Posted on 09/08/2005 6:57:07 PM PDT by sissyjane
Edited on 09/08/2005 11:37:58 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
>> WHITE HOUSE MULLED SEIZING RELIEF MISSION // Invoke the Insurrection Act? Bush's senior advisers debated last week whether the president should seize control of the chaotic hurricane relief mission from the governor so that active-duty combat troops could be sent to enforce order... Developing
Update******
Political Issues Snarled Plans for Troop Aid
"WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 - As New Orleans descended into chaos last week and Louisiana's governor asked for 40,000 soldiers, President Bush's senior advisers debated whether the president should speed the arrival of active-duty troops by seizing control of the hurricane relief mission from the governor.
For reasons of practicality and politics, officials at the Justice Department and Pentagon, and then at the White House, decided not to urge Mr. Bush to take command of the effort.
Instead, the Washington officials decided to rely on the growing number of National Guard personnel flowing into Louisiana, who were under Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco's control. The debate was triggered as officials began to realize that Hurricane Katrina exposed a critical flaw in the national disaster response plans created after the Sept. 11 attacks. According to the administration's senior homeland security officials, the hurricane showed the failure of their plan to recognize that local police, fire and medical personnel might be incapacitated and unable to act quickly until reinforcements arrive on the scene..."
".. To seize control of the mission, Mr. Bush would have had to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the president in times of unrest to command active-duty forces into the states to perform law enforcement duties. But decision makers in Washington felt certain that Governor Blanco would have resisted surrendering control of the military relief mission as Bush Administration officials believe would have been required to deploy active-duty combat forces before law and order had been re-established. While troops can conduct relief missions without the legal authority of the Insurrection Act, Pentagon and military officials say that no active-duty forces could have been sent into the chaos of New Orleans on Wednesday or Thursday without confronting law-and-order challenges......."
Hard at work.
This afternoon C-SPAN 3 broadcast an extensive Louisiana National Guard press briefing with follow-up questions.
Their version of events and assessment of their performance, while admitting shortfalls, is quite different from what we're reading and posting here.
Much time and political posturing will pass before the truth, whatever it is, comes into the light of day.
Safe to say, much of the work of the MSM has rendered us punch drunk with confusion and contradiction.
Wahington Post of all places had the article. Rush and Sean read from it today. Rush might have it on his site because he blasted Mary Landrieau with it. The article basically painted a picture of her "cooking the books" to get the money diverted to LA and then using it for other purposes.
Repeating:
Posted by Fred Nerks to 1066AD
On News/Activism 09/08/2005 5:44:36 PM PDT · 178 of 422
Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005 10:18 p.m. EDT
Louisiana Officials in Flood-Money Scam
Nine months before the Hurricane Katrina disaster, three Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness officials were indicted for obstructing an audit into flood prevention expenditures.
In a November 2004 press release, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana announced:
Story Continues Below
"A federal grand jury has returned two separate indictments charging three members of the State Military Department with offenses related to the obstruction of an audit of the use of federal funds for flood mitigation activities throughout Louisiana.
"The two emergency management officials were senior employees of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Both were charged with conspiracy to obstruct a federal audit."
Gov. Kathleen Blanco told Louisiana's News-Star at the time that she was disturbed by the indictments. She said the National Guard is cooperating with the investigation "as I expect them to do."
Reports of rampant corruption among Louisiana's state and local agencies have been cited in recent days to explain why officials were so ill-prepared to deal with the Katrina disaster.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/6/222032.shtml
Dead on. Too many people miss that angle.
Actually it was his third trip. The first was Wednesday 2 days after the hurricane. Air Force One flew him over the Gulf Coast and over New Orleans, down to 1500-2500 feet so he could see the extent of the problems first hand, as he was having trouble getting reports from the ground.
You're right! It's only because of hindsight that we can see that Bush would have been morally right to do this. BUT a Republican usurping a Democratic governor and mayor? He would have been characterized as he is about Iraq..a cowboy, blah blah blah.
I think as a former governor, Bush was loathe to set the precedent of taking over the state...and I think he was right. The incompetence of the staate and local governments is coming out now, but Bush would have STILL taken the blame of response AND have a charge of "dictatorship" to boot had he done it.
