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*sigh*
The ridiculous continues.
I can understand this ... Jews aren't Christians. So let them use the red Star of David, if they must.
Ideally I wish this wasn't an issue.
Use a crescent and a star with a circle and a slash throught it. I micturate on the Islamic gutter.
This is why words like "f*cking" and "retards" had to be created.
Anyone who gives to the Red Cross is funding Hamas. Give to the Salvation Army instead.
The only chance at world peace is a world without mudslimes.
Red Cross Faces Internal Charges of Misappropriation of Hurricane Funds, Goods
March 27, 2006
http://fdncenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=137100006
The American Red Cross is investigating wide-ranging accusations of impropriety among volunteers during its response to Hurricane Katrina, the New York Times reports.
The accusations include improper diversion of relief supplies, failure to follow required Red Cross procedures in tracking and distributing supplies, and use of felons as volunteers in the disaster area in violation of Red Cross rules. While there are no official estimates of the value of cash and supplies that might have been misappropriated, Red Cross volunteers who came forward with the accusations put the amount in the millions of dollars. Among the specific problems identified were the disappearance of rented cars, generators, and nearly a third of the nine thousand air mattresses donated by a private company, as well as the unauthorized possession of computer equipment that could be used to add funding to debit cards and manipulate databases.
"We're in the middle of this," said interim Red Cross CEO John F. McGuire, "and we're looking at a range of possible problems, from issues between a few people that are really nothing other than bad will, to failure to follow good management principles and Red Cross procedures that have caused a lot of waste, to criminal activity."
In interviews, more than a dozen volunteers from around the country described an organization that had virtually no cost controls, little oversight of its inventory, and no mechanism to conduct basic background checks on volunteers given substantial responsibility. Similar descriptions were included in a report — assigned by the organization and conducted by a Maryland attorney and a Wisconsin security guard who had previously uncovered wrongdoing in Texas after the hurricane — that cited "a breathtaking systematic failure" by senior managers to enforce inventory-control procedures and "outright contempt" for internal fiscal controls. McGuire said the organization has pursued every tip, and any finding of criminal activity would be turned over to law enforcement authorities. "The vast majority are misconceptions," he added. "The key for us is to know whether we've got a problem in the Red Cross system and procedures...or whether we have a criminal problem."
The organization, which raised $3.6 billion for its hurricane relief efforts last year, has already drawn stern criticism for its uneven response to Hurricane Katrina, most notably from Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), chairman of Senate Finance Committee, who has threatened to revoke the organization's charter if it does not overhaul its operations. "The allegations from Red Cross volunteers are wide ranging and include possible criminal misconduct," Grassley said. "The Red Cross needs to change its mind-set so it addresses volunteers' concerns swiftly and appropriately, regardless of whether a Senate committee chairman is asking the questions."
anti-Semitism in the Red Cross
Bernadine Healy forced out as president of the American Red Cross over anti-Semitism issue
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/011224ta_talk_mayer
Last week, Healy offered her own account of what had happened. Working out of a borrowed office in downtown Washington, she said that she had been forced to resign because she had angered the board of governors by moving too aggressively to address what some see as a legacy of anti-Semitism in the Red Cross. "There's no question about it—this was the one that broke the camel's back," she said.
The issue involves the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which is the Red Cross's international membership body, based in Geneva, and its policy toward the Israeli version of the Red Cross, the Magen David Adom, or the M.D.A. Since 1949, the Israelis, who have only "observer" status with the federation, have been applying for full membership, which would entitle them to vote and to sit on committees. But they have refused to accept as their emblem either the red cross used by most of the world or the red crescent used by Muslim countries, and the international federation has refused to approve the Israelis' use of the Star of David. Federation officials say that approval of a new emblem would require a majority of the member countries to vote to amend the Geneva convention. Given the tensions in the Middle East, that is not likely to happen soon.
No one, including the Israelis, paid much attention to the issue until Healy took over the Red Cross, in September, 1999. Within weeks, she had become an ardent champion of the M.D.A.'s campaign for membership. In her view, the exclusion of Israel was "hurting the American Red Cross." "Many in the Jewish community, and others, found it shocking," she said. "It was reinforcing a sense that many people had had in the past, since the days of the Holocaust, that there is a discriminatory attitude in the Red Cross, whether that is true or not." (The reputation of the international organization was tainted during the Second World War because it continued to recognize the German Red Cross. Red Cross officials failed to acknowledge early reports of Jewish death camps, and declined to classify incarcerated Jews as protected prisoners of war. And, after the war, it provided documentation for Nazi fugitives, such as Josef Mengele—unwittingly, according to the Red Cross.)
"I'm a pre-women's-lib woman," said Healy, a fifty-seven-year-old cardiologist who grew up in an Irish-American household in Queens and was educated at Hunter College High School, Vassar, Harvard Medical School, and Johns Hopkins. "I came into a world in which I saw discrimination. I remember Jewish doctors I trained with being unable to practice outside Jewish hospitals."
Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, whom Healy brought into the Red Cross as a special ambassador on the M.D.A. issue, said last week that his impression was that Healy's championship of the M.D.A. was "the cause" of her being forced out. He went on, "But, totally fortuitously for the Red Cross board, September 11th came along. The board members have done their best to make it look as if they didn't like what she was doing with the money. But she tells me that the board approved everything she did."
