ribbon Review of Nuclear Weapons Policies and Procedures, completed in February.

The report was made public last week by Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, who obtained it under a Freedom of Information Act request.

The report said upgrades are needed in “support buildings, fencing, lighting and security systems” at several European sites. It also cited conscripts who serve only nine months and “unionized security personnel” whom some host countries provide as guards.

The panel recommended that the Air Force “investigate potential consolidation of resources to minimize variances and reduce vulnerabilities.”

An Air Force spokesman, contacted late yesterday afternoon, said no one familiar with the Blue Ribbon panel was available to discuss the report.

Kristensen said yesterday that the United States keeps several hundred tactical nuclear weapons at six bases in five European countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

Although the Pentagon does not officially acknowledge the weapons’ presence, Dutch Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop said during a parliamentary committee meeting Monday that nuclear weapons security facilities at the Netherlands’ Volkel Air Base “are in good order,” according to news reports.

Kristensen said that an estimated 10 to 20 U.S. B-61 nuclear bombs are stored at Volkel Air Base for delivery by Dutch F-16s.

The Blue Ribbon review of nuclear security, chaired by Air Force Maj. Gen. Polly A. Peyer, was conducted after it was discovered that a B-52 bomber had flown across the United States, from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, with neither the pilots nor ground crews aware that six cruise missiles under one wing held real nuclear warheads.

The panel’s conclusions — and another review ordered by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates after parts of a nuclear missile were inadvertently sent to Taiwan — led Gates to remove Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne and the chief of staff, Gen. T. Michael “Buzz” Moseley, in early June.

A summary of the Air Force report’s findings has been available for months. But the newly declassified version provides additional details. It noted that one of the three wing commanders who controlled facilities with more than 100 nuclear-armed strategic missiles did not have a nuclear weapons background.

“Without an alert commitment for 17 years . . . the bomber force has seen a dramatic atrophy of its nuclear operational and academic skills set,” the report concluded.

Only a “limited number” of top Air Force officers had served on 24-hour alerts that ended in 1991, and “within the next few years,” the report noted, the Air Force will have no “pool” of “bomber wing commanders who performed nuclear alerts.”

 

Gridlock at Justice

 

This is a clear picture of what whistleblowers have been facing.  It is also a clear picture of what employees in the federal government have been facing as they have been trying to ethically do their jobs.  Consider this and support your employees of oversight agencies who are trying to do their jobs!  If you want to award a swift kick verbally in a letter to those that have been co-opted or corrupted, that is o.k. too.  -GFS

———————————

 

A Backlog Of Cases Alleging Fraud
Whistle-Blower Suits Languish at Justice

By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 2, 2008; A01

More than 900 cases alleging that government contractors and drugmakers have defrauded taxpayers out of billions of dollars are languishing in a backlog that has built up over the past decade because the Justice Department cannot keep pace with the surge in charges brought by whistle-blowers, according to lawyers involved in the disputes.

The issue is drawing renewed interest among lawmakers and nonprofit groups because many of the cases involve the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rising health-care payouts, and privatization of government functions — all of which offer rich new opportunities to swindle taxpayers.

Since 2001, 300 to 400 civil cases have been filed each year by employees charging that their companies defrauded the government. But under the cumbersome process that governs these cases, Justice Department lawyers must review them under seal, and whistle-blowers routinely wait 14 months or longer just to learn whether the department will get involved. The government rejects about three-quarters of the cases it receives, saying that the vast majority have little merit.

Disputes can stay buried for years more while the government investigates the allegations.

“Even if no new cases are filed, it might take 10 years for the Department of Justice to clear its desk. Cases in the backlog represent a lot of money being left on the table,” said Patrick Burns, a spokesman for Taxpayers Against Fraud, which advocates for Justice to receive more funding to support cases by whistle-blowers and their attorneys.

Supporters of federal intervention in the cases say the dividends are substantial: In recent years, verdicts and settlements have returned nearly $13 billion to the U.S. government.

