THE MONTHLY SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN NEWS

HURRICANE KATRINA AND U.S. DOMESTIC POLICY

 

Hurricane Katrina's aftermath: from natural disaster to national humiliation

“The catastrophe that is unfolding in New Orleans and on the Gulf coast of Mississippi has been transformed into a national humiliation without parallel in the history of the United States …  The reactionary mythology of America as the ‘Greatest Country in the World’ has suffered a shattering blow … With at least 100,000 people trapped in a city without power, water or food and threatened with the spread of disease and death, the government has proven incapable of establishing the most elementary framework of logistical organization…  The president blanched when ABC interviewer Dianne Sawyer asked about a suggestion that the major oil companies be forced to cede a share of the immense windfall profits they have reaped from rising prices over the past six months to fund disaster relief. He responded by counseling the American people to "send cash" to charitable organizations.  In other words, there will be no serious financial commitment from the government to save lives, care for the sick and needy, and help the displaced and bereft restore their lives. Nor will there be any national, centrally financed and organized program to rebuild one of the country's most important cities - a city that is uniquely associated with some of the most critical cultural achievements in music and the arts of the American people.  Above all, the suffering of millions will not be allowed to impinge on the profit interests of a tiny elite of multi-millionaires whose interests the government defends…  Congress has been virtually silent on the catastrophe in the south. It has nothing to say, having voted to support Bush's extreme right-wing agenda of massive tax cuts for the rich, huge outlays for war in Iraq and Afghanistan and an ever-expanding Pentagon budget, and billions to finance the Homeland Security Department.”

 

Questions grow over rescue chaos

“In New Orleans , state officials have described the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as a national disgrace.  ‘Why is it that the most powerful country on the face of the Earth takes so long to help so many sick and so many elderly people?’   …John Rhinehart, the administrator of a New Orleans hospital without power and water, said: ‘I'm beginning to wonder if the government is more concerned about the looting than people who are dying in these hospitals.’”  The news shows us again and again that in the U.S. , things are more important than people.  Why else would “all the resources of the U.S. government” be mobilized in response to the 3000 sudden, violent, bloody deaths, yet, not a thing is said or done about the 3000 sudden, violent, bloody deaths that drunk drivers cause every two months?  It’s not the lives that matter. 

 

People of the Dome

“Some tourists in the Monteleone Hotel paid $25,000 for 10 buses. The buses were sent (I guess there were many buses available, if you paid the price!) but the military confiscated them to use not for transporting people in the Dome but for the military. The tourists were not allowed to leave. Instead, the military ordered the tourists to the now-infamous Convention Center…  On Wednesday a number of Greens tried to bring a large amount of water to the SuperDome. They were prevented from doing so, as have many others. Why have food and water been blocked from reaching tens of thousands of poor people? …  They even refused to allow voluntary workers who had rescued over 1,000 people in boats over the previous days to continue on Thursday, using the several gunshots (and who knows who shot off those rounds?) to say "It's too dangerous". The volunteers didn't think the gunshots were dangerous to them and wanted to continue their rescue operations and had to be "convinced" at gunpoint to ‘cease and desist.’  There is something sinister going down -- it's not just incompetence or negligence.  How could FEMA and Homeland Security not have something so basic as bottled drinking water in the SuperDome, which was long a part of the hurricane plan? …  We need to understand that the capability has been there from the start to drive water and food right up to the convention center, as those roads have been clear -- it's how the National Guard drove into the city.” 

 

A Can't-Do Government

“I don't think this is a simple tale of incompetence. The reason the military wasn't rushed in to help along the Gulf Coast is, I believe, the same reason nothing was done to stop looting after the fall of Baghdad . Flood control was neglected for the same reason our troops in Iraq didn't get adequate armor.  At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice…  we all know what happened to those vital resources. They had been cut back, stripped down, gutted, pilfered - looted - to pay for a war of aggression, to pay for a tax cut for the wealthiest, safest, most protected Americans, to gorge the coffers of a small number of private and corporate fortunes, while letting the public sector - the common good - wither and die on the vine…  For more than 30 years, the corporate Right has waged a relentless and highly focused campaign against the common good, seeking to atomize individuals into isolated "consumer units" whose political energies - kept deliberately underinformed by the ubiquitous corporate media - can be diverted into emotionalized "hot button" issues (gay marriage, school prayer, intelligent design, flag burning, welfare queens, drugs, porn, abortion, teen sex, commie subversion, terrorist threats, etc., etc.) that never threaten Big Money's bottom line.”

