Reyes Of Hope!

Silvestre Reyes will be the next Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.  Let's just flash back to that ringing MinuteMan endorsement of Nov. 9 when I wrote that Mr. Reyes "also has something resembling qualifications".

Welcome aboard and good luck sir (said the greeter at the Titanic).

LATER: Right, Then, The Era of Good Feeling Is Over:

From 2005, an investigation involving waste, fraud, and Reyes' daughter:

Surveillance Scandal

Congressman Mike Rogers, a Republican from Alabama, and chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Management, Integration and Oversight, conducted a hearing on June 16, 2005, to probe why L-3 has botched a key border surveillance project.

"In 1998, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service launched the Integrated Surveillance Intelligence System, known as ISIS. This system was originally designed to detect illegal aliens and drug traffickers crossing our borders.

"A major component of the system is the Remote Video Surveillance Program. This network integrates multiple color, thermal and infrared cameras, which are mounted on 50- to 80-foot poles along the borders, into a single remote-controlled system.

"In December 2004, the inspector general of the General Services Administration issued an audit. This report found numerous problems with the Border Patrol's contract for the Remote Video Surveillance Program. (download report here)

"For example, the initial $2 million award was made to the International Microwave Corporation, known as IMC, without documented evidence of a competition. Interestingly, however, one year later IMC received a $200 million extension for many of the tasks that had fallen outside the scope of the original contract.

"GSA also found problems with the equipment. At the Border Patrol location in Blaine, Washington, for example, auditors found cameras and other pieces of equipment that did not work. Some needed frequent repair.
"At three other locations, including Detroit, auditors found surveillance sites where no equipment had even been delivered and no work was underway. At other sites in New York, Arizona and Texas, some equipment had been installed, but was not operational.

"GSA also noted these deficiencies: 60-foot poles that were paid for but never installed; sensitive equipment that failed to meet electrical codes; an operations center where contractors, and government employees did little or no work for over a year; and, not surprisingly, numerous cost overruns.

"In September 2004, GSA abruptly halted extending the contract, leaving approximately 70 border sites without monitoring equipment. It also forced the contractor to ship truckloads of equipment back to the Border Patrol. Today, that equipment is gathering dust in a warehouse.

"What we have here, plain and simple, is a case of gross mismanagement of a multimillion dollar contract. This agreement has violated federal contracting rules. And it has wasted taxpayers' dollars.

"Worst of all, it has seriously weakened our border security."

Despite the sub-committee hearing last year, the investigation has since been dropped. Robert Samuels, a spokesman for the General Services Administration, emailed an update to CorpWatch: "The results of the investigation were not sufficient, however, to pursue further legal action."

It might just be coincidence but the manager of the border security project was Rebecca Reyes, who is now director of policy, procedures and administration at L-3 subsidiary, MPRI. She also happens to be the daughter of Silvestre Reyes, a member of the U.S. Congress from Texas, a former Border Patrol agent who is now a senior member of both the Armed Services and Select Intelligence Committees of the House of Representatives.

More here.

Comments

[hit and run]

Welcome aboard and good luck sir (said the greeter at the Titanic).

Nancy, where should this go?

[clarice]

Rereading your original post, TM, it has occurred to me that it doesn't take a great deal to be recognized as a depp thinker on national security--check out this not tongue in cheek bit:
“A lot of people would be astonished,” said Leslie H. Gelb, a former president of the Council on Foreign Relations and a State Department official in the Carter administration. “I think it would send a signal that Democrats are not going to be as serious about national security as they need to be.”

Cab drivers and deli counter managers could've told you the same thing in far more colorful language.

[Ranger]

This was in the previous thread:

Pelosi managed to pick another Democrat with an ethical cloud.
Pelosi didn't mind Reyes' crony scandal involving a no-bid contract for a broken U.S.-Canadian border camera system run by a firm that employed Reyes' daughter as vice president of government contracts.

Posted by: pa | December 01, 2006 at 09:15 AM

Anyone know any more about this? Sounds like time to start another drumbeat if it's true.

[Pagar]

Its in about the last paragraph of this article.
http://www.kirotv.com/investigations/4081213/detail.html

[Jane]

I say keep hammering.

[clarice]

Thanks, pagar

[hit and run]

Jane:
I say keep hammering

And I say at 2 o'clock I'm blowin' this joint to employ the hammer metaphor in the passive. As in I'll be getting.......

[maryrose]

Looking for an honest man or woman in the dem coalitions is becoming increasingly harder to do. When you have a former president and first lady carting off White House furniture and dabbling in bankrupt land deals and S and L's and reviewing FBI files you know most of them have been taught by experts. There was no price paid for lying and deceitful ways so everyone lined up at the trough.

[perc]

Congressional Gold Medal for Spain's President.

Plame's work paid and apologized.

[sylvia]

They have to connect the bad work of the daughter to the father however.