"One
of the images, shot by photographer Dave Martin for The Associated Press,
shows a young black man wading through chest-deep waters after 'looting' a
grocery store, according to the caption. In the
other...a white man and a similarly light-skinned woman also waded through
chest-deep water after 'finding' goods that included bread and soda in a local
grocery store, according to the caption. Apparently,...it's not looting if
you're white."
--
Chicago
Tribune , 9/5/05
Dear friends,
The media
did an admirable job of reporting on cover-up and corruption related
to Hurricane Katrina and Rita. Below is a compilation of key excerpts from
excellent major media articles which reveal a disturbing pattern of corruption
and manipulation related to these hurricanes. Links are provided to each
highly informative article on its media website of origin for easy verification
and more information. If any link fails to function, click
here. You can make a difference by emailing this important information
to your friends and colleagues.
With best wishes,
Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info Team
Former language interpreter
for Presidents Bush and Clinton
Government paid $1.4 billion in bogus hurricane aid
June 13, 2006, Houston Chronicle/Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3966483.html
The government doled out as much as $1.4 billion in bogus assistance to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, getting hoodwinked to pay for season football tickets, a tropical vacation and even a divorce lawyer, congressional investigators have found. The GAO concluded that as much as 16 percent of the billions of dollars in FEMA help to individuals after the two hurricanes was unwarranted. FEMA paid an individual $2,358 in rental assistance, while at the same time paying about $8,000 for the same person to stay 70 nights at more than $100 per night in a Hawaii hotel. FEMA also could not establish that 750 debit cards worth $1.5 million even went to Katrina victims. FEMA paid millions of dollars to more than 1,000 registrants who used names and Social Security numbers belonging to state and federal prisoners for expedited housing assistance.
FEMA twice failed to give Congress plan to evacuate New Orleans
September 18, 2005, CNN/Associated Press
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/17/katrina.evacuation.ap/
Eight years
ago Congress...set aside $500,000 for FEMA to create "a comprehensive
analysis and plan of all evacuation alternatives for the New Orleans metropolitan
area." Frustrated two years later that no study had materialized, Congress
strengthened its directive. This time it ordered "an evacuation plan
for a Category 3 or greater storm, a levee break, flood or other natural disaster
for the New Orleans area." The $500,000 that Congress appropriated for
the evacuation plan went to a commission that studied future options for the
24-mile bridge over Lake Pontchartrain.
Going (Down) by the Book
September 17, 2005, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/17/opinion/17tierney.html
When the Federal
Emergency Management Agency's paperwork slowed the evacuation of patients
from the airport, Acadian's frustrated medics waited with empty helicopters.
"At one point I had 10 helicopters on the ground waiting to go,"
said Marc Creswell, an Acadian medic, "but FEMA kept stonewalling us
with paperwork. Meanwhile, every 30 or 40 minutes someone was dying."
The company sent in outside doctors and nurses. FEMA rejected the help because
the doctors and nurses weren't certified members of a National Disaster Medical
Team. "When the doctors asked why they couldn't help these critically
ill people lying there unattended," Mr. Creswell recalled, "the
FEMA people kept saying, 'You're not federalized.' "
Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA
September 6, 2005, Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/search/ci_3004197
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090705E.shtml
Not long after
some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering
began: "What are we doing here?" As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin
pleaded on national television for firefighters...a battalion of highly trained
men and women sat idle Sunday [less than a week after landfall] in a muggy
Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta. Many of the firefighters, assembled
from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers. Instead,
they have learned they are going...to disseminate fliers and a phone number:
1-800-621-FEMA. On Monday, some firefighters stuck in the staging area at
the Sheraton peeled off their FEMA-issued shirts and stuffed them in backpacks,
saying they refuse to represent the federal agency.
