American Indian-owned armor plant raided by federal agents

[NVMojo]

BISMARCK, N.D. - Federal agents raided an American Indian-owned armor plant based in Fort Totten on Wednesday, confiscating boxes of company records under a search warrant involving questionable business practices.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Peterson said Sioux Manufacturing Corp. was under investigation by the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney's office for "alleged contract irregularities." He would not elaborate.

Carl McKay, the company's president and chief executive officer, said nothing criminal has gone on at the plant. He said he was told the federal investigators were "looking at our quality control."

"About 25 to 30 agents came in with their shotguns out and locked down the place," McKay said. "It just scared the dickens out of our employees."

snip...

The plant, which opened in 1974, manufactures protective armor for soldiers, tanks, ships and aircraft. Nearly all of the 210 employees are American Indians.

more...

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/14870480.htm

[NVMojo]

1. jack-booted thugs looking for WMD???

[Karenina]

13. Nahhh... Illegal aliens.

[KansDem]

17. LOL!

Such irony! :D

[NanceGreggs]

2. Psssst! Federal agents ...

... if you're really interested in 'alleged contract violations', you might want to get your collective asses over to ...

...HALLIBURTON!

[Miss Chybil]

3. Maybe, Halliburton wants to make the armor?

Weird.

[NVMojo]

4. that was my guess OR maybe they are going to blame this tribe

for the faulty armor???

[rodeodance]

5. a 6 month ago audit --but they say the issues were resolved.

..McKay said the plant shut down Wednesday after the raid and employees were told to go home. The plant runs three shifts and had been operating nonstop since the war in Iraq began, he said.

The plant was expected to reopen on Thursday.

"We have nothing to hide," McKay said. "Whatever you want to look at you're free to look at.

"The matters that I was interviewed on was the quality of out Kevlar cloth - to ensure that the cloth we weave meets government requirements," he said. "No one was arrested or read their rights, or anything like that."

McKay said some disgruntled former workers might have given federal investigators bad tips.

"Six months ago, we were audited by the Department of Defense, and there were some issues and those issues were resolved," he said. "But it was nothing criminal or anything like that."

[Erika]

6. Everything appears to be brown excrement under Bush

No peace, no reconciliation. Just warring.

[NVMojo]

7. so damn true, isn't it? pathetic state of mind in this country

[Kagemusha]

8. Bad tips is definitely plausible.

If I was an FBI supervisor and got wind that there's tips that an armor manufacturer's making defective armor that's going to US troops in Iraq, I'd want to get to the bottom of it, too. It's not necessarily a wider conspiracy.

[Julius Civitatus]

9. Interesting... the Feds never raided HALLIBURTON

when they fed rotten food to the troops, or provided faulty armor or improper equipment to our troops, or gave them infected water... never!

Halliburton can provide feces as food for our troops, and the Feds would look the other way. It's big business, and it's the VP's business.

Maybe this small Native company was taking business away from Halliburton .Can't have that, of course.

[Kagemusha]

10. Halliburton provided faulty armor?

I heard about the food but, that took place in Iraq where legal immunity applies. A plant in the US has no such immunity...

[Julius Civitatus]

11. Most of what Halliburton has provided is overpriced sub-par crap

and the troops still don't even have proper armor in their vehicles. They still have to use scrap metal to armor their Humvees. That's what I mean.

[Kagemusha]

12. Ah, ok. Though again, I don't think Halliburton provides armor itself

Not that I think it's more than a trivial detail mind you.

I'd comment more but, we just plain can't tell what the facts are from such thin pickings here.

[NVMojo]

14. yeah, I say bullshit on the bad tips part, they didn't need a bad tip

on Halliburton. They knew it and looked the other way.

[donsu]

15. has the Sioux tribe sided with the other tribe that wants to have a

a woman's center that does abortions?

was this the Sioux tribe that had relations with Abramoff?

in other words is the raid payback for some sin the tribe did to the neo cons?

[NYC]

18. President Cecilia Thunder Fire has been suspended.

http://womynsvoices.ca/fr/aggregator/sources/17?from=80

The Pine Ridge council has outlawed abortion, and suspended Cecilia Thunder Fire.

http://rss.findory.com/rss/Blogs?q=cecilia

Sorry, I'm having trouble finding a readable copy.

[donsu]

20. oh that's sad - guess the neo cons have infiltrated the tribes

nt

[NYC]

21. That's very sad.

She had such a nice, helpful attitude.

[anotherdrew]

16. they must have missed their payment to the RNC n/t

[lumpy]

19. ...20 or30 agents with shotguns out....

I guess all quality control investigations by the FBI are going to be at the point of a gun.

[NYC]

22. The shotguns make me wonder what is going on.

20 or 30 shotguns. For what? Certainly not for quality control.

[NVMojo]

23. maybe it's the profit being made that's pissing off the neocons?

They want a cut??

[NYC]

24. If they want a cut, they want 100%.

You never know. I hope we find out what went on here.