Who’s Responsible?
Jeff, the Australian and New Zealand media are flooded by reports regarding the total lack of any help from FEMA to New Orleans. We are repeatedly told about endless delays in help and blockage of investigation by the White House and FEMA.
We also now know that Catrina was ONLY category 2 when it hit New Orleans proper and the levees should have held as it has so many times before. It is absolutely outrageous for us Australians to hear that many, possibly thousands of Americans, came to New Orleans with their boats to help, but have been turned back by FEMA.
http://www.rense.com/general67/spin.htm
Meanwhile, they also pointed out that:
Germany is offering 2 million barrels of oil a day for 30 days. Venezuela is offering FREE fuel !! France - more offers of aid than they could list even Sri Lanka...poor and devastated by last years Tsunami...offered cash !!
But NO response from Washington.
Then onto CNN to watch a very pompous CNN announcer, Ralitta Vassileva, saying "What has the rest of the world offered?"
"I am an American and I am very angry at the rest of the World...." and on and on
http://www.rense.com/general67/shep.htm
"No one who used to live in N.O. has a job or a home. Freezer trucks are being brought in to stack the dead in. An extra 100,000 people are now in Baton Rouge. It is expected to double in size in a month. That is a problem. I was told by the police yesterday that you should not move around town without a gun to protect yourself. Some of the NO gangs have come here. They are out of drugs and maniacal. Thankfully, the local police are taking a HARD-LINE stand against this. There are some serious problems from the low-lifes. Baton Rouge is ARMED and it is dangerous. Drug-crazed lowlifes attacked a hospital to steal drugs. The situation is deteriorating rapidly.
...
A few minutes ago, I watched live coverage of a woman crying her eyes out. She's walking out of the city with her dog and they refuse to allow her to take her beloved pet with her. The trauma isn't bad enough, now the "law enforcement" is refusing to allow people to keep their pets with them? In a time of deep stress, dogs and cats and let's face it, they become part of our families - our little friends help to take away life's woes. They give us unconditional love and in such horrible times, not only is that woman's dog her dear friend, he is big enough to help protect her. I don't blame that women and if it were me, I would keep walking and tell them to go ahead and shoot me. Think I'm kidding? Treating suffering Americans like criminals when they've lost everything except their beloved pet is beyond the pale.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd123.htm
As the water level in much of New Orleans begins to slowly recede, officials are preparing to deal with thousands of dead bodies – bodies floating in contaminated water, hidden in damaged homes and even piled together in the freezer of the city's convention center.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46175
Ethnic Cleansing II
I can't keep up. What I've been thinking of as wild conspiracy theory is now being reported at CBC News as a practically a fait accompli:
"If those forced out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina end up re-building their lives in new locations, it could be the largest U.S. black resettlement since the Great Migration of the 20th Century lured southern blacks to the North in search of jobs and better lives."
and:
"In Houston, which expected many thousands of evacuees to remain for a long time, interviews suggested that thousands of blacks who lost everything and had no insurance will end up living in Texas or states other than Louisiana.
Many evacuees like Percy Molere, 26, who worked in a hotel in New Orleans' French quarter, said they cannot keep their lives on hold for very long. Molere said: 'If it took a month, I'd go back, but a year, I don't want to wait that long. Hopefully we're going to stay in Houston just to stay out of New Orleans' for the time being."
Here is a list of the active efforts of FEMA and other US institutions in the control of the Bush Administration to prevent aid from getting through (see also here and here and here, and here or here). Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff outright lied - see here - in claiming that no one anticipated this disaster. It looks increasingly like FEMA did anticipate it, and in fact had a plan to ensure that New Orleans be ethnically cleansed should the proper storm come along. There is simply too much active sabotage of relief efforts to blame it all on FEMA incompetence. I wonder what other plans they have?
http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2005/09/ethnic-cleansing-ii.html
No white looters?
And it has nothing to do with poverty. Where are the white people in all this? I am sure there are poor white people living in New Orleans, Biloxi and the other towns affected by what has been going on. Is it that the media are not showing pictures of them looting and robbing? Or is it that they are too busy trying to stay alive, waiting to be rescued, and hiding from the blacks.
And you know what? Even if the poor whites were looting and robbing, wouldn't it be nice if the blacks could have made them the only ones doing it
Just once, I would like for us blacks to take the high road in situations like this, where instead of showing our darkest side, we put our best foot forward. But I guess that would be too much to ask, too much of a case of wishful thinking.
http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20050902/cleisure/cleisure1.html
Penn said he had spent nine hours on Monday searching the water for people and during all that time he saw just three boats carrying US officials.
"There are people that are dying right now and I mean babies and old people and everybody in between - they're dying. There are people dying and (the US government are) not putting the boats in the water, I think that's criminal negligence. I don't think anybody ever anticipated the criminal negligence of the Bush administration in this situation.
...
