FEMA, Blanco give body count to firm cited in corpse dumping

What?!? There seems no end to the long parade of bizarre actions taken by FEMA and Governor Blanco...

FEMA, La. outsource Katrina body count to firm implicated in body-dumping scandals (WARNING: Dead body photo.)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has hired Kenyon International to set up a mobile morgue for handling bodies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, RAW STORY has learned.

Kenyon is a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a scandal-ridden Texas-based company operated by a friend of the Bush family. Recently, SCI subsidiaries have been implicated in illegally discarding and desecrating corpses.

Louisiana governor Katherine Blanco subsequently inked a contract with the firm after talks between FEMA and the firm broke down. Kenyon's original deal was secured by the Department of Homeland Security.

In other words, FEMA and then Blanco outsourced the body count from Hurricane Katrina -- which many believe the worst natural disaster in U.S. history -- to a firm whose parent company is known for its "experience" at hiding and dumping bodies.

more...

Note that it appears to be FEMA that initiated this contract...

Well, if this isn't kindling for the "body count conspiracy" proponents.


[edit on 14-9-2005 by loam]

Holy S&$%!

Do they never quit?

loam - ya gotta start submitting this stuff as news.

This report seems to indicate that a contract has YET to be signed, and that it is FEMA who is causing a delay?

Blanco: Body Recovery Taking Too Long

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed out at FEMA on Tuesday, complaining the agency is moving too slowly in recovering the bodies of those killed by Hurricane Katrina.

The dead "deserve more respect than they have received," she said at state police headquarters in Baton Rouge.

She said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency still has not signed a contract with the company hired to handle the removal of the bodies, Houston-based Kenyon International Emergency Services.

Calls to a FEMA spokesman in New Orleans and the Homeland Security Department in Washington were not immediately returned.

Egads

First of all... Loam, where are you getting all this info? I commend you for your non-stop raising of issues. You seem to have a finger on the pulse of environmental and politically pertinent issues connected with Katrina. I must honestly admit that every time I see one of your posts though I feel I a little sick to my stomach. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

On to the issue at hand - This is another shockers in a long line of them. Now the dead can't even be counted properly? Your post yesterday about the body count - first too high, then lowered - should have raised red flags. Not simply because the media got carried away by high figures, but the more important ramifications of higher body count = more accountability in terms of public perception. In reality each person should count equally but as a famous person once said 'Democracy is based on statistics.'

Are you saying Blanco and FEMA's bid to use this shady company is a conspiracy to give us inaccurate figures? Seeing as those two are major players in this disaster it would seem possible. Are they not concerned that all eyes will be on them at this time? And more specifically on their reported bodycount?

Do you think there is scope here to start a separate research project. One just for FEMA failures? With everything you have posted it might be a long one, but you have collected some very good info.

Enough questions - I'll go be sick now.

I can't vote for you again this month but you get another one of these from me (despite the whole sick thing)

Originally posted by nikelbee
Egads

First of all... Loam, where are you getting all this info?

I'm a hopeless news junkie....

Are you saying Blanco and FEMA's bid to use this shady company is a conspiracy to give us inaccurate figures?

I'm just not sure. To be honest, I have always been a skeptic concerning conspiracies... The past few weeks have started to change that for me a bit. It all seems so surreal and impossible....story after story of unexplained failures in policy, planning and action. Like I said earlier, just when I think it can't get anymore strange, it does!

Do you think there is scope here to start a separate research project. One just for FEMA failures? With everything you have posted it might be a long one, but you have collected some very good info.

I have been wondering that myself. Maybe Valhall will see this thread and consider the possibility. Of course, my primary focus has been on the EPA debacle. Have you seen my latest post?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The more I dig into the EPA and its involvement (or lack thereof) in the Katrina aftermath, the more I'm convinced they are either just as incompetent as FEMA or there is something far more sinister at play. Just makes my blood boil.

Related to that, is I think it odd that so few people seem interested in what is going on over there. Drives me crazy....

I can't vote for you again this month but you get another one of these from me (despite the whole sick thing)

Thanks for the encouragement. Occasionally, I need some of that- especially when I get the sense that no one really cares. Just look at what they have done to Valhall's thread. Pathetic, really.....



[edit on 14-9-2005 by loam]

I heard something on the news yesterday evening about Kenyon backing out of a contract or not accepting a contract for body removal. I was cleaning the kitchen and just listening to the tv but I think it said that they were going to continue body retrieval until another company was found to take over. Did anyone else hear anything about this? I think it was on CNN.

Very good information, one of the first things that come to my mind was if the government was going to try and hide the body count.

After all many of the people that die have families but many others didn't and we may never found out who they were.

That more involvement of the Bush administration and business owned buddies doesn't surprise me, they all in the same group and they all benefiting from each other's business relationships.

I've forwarded this story onto one of our contract managers here at my office...

We work in prevention, and one of our contracts deals with the repercussions this company and others with similar ethics had on the funeral home business - We have a contract in place to provide funding and support to the establishments that are intent on making proper training and certification a necessity in this industry, for all those involved in the business...

If she has some interesting feed-back I'll post it here...

Quite another tragic step forward into this murky situation....

This whole situation is just getting weirder and weirder, the things you get to learn after the facts.

SCI was also involved in an earlier scandal in Texas. Eliza May, former Texas Funeral Service Commission Director, filed a lawsuit accusing George W. Bush, then Governor, of obstructing an investigation into SCI license violations. May was fired following a dispute with Waltrip.

This not the first time that our President has been link to macabre issues.

Waltrip and an SCI lobbyist met with Governor Bush's chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh (Allbaugh was later appointed head of FEMA after Bush became President, but left to become a lobbyist representing Halliburton, among other corporate clients).

Haliburton keeps poppint out when it comes to this crocks.

Bush was "Forced" to testify against the SCI but he got away from it.

In 1999, when Bush was gearing up to run for the presidency, Texas Governor Rick Perry approved a settlement for May. SCI paid $55,000; the state of Texas shelled out the balance without admitting wrongdoing in May's termination.

How nice and educational is to follow the trail of crocks and irresponsible business partners.

I guess firends will always watch each others back.

Well, they say a picture speaks a thousand words.....

external image

Also, don't forget the other very interesting dimension to this story....

As bodies recovered, reporters are told 'no photos, no stories'



[edit on 14-9-2005 by loam]

The administration does not want this natural disaster to overshadow 9/11.
Hence the phrase: 'temporary disruption'.

They don't want nature presenting a worse threat than terrorism and they certainly don't want their inaction to be responsible for more deaths than Osama Bin Laden.

[edit on 14-9-2005 by shanti23]

This right here is why I joined, google for news on Katrina and found this site. Bush, Republicans, Haliburton, Fox News, all but 2-3 big business companies all evil, all controlling.