Reporter Greg Palast faces Homeland Security charges

Here we go!

And still people will argue that the US isn't a fascist state.

Here's one earlier article that fits in nicely:


HURRICANE EXPERT THREATENED FOR PRE-KATRINA WARNINGS
0 Comments Published by Greg Palast August 28th, 2006 in Articles

A Greg Palast special investigation for Democracy Now!
Monday, August 28. From New Orleans.

Watch Part 1 of the Democracy Now! Report

Watch Part 2 of the Democracy Now! Report

DON’T blame the Lady. Katrina killed no one in this town. In fact, Katrina missed the city completely, going wide to the east.

It wasn’t the hurricane that drowned, suffocated, de-hydrated and starved 1,500 people that week. The killing was done by a deadly duo: a failed emergency evacuation plan combined with faulty levees. Behind these twin failures lies a tale of cronyism, profiteering and willful incompetence that takes us right to the steps of the White House.

Here’s the story you haven’t been told. And the man who revealed it to me, Dr. Ivor van Heerden, is putting his job on the line to tell it.

Van Heerden isn’t the typical whistleblower I usually deal with. This is no minor player. He’s the Deputy Director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center. He’s the top banana in the field — no one knew more about how to save New Orleans from a hurricane’s devastation. And no one was a bigger target of an official and corporate campaign to bury the information.

Here’s what happened. Right after Katrina swamped the city, I called Washington to get a copy of the evacuation plan.

Funny thing about the murderously failed plan for the evacuation of New Orleans: no one can find it. That’s right. It’s missing. Maybe it got wet and sank in the flood. Whatever: No one can find it.

Continue reading ‘HURRICANE EXPERT THREATENED FOR PRE-KATRINA WARNINGS’

ok, yes, thank you. I just got into the palast site and found that democracy now link.

""
On the eve of the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, investigative journalist Greg Palast reports that a top hurricane expert says government officials threatened his job over his warnings about the impending disaster.
""

very, very interesting. you do know that vilming iz verboten, no???

Here's the story in question


BIG EASY TO BIG EMPTY - The Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans
Published by Greg Palast August 27th, 2006 in Articles

Special Report for Democracy Now! & Link TV

Greg Palast, Writer & Reporter
Matt Pascarella, Executive Producer
Jacquie Soohen, Co-Producer, Filmographer & Editor
Coordinating Producers: Leni von Eckardt, Zach Roberts & Christy Speicher

It has been one year since the most devastating storm in our nation’s history destroyed New Orleans and took out large areas throughout the Gulf Coast. The population of the city is miniscule, the reconstruction sparse, suicide rates are climbing, and many have not, nor know how to, return to the city that care forgot.

Our team traveled down to New Orleans to investigate two things:

1) Why did they have to leave, what really caused the flood?

2) Why can’t they come back now?

In this report you will meet:

stephensmith cap- Stephen Smith who had no car, and no way to evacuate New Orleans. He tells us his devastating story of being left behind, closing the eyes of an old man who died while waiting to be rescued on a bridge, watching helicopters soar pass overhead, and no one coming to rescue him or the dozens stranded with him, on that bridge, for days. After the storm it took him 3 months to find his children. He is currently working in a grocery store in Houston and wants to come back to New Orleans but has no place to live.

- Ivor Van Heerden, Deputy Director of Louisiana State University’s Hurricane Center reveals who knew what and when — before, during, and after the storm — and warns that his job is in danger for telling us his story.

“FEMA knew at eleven o’clock on Monday that the levees had breached, at 2 o’clock they flew over the 17th St. Canal and took video of the breaches, by midnight on Monday the White House knew, but none of us knew.”

brodbagert cap- Brod Bagert, Former New Orleans’ City Councilman and lawyer takes us to a neighbor’s house where 5 bodies were found after the storm — in the back yard we find the levees that were supposed to protect the city from flooding; the levees that were supposed to protect the people who died here.

“Old ladies watched as water came up to their nose, over their eyes, and they drowned in houses just like this, in this neighborhood because of reckless negligence that is unanswered for.”

pamelalewis cap 1- Pamela Lewis, who had guns shoved in her face when she tried to evacuate with her 86 year old mother, has now been relocated over 100 miles from the city to one of FEMA’s giant trailer parks fenced in with barbed-wire and has lived there for 9 months. The trailer park is in a field literally in the middle of nowhere behind an Exxon Oil Refinery — the only bus available for residents goes only to Wal-Mart.

“It is a prison set-up. I’ve never been to the bottom of the barrel until I came here.”

patriciathomas

- Patricia Thomas who broke her teeth while trying to evacuate is now homeless and is locked out of her public housing unit in the Lafitte housing project near the French Quarter. We go with her as she enters her blockaded apartment (which she now plans to illegally occupy) and find that it was not damaged by the flooding and could be re-opened within a week’s time.