The International Red Cross? Why bother.
This org is run by people who let terrorists secret themselves in ambulances, and goes out of its way to trash the US in Iraq and Gitmo.
Bad Week For The Red Cross
By Reed Irvine March 14, 2002
http://www.the-catbird-seat.net/RedCross.htm
The second week of March started out badly for the American Red Cross. 60 Minutes devoted a segment of its Sunday program to searing criticism of the way in which the organization handles the big bucks it collects ostensibly to provide assistance to victims of major disasters.
That was followed the next day by a blast from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. It asked over 100 organizations to drop their support for the American Red Cross because its chapter in Orange County, California, had canceled its invitation to a student choir to perform at a large function the previous day because it was planning to sing a medley consisting of "America the Beautiful," "Prayer of the Children" and "God Bless the U.S.A."
A spokeswoman for the Orange County Chapter explained the cancellation saying, "We wanted songs representative of all races, all creeds. We are not a religious organization. We have to be neutral and impartial in all situations."
The national headquarters in Washington, D.C., supported the cancellation of the invitation, issuing a news release that said, "The dispute was over the music program and has nothing to do with patriotism.... The dispute centers only on our sensitivity to religious diversity and a preference for a music program that would be inclusive and not offend different populations participating in this particular event."
Cherilyn Bacon, the director of the group from the Orange County High School of the Arts that had been invited to sing, had arranged the medley, titling it the "Heroes Trilogy." It was her intention to honor those involved in rescue efforts following the September 11 attacks.
A Red Cross representative objected to the medley, saying the lyrics might be offensive to some of the 400 guests at the annual Volunteer Recognition Awards.
Ms. Bacon told the AP, "We have never had a complaint about the medley. People have cried when they heard it. I think the Red Cross is taking the issue too seriously." They took it so seriously that they disinvited Ms. Bacon's group and substituted another one from the same school, perhaps a group that promised not to sing any songs that used the words "God" or "prayer."
In a news release accompanying his letter asking over 100 groups to withhold support from the American Red Cross, Catholic League President William Donohue said, "The American Red Cross has every right to adopt the platform of political correctness by censoring the free speech of young men and women who want to honor God and country. And we have every right to ask our friends to send the Red Cross an unmistakable message by refusing to donate one more dime to the organization. Our request is being sent to our allies in virtually every faith community. The time to put an end to this anti-religious madness is now."
Apparently the way to get the attention of the American Red Cross is to take an action that threatens its income. With no big stories in the media applying pressure, a lengthy apology was issued by the Orange County Chapter and distributed by national headquarters the same day the Donohue letter went out. It said they "did not intend to hurt or offend anyone," but that it was clear that the judgment they made to exclude certain songs from the Sunday program was a mistake. It concluded, "We want to apologize to the community and to any people who were hurt or disappointed by our actions."
The "60 Minutes" program on the handling of the large donations the Red Cross gets to help victims of major disasters will not help the money roll in. It summarized the tardy disbursal of the $930 million given to the Red Cross to help the families of the 9/11 victims. It showed that it had taken 18 months to disburse the $16 million collected to assist the victims of the huge Red River flood in Minnesota in 1997.
It finished with the Red Cross response to a fire that destroyed many homes in a canyon near San Diego last year. The Red Cross put a photo on its Web site of a woman who lost her home in the fire. It helped raise nearly $400,000, but that woman and others had received no help.
After six months, a group of them met with the woman who heads the San Diego Red Cross chapter to ask how the money had been used. She was paid $309,000 last year, but she gave them no answers.
Both she and the head of the Red Cross national office refused to be interviewed by "60 Minutes."
Forty-nine accused of bilking Red Cross hurricane funds
North County Times ^ | Dec.28, 2005 | OLIVIA MUNOZ
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/12/28/news/state/17_09_4012_27_05.txt
FRESNO -- Forty-nine people have been indicted in a scheme that bilked thousands of dollars from a Red Cross fund designated for Hurricane Katrina victims, federal authorities said Tuesday.
At least 14 suspects worked at a Red Cross call center in Bakersfield and are accused of helping family and friends file false claims for aid money, said Mary Wenger, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott in Sacramento.
All the suspects are from the Bakersfield area and face federal wire fraud charges, she said. Six have pleaded guilty.
The fake claims drained at least $200,000 from the fund, but that number is expected to rise as the investigation continues, Red Cross spokeswoman Devorah Goldburg said Tuesday.
The Bakersfield site is the largest of three Red Cross centers set up to handle hurricane calls. Others are located in Niagra Falls, N.Y., and Falls Church, Va. Operators provided qualifying victims with a personal identification number they then presented to receive aid funds from Western Union.
The average payout was about $1,000, Goldburg said.
The indicted call center employees were allegedly providing pin numbers to their friends and family who would then go to Western Union to collect the funds, Scott said after the first eight indictments were announced in October.
The Red Cross contacted the FBI after it performed an audit of the call center and discovered an unusually high number of claims were being paid out at Western Union outlets in the Bakersfield area.
"This is one of the biggest schemes that we've seen," Goldburg said.
Officials with Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Spherion, which operates the call center, have said the company didn't have time to run background checks on its 1,200 workers.
None of the suspects worked directly for the Red Cross.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")