 

Bush vows to step up Katrina aid

“The BBC's Matt Frei, in New Orleans , says conditions in the convention centre, where up to 20,000 people are stranded, are the most wretched he has seen anywhere, including crises in the Third World .”

 

New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes

"’They have M-16s and they're locked and loaded,’ Gov. Kathleen Blanco said of 300 National Guard troops who landed in New Orleans fresh from duty in Iraq. ‘These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will.’  Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington , Mich. , said she asked a police officer for assistance and his response was, 'Go to hell - it's every man for himself.' … Donald Dudley, a 55-year-old New Orleans seafood merchant, complained that when he and other hungry refugees broke into the kitchen of the convention center and tried to prepare food, the National Guard chased them away. ‘They pulled guns and told us we had to leave that kitchen or they would blow our damn brains out,’ he said."

 

Rapes, killings hit Katrina refugees in New Orleans

"They killed a man here last night," Steve Banka, 28, told Reuters. "A young lady was being raped and stabbed. And the sounds of her screaming got to this man and so he ran out into the street to get help from troops, to try to flag down a passing lorry of them, and he jumped up on the truck's windscreen and they shot him dead."  Wade Batiste, 48, recounted another tale of horror.  "Last night at 8 p.m. they shot a kid of just 16. He was just crossing the street. They ran him over, the New Orleans police did, and then they got out of the car and shot him in the head," Batiste said…  One National Guard soldier who asked not to be named for fear of punishment from his commanding officer said of the lack of medical attention at the centre, ‘They (the Bush administration) care more about Iraq and Afghanistan than here.’"

 

Sonic 'Lasers' Head to Flood Zone

“Representatives of both companies say that within days, they will ship some units of their respective products to areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, so authorities can use the tools for crowd control, aid distribution and rescue operations…  When a subject is at close range in MAD's sonic path, and it is set to high volume, the sound can be excruciating.”

 

Law Officers, Overwhelmed, Are Quitting the Force

“…at least 200 New Orleans police officers have walked away from their jobs and two have committed suicide…”

 

The Two Americas 

“Last September, a Category 5 hurricane battered the small island of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one died.  What is Cuban President Fidel Castro's secret? According to Dr. Nelson Valdes, a sociology professor at the University of New Mexico , and specialist in Latin America , ‘the whole civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with. People know ahead of time where they are to go.  Cuba 's leaders go on TV and take charge,’ said Valdes. Contrast this with George W. Bush's reaction to Hurricane Katrina. The day after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast , Bush was playing golf… Merely sticking people in a stadium is unthinkable’ in Cuba , Valdes said. ‘Shelters all have medical personnel, from the neighborhood. They have family doctors in Cuba , who evacuate together with the neighborhood, and already know, for example, who needs insulin.’ They also evacuate animals and veterinarians, TV sets and refrigerators, ‘so that people aren't reluctant to leave because people might steal their stuff,’ Valdes observed…  After Hurricane Ivan, the United Nations International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction cited Cuba as a model for hurricane preparation…  ‘On a fundamental level,’ Paul Krugman wrote in yesterday's New York Times, ‘our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on prevention measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.’  When Hurricane Ivan hit Cuba , no curfew was imposed; yet, no looting or violence took place. Everyone was in the same boat.”

 

Sniper Fire Halts Hospital Evacuation

“The evacuation of patients from Charity Hospital was halted Thursday after the facility came under sniper fire twice. [...]  ‘A single sniper or two snipers shouldn't have to shut down a hospital evacuation for two hours now,’ Dr. Ruth Berggren told CNN. ‘I look outside, I'm not seeing any military.’"

 

Gunmen Attack Contractors on La. Bridge

“Police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs, authorities said… Fourteen contractors were traveling across the Danziger Bridge under police escort when they came under fire, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers….”