“Katrina didn’t do this. Man did this. This was man made.”

malik caption

- Malik Rahim, Director of Common Ground who is building communities aimed at bringing people back to New Orleans with affordable housing, collectives, and job-placement assistance.

“If we could do it - we could take a thousand people and house them in a humane way, why can’t the federal government do it?”

henryirvingsr

- Henry Irving Sr., home-owner in the Lower 9th Ward. His entire neighborhood has been completely destroyed, hardly anyone has returned, and those that have returned have been told not to — and yet Mr. Irving plans to stay.

“That’s what they want us to do. They want us to get discouraged and to leave. I’m going to stay here long enough to see it come back.”

Also, there are surprises, twists, and turns in this story that will be revealed only upon broadcast so…

…Tune In!

Tomorrow, Monday, August 28th tune into Democracy Now! to see Palast’s latest investigation. (To find out where you can see Democracy Now! In your hometown click here)

And on Tuesday, August 29th, the official anniversary, tune into Link TV to see the full report including a half-hour interview of Greg Palast by Amy Goodman on the current situation in New Orleans. (To find out where you can watch Link TV in your hometown click here)

Also tune in to Air America on Tuesday, August 29th at 4pm EST to hear Palast report on New Orleans. (For more information click here)

"The trailer park is in a field literally in the middle of nowhere behind an Exxon Oil Refinery — the only bus available for residents goes only to Wal-Mart."

whew.

thanks ac.

Pin Please

This should be pinned as well as the Steve Jones thread.

i know i'm going to get some flack for this but.........

wasn't homeland security doing its job in keeping the refinery safe from anyone who might be filming to do "bad", "evil"?

had you heard rather that homeland security had not checked on someone filming a refinery that refines your fuel, would you be angry, upset?

two sides to every story.

What? Greg Palast is a well-known BBC reporter. The article states he is under criminal investigation. It's not like they came upon him in the act of photographing the Exxon site; they came after him later.

This is getting out of hand. Lets hope the judge can see the injustice here.

I hope the jury that should be handling the civil suit can too.

I'd say in general that lawenforcement types should check out the credentials of someone filming an oil refinery. I don't know any of the details of the story yet thats part of the reason I'm posting, to find out more. But I'm thinking that it would be quick and easy to check out somebody like Greg Palast. He's a relatively high profile investigative journalist. Considering the back story I now am aware of, and the shady tactics alot of law enforcement types use on me, I'm really interested in how this comes out.

Is he in custody? How long? And what are the charges? I'd like to know.

that's right, I think the movie is already produced or mostly. the suspicious inference on the feds comes in with the subject matter of the film.

They're sweating now. They can feel it slipping away.

They're going to take everyone they can down with them.

Greg Palast would be right at home here in GLPland......

String him up1 Palast is one of BMG's obscure Marxist ranters dug up from never before heard from Socialist rags.

Guilty! By association and by deed!

For your information Greg Palast was a mainstream news reporter in the US (still is in the UK) and showed up on CNN, for example, until he started getting too close to the truth. Then he was relegated to the alternative news sector where he carries on as one of the only true journalists left. I believe he was shunned by the MSM after he revealed the World Bank's involvement in helping implode Argentina etc. - which was confirmed by Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, who is the former World Bank economist and senior vice president.

For YOUR information I've read several newspapers, multiple magazines and since the inception of the Internet
hundreds of articles since the age of 12.

I am now closing in on 54 and until a year ago, I had NEVER heard the name of Greg Palast or seen his byline. Not very mainstream.

UK? Perhaps. But even that is within my experience.

Methinks you exagerate his station for purposes of this thread.

For YOUR information I've read several newspapers, multiple magazines and since the inception of the Internet
hundreds of articles since the age of 12.

I am now closing in on 54 and until a year ago, I had NEVER heard the name of Greg Palast or seen his byline. Not very mainstream.

UK? Perhaps. But even that is within my experience.

Methinks you exagerate his station for purposes of this thread.

I like Mr Palasts reporting style and he investigates things very thoroughly. He doesn't seem to deal in very much speculation, of course, the logical inferrences his investigations are usually so damning i could see how that might lead lead some to instantly label him a lefty marxist commie america hater or something like that... but that's probably just because you have a very narrow world view.

He's not exactly huge in the total media, but not completely unknown either, though this subject is completely irrelavant to the issue at hand.

Are the Feds using their power to prosecute terrorists for political gain and to cover their own agregious crimes?

probably.

now i need some

It seeems likely he may have been questioned about filming and his name was put on file and that is the investigastion. Just a bit of hype.

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