I would trust the Red Cross with money - I have a few friends who work for them in Geneva (where I lived until last December), and the picture I get is that the ICRC is 100% serious. It's certainly not run by idiots.
I'm in Vancouver and we have a peat bog on fire just outside the city. If I step out of my door I can only smell smoke. Apparently it's causing a lot of respiratory problems as the whole of the city and beyond is affected - but it's no Katrina thank god!
1. The Red Cross is very corrupt just read this article:
"As the aftermath of hurricane Katrina continues to wreak mayhem and havoc amid reports of mass looting, shooting at rescue helicopters, rapes and murders, establishment media organs are promoting the Red Cross as a worthy organization to give donations to.
The biggest website in the world, Yahoo.com , displays a Red Cross donation link prominently on its front page.
Every time there is a major catastrophe the Red Cross and similar organizations like United Way are given all the media attention while other charities are left in the shadows. This is not to say that the vast majority of Red Cross workers are not decent people who simply want to help those in need.
But what the media fails consistently to remember in their promotion of the organization is that the American Red Cross have been caught time and time again withholding money in the wake of horrible disasters that require immediate release of funds.
The Red Cross, under the Liberty Fund, collected $564 million in donations after 9/11. Months after the event, the Red Cross had distributed only $154 million . The Red Cross' explanation for keeping the majority of the money was that it would be used to help 'fight the war on terror'. To the victims, this meant that the money was going towards bombing broken backed third world countries like Afghanistan and setting up surveillance cameras and expanding the police state in US cities, and not towards helping them rebuild their lives.
Then Red Cross President Dr. Bernadine Healy arrogantly responded when questioned about the withholding of funds by stating, "The Liberty Fund is a war fund. It has evolved into a war fund."
Despite the family members of victims of 9/11 complaining bitterly to a House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight panel, the issue seemed to be brushed under the carpet and the mud didn't stick.
The Red Cross' scandalous activities reach back far before 9/11.
After the devastating San Francisco earthquake in 1989, the Red Cross passed on only $10 million of the $50 million that had been raised, and banked the rest.
Similar donations after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the Red River flooding in 1997 were also greedily withheld.
Insight Magazine reported,
“The first days after the bombing,” says one family member, “people from all over the country were sending checks in lieu of flowers and we were getting a lot of checks and cash every day — hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. Then the Red Cross went down to the post office and made arrangements to collect the mail and they would deliver it to us in bulk. All the mail had been opened, and from that point on there never was a dime, even in letters that said money was enclosed.”
The Red Cross has been caught engaging in rampant corruption on an all too regular basis.
3,000 people died after thousands of Canadians were infected with HIV and hepatitis C from tainted blood supplies.The Canadian Red Cross pleaded guilty to the charges earlier this year after they had been directly caught knowlingly shipping out the infected blood.
Smaller charities that were involved with the 2004 Tsunami relief project went public to say that large charities like Red Cross and United Way were engaged in secret backroom negotiations with each other that meant a large portion of the donation money was purposefully restricted from reaching the most needy areas affected by the disaster.
The history is clear, the Red Cross and other large so-called charities are in actual fact front group collection agencies for the military industrial complex.
Many informed historians have even alleged that the Red Cross was used as a Skull and Bones cover to overthrow The Russian Czar and pave the way for the rise of the Bolsheviks.
Do not give any money to the Red Cross unless you support the expansion of empire abroad and police state at home. Find a smaller trustworthy organization in the local area of New Orleans and make your donation to them.
LEARN HOW YOU CAN HELP KATRINA SURVIVORS
Red Cross President Makes Six Figures
Forbes | September 6, 2005
American National Red Cross
emergency relief
Washington, DC
Top Person: Marsha Evans
Top Salary:* $651,957
FY ending 06/30/03
All figures in $mil except where otherwise noted
Private support Government support Total support Other income Total revenue
614 64 678 2,268 2,946
Charitable services Management & general Fundraising Total expenses
3,057 175 123 3,355
Surplus (Loss) Net Assets Charitable commitment1 Fundraising efficiency2 Donor dependency3
-408 2,167 91% 80% 166%
Red Cross Pocketed Half Of 9/11 Donations
CNN | January 3 2005
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Charities swung into action after the September 11 terrorist attacks, raising more than $1 billion. But questions are being raised about where and how and how much of that money is being distributed.
Bearing the brunt Tuesday during a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight panel was outgoing Red Cross President Dr. Bernadine Healy.
The Red Cross has raised more than $564 million for the Liberty Fund, which was set up in response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
While the agency states on its Web site that it is spending more than any other relief agency responding to the terrorist attacks, it has distributed only $154 million.
Healy was hammered by one New York official for the Red Cross' decision to put aside nearly half of the money raised for future needs that may include terrorist attacks.
"I see the Red Cross, which has raised hundreds of millions of dollars that was intended by the donating public to be used for the victims of September 11 -- I see those funds being sequestered into long-term plans for an organization," testified New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Healy later told CNN the Red Cross was a service organization and that previous donations had prepared the agency to deal with September 11.
"We had planned for a weapon of mass destruction attack," she said. "We knew our obligations under the congressional charter. We knew it involved victim assistance and sheltering. We knew that it involved with dealing with rescue workers. We knew that it involved blood."
She also noted that some of the new funding went toward helping communities learn how to deal with other threats such as anthrax.
The hearing was contentious, with panel members trying to get at the issue of donor intent and whether the Red Cross misled donors.
"What's at issue here is that a special fund was established for these families. It was specially funded for this event, September 11," said Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-Louisiana.
"And it is being closed now because we are told enough money's been raised in it, but we're also being told, by the way, we're going to give two-thirds of it away to other Red Cross needs."
The subcommittee asked Healy and her agency to provide the exact language of all of its television and newspaper appeals for donations.
Healy said what the agency has learned is it needs to explain to the public the mission of the Red Cross.
"Don't confuse us with the 9/11 Fund in New York. Don't confuse us with Habitat for Humanity. Don't confuse us with the scholarship in New York for the victims. We have to get that out," she said.
Controversy over the Liberty Fund was one reason Healy decided to resign at year's end. But she defended the agency's decision of how to use the money.
"The Liberty Fund is a war fund. It has evolved into a war fund," she
said."We must have blood readiness. We must have the ability to help our troops if we go into a ground war. We must have the ability to help the victims of tomorrow."
A widow who lost her husband in the World Trade Center attack also complained to the panel that what money was available from various charities was tied up in red tape and confusion.
"Why then haven't these charities been able to get together and agree on one uniform application? Why haven't they been able to get together and develop a quicker way for families to receive these funds?" asked Elizabeth McLaughlin of Pelham, New York.
"We all have the missing persons reports, death certificates, and any other proof needed to avoid fraud. But the charities are not sharing these documents and information with each other," she testified in tears.
She told the panel that she had to construct an 18-page spreadsheet to try to keep track of all the requirements of various aid groups.
McLaughlin received a $27,000 check from the Red Cross but fears she may still lose her house without additional aid.
The Red Cross said it has helped 25,000 families with food and temporary shelter, counseling and cash assistance.
[According to Bush, cash is all they want you to donate... see bottom of page to learn what agency is now going to oversee your charity money]"
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/katrina_no_red_cross.htm
2. You said you lived in England, not Vancouver.
