Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 1 september
2005 / Timeline September 1, 2005
Version 3.5
August 2005, 2. September 2005
09/01/2005
Det er nu 28 måneder siden, at USAs præsident Bush
erklærede krigen i Irak for vundet.
09/01/2005
NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of
Defense
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier
who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Chief Warrant Officer
Dennis P. Hay, 32, of Valdosta, Ga., died on Aug. 29, 2005, in Tal
Afar, Iraq, where his OH-58D Kiowa helicopter came under attack by
enemy forces using small arms fire. Hay was assigned to the 4th
Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colo.
09/01/2005
Why the
Levee Broke
By Will Bunch (senior writer, Philadelphia Daily News)
Washington knew exactly what needed to be done to protect the
citizens of New Orleans from disasters like Katrina. Yet federal
funding for Louisiana flood control projects was diverted to pay
for the war in Iraq.
Even though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the
waters continued to rise in New Orleans on Wednesday. That's
because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a
two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street
Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level,
the rising tide may not stop until it's level with the massive
lake.
There have been numerous reports of bodies floating in the poorest
neighborhoods of this poverty-plagued city, but the truth is that
the death toll may not be known for days, because the conditions
continue to frustrate rescue efforts.
New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and
a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has
been working with state and local officials in the region since the
late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When
flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people,
Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control
Project, or SELA.
Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with
carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and
building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at
least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane
activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the
levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.
Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to
a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending
pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security --
coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for
the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004
and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the
lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.
Newhouse News Service, in an article posted late Tuesday night at
The Times-Picayune Web site, reported: "No one can say they didn't
see it coming. ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever,
serious questions are being asked about the lack of
preparation."
In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared,
President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the
Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to this
Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness:
The $750 million Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane
Protection project is another major Corps project, which remains
about 20% incomplete due to lack of funds, said Al Naomi, project
manager. That project consists of building up levees and protection
for pumping stations on the east bank of the Mississippi River in
Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles and Jefferson parishes.
The Lake Pontchartrain project is slated to receive $3.9 million in
the president's 2005 budget. Naomi said about $20 million is
needed.
"The longer we wait without funding, the more we sink," he said.
"I've got at least six levee construction contracts that need to be
done to raise the levee protection back to where it should be
(because of settling). Right now I owe my contractors about $5
million. And we're going to have to pay them interest."
On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told the Times-Picayune: "It appears
that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle
homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the
price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be
finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that
this is a security issue for us."
That June, with the 2004 hurricane seasion starting, the Corps'
Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee
Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work
that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004
Times-Picayune:
"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking.
Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to
raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said.
"The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the
federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."
The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to
pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the
levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for
the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in
October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for
$15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake
Pontchartrain.
The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of
that, the federal government came back this spring with the
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4200/is_20050207/ai_n10176537
steepest reduction in hurricane- and flood-control funding for New
Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office
there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted
for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million --
was not enough to start any new jobs. According to New Orleans
CityBusiness this June 5:
The district has identified $35 million in projects to build and
improve levees, floodwalls and pumping stations in St. Bernard,
Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes. Those projects are
included in a Corps line item called Lake Pontchartrain, where
funding is scheduled to be cut from $5.7 million this year to $2.9
million in 2006. Naomi said it's enough to pay salaries but little
else.
"We'll do some design work. We'll design the contracts and get them
ready to go if we get the money. But we don't have the money to put
the work in the field, and that's the problem," Naomi said.
There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more
research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect
itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money
was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:
That second study would take about four years to complete and would
cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager
Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005
fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that
amount.
But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to
order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies,
and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he
said.
The Senate was seeking to restore some of the SELA funding cuts for
2006. But now it's too late. One project that a contractor had been
racing to finish this summer was a bridge and levee job right at
the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday. The levee
failure appears to be causing a human tragedy of epic proportions:
"We probably have 80 percent of our city under water; with some
sections of our city the water is as deep as 20 feet. Both airports
are underwater," Mayor Ray Nagin told a radio interviewer.
The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed,
"The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this
year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast,
only to be opposed by the White House. ... In its budget, the Bush
administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for
southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush
proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they
need."
Washington knew that this day could come at any time, and it knew
the things that needed to be done to protect the citizens of New
Orleans. But in the tradition of the riverboat gambler, the Bush
administration decided to roll the dice on its fool's errand in
Iraq, and on a tax cut that mainly benefitted the rich. Now Bush
has lost that gamble, big time.
The president told us that we needed to fight in Iraq to save lives
here at home. Yet -- after moving billions of domestic dollars to
the Persian Gulf -- there are bodies floating through the streets
of Louisiana. What does George W. Bush have to say for himself
now?
Will Bunch is a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News and
author of the blog http://www.attytood.com/ Attytood.
09/01/2005
Hurricane Katrina Interrupts Production Of
Key Armored Vehicle
By Nathan Hodge
Defense Daily
September 1, 2005
Hurricane Katrina has brought production of the M117 Guardian
Armored Security Vehicle to a halt, Defense Daily has learned.
The ASV, a robust armored car made by Textron [TXT], is highly
sought after for counterinsurgency operations in Iraq. Just two
years ago, the Army was considering not buying any more of the
vehicles, but the ongoing threat from roadside bombs has prompted
the service to boost its requirements for the ASV.
Textron has been ramping up production at its two New Orleans-area
facilities to meet demand. Most recently, the service ordered 724
of the vehicles in a deal potentially worth $500 million.
A company source said that the hurricane and subsequent flooding in
New Orleans had interrupted production at two Textron facilities.
One facility, in Slidell, La., was not damaged, and a second, in
East New Orleans, had only minimal damage. But the company, like
many others, must now cope with the damage to the city's
infrastructure and the evacuation of its employees.
09/01/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States
Department of Defense
Northrop Grumman Information Technology, Reston, Va., is being
awarded a $49,000,000 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity
contract. The objective of this effort is to extend to the National
Air Space Intelligence Center (NASICS) current automated threat
database production system, consisting of the Automated
Intelligence Production Support System, the Knowledge
Pre-positioning System, virtual production, virtual intelligence
product retrieval environment and NASIC metadata repository. The
Air Force can issue delivery orders totaling up to the maximum
amount indicated above, although actual requirements may
necessitate less than this amount. The location of performance is
Northrop Grumman Information Technology, Fairborn, Ohio. At this
time, $554,000 of the funds has been obligated. This work will be
complete by August 2010. Solicitation began May 2005 and
negotiations were completed August 2005. The Air Force Research
Laboratory, Rome, N.Y., is the contracting activity
(FA8750-05-D-0281).
Lockheed Martin Corp., Maritime Systems & Sensors, Riviera
Beach, Fla., is being awarded a $10,550,686 cost type modification
to previously awarded contract (N00024-03-C-6308) for the
integration of the Littoral Precision Underwater Mapping Array
(LPUMA) sensor into the Advanced Development Unmanned Undersea
Vehicle (ADUUV). The integration of the LPUMA sensor into the ADUUV
will provide an asset more suitable for use in fleet exercises and
experiments, as well as for future Navy Unmanned Undersea Vehicle
risk reduction efforts. Work will be performed in Riviera Beach,
Fla., and is expected to be completed by September 2007. Contract
funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The
Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting
activity.
09/01/2005
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