 

Five dead were army workers: report

“Associated Press reports that at least five people shot dead by police as they walked across a New Orleans bridge yesterday were contractors working for the US Defence department.  A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said the victims were contractors on their way to repair a canal.”

 

Reuters Photojournalist Recounts Disaster in New Orleans

 

Dozens Found Dead at New Orleans Hospital

 

Cover-up: toxic waters 'will make New Orleans unsafe for a decade'

 

Love Canal-type landfill submerged in New Orleans floodwaters

 

Mayor to feds: 'Get off your asses'

“…we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.  Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.” 

 

IN BUSH'S WORLD, PR EQUALS ACTION

“The last couple of weeks we’ve been learning some truly awful, unbearable lessons. But one of the lessons has been perversely prosaic: PR only goes so far. Not only have we been parsing anew the limits of public relations, but the limits of people who have become perilously, mindlessly dependent on PR in place of action. Their leadership limits, their moral limits…”

 

Barbara Bush: Things Working Out 'Very Well' for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans

“Barbara Bush said: ‘Almost everyone I've talked to says we're going to move to Houston .’  Then she added: ‘What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas . Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them.’"

 

White House: Mrs. Bush Comment 'Personal'

“Barbara Bush was making "a personal observation" when she said poor people at a relocation center in Houston were faring better than before Hurricane Katrina struck, President Bush's spokesman said Wednesday…” 

 

Barbara Bush: It's Good Enough for the Poor

“Finally, we have discovered the roots of George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism…  On the tape of the interview, Mrs. Bush chuckles audibly as she observes just how great things are going for families that are separated from loved ones, people who have been forced to abandon their homes and the only community where they have ever lived, and parents who are explaining to children that their pets, their toys and in some cases their friends may be lost forever. Perhaps the former first lady was amusing herself with the notion that evacuees without bread could eat cake…"

 

U.S. military smuggled white vacationers out of New Orleans Superdome squalor

“Jenny Sachs, of Sheffield [ UK ], told how soldiers had to smuggle her out of the Superdome in secret.  She was one of about 30 Britons who, realising they could not escape the city, had fled to the stadium for shelter...  She said people had been raped and that others were beaten up.  ‘A guy was brought in who had seven stab wounds and was covered in blood.’  The military told all non-US citizens to stay together for safety, Ms Sachs added.  They later told them they would be secretly smuggled out in groups of 10 under cover of darkness as it had become too dangerous for them to remain in the stadium, she told BBC News.  ‘When we were leaving, people were going 'Where are you going?' and giving us looks.’ …”

 

Daley 'shocked' as feds reject aid

“ Chicago Sun-Times:  ‘We are ready to provide more help than they have requested. We are just waiting for their call,’ said Daley, adding that he was "shocked" that no one seemed to want the help.  Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he would call for congressional hearings into the federal government's preparations and response…  Obama said he expects his counterparts in Louisiana , Mississippi or Alabama will call for congressional hearings, but he is ready if they do not. ‘It's heartbreaking and infuriating and, I think, is embarrassing to the American people.’  Daley said the city offered 36 members of the firefighters' technical rescue teams, eight emergency medical technicians, search-and-rescue equipment, more than 100 police officers as well as police vehicles and two boats, 29 clinical and 117 non-clinical health workers, a mobile clinic and eight trained personnel, 140 Streets and Sanitation workers and 29 trucks, plus other supplies. City personnel are willing to operate self-sufficiently and would not depend on local authorities for food, water, shelter and other supplies, he said.”  It’s very clear from the many reports of aid rejection and prevention that the federal government wanted complete control over this situation for some unstated purpose. 

 

Hurricane Katrina - Our Experiences

“Bradshaw and Slonsky are paramedics frorm California that were attending the EMS conference in New Orleans … The much-promised federal, state and local aid never materialized and the windows at Walgreen's gave way to the looters…  What you will not see, but what we witnessed,were the real heroes and sheroes of the hurricane relief effort: the working class of New Orleans …”  This article contains numerous surprising anecdotes of first-hand experience in the disaster zone. 

