Obama’s “Kill Memo” & The Command Center

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Goodbye Civil Liberties

We Don’t Need No Due Process

Obama’s “Kill Memo” has been leaked. According to today’s NYT’s Editorial, Americans will find it puzzling. Here’s an excerpt from the editorial with links to longer stories.

“Still, it was disturbing to see the twisted logic of the administration’s lawyers laid out in black and white. It had the air of a legal justification written after the fact for a policy decision that had already been made, and it brought back unwelcome memories of memos written for President George W. Bush to justify illegal wiretapping, indefinite detention, kidnapping, abuse and torture.

“The document, obtained and made public by NBC News, was written by the Justice Department and coyly describes another, classified document (which has been described in The Times) that actually provided the legal justification for ordering the killing of American citizens.”

The Command Center

(Editor’s Note: A recent inspection of the infrastructure of the current E911 Center on Civic Plaza Drive finds the facility imminently well-constructed for expansion. The Town and County could save hundreds of thousands of dollars by expanding into the soon to be vacated cop shop. But this Council and Mayor want to bleed the public purse.)

The Command Center, built by Kit Carson Electric, has been referred to by Luis Reyes, of Kit Carson Electric Co-op, Mayor Darren Cordova and counselors Rudy Abeyta, and Michael Silva, as a state of the art facility custom designed for an E-911 dispatch center.

The fact is it is nothing more than an office building and does not address the needs for a command center. Even the architect who designed the facility stated it was a shell and the tenant would have to finish it out to suit its purpose; it needs a fair amount of preparation to bring it up to a functional level even before communication equipment can be installed.

The Motorola Company, at the request of Mayor Cordova, sent their engineers to estimate the move from the existing E-911 to the new building. The figure was $575,000, which included a point-to-point microwave system linking the existing tower and antenna to the new location. Also included in this estimate were taxes.

The report by 9-1-1 Solutions, did not address these two major items. Their appraisal was between $300,000 and $400,000. The architectural firm, RMKM out of Albuquerque, the consultant used by 9-1-1 Solutions to estimate the move, is the same firm that designed the Kit Carson Command Center; no conflict there.

I was on the Town Council when Motorola submitted their estimate. I questioned them about their estimate and why they were confident about their figure. They informed me that they had installed the existing equipment and knew exactly what needed to be done. Motorola is the state’s largest provider and installer of communication equipment.

It is important that all parties involved be aware that only employees, station counsels, and radio equipment, telephones and related cabling will be moved to the new center. The heart of the system, the existing tower and antenna along with the base equipment will have to remain at the present site. Thus the need for the point-to-point microwave system mentioned above. How can this additional link in the chain improve efficiency?

Granted the existing facility is tight but is workable; it always has been and can continue until such time that the economy improves and all parties can afford to make a move. Even the report prepared by the Los Alamos National Laboratory states that the existing building is secure, has the proper telephone lines and radio equipment and provides the services required of an E-911 program (Editor’s bold).

The Mayor’s push for the move is to soften the embarrassment Luis Reyes must be experiencing with his ill -conceived decision to build the structure. He had no viable commitments from the potential entities he listed in his promotional package. I guess he figured that if he built it, they would come.

More to come later,
Gene Sanchez