Former FEMA Head May Profit From New Orleans.

Joe Allbaugh, the former head of FEMA, may stand to profit from the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Allbaugh, who served as a Bush campaign manager during the 2000 election, was put in charge of FEMA as the Bush administration took power until March of 2003, at the start of the invasion of Iraq. Allbaugh then helped to form a lobbying firm called New Bridge Strategies in order to help clients “take advantage of business opportunities in the Middle East following the conclusion of the US-led war in Iraq.” Earlier this year Allbaugh signed on to lobby for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR) in order to “educate the congressional and executive branch on defense, disaster relief and homeland security issues.” The federal government has announced that Halliburton would be hired to repair military bases only the Gulf Coast that was damaged by the hurricane, and Allbaugh is reported to be helping Louisiana to “coordinate the private-sector response to the storm.”