FBI Investigates FEMA Flood Map Changes After NBC News Report

[jakeXT]

Source: NBC News

FBI agents are interviewing employees at FEMA in an investigation of unusual changes in federal flood insurance maps that benefited oceanfront condo buildings with a history of flooding, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

The investigation follows a report by NBC News documenting more than 500 instances in which FEMA has remapped waterfront properties from the highest-risk flood zone, saving the owners as much as 97 percent on the premiums they pay into the financially strained National Flood Insurance Program.

FBI agents have conducted interviews in Washington over the past 10 days with employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the flood insurance program. Others outside the government also have been interviewed and have voluntarily provided documents, according to two people interviewed by the FBI. Employees at contractors that evaluate the map changes for FEMA are also being interviewed.

Sitting in on the FBI interviews are investigators from the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to the sources. FEMA, which has said it would review the flood map changes identified by NBC, is an agency within the DHS .

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/fbi-investigates-fema-flood-map-changes-after-nbc-news-report-n62906

[djean111]

1. Money talks, money rules. No matter who is president, no matter who is in Congress.

[benld74]

2. Wait a minute, didnt something happen in House/Senate which

allowed this to occur. I recall reading something that allows the owners of such properties to pay original insurance costs in order to get the areas built up once more. I thought it was weird when I read it BUT it is the guvmit doing it.

[valerief]

3. Congress isn't the "guvmint". Congress is Big Business. nt

[Berlum]

4. I'd bet a sack of sticky doughnuts that the FEMA grifters in this are Bush-Republicon embeds

This has the stanky reek of classique Republicon Family Grifter Values in action.

[Submariner]

6. Ditto..........This is 5 deferment Cheney's doing

Cheney has moles in Obama Administration, reporter says
John Byrne and David Edwards
Published: Wednesday April 1, 2009

"He�s put people back," Hersh said. "They call it a stay-behind. It�s sort of an intelligence term of art. When you leave a country and, you know, you�ve driven out, you know, you�ve lost the war. You leave people behind. It�s a stay-behind that you can continue to contacts with, to do sabotage, whatever you want to do.

"Cheney�s left a stay behind," Hersh continued. "He�s got people in a lot of agencies that still tell him what�s going on. Particularly in defense, obviously. Also in the NSA, there�s still people that talk to him. He still knows what�s going on. Can he still control policy up to a point? Probably up to a point, a minor point. But he�s still there. He�s still a presence."

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Hersh_Cheney_has_moles_in_Obama_0401.html

[jakeXT]

7. Nuland was the principal deputy foreign policy advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Nuland has had a long career in the Foreign Service, working for both Democratic and Republican administrations. She is now the special envoy for Conventional Armed Forces in Europe; during the George W. Bush administration, she was the U.S. ambassador to NATO, and before that the principal deputy foreign policy advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney.

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/05/16/victoria_nuland_to_be_state_department_spokesman

[Enrique]

5. good for NBC News

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. Much as the MSM is derided around here, real reporters still serve an essential role in a democracy

And many still work for the big guys.
No, not as many as before, alas.

[wordpix]

9. no surprise, seeing how many condos are built in the storm surge and flood zones

of course, the rich folks who can afford waterfront properties pass the risk onto US

[mercuryblues]

10. And do

you really think hotels on the beach would pass the savings on to guests...hell no, more profit for them.

Socialize the losses, privatize the profits.