At issue in most of the cases is whether companies knowingly sold defective products or overcharged federal agencies for items sold at home or offered to U.S. troops overseas. Under the Civil War-era False Claims Act, workers who file lawsuits alleging such schemes cannot discuss them or even disclose their existence until Justice decides whether to step in.

By its own account, the 75-lawyer unit in Washington that reviews the sensitive lawsuits is overloaded and understaffed. Only about 100 cases a year are investigated by the team, which works out of the commercial litigation branch of Justice’s civil division.

Critics argue that the delays are at least partly the result of foot-dragging by Justice and the federal agencies whose position it represents, especially in the touchy area of suppliers that may have overbilled the government for equipment, food and other items used by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Justice lawyers have rejected about 19 cases involving contractor fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, registering five settlements that resulted in $16 million, officials said. Government officials said this week that they are considering whether to dive into 32 more whistle-blower cases involving Iraq or the Middle East.

“It’s just flatly absurd for us to be five years into this war” with so few public cases, said Alan Grayson, a whistle-blower lawyer in Florida who has criticized the Justice effort and who is running for Congress as a Democrat.

In a statement, Justice spokesman Charles Miller said that career lawyers and supervisors base their determinations on merit, not on political sensitivities. “Our decisions to intervene or decline in cases involving Iraq and the Middle East are entirely consistent with our record in [whistle-blower] cases generally,” he said.

Help from Justice greatly enhances the chances that a complicated fraud scheme can be unraveled, lawyers say. And department statistics show that cases Justice turns away win paltry, if any, financial recoveries.

Key lawmakers have called on Justice to make false-claims investigations a priority.

“Whistle-blowers are the key to the secrets locked in closets throughout the federal bureaucracy and government contractors,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). “These patriotic Americans stick their necks out, against all odds, to help the federal government pursue fraud and save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars that would otherwise be lost.”

Last month, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael F. Hertz told Congress that “the number and increased complexity of the fraud schemes presented to the department, combined with the volume of cases now under review, certainly present challenges.”

Among the largest false-claims cases to date are a $650 million settlement earlier this year by drugmaker Merck in connection with an alleged failure to repay Medicaid rebates; a $515 million deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb to cover illegal drug pricing and marketing; and a $98 million agreement with software maker Oracle over pricing.

If their claims are successful, whistle-blowers can receive a hefty slice of the settlements or verdicts, sometimes as much as 20 percent of the award. A former Merck sales manager collected $68 million earlier this year for his role in exposing an alleged drug-pricing scheme.

Even bigger lawsuits containing potentially explosive allegations are waiting in the wings. The vast majority, more than 500 cases, involve the health-care and pharmaceutical industries and often involve Medicare and Medicaid funds.

Only a few hints of the Iraq and Afghanistan disputes have erupted publicly. One is a suit filed by two former employees of Custer Battles, a defense contracting company in Fairfax. The workers accused the company of inflating expenses on a contract it won to replace the Iraqi currency. After a three-week trial in 2006, a jury found in favor of the plaintiffs and awarded them $10 million. But U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III later tossed out the case, ruling that the money at issue, controlled in the early years of the Iraq conflict by the Coalition Provisional Authority, belonged to the Iraqi government, not U.S. taxpayers.

Justice declined the whistle-blowers’ request to intervene before the case went to trial, plaintiffs’ lawyers said. The government eventually weighed in with a court brief on behalf of the whistle-blowers when the case was appealed.

Frederick M. Morgan Jr., a Cincinnati lawyer who represents whistle-blowers, said that the numbers of lawyers willing to take on cases involving defense contractors has dwindled, in part because of Justice’s slow decisions.

One of Morgan’s lawsuits, against contractors hired by the Navy to build nuclear submarines and an Ohio company that manufactured submarine valves, took five years to resolve.