"At one point, there were a load of girls on the roof of the hotel saying 'Can you help us?' and the policemen said 'Show us what you've got' and made signs for them to lift their T-shirts. When the girls refused, they said 'Fine' and motored off down the road in their boat."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/PA_NEWA12843661125997597A0?source=PA%20Feed&ct=5
We now have multiple reports of police being ordered to guard key infrastructures in order to defend them from FEMA federal agents. Sheriffs in numerous different counties are guarding highways to keep FEMA out. FEMA is being treated as the enemy because they are sabotaging key facilities in an effort to intentionally worsen the already desperate scenes of horror in New Orleans.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2005/060905femasabotaging.htm
Mayfield said the strength of the storm and the potential disaster it could bring were made clear during both the briefings and in formal advisories, which warned of a storm surge capable of overtopping levees in New Orleans and winds strong enough to blow out windows of high-rise buildings," the paper reported. "He said the briefings included information on expected wind speed, storm surge, rainfall and the potential for tornados to accompany the storm as it came ashore.
"We were briefing them way before landfall," Mayfield said. "It’s not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped."
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054595
"We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here," said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston "Chip" Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away "is just mind-boggling," he said in a phone interview.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2005/09/04/doctors_hamstrung_in_relief_efforts/
Also heard that part of the reason our house flooded is they dynamited part of the levee after the first section broke - they did this to prevent Uptown (the rich part of town) from being flooded. Apparently they used too much dynamite, thus flooding part of the Bywater. So now I know who is responsible for flooding my house - not Katrina, but our government.
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/3941.php
Bodies are lying everywhere, and hidden in attics and apartments. The announcer describes how one body, rotting after days in the sun, was surrounded by a wall fashioned from fallen bricks by survivors, and given a provisional burial to give her some dignity. The sign placed next to her body said, "Here lies Vera, God Help Us."
At a Red Cross shelter outside of Baton Rouge, we meet Emmanuel, who can't find his wife and three sons after the floods. His story is shocking. His home is near the 17th Street Canal, where the Pontchartrain levee broke through.
"I stayed behind to rescue my neighbors while I sent my wife and kids to dry land," he says. It is difficult for him to relate what happened. He had a small boat so he went from house to house picking up neighbors. While doing so, he encountered many bodies in the water.
"My best friend's body was floating by in the water. One mother whose baby drowned tied her baby to a fence so she could bury him after she returned." Because troops kept driving by him and others without helping them, he had to walk 30 miles north until he was picked up.
This crisis is a crime of the highest magnitude. The Bush Administration is always able to find money to fund wars that will benefit the rich of this country; however, when it comes to providing aid to respond to a disaster of this magnitude, funds, supplies and resources are lacking. From Bush on down, they should be indicted.
http://www.rense.com/general67/eyewit.htm
They looked as bedraggled as their grueling ride would suggest: 13 hours on the commandeered bus driven by a 20-year-old man. Watching bodies float by as they tried to escape the drowning city. Picking up people along the way. Three stops for fuel. Chugging into Reliant Park, only to be told initially that they could not spend the night.
Every bit worth it.
"We took the bus and got out of the city. We were trying to get out of the city," James Hickerson said.
Several passengers on the bus said they took the matter into their own hands earlier Wednesday because they felt rescuers and New Orleans authorities were too slow in offering help.
"They are not worried about us," said Makivia Horton, 22, who is five months pregnant.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/3334317
In fact, great pains were taken to keep their destination secret.
National Guard officials asked a reporter and photographer aboard two separate military planes not to identify their news organizations or tell the refugees where the planes were going. They explained some refugees on earlier flights complained or refused evacuation when told where they were going
http://www.unknownnews.org/0509090906CampWilliams.html
The Army appears to have "inappropriately" deployed soldiers to Iraq who already were diagnosed with mental problems, according to documents obtained by United Press International.
More than two dozen suicides by U.S. troops in Iraq, and hundreds of medical evacuations for psychiatric problems, have raised concerns about the mental health of soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom. An Army Medical Department after-action report obtained by UPI suggests that the Army sent some soldiers to war who were mentally unfit in the first place.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040312-042634-9733r
At the end of an unforgettable week, one broadcaster on Friday bitterly encapsulated the sense of burning shame and anger that many American citizens are feeling.
Flood victims were left virtually to their own devices for days
The only difference between the chaos of New Orleans and a Third World disaster operation, he said, was that a foreign dictator would have responded better
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4210674.stm
Sep 04: Jefferson Parish President, Interviewed on MTP, Tells of FEMA Cutting Emergency Phone Lines, Blocking Water and Fuel Shipments
--reports that his emergency services director's mother died after waiting five days for help
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/4/105148/3626
Sep 04: The (Missing) Buses of New Orleans
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:kbVWujvWpX8J:www.loyno.edu/studentaffairs/hurricane.emer.plan.html+%22City+of+New+Orleans%22+bus+contract&hl=en
--source: Metafilter.com
Sep. 03: Fake Bush Aid Stations Revealed by German TV
http://www.heute.de/ZDFheute/inhalt/23/0,3672,2370967,00.html
http://www.heute.de/ZDFmediathek/inhalt/23/0,4070,2370903-5,00.html
http://www.tagesschau.de/video/0,1315,OID4700936_RESreal256_PLYinternal_NAV_BAB,00.html
Translation here: http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/9/3/22494/85287/77#77
--Additional notes here: http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002485.html
--source: www.warandpiece.com
Sep. 03: Repair of 17th St. Levee Faked for Bush Photo-Op
http://www.newschannel6.tv/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=8695
Sep. 03: Bush's Visit Interrupts Food Delivery
http://www.nola.com/weblogs/print.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/print076556.html
--source: www.dailykos.com
Sep. 03: LA Gov: Rescue Flight Not Needed
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/204033/4769
Sep. 03: National Guard Troops from Other States Delayed by "Washington"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050903/ap_on_re_us/katrina_national_guard
http://www.suntimes.com/output/hurricane/cst-nws-daley03.html
Sep. 03: "Renegade" Boat Rescues Blocked for Two Days
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/171718/0826
Sep. 02: Salvation Army Rescue Fan Boats Turned Back by National Guard: Disaster Victims "Not in the Right Grid Today"
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12548203.htm
The Contractual Obligations of DHS:
In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort...
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home2.jsp
--source: http://www.warandpiece.com/
Sep 03: Beneath the Radar: Pentagon Investigator Accused of Protecting Bush Officials Resigns, Takes Job with Defense Contractor
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-schmitz3sep03,0,3724495.story?coll=la-tot-promo&track=morenews
--source: http://www.warandpiece.com/
Mike Brown, Itinerant Incompetent
---
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/2/34622/68348
http://www.horsesass.org/
FEMA director Mike Brown, a “total fucking disaster”
by Goldy, 09/02/2005, 12:34 AM
“An unmitigated, total fucking disaster.” That’s not a quote from Mike Brown, but rather, a quote describing him. And most disturbingly, it’s not even a reference to his dismal performance as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This blunt critique was emailed to me from a regular reader who was apparently attracted to HorsesAss.org by her passion for politics and her love of Arabian horses.
'I think I’ve told you that I’m into Arab horses. Well, for 3 years Michael Brown was hired and then fired by our IAHA, the International Arabian Horse Assoc. He was an unmitigated, total fucking disaster. I was shocked as hell when captain clueless put him in charge of FEMA a couple of years ago. He or the WH lied on the WH presser announcing him to FEMA. IAHA was never connected to the Olympic Comm, only the half Arab registry then and the governing body to the state and local Arabian horse clubs. He ruined IAHA financially so badly that we had to change the name and combine it with the Purebred registry.'
-- source: BlackFlagCafe, ComeBackAlive.com
Sep 01: FEMA chief: Victims bear some responsibility
Brown pleased with effort: 'Things are going relatively well'
Thursday, September 1, 2005; Posted: 11:41 p.m. EDT (03:41 GMT)
Brown: When evacuation warnings go out, people should realize it's for their own good.
(CNN) -- The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday those New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates.
Michael Brown also agreed with other public officials that the death toll in the city could reach into the thousands.
"Unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings," Brown told CNN.
"I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," he said.
--
Sep. 02: CNN's Compare and Contrast--Official Claims Vs. Eyewitness Reports
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html
Homeland Security Confirms American Red Cross Kept Out
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/02454/07418
FEMA "turned away Police and Doctors" at the stateline
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/Web/2005/092005/0902...
Link: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0905/256871.html
Link: http://www.zwire.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=15144436&BRD=...
Link: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0905/256903.html
--source:
--http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4588088&mesg_id=4588088
Louisiana State Police Decline Aid
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0905/256903.html
VA Dept. of Emergency Management: VA Police not Needed in Louisiana... Maybe, Later, in Mississippi, Though.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0905/256903.html
Rescue Copters Fired On... or Possibly Not.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1087205
September 01, 4:00 PM: FEMA Declines Russian Aid Offer
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/02/katrina/main812561.shtml
September 01: NO Emergency Manager "hasn't seen a single FEMA guy"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/02/katrina/main812561.shtml
September 01: Congress Denied Funds for Reducing LA Coastal Erosion
6:00 a.m.
The Boston Globe reported Thursday that as recently as this summer Congress denied Louisiana help to protect its eroding coastline from flooding and major storms such as Katrina...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/02/katrina/main812561.shtml
Sep 01 : Plan B: Plugging the Hole with a Barge
11:23 a.m.
NEW ORLEANS (CBS/WWL) — Engineers are scrambling to plug two broken New Orleans levees, reports CBS affiliate WWL in New Orleans. They hauled dozens of 15-foot concrete barriers and dropped 3,000-pound sandbags to plug New Orleans' breached levees but were unsuccessful. Officials say they have another plan, finding a barge to plug the hole.
source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/02/katrina/main812561.shtml
Aug 31: 1 Hurricane= 3 Amphibious Assault Ships... Plus a Rescue and Salvage Ship.
11:21 a.m.
NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) — The U.S. Navy announces three amphibious ships and a rescue and salvage ship based in Hampton Roads are getting underway Aug. 31
Aug 31: Adm. Keating of NORCOM Awaits Bush's and Blanco's Requests...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4605183
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/08/31/bush/index.html
08/28: LA Gov. Blanco Accepts Nat'l Guard Help from Other States
09/01: "Washington" Finishes Filling Out Paperwork, Allowing NG Requests to Go Forward
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090300248.html
Aug. 27 : Bush Press Release: "FEMA to Coordinate All Disaster Relief Efforts"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html
A group of female hurricane survivors were told to show their breasts if they wanted to be rescued, a British holidaymaker has revealed.Ged Scott watched as American rescuers turned their boat around and sped off when the the women refused.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/06092005/140/storm-survivors-told-expose-themselves.html
The Sprott report does not maintain that the government should never intervene in the stock market; it recognizes that certain emergencies may argue strongly for temporary intervention, such as the 1987 stock market crash and the terrorist attacks of September 2001. But, the Sprott report notes, frequent surreptitious intervention, conducted through intermediaries, the government's favored financial houses in New York, gives those intermediaries enormous advantages over ordinary investors. Frequent intervention, the Sprott report adds also makes it impossible to distinguish between national emergencies and political expediency.
The Sprott report concludes:
"Given the available information, we do not believe there can be any doubt that the U.S. government has intervened to support the stock market. Too much credible information exists to deny this. Yet virtually no one ever mentions government intervention publicly, preferring instead to pretend as if such activities have never taken place and never would.
"It is time that market participants, the media and, most of all, the government acknowledge what should be blatantly obvious to anyone who reviews the public record on the matter: These markets have been interfered with on numerous occasions. Our primary concern is that what apparently started as a stopgap measure may have morphed into a serious moral hazard situation, with market manipulation an endemic feature of the U.S. stock market.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050906/65371.html?.v=1
Airboaters stalled by FEMA
500 Florida airboat pilots have volunteered to rescue Hurricane Katrina victims, transport relief workers and ferry supplies. But they aren’t being allowed in. And they’re growing frustrated.
A "floatilla of aid" TURNED BACK from New Orleans
A group of approximately 1,000 citizens pulling 500 boats left the Acadiana Mall in Lafayette this morning (Weds.) and headed to New Orleans with a police escort from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department. The "flotillia" of trucks pulling boats stretched over five miles. This citizen rescue group was organized by La. State Senator, Gautreaux from Vermilion Parish. The group was comprised of experienced boaters, licensed fishermen and hunters, people who have spent their entire adult life and teenage years on the waterways of Louisiana.
Fearing riots, Guard rejects food airdrops
Authorities are avoiding airdropping provisions into New Orleans - the traditional way of supplying disaster victims - out of fear of sparking riots, a state official said.
Homeland Security won’t let Red Cross deliver food
"The Homeland Security Department has requested and continues to request that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans," said Renita Hosler, spokeswoman for the Red Cross.
US won’t let Canada help Katrina victims
Planes are ready to load with food and medical supplies and a system called "DART" which can provide fresh water and medical supplies is standing by. Department of Homeland Security as well as other U.S. agencies were contacted by the Canadian government requesting permission to provide help. Despite this contact, Canada has not been allowed to fly supplies and personnel to the areas hit by Katrina.
On BBC: Northern Command was in position, waiting for Presidential orders
We had the USS Baton sailing almost behind the hurricane so that after the hurricane made landfall it’s search and rescue helicopters would be available almost immediately. So we had things ready. The only caveat is, we have to wait until the President authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can’t just act in this fashion, we have to wait for the President to give us permission.
Confirmation of BBC report: Navy Ship still unused 6 Days after Katrina!
But today the Bataan’s hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty. A good share of its 1,200 sailors could also go ashore to help with the relief effort, but they haven’t been asked. The Bataan has been in the stricken region the longest of any military unit, but federal authorities have yet to fully utilize the ship.
Daley ’shocked’ as feds reject aid
A visibly angry Mayor Daley said the city had offered emergency, medical and technical help to the federal government as early as Sunday to assist people in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday, the only things the feds said they wanted was a single tank truck.
Virgina Team turned away- others efforts wasted
Twenty-two Loudoun County sheriff’s deputies and six medical personnel who left Thursday for the New Orleans area returned home early yesterday because of poor communication between officials in Louisiana and Virginia that left the team without required approvals.
FEMA prevents water, fuel delivery- cuts communication lines!
On Meet the Press, the president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, Aaron Broussard, said that FEMA turned away aid and cut their communication lines!
Paperwork from DC late to arrive- prevents National Guard from helping
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state’s National Guard last Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn’t come from Washington until late Thursday.
Guardsmen ’played cards’ amid New Orleans chaos: police official
A top New Orleans police officer said that National Guard troops sat around playing cards while people died in the stricken city after Hurricane Katrina.
FEMA Chief Brown caught in a LIE.
In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day." Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.
Who’s Responsible?
Bush reorganized the government specifically to give the Feds more power in an emergency.