 

Surviving in New Orleans

“…we noticed a man with a rifle and duffel bag walk up to the door to the Mall. We see him try the door and find it locked. Then he simply smashed out the door with the butt of his rifle and walked in. … Some time passed, and then the person with the rifle returns again. This time we notice he is a cop, and he is with four other cops, and they all have arms and duffel bags. And their only purpose is to get whatever they can…”  Read more for an experience of surviving the famous Convention Center. 

 

Hurricane Expected to Cost Government Up to $100 Billion

 

Katrina 'set to slow US economy'

 

Hurricane Katrina to Increase Joblessness

 

Summary Box: Katrina Wipes Out Job Gains

 

Weather Modification Research and Technology Transfer Authorization Act of 2005 (Introduced in Senate)

“…SEC. 2. PURPOSE. It is the purpose of this Act to develop and implement a comprehensive and coordinated national weather modification policy…  SEC. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE. This Act shall take effect on October 1, 2005.” 

 

 

Halliburton Hired To Do Storm Cleanup

“The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina.  Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so.”  Surprise, surprise. 

 

Firms with Bush ties snag Katrina deals

“Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast .” 

 

Katrina clean-up contracts spark controversy

“Major contracts for the Hurricane Katrina clean-up have been awarded without bidding or with limited competition, prompting controversy in the United States …  Two major companies in particular have raised questions – the Shaw Group and Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.  ‘When you do something like this, you do increase the vulnerability for fraud, plain waste, abuse and mismanagement,’ Richard Skinner, inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, told the New York Times.  ‘We are very apprehensive about what we are seeing.’” 

 

Heritage Foundation Capitalizes on Katrina

“ Washington , DC 's premier right wing think tank puts forward a laundry list of conservative proposals to rebuild the Gulf Coast …” 

 

Let's all be clear about one thing

“…President Bush has now put us on notice, the Gulf Coast reconstruction effort is going to be run as a patronage and political operation… Karl Rove runs political operations and manages coalitions through patronage. That's what he does. And that's what this is about…”

 

Memos Show Oil Companies Closed Refineries To Hike Profits

This is a tactic straight out of the Enron playbook.  “the industry's own internal memos show the intentional shrinking of American refinery capacity in the 1990s was the oil companies' own idea to pump up profits.  Take this internal Texaco strategy memo: ‘The most critical factor facing the refining industry on the West Coast is the surplus of refining capacity, and the surplus gasoline production capacity. (The same situation exists for the entire U.S. refining industry.) Supply significantly exceeds demand year-round. This results in very poor refinery margins and very poor refinery financial results. Significant events need to occur to assist in reducing supplies and/or increasing the demand for gasoline.’  The memo went on to discuss a sucessful campaign in Washington State to shrink refined supply by removing other additives in the gasoline that filled gas volume…  The fact that President Bush received $2.6 million from the oil industry for his reelection in 2004 should make regulation of the nation's gas supply one of the Democrats' most important talking points.“

 

New World Orleans: Microcosm for the "New America"