Another case, involving the manufacture of the F-22 fighter, was filed in early 1999. It was late 2006 before Justice decided not to intervene. The case is now in active litigation.

“The impact of a 7 1/2 -year delay in the litigation of a case is difficult to quantify but impossible to discount,” Morgan said.

Whistle-blower lawyers say other factors can contribute to long delays, including the difficulty in investigating claims in war-torn areas and complications that arise when military officials contend that technology or other products at issue in the lawsuits are classified. In addition, Justice lawyers who handle civil cases often cannot proceed until authorities decide whether a case merits criminal prosecution, the lawyers said.

Even when older cases are pushed into the open, the passage of time can present courtroom challenges.

Last year, a D.C. jury awarded whistle-blower Richard Miller more than $30 million, a figure that now-Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth tripled to $90 million. But in the dozen years since the suit was filed, witnesses’ memories of events had dimmed and the U.S. Agency for International Development had tossed its investigative files.

The judge blasted civil division lawyers for “doing virtually nothing” to follow up for four years after Miller brought forward allegations in 1995 about bid rigging on construction contracts in Egypt. The delays meant “loss of evidence, fading memories, disappearance of documents,” he wrote.

Justice spokesman Miller said that the civil case was stalled for years because criminal proceedings in the matter took priority. He added that the whistle-blower did not object to the government’s repeated entreaties for more time.

Last week, Lamberth denied defense motions for a new trial. But the verdict is likely to be appealed, according to lawyers who participated.

“I have a feeling we’re some way away from resolution,” said Charles S. Leeper, a lawyer for B.L. Harbert International, the main construction company involved in the case.

 

Link to original article:   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070103071.html?sub=AR

 

 

Influence and Lobbying in America

A reasonably good explanation of the politics in politics, how influence is designed and applied by special interest groups, behind the scenes.  -GFS

———————————————————————–

 

The Cold Calls Behind Those Personal Letters to Congress

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, The Washington Post
Tuesday, July 1, 2008; A09

In the past five years, 44 percent of Americans — about 100 million people — have contacted their elected representatives in Washington. Most of them did so at the prompting of a third party — often a lobbying group — according to surveys done for the Congressional Management Foundation.

Which is a major reason that Michele Simmons of Tok, Alaska, and Kiym Gardner of Clarksville, Tenn., have steady, stay-at-home jobs.

Simmons and Gardner are among 500 contract workers for Democracy Data & Communications (DDC), an Alexandria company that specializes in lobbying from the grass roots. DDC pays the two women to spend much of their day telephoning people around the country and asking them to sign letters to Congress that press for legislation.

The workers are paid $10 to $15 an hour, depending on their expertise. DDC says lobby groups pay the company $75 to $125 per letter sent, depending on the difficulty of the campaign.

Whether lawmakers know it or not — and some might be disappointed to learn — the practice is not only common but growing. Interest groups, preparing for a new president and the sweeping initiatives he no doubt will launch, are increasingly hiring folks like Simmons and Gardner to build lists of voters-back-home who can be called upon to contact Washington.

The seemingly heartfelt letters they produce are among the most persuasive kinds of communications that Congress receives, polls of congressional offices have shown.

Grass-roots recruiters such as Simmons and Gardner act as both salespeople and reporters. They try to persuade the people they call to send a letter on a specific topic and then compose a draft of the missive — subject to the person’s approval — based on the stories they hear. The people contacted mail, e-mail or fax the letters to their lawmakers in Washington.

The object, said B.R. McConnon III, chief executive of DDC, “is to find real people with real stories.”

Simmons, 49, is, in fact, a former journalist. Gardner, 35, once worked in marketing for NASCAR. Both say they enjoy their jobs because they get to talk to people all day and don’t have to commute to work. For Simmons, that could mean a 300-mile trek to Fairbanks.

“I work from 30 to 40 hours a week and I’m free to set my own schedule; that sometimes includes weekend work,” Simmons said. “I love it. I love all the people I’ve had the pleasure to speak with. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve worked on issues that range from animal testing to Medicare.”

