Bureau of Indian Affairs' director reassigned after deaths in custody

[othermeans]

Who said it couldn't happen here?

WASHINGTON — The federal government's top law enforcement official responsible for Native American lands has been reassigned in the midst of a wide-ranging investigation into deaths and inhumane conditions in tribal detention centers scattered across the USA, the Interior Department said Tuesday

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-06-01-official-reassigned_x.htm?csp=24

[Turbineguy]

1. Hmmmm........

He's got a nice job waiting for him somewhere....

[shraby]

2. In Iraqi prisons??

[Turbineguy]

3. Got it in one!

[seemslikeadream]

4. Gale Norton is the one that hired the mercenaries

working in Iraq!

[seemslikeadream]

6. Now Hiring: Park rangers, interrogators

Now Hiring: Park rangers, interrogators
Commentary: The wacky world of government contracts

By Michael Collins, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 1:07 PM ET May 28, 2004

ARLINGTON, VA (CBS.MW) -- We learned this week that civilian interrogators used by the Army at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad were hired under a Department of the Interior contract for information technology.

Yes, the Interior Department, best known for running the national parks, apparently has a side business administering contracts for other government agencies. And under what is known as a "blanket purchase agreement" for the government to buy technology services from CACI International of Arlington (CAI: news, chart, profile), the Army was able to order up prison interrogators.

Welcome to the wild, wacky world of government contracting.

It's strange enough that Iraq intelligence gathering is contracted out to the private sector, and even stranger that Baghdad prison interrogators are working under an Interior Department technology contract. But what really bothers me is this type of thing is not that uncommon, and it's seen as "efficiency" in the federal government.

It's hard for an outsider to see what's efficient about the complex web of government contracting. I'm sure it made sense, to someone, for the Army to ask a technology company to hire interrogators -- but to me it seems like going to a lumber yard to buy a computer.

Now that the deal is public, the government has ordered investigations.

Interior Department spokesman Frank Quimby said Tuesday the department's inspector general wants to find out if it was proper to hire interrogators under an information technology contract. He was speaking on a conference call, so we don't know if he was able to keep a straight face.

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7BF8607265-F5F6-4E14-B ...

[Snazzy]

5. more

Robert Ecoffey, the Bureau of Indian Affairs' director of enforcement operations, also oversaw management of 74 prisons and jails throughout tribal lands where investigators have found decrepit conditions that may have contributed to an undisclosed number of deaths.

...

Meanwhile, the FBI confirmed Tuesday that it is conducting multiple investigations into deaths at Indian country detention centers. Those inquiries are separate from a continuing review of prison conditions and fatalities by the Interior Department's inspector general.

The FBI and the Interior Department did not disclose the number of deaths under investigation. But both agencies have reviewed the case of Cindy Gilbert Sohappy, 16, who died in December in a holding cell. The teenager was intoxicated and collapsed while in custody in a Salem, Ore., boarding school attached to the Chemawa Indian School. Her death raised questions about lax monitoring of cells. (

[gottaB]

7. An outrage

A place where children die....

[othermeans]

9. Excellent story and link 200 billion for Halliburton and Iraq but not one

damn cent for the American Indian, poor whites, blacks, latinos, the elderly but hey what do you expect the Republicans control both houses of Congress, Supreme Court, the executive branch.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

8. Hey, this sort of thing goes on all the time!

The pipeline for a lot of the military's black programs is HUD. More deniability that way.