Another official quits Homeland Security (This makes it four leaving)

[Robbien]

The homeland security official charged with the complex task of cataloguing the nation's potential terrorist targets and working out which are most at risk announced yesterday that he was stepping down. Frank Libutti, the undersecretary for information analysis and infrastructure protection, is the latest in a lengthening line of senior officials to announce their departure from the troubled department since Secretary Tom Ridge said at the beginning of the month that he was leaving.

<snip>

Miss Petrovich said Mr. Libutti was leaving to spend more time with his family and had no future career plans. "He is keeping all his options open," she said.

<snip>

The department, Mr. Gannon said, needs resources and connectivity with the intelligence community.

Deputy Secretary Jim Loy announced his departure earlier this week. Mr. Loy is slated to leave March 1. So did Sue Mencer, who oversees the department's grants programs, as well as its relations to first responders and state and local governments.

And others might flee the department. The executive said both of Mr. Libutti's principal deputies — Assistant Secretary for Information Analysis Pat Hughes and his counterpart, Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection Robert Liscouski — want to leave.

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041223-104020-8034r.htm

[eleny]

1. What? No stop-loss????

[Carl Brennan]

2. Maybe the price of loyalty is looking to high.

If I was in that org or any other Bush run agency and I knew half of what many Duers know about what the Bushboy is really about it would seem risky, from a professional point of view, to continue working for him. There was hemorraging at the CIA and now it looks like the same thing is happening at HS.

And/Or it could be that these people that are leaving know too much.

Just some thoughts.

[Solly Mack]

3. "was leaving to spend more time with his family"

Of course he is

[MADem]

4. Squeak, squeak, squeak

The sound of rats deserting a sinking ship...

Either that, or they were tired of rule by primary colors.

Say, what's the color today, kids???

[saltpoint]

5. Does anyone know if --

-- Bush has a short list of replacements for Bernie Kerik? There was some talk in the news that he might announce the Homeland Security replacement before he left for the Xmas break, but I haven't heard anything about it since.

Who would be a good choice for that spot? Not from Bush's point of view, but from the nation's well-being point of view?

[Carl Brennan]

6. Sue Mencer may be someone to ask a few questions

I wonder if she knows anything about Homeland Security money going to Marvin and Jeb Bush company "Winston Partners"?


http://www.counterpunch.org/burns1205.html

Profits from the Patriot Act:
Inevitably, many companies are aggressively marketing services to make
businesses "Patriot Act"-compliant: that is, they sell computer
systems to enable banks to argue successfully to Uncle Sam that
they're not laundering money for terrorists. One of the most
aggressive is Sybase Inc., which developed a "Sybase PATRIOT
compliance Solution" months ago. Sybase, which said it wanted foreign
banks as customers (it already had a deal with the People's Bank of
China), landed Sumitomo Mitsui Bank in time for the October 2002
compliance deadline.
This is where Winston Partners comes in. The Chatterjee Group,
including Winston Partners, owns 5.5 million shares in Sybase
(Chatterjee businesses also have been paid thousands more shares in
Sybase). SEC filings show that Winston Partners LP owns 1,036,075
shares in Sybase; Winston Partners LDC holds 1,317,825 shares; and
Winston Partners LLC owns 1,221,837 shares. The shares owned by the
subsidiaries are collectively managed in funds for Winston Partners by
Pernendu Chatterjee. There is also a Chatterjee Charitable Foundation.
Business for Sybase is business for Bush, and the Patriot Act boosted
business.
Not that the Patriot Act is Sybase's only federal conduit. The company
is also a significant government contractor (especially nowadays),
with contracts from the Agriculture Department, the Navy ($2.9 million
in 2001), the Army ($1.8 million in 2001), the Defense Department
($5.3 million in 2001), Commerce, Treasury and the General Services
Administration among others. The federal procurement database lists
Sybase's total awards for 2001 as $14,754,000.
Sybase is only one of the companies with federal contracts from which
Marvin Bush's firm derives financial benefit. Winston Partners'
portfolio also includes Amsec Corp., which got Navy contracts worth
$37,722,000 in 2001.
The potential for abuse here can hardly be overstated. A branch of the
military or other government agency that risked funding cutbacks, for
example, could throw up a buffer by awarding a contract benefiting the
First Family. Why spend money on a lobbyist in the industry, when you
might have one in the White House?
Now let's step back and look at the big picture. The president's
brother is marketing to offshore customers (shipping out American
jobs, be it noted). He is closely linked to entities marketing
"outsourcing" and "global alternative investments" yet more
aggressively. Companies associated with them are doing other high-end
versions of the same. And some companies in which they have a stake
are involved in the most sensitive technology outside nuclear weapons
- being marketed simultaneously to the U.S. government, to foreign
banks and to the states (Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, New Jersey and New
York also purchase from Sybase). This is "security"?
Nor is Marvin Bush the only family member in this picture. His brother
Jeb Bush, Florida's governor, is also an investor in the Winston
Capital Fund, managed by Marvin Bush's firm. And Indigo Systems Corp.,
another federal contractor ($2,629,000 in 2001 from Defense and NASA),
is substantially backed by The Carlyle Group, the global finance
company. Who's that? Why the President's father, George H.W. Bush, sits on their board.


