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......."
Yeah, that would have played out real well.
He almost stepped into the Dem trap!
Yes! don't save the Black people! We need them for race baiting
wow..he would have been called Hitler and worse!
Its Bush's fault...because he didn't seize control from Governor Blank=0....yep....what is he supposed to do? the gov. is completely incompetent.
They needed to do that on Tuesday
How about congress they just gave 52 billion to line the pockets of the people who brought us the NOLA disaster.
Well, she still is over her head and out of control IMHO.
Might be one of the "two options" Nagin said Bush gave Blanco.
He should have if he thought it would make a real difference.
Not a good idea to take over a State in the South.
Basically, he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.
this confirms what I think would be obvious - that the WH HAD to consider this option given the complete lack of control of the city. You have to wonder if they didn't do it for political, versus practical, reasons.
The governor is wackaloon....in the worst way.
I wonder if he has any real sources for this or if he is simply listening to Wash Post editorial room gossip???
I find it ironic that Dem whackos constanty refer to Bush as a fascist dictator, when his cautiousness about usurping an incompetent state government controlled by the opposition party is what is causing him so much grief.
wow...
again the Bush White House avoids stepping in it completely...
Blanco is lucky she has the MSM.
If he had done it there would have been a public relations nightmare... now, that it's coming out he considered it, "maybe" people will wake up???
I wish he had done it...It would have taken the wind out of the dems sails. Plus maybe some lives may have been saved.
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