FBI — Katrina - Press Room - Headline Archives 09-01-09
KATRINA: FOUR YEARS LATER
Fraud, Corruption Cases Continue09/01/09
FEMA issued debit cards worth $2,000 in the weeks following Katrina. To date, more than 1,300 people have been indicted for Katrina-related crimes, including stealing government funds.
In the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the federal government began pouring billions of dollars into New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region to aid recovery efforts—and the criminal justice system braced for the fraud and corruption that would surely follow all that money.Today, four years after the storm struck on August 29, 2005, the FBI and our law enforcement partners continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute Katrina-related crimes. Last Friday, for example, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana announced 18 new felony indictments stemming from citizens fraudulently obtaining assistance from the American Red Cross and the Louisiana Road Home Program.
There have also been many cases of public corruption associated with Katrina, said David Welker, special agent in charge of our New Orleans office.
“When it comes to criminal activity and public officials trying to siphon off funds meant for projects to rebuild the area,” he said, “we maintain a zero tolerance policy. We won’t stop pursuing these cases no matter how much time passes.”
Within days of the hurricane, the Department of Justice established the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force—since renamed the National Center for Disaster Fraud—to deter, investigate, and prosecute disaster-related federal crimes.
The task force—comprised of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, as well as the United States Attorneys’ Offices—is located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and it has not lacked for business.
To date, more than 1,300 individuals have been indicted for Katrina-related crimes. The task force has received more than 36,000 complaints since 2005, and has referred some 22,500 to law enforcement for possible investigation. The FBI has received nearly 4,800 of those referrals.
Some of the cases are shocking. Earlier this month, a former chief of police in Lumberton, Mississippi was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail after being convicted on eight federal fraud charges in connection with lying to receive aid for a property that was not his primary residence. The former chief was found guilty of stealing government funds, lying to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and committing wire fraud. At sentencing, the judge ordered him to repay FEMA more than $29,000 and noted that he had betrayed the public trust and seriously tarnished the image of law enforcement.
“Katrina had such an impact on the region,” said David Welker, special agent in charge of our New Orleans office, which was ruined by the Category-4 storm. “It turned this world upside down.”
In New Orleans, Special Agent in Charge Welker said public corruption and government fraud cases increased 243 percent during 2006-2008 compared with the years before Katrina, 2003-2005. Putting a stop to this fraud and corruption has prevented an economic loss estimated at more than $55 million, he said.We also continue to target violent crime—the city had a high murder rate before Katrina, and it’s even worse now. The New Orleans Violent Crime Task Force was established a year ago to target the “baddest of the bad,” those criminals who ride the revolving door of the criminal justice system. The task force consists of federal, state, and local law enforcement officers co-located at our New Orleans office and focuses on violent crimes including kidnapping, carjacking, armed robbery, and murder.
“Katrina had such an impact on the region,” Welker explained. “It turned this world upside down.” When the storm hit, our headquarters in the city was ruined, and many Bureau employees there lost their homes. But now, as then, he said, “despite the circumstances, the work of the office doesn’t stop. Bureau culture is to work until the job is done—and that’s just what we intend to do with Katrina crimes.”
September 1, 2009
FBI — Katrina - Press Room - Headline Archives 09-01-09
Anorak News » Blog Archive » Jaycee Dugard’s Secret Emails, In Pictures
Anorak News » Blog Archive » Jaycee Dugard’s Secret Emails, In PicturesJaycee Dugard’s Secret Emails, In Pictures
JAYCEE Lee Dugard - Anorak’s look at Jaycee Dugard in the news: Nancy Garrido And Phillip Garrido’s wedding photographs, a bone found, Jaycee’s secret emails and brainwashed by rape…
Sky News: “Jaycee Police Find Bone At House Next Door”
Police investigating the kidnap of Jaycee Lee Dugard have found a bone at the property next door to the home of her alleged abductor.
A skull. Bet it’s a skull… A hooker’s skull…
It was too early to tell whether the piece of bone was animal or human, sheriff’s department spokesman Jimmy Lee said.
Be still, armchair detectives and ghoul spotters…
Former customers of Garrido’s printing business say they are not surprised.
Carla Kirkland told Sky News: “When I drove up and he met me out on the road I thought it was a strange area that has no real communication. I don’t want to say it’s a bad area, I just thought it was the perfect place for what he did.”
Do you see? Sky says lots of sex attackers live in the area, but names none, nor tells viewers how many.
What says the expert?
JoAnn Behrman-Lippert, who has researched child abductions, said: “We know there are many cases like this, and it’s very detrimental to the survivors to have such a simplistic view that does not take into account the actual situation the person was in.”