"Why didn't people from Baton Rouge, and the northern parishes come to the rescue?"
In Lafayette LA, on the Wednesday after the storm, Nearly 400 boats were assembled in a shopping mall parking lot and left in a convoy to go and assist in the rescue only to be turned away when they arived. There ware many in LA that wanted to help.
Major General Bennett C. Landreneau is the Adjutant General for Louisiana. He is responsible for the deployment and coordination of programs, policies and plans affecting the more than 14,000 members of the Louisiana Army and Air National Guard. He is also the Director of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness
"Mulling" this instead of moving on it was the best thing the administration could have done. Maintaining order in the aftermath of Katrina would have required U.S. military forces to do things in New Orleans that the enemies of this administration WOULD NEVER PERMIT THEM TO DO IN BAGHDAD.
I heard it on the Brit Hume Show.
Also from the article
He continued, "What we now have to look toward is perhaps a regional capability, probably within the civilian sector, that can be deployed to a city when that city's infrastructure and first responder capability has been destroyed by the event itself."
They are called Patriots you dumb nut and there were plenty of them last week.
Is he one of the ones indicted?? Also he's the person who kept the Red Cross and Salvation army out....
I assume you're referring to the legendary Good Ol' Boys in their 4x4 Bubba Trucks and that legendary unwillingness to part with their firepower yada yada yada.
Sorry to disappoint, but most all the REAL men are now in their late forties or early fifties and things are beginning to creak. Remember the younger crowd has been exposed to the forty year agenda of antigun propaganda in the public schools. Something that pretty effectively counteracts the pro-gun teachings of dad and granddaddy. This was a plan that was designed to bear fruit in over two generations of time and it's all about to happen. I have maintained for at least fifteen years that if an order to turn in all the guns were issued by lawful authority, NINE out of TEN law abiding citizens would meekly turn their guns over with a bleating cry of B-a-a-a-a-a-a-a Please Don't Hurt Me....
Fortunately, that still leaves a hard corps cadre of gun owners unwilling to roll over and play dead. Many of these will be former military and many of those will be folks with either SpecOps experience or combat experience or both. Out of about 100 million gun owners, I'd say 10 million of the latter type should comprise a fairly formidable army. Command and Control might be a problem, but there are enough Special forces retirees to handle that. But the actions in New Orleans show the proof of what I say. I know a lot of folks who posture quite a bit and some are even freepers, who claim they'll never give up their guns...but strange things happen when your family is looking into the business ends of a platoon of M-4's. Little different going out in a blaze of glory when it's your wife, daughter, and pets facing the same fate.
I said Tuesday morning when he was in San Diego that he should have taken Marine one and toured the area, instead. Everyone told me I was nuts. I think he needs Karen Hughes back advising him.... she has the pulse on what is the right thing to do... more so than Andy Card; as you know they skewered him for not leaping to his feet on 9/11 and running out of the classroom... they will do the same with this.
"Why didn't people from Baton Rouge, and the northern parishes come to the rescue?"
In Lafayette LA, on the Wednesday after the storm, Nearly 400 boats were assembled in a shopping mall parking lot and left in a convoy to go and assist in the rescue only to be turned away when they arived. There ware many in LA that wanted to help.
Do you have a source about diversion of funds for strengthening the levees?
Money Flowed to Questionable Projects
State Leads in Army Corps Spending, but Millions Had Nothing to Do With Floods
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR2005090702462.html?sub=AR
NYTimes eh? Nuff said.
If Bush did send in troops to restore order, then I know for certain that the dims would be hollering even louder that he hates blacks, he shoots at the impoverished and downtrodden, and whatnot. Cindy Sheahan and her ilk would attempt to capitalize on the misery just as the rest of them have. It's sad, but all of this points to yet another reason why people had to suffer - media-dominated, vicious politics.
All those people in Congress banding together after 911, at least for a short time, meant so much to the country. No such luck this time; instead, every nitwit from Robert Kennedy to Pelosi to Dean has been crucifying Bush and his administration incessantly.
If blame can't be placed on the administration's execution because local execution was much worse, then attack the plans. Sheesh.
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