Billion$ for Haliburton, yet US Customs lays off 27 at Mich. borders

Unbelievable !!!!!

Bush has billion$ & billion$ to spend on contracts to give to Haliburton, yet not a few thousand to keep our borders safe. But then again Haliburton is still paying Cheney over $1 million per year as VP, border guards do not give campaign million$ like Haliburton.

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http://www.freep.com/news/mich/home27_20030827.htm

Detroit Free Press

U.S. Customs lays off 27 at Mich. borders

Move comes as holiday, Sept. 11 near
August 27, 2003
BY CECIL ANGEL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

As the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks approaches and the Labor Day holiday nears, Michigan's borders have 27 fewer customs inspectors.

The U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection told 27 of the 242 inspectors across the state not to report for work.

No other state has seen such cuts, according to Frank Stanczak, president of the union that represents the workers, Local 46 of the American Federation of Government Employees.

The inspectors -- six at Port Huron, eight at Sault Ste. Marie, six at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and seven at the Ambassador Bridge -- said their supervisors told them Aug. 20 that they were being laid off and to apply for unemployment benefits.

But Kevin Weeks, director of field operations for the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in Detroit, said the inspecto...........

more...........

Cheney NEEDS those billions to plump up his pension dividends from Halliburton...surely that's more important to this country's safety that two dozen lousy, poorly-trained border guards, right!?

{sarcasm OFF}

B-)

friends was a part of an elite all-Indian U.S. Customs unit called the Shadow Wolves, which patrolled the U.S.-Mexico border on the Tohono O'Odham indian reservation in Arizona. They use old Indian tracking methods to catch drug smugglers and these 20 guys busted about a third of the drugs seized by Customs along the border last year. They are prolific. Well, anyway, for no reason the whole unit was just disbanded in May and absorbed into the Border Patrol. Now they don't even do their former job. They are actually investigators, but have been relegated to doing duties they are overtrained for. While they were in the process of getting switched over- I might mention they lost a pay raise that was due to the whole unit along the way too- these guys had nothing to do but sit around and do nothing. I was told by an Agent that Homeland Security is basically just a bunch of agencies and departments fighting over jurisdiction and power. These guys are woefully underfunded and unprepared to secure our borders. Former Customs Investigators now sit under the authority of INS managers who don't even have the training of an entry level customs agent. What is even more dangerous is that AZ is a border state that has a large nuclear reactor and two large airports all within a few hours driving distance from that border. I know for a fact that the AZ-Mexico border is a disaster waiting to happen because the people securing it are not getting what they need to do so effectively. Unfortunately, Michigan and Arizona are probably not exceptions to the rule.