Smoking Gun: Walter Reed scandal connected to Halliburton & FEMA? [VIDEO]

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 1:45 PM on March 5, 2007.

Not only is the scandalous treatment of American Troops at Walter Reed military hospital connected to Halliburton and Katrina-era FEMA (see video right) but it's also, at its core, a deeply, deeply conservative scandal.

"Privatization," or the transfer of any and all services into the hands of market morality, is a fundamental part of the conservative project.

For its past performance in the public sector, see Energy Crisis, California.

This time, under some shady circumstances, a private firm IAP was given the contract to take over a number of services at Walter Reed, despite the fact that the employees' bid was lower.

Only after IAP "protested" (according to Waxman's letter to General Weightman PDF) was the employees' bid "increased" and the contract awarded to the private firm headed by ex-Halliburton official, Al Neffgen.

This privatization precipitated an 80% drop in care workers, leading to a human scandal that the market will never ever, ever be equipped to handle. It's neither the market's, nor conservatives', business. At the heart of privatization is the belief that competing desires to make a buck will "take care of everything."

Walter Reed is another in a series of tragic bottom lines.

Excerpts from Waxman's letter and an internal Walter Reed memo after the jump...

An internal memo regarding the care at Walter Reed from last Fall (PDF) shows that officials were aware that the reduction in workers and the increase in casualties was going to present a problem:

Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, wrote a letter to Gen Weightman, including the committee's findings and notifying him that he ought to be prepared to talk about them to Congress.





SNIP...







Download the whole PDF HERE.

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.