“Imagine an America where everyone is displaced. It's survival of the fittest as all law and order has broken down. Martial law has been declared with 24 hr curfews, Posse Comitatus has been overturned and there are troops on the streets shooting anyone who disobeys their orders. Thousands and thousands of people are starving but the authorities will not allow aid in any significant amounts. Large crowds are quelled with the use of sonic lasers, whilst overhead drone aircraft monitor the area, checking for any anomalous activity… It is no longer some distant possibility on the horizon that our children may have to endure and fight against, it is here, it is now. New Orleans is a testing ground for this exact scenario, all this is going on there now. We are witnessing in New Orleans , the construction of a microcosm for a "New America " and a New World Order…  In particular FEMA, which has endlessly drilled for such situations, has been a key hindrance...”  FEMA has done nothing to aid the situation, in fact there have been reports that FEMA has cut emergency communication lines and has been turning back fuel and water supplies being sent by outside agencies such as Wal Mart. This is because the Federal Government wants complete control over the situation.  Even American Red Cross officials have said that FEMA authorities would not allow them to deliver aid.  …’There are supplies sitting in Baton Rouge for the folks in New Orleans , but the National Guard has the city surrounded and is not letting anyone in or out. They are turning away people with supplies, claiming it is too dangerous...Our goverment is KILLING the people of New Orleans.’ … There have also been suggestions that part of the levee around N.O. was dynamited after the first section broke in an attempt to prevent Uptown (the rich part of town) from being flooded…  Reports and comments from officials today have indicated that President Bush's visit is nothing more than a staged photo op…  Martial law was declared in New Orleans midday Tuesday 30th August. Posse Comitatus has been overturned and the National Guard has authorization to shoot and kill anyone they deem to be ‘hoodlums’…  Some of the most sophisticated military equipment used in the Iraq war to quell the insurgency is now being used in New Orleans . We have continually highlighted how such equipment was developed specifically for domestic use and now this has come to pass. Five Silver Fox ‘unmanned aerial vehicles,’ or UAVs, equipped with thermal imaging technology to detect the body heat of storm survivors, have been deployed in New Orleans .  Also being deployed are acoustic devices for crowd control and disaster communications, sonic Laser equipment that is currently in use in Iraq …  Whilst the disaster evolves it has already been decided who will restore order and who will reap the profits of the lucrative cleanup contracts. Dick Cheney affiliated Halliburton have again been rewarded that task…  FEMA Outsourced the disaster plans to political cronies and major donors.  A disaster has been turned into a drill for martial law.” 

 

Old-Line Families Escape Worst of Flood And Plot the Future

“The power elite of New Orleans -- whether they are still in the city or have moved temporarily to enclaves such as Destin, Fla., and Vail, Colo. -- insist the remade city won't simply restore the old order. New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters.  The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. ‘Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically,’ he says…  Some black leaders and their allies in New Orleans fear that it boils down to preventing large numbers of blacks from returning to the city and eliminating the African-American voting majority…  Calvin Fayard, a wealthy white plaintiffs' lawyer who lives near Mr. O'Dwyer, says the mass evacuation could turn a Democratic stronghold into a Republican one.” 

 

Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans

“Heavily armed paramilitary mercenaries from the Blackwater private security firm, infamous for their work in Iraq , are openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans . Some of the mercenaries say they have been "deputized" by the Louisiana governor; indeed some are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their arms…  Some of the men now patrolling the streets of New Orleans returned from Iraq as recently as 2 weeks ago.”  Few realize that the second largest fighting force in Iraq after the US military is not the British military, but American mercenaries, chiefly employees of Blackwater.  There are thousands of them that the US government uses in part to make up for shortfalls in military recruiting.  You hear these men referred to in the news media as “civilian contractors.”  They make a lot of money.  "After bragging about how he drives around Iraq in a ‘State Department issued level 5, explosion proof BMW,’ he said he was ‘just trying to get back to Kirkuk (in the north of Iraq ) where the real action is.’ Later we overheard him on his cell phone complaining that Blackwater was only paying $350 a day plus per diem. That is much less than the men make serving in more dangerous conditions in Iraq .  ‘This is a trend," he told us. "You're going to see a lot more guys like us in these situations.’"

 

If We Understand New Orleans; we understand the Bush strategy

“ New Orleans provides us with a reliable template for judging what the Bush administration will do in the event of a massive "casualty-producing" terrorist attack. However depressing, this is useful information…” 

"FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations.''
"FEMA turns away experienced firefighters.''
"FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks.''
"FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel.''
"Homeland Security won't let Red Cross deliver food.''
"FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans .''
"FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid.''
"FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board.''
"FEMA to Chicago : Send just one truck.''
"FEMA turns away generators.''
"FEMA first responders urged not to respond.''

“The deployment of mercenaries to the region should be of particular concern to Americans. Currently, more than 40,000 National Guardsman from Louisiana and Mississippi are serving in Iraq . It would have been quite simple to return them to their home states to meet the needs of the tragedy. Instead, the Bush administration chose to use exorbitantly-paid mercenaries.”

