MAGDALENA'S WATER SHUTTING DOWN

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Sometime this afternoon the water in the Village of Magdalena

is going to be shut off.  The well is going dry, we are told,

 and while there might be some temporary relief, the actual 
solution being discussed is a new well, deeper, and weeks

 (months?) away  We'll have more details up as soon as we
 gather more info.  The National Guard is coming in with a
 water tank of potable water from someplace this evening.
Other tankers, from New Mexico Tech and a private outfit,
should be here sometime tommorow.

  Stuart Dyson of Channel 4 in Albuquerque is roaming
 around the area, talking to residents and officials,
 trying to get a handle on what's going on here. 
 The Channels 4 and 13 folks, as well  as CNN,
 have either just arrived, or have already left 
with stories in hand.
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  As unfortunate as this is, it draws attention to WATER
realities in this area, in this state.  It could also bring
 attention to the San Augustin aquifer issue.  It could
initiate the process of exposure of who these
 misguided Sons of Abraham actually are.
The press can be relentless.
The press can get damned nosy.
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The more Magdalena's problem is in the news,
the more these media folks will dig, and when they see
 the "STOP THE WATER GRAB" or
"TELL THE GUMBA NO AGUA" bumper stickers,
well, maybe in time they'll start asking more questions.
It's in their nature, as they say. 

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 If these foreigners were pumping the aquifer right now,

Magdalena would most probably be looking at a new well

a heck of a lot deeper than what's currently being discussed.
Like hundreds of feet deeper.
Ask the desert dwellers of Israel if they would allow
a bunch of foreign corporate thugs to get their water;
ask them if they'd allow  such a hideous nightmare
 on their "God-given" land.
Below: the Pool of Siloam, made famous in the
New Testament, when the blind man got his sight here.
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I am.  I'm contacting the Israeli government tomorrow
to ask for advice as to how to deal with water thieves, 
so we can forward it to Governor Susana Martinez.
"Desert Dwellers" have much in common, especially
with guarding their water sources from enemies,
or so-called enemies.
This is a water war,
 and the Israelis know a lot about this stuff.
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None of these foreigners are so-called "Stakeholders."
None of them live here. None of them give a rat's ass
 about New Mexicans, or Americans.
They have passports from where? 
 Israel, Norway, Germany?
 It's all about money.
Big money.
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The Project Director for the San Augustin project,
Michel Jichlinski, got his Masters in Economics from the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  He's also a proven thief,
liar, and general con artist.  He was the President and CEO
at the Louis Berger Group, a federal contractor in Afghanistan
and worldwide, when they got nailed for stealing millions
of U.S. dollars by cooking the books, bribery, and
cultivating a "culture of fraud" within the company,
 as the whistleblower put it.
NAILED for the biggest fine ever for a war-time contractor.
Thieves.  And this guy was the "Boss" through it all.
And now he's come to the Land of Enchantment.
God save us.
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Below: Darrell Petttis, owner of The Golden Spur Saloon

in Magdalena, gives Stuart Dyson an earful about water,

drought, and the San Augustin water issue

with the foreign "investors."

It's all tied together. 

The timing is probably right on target.

Further below: Water trucker Richard Smith.

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 Here are links to some of the news stories on

 Magdalena's water crisis.

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http://www.koat.com/news/new-mexico/nm-town-runs-out-of-water/-/9153762/20444262/-/2f2aku/-/index.html

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http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/local/southwest/nm-villages-water-supply-running-dry

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http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S3059146.shtml?cat=500
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And here's a link to a Mountain Mail News
web article that's basically a statement from the State Water Engineer, Scott Verhines, about the Magdalena situation.
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http://www.mountainmailnews.com/?p=2586

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.Bottled water - lots of it - is available for all residents at the Fire Station.
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Magdalena residents getting some water

From the Mountain Mail News
by Susann Mikkelson | June 10, 2013 | Filed under: Breaking News

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Since the Trujillo well in Magdalena went dry last Wednesday morning, various communities and agencies have been working with Magdalena city and officials to supply water to its residents.

