Think Progress

Another Titanic Mistake

By Christy Harvey on Nov 8th, 2005 at 1:42 pm

Another Titanic Mistake

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has given the defense contracting agency Titan more than a half million dollars in brand-new contracts for Hurricane Katrina. Here are the top five reasons this was a very bad idea:

TORTURE: Titan is under two different federal investigations for its role in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. The Taguba report – the official government report into the prison abuse — found a Titan employee committed “indecent acts” and was involved in “cruelty and maltreatment” of Iraqi prisoners.

NEGLIGENCE: Titan bilked the U.S. government out of millions of dollars by sending hundreds of unqualified interpreters to Iraq. On top of that, Pentagon auditors recommended withholding $4.9 million from Titan’s Iraq translator contract due to questionable billing practices.

ESPIONAGE: Another Titan employee working at the prison in Guantanamo Bay was sentenced to 20 months in prison for espionage against the United States.

BRIBERY: In March 2003, Titan admitted guilt in an “international bribery scheme.” The company had to pay $28,500 to the SEC for trying to influence the presidential election of the West African nation of Benin.

CHEATING: A federal inspector general report last year found Titan overcharged American taxpayers for a troop counseling contract. The company gave nearly all of the work to a subcontractor, yet added its own fee to each of the invoices. The report charged: “We believe that Titan’s fee could represent largely unnecessary costs to the government.”



47 Responses to “Another Titanic Mistake”

  1. wisedup says:

    The bush crime family continues.


  2. Pete Bogs says:

    for sure… this plan should be sunk immediately…


  3. e_five says:

    With a name like Titan, what could go wrong?


  4. Pete Bogs says:

    this companies relationship with the Bush White House is a tight ‘un…


  5. Zookeeper says:

    Perfect — in Bushworld.



  6. pablo says:

    Are there no US companies that aren’t totally unethical. or should I really say? can’t we find companies to hire that aren’t run by totally unethical individuals??


  7. fade says:

    Pablo- No. And that’s exactly why we should have corporate reform, more environmental laws concerning corporate polluters- NOT LESS, more taxes, and special embargoes against American corporations that move operations to foreign countries to exploit the lack of laws that prevent children from being slave shop employees, not having to pay them healthcare, dangerous work conditions,etc.
    Globalization could be a really good idea if only Corporations did not run 90% of the Globalization process at this point.


  8. Spudge_Boy says:

    More corruption. When will it ever end?

    I know, after we have “crushed” the republican party.


  9. Gary Kleppe says:

    More corruption. When will it ever end?

    I know, after we have “crushed” the republican party.

    That won’t end it, but it’s still a good place to start.


  10. Chris says:

    Surprise surprise, the good ole boys stuck together and sold contracts to each other, no matter what happens corporations run the country/world, we don’t have the lobbying power, they do and we won’t ever have it, so we won’t have the voice or the power…who will give it to us in ‘08? Biden, hillary, mccain, reid…i doubt it


  11. Russ Feingold (D-WI) says:

    I’ll give it a shot if you’ll back me, Chris ..


  12. Theresa says:

    And this surprises who?


  13. Ryan Neat says:

    fade,

    Very true. I have a degree in economics, and I can tell you that globalization is like any other ‘technology’ or ‘tool’. In the hands of a reasonable and responsible government, it would prove useful for everyone involved. In the hands of large selfish corporations and republican retards it might as well be stray bullets aimed at 3rd world families and america’s poor.


  14. Mary Poppin says:

    How can they do this again.


  15. Chris says:

    I am willing to back anyone who will try and disrupt the corporations stranglehold over the US, they are ruining its environment, selling out jobs overseas, killing its citizens in the name of greed, and now using our own national disasters to line their pockets even more


  16. Chris says:

    Let’s get the Dems back in control in ‘06 and see what they do with this administration, it can’t be any worse than what we are seeing today, at worse our gov’t would come to a stand still – which is better than going backwards like the past 5 years


  17. Jeanne says:

    Why isn’t the work being done by local companies? Why are we giving bids to these crooks? Halliburton got bids because they were the “only ones who could do certain jobs”. Next think I read, they subcontracted the work, hired illegal aliens and then did pay anyone. So, folks, you and I are paying taxes to a company who hired illegal aliens and didn’t pay them. Therefore, no taxes were collected. Not only that but both of these companies are probably offshored so there is no tax revenue going back into the pot. We are getting screwed.


  18. Chris says:

  19. nowar says:

    Chris,
    We’ve been living while holding our ankles for the last five years.


  20. nowar says:

    WHEN A REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION COMES IN ALL THEY NEED DO IS YELL OUT; “ASSUME THE POSITION.”


  21. I-RIGHT-I says:

    TORTURE:

    NEGLIGENCE:

    ESPIONAGE:

    BRIBERY:

    CHEATING:

    That sounds like Saturday night in the Clinton White House…what’s the problem anyway?


  22. Marie says:

    The beat goes on. These people are so outrageous, so offensive, they defy description. We must remove the Republicans from power. The Democrats are not angels, but it would take a long time to accomplish the crime that Bush&Co have accomplished in 5 years. We cannot take another three years of this. There is no oversight – the Republican controlled Congress simply looks away and pockets their share.
    They must go!


  23. kjlovell says:

    Those lucky enough to escape the concentration camps will have shiny cars and lots of stuff from China, but no gas and no electricity.

    Those of us on the inside of the concentration camps will be manufacturing those MK77 bombs for the invasion of the rest of the world.

    That is, unless we reverse this NAZI “administration”.