 

Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury on New Orleans: "Americans Are Being Brainwashed"

“Mentality is ‘like that of the brown shirts that followed Hitler’ … Roberts agreed that FEMA has deliberately withheld aid, and cut emergency communication lines, and automatically made the crisis look worse in order to empower the image of a police state emerging to ‘save the day’ … ‘The power of the Federal Government is now greater than at any time, it'll never go back and the Posse Comitatus Act has been eroding ever since it was passed in 1878...’ Roberts urged listeners to look at the Patriot Act, which suspends Habeas Corpus, where they can now suspend you indefinitely, a massive erosion of civil liberties…”.

 

 

New Orleans collects dead as officials dodge blame

“Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld toured a medical facility at New Orleans ' international airport on Sunday. He spoke and shook hands with military and rescue officials but walked right by a dozen refugees lying on stretchers just feet away from him, most of them extremely sick or handicapped…  Critics have said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has lost its effectiveness since it became part of the Homeland Security Department in a post-September 11 reorganization. … Rice was slammed by critics on the Internet after she attended a New York performance of the Monty Python musical "Spamalot" on Wednesday, a day after New Orleans flooded…  The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Bush administration officials were blaming state and local authorities for the disaster response problems.”

 

Generals recommend national plan for emergencies

“Bush weighs military's role in large disasters…”

 

Bush to investigate handling of disaster without finger-pointing

“The President says his inquiry will only be to determine ‘what went right and what went wrong…  ‘What I intend to do is to lead an investigation to find out what went right and what went wrong, but the enquiry won't be pointing the finger at anyone. We want to make sure that we can respond properly if there's a WMD attack or another major storm.’"

 

Brown Shifts Blame for Katrina Response

“Brown described FEMA as a politically powerless arm of Homeland Security, which he said had siphoned more than $77 million from his agency over the past three years. Additionally, he said Homeland Security cut FEMA budget requests - including one for hurricane preparedness - before they were ever presented to Congress…”

 

Time for a Truth & Justice Commission -- Back Inside New Orleans

“I asked Okra, in his house off of Piety Street , what the biggest problem has been. He said, "It's been the police - they've lost the last restraints on their behavior they had, and gotten a license to go wild. They can do anything they want. I saw one cop beat a guy so hard that he almost took his ear off. And this was someone just trying to walk home…"

 

New Orleans Police Chief Resigns

 

UP IN FLAMES

“Tons of British aid donated to help Hurricane Katrina victims to be BURNED by Americans…  HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.  US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.  Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq , has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.  And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.  One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".”

 

Vice President Cheney heckled on hurricane tour

"Go f--- yourself Mr. Cheney!" the unidentified man shouted. The man then repeated: "Go f--- yourself!"

 

Chertoff: Katrina scenario did not exist

“However, experts for years had warned of threat to New Orleans … Last week, Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told CNN his agency had recently planned for a Category 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans .” 

 

Brown pushed from last job: Horse group: FEMA chief had to be 'asked to resign'

“…before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position.”

 

Agencies were drilled for 'worst-case scenario'

“In a five-day, tabletop exercise last summer, emergency preparedness officials faced an imaginary "worst-case scenario" in which a hurricane hit the New Orleans, Louisiana, area.   A fictional Category 3 Hurricane Pam, with "winds of 120 mph, up to 20 inches of rain... and a storm surge that topped the levees," was the picture presented to officials from 50 federal, local and volunteer organizations, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency dispatch from July 23, 2004.”

 

'Weather nerd' in Indiana warned New Orleans mayor

"’At the risk of being alarmist, we could be 3-4 days away from an unprecedented cataclysm that could kill as many as 100,000 people in New Orleans,’ Brendan Loy, who is 23 and has no formal meteorological training, wrote on Aug. 26…  He called for Mayor Nagin to issue an evacuation order days before the mayor issued one…”

 

FEMA Head Bears the Brunt of Katrina Anger

“The vilification of federal disaster chief Michael Brown, emerging as chief scapegoat for whatever went wrong in the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, has ratcheted into the stratosphere…  But the dim view of Brown's qualifications by senators seems to have emerged only in hindsight. Members of both parties seemed little troubled by his background at 2002 Senate hearings that led to his confirmation as deputy FEMA chief…  ‘Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job,’ the president told him last week…”

 