A Quick Compilation of FEMA's Rejections of Qualified Help
FEMA refuses
hundreds of personnel, dozens of vehicles - Chicago Tribune, 9/2/05
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050902daley,1,2011979.story
FEMA won't let
Red Cross deliver food - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/3/05
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm
FEMA fails to
utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board - Chicago Tribune, 9/4/05
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509040369sep04,1,4144825.story
FEMA turns away
state-of-the-art mobile hospital from Univ. of North Carolina - CNN, 9/5/05
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/09/04/katrina.sick.redtape.ap/
FEMA won't accept
Amtrak's help in evacuations - Financial Times, 9/5/05
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/84aa35cc-1da8-11da-b40b-00000e
FEMA turns back
Wal-Mart supply trucks - New York Times, 9/6/05
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspecial/05blame.html
FEMA prevents
Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel - New York Times, 9/6/05
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspecial/05blame.html
FEMA blocks 500-boat
citizen flotilla from delivering aid - News Sentinel, 9/8/05
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/12595873.htm
FEMA asks media not to take pictures of dead - Washington Post, 9/8/05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR2005090702126.html
FEMA turns
back German government plane loaded with 15 tons of food - Spiegel,
9/12/05
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,374268,00.html
FEMA: "First
Responders Urged Not To Respond" Unless Dispatched - FEMA's own website
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470
Finally fooling none of the people
September 13, 2005, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer13sep13,0,2708046.column
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091305B.shtml#1
The Federal
Emergency Management Agency is now run by political hacks appointed by Bush
who know zilch about disaster relief. "Brownie, you're doing a heck of
a job," the president said to Michael Brown a few days before the FEMA
chief was relieved of his oversight of the relief efforts. Brown, who reportedly
doctored his unimpressive resume and didn't have a background in emergency
management, resigned Monday. He had secured this plum job because he was a
college buddy of his predecessor, Joe Allbaugh, who managed Bush's 2000 presidential
campaign.
Bush allies getting Katrina work
September 13, 2005, CNN
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/12/news/economy/katrina_contracts.reut/
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 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. One is...Halliburton
Co. (Research) subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney
is a former head of Halliburton. Allbaugh formally registered as a lobbyist
for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root in February. Allbaugh is
also a friend of Michael Brown, director of FEMA who was removed as head of
Katrina disaster relief and sent back to Washington amid allegations he had
padded his resume. Halliburton continues to be a source of income for Cheney,
who served as its chief executive officer from 1995 until 2000. According
to tax filings released in April, Cheney's income included $194,852 in deferred
pay from the company.
Cheney orders rural electric crews to work on oil pipeline from Texas
September 11, 2005, WKYC (Ohio NBC affiliate)
http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_fullstory.asp?id=40633
Shortly after
Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity
and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline
that sends fuel to the Northeast. That order...delayed efforts by at least
24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems. Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Mike Callahan said the U.S. Department
of Energy called him [stating that] opening the fuel line was a national priority.
Manager Dan Jordan said Vice President Dick Cheney’s office called and left
voice mails twice shortly after the storm struck, saying the Collins substations
needed power restored immediately. Callahan said energy officials told him
gasoline and diesel fuel needed to flow through the pipeline to avert a national
crisis from the inability to meet fuel needs in the Northeast. “Our concern
was that...it would be a national crisis for Mississippi,“ Callahan said.
Intricate Flood Protection Long a Focus of Dispute
September 1, 2005, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/national/nationalspecial/01levee.html
The 17th Street
levee that gave way and led to the flooding of New Orleans was part of an
intricate, aging system of barriers and pumps that was so chronically underfinanced
that senior regional officials of the Army Corps of Engineers complained about
it publicly for years. Often leading the chorus was Alfred C. Naomi, a senior
project manager for the corps. Mr. Naomi grew particularly frustrated this
year as the Gulf Coast braced for what forecasters said would be an intense
hurricane season and a nearly simultaneous $71 million cut was announced in
the New Orleans district budget to guard against such storms.
Katrina forecasters were remarkably accurate
September 16 , 2005, NBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9369041/
The National
Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center...forecast the path of the
storm and the potential for devastation with remarkable accuracy. National
Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield also gave daily pre-storm videoconference
briefings to federal officials in Washington, warning them of a nightmare
scenario of New Orleans’ levees not holding...and flooding wiping out large
swaths of the Gulf Coast. Mayfield also...personally called the governors
of Mississippi and Louisiana and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin two days ahead
of time to warn them about the monstrous hurricane.
Chertoff: Katrina scenario did not exist
September 5, 2005, CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.chertoff/
Defending the
U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff argued...that government planners did not predict such a
disaster ever could occur. But in fact, government officials, scientists and
journalists have warned of such a scenario for years. Chertoff...said government
officials did not expect both a powerful hurricane and a breach of levees
that would flood the city of New Orleans. As far back as Friday, August 26
[three days before landfall], the National Hurricane Center was predicting
the storm could be a Category 4 hurricane at landfall, with New Orleans directly
in its path. The National Weather Service prediction proved almost perfect.
