Try:
http://www.americanreddoublecross.com/ http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/10/30/174102.shtml
In the weeks following 11 September 2001, the Red Cross ran endless public service announcements, with air time donated in many cases, and very often with celebrity spokespersons donating their time to taping the ads.
These ads solicited donations to the "Liberty Fund" to "help the victims of September 11th". These ads also solicited donations of blood. The American people responded with their typical generosity and enthusiasm, donating thousands of gallons of blood nationwide and donating or pledging over $700 million to the Red Cross alone.
The Liberty Fund in particular received an estimated $530 million in total donations or pledges. Less than half that amount, or about $147 million by one estimate, had been paid out to the families of victims of 11 September 2001. The scandal resulted in hearings by Congress, where the director of the Red Cross was grilled for essentially taking advantage of the public's grief.
Later, that director was fired by the Red Cross. Since then, public trust in the Red Cross has been minimal. I think it is the opinion of many people that when the Red Cross said they were soliciting donations for the families of the victims, they should have made payments of all that money to those victims. It should not have taken Congressional pressure to get the Red Cross to make such payments. Among the more outrageous claims was that the victims in the World Trade Center were all dead, so there was nothing to be done - but that was known by the Red Cross before they began their soliciting.
Also, because the Red Cross is the leading advocacy agency preventing a free market in human blood products, whenever the supply surges, waste is inevitable. The blood banks have a persistent problem with too little blood, but oversupply can be as big a problem. As it turns out, blood product was wasted after the enormous outpouring of donations following the 11 September disaster. Whole blood can only be stored for about 45 days before it spoils.
Sadly, even after blood was spoiling, the Red Cross kept on soliciting donations with their infernal ads.
My direct personal experience of the International Society of Red Cross and Red Crescent (the Islamic version uses the Red Crescent) in Africa is that it is even more of a corrupt scam there than it is here. If that seems possible.
Regards,
Jim http://www.ezez.com/
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