Detention centers for who, exactly?

Citizen Times | February 26, 2006
By Jim Buchanan

Columnist Tom Hennessy beat me to the punch on todayâ??s topic in a column published Feb. 3 in the Press-Telegram of Long Beach, Calif.

The points he made also occurred to me, and they bear repeating.

Hereâ??s the story: In late January Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton, was awarded a contract valued at up to $385 million to build detention centers.

On U.S. soil.

The story didnâ??t make much of a dent. It landed on A7 of the New York Times, and was barely picked up anywhere else.

A KBR press release says: â??The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing Immigration and Custom Enforcement 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.â??â??

Apparently if the centers arenâ??t built, KBR wonâ??t get paid. And apparently, this is a contingency contract, not a commitment, that could cover the next five years.

KBR and Halliburton â?? Vice President Dick Cheneyâ??s old firm â?? have been rolling in taxpayer dollars of late. KBR does a lot of work in Iraq, things like feeding the troops. Theyâ??ve also got some experience in building detention centers. The facilities at Guantanamo Bay come to mind.

Hennessy called for details about the proposal from elected representatives in California (a call Iâ??ll repeat to those from North Carolina). He finished his column with this: â??Letâ??s not have it said, years from now, that no one ever questioned this.â??â??

Hear hear, brother Tom.

What questions? Well, letâ??s look back at that press release. â??In the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S. â?¦â??â??

An optimist would say thatâ??s wise planning. A pessimist would wonder just what could spark such an influx and why we should be planning to build detention centers. A true cynic would wonder just what constitutes an emergency influx. There are, after all, an estimated 10 million illegal immigrants currently in the country.

Anyway, this thing sounds like a plan to deal with immigration. But it could â?¦ â??support the rapid development of new programs.â??â??

And those would be â?¦ what, exactly? The bottom line here is that there are plans ready to build large detention facilities in the United States. Not â??illegal immigrant relocation centers,â??â?? not â??emergency housing facilities.â??â??

Detention centers. This at a time when the government seems bent on probing and prying into the lives of Americans â?? while feeling no obligation to let citizens in on whatâ??s going on.

Say another terror strike hits; perhaps everyone on the â??no-flyâ??â?? list should be put in camps. Thing is, people on that list have included infants, at least one U.S. senator, and the chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

Maybe I should be fitted for a tinfoil hat. Maybe this is no big deal. Whatever.

This stuff gives me the willies. Hennessy is right. We have to ask questions. We especially have to ask them in an era of fear.
pisshead Reviewed by pisshead on . Bush's Mysterious 'New Programs' Bush's Mysterious 'New Programs' Consortium News | February 23, 2006 By Nat Parry Not that George W. Bush needs much encouragement, but Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a new target for the administration's domestic operations -- Fifth Columnists, supposedly disloyal Americans who sympathize and collaborate with the enemy. "The administration has not only the right, but the duty, in my opinion, to pursue Fifth Column movements," Graham, R-S.C., told Rating: 5