Katrina makes many of planners’ fears a reality
September 9, 2005, MSNBC
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9274362/
As Katrina
roared into the Gulf of Mexico, emergency planners pored over maps and charts
of a hurricane simulation that projected 61,290 dead and 384,257 injured or
sick in a catastrophic flood that would leave swaths of southeast Louisiana
uninhabitable for more than a year. These planners were not involved in the
frantic preparations for Katrina. By coincidence, they were working on a yearlong
project to prepare federal and state officials for a Category 3 hurricane
striking New Orleans. Their fictitious storm eerily foreshadowed the havoc
wrought by Category 4 Katrina a few days later, raising questions about whether
government leaders did everything possible...to protect New Orleans residents
from a well-documented threat.
Gone With the Water (Hurricane Predicted Again One Year Ago)
October 2004, National Geographic
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/
http://205.188.130.53/ngm/0410/feature5/index.html
As the whirling
maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher
ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged
and infirm. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy
was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless,
and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of
the United States. When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday
scenario is not far-fetched. "It's not if it will happen," says
University of New Orleans geologist Shea Penland. "It's when."
New Orleans is Sinking (Hurricane predicted on 9/11!!!)
September 11, 2001, Popular Mechanics (Note
the date of this article)
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/1282151.html
Emergency planners
believe that it is a foregone conclusion that the Big Easy someday will be
hit by a scouring storm surge. This watery "big one" will produce
a staggering amount of damage. Yet, this doesn't necessarily mean that there
will be a massive loss of lives. The key is a new emergency warning system
developed by...Louisiana State University. Within 30 minutes to an hour after
raw data is collected from monitoring stations in the Gulf, an assessment
of storm-surge damage would be available to emergency planners. Disaster relief
agencies then would be able to mobilize resources.
Experts blame flooding on faulty levees
September 21, 2005, MSNBC/Washington Post
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9419053/
Louisiana's
top hurricane experts have rejected the official explanations for the floodwall
collapses that inundated much of New Orleans, concluding that Hurricane Katrina's
storm surges were much smaller than authorities have suggested and that the
city's flood-protection system should have kept most of the city dry. If Katrina
did not exceed the design capacity of the New Orleans levees, the federal
government may bear ultimate responsibility for this disaster.
When sluggishness isn't OK
September 4, 2005, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0509040406sep04,1,3926343.column
E-mailers sent
me copies of two news photos that revealed an apparent double standard regarding
black and white flood victims in New Orleans. One
of the images, shot by photographer Dave Martin for The Associated Press,
shows a young black man wading through chest-deep waters after "looting"
a grocery store, according to the caption. In the
other, taken by photographer Chris Graythen for AFP/Getty Images, a white
man and a similarly light-skinned woman also waded through chest-deep water
after "finding" goods that included bread and soda in a local grocery
store, according to the caption. Apparently, quipped a cynical blogger at
Daily Kos, " It's not looting if you're white."
Third World Scenes
September 5, 2005, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/04/AR2005090400958.html
Mullen has
a schoolteacher's kindly demeanor, so it was jarring to hear him say he suspected
that the levee breaks had somehow been engineered to keep the wealthy French
Quarter and Garden District dry at the expense of poor black neighborhoods...a
suspicion I heard from many other black survivors. And it was surprising to
hear Mullen's gentle voice turn bitter as he described the scene at the convention
center, when helicopters bringing food didn't even land and the soldiers "just
pushed the food out like we were in the Third World." I literally stumbled
into the Rev. Jesse Jackson. He looked genuinely shaken, [saying] "this
looks like the hold of a slave ship."
Intricate Flood Protection Long a Focus of Dispute
September 1, 2005, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/national/nationalspecial/01levee.html
No one expected
that weak spot to be on a canal that...had received more attention and shoring
up than many other spots in the region. It did not have broad berms, but it
did have strong concrete walls. Shea Penland, director of the Pontchartrain
Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of New Orleans, said
that was particularly surprising because the break was "along a section
that was just upgraded. It did not have an earthen levee," Dr. Penland
said. "It had a vertical concrete wall several feel thick."