“We have a database of folks to contact who for whatever reason have expressed an interest in the issue of the day,” Simmons explained. “I try to describe the issue. If they are interested, then I generally go through a series of questions. At the end, I ask them if they want to have a letter composed based on the information they shared with me.”

Simmons said she produces an average of one letter per hour. Gardner gins up between four and eight letters a day, she said. And she is happy for the work. “I live in a small town where there aren’t a lot of good-paying jobs,” she said.

Still, letters from individuals make up a small fraction of the communications to lawmakers. Many, many more contacts are done by e-mail, through millions of messages generated by interest-group Web sites.

DDC will not say who its clients are. But it must have a lot of them. Last year it had 39 projects of this kind. This year, in anticipation of a busy time for advocates from the grass roots in 2009, its pace is even faster.

Ecuador Duel

Two Washington heavyweights have been brought into the fight over how to pay for the repair of an environmental mess in, of all places, Ecuador.

Democratic lobbyist Ben Barnes has been hired by Kohn Swift & Graf, a Philadelphia law firm that’s bankrolling a lawsuit in Ecuador to force Chevron to pay potentially billions of dollars to clean up some oil fields and their environs down there — a controversy that’s been simmering for years.

Barnes said he is hoping to raise the dispute’s profile in Congress and elsewhere in Washington. He wants to put heat on the company to acknowledge the contamination and agree to fix it.

Chevron says that the suit is without merit and that the company and its predecessor in Ecuador did the required remediation long ago. It has been using McLarty Associates, headed by former Clinton White House chief of staff Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty III, to help it deal with the government of Ecuador, a spokesman for McLarty said.

Hire of the Week

A well-known Washington pilot is about to take the controls of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

Craig L. Fuller, 57, a former vice presidential chief of staff to George H.W. Bush, has been named the organization’s new president, replacing Phil Boyer, who is slated to retire at the end of the year.

Fuller has held a variety of jobs since leaving the White House. He was president of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and led the board of directors practice for Korn/Ferry International, an executive search firm.

Through it all, he has been a pilot, which makes his fit in the new position much easier. Fuller learned to fly when he was in high school and still logs at least 200 hours a year in his Beech Bonanza A36.

“Craig is a committed 40-year pilot, aircraft owner and AOPA member,” said William C. Trimble III, the association’s chairman. “He is as comfortable with fellow pilots and ‘hangar talk’ as he is facing a congressional committee.”

Gas Stations Push Back

You’re not the only one angry about high fuel prices. So are the middlemen who bring it to you: owners of gas stations, deliverers of heating oil and proprietors of truck stops.

Their lobby group, the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, is battling back in the particular way that it can. It has distributed brochures, countertop posters and pump-top signs that carry a single message: Stop the high-finance speculation that it maintains is adding to the price.

“Hedge funds and investment bankers are gaming the system, using loopholes to drive up the cost of energy and reap record profits,” reads a card meant for display on gas station counters.

The card goes on to suggest that customers visit a Web site, http://www.stopoilspeculators.com, and use it to send a message of protest to Congress.

“Consumers have been at the mercy of Wall Street traders for too long,” said Dan Gilligan, president of the association. “We hope to ignite a firestorm of attention over the unchecked trading that these speculators continue to engage in.”

Financial institutions, by the way, disagree with Gilligan and his group, and are telling lawmakers directly that it would be a bad idea to rein in investments in energy contracts.

 

Failing American Infrastructure

Things are reaching a critical state, as conditions here at home have continued to be left to chance.  Is anyone paying attention?  With all of the other things demanding American’s attention, can anyone focus on this issue?  Where are all the potential whistleblowers who have first hand knowledge of problems in this arena? -GFS

 

 

Midwest Floods Spotlight Decrepit Infrastructure

Tuesday 01 July 2008

From Truthout.Org

by: Andrew Stern, Reuters

Flooding in Iowa devastated Michael Papich’s funeral home in Cedar Rapids. The flooding in the Midwest has reminded policymakers of the decrepit state of the US infrastructure.
(Photo: Kari Lydersen / The Washington Post)

    Chicago – The latest U.S. natural disaster is triggering fresh rounds of concern and debate about how to repair America’s aging infrastructure.

