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Tuesday, September 13, 2005 |
AlterNet: "Heavily armed paramilitary mercenaries from the Blackwater private security firm, infamous for its work in Iraq, are openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans. Some of the mercenaries say they have been 'deputized' by the Louisiana governor; indeed some are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their arms. They say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force.
That raises a key question: under what authority are Blackwater's men operating? A spokesperson for the Homeland Security Department, Russ Knocke, told the Washington Post he knows of no federal plans to hire Blackwater or other private security. 'We believe we've got the right mix of personnel in law enforcement for the federal government to meet the demands of public safety,' he said.
But in an hour-long conversation with several Blackwater mercenaries, we heard a different story. The men we spoke with said they are indeed on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and the Louisiana governor's office and that some of them are sleeping in camps organized by Homeland Security in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. They told us they not only had authority to make arrests but also to use lethal force."
Guardian: "Hundreds of mercenaries have descended on New Orleans to guard the property of the city's millionaires from looters.
The heavily armed men, employed by private military companies including Blackwater and ISI, are part of the militarisation of a city which had a reputation for being one of the most relaxed and easy-going in America."
So millions are spent by Homeland Security to guard the homes of the rich, while the poor are treated like dirt.
Yahoo: "Search teams found more than 40 bodies, many of them elderly patients, inside a hospital flooded out by Hurricane Katrina, officials said Monday.
Many of the patients died while waiting to be evacuated over the four days after the storm hit, as temperatures inside Memorial Medical Center rose to 106 degrees, said Dave Goodson, assistant administrator at the hospital, owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp."
DailyMail: "Doctors working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leaving them to die in agony as they evacuated hospitals, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
With gangs of rapists and looters rampaging through wards in the flooded city, senior doctors took the harrowing decision to give massive overdoses of morphine to those they believed could not make it out alive."
Watch this video about neglect by police and military.
Jurist: "Guards at a New Orleans jail fled their posts after Hurricane Katrina struck, leaving prisoners behind in appalling conditions."
While the Bush Misadministration concentrates on protecting the rich and preventing uprisings, concerned citizens provide lists of potential toxic chemical site in New Orleans, a task Homeland Security hasn't envisaged yet, let alone knows what to do about it.
This is the banality of a failed state, in which security is only provided to the rich and everyone else is forced to look after their own interests and keep out of the way of the Bush Mob.
2:50:51 PM 
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Guardian: "Multinational companies operating in the world's poorest countries are dodging around £270bn a year in tax, anti-poverty campaigners claimed today.
By not paying the taxes, rich businesses are depriving developing countries of much needed revenue, according to a report by Christian Aid."
2:00:46 PM
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