UNDERNEWS

UNDERNEWS
SEP 3, 2005
FROM THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
EDITED BY SAM SMITH
Since 1964, Washington's most unofficial source

E-MAIL: mailto:news@prorev.com

1312 18th St. NW #502 Washington DC 20036
202-835-0770 Fax: 835-0779

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KATRINA
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ARMY DECLARES WAR ON NEW ORLEANS VICTIMS "THIS WILL BE A COMBAT
OPERATION"

JOSEPH R. CHENELLY - Combat operations are underway on the streets "to
take this city back" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. "This place
is going to look like Little Somalia," Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander
of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times
Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a
massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the
Louisiana Superdome. "We’re going to go out and take this city back.
This will be a combat operation to get this city under control."

Jones said the military first needs to establish security throughout the
city. Military and police officials have said there are several large
areas of the city are in a full state of anarchy. . .

While some fight the insurgency in the city, other carry on with rescue
and evacuation operations. Helicopters are still pulling hundreds of
stranded people from rooftops of flooded homes. . .

Numerous soldiers also told Army Times that they have been shot at by
armed civilians in New Orleans. Spokesmen for the Joint Task Force
Headquarters at the Superdome were unaware of any servicemen being
wounded in the streets, although one soldier is recovering from a
gunshot wound sustained during a struggle with a civilian in the dome
Wednesday night. . .

Spc. Cliff Ferguson of the 527th Engineer Battalion pointed out that he
knows there are plenty of decent people in New Orleans, but he said it
is hard to stay motivated considering the circumstances.

"This is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting." Ferguson said.
"You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for
someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to
fight a war. We came here to help."

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1077495.php

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FEMA BLOCKED 500 BOATS FROM JOINING IN RESCUE EFFORT

CLARK WARNER, DAILY KOS - On Wednesday morning a group of approximately
1,000 citizens pulling 500 boats left the Acadiana Mall in Lafayette in
the early morning and headed to New Orleans with a police escort from
the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Department. The flotilla of trucks
pulling boats stretched over five miles. This citizen rescue group was
organized by La. State Senator, Nick Gautreaux from Vermilion Parish.
The group was comprised of experienced boaters, licensed fishermen and
hunters, people who have spent their entire adult life and teenage years
on the waterways of Louisiana.

The State Police waved the flotilla of trucks/boats through the
barricades in LaPlace and we sped into New Orleans via I-10 until past
the airport and near the Clearview exit. At that time we were stopped by
agents of the FEMA controlled La. Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries.

A young DWF agent strolled through the boats and told approximately half
of the citizens that their boats were too large because the water had
dropped during the night and that they should turn around and go home.

They were pulling a large (24ft) shallow draft aluminum boat that can
safely carry 12 passengers and had ramp access which would allow the
elderly and infirm to have easier access to the boat. They then politely
informed the DWF agent that the local and national media had
consistently reported that the water level had risen during the night
which contradicted his statement to them that the water was dropping and
no boat over 16 ft. in length would be allowed to participate in rescue
operations.

They then specifically asked the DWF agent that they (and other citizens
in the flotilla) be allowed to go to the hospitals and help evacuate the
sick and the doctors and nurses stranded there. They offered to bring
these people back to Lafayette, in our own vehicles, in order to ensure
that they received proper and prompt medical care.

The DWF agent did not want to hear this and ordered them home -- all
five hundred boats. They complied with the DWF agent's orders, turned
around and headed back to Lafayette along with half of the flotilla.
However, two friends were pulling a smaller 15 ft alumaweld with a 25
hp. The DWF agents let them through to proceed to the rescue operation
launch site.

They were allowed to drive to the launch site where the FEMA controlled
La. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries were launching their rescue
operations (via boat). They reported to me that there were over 200 DWF
agents just standing around and doing nothing. They were kept there for
approximately 3 hours. During that time they observed a large number of
DWF agents doing absolutely nothing. Why? Because FEMA would not let
them help! After three hours had passed they were told that they were
not needed and should go home. They complied with the DWF's orders and
turned around and went home to Lafayette. . .

