Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin under investigation

[tombogan03884]

Another anti gun Mayor accused of corruption ?
Say it ain't so !


http://news.yahoo.com/former-orleans-mayor-ray-nagin-under-investigation-source-074941066.html

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the colorful and controversial spokesman for the city after the devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is under investigation by federal authorities, a source with direct knowledge of the probe said.

The source told Reuters on Friday that several people linked to Nagin or the New Orleans city administration during his two terms as mayor ending in 2010 were cooperating with the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI.

The investigation includes whether Nagin received favors or items of value from vendors to the city in return for contracts they received while Nagin was in office, the source said.

Nagin, who was in Minnesota for a speaking engagement on Friday, spoke to a WWL-TV reporter at the New Orleans airport on his return. Asked about allegations he benefited personally while in office, he said:

"They're three years old, and they keep coming up. I only want an opportunity to finally deal with them. Hopefully we can have an honest, open approach where truth and justice can prevail, but I'm starting to worry about that now," Nagin said.

A Justice Department spokeswoman in Washington had no comment. The U.S. attorney in New Orleans, Jim Letten, did not return a call requesting comment. A spokeswoman for FBI Special Agent in Charge David Welker declined to comment on whether an investigation is underway.

Nagin was thrust into the national spotlight in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed levees and flooded 80 percent of the city, killing 1,500 people and causing more than $80 billion in damage.

Thousands of New Orleans residents were displaced, especially poor African-Americans, and many were relocated to other cities in the region for months or left New Orleans permanently.

As mayor during the crisis, Nagin publicly clashed with federal and state officials over relief efforts and was accused of making statements during the crisis that inflamed passions.

Nagin, who is black, was criticized for racial divisiveness after Katrina for urging residents to rebuild a "chocolate New Orleans," referring to its majority African-American population.

He was re-elected mayor in 2006 but critics said he did not do enough to revive the city in his second term.

Since leaving office in 2010, speculation has swirled that Nagin would eventually become the target of a federal probe after a former associate and close personal friend pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the city.

Gregory Meffert, the city's former chief technology officer under Nagin, pleaded guilty in 2010 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bribery in connection with a city program receiving federal funds, and filing a false tax return. He is scheduled to be sentenced in May.

New Orleans attorney and Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino said a probe of Nagin was no surprise.

"Ever since Meffert pleaded guilty there has been serious speculation that he was cooperating against Ray Nagin," Ciolino said Friday.

[Rastus]

Want to read some good government fiction?  Try this:  
http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/download/csipubs/wombwell.pdf

They mix truth with fiction.  Especially comical was that there were only 6 deaths in the Superdome somewhere around page 65.  

Word on the street back home is that the buses you saw underwater were parked for "storm security" at a friend of Nagin's for $300k...if true that goes a long way to explain why they were where they were.  On the second day Nagin ran, commandeered a small plane and flew to Dallas and bought a new place to hide stay....just the kind of faithful government official we all want.  

Governor Blanco was a joke.  Nagin was less than a joke and a coward to boot.  A friend of mine and I were talking just Thursday night about when he went in the Superdome as part of the assistance that arrived and before the bodies were moved out; he saw nine bodies still hanging from the plaza handrails plus bodybags stacked on the field with "real live" dead bodies in them. ...lots of bags....there were piles of people bagged up from the restrooms.  It seems the druggies took the opportunity to schedule old scores and those who were object of score settling were the ones who were purposely hung as a message.  That link is a rewrite of history when it talks about only 6 killed in the Superdome as well as some other great fiction included on the other pages.

The thin veneer of society was no more than a wisp of vapor that disappeared instantly after the storm passed.  Looting and killing started immediately.  Sheep were petrified and bunkered themselves in their apartments afraid to come out because of all of the gunfire.  When the sheep ran out of water/food the sheep began to venture out at night so they wouldn't be seen.  I say this because we need to get the point that the sheep were afraid to venture out to the help that was down the street...that should paint a picture for you if you think just a bit....people to frightened to go out 50 yards when help drove by.  Of course, a large faction of the police onlooked while the looters placed a portion of their ill-gotten booty at their feet.

All the accounts I've heard bring you to the point that if it weren't for "hard men" there would have been a real sheep slaughter and die off.  FDNY did an outstanding job by providing police protection in Algiers mostly for a college and nunnery.  The DEA, regular miliary, national guard, retired military people who were sworn in, and others who came to help kept the thing from being more of a tragedy than it was.   People who banded together in their own neighborhoods who actively took charge to protect their families and themselves were avoided and those zones were considered secure and did not need coordinated resources to put down crime.  New Orleans was gridded and run from one of the Mississipi River Bridge offices...I think GNO but it may have been HP Long.    

I think contrary to what we've read the federal government provided the stability and support needed in the areas needed at the level required to restore law and order.  The buffoonish actions of some FEMA elite distracted the lame stream media from the real story...if they wanted to hear it at all.  

[Pathfinder]

Obviously a racist investigation that bho and Holder will quash to protect "their" people.

[Pathfinder]

I think contrary to what we've read the federal government provided the stability and support needed in the areas needed at the level required to restore law and order.  The buffoonish actions of some FEMA elite distracted the lame stream media from the real story...if they wanted to hear it at all.  

Some of the 1st responders from here in ND have some frightening tales to tell of their run ins with the FEMA elites thugs.

And don't forget, courtesy of PDs across the country, Nagin's disarming Gestapo squads (aka LEOs) also did a lot to distract us from what was really going on as well.

[Rastus]

Some of the 1st responders from here in ND have some frightening tales to tell of their run ins with the FEMA elites thugs.

And don't forget, courtesy of PDs across the country, Nagin's disarming Gestapo squads (aka LEOs) also did a lot to distract us from what was really going on as well.

I should have made certain to expand the Buffoons to a large portion of the NOPD.  When they broke into Sewell Cadillac a couple of days after the flood they could not hear the little generator on the roof and had no idea they were being recorded with audio.  The police chief should not be working unless in a striped uniform.

[Sponsor]

[twyacht]

But it is such a "good chocolate city"....



This is my shocked face.....

Shocked I say!!!!

[Pathfinder]

I should have made certain to expand the Buffoons to a large portion of the NOPD.  When they broke into Sewell Cadillac a couple of days after the flood they could not hear the little generator on the roof and had no idea they were being recorded with audio.  The police chief should not be working unless in a striped uniform.

I was actually thinking of the gung-ho operator wanna-be LEOs from all over the country who arrested a lawyer guarding his own home, physically assaulted the 70-year old lady who showed them her nickel plated .32 that they asked her to show them - and broke her arm before arresting her, and the various other felonies all committed in the name of Nagin's incompetence law and order.

And the damn LEOs wonder why we don't respect - or trust - them.

Got a link to the Sewell dealership audio? ? ? ? ? ? ?

[twyacht]

Just a reminder:

Police took their guns but "allowed them to stay in their homes"....

How nice of them.....

Nothing like hockey checking an old lady against the wall for her snub....SHE WAS FINE, NOT FLOODED, AND PROVISIONED!!!!!

NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!

[Rastus]

......
Got a link to the Sewell dealership audio? ? ? ? ? ? ?

I wish I did.  If you search you can find the court documentation but no specifics.  I got that from someone who was on a former governor's personal staff.   I suspect at least some of the "outsider" LEO's were pumped so full of political correctness that they did not know how to distinquish between the good and bad guys.  See my comment about secure neighborhoods.  

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9542398/ns/msnbc_tv-the_abrams_report/t/inside-allegations-nopd-looted-cadillacs/

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1533327/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1498889/posts