“Today, we received water from the VLA and Alamogordo,” Marshall Larry Curly said Friday. “Each truckload of water is being tested to ensure chlorine levels are appropriate before water is being distributed.”
Curly said that as of Friday water is being fed through the water hydrant at the highest altitude, off of Kelly Road, and it is flowing back into the city water system and providing water to many households.
“We have put 26,000 gallons back into the system as of this morning, and will have 40,000 in by the end of the day.” Curly said. “Right now there is water down to about Sixth Street, and there should be water to Tenth Street by this evening.”
According to City Clerk Rita Broaddus, the city has applied for and received an exploratory permit from the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer to begin searching for the best place to drill a new well.
“What we need now is the money to drill,” Broaddus said.
The city has requests for emergency funding through Community Development Block Grant emergency funding program out of Washington, D.C., the New Mexico Department of Finance Administration and the New Mexico Finance Authority, as well as the New Mexico Environmental Department.
In the interim, the city is also working to bring back online the Spears Well, which was taken offline six to eight years ago because it did not meet new codes with regard to managing chlorine levels. There were also some plumbing and electrical problems with the well.
“It only pumps 30-35 gallons per minute, so it is not a production well for the city,” Broaddus said. “For now, we can take the chlorinator from the Trujillo Well and put it on the Spears Well to ensure that the water is properly chlorinated.”
The Trujillo well pumped 180-200 gallons per minute, before the well went dry. The city is currently working on the plumbing and electrical to bring the Spears well up to date, and then will begin filtering water from this well into the system.
Curly said that porta-potties have been set up throughout town for residents’ use until everyone has water through the city water system again.
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UPDATE ON OUR LLC "PROJECT DIRECTOR"

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 Michel Jichlinski,

the Project Director for the scheme by these foreign investors,

was the subject of a posting here a short time back.

At the time all I could find, in my slow-witted fashion, was

information regarding an investigation for fraud committed

by the Louis Berger Group, a big-time federal contractor,

while he was the President and CEO, looking into serious

allegations that Uncle Sam was getting taken to the cleaners,

to the tune of millions.

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Now I have new information - I was simply slow to

find it - a lot came out in 2010-2011 - and it's stunning.
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 Now remember, as you read this,

that this new Project Director for the
Augustin Plains Ranch LLC,
Michel Jichlinski,
 was the "BOSS" at Louis Berger during
 the period when ALL of this fraud occured. 
It turns out they were guilty as sin.
Thieves.
Millions and millions stolen.
 Taxpayer's money, gone with the wind.
So they were caught red-handed,
via a "whistleblower" that had the data,
 and the feds ordered the boys to pay up.
Enough?  Doubtful, probably not.
They had been stealing for a long time.
But they admitted guilt, and the fines
include BOTH CIVIL and
CRIMINAL penalties.
$69.3 MILLION DOLLARS IN FINES!!!
Did Jichlinski have to pay his part of the tab?
Quien sabe?  Who knows?
If I get updated info, I'll post it. 
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But God Bless all "whistleblowers,"
wherever they are, and especially the
man who came forward here!
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The "whistleblower" in the case detailed
 how the company was "a culture of fraud." 

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Below is a link to a whole batch of articles about the issue

from the McClatchy Washington Bureau - a

well-respected investigative newspaper/web outfit.

 

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/search_results?q=louis+berger+group&x=0&y=0

 

And here's just a brief quote:
 

WASHINGTON — A nearly $70 million fine announced

 Friday against one of the U.S. government's largest

 Afghanistan contractors is an apparent record war-zone

 settlement, and it grew from a classic David vs. Goliath

 confrontation.

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New Jersey-based Louis Berger Group, which has overseen the

 construction of roads, power plants and schools across

 Afghanistan, acknowledged that It had knowingly and

 systematically overcharged the U.S. government and agreed to

 pay $69.3 million in criminal and civil penalties.

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Here's maybe the most amazing of the articles,
the "whistleblower's" story:
 
Whistleblower details bribes fraud in Afghanistan

Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers

Warren P. Strobel

KABUL, Afghanistan — A corporate whistleblower, whose evidence of fraud led to one of the largest fines ever against a war-zone contractor, said that he was ordered to facilitate bribes, keep information from government auditors and inflate overhead rates.
          
Former Louis Berger Group employee Harold Salomon, in his first interview since the case was settled earlier this month, said he came to believe the New Jersey firm hired him because executives calculated the Haitian immigrant would not uncover their defrauding of U.S. taxpayers.
"Me being an immigrant would be easy prey," he said. They thought, "I would not understand anything."
           
Louis Berger agreed Nov. 5 to pay $69.3 million in civil and criminal penalties and accept a "deferred prosecution," which means federal charges would be dropped only if the firm complies with its court agreement with the government. The deal, however, allows the firm to continue competing for U.S. government contracts.

Louis Berger is among the U.S. Agency for International Development's largest contractors in Afghanistan.
Salomon, who worked as a financial analyst for Louis Berger from 2002 to 2006, described a culture of fraud that permeated much of the company.