On Tuesday afternoon, August 30, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee
asked for all citizens with boats to come to the aid of Jefferson
Parish. A short time later Dwight Landreneau, the head of the La.
Depart. of Wildlife and Fisheries, got on television and remarked that
his agency had things under control and citizen help was not needed. . .


http://pelican.dailykos.com/

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FEMA BOSS FIRED FROM LAST JOB: OVERSEEING HORSE SHOWS

BRETT ARENDS - The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans
rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse
shows. And before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a
deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant
experience that would have qualified him for the position. The Oklahoman
got the job through an old college friend who at the time was heading up
FEMA.

The agency, run by Brown since 2003, is now at the center of a growing
fury over the handling of the New Orleans disaster. . . Brown - formerly
an estates and family lawyer - this week has has made several shocking
public admissions, including interviews where he suggested FEMA was
unaware of the misery and desperation of refugees stranded at the New
Orleans convention center.

Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Brown spent 11 years as
the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian
Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization based in
Colorado.

"We do disciplinary actions, certification of (show trial) judges. We
hold classes to train people to become judges and stewards. And we keep
records,'' explained a spokeswoman for the IAHA commissioner's office.
"This was his full-time job . . . for 11 years,'' she added. Brown was
forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged
supervision failures. . .
Soon after, Brown was invited to join the administration by his old
Oklahoma college roommate Joseph Allbaugh, the previous head of FEMA
until he quit in 2003 to work for the president's re-election campaign.

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=100857&format=text


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AUGUST STUDY FOUND GLOBAL WARMING CAUSING STRONGER HURRICANES

MARTIN MERZER KNIGHT RIDDER AUGUST 1 - The accumulated power of Atlantic
hurricanes has more than doubled in the past 30 years, according to a
study to be published this week, and global warming likely is a major
cause. Though a connection between global warming and hurricane ferocity
might seem logical, the report by a reputable climatologist at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the first to draw a statistical
relationship between the two.

"The large upswing in the last decade is unprecedented and probably
reflects the effect of global warming," scientist Kerry Emanuel wrote in
a study that will appear in the Thursday edition of the journal Nature.
Copies of the article were made available Sunday. . .

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's
hurricane research division in Virginia Key, Fla., have concluded that,
because of long-term natural cycles, we are in the middle of a
decades-long period of more frequent hurricane formation. . .

"My results suggest that future warming may lead to an upward trend in
tropical cyclone destructive potential and, taking into account an
increasing coastal population, a substantial increase in
hurricane-related losses in the 21st century," Emanuel wrote.

He said his analysis of wind-speed reports by the National Hurricane
Center and other sources show that the accumulated power of hurricanes
in the Atlantic basin, which includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of
Mexico, has more than doubled since 1970. A particularly steep increase
began in 1995, according to the study. "This large increase in power
dissipation over the past 30 years or so may be because storms have
become more intense, on the average, and/or have survived at high
intensity for longer periods of time," he wrote.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/breaking_news/12273383.htm

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MICHELLE GHETTI, SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER - 5,000 - 6,000 lawyers
(1/3 of the lawyers in Louisiana) have lost their offices, their
libraries, their computers with all information thereon, their client
files - possibly their clients, as one attorney who e-mailed me noted.
They are scattered from Florida to Arizona and have nothing to return
to. . .

Our state supreme court is under some water - with all appellate files
and evidence folders/boxes along with it. The 5th Circuit Court of
Appeals building is under some water - with the same effect. Right now
there may only be 3-4 feet of standing water but, if you think about it,
most files are kept in the basements or lower floors of courthouses.
What effect will that have on the lives of citizens and lawyers
throughout this state and this area of the country? And on the law?

The city and district courts in as many as 8 parishes/counties are under
water, as well as 3 of our circuit courts - with evidence/files at each
of them ruined. The law enforcement offices in those areas are under
water - again, with evidence ruined. 6,000 prisoners in 2 prisons and
one juvenile facility are having to be securely relocated. We already
have over-crowding at most Louisiana prisons and juvenile facilities. .
.

