Because Hurricanes Threaten Golf Resorts, Too

By Al Kamen
Friday, November 9, 2007

FEMA has had some bad publicity lately, but that doesn't mean its work -- often nasty, even dangerous -- doesn't continue. And of course such things as planning meetings don't have to take place in uncomfortable settings or in chilly Washington.

So this week, some 30 Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel and about 270 state and local disaster officials attended a four-day conference at the beautiful Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club near Tampa to talk about dealing with Category 5 hurricanes.

It's all part of FEMA Director R. David Paulison's Catastrophic Planning Initiative, which was kicked off four months ago with a similar workshop at the none-too-shabby Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami.

A FEMA spokesman said several other sites in the area were canvassed and Innisbrook was the one that offered the $98 government per diem rate, even tossing in a continental breakfast. Can't beat that.

And attendees may want to stay over a day or two, maybe see how the greens play dry or, if it rains, how water can slow the greens and mess with the sand. There are excellent Har-Tru tennis courts, lighted for convenience.

Never Mind That Extra Cash

State Department Inspector General Howard J. Krongard, accused of blocking investigations into contract fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect the Bush administration, declined to comment on those charges when he talked to CongressDaily last week, but he said his actions were generally guided by cost considerations.

"Krongard said he could not afford to pay for overseas travel where the likelihood of a successful investigation was low," CongressDaily reported on Oct. 31. (Low likelihood? In Iraq? Fish? In a barrel?)

"Without a budget increase and with rising travel costs, there is little left in his discretionary budget for open-ended investigations," CongressDaily reported him saying. "When you have something really, really important, you try to find a way to rob Peter to pay Paul," he said.

But it's not like the office is broke. We're hearing that the IG's shop actually returned $175,000 that it did not spend in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30. That's only a tiny portion of the agency's $31 million budget and, we're told, much better than most other agencies do, but it surely could buy a few tickets to Baghdad. What's more, senior folks are concerned about how the office manages its funds throughout the year.

A week before Krongard's interview, a suggestion was made at an IG division directors' meeting that a small team of auditors and administrative officials review the budget operation and come up with recommendations on how to improve things.

Given that the IG operation is setting up a new Middle East regional office in Amman, Jordan, probably good to get the budget operation shipshape.

Initially, We Were Wrong

This e-mail was out last week to all staff in the Manufacturing and Services (MAS) division at the Department of Commerce, from Ryan A. Douglas, who works in the department's International Trade Administration (ITA).

Folks, I just want to send out a reminder that Acting Under Secretary Padilla has requested that his full name appear on the briefing papers, i.e. Christopher A. Padilla, for all papers, memos, concurrence sheets, etc . . . that [are] heading up and/or out of ITA. The last couple of documents we received from MAS have his name listed as Chris Padilla.

Please make sure to change any boilerplate documents that you may have.

Thanks, Ryan

No, thank you for the heads-up. We immediately investigated, and it appears we have omitted the middle initial in the past. Won't happen again. (Copy editors, please note.)

Letter From Iraq: Stop Whining

Career Foreign Service officers are up in arms over the State Department's plan to order some people to serve in Iraq. But career officer John Matel, now leader of the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) embedded in Al Asad, Anbar province, posted a sharp rebuttal -- "A Letter From Iraq to My Overwrought Colleagues" -- this week on State's official blog, Dipnote.

"I just finished reading a news article discussing some of my FSO colleagues' vehement and emotional response to the idea that a few of us might have directed assignments in Iraq," Matel wrote.

"To my vexed and overwrought colleagues, I say take a deep breath and calm down," he wrote. "I have been here for a while now, and you may have been misinformed about life at a PRT. I personally dislike the whole idea of forced assignments, but we do have to do our jobs. We signed up to be worldwide available. All of us volunteered for this kind of work and we have enjoyed a pretty sweet lifestyle most of our careers. I will not repeat what the Marines say when I bring up this subject."

But he wrote that he "just tried to explain [the outcry] to one of my PRT members, a reserve LtCol called up to serve in Iraq. She asked me if all FSOs would get the R&R, extra pay etc. and if it was our job to do things like this. When I answered in the affirmative, she just rolled her eyes."

Some 'Terrorism' Is Less Terrifying

The words "terrorist incident" usually trigger images of suicide bombers or roadside explosives. But the FBI's definition is broader, including violence by environmental, animal rights, antiabortion and other groups.

So when someone says the number of terrorist incidents is up or down, it's worth checking how the incidents are being defined. For example, the agency's compilation of incidents from 2002 through 2005 includes: "In separate incidents in May and September 2002, unknown subjects released approximately 250 mink from a fur farm in Harborcreek, Pa."

On the other hand, "on Nov. 26, 2002, the barn on the same Harborcreek fur farm was destroyed by arson."