Below are many highly revealing one-paragraph excerpts of important Hurricane Katrina articles from the mainstream media. Links are provided to the full articles on major media websites. If any link should fail to function,
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Kanye West's Torrent of Criticism, Live on NBC
2005-09-03, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR20050903001...
NBC's levee broke
and Kanye West flooded through with a tear about the federal response in New
Orleans during the network's live concert fundraiser for victims of Hurricane
Katrina. The rapper was among the celebs and singers participating in the one-hour
special, produced by NBC News. West was not scheduled to perform; he was one
of the blah, blah, blahers, who would read from scripts prepared by the network.
West: I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it
says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're
looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal
help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about
it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because
it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation,
so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest
amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my
people down there. Parent company NBC Universal said in a statement, "Kanye
West departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him, and his
opinions in no way represent the views of the networks." West's comments
would be cut from the West Coast feed, an NBC spokeswoman told The TV Column.
Brits sent 400,000 meals but U.S. didn't use them
2005-10-14, San Francisco Chronicle/Washington Post
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/15/MNG5VF8PJI1.DTL
In the early days of September, as military helicopters plucked desperate New Orleanians from rooftops and Red Cross shelters swelled with the displaced, nearly 400,000 packaged meals landed on a tarmac at Little Rock Air Force Base and were whisked by tractor-trailer to Louisiana. But most of the $5.3 million worth of food never reached the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Instead, because of fears about mad cow disease and a long-standing ban on British beef, the rations routinely consumed by British soldiers have sat stacked in an Arkansas warehouse. Now, with some of the food set to expire in early 2006 and U.S. taxpayers spending $16,000 a month to store the meals, the State Department is quietly looking for a needy country to take them. No fewer than six federal agencies or departments had a role in accepting, distributing and rejecting the food.
Note: This unbelievable news was first reported by the London Times and WantToKnow.info a month prior to this recent article. Why didn't the US press report it back then?
Cheney orders rural electric crews to work on oil pipeline from Texas
2005-09-11, 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.
Gone With the Water (Hurricane Predicted One Year Before It Happened)
2004-10-00, National Geographic October 2004 Issue
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5
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!!!)
2001-09-11, Popular Mechanics (Note 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.
Chertoff: Katrina scenario did not exist
2005-09-05, CNN News
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.
Halliburton Subsidiary Taps Contract For Repairs
2005-09-05, Washington Post/Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/04/AR20050904011...
An Arlington-based
Halliburton Co. subsidiary that has been criticized for its reconstruction work
in Iraq has begun tapping a $500 million Navy contract to do emergency repairs
at Gulf Coast naval and Marine facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The
subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root Services Inc., won the competitive bid
contract last July to provide debris removal and other emergency work associated
with natural disasters. KBR has been at the center of scrutiny for receiving
a five-year, no-bid contract to restore Iraqi oil fields shortly before the
war began in 2003. Halliburton has reported being paid $10.7 billion for
Iraq-related government work during 2003 and 2004. The company reported its
pretax profits from that work as $163 million. Pentagon auditors have questioned
tens of millions of dollars of Halliburton charges for its operations there.
Last month three congressional Democrats asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
to investigate the demotion of a senior civilian Army official, Bunnatine
H. Greenhouse, who publicly criticized the awarding of that contract. Vice
President Cheney headed Halliburton from 1995 to 2000.
Dozens indicted in alleged Katrina scam
2005-12-29, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/12/28/katrina.fraud/
Forty-nine people have been indicted in a scam to pocket Red Cross hurricane relief funds and more indictments are expected. Authorities said 22 people working for a Red Cross contractor at a call center in Bakersfield, California, filed false claims, and by involving family members and friends, brought the number of people under indictment to 49. Officials said they planned to widen the investigation. "Our investigation is going to be expanded to include other parts of California and other states, and there are thousands of claims made in other states," FBI Special Agent Javier Colon said. The Red Cross had safeguards in place after Katrina, but "they were not fully adequate," spokesman Steve Cooper said.
Katrina makes many of planners’ fears a reality
2005-09-09, MSNBC News
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.
Religious Leaders Quit Katrina Panel
2006-07-14, CBS News
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/14/katrina/main1805194.shtml
By all accounts, the group of nine was a religious powerhouse: Their ranks included rabbis, imams and ministers, including the man hailed by some as the next Billy Graham. But as of Thursday, seven of the nine religious leaders serving on a committee created by the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to disburse money to churches destroyed by Hurricane Katrina had quit their posts, claiming their advice was ignored. Departing members of the interfaith advisory committee say the fund's Washington staff disregarded their advice, cutting checks for Gulf Coast churches without properly investigating the institutions. "I've been in ministry for 30 years and I don't think I've ever resigned from anything. I'm a loyalist to a fault. But what's happened is unacceptable," said [Bishop T.D.] Jakes who was named one of the 25 most influential evangelists by TIME Magazine. Another committee member who resigned, said the Washington staff wanted the religious leaders to "rubber stamp" their decisions. "They had their agenda and that's unacceptable," he said.
Finally fooling none of the people
2005-09-13, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer13sep13,0,2708046....
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.
House committee dismisses bulk of investigative division
2006-10-19, USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-19-house-committee-shakeup_x.htm
The House Appropriations Committee has let go about 60 private contractors who made up most of an investigative unit that was auditing billions of dollars in government spending, including the $62 billion federal relief package for Hurricane Katrina. The investigators...were released during the past week. The shake-up — which leaves only 16 full-time employees in the investigative unit — comes about a year after the Appropriations Committee's chairman, Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., launched the Katrina review by saying the unit would "conduct a wide-ranging assessment and analysis of disaster spending." At the time, Lewis said the unit had a tradition of "comprehensive" reporting. It's unclear how the departures will affect the work of the unit, whose contract staff is made up of former employees of the FBI, CIA and other government investigative services. Some of them had worked for the unit for several years. Scofield said he could not identify the specific work being done by investigators because much of the unit's inquiries involve classified information. Established in 1943, the investigative unit has focused mainly on defense and intelligence spending programs.
Key Hurricane Katrina News Articles in Major Media