Our state bar offices are under water. Our state disciplinary offices
are under water - again with evidence ruined. Our state disciplinary
offices are located on Veteran's Blvd. in Metairie. . . Two of the 4
law schools in Louisiana are located in New Orleans (Loyola and Tulane -
the 2 private ones that students have already paid about $8,000+ for
this semester to attend).

http://17200blog.blogspot.com/2005/09/with-sympathy-for-our-compatriots-in.html


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MAUREEN DOWD, NY TIMES - W. drove his budget-cutting Chevy to the levee,
and it wasn't dry. Bye, bye, American lives. "I don't think anyone
anticipated the breach of the levees," he told Diane Sawyer.

Shirt-sleeves rolled up, W. finally landed in Hell yesterday and
chuckled about his wild boozing days in "the great city" of N'Awlins. He
was clearly moved. "You know, I'm going to fly out of here in a minute,"
he said on the runway at the New Orleans International Airport, "but I
want you to know that I'm not going to forget what I've seen." Out of
the cameras' range, and avoided by W., was a convoy of thousands of sick
and dying people, some sprawled on the floor or dumped on baggage
carousels at a makeshift M*A*S*H unit inside the terminal. . .

Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained
for by running something called the International Arabian Horse
Association - admitted he didn't know until Thursday that there were
15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in
the New Orleans Convention Center. Was he sacked instantly? No, our
tone-deaf president hailed him in Mobile, Ala., yesterday: "Brownie,
you're doing a heck of a job."

It would be one thing if President Bush and his inner circle - Dick
Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming; Condi Rice was shoe shopping at
Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue and attended "Spamalot" before bloggers
chased her back to Washington; and Andy Card was off in Maine - lacked
empathy but could get the job done. But it is a chilling lack of empathy
combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this
administration implode.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html?incamp=article_popular


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AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE - A DETACHMENT of 300 Arkansas National Guard
troops have landed in anarchic New Orleans, with the authorization to
shoot and kill "hoodlums", Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said.
"Three hundred of the Arkansas National Guard have landed in the city of
New Orleans," Ms Blanco said. "These troops are fresh back from Iraq,
well trained, experienced, battle tested and under my orders to restore
order in the streets. They have M-16s and they are locked and loaded.
These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing
to do so if necessary and I expect they will."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16466908-23109,00.html

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MATT WELLS BBC - It has been a profoundly shocking experience for many
across this vast country who, for the large part, believe the home-spun
myth about the invulnerability of the American Dream. The party in power
in Washington is always happy to convey the impression of 50 states
moving forward together in social and economic harmony towards a bigger
and better America. . . But what the devastating consequences of Katrina
have shown - along with the response to it - is that for too long now,
the fabric of this complex and overstretched country, especially in
states like Louisiana and Mississippi, has been neglected and ignored.

The fitting metaphors relating to the New Orleans debacle are almost too
numerous to mention.

First there was an extraordinary complacency, mixed together with what
seemed like over-reaction, before the storm.

The city's hurricane shelters grew increasingly filthy and crime-ridden

A genuinely heroic mayor orders a total evacuation of the city the day
before Katrina arrives, knowing that for decades now, New Orleans has
been living on borrowed time.

The National Guard and federal emergency personnel stay tucked up at
home.

The havoc of Katrina had been predicted countless times on a local and
federal level - even to the point where it was acknowledged that tens of
thousands of the poorest residents would not be able to leave the city
in advance.

No official plan was ever put in place for them.

The famous levees that were breached could have been strengthened and
raised at what now seems like a trifling cost of a few billion dollars.

The Bush administration, together with Congress, cut the budgets for
flood protection and army engineers, while local politicians failed to
generate any enthusiasm for local tax increases.

New Orleans partied-on just hoping for the best, abandoned by anyone in
national authority who could have put the money into really protecting
the city.

Meanwhile, the poorest were similarly abandoned, as the horrifying
images and stories from the Superdome and Convention Center prove.

The truth was simple and apparent to all. If journalists were there with
cameras beaming the suffering live across America, where were the
officers and troops?