Bush’s Criminal Ignorance: "I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the breach of the levees."
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8066
We also now know that Catrina was ONLY category 2 when it hit New Orleans proper and the levees should have held as it has so many times before. It is absolutely outrageous for us Australians to hear that many, possibly thousands of Americans, came to New Orleans with their boats to help, but have been turned back by FEMA.
http://www.rense.com/general67/spin.htm
Meanwhile, they also pointed out that:
Germany is offering 2 million barrels of oil a day for 30 days. Venezuela is offering FREE fuel !! France - more offers of aid than they could list even Sri Lanka...poor and devastated by last years Tsunami...offered cash !!
But NO response from Washington.
Then onto CNN to watch a very pompous CNN announcer, Ralitta Vassileva, saying "What has the rest of the world offered?"
"I am an American and I am very angry at the rest of the World...." and on and on
http://www.rense.com/general67/shep.htm
"No one who used to live in N.O. has a job or a home. Freezer trucks are being brought in to stack the dead in. An extra 100,000 people are now in Baton Rouge. It is expected to double in size in a month. That is a problem. I was told by the police yesterday that you should not move around town without a gun to protect yourself. Some of the NO gangs have come here. They are out of drugs and maniacal. Thankfully, the local police are taking a HARD-LINE stand against this. There are some serious problems from the low-lifes. Baton Rouge is ARMED and it is dangerous. Drug-crazed lowlifes attacked a hospital to steal drugs. The situation is deteriorating rapidly.
...
A few minutes ago, I watched live coverage of a woman crying her eyes out. She's walking out of the city with her dog and they refuse to allow her to take her beloved pet with her. The trauma isn't bad enough, now the "law enforcement" is refusing to allow people to keep their pets with them? In a time of deep stress, dogs and cats and let's face it, they become part of our families - our little friends help to take away life's woes. They give us unconditional love and in such horrible times, not only is that woman's dog her dear friend, he is big enough to help protect her. I don't blame that women and if it were me, I would keep walking and tell them to go ahead and shoot me. Think I'm kidding? Treating suffering Americans like criminals when they've lost everything except their beloved pet is beyond the pale.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd123.htm
As the water level in much of New Orleans begins to slowly recede, officials are preparing to deal with thousands of dead bodies – bodies floating in contaminated water, hidden in damaged homes and even piled together in the freezer of the city's convention center.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46175
Ethnic Cleansing II
I can't keep up. What I've been thinking of as wild conspiracy theory is now being reported at CBC News as a practically a fait accompli:
"If those forced out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina end up re-building their lives in new locations, it could be the largest U.S. black resettlement since the Great Migration of the 20th Century lured southern blacks to the North in search of jobs and better lives."
and:
"In Houston, which expected many thousands of evacuees to remain for a long time, interviews suggested that thousands of blacks who lost everything and had no insurance will end up living in Texas or states other than Louisiana.
Many evacuees like Percy Molere, 26, who worked in a hotel in New Orleans' French quarter, said they cannot keep their lives on hold for very long. Molere said: 'If it took a month, I'd go back, but a year, I don't want to wait that long. Hopefully we're going to stay in Houston just to stay out of New Orleans' for the time being."
Here is a list of the active efforts of FEMA and other US institutions in the control of the Bush Administration to prevent aid from getting through (see also here and here and here, and here or here). Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff outright lied - see here - in claiming that no one anticipated this disaster. It looks increasingly like FEMA did anticipate it, and in fact had a plan to ensure that New Orleans be ethnically cleansed should the proper storm come along. There is simply too much active sabotage of relief efforts to blame it all on FEMA incompetence. I wonder what other plans they have?
http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2005/09/ethnic-cleansing-ii.html
No white looters?
And it has nothing to do with poverty. Where are the white people in all this? I am sure there are poor white people living in New Orleans, Biloxi and the other towns affected by what has been going on. Is it that the media are not showing pictures of them looting and robbing? Or is it that they are too busy trying to stay alive, waiting to be rescued, and hiding from the blacks.
And you know what? Even if the poor whites were looting and robbing, wouldn't it be nice if the blacks could have made them the only ones doing it
Just once, I would like for us blacks to take the high road in situations like this, where instead of showing our darkest side, we put our best foot forward. But I guess that would be too much to ask, too much of a case of wishful thinking.
http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20050902/cleisure/cleisure1.html
Penn said he had spent nine hours on Monday searching the water for people and during all that time he saw just three boats carrying US officials.
"There are people that are dying right now and I mean babies and old people and everybody in between - they're dying. There are people dying and (the US government are) not putting the boats in the water, I think that's criminal negligence. I don't think anybody ever anticipated the criminal negligence of the Bush administration in this situation.
...
