Obama’s NOAA probed for booze cruises bought with official fines
Greenpeace activist Casson Trenor has disrupted the huge Boston
Seafood Show for the past two years, but, if he’s planning a repeat performance
this coming week, he’ll likely be upstaged by an illicit party boat.
They’ve heard it has something to do with the overwhelming “Asset Forfeiture” fines they’ve had to pay under the Obama administration’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It has something to do with their very survival.
The craft is the subject of a damning — and highly redacted — 34-page report of an investigation by the U.S. Commerce Department’s inspector general titled “Irregularities in NOAA’s $300,000 Undercover Vessel Procurement.”
Three weeks ago, Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., both of whom have substantial seafood catching, selling, and consuming constituencies, obtained a copy of the report under the Freedom of Information Act.
It was an iron-eyed investigation of NOAA’s law enforcement office in Seattle, spurred by a fed-up whistleblower disgusted by higher-ups who dodged procurement rules to buy a luxury pleasure boat.
After reading the report, the outraged Brown took it to the Senate floor where he blasted the Obama agency for what the IG found: “Let me describe the situation: NOAA levied totally unreasonable fines against our fishermen.”
“Then they used that money to buy themselves a luxury boat,” Brown said. “That’s right, while fishermen in Gloucester and New Bedford are struggling to put off foreclosure or mourning the loss of their livelihood because of NOAA’s overzealous enforcement, the NOAA office was living the good life on their dime.”
It may seem odd that the New England fishing community would be so interested in a report on NOAA’s bureaucratic corruption a continent away in the Pacific Northwest — Boston is 3,075 road miles from Seattle.
But this new report coldly fills in shameful details glossed over in a 2010 IG report that focused on New England fisheries, examining agency law enforcement officers’ misuses of NOAA’s wretchedly mismanaged Asset Forfeiture Fund — the account that holds money from those unreasonable fines laid upon fishermen.
So, New England fishermen are very interested in the new report. They will back any lawful measure to punish cops who break the law on their backs to have a good time and get away with it.
Brown’s speech was subsequently posted to YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIdzt53FKtY ,which had more than 17,000 viewers after Richard Gaines of the Gloucester Times spread the story.
Some of Brown’s remarks hit the American fairness button. “NOAA had no reasonable official use for this boat. They didn’t need it. Period. They had some story about needing an ‘undercover vessel’ to sneak up on whale-watching vessels. Imagine that — armed federal agents sneaking up on school groups and tourists trying to learn about nature.
“NOAA officials used the boat for the following: trips to dockside restaurants; hamburger and hotdog BBQs and alcohol-fueled parties; and ‘pleasure cruises’ at high rates of speed, with beer consumed onboard. Let’s be honest. A booze cruise is a booze cruise.”
The video showed barely controlled outrage on Brown’s face.
“To this day no one has been held accountable,” Brown said. “Let me repeat. No one has been disciplined, fired, or even reprimanded for anything having to do with this boat. NOAA has a culture of corruption that has created a chasm of distrust between the agency and the fishing industry.”
Well, what do we expect of dishonest cops?
“This is simply unacceptable,” said Brown. “This needs to change, and accountability starts at the top. NOAA’s leadership needs to change. I am calling once more for President Obama to fire NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco.”
The entire senior executive ranks of NOAA — including the Seattle and New England corrupt cops — would look more fitting in the unemployment lines than their victims.
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