The neglect that meant it took five days to get water, food, and medical
care to thousands of mainly orderly African-American citizens
desperately sheltering in huge downtown buildings of their native city,
has been going on historically, for as long as the inadequate levees
have been there. . .

The uneasy paradox which so many live with in this country - of being
first-and-foremost rugged individuals, out to plunder what they can and
paying as little tax as they can get away with, while at the same time
believing that America is a robust, model society - has reached a crisis
point this week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4210674.stm

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RED CROSS - Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard
and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we
simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders. The state Homeland
Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the
American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the
hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage
others to come into the city. The Red Cross has been meeting the needs
of thousands of New Orleans residents in some 90 shelters throughout the
state of Louisiana and elsewhere since before landfall. All told, the
Red Cross is today operating 149 shelters for almost 93,000 residents. .
.

http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html#4524

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ALLEN G. BREED, AP - Thousands more bedraggled refugees were bused and
airlifted to salvation Saturday, leaving the heart of New Orleans to the
dead and dying, the elderly and frail stranded too many days without
food, water or medical care. No one knows how many were killed by
Hurricane Katrina's floods and how many more succumbed waiting to be
rescued. But the bodies are everywhere: hidden in attics, floating among
the ruined city, crumpled on wheelchairs, abandoned on highways. And the
dying goes on - at the convention center and an airport triage center,
where bodies were kept in a refrigerated truck.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050904/D8CD42BO0.html

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CNN - Nine stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment strategically placed
around the country to be used in the event of a catastrophe still have
not been pressed into service in New Orleans, five days after Hurricane
Katrina, CNN has learned. Responding to a CNN inquiry, Department of
Homeland Security spokesman Marc Short said Friday the gear has not been
moved because none of the governors in the hurricane-ravaged area has
requested it. A federal official said the department's Office for
Domestic Preparedness reminded the Louisiana and Mississippi governors'
offices about the stockpiles on Wednesday and Thursday, but neither
governor had requested it.

The gear -- including generators, radios, breathing apparatus, cots and
other items -- is stockpiled by DHS in nine locations. The three closest
to New Orleans are College Station, Texas; Columbia, S.C.; and
Clearwater, Fla. The gear is intended to replenish or sustain up to 150
first responders.
Contractors who maintain the gear are required to transport it to a
disaster site no later than 12 hours after the initial request is made
by local authorities and approved by DHS.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/03/katrina.unusedgear/index.htm

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HET LAASTE NIEUWS, The American government seems to be light years away
from being prepared for a catastrophe of such proportions. The pictures
show just chaos. People plundering, police threatening to shoot them,
not the slightest trace of any organized assistance, a city of millions
that is sinking further and further under water because no one is
capable of filling the holes in the dams. The Netherlands, a country
that largely lies below sea level, has not experienced a drop of water
for the past 50 years. The flood in New Orleans is the reverse side of
an American society which is aimed at earning as much money as possible
in the quickest time with a slimmed-down administration that costs as
little as possible.

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MARK EGAN, REUTERS - Leroy Fouchea, 42, waited in the sweltering heat
for an hour to get his ration -- his first proper food since Monday --
and immediately handed it over to a sickly friend. He then offered to
show reporters the dead bodies of a man in a wheelchair, a young man who
he said he dragged inside just hours earlier, and the limp forms of two
infants, one just four months old, the other six months old. "They died
right here, in America, waiting for food," Fouchea said as he walked
toward Hall D, where the bodies were put to get them out of the searing
heat. He said people were let die and left without food simply because
they were poor and that the evacuation effort earlier concentrated on
the French Quarter of the city. "Because that's where the money is," he
spat.

