This type of work is done all over, but New York and DC are really where the bulk of this type of work is done.

We are temps, paid by the hour, which means, if we don't work, we don't get paid.  For example, the firm I am currently working at was closed last Monday for President's Day - I didn't work, and I don't get paid for holidays, so I lost a whole day's pay. I get paid sick days, thanks to a DC law, but I have to work for my agency for 1000 hours before that takes effect.

In the last two years, I have seen my hourly rate go down around $7 / hour (about $15K, not counting OT loss).  And before you think I get to bill huge amounts like a law firm partner or associate, think again.  I get paid $30 / hour.  And yes, empirically, I understand that's a good rate compared to what most people make.  But I also went to law school and passed the bar (and have $100K in student loan debt).  And since this work is primarily done in NY and DC, I live in a market where the housing prices, along with everything else, is outrageous.

$30 / hour is about $62,400 a year. I know of some projects (in NY) that are paying attorneys $22 / hour. Sometimes projects offer OT hours, which pay time and a half (but those are getting rarer).  But then again, I've also gone 4 weeks between projects (and I know people that have gone months), so that means I earned $0.

The Tyler poison gas plot was an American attempt at domestic terrorism thwarted in April 2003 with the arrest of three individuals in Tyler, Texas and the seizure of a cyanide gas bomb along with a large arsenal that included at least 100 other conventional bombs, machine guns, an assault rifle, an unregistered silencer, and 500,000 rounds of ammunition.[1][2] The chemical stockpile seized included sodium cyanide, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid and acetic acid.[1]

The three individuals were linked to white supremacist and anti-government groups. They were:[1]

William J. Krar, originally from New Hampshire
Judith Bruey, Krar's common-law wife
Edward Feltus of Old Bridge, New Jersey
Feltus was a member of the New Jersey Militia. Krar was suspected of making his living travelling across the country selling bomb components and other weapons to violent underground anti-government groups.[1] Federal authorities had their eye on Krar since at least 1995 when ATF agents investigated a possible plot to bomb government buildings, but Krar was not charged.[2] Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks their attention was focused on middle-eastern terrorist activities and were only alerted to Krar's recent activities by accident when he mailed Feltus a package of counterfeit birth certificates from North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia, and United Nations Multinational Force and Defence Intelligence Agency IDs.[2] The package was mistakenly delivered to a Staten Island man who alerted police.[1]

On May 4, 2004 Krar was sentenced to 135 months in prison after he pled guilty to building and possessing chemical weapons. Ms. Bruey was sentenced to 57 months after pleading to "conspiracy to possess illegal weapons". [3]

Click or Wiki Me

In medicine, the saying goes, "When you hear hoofbeats, don't expect to see zebras."

"At the special meeting on July 5 were the FBI, Secret Service, FAA, Customs, Coast Guard, and Immigration. We told them that we thought a spectacular al Qaeda terrorist attack was coming in the near future." That had been had been George Tenet's language. "We asked that they take special measures to increase security and surveillance. Thus, the White House did ensure that domestic law enforcement including the FAA knew that the CSG believed that a major al Qaeda attack was coming, and it could be in the U.S., and did ask that special measures be taken."

Facts overcome false claims.

BTW - That was over a month before the infamous 8/8 PDB where Bush became angry that what he was being given was OLD information and over two months before 9/11.

Were the agencies asleep? Yes, and Bush should have fired the heads of them as an example that failure would be punished.

As for Afghanistan we chased the Taliban into the high mountains. And left them there. And they are still there. No one, including me and Obama, wants to pay the price in troops killed in the task of fighting in an area in which our technology would be of little advantage.

As for Iraq, Hussein was clearly aiding terrorists and was clearly in hot pursuit of regaining possession of WMD's.

As UN investigator Kay said.

We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002. The discovery of these deliberate concealment efforts have come about both through the admissions of Iraqi scientists and officials concerning information they deliberately withheld and through physical evidence of equipment and activities that ISG has discovered that should have been declared to the UN. Let me just give you a few examples of these concealment efforts, some of which I will elaborate on later: