LAT: Shades of FEMA's Brown in Bush Pick (to head refugee crisis response)

[DeepModem Mom]

Shades of FEMA's Brown in Bush Pick
By Ken Silverstein, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — Less than a month after the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped down amid accusations of cronyism and incompetence, the Bush administration is being assailed for nominating another political ally to head a key agency for responding to foreign disasters.

One leading international relief group is publicly opposing the appointment of Ellen Sauerbrey to the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, and others have expressed private concerns over her lack of experience in emergency response work.

Sauerbrey, a former member of the Republican National Committee who was Bush's Maryland state campaign chairwoman in 2000, is the U.S. representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

If confirmed by the Senate, which has not set a date for a hearing, Sauerbrey would head an agency with a $700-million annual budget that has responsibility for coordinating the U.S. government's response to refugee crises during natural disasters and wars.

The bureau coordinates with private and international organizations, such as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, to help set up refugee camps and to ensure sufficient food and other aid. It has helped confront refugee crises around the globe, including in war-torn Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as in southern Asia after the December tsunami....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-refugee1oct01,0,3602588.story?coll=la-home-nation

[Straight Shooter]

1. When will bush appoint Jenna to a critical post? How about Barney? n/t

[journalist3072]

2. I remember her....Used to be a local Maryland politician

She once ran for Governor of Maryland. I don't recall people having too many fond things to say about her.

[radfringe]

3. statement from refugees international

http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/6712/

Statement on the nomination of Ellen Sauerbrey as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration

Kenneth H. Bacon
09/01/2005


President Bush’s nomination of Ellen Sauerbrey to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration suggests a weakening of the administration’s commitment to refugee protection and humanitarian action. The Refugee Bureau at State is the nation’s first responder to refugee crises, whether caused by wars, earthquakes, famines or floods. However, Ms. Sauerbrey has no experience with refugee protection or with orchestrating responses to complex humanitarian emergencies.

Ms. Sauerbrey, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor in Maryland, is currently the Bush administration’s ambassador to the United Nations for women’s issues. In that post, Ambassador Sauerbrey has spoken out strongly on three issues: the need for more education for women, the importance of empowering women economically and politically and her opposition to abortion rights. It is her anti-abortion stance that appears to have attracted the administration’s attention, even though population programs comprise a small part of the Refugee Bureau’s work.

[WhiteTara]

4. I met a woman who has just come home from

the hurricane struck areas and she says that this is a disaster bigger than you can imagine. People are literally starving. Clothes are piled on the sides of the road because no one needs clothes, they need food. The animals are so infected with the chemical poisoning that they just stand there staring waiting to die. There is no animal food for the abandoned pets. There is no medicine for the routine problems like cuts and infections. There are no cleaning supplies. Yet billions are being thrown at something.

[celestia671]

5. "Yet billions are being thrown at something. "

That would be Halliburton.