"At one point, there were a load of girls on the roof of the hotel saying 'Can you help us?' and the policemen said 'Show us what you've got' and made signs for them to lift their T-shirts. When the girls refused, they said 'Fine' and motored off down the road in their boat."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/PA_NEWA12843661125997597A0?source=PA%20Feed&ct=5
We now have multiple reports of police being ordered to guard key infrastructures in order to defend them from FEMA federal agents. Sheriffs in numerous different counties are guarding highways to keep FEMA out. FEMA is being treated as the enemy because they are sabotaging key facilities in an effort to intentionally worsen the already desperate scenes of horror in New Orleans.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2005/060905femasabotaging.htm
Mayfield said the strength of the storm and the potential disaster it could bring were made clear during both the briefings and in formal advisories, which warned of a storm surge capable of overtopping levees in New Orleans and winds strong enough to blow out windows of high-rise buildings," the paper reported. "He said the briefings included information on expected wind speed, storm surge, rainfall and the potential for tornados to accompany the storm as it came ashore.
"We were briefing them way before landfall," Mayfield said. "It’s not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped."
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054595
"We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here," said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston "Chip" Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away "is just mind-boggling," he said in a phone interview.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2005/09/04/doctors_hamstrung_in_relief_efforts/
Also heard that part of the reason our house flooded is they dynamited part of the levee after the first section broke - they did this to prevent Uptown (the rich part of town) from being flooded. Apparently they used too much dynamite, thus flooding part of the Bywater. So now I know who is responsible for flooding my house - not Katrina, but our government.
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/3941.php
Bodies are lying everywhere, and hidden in attics and apartments. The announcer describes how one body, rotting after days in the sun, was surrounded by a wall fashioned from fallen bricks by survivors, and given a provisional burial to give her some dignity. The sign placed next to her body said, "Here lies Vera, God Help Us."
At a Red Cross shelter outside of Baton Rouge, we meet Emmanuel, who can't find his wife and three sons after the floods. His story is shocking. His home is near the 17th Street Canal, where the Pontchartrain levee broke through.
"I stayed behind to rescue my neighbors while I sent my wife and kids to dry land," he says. It is difficult for him to relate what happened. He had a small boat so he went from house to house picking up neighbors. While doing so, he encountered many bodies in the water.
"My best friend's body was floating by in the water. One mother whose baby drowned tied her baby to a fence so she could bury him after she returned." Because troops kept driving by him and others without helping them, he had to walk 30 miles north until he was picked up.
This crisis is a crime of the highest magnitude. The Bush Administration is always able to find money to fund wars that will benefit the rich of this country; however, when it comes to providing aid to respond to a disaster of this magnitude, funds, supplies and resources are lacking. From Bush on down, they should be indicted.
http://www.rense.com/general67/eyewit.htm
They looked as bedraggled as their grueling ride would suggest: 13 hours on the commandeered bus driven by a 20-year-old man. Watching bodies float by as they tried to escape the drowning city. Picking up people along the way. Three stops for fuel. Chugging into Reliant Park, only to be told initially that they could not spend the night.
Every bit worth it.
"We took the bus and got out of the city. We were trying to get out of the city," James Hickerson said.
Several passengers on the bus said they took the matter into their own hands earlier Wednesday because they felt rescuers and New Orleans authorities were too slow in offering help.
"They are not worried about us," said Makivia Horton, 22, who is five months pregnant.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/3334317
In fact, great pains were taken to keep their destination secret.
National Guard officials asked a reporter and photographer aboard two separate military planes not to identify their news organizations or tell the refugees where the planes were going. They explained some refugees on earlier flights complained or refused evacuation when told where they were going
http://www.unknownnews.org/0509090906CampWilliams.html
The Army appears to have "inappropriately" deployed soldiers to Iraq who already were diagnosed with mental problems, according to documents obtained by United Press International.
More than two dozen suicides by U.S. troops in Iraq, and hundreds of medical evacuations for psychiatric problems, have raised concerns about the mental health of soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom. An Army Medical Department after-action report obtained by UPI suggests that the Army sent some soldiers to war who were mentally unfit in the first place.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040312-042634-9733r
At the end of an unforgettable week, one broadcaster on Friday bitterly encapsulated the sense of burning shame and anger that many American citizens are feeling.
Flood victims were left virtually to their own devices for days
The only difference between the chaos of New Orleans and a Third World disaster operation, he said, was that a foreign dictator would have responded better
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4210674.stm
Sep 04: Jefferson Parish President, Interviewed on MTP, Tells of FEMA Cutting Emergency Phone Lines, Blocking Water and Fuel Shipments
--reports that his emergency services director's mother died after waiting five days for help
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/4/105148/3626
Sep 04: The (Missing) Buses of New Orleans
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:kbVWujvWpX8J:www.loyno.edu/studentaffairs/hurricane.emer.plan.html+%22City+of+New+Orleans%22+bus+contract&hl=en
--source: Metafilter.com
Sep. 03: Fake Bush Aid Stations Revealed by German TV
http://www.heute.de/ZDFheute/inhalt/23/0,3672,2370967,00.html
http://www.heute.de/ZDFmediathek/inhalt/23/0,4070,2370903-5,00.html
http://www.tagesschau.de/video/0,1315,OID4700936_RESreal256_PLYinternal_NAV_BAB,00.html
Translation here: http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/9/3/22494/85287/77#77
--Additional notes here: http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002485.html
--source: www.warandpiece.com
Sep. 03: Repair of 17th St. Levee Faked for Bush Photo-Op
http://www.newschannel6.tv/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=8695
Sep. 03: Bush's Visit Interrupts Food Delivery
http://www.nola.com/weblogs/print.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/print076556.html
--source: www.dailykos.com
Sep. 03: LA Gov: Rescue Flight Not Needed
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/204033/4769
Sep. 03: National Guard Troops from Other States Delayed by "Washington"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050903/ap_on_re_us/katrina_national_guard
http://www.suntimes.com/output/hurricane/cst-nws-daley03.html
Sep. 03: "Renegade" Boat Rescues Blocked for Two Days
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/171718/0826
Sep. 02: Salvation Army Rescue Fan Boats Turned Back by National Guard: Disaster Victims "Not in the Right Grid Today"
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12548203.htm
The Contractual Obligations of DHS:
In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort...
