Came in Late..but did Andrea Koppel say "Privitatization of Walter Reed Hospital" Was Problem?

[KoKo]

Did she say that before Bush "Privatization Scheme" for Military that 300 Personnel took care of Soldiers at Walter Reed...but AFTER it was down to 70?

What the HELL IS GOING ON HERE?

[malaise]

1. Give me an H

Give me an A
Give me two LLs and follow the money to Cheney's gang.

Gr.

[KoKo]

2. AND...they are sending some Shill out onto "60 Minutes" to push this Further?

and the AARP Retirement Group...just MIGHT BE SIGNING ON? :shrug:

How low do the BUSHIES GO...? THEY OWN IT ALL ...and they JUST KEEP GOING!!!!!!

[Monkeyman]

3. Can you say Cheney's company has the contracts

[Eric J in MN]

4. Here is a link.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/02/breaking-did-privatization-at-walter-reed-put-troops-at-risk/

Army Times:

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has subpoenaed Maj. Gen. George Weightman, who was fired as head of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, after Army officials refused to allow him to testify before the committee Monday.

Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and subcommittee Chairman John Tierney asked Weightman to testify about an internal memo that showed privatization of services at Walter Reed could put “patient care services at risk of mission failure.”

The memorandum “describes how the Army’s decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was causing an exodus of ‘highly skilled and experienced personnel,’” the committee’s letter states. “According to multiple sources, the decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed led to a precipitous drop in support personnel at Walter Reed.”

The letter said Walter Reed also awarded a five-year, $120-million contract to IAP Worldwide Services, which is run by Al Neffgen, a former senior Halliburton official.

=======================

[KoKo]

5. Thanks for the Link...OMG...What Lengths will Bush/Cheney GO TO!

They NEVER SERVED but they use the TROOPS they SENT...Young and Old of us and ROTC and National Guard and whomever they could CONSCRIPT to FIGHT THE WARS THEY NEVER FOUGHT IN BECAUSE OF DEFERRMENTS!

GIVE ME A BREAK!

NOW...they ASK THOSE WHO "SERVE" to be PRIVATIZED...Like the REST OF US? Caught up in Downsizing, Mergers & Acquistions, Layoffs?

:shrug:

IS THIS WHAT THEY ARE SAYING???

[Monkeyman]

6. Yep they even are starting on the VA's

[KoKo]

11. Grover Norquist and his Ilk in the AEI must be Wet Dreaming This to the Max!

The Repugs put out Shit for DECADES about how they SUPPORT OUR TROOPS and how we let them die after Vietnam because some "Hippie/Boomers" supposedly "spit on them" ...and then the MEME/DISINFORMATION GOES ROUND THE WORLD...and becomes THE HISTORY OF VIETNAM...i.e. AMERICAN DIDN't SUPPORT THE TROOPS in Vietnam...because they were "Anti-War Hippies/Boomers" and the DAMNED LIE LIVES FOR DECADES...and comes back to BITE US IN THE ASS YEARS LATER?

Have I got this MEME or DISINFO CORRECT? :cry:

And...that's why Soldiers from Iraq/Afghanistan are living in COCKROACH/MOLD/RAT INFESTED HOSPITAL WARD AT Walter Reed Hospital?

GIVE ME A BREAK!!! :puke:

[peacetalksforall]

22. Here is some stuff about Neffgen - CEO of IAP Worldwide

"Jones wins big in fed move to privatization"

"In 1992, Jones hired Al Neffgen as president of the operation, and business has boomed.

Neffgen says he "changed the corporate culture," and began aggressively seeking new business while ensuring clients top-flight work.

The combination paid off.

Neffgen says Jones Management now employs 6,500 people, has 115 ongoing contracts throughout the U.S. and 10 foreign countries and a backlog of $1 billion, guaranteeing solid work for at least the next four years. He expects revenue to exceed $300 million this year."

Charlotte Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/1996/08/05/story2.html
August 5 1996

THEN - Neffgen moved to Halliburton

"Looks like the former president and chief executive of J.A. Jones Inc. has landed on his feet with a new job at massive international company Halliburton.

Al Neffgen has been appointed chief operating officer for government operations for the Americas at Kellogg Brown & Root, Halliburton's engineering and construction group. In his new role, Neffgen will oversee all work performed by KBR for the U.S. government."

March 15 2004?
http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2004/03/15/tidbits1.html

THEN - there is this

"International: U.S. Auditors Accuse Halliburton of Delays --- Pentagon Claims Company Is Holding Back Documents Related to Contract Dispute

By Neil King Jr
The Asian Wall Street Journal p.A2
Dec. 22, 2003
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Defense Department auditors have accused Halliburton Co. of refusing to turn over internal documents that show the company was aware of accounting problems related to an Iraqi fuel contract that allegedly has overcharged U.S. taxpayers so far nearly $100 million (bold added).

The dispute over the documents is laid out in a Dec. 10 letter from the Defense Contract Audit Agency to a top official at Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary handling more than $5 billion of work in Iraq.

