New Orleans Levee Board: Now A Criminal Investigation

A story which bloggers picked up on a week or more before the MSM has resulted in a criminal probe into possible corruption involving the New Orleans Levee Board. Polipundit was on it - I covered it here and Instapundit acknowledged it here. Also, I recently posted that the leader of the board was ousted.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into the levee failures that swamped New Orleans, looking into the possibility of corruption in the design, construction and maintenance of the flood barriers.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said Wednesday that his office began the investigation the week after Hurricane Katrina.

"The scope of our interest is very broad," he said.

He said some officials were found to have undisclosed conflicts of interest, and "we're extremely concerned about those." He would not give details.

James Bernazzani, FBI agent in charge in New Orleans, said agents have received numerous tips about possible malfeasance.

Comments

[!]

Thats great. Hope they all go to jail.
Yeah, and what about that beautiful waterfall they donated to the city of NEW ORLEANS sitting in the middle of town now. Heard they paid for it out of the levee funds. Although pretty if I were the ones that were flooded I would raiseing hell about now.

[bizarre]

I remember when you posted this. You guys have the MSM playing catch up!!!!!

[jolari]

Kudos to you Dan

[hardyandtiny]

Stop the drugs! That should be the number one concern. The USA is full of illegal drugs! Why?

[dugo]

Yeah, I hope Katrina will rot in jail for the rest of her life.

[Kelleher, William J.]

If the residents of New Orleans were workers in an excavation OSHA would charge the Corps and the contractors with criminal negligence. There were numerous violations of OSHA regulations. See California's OSHA standards for excavations.