Agreed. Jaycee Dugard is her own person. But they knew Charles Manson..?
Ms Behrman-Lippert said: “In my experience with kidnapping victims, I know they don’t always identify with the abductor.
Expert talks sense - read all about it!
The Sun: “MY SON THE SEX KILLER”
“He murdered 12 women and girls”
Knew it! what about Nancy Garrido?
They met at Leavenworth prison, Kansas, where he was serving his sentence and she was visiting a relative. They had married in the jail and after he got out they had the picture taken to send to his father Manuel, who refused to attend the ceremony.
Manuel Garrido said: “You can see that he is a very handsome man and you can imagine him dominating Jaycee. Nancy was extremely attractive and would have and did do anything for Phil. They look like the typical All-American couple - but when you know Phil like I do you know there is something terrible under the surface.”
Why imagine? Stick to the facts - they’re bad enough. And what was terrible was not that far under the surface - Phillip Garrido was in jail for rape and everyone who wants to talk to the media says he was nuts.
Daily Express: “Wife in Jaycee kidnap is the real monster”
Monsters. Not humans? Humans is more worrying than monsters. It is the humanity that makes this a big story.
Daily Mirror: “JAYCEE GIRLS WEPT AT FIEND’S ARREST”
Carl Probyn said: “They were a family. They wept when he was captured. They were attached to each other. It’s going OK, it’s step-by-step. It’s like Mars for them. It’s going to take a long time. They thought Jaycee was their sister. They don’t realise she was kidnapped. This is a new situation, it’s never happened. They’re intelligent. They may not have gone to school but they’re smart.They’re shy, they’re clingy. After 18 years being gone it’s pretty remarkable what Jaycee’s facing. She survived. She did what she had to do.”
Daily Telegraph: “Jaycee Lee Dugard sent emails from captivity”
Jaycee Lee Dugard was able to send emails from captivity and communicated with customers of her abductor’s printing business.
Detectives believe she regularly had access to an email account but had become so brainwashed by Philip Garrido that she never sent a message for help.
Was she brainwashed, or did she do what she had to do to survive? Can she be brainwashed yet still recognise her real mum, whom she greated by saying: “Mum, I have babies”?
Instead, her emails were banal replies to requests for printing products at Garrido’s business “Printing for Less”. In one she asked a client whether he wanted glossy or matte advertising brochures.
Banal. Says the Tabloid Telegraph.
The emails were typed in lower case letters with only a few spelling mistakes.
Interesting. What can that mean? While we wait for the email-ologist, we read the emails:
In 2007, by which time she had been missing for16 years, Miss Dugard sent an email to client Ben Daughdrill, who used to own a junk hauling business.
It read: “i will take a look at the price sheet and send you over a copy of the revised brochure tomorrow. as to the pictures sorry…but we don’t have a digital camera…
“i can get the brochures to you pretty fast within the week of final approval of the brochures. how many are you going to order and do you want them on glossy or matte paper, thick or thin?”
Daily Star: “JAYCEE’S STILL A LITTLE GIRL”
SEX slave Jaycee Lee Dugard survived an 18-year kidnap ordeal by pretending to be 11 years old.
But the Telegraph says Jaycee was “brainwashed”.
She continued to behave like a child and maintained her girly blonde looks for 18 hellish years to keep the monster on side.
More facts:
He began raping her almost immediately – and Jaycee soon realised she could end up dead if she did not satisfy his vile urges. Shrinks closely monitoring their tearful reunion were amazed when she cheerily greeted Terry saying: “Hi Mom, I have two babies.” They say that overwhelmingly suggests Jaycee is trying to blot out the past 18 years as an awful blur.
It does?
Marcos Breton - The Sacramento Bee
It’s Jaycee Dugard & Me
What would I say to my child 18 years after she was stolen from me — after her childhood was stolen from her — by a stranger?
You’d say - There’s a column in this…
All the pictures of the case so far.
Jaycee Dugard: Starlite And Angel Party Pictures And Phillip Garrido’s Rape Songs
Jaycee Dugard’s Wedding Photos
All the pictures of the case so far.
Jaycee Dugard: Headless Body Found At Garrido Home
Jaycee Dugard: Daughters Pictured, Crazy Garrido And LSD Zombie Paedo Orgies
Jaycee Lee Dugard Lived On Propofol, Cigarettes And Cola
Jaycee Dugard Rapist Phillip Garrido Linked To Madeleine McCann Abduction
Jaycee Lee Dugard Linked To Madeleine McCann
Anorak News » Blog Archive » Jaycee Dugard Pictures: Phillip Garrido’s Rape Van Caught On Google Maps
Anorak News » Blog Archive » Jaycee Dugard Pictures: Phillip Garrido’s Rape Van Caught On Google Maps
JAYCEE Lee Dugard - Anorak’s look at Jaycee Dugard in the news - Pictures of Phillip and Nancy Garrido’s home and van on Google Maps.