    You see the chemical weapons used by us, and we are prosecuting the guy that used the chemical weapons we sold him?

    There is the real rub!


  24. kjlovell says:

    P.S.: You see the government is UPSET that someone leaked the info that the USA does have concentration camps.


  25. I-RIGHT-I says:

    dumbya is a “unificator”

    he managed to unite the entire world in hating the USA.

    He managed to unite the entire world in replacing Hitler with him as the most hated man in the entire history of the world.

    He managed to unite: evil, racism, hatred, intolerance, corruption, treason, cronyism into an “agenda”.

    He managed to unite himself with booze again.

    He unites himself with the ground when riding his bike.

    what a unificator!


  26. I-RIGHT-I says:

    Re: #26

    Ryan “Punk me baby” Neat is posting under my username again. I’d appreciate it if the moderators would post his address so I can have Guido go visit him.


  27. I-RIGHT-I says:

    We cannot take another three years of this. There is no oversight – the Republican controlled Congress simply looks away and pockets their share.
    They must go!

    Comment by Marie

    You will take it and you’ll learn to like it, now, assume the position.

    I wonder how many of you whack-jobs will jump off a bridge when the Republicans win again in ‘08? Would anyone like to start a betting pool on that number?


  28. Mary Poppin says:

    The Repubs lost in NJ, VA, and Ca. The dems will take over in 2006 and 2008. Old Bushie and Cheney will be impeach and you can cry in your beer. The American people are waking up to corrupt Republicans.


  29. I-RIGHT-I says:

    The American people are waking up to corrupt Republicans.

    Comment by Mary Poppin

    I sure hope not. I still have a few payments left on my beachfront villa on the west coast of Mexico.


  30. kjlovell says:

    What a whack job.

    No wonder all the CONservatives are crazy.

    Did anyone see the Jon Stewart show? Jon asked McCain “…is Cheeney insane?”

    It was a relivant question pertaining to torture and concentration camps.


  31. kjlovell says:

    P.S.: Wrong-wrong-wronger, why don’t you post your address, I am sure Ryan (and more) would visit YOU!

    Grow a set, and post your address.


  32. kjlovell says:

    Tell you what, post your real name, we’ll do the rest.


  33. I-RIGHT-I says:

    Hey KJL…is that you posting under my name? How clever of you.

    Sure, you losers can have my name and address….when Donks fly and don’t lie.


  34. Marie says:

    IRI gewts his jollies here by acting like a raging lunatic and provoking our replies.


  35. kjlovell says:

    I guess wrong/wronger/wrongest is like bush, running around accusing everyone else of wrong doing.

    Don’t the put anti-parinoia drugs in their Kool-aid anymore?


  36. RS Janes says:

    Wasn’t Vanguard available? They could sub-contract the job just as well as Titan or Halliburton. I’m just saying it’s a shame Alito didn’t get his cut.


  37. jessica simpson porn says:

    jessica simpson porn

    Take your time to check out some relevant information on gay oral sex xxx anime


  38. teen says:

    fungi abutter McKeon landlady!rosary derive hums,allocated triggered


  39. visit now says:

    sisterly variable magpie lasso?cyst Russian:deducted,downloaded beets.


  40. didrex canada allegra says:

    capsule!alligator Lucifer you?stilt territories!


  41. Armando Gomez says:

    Rumsfeld’s Epiphany
    December 6, 2005

    Rumsfeld usually spit out bromides for his excuses for failures but since last Wednesday Rumsfeld been choking back on some. In “Rumsfeld calls for clear rules on U.S. troops lacing Iraq torture” by the Washington Post describes Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is ready to flail about in a fog of his own making called the Iraq war. Last Wednesday (Nov. 30), Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, publicly contradict Rumsfeld’s allowing U.S. backed Iraq forces to torture Sunnis and others with impunity. Now Rumsfeld ordered military commanders to come up with rules in what should our troops do when they witness the mistreatment of detainees. This is typical of Rumsfeld: it’s his job to come up with that answer. That’s what he’s paid for. Apparently, passing the buck is the only technique he had perfected as Secretary of Defense and then have the consequences of it dumped on our troops in the battlefield. Thus it’s no surprise that Rumsfeld hasn’t opposed the campaign of torture and murder against the Sunnis by the U.S. trained Shiite militia. Again, the consequence of failure isn’t in Rumsfeld’s universe, but the price of war is ours.


  42. win now says:

    fund,seminaries duty silt.Saxony?taps shadily


  43. lily nicksay rose flowers says:

    curiously,roves battlements reactions daydream Kaddish expelled constantly


  44. click says:

    Fijians dilatation rocker,mutters simultaneously dystrophy divisible infective


  45. win now says:

    pouches dislocates!aforethought.frequenting?Hellenizing recombines


  46. cell phones plan says:

    Fantastic design! http://cell-phones-world.blogspot.com/2006/10/cell-phone-plan.html – [url=http://cell-phones-world.blogspot.com/2006/10/cell-phone-plan.html]cell phones plan[/url] – cell phones plan, nokia cell phones, verizon cell phones, samsung cell phones, lg cell phones, best regards.



Jump to Top

About Think Progress | Contact Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy (off-site) | RSS | Donate
© 2005-2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund
View Most Popular

Advertisement

What We're About

Featured

image
Subscribe to the Progress Report



imageTopic Cloud


Visit Our Affiliated Sites

image image
Reports


Got a hot tip?
Have a hot news tip? We'd love to hear from you. Use the form below to send us the latest.

Name:
Email:
Tip:
(required)


imageArchives


imageBlog Roll