Here is more on the Bush brothers links to security firms and 9/11:

Check DU discussion on Marvin's WTC security job: http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=34990&forum=DCForumID60
and another DU discussion on 03/03/03: Check the replies here out for links to United Airlines security as well, one of the airlines used in the attack!!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=822&forum=DCForumID66
brother Marvin Bush: his connection to 9/11
"Marvin P. Bush, the president’s younger brother, was a principal in a company called Securacom that provided security for the World Trade Center, United Airlines, and Dulles International Airport."

Secrecy Surrounds 9/11 Investigation
-By Craig Cox-, Utne.com
February 2003 Issue

A member of the commission investigating the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington said he will push for “a wide-ranging, aggressive” probe that includes interviews with a less-than-cooperative White House. But how forthcoming will the Bush administration be when the president’s own brother’s name comes up in conversation.
The panelist, retired Democratic Congressman Tim Roemer, told Time.com that the investigation must go beyond the House-Senate inquiry that was chiefly notable for its inability to interview top-level members of the Bush administration. Officials such as Donald Rumsfelt, John Ashcroft, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice “were not questioned directly about issues related to the Setpember 11 attacks,” an oversight Roemer said needs to be corrected.
But getting White House cooperation will not be easy, said Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), who sponsored legislation creating the commission. The Bush administration, he said, “slow-walked and stonewalled” the congressional inquiry. “I don’t see how you can have a thorough investigation without talking to the people who were in charge throughout the time period prior to 9/11,” he said.
Such an investigation could reveal some embarrassing Bush family connections with a company “that intersected the weapons and targets on a day of national tragedy.” As Margie Burns reports in The American Reporter, an electronic daily newspaper, Marvin P. Bush, the president’s younger brother, was a principal in a company called Securacom that provided security for the World Trade Center, United Airlines, and Dulles International Airport. The company, Burns noted, was backed by KuwAm, a Kuwaiti-American investment firm on whose board Marvin Burns also served.
More:

[chomskysright]

8. And no one wants to be the last soldier standing....

there's eeriness to that statement attributed to John kerry...as a young man.....hot and bothered....against the Vietnam war: before Congress (an approximation of the quote): Sir, how do you convince soldiers to be the last one standing?

[leesa]

9. This just makes me sick to my stomach. Especially knowing that

Marvin was on the Board of Directors of the security systems company of the World Trade Center, United, Dulles until the day the towers came down.
And that Jeb declared a state of emergency in Florida on the 7th of September without nary an explanation offered and that he helped the files from the airline companies who supposedly trained the alleged 9-11 hijackers, get disappeared.

[Carl Brennan]

11. Marvin quit just after 9/11? Thanks for that Leesa

I'd love to have a link if you have one handy.

Happy Holidays :hi:

[Beetwasher]

7. Scary, No One Wants To Be the Fall Guy For What's Coming Down The Pike

n/t

[Divernan]

10. Either they are independently wealthy, or have lined up fat-cat consultant

jobs like Guliani, Kerik, Ridge, etc. At least Ridge admitted he was leaving to make more money. In this economy, no one quits one job without another one lined up. One name under consideration is Joe Albaugh. He was one of Bush's campaign managers, and was named to head FEMA - apparently with the mission to gut the agency, which, after all, helped people and small businesses laid low by floods, hurricanes, tornados, etc. The Bush attitude was hey, if you were too stupid to not have enough private insurance, screw you. Then 9-11 happened and they couldn't publicly gut FEMA. I understand that a lot of FEMA's funds have been diverted to they nameless abyss of Dept. of Homeland Security and there are 100's of vacancies in FEMA, caused by people who found other jobs and left - in part because Albaugh made the place very unpleasant. He has displayed a hair trigger temper toward underlings - no one knew what would set him off, but he was frightening to behold. NOT the kind of stable, common sense personality you need in a powerful position like head of DHS. Albaugh left FEMA to become a consultant in DC. There has been a total blackout on who's being considered - this is not good, because it means the administration is going to spring a name on the Senate under "emergency" time constraints, as in right after the coming Iraq election, when who knows what hell will break loose.

[benddem]

12. Don't you think

that they'd be smart enough to come up with a better or at least less used excuse?