What I'm talking about is an announcement of a $385 million dollar contract for Haliburton to build special prisons within the US. These prisons are not hold criminals, but instead for "immigration emergencies" and for use during "national emergency, such as a natural disaster".
Certainly, if there were a natural disaster that required the relocation of Americans, you wouldn't put them in a Detention Center. If "the big one" hit California today, we wouldn't put the survivors in prison, would we? You'd build a hospital for that, not a Detention Center. More likely, you'd just house them in a sports arena till things stabilized.
I can't imagine an immigration emergency so drastic as to justify this, either Even if you had a nuclear meltdown in Mexico or Canada, and millions of refugees fled across the border, you wouldn't house them in a Detention Center.
So, maybe it's just legislative pork. It's hard to tell from the press release if Halliburton actually built anything, or if the contract is just $385 million to plan for such contingencies. Perhaps we just paid them nearly 400 million to not actually do anything.
What could you use a Detention Center for? Imprisoning dissidents after declaring martial law? Rounding up the people who throw fits after you disclose that aliens are real and you've been lying for generations? It's hard to say.
I don't know how much prisons cost per prisoner. Is 385 million dollars enough to build a prison to hold 1,000 prisoners, or enough to build a prison that could hold 500,000 prisoners? Even if it's $50,000 per detainee, that'd make a facility big enough to hold 7,700 people. But if you're just packin' 'em in, with minimal comfort, it's a lot less per person...
A chill goes down my spine, as I remember that quote from Congressman Olver who said that Impeachment wasn't being pursued by himself and his fellow Democrats out of fear that Bush would declare martial law and suspend the 2008 elections. What had once sounded like crazy talk is now looking eerily plausible. Is this Halliburton Contract evidence that Bush and Cheney are planning something big?
I'm going to include the entire text of Halliburton's Press Release, so it'll always be available to anyone who wants to read it. There's no indications that the original will go away any time soon, but just to be safe...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 24, 2006
KBR AWARDED U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY CONTINGENCY SUPPORT PROJECT FOR EMERGENCY SUPPORT SERVICES
ARLINGTON, Virginia – KBR announced today that its Government and Infrastructure division has been awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to support the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the event of an emergency. KBR is the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton (NYSE:HAL).
With a maximum total value of $385 million over a five-year term, consisting of a one-year based period and four one-year options, the competitively awarded contract will be executed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District. KBR held the previous ICE contract from 2000 through 2005.
“We are especially gratified to be awarded this contract because it builds on our extremely strong track record in the arena of emergency operations support,” said Bruce Stanski, executive vice president, KBR Government and Infrastructure. “We look forward to continuing the good work we have been doing to support our customer whenever and wherever we are needed.”
The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs. The contingency support contract provides for planning and, if required, initiation of specific engineering, construction and logistics support tasks to establish, operate and maintain one or more expansion facilities.
The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other U.S. Government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster. In the event of a natural disaster, the contractor could be tasked with providing housing for ICE personnel performing law enforcement functions in support of relief efforts.
ICE was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of four integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.
KBR is a global engineering, construction, technology and services company. Whether designing an LNG facility, serving as a defense industry contractor, or providing small capital construction, KBR delivers world-class service and performance. KBR employs more than 60,000 people in 43 countries around the world.
Halliburton, founded in 1919, is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the petroleum and energy industries. The company serves its customers with a broad range of products and services through its Energy Services Group and KBR. Visit the company's World Wide Web site at www.halliburton.com.
Here's that clip on the Olver quote, as a reminder:
3 comments:
It costs about $23,000/year to incarcerate someone. I don't know if that translates at all into prison cost. I'm guessing a person could spend a billion on a state of the art prison meant to hold about a dozen people.
Or maybe these will be the labor camps when our alien masters reveal themselves.
Ooo! I think I just found out what they were intended for...
In the spring of 2007, a retired senior official in the U.S. Justice Department sat before Congress and told a story so odd and ominous, it could have sprung from the pages of a pulp political thriller. It was about a principled bureaucrat struggling to protect his country from a highly classified program with sinister implications. Rife with high drama, it included a car chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., and a tense meeting at the White House, where the president's henchmen made the bureaucrat so nervous that he demanded a neutral witness be present.
Radar Magazine has a full story on what may be a secret government list of citizens to detain if martial law is declared.
I sure hope Halliburton makes nice detention centers.
Ooo! Ooo! I just got an optimistic streak.
What if the Bush regime knows just how corrupt, illegal, and unconstitutional the shit they've been doing is and they wanted to make certain that they had an extremely posh prison just for them when we finally throw their asses in the can? It's not very often you get the opportunity to design your own place of incarceration. So it might be an extra fancy country club prison that is more about giving them a place that protects them from us, but I'm okay with that.
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