Earwitness says explosives blew Industrial Canal levee (Video Clip)
September 11, 2005, ABC
http://www.total411.info/leveeboom.rm (video clip, Real Player
required - free download)
DAVID MUIR,
ABC NEWS: This is the actual levee that runs along the canal on the eastern
side of the city. You can see the massive breach here and...what the water
did to the Lower Ninth Ward. It completely destroyed neighborhoods. JOE EDWARDS,
JR., 9TH WARD RESIDENT: I heard something go "boom"!!! MUIR: Joe
Edwards rushed to get himself and as many neighbors as possible into his truck.
They drove to this bridge, where they've been living ever since. Was it solely
the water that broke the levee, or was it the force of this barge? Joe Edwards
says neither. People...in this neighborhood...actually think the city did
it, blowing up the levee to save richer neighborhoods like the French Quarter. MUIR: So you're convinced... EDWARDS: I know this happened! MUIR: They broke
the levee on purpose? EDWARDS: They blew it.
Cold-war
device used to cause Katrina?
September 20, 2005, USA Today/Associated
Press
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2005-09-20-wacky-weatherman_x.htm
An Idaho weatherman
says Japan's Yakuza mafia used a Russian-made electromagnetic generator to
cause Hurricane Katrina in a bid to avenge itself for the Hiroshima atom bomb
attack — and that this technology will soon be wielded again to hit another
U.S. city. Meteorologist Scott Stevens, a nine-year veteran of KPVI-TV in
Pocatello, said he was struggling to forecast weather patterns starting in
1998 when he discovered the theory on the Internet. It's now detailed on Stevens'
website, www.weatherwars.info. Bill
Fouch, KPVI's general manager, said. "He's very knowledgeable about weather,
and he's very popular."
Note:
For more, see
Idaho State Journal
article on Stevens.
Bush lifts wage rules for Katrina
September 9, 2005, CNN/Reuters
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/08/news/economy/katrina_wages.reut/
President Bush
issued an executive order Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding
in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage. In
a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national
emergency" that permits him to take such action. Bush's action came as
the federal government moved to provide billions of dollars in aid. The administration
is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately
trying to rebuild their lives and their communities.
Bush Has Declared Katrina-Related Emergencies in 40 States, District of Columbia
September 15, 2005, ABC
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1129802
The dire conditions
created by Hurricane Katrina may be confined to the Gulf Coast, but on paper
the emergency is all over the country. President Bush has declared that Katrina-related
emergencies exist in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Apparently it
does not take much to qualify as an emergency.
Note:
These "emergencies" also give the president extraordinary powers
to curtail civil liberties, as shown in the previous article.
More Resources
For a highly
revealing personal account by two emergency medical personnel who were participating
in a conference in New Orleans at the time of the hurricane, see their gripping
story at http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090805A.shtml.
The mainstream media has often avoided reporting the most devastating personal
stories which reveal all that is being covered up. For more on how corporate
ownership of the media can block key stories like this, see http://www.WantToKnow.info/mediainformation
For those who
are ready to go even deeper, read about FEMA's shady beginnings by clicking here. Then, to see Online Journal's revealing analysis article "New Orleans:
Dress rehearsal for lockdown of America," click here.
Former
U.S. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen in a 1997 news briefing stated:
"Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can
alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use
of electromagnetic waves." To verify this quote on the U.S. Department of Defense
website, click here.
If terrorist organizations have the capability to set off earthquakes
and other major natural disasters, do you think huge military research
laboratories might have some of the same capabilities? For more,
click here and
here.
For a little
hard-hitting humor on the CBS website:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/08/opinion/main827633.shtml
For empowering
ideas on what we can do about all this:
http://www.WantToKnow.info/spreadtheword
- Spread the word
http://www.WantToKnow.info/brighterfuture
- Building a brighter future
http://www.WantToKnow.info/youcanhelp
- How you can help
By emailing
this information to your friends and colleagues, you can make a big difference.
To contact your political representatives and the media, click here. As we spread this information, we are building a critical mass which can bring
positive changes to our government and world. For an abundance of reliable,
verifiable information on other major cover-ups of which few are aware and
what we can do about it, see WantToKnow.info.
Together, we can and will build a brighter future.