"It has come to my attention that DCAA has been denied access to and/or copies of internal audit documents and reports performed on KBR operations," the letter said. "This is of great concern to me and is not in the spirit of open communication, trust and cooperation that we agreed to" at an earlier meeting. The letter was sent by Francis P. Summers Jr., a regional Defense Contract Audit Agency director in Texas, to Al Neffgen, KBR's chief operations officer."

http://foi.missouri.edu/usenergypolicies/auditors.html
Freedom of Information Center

THEN - he's at IAP and it's Katrina work:

Defining Small (Dan Quayle)
By Griff Witte and Renae MerleWashington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 20, 2005;

"The government's list of small businesses receiving Katrina-related federal contracts along the Gulf Coast includes one of the largest debris-removal firms in the country and a billion-dollar corporation that boasts former vice president Dan Quayle on its board of directors.

Neither company is a small business by any conventionalstandard. But because of a loophole in federal regulations, a company can be counted as one if it was once small even if it is not now, raising questions about the statistics the government has been citing to defend itself from charges that it has favored big companies in the massive Hurricane Katrina cleanup.

The two companies, AshBritt Inc. and IAP Worldwide Services Inc., have between them Army Corps of Engineers contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Gulf Coast recovery work. Because both firms were small when they won their first contracts, the Corps of Engineers said it still considers work performed under those deals as work by small businesses "

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:qrZR9-uf508J:www.ezgsa.com/images/definingsmall.pdf+%22al+neffgen%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us

[peacetalksforall]

23. Does everyone except me know about this Association - CSA Contract

Services Association?

http://www.csa-dc.org/news/membersnews.asp

Mind boggling.

Amazing.

The perpetual war maching is much more established that I could have guessed.

Help me up - this is so depressing.

[jannyk]

7. Heard something about it being same Co. responsible

for delivering ice during Katrina.

[Bitwit1234]

8. Shouldn't we all call Waxman's office and protest this

This son of a bitc* who stole the white house should be arrested and kept in jail for life. He stands in front of the public and says he supports the troops. But he sends them to be killed and lets them die for lack of care. Like he did for the Katrina victims. What kind of people are republicans. The republicans who now hold office know what kind of monester he is, why do they continue to support him. Why don't they show they are human and real Americans and get behind the democrats trying to curb his quest to be a dictator.

I bet one thing. I bet he goes to war with Iran, nuclear, and declares martial law and takes over the country til there are enough to throw his ass out and put him and cheney in jail.

[KoKo]

9. Waxman's ON IT...Blast this all over the Web...to get support!

Waxman's Subcommittee needs MEGA SUPPORT!

[peacetalksforall]

12. If you're watching TV - notice the absense of news about Waxman -

this day and every day.

They don't wnat mere listeners to know about Wasman in any form.

Yes, support Wasman - tell everyone you can. We are the substitute news draftees for news that can't be carried on corporate enternating-news networks. The Smith, car chasing, prison, pedophile networks, celebrity scandal networks like GE/Microsoft MSNBC.

[KoKo]

14. Yep...even PBS's Lehrer didn't report...But CNN's Koppel DID

and she's been very RIGHT WING so far on Bush before this. She's the ONLY ONE I saw channel surfing who mentioned Henry Waxman..

[Pirate Smile]

10. Earlier thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x326454

[KoKo]

16. Thanks for link that DU'ers were on this earlier....n/t

[spanone]

13. Another 'katrina' agency....just like FEMA, the FDA, the Military has also been destroyed.

bushco's incompetence is staggering. I think when it comes to military matters the buck stops with

the COMMANDER IN CHIEF.

[KoKo]

17. Isn't this a big SHELL GAME? Look under the three Walnut Shells to

get the Prize where the Controller manages to shift the shells back and forth so that No One EVER WINS?

[peacetalksforall]

15. Here's a project idea for someone who has the time -

Compile a list of all the companies that have received privatization contracts and determine:

. where they are registered
. where they bank
. if they source outside the U.S. and for what kinds of work

Registration is key - they can get around tax and legislation - OHSA unemployement compensation, litigation, payola - it's perfect for this secret, sub=government whose representatives in our pay are always screaming - NATIONAL SECURITY!

[KoKo]

18. There's lots of Documentation in the DU "Research Forum"

Here! But, I and others find it complicated to use. Josh Marshall's "Talking Points Memo" has a nice Archive of much of this, also.

Many of us Long Time DU'ers have this cataloged in their brains so maybe we can seem impatient sometimes with those who are just coming here and waking up.

Try the DU "Research Forum" though.

[peacetalksforall]

20. Thanks, I will. I'm a little obsessed by tax and legislation escapees.

[KoKo]

25. Well...you aren't alone...the more we can explore the better.....or

whatever...but it's important, if one has time to DIG. :shrug:

[caligirl]

19. I saw 700 fed workers were 'rifted, 60 remained and the Halliburton company took over.

The sameone who couldn't get ice to NOLA.

[Fuzz]

21. Great, fuck it up bad, then bring in your buddies to 'fix it' and take all

the tax-payer's money. What a scam.

[peacetalksforall]

24. Job Opportunity - Walter Reed Army Medical Center

IAP Worldwide Services, Inc.
2231 Crystal Drive, Suite 1113
Arlington, VA 22202
Main Phone: [phone]
Main Fax: [phone]
Contacts:

Dave Swindle, President
Craig Peterson, Senior Vice President,
Major Programs
Chuck Dominy, Vice President,
Government Affairs
Kent Brostrom, Vice President and General Counsel
If you are interested in learning about employment opportunities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, please call 202-356-1012 ext. 40597.

http://www.iapws.com/who/contact.aspx