“Did Google Maps hold the key that could have freed Jaycee?” asks Asher Moses.
If only police had logged on to Google Maps, they might have uncovered Phillip Garrido’s pedophilia den earlier.
If only… They might…
A Google Maps search for 1554 Walnut Avenue, Antioch, CA reveals the Garrido home.
Google wants to film everything. Xeni Jadin zooms in:
Google maps view of van that has just departed 1554 Walnut Avenue, Antioch, CA, the home of sex offender Phillip Garrido. Was this Garrido’s van, following the Google vehicle with camera gear on top? I don’t know.
Neither do we. The Creepy Google Van Vs the Creepy Garrido Van. Who wins? But from the images we can get an idea of where the house sits.
As for Google saving humanity from the worst of humanity… Well, corporate spy vehicles is a step in the wrong direction. Putting your faith in technology and Big Brother never work.
All news starts at the local level.
Pictures below - and all the picures here.
Anorak News » Blog Archive » Michael Jackson: Sperm Parties, Macaulay Culkin And A Secret Heart Attack
Anorak News » Blog Archive » Michael Jackson: Sperm Parties, Macaulay Culkin And A Secret Heart AttackMichael Jackson: Sperm Parties, Macaulay Culkin And A Secret Heart Attack
MICHAEL Jackson Watch: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at Michael Jackson in the news - Macaulay Culkin’s sperm, Wacked Off Jackson’s celebrity milking machine, Jackson’s secret heart attack and the FBI…
Michael Jackson is now less Wacko Jacko as he is Wacked Off Jackson, the man who went about harvesting his friends’ sperm, singing to them to keep their produce tip-top quality and reminding them that more than two crotch grabs is a donation.
Mark Lester has already told us about his time on the Jacksons milking machine, and we have read of Jackson’s own desperming. Now we are invited to see Macaulay Culkin hooked up to the Jackson milk-o-matic.
The Sun: “Home Alone Culkin ‘is dad of Blanket’”
ACTOR Macaulay Culkin is the mystery dad of Michael Jackson’s son Blanket, it was claimed last night.
Blanket. Pubescent sperm. Did Jackson play a team of scrapologists to process the Neverland bedding? The King of…Pop?
The Home Alone film star is said to have donated sperm to help Jacko create his seven-year-old offspring - real name Prince Michael II - with an unknown surrogate mum.
One source said: “It is well known Jackson and Macaulay shared a unique bond. Now rumours are spreading like wildfire that Macaulay, who Jackson nicknamed Mack, is actually Blanket’s biological dad.”
Rumours mentioned. Rumours spread. And minds turn to those Jackson did not milk.
* Did Jackson equip Uri Geller with a soup soon and a copy of the Carrs of Sheffield catalogue?
* Did Elizabeth Taylor show Jackson her vials filled with the essences of husbands’ past?
* Did Jackson’s kin supply sperm, and would it explain La Toya Jackson’s wide-eyed expression?
* Is David Gest fit for purpose?
* Did Bubbles spank the monkey?
No word yet from Culkin nor anyone else. Still, rumours and all that. In other Jackson Five news:
Daily Mirror: “Michael Jackson’s heart attack was ‘kept secret’, claims singer’s friend
Dr Steven Hoefflin, a friend of the singer, revealed the latest twist after speaking to medics involved in Jackson’s case. He confirmed: “They say he had lividity, which means his blood had already sunk to the back of his body.”
Which means Michael Jackson’s body was on was back to front?
“This indicates Michael’s heart had stopped hours earlier.”
What other facts?
Forensic pathologist Dr Cyril Wecht, not involved in the Jackson case, said: “If someone carried the body from one room to another, the livor would be ‘broken’ where contact with the body was made.”
If…
“If one person held his ankles and the other held him under his arms, there would be corresponding white interruptions of livor mortis in those spots.”
If…
Retired FBI special agent Ted Gunderson, who has independently monitored the case, said the new evidence pointed to a “massive cover-up” by Murray.
Independently monitored the case – as in, read the newspapers and watched telly…
He asked: “Did Murray try to fool people into thinking Jackson died on the way to hospital in the hope an autopsy could be avoided?”
Dunno. What say you, detective?
If so, it didn’t work, which is why he had to confess to administering Propofol.” Murray, 56, denies mistreating Jackson.
If…
Michael Jackson – Rest in Pieces…