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home2.jsp
--source: http://www.warandpiece.com/
Sep 03: Beneath the Radar: Pentagon Investigator Accused of Protecting Bush Officials Resigns, Takes Job with Defense Contractor
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-schmitz3sep03,0,3724495.story?coll=la-tot-promo&track=morenews
--source: http://www.warandpiece.com/
Mike Brown, Itinerant Incompetent
---
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/2/34622/68348
http://www.horsesass.org/
FEMA director Mike Brown, a “total fucking disaster”
by Goldy, 09/02/2005, 12:34 AM
“An unmitigated, total fucking disaster.” That’s not a quote from Mike Brown, but rather, a quote describing him. And most disturbingly, it’s not even a reference to his dismal performance as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This blunt critique was emailed to me from a regular reader who was apparently attracted to HorsesAss.org by her passion for politics and her love of Arabian horses.
'I think I’ve told you that I’m into Arab horses. Well, for 3 years Michael Brown was hired and then fired by our IAHA, the International Arabian Horse Assoc. He was an unmitigated, total fucking disaster. I was shocked as hell when captain clueless put him in charge of FEMA a couple of years ago. He or the WH lied on the WH presser announcing him to FEMA. IAHA was never connected to the Olympic Comm, only the half Arab registry then and the governing body to the state and local Arabian horse clubs. He ruined IAHA financially so badly that we had to change the name and combine it with the Purebred registry.'
-- source: BlackFlagCafe, ComeBackAlive.com
Sep 01: FEMA chief: Victims bear some responsibility
Brown pleased with effort: 'Things are going relatively well'
Thursday, September 1, 2005; Posted: 11:41 p.m. EDT (03:41 GMT)
Brown: When evacuation warnings go out, people should realize it's for their own good.
(CNN) -- The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday those New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates.
Michael Brown also agreed with other public officials that the death toll in the city could reach into the thousands.
"Unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings," Brown told CNN.
"I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," he said.
--
Sep. 02: CNN's Compare and Contrast--Official Claims Vs. Eyewitness Reports
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html
Homeland Security Confirms American Red Cross Kept Out
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/02454/07418
FEMA "turned away Police and Doctors" at the stateline
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/Web/2005/092005/0902...
Link: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0905/256871.html
Link: http://www.zwire.com/site/tab1.cfm?newsid=15144436&BRD=...
Link: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0905/256903.html
--source:
--http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4588088&mesg_id=4588088
Louisiana State Police Decline Aid
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0905/256903.html
VA Dept. of Emergency Management: VA Police not Needed in Louisiana... Maybe, Later, in Mississippi, Though.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0905/256903.html
Rescue Copters Fired On... or Possibly Not.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1087205
September 01, 4:00 PM: FEMA Declines Russian Aid Offer
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/02/katrina/main812561.shtml
September 01: NO Emergency Manager "hasn't seen a single FEMA guy"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/02/katrina/main812561.shtml
September 01: Congress Denied Funds for Reducing LA Coastal Erosion
6:00 a.m.
The Boston Globe reported Thursday that as recently as this summer Congress denied Louisiana help to protect its eroding coastline from flooding and major storms such as Katrina...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/02/katrina/main812561.shtml
Sep 01 : Plan B: Plugging the Hole with a Barge
11:23 a.m.
NEW ORLEANS (CBS/WWL) — Engineers are scrambling to plug two broken New Orleans levees, reports CBS affiliate WWL in New Orleans. They hauled dozens of 15-foot concrete barriers and dropped 3,000-pound sandbags to plug New Orleans' breached levees but were unsuccessful. Officials say they have another plan, finding a barge to plug the hole.
source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/02/katrina/main812561.shtml
Aug 31: 1 Hurricane= 3 Amphibious Assault Ships... Plus a Rescue and Salvage Ship.
11:21 a.m.
NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) — The U.S. Navy announces three amphibious ships and a rescue and salvage ship based in Hampton Roads are getting underway Aug. 31
Aug 31: Adm. Keating of NORCOM Awaits Bush's and Blanco's Requests...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4605183
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/08/31/bush/index.html
08/28: LA Gov. Blanco Accepts Nat'l Guard Help from Other States
09/01: "Washington" Finishes Filling Out Paperwork, Allowing NG Requests to Go Forward
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090300248.html
Aug. 27 : Bush Press Release: "FEMA to Coordinate All Disaster Relief Efforts"
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html
A group of female hurricane survivors were told to show their breasts if they wanted to be rescued, a British holidaymaker has revealed.Ged Scott watched as American rescuers turned their boat around and sped off when the the women refused.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/06092005/140/storm-survivors-told-expose-themselves.html
The Sprott report does not maintain that the government should never intervene in the stock market; it recognizes that certain emergencies may argue strongly for temporary intervention, such as the 1987 stock market crash and the terrorist attacks of September 2001. But, the Sprott report notes, frequent surreptitious intervention, conducted through intermediaries, the government's favored financial houses in New York, gives those intermediaries enormous advantages over ordinary investors. Frequent intervention, the Sprott report adds also makes it impossible to distinguish between national emergencies and political expediency.
The Sprott report concludes:
"Given the available information, we do not believe there can be any doubt that the U.S. government has intervened to support the stock market. Too much credible information exists to deny this. Yet virtually no one ever mentions government intervention publicly, preferring instead to pretend as if such activities have never taken place and never would.
"It is time that market participants, the media and, most of all, the government acknowledge what should be blatantly obvious to anyone who reviews the public record on the matter: These markets have been interfered with on numerous occasions. Our primary concern is that what apparently started as a stopgap measure may have morphed into a serious moral hazard situation, with market manipulation an endemic feature of the U.S. stock market.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050906/65371.html?.v=1
Airboaters stalled by FEMA
500 Florida airboat pilots have volunteered to rescue Hurricane Katrina victims, transport relief workers and ferry supplies. But they aren’t being allowed in. And they’re growing frustrated.
A "floatilla of aid" TURNED BACK from New Orleans
A group of approximately 1,000 citizens pulling 500 boats left the Acadiana Mall in Lafayette this morning (Weds.) and headed to New Orleans with a police escort from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department. The "flotillia" of trucks pulling boats stretched over five miles. This citizen rescue group was organized by La. State Senator, Gautreaux from Vermilion Parish. The group was comprised of experienced boaters, licensed fishermen and hunters, people who have spent their entire adult life and teenage years on the waterways of Louisiana.
Fearing riots, Guard rejects food airdrops
Authorities are avoiding airdropping provisions into New Orleans - the traditional way of supplying disaster victims - out of fear of sparking riots, a state official said.
Homeland Security won’t let Red Cross deliver food
"The Homeland Security Department has requested and continues to request that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans," said Renita Hosler, spokeswoman for the Red Cross.
US won’t let Canada help Katrina victims
Planes are ready to load with food and medical supplies and a system called "DART" which can provide fresh water and medical supplies is standing by. Department of Homeland Security as well as other U.S. agencies were contacted by the Canadian government requesting permission to provide help. Despite this contact, Canada has not been allowed to fly supplies and personnel to the areas hit by Katrina.
On BBC: Northern Command was in position, waiting for Presidential orders
We had the USS Baton sailing almost behind the hurricane so that after the hurricane made landfall it’s search and rescue helicopters would be available almost immediately. So we had things ready. The only caveat is, we have to wait until the President authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can’t just act in this fashion, we have to wait for the President to give us permission.
Confirmation of BBC report: Navy Ship still unused 6 Days after Katrina!
But today the Bataan’s hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty. A good share of its 1,200 sailors could also go ashore to help with the relief effort, but they haven’t been asked. The Bataan has been in the stricken region the longest of any military unit, but federal authorities have yet to fully utilize the ship.
Daley ’shocked’ as feds reject aid
A visibly angry Mayor Daley said the city had offered emergency, medical and technical help to the federal government as early as Sunday to assist people in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday, the only things the feds said they wanted was a single tank truck.
Virgina Team turned away- others efforts wasted
Twenty-two Loudoun County sheriff’s deputies and six medical personnel who left Thursday for the New Orleans area returned home early yesterday because of poor communication between officials in Louisiana and Virginia that left the team without required approvals.
FEMA prevents water, fuel delivery- cuts communication lines!
On Meet the Press, the president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, Aaron Broussard, said that FEMA turned away aid and cut their communication lines!
Paperwork from DC late to arrive- prevents National Guard from helping
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state’s National Guard last Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn’t come from Washington until late Thursday.
Guardsmen ’played cards’ amid New Orleans chaos: police official
A top New Orleans police officer said that National Guard troops sat around playing cards while people died in the stricken city after Hurricane Katrina.
FEMA Chief Brown caught in a LIE.
In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day." Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.
Who’s Responsible?
Bush reorganized the government specifically to give the Feds more power in an emergency.
Bush’s Criminal Ignorance: "I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the breach of the levees."
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8066
posted by abu nakba at 9/07/2005 06:38:00 AM
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