    The worst Midwest flooding since 1993 has generated images of swamped towns, cracked roads, washed-out bridges, overwhelmed dams, failed levees, broken sewage systems, stunted crops and water-logged refugees. The losses are in the billions of dollars and still mounting, as the costs of crop losses alone send shocks through the inflation-wracked world food system and threaten insurers.

    The disaster has reminded policymakers of the decrepit state of U.S. infrastructure, stirring concerns similar to those following the deadly Minneapolis bridge collapse in 2007 and the flooding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

    Even before the latest flooding, a group representing engineers said the United States needed to spend about $1 trillion more than it does now to bring infrastructure up to par with modern needs and standards.

    ”The patch-and-pray approach simply won’t succeed,” said David Mongan, head of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

    But the group also said its five-year cost estimate was outdated and does not count the price of new roads, rails, and sewers required by a growing population, nor the cost to repair damage inflicted by the recent Midwest floods.

    President George W. Bush has asked Congress for $1.8 billion to boost funds for flood recovery but it is unclear how much of that money will end up in infrastructure repair.

    Presidential candidates vying to succeed him have each promised quick action in Congress and offered some ideas for the larger task of repairing infrastructure.

    Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has proposed creating a $60 billion fund for infrastructure projects, funded by money saved by a promised withdrawal from the war in Iraq.

    ”This can be the moment when we make a generational commitment to rebuild our infrastructure,” Obama told business executives in Pittsburgh last week.

    Everywhere You Look

    Each need sounds dire: new wastewater treatment so sewage does not taint the same waterways that supply drinking water; repairs or replacements for thousands of corroded bridges; new and repaired dams and levees that will not fail; and upgrades to airports and air traffic control.

    ”We need profound changes,” said engineer Kumares Sinha of Purdue University. “We can’t live in a fool’s paradise.”

    While rising economic powers China and India build highways and other large projects, U.S. infrastructure – once the envy of the world – has fallen into decline, Sinha said.

    Two federal commissions since Katrina have tackled the issue and Congress is mulling proposals for a full-scale assessment of the nation’s infrastructure needs and an infrastructure “bank” to loan money for projects.

    But Sinha and other experts said the analysis should go deeper to reflect an economy likely to face higher fuel prices for the foreseeable future. Policymakers need to consider new methods of reducing road congestion, for example, whether by charging more to use them or exacting fees for entering city centers, which will generate revenue for mass transit.

    The nation also may have to reconsider its lukewarm commitment to passenger rail service, experts said.

    Government funding for some infrastructure needs has declined, such as for wastewater plants. Municipalities hike taxes or fees to repair ancient pipes prone to bursting.

    ”Everybody is drinking somebody’s waste water,” said Susan Bruninga of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.

    The state of Illinois is weighing its first capital improvement project in a decade, hoping to back $31 billion in bonds by leasing the lottery and building a casino in Chicago.

    More immediate priorities will emerge as Midwest floodwaters recede. People in some small towns in Indiana and Illinois are still virtually cut off because of flooded or damaged roads, officials said.

    Bridges that were already suspect received a battering from surging floodwaters, requiring thorough inspections. Scores of river levees were overtopped or gave way, while others were weakened and may need replacing, said Timothy Kusky, a flood expert at Saint Louis University.

    A repeat of the flooding is likely because climate change will make the Midwest wetter in the next 30 years, he said.

    ——-

    (Editing by Peter Bohan and Bill Trott.)

http://www.truthout.org/article/midwest-floods-spotlight-decrepit-infrastructure»

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