He said his first clue that something was amiss came just three months into the job, when he was told to send an inexplicable $35,000 wire transfer to an individual overseas. He questioned his superior, who told him to send the money anyway, and then asked for a confirmation email from the overseas recipient. The response he got: "I was told it was 'grease money'," in other words, a bribe.

Salomon, who declined to identify his superiors by name, spoke to McClatchy in a telephone interview from the United States.
Louis Berger spokeswoman Holly Fisher declined to comment on the specifics of Salomon's experiences at the company.
"This matter was settled with the parties involved — the U.S. government, Mr. Salomon and The Louis Berger Group — on November 5, 2010. The Louis Berger Group has undertaken comprehensive improvements to its internal controls, policies and structures, which form the foundation of the company's systems going forward. We see no reason to comment further on these matters," she said in an e-mailed statement.
The firm acknowledged over-billing the U.S. government, in what federal court documents and sources said was a complicated mathematical scheme to manipulate contract overhead rates.

Salomon said that he once came across a document, misplaced in a stack of papers, that was a "menu of fraud." Meant as an analysis for a senior company official, it contained columns showing various options for increasing Louis Berger's profit by including different overhead costs.

Salomon said he was asked to lie and misrepresent financial data to the Pentagon's Defense Contract Audit Agency. He once found a financial journal entry that was accompanied by a card that stated, "Do not show to auditors." He took it to his boss, who, he said, exclaimed, "Holy Cow, we cannot show (them) this." The note was taken from him and, he believes, destroyed.
He eventually decided he had to leave the company in order to report what was going on. He took large chunks of data with him that he later turned over to federal investigators. "It was just an accident" that I had the information, he said, "I worked long hours at home."
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On the advice of a colleague, Salomon contacted agents from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service. He soon became worried that Louis Berger would try to blame him for the fraud and hired a law firm, Phillips & Cohen LLC.
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Under federal whistleblower statutes, Salomon can receive 15 percent to 25 percent of the court award. He said he would give half that amount, which is still to be determined, to a charity for Haiti he founded.
Salomon said he first became familiar with corruption in his native Haiti, where he worked from 1986 to 1993. Now, he said, "I have seen corruption in a way that I didn't anticipate or I didn't know could happen in the United States."

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

$69.3 million Afghan-contracting fraud may be a record
Flawed contracts prove costly for Afghanistan, U.S.

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New Mexicans need to be very wary -

this guy obviously knows a lot about bribery.
Michel, how much 'grease money' have you
spread around Santa Fe, and
wherever else it's needed?
How far have you spread your venom?
Has anyone from the Bureau of Reclamation
or the Corps of Engineers taken the bait yet?

KNOW YOUR ENEMY FOLKS,
HE LOOKS LIKE THIS....
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The funny part of this deal, is that in
Michel's letter to the editor of the
Socorro paper 1/30, he said this:
"The area of disagreement is mostly with the offensive terms of the first letter that imply that we are immoral, unethical criminals acting against the citizens of New Mexico. We are respectable, law abiding entrepreneurs...."
Yeah, right.  Michel, let me ask you -
DID YOU TRY THAT LINE ON
THE FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS?
Did they laugh as loud as we're laughing now?
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STOP THE WATER GRAB!
“Anything is better than lies and deceit!”
    Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Russian Author and Social Reformer
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You have to wonder what the hell possibly

possessed Verhines, that he would even think

of hanging out with this guy, publicly,

 in the state capitol.  Is he stupid, or did he

  figure no one would know just who

 his sidekick really was, or is it that

 he doesn't give a rat's ass,

one way or the other? 

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 It had been less than 90 days since the feds

 had levied their record-setting fine.

Jichlinski was then technically out of

The Louis Berger Group,

but was the major player when all these

 crimes happend,

and now he had come to New Mexico -

to ply his trade.  He knows a lot about

fraudulent accounting practices, and bribery.

Oh, perfect!  It's a buyer's market in this place!

True, but it's not just that they're cheap,

they're also a public embarrassment.

What, do they think people can't figure it out?

They're as bad as the Whore of Babylon.

 There's no shame here. Has there ever been?

Verhines could just as easily have been

 hanging out with the devil himself.

  Well, maybe he was,

come to think of it.

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 Ah, New Mexico.

La Tierra de Encantada -

 The Land of Enchantment.

La Tierra de Los Ladrones -

The Land of The Thieves.

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Here's the minutes of the meeting -

Jichlinski is introduced on Page 5.

ftp://users.plateautel.net/sverhines/storefiles/Draft%20Minutes%20ENMWUA%201.27.11%20SF.pdf

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