Bush tours New Orleans as emergency chief quits

“Michael Brown's departure from FEMA is long overdue, and his resignation is the right thing for the country and for the people of the Gulf Coast states…”

 

The Politics of False Claims

“How Michael Brown Helped Bush Win Florida …  Homeland Security sources told the Post that after the hurricanes that Brown ‘and his allies [recommended] him to succeed Tom Ridge as Homeland Security secretary because of their claim that he helped deliver Florida to President Bush by efficiently responding to the Florida hurricanes.’…  the most interesting charge against Brown is that he helped speed up payments in Florida and purposely bypassed FEMA's lengthy reviews process for distributing funds in order to help Bush secure votes in the state during last year's presidential election."  Read the article.  In plain language, relief money was given away to people who did not sustain damage.  This amounted to buying votes. 

 

Bush administration 'negligent" over Katrina: Chinese press

“…People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, said there was no excuse for Bush's slow reaction to the unfolding tragedy…”

 

Neither Compassionate, Nor Conservative

“The worst storm in our history proved perfect for exposing this president because in one big blast it illuminated all his failings: the rampant cronyism, the empty sloganeering of 'compassionate conservatism,' the lack of concern for the 'underprivileged' his mother condescended to at the Astrodome, the reckless lack of planning for all government operations except tax cuts, the use of spin and photo-ops to camouflage failure and to substitute for action…”

 

Post-Katrina military response slowed by state-federal dispute: report

 

I just got back from a FEMA Detainment Camp

“I'm afraid the camp is not going to be used as the kind people of the churches who own the cabins believe it was going to be used. Jesse Jackson was right when he said "refugees" was not the appropriate word for the poor souls dislocated due to Katrina. But he was wrong about why it is not appropriate. It's not appropriate because they are detainees, not refugees.”  Long, but valuable story, with photos, about one of the many FEMA camps, of which most people are unaware. 

 

The Power of FEMA

“Not only is it the most powerful entity in the United States , but it was not even created under Constitutional law by the Congress. It was a product of a Presidential Executive Order. No, it is not the U.S. military nor the Central Intelligence Agency, they are subject to Congress… These Executive Orders have been on record for nearly 30 years and could be enacted by the stroke of a Presidential pen:  [various executive orders allow] the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports…  seize and control the communication media…  take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals…  take over all food resources and farms…  mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision…  to take over all health, education and welfare functions…  to operate a national registration of all persons…  to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft…  to relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations…  to take over railroads, inland waterways and public storage facilities…  to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis…  to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President…  assigns emergency preparedness function to federal departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued over a fifteen year period…  to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency. It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, Congress cannot review the action for six months.”  I made the acquaintance of a guy in the army about five years ago whose job involved organizing his base to respond to emergencies. He told me that FEMA was the one government that he feared because of its virtually absolute power and the fact that, once in control, it was unanswerable even to the president. Read the full article: they cantake over the whole economy, seize foreign property, divide the populace based on race, discover the identities of those who oppose martial law.  They have a network of secret underground bunkers for members of government built with US tax money.  It goes on and on.  ”The scenarios established to trigger FEMA into action are generally found in the society today, economic collapse, civil unrest, drug problems, terrorist attacks, and protests against American intervention in a foreign country.” 

 

California Earthquake Could Be the Next Katrina

“U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones remembers attending an emergency training session in August 2001 with the Federal Emergency Management Agency that discussed the three most likely catastrophes to strike the United States .  First on the list was a terrorist attack in New York . Second was a super-strength hurricane hitting New Orleans . Third was a major earthquake on the San Andreas fault .” Sounds almost scripted.  The article imagines the infrastructure collapse of such an event and how the chaos could reach Katrina level.  However, it fails to mention at all how would people “escape” from an earthquake zone in which the roads were broken. 

 

Major L.A. quake could be worse than Katrina

 

Quake Will Kill Children and Elderly in California

 

11 Ohio children found locked in cages

“Police in northern Ohio on Monday have found 11 children locked in cages less than three-and-a-half feet high inside a home, but the parents told authorities they kept the kids in locked cages for their own protection…”  If you find this odd, then so should you find the PATRIOT Act.