Who are the 75,000 body bags for?

Who are the 75,000 body bags for?

By Lynn Landes

Questions mount over Hurricane Katrina's death count. Estimates are now well below 10,000 with the death toll currently standing at 648 for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. So, why did the Bush Administration order 75,000 body bags?


Along that line, other things don’t add up. For instance, why did FEMA contact a crematorium in the local area; how could people identify their loved ones if only ashes remain? Why did FEMA rebuff efforts of volunteer morticians? Why did the feds try to ban reporters from covering the body recovery effort? Why have the feds employed mercenaries in New Orleans? Don't we have plenty of volunteers, police and military in the U.S. to get any job done that needs doing? What's really going on?


I don't know with any certainty, but here are some theories:

Maybe the Bush Administration doesn't want us to know how many people died because they just can't take the political heat for being completely incompetent. That's somewhat understandable. Maybe they ordered 75,000 body bags and hired Houston-based Blackwater mercenaries as more pork barrel projects. Nothing new there.


Or, maybe the feds want to hide bodies in an effort to grab land for their developer friends, or deny insurance claims for their friends in the insurance industry, as some people assert happened last year after Hurricane Charley in Florida. The Bush Administration can’t count on the police or military to carry out their dirty work, so they use private security firms. That's in keeping with the Bush Administration's MO (modus operandi).


Or, maybe they don't want us to know exactly how some of these folks died. Maybe some New Orleans police did not abandon their stations. Maybe they were murdered while trying to protect their city. After all, Mayor Ray Negin made public statements saying, "The CIA might take me out". What was that all about? There are reports that there was a shoot-out between New Orleans police and contractors. And rumors are rampant that the 17th Street levee was bombed to protect the wealthier parts of New Orleans. Something along those lines occurred in the Great Flood of 1927.


Or, maybe the body bags have little to do with Katrina. Maybe the bags are for us. On September 11th, the Bush Administration announced a new Pentagon guideline to allow pre-emptive nuclear strikes. Most people think that means an attack on Iran. However, some observers believe that some place in America (perhaps off the Carolinas' coast) will be the Bush Administration's first target.



Under the cover of Katrina, maybe the Bush Administration hopes no one will notice an order of 75,000 body bags.

more at:

http://www.ecotalk.org/Katrina.htm

You made a slight mistake on taking only a domestic view of these neocons.

Why the switch now?

with american skin and bones

like after 9-11?

the victims of Katrina less important somehow? I. don't. think. so.

and wonder "why isnt my loved on on there?"

a list. Having said that, I know we're being dumbed down about the death count; it's maddening!

but be assured, they will be used eventually.

Im hoping the body bags wont ever have to be used.

Its up to all of us to do our part.

After CNN and MSNBC ran pictures of missing kids one weekend, the story sorta dropped off the air.

According to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a total of 4,614 children have been reported missing, displaced or seeking parents as a result of Katrina/Rita. 2,189 or 47% of those cases have been resolved. Why aren't we hearing more about this?!?

12,095 adults have been reported missing as a result of Katrina/Rita and 4,217 (35%) cases have been resolved.

Source: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children call/case update PDF

they will have to find 3,000 more bodybags some where.

wait. when I re-read that it is not as funny as it sounded in my head.

I'm sure there are members of my family & certainly my neighborhood who would happily turn me into the 'liberal police' for re-education or worse.

It can't happen here. Yeah, right.

Written by Smedley D. Butler

Read it and you will be able to answer your question. Here is a free online version:

http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

and other fun weather creations.***

:)

It's not 8000 or 7500 like everyone is saying. It's 800.

If it asks you for a user name and password use kos@dailykos.com and the password in dailykos

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-bodies2oct02,1,7047123.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

October 2, 2005 latimes.com Single page Print E-mail story Change text size

A SHATTERED GULF COAST
Families Lose Loved Ones Again -- in a Bureaucratic Mire

snip

Cataldie, a former medical examiner, acknowledged that identifying and releasing bodies had been painfully slow. Of more than 800 bodies delivered to the St. Gabriel morgue, he said, 32 have been positively identified and 340 have been tentatively identified.

Here is the original article.


75,000 Body Bags Ordered for Katrina Aftermath


Saturday 10th September 2005

Modesto company to deliver more body bags to New Orleans The government’s order for another 50,000 will be filled by about eight firms

By PATRICK GIBLIN BEE STAFF WRITER

Last Updated: September 9, 2005, 04:24:14 AM PDT

The federal government is trying to purchase an additional 50,000 body bags for use in the Hurricane Katrina cleanup and in Iraq, according to an official for a Modesto manufacturer.

Previously, the Federal Emergency Management Administration purchased 25,000 body bags and shipped them to New Orleans.

"We recently delivered every bag we had in stock, which is about 400," said John Hassapakis, manager of Central Valley Professional Services in Modesto. "Those were sent directly to New Orleans."

This week the government put out a bid for 50,000 more bags, he said.

"They are for backup in Louisiana and for offshore purposes, but it will bemonths before they will be able to getthem," he said. "That’s a lot of material."

The Modesto company can make 5,000 bags a month when it’s operating at full capacity, he said, though he added his isn’t the only company making bags for the government.

Besides Central Valley Professional Services, there’s another Modesto business - California Professional Manufacturing - that makes body bags, Hassapakis said.

In addition to the two Modesto firms, there are about a half-dozen other companies in the United States that manufacture body bags, Hassapakis said. All of them are expected to help fill the latest government order.

Officials at California Professional Manufacturing declined to comment Thursday.

In New Orleans, officials have constructed a temporary refrigerated mortuary that can hold up to 5,000 bodies at a time.

Because many bodies have been waterlogged or exposed to natural elements for more than a week, the identification process is expected to be slow, officials said.

That means that there will be an even bigger demand for body bags, Hassapakis said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.modbee.com/local/story/1...

they would need.

And apparently still carried out.

The cover up and secrecy is the primary issue if you haven't noticed.

the mayor had over-estimated the amount of people that died. Jeez, come on, I like conspiracy theories as much as the next guy ... but seriously, they aren't hiding how many died. There was just an over-estimate early on. Oh and yes, I did realize the thread was about 'cover up and secrecy' so I was attempting to inform you of the facts. You clearly won't let facts get in the way of your little theory though, so have to it - see ya

There have been several threads around here how they aren't picking up the bodies and not releasing the bodies to the families. How can they count the bodies if bodies are rotting on the streets of New Orleans and families are not being allowed to claim their loved ones bodies?! Who's doing the counting?!

Any one with any common sense can see that the body count isn't adding up-literally. :eyes:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4953733

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4949027

It's 8,000 not 800 bags for St. Gabriel.

Granted, I'm sure a fair number of bodies buried in the ground got loose during the storm, but those are usually in their caskets (which float) still.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4969269

.

Peace

that BushCo was hoping for.

after a major disaster. (Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams -- including licensed funeral directors and morticians -- were established for the disposition and burial of victims of large-scale disasters) I've been wondering why we haven't heard about them being called out. It sounds like it'll be months before all the dead are identified. Compare that to 9/11 where sometimes they were working with fragments. What gives?


My mistake - it turns out that there is a Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team in place identifying bodies.