URGENT: Surprise, surprise - Corps of Engineers withholds bad news

Some of you may know that the new head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), General Van Antwerp, is in New Orleans today, and has a press conference scheduled for 4 PM, CDT.

Some of you may also know that the Corps has had an internal investigation of the design, installation and operation of the floodgate pumps underway since last September. In a May 2, 2007 letter letter to Senator David Vitter, now-retired Corps Commander General Strock publicly revealed the existence of this investigation. He said the investigation would be complete sometime during May. He also said the investigation would be turned over to the GAO so that the GAO inquiry into these same matters would be robust.

Today is May 31. The Corps internal investigation has not been released. It has not been turned over to GAO, who issued their findings last week. If GAO had received the Corps internal investigation, they would have mentioned it, but they didn't. They never got it, because the Corps didn't turn it over to them. The Corps ran out the clock on the GAO.

Now it appears the Corps is not going to release the internal investigation report until Van Antwerp has a chance to see it. Back channel sources are telling me the delay is also to avoid embarrassing Van Antwerp during his visit to New Orleans. Tomorrow is hurricane season. The citizens of New Orleans deserve much more than political games by Corps Public Affairs Officers. If there is something deeply damaging to the Corps in the report (and my money is on "Yes," or else it would have come out by now or it would have been turned over to GAO before their May 15th deadline), everyone needs to see it, now.

If any of you know anyone who is to attend this afternoon's 4 PM press conference with Gen. Van Antwerp, I beg you to have them ask hard about this internal report, and why the Corps feels it is more important to withhold potentially embarrassing information rather than informing the citizens who depend upon their work.

Matt
http://fixthepumps.blogspot.com

•  For a second, I thought that

  you were talking about another bad day for the Marines.  Instead it's another bad day for NOLA.  

  by wozzle on Thu May 31, 2007 at 11:37:42 AM PDT

•  Maybe modify your title?

  The only place you mention that "Corps" refers to the Corps of Engineers is in the tags - that would be good info to have in the title and/or with your first mention of Corps.

  by Lashe on Thu May 31, 2007 at 11:40:05 AM PDT

•  Hiding news

  requires Friday evening releases.  Especially on holiday long weeks/weekends.  So you may have to wait until July 3, or maybe Labor Day.  In this case, probably after hurricane season entirely.

  by mem from somerville on Thu May 31, 2007 at 11:40:12 AM PDT

  •  I'm thinking Christmas Eve 2015. n/t

    by gchaucer2 on Thu May 31, 2007 at 11:42:14 AM PDT

•  I think you have to

  specify Army Corps of Engineers, at least in your opening paragraph.

  Other than that, thanks for the diary.  If anyone looks at the history of fiascos of the ACE, they know not to trust a damned thing they do.  Straightening the Kissemee (sp?) River was brilliant -- uh, oh, it causes flooding? Guess we'll have to put back the bends.  Morons.  Hope we get an update.

  by gchaucer2 on Thu May 31, 2007 at 11:41:24 AM PDT

•  Fixed the references to the Corps

  Sometimes I forget that outside New Orleans, not everyone thinks Corps of Engineers when they hear "Corps."

  by mcbrid35 on Thu May 31, 2007 at 12:36:23 PM PDT

  •  Levees.org

    I sent Sandy an email to see if anybody from levees.org was at the news conference.  They are not afraid to ask the hard questions of the ACOE.

    by chigh on Thu May 31, 2007 at 04:18:07 PM PDT

•  John McPhee did an article on the Corps vs the

  Mississippee, back in 1989, titled Atchafalaya, published in the Control of Nature. It was more about the Mississippee deciding to straighten out and bypass New Orleans and go into the Gulf through the Atchafalya swamps than about attack from the sea, but I remembered - and looked up - this quote:

  The Corps of Engineers -- they're scared as hell. They don't know what's going to happen. This is planned chaos. The more planning they do, the more chaotic it is. Nobody knows exactly where it's going to end.

  Still worth reading. Hell, everything John McPhee ever wrote is worth reading - he's the best nonfiction writer around (I except Sy Hersh - he reports on the intersection of politics and reality).

  by mskitty on Thu May 31, 2007 at 01:05:47 PM PDT