A National Guardsman refused entry. "It doesn't need to be seen, it's a
make-shift morgue in there," he told a Reuters photographer. "We're not
letting anyone in there anymore. If you want to take pictures of dead
bodies, go to Iraq."

http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-03T034445Z_01_MCC313503_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-MAYHEM-DC.XML


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INTERVIEW WITH MAYOR NAGIN
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/

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MERCY IN MEMPHIS: TWO PEOPLE WHO TOOK CHARGE
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4831399

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EVEN FOX NEWS IS ANGRY AT EFFORTS: REMARKABLE REPORTS
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Hannity-Colmes-Smith-Rivera-freak-in-NO.wmv


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HALLIBURTON WATCH - The US Navy asked Halliburton to repair naval
facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the Houston Chronicle reported
today. The work was assigned to Halliburton's KBR subsidiary under the
Navy's $500 million CONCAP contract awarded to KBR in 2001 and renewed
in 2004. The repairs will take place in Louisiana and Mississippi. KBR
has not been asked to repair the levees destroyed in New Orleans which
became the primary cause of most of the damage.

Since 1989, governments worldwide have awarded $3 billion in contracts
to KBR's Government and Infrastructure Division to clean up damage
caused by natural and man-made disasters.

Earlier this year, the Navy awarded $350 million in contracts to KBR and
three other companies to repair naval facilities in northwest Florida
damaged by Hurricane Ivan, which struck in September 2004. The ongoing
work includes repairs to aircraft support facilities, medium industrial
buildings, marine construction, mechanical and electrical improvements,
civil construction, and family housing renovation.

In March, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, which is tasked with responding to hurricane disasters, became a
lobbyist for KBR. Joe Allbaugh was director of FEMA during the first two
years of the Bush administration. Today, FEMA is widely criticized for
its slow response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Albaugh managed Bush's campaign for Texas governor in 1994, served as
Gov. Bush's chief of staff and was the national campaign manager for the
Bush campaign in 2000. Along with Karen Hughes and Karl Rove, Albaugh
was one of Bush's closest advisers.

Halliburtonwatch.org

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OIL WARS
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OIL COMPANIES PUMPING US DRY AS CRUDE STOCK GROWS

JAMES RIDGEWAY, VILLAGE VOICE - The very first thing George W. Bush did
in response to Hurricane Katrina was to offer a helping hand - not to
the people stranded on rooftops in New Orleans, but to his friends in
the oil industry. These were the same people who gave him $52 million in
his last campaign. The president released millions of barrels of oil
from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve so the oil companies would have
enough fuel to make gas and keep the country going. But the companies
don't need this oil. They're already swimming in it. Pouring more oil
into the marketplace didn't reduce gasoline prices, which kept on going
up, hitting $4 a gallon in some places.

While crude oil production doubtless was curtailed by the storm, the
companies face a surplus, not a shortage, of crude oil. So why dump more
on the market?

"Despite growing inventories, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories
(excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by nearly 5
million barrels over the past 3 weeks," wrote the federal Energy
Information Administration. Continuing in the clipped industry jargon,
the agency added, "While this may not appear to be a substantial build,
it comes at a time when crude oil inventories typically decline, as
refiners use more crude to make gasoline needed for current demand and
heating oil as they stock up for the winter."

Thus, any crude oil inventory increase during the month of August, much
less one of five million barrels over a three-week period, might lead
one to expect prices to drop. Yet the price for West Texas Intermediate
crude oil has risen by $5 per barrel! If prices don't fall under these
conditions, what will make them fall?

All over the world this summer, oilmen raced to dump surplus into the
U.S. market, where the rigged prices made them a killing. Oil traders in
China, the second biggest world market next to the U.S., were shoving
oil into the high-priced U.S. market to make more money. (The U.S.
consumes 25 percent of the world market; China 7 percent.)

Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Ed Wallace wrote last week that
"there's actually weakening demand in Asia over the past two months, so
oil is being diverted to the U.S., where it'll bring higher profits." He
quoted Reuters as noting that "Chinese oil trader Unipec resold at least
3 million barrels of August-arriving crude due to reduced refinery
demand and was offering more, traders said last week." Mary Rose Brown,
a spokeswoman for Valero in San Antonio, was quoted by The Wall Street
Journal as saying, "There is no reason for crude oil to be at $65 a
barrel other than hype in the market."

http://villagevoice.com/news/0536,ridgewaycolu,67514,2.html

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PALM BEACH GOVERNMENT MOVING TO FOUR DAY WEEK TO SAVE FUEL

SUN SENTINEL, FL - With gas prices escalating and potential fuel
shortages looming, Palm Beach County government is moving as many as
3,600 employees to four-day work weeks in an effort to reduce fuel
consumption. County officials said that as many as 60 percent of the
6,000 employees under the County Commission and administrator might may
be moved to four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days.
Currently, 20 percent work a four-day week. The move is expected to cut
the amount of fuel employees use during commutes to work by about 8
percent, commission Chairman Tony Masilotti said. Not since the oil
crisis of the 1970s has the county had to take such drastic measures to
save energy, he said.


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EUROPE
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NEW GERMAN LEFT PARTY SHOWING STRENGTH

LUKE HARDING, GUARDIAN - Sixteen years after the fall of the Berlin
wall, Ellen Muller looks back with nostalgia at her life in the then
communist East Germany. "I didn't have to worry whether we had enough to
eat," she says. "Brötchen [bread rolls] cost five pfennigs. People cared
more about children. And if you were ill you didn't have to wait to see
a doctor. It was all free."

Far from enjoying the "blooming landscapes" promised by the then
chancellor, Helmut Kohl, when the wall fell, Mrs Muller is one of a
growing band of east Germans who are fed up with capitalism.

Billions of euros have been pumped into places such as Mrs Muller's
picturesque hometown, Cottbus, near the Polish border. But there are no
jobs: one in five of the workforce is unemployed. Mrs Muller, a
machinist, lost her job when her factory closed in the aftermath of
reunification. She hasn't worked since. . .

The disillusion of many east Germans, including Mrs Muller, has prompted
a surge of support for Germany's newest political party, the Linkspartei
or Left party. It could even help determine Germany's general election
in a fortnight.
The party is the result of a merger earlier this year between east
Germany's former Communist party and the Work and Social Justice party,
a new group founded by disaffected activists from Gerhard Schröder's
Social Democrats.

After a euphoric start, the Left party has seen its nationwide opinion
poll ratings fall from 12% to 8%. But in the former communist east, it
is expected to capture up to 30% of the vote. If the party does well
enough, it could prevent Angela Merkel's conservatives from forming a
centre-right government with the FDP, her coalition partner. Germany's
mainstream political parties have all heaped abuse on the Linkspartei,
and in particular, the party's populist star candidate, Oskar
Lafontaine.

A former chairman of the social democratic party, the SPD, and finance
minister, Mr Lafontaine was instrumental in bringing the Social
Democrats back into power after 16 years in the wilderness during the
Kohl era. But he resigned from Mr Schröder's first government in 1999 in
protest at the chancellor's business-friendly policies. He has been a
bitter critic ever since.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,2763,1561831,00.html

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ECOLOGY
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PARK SERVICE PLANS RAISE ANGRY OPPOSITION

REBECCA HUNTINGTON, JACKSON HOLE NEWS & GUIDE - When Paul Hoffman worked
for the Cody Chamber of Commerce he butted heads over National Park
Service policies that put resource protection ahead of visitor access,
recreation and other human activities. Now a Bush appointee in the
Interior Department, with power over the Park Service, Hoffman has been
rewriting those policies to give more weight to visitor enjoyment,
particularly by motorized means, such as snowmobiles and low-flying
aircraft tours.

Hoffman's revision has generated uproar among Park Service employees,
particularly retirees, who are calling it a "full-scale attack on
America's national parks" and "a national tragedy."

"It's absolutely stark-raving crazy," said Rick Smith, who belongs to
the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, which distributed
Hoffman's leaked policy revision late last week. "The inmates are in
charge of the asylum," Smith said Monday.

Political agendas are being grafted onto agency policy documents with
little regard for protecting park resources and values for future
generations, said Smith, who worked for the Park Service for 31 years
and served as a regional director and superintendent of parks. Park
Service and Interior officials have defended the rewrite by describing
it as little more than a "starting point" for discussion ­ not de facto
policy. . .

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