Bush's detention facilities

I know we already had a thread on the Emergency powers, but these guys (Yes it's WND) are really digging here

Think of Hillary with this power

Good thing the framers allowed us to have guns. Oh wait, liberals don't have guns, because they're bad

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55923

Houston-based KBR, formerly the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Co., has a contingency contract in place with the Department of Homeland Security to construct detention facilities in the event of a national emergency.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, spokeswoman Jamie Zuieback confirmed yesterday in a telephone interview that the KBR contract for $385 million was awarded initially in January 2006 for a one-year base period with four one-year options. It has been extended into 2007. KBR held a previous emergency detention contract with ICE from 2000 to 2005.

Zuieback told this writer the primary intent of the KBR contract was to build temporary detention facilities that could be used in the event of a mass migration across the border that required ICE to respond on a quick basis to an illegal-immigration crisis.

"The idea of the KBR contract is to support the Army Corp of Engineers," Zuieback explained, "in case we experienced a sudden mass immigration and we had to respond quickly. We would need immediate detention facilities in the form of temporary housing that would enable us to determine if the large numbers of illegal immigrants were political or economically motivated, or if they were criminals or terrorists."

Zuieback confirmed that the KBR contract for detention facilities could apply to national emergencies, including natural disasters.

Several times, Zuieback insisted in the telephone interview that the KBR contract was a "contingency contract," specifying that detention facilities were to be built only when an immigration emergency or a national emergency, including a natural disaster, had been declared.

Heather Browne, spokeswoman for KBR, also sent me an e-mail yesterday confirming KBR built a temporary facility in New Orleans that provided cantonment for up to 500 federal detention officers who were tasked with maintaining law and order during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Last week, WND reported President Bush had signed May 9 a little-reported National Security and Homeland Security Directive (NSPD-51 and NSPD-20) that granted extraordinary powers to the president in the event of a declared national emergency, apparently without congressional approval or oversight.

NSPD-51/HSPD-20, published on the White House website, rescinds Presidential Decision Directive 67 signed by Bill Clinton Oct. 21, 1998, and establishes a new White House office of the National Continuity Coordinator, a position now occupied by Frances Fragos Townsend, the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Terrorism.

The new directive concentrates an unprecedented amount of emergency authority in the office of the president, specifying that the president now has the authority to direct "National Essential Functions" of all federal state, local, territorial and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations in the event of a national emergency.

The directive loosely defines "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."

The KBR contingency contract appears to give ICE the ability to have detention facilities constructed under the president's direction in response to a national emergency as declared under NSPD-51/HSPD-20.

The initial White House press release announcing the presidential directive included no background explanation of the directive or statement by the president. The press release merely posted NSPD-51/HSPD-20 on the White House website.

Sections 23 and 24 of NSPD-51/HSPD-20 specify that Annex A and the classified Continuity Annexes are incorporated into the directive, even though they remain secret and are not available for examination as part of the published document.

Still, Zuieback said she was not familiar with NSPD-51/HSPD-20. At her request, this writer e-mailed to her the White House website link to the directive posting.

The White House declined comment on the initial WND story and has not yet responded to the story or to my previous column on the subject.

Maybe it's just me, but it'll be a relief when every single government run building project doesn't automatically have Halliburton attached to it. It's scary how in-bed with this administration they really are.

I realize they said it is the former engineering divison, but you know that Halliburton still likely has huge stock ownership and influence on their former division. This is just another winking nepotism.

Burgold ,you will be waiting about three yrs till the current 10 yr LOGCAP contract runs out...and of course they will get more again for another as they did under Clinton.

Face it ,they are a huge company with it's foot in the door and are not going away no matter which party is in control.

I do think returning the contract length to 3-4 yrs would be a good idea though.

It may be an anecdotal evidence issue, but it seems like every government project finds a way to include Halliburton. I mean do we really need Halliburton designing new dry freezed food and catheters for NASA. Do you even want the same guys working on food and catheters?

I get that they are a big powerful company and they are bound to win a bunch of contracts. It seems that they are too favored however, especially given some of the corruption and a number of stories about their failures or stealing from the govt.

So Bush can now declare martial law at will.

We get warned of a massive, possibly nuke attack in the country.

Now we are building containment facilities for massive amounts of displaced people.

Super!

So Bush can now declare martial law at will.

We get warned of a massive, possibly nuke attack in the country.

Now we are building containment facilities for massive amounts of displaced people.

Super!

To bad libs don't have guns to defend themselves :laugh:

I share enough philosophy with the libs that they can count on my guns Sarge.

As for Haliburton...they are not even a US company anymore. How dare they be allowed to bid on huge contracts. Even by virtue of straw men they've set up here. They should be ashamed that they ran out on us in a time of need, especially considering the enormous profits we've allowed them to collect from the public till.

Why isn't their running out on us more of an issue? :doh:

Perhaps because they are still US based?

Their CEO has moved to overseas ,but the company remains...for now.

Not that I would blame them for leaving with all the grief they catch. :laugh:

Perhaps because they are still US based?

Their CEO has moved to overseas ,but the company remains...for now.

Not that I would blame them for leaving with all the grief they catch. :laugh:

And how many billions of dollars worth of grief would that be? Get off it man. These leaches have sucked us dry with shoddy performance and ubsurd prices. And now that it's convenient they bail to a foreign country. There headquarters is overseas, can they still be a US company? It would seem not to me.