NY received only 11% of 9/11 relief loans

Skeletons are pouring out of the Bush Republican closet like it was Mr. Whoopee's this week (does anyone even get that reference?). And every one involves high-level misuse of Homeland Security money as pork tossed to GOP donors. If the press keeps going like this, the public will actually find out what a bunch of crooks these guys are.

The government promised banks a hands-off approach in overseeing nearly $5 billion in Sept. 11 recovery aid to small businesses. What it got in return was numerous loans to companies that didn't need terror relief — or even know they were getting it, The Associated Press found.

"Had we known it was 9/11 money, we would not have borrowed it," said John Adams, a vice president of Brankle Brokerage and Leasing in Marion, Ind., who didn't know until informed by AP that his company's $1.33 million loan had been drawn by his bank from a program created by Congress to help economic victims of the 2001 terror attacks.

"We would have chosen some other avenue. That money surely could have been used by people who needed it more than we did," Adams said.

His company wasn't alone. From Dunkin' Donuts shops and florists to motorcycle dealers and chiropractors, businesses nationwide said they were unaware their banks had lent them money from the low-interest, government-guaranteed Sept. 11 loan program.