Department of Homeland Screw-Up

http://www.slate.com/id/2125494/nav/tap2/
What is the Bush administration doing?
By Tim Naftali
Posted Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005, at 4:22 PM PT

The Bush administration has been staggeringly ineffectual in its response to the rapidly deteriorating situation in New Orleans. Its failures are painful evidence of how far we have to go in developing the capability to respond rapidly to a mass-casualty disaster.

The president's statement this afternoon set the tone. Rather than direct the U.S. military to immediately assist the thousands of people without food or water in the city center, Bush assured the nation that expected gasoline shortages would be temporary and that his father and former President Clinton were ready to pass the tin can to ensure private-sector support for rebuilding New Orleans. As people began dying around the Convention Center, and Mayor Ray Nagin resorted to issuing a pathetic SOS over CNN, Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff spoke empathetically of the suffering of the people in New Orleans. But somehow he seemed proud that 72 hours after the hurricane hit, only 2,800 National Guardsmen had come to the city. The number is about to reach 12,000 by tomorrow. That is awfully late for the people stranded there. Yet Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who is commanding the military component of Washington's response, pleaded for patience from the people of New Orleans, promising that the U.S. Army was "building the capability" to help them.

Building the capability? How is it possible that with the fourth anniversary of 9/11 almost upon us, the federal government doesn't have in hand the capability to prepare for and then manage a large urban disaster, natural or man-made? In terms of the challenge to government, there is little difference between a terrorist attack that wounds many people and renders a significant portion of a city uninhabitable, and the fallout this week from the failure of one of New Orleans' major levees. Indeed, a terrorist could have chosen a levee for his target. Or a dirty-bomb attack in New Orleans could have caused the same sort of forced evacuation we are seeing and the widespread sickness that is likely to follow.

Chertoff's Department of Homeland Security demonstrated today that it could organize an impressive press conference in Washington, lining up every participating civilian or military service from the Coast Guard to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to promise its cooperation. But on the ground in Louisiana, where it counts, DHS is turning out to be the sum of its inefficient parts. The department looks like what its biggest critics predicted: a new level of bureaucracy grafted onto a collection of largely ineffectual under-agencies.

What has DHS been doing if not readying itself and its subcomponents for a likely disaster? The collapse of a New Orleans levee has long led a list of worst-case urban crisis scenarios. The dots had already been connected. Over the last century, New Orleans has sunk 3 feet deeper below sea level. With each inch, pressure grows along the levees. Meanwhile the loss of wetlands and the shrinking of the Gulf Coast's barrier islands have reduced the natural protection from hurricane winds. The weakness of the levees was underscored in a 2002 wide-ranging exploration of New Orleans' hurricane vulnerability by the New Orleans Times-Picayune, one of many grimly vindicated Cassandras. The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, which built the levees and continues to manage them, told the paper then that there was little threat of a levee's collapse. But the corps admitted that its estimates were 40 years old and that no one had bothered to update them.

The response to Katrina thus far indicates two flaws in the Bush administration's thinking about homeland security. The federal government hasn't learned how to plan for a tragedy that demands putting a city on sustained life-support, as opposed to a one-moment-in-time attack that requires recovering the dead and injured from debris and then quickly rebuilding. And DHS appears unwilling to plan for the early use of the U.S. military to cope with a civilian tragedy. Presidential administrations have perennially underestimated the difficulty of the latter task. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy's top aide, Kenneth O'Donnell, thought it would be easy to deploy troops rapidly to defend James Meredith when he was attacked by segregationists while trying to enroll as the University of Mississippi's first black student. "If the President of the United States calls up and says, 'Get your ass down there,' " O'Donnell said, "I would think they'd be on a fucking plane in about five minutes." Kennedy made that call. But then, in spite of O'Donnell's prediction, he watched in frustration as the army dithered for hours before deploying to Oxford, Miss.

The Kennedy administration thus learned that the army must be told in advance what to do. As a matter of law and preference, the military does little training for domestic missions. It balks and mutters about posse comitatus, the legal principle that prohibits the use of the army for law enforcement, and leaves the hard work for the National Guard and state and local authorities. This has made sense most of the time. But in an era when we are supposed to be better prepared for an urban disaster, the tradition of allowing local and state authorities to be overwhelmed before the federal government and military step in should have been rethought.

Located only three hours from New Orleans is Fort Polk, home of the 4th Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, a light infantry unit with about 3,000 soldiers. Also at Fort Polk is the Joint Readiness Training Center, which prepares military units to respond rapidly to crises abroad. The 4th Brigade has been training for duty in Afghanistan. Why was it also not ready to take on a local disaster scenario in hurricane season? Or at the least, once the National Hurricane Center predicted that the eye of Katrina would come close to New Orleans, couldn't DHS have deployed the military to help shore up the levees?

And in the event of a WMD attack, when there would likely be no warning at all, what is DHS's contingency plan for moving into position the army or the marines to restore order and sustain life? In the wake of Katrina and the breached levee, the answer seems to be not much of one. In the wake of 9/11, that is worse than incomprehensible. It is unforgivable.

it makes me sick when people make jokes about if its bushs fault.


no, he didnt conjure up a hurricane, but he sure as hell approved alot of aid cuts to pay for his war.



now in the wake of a huge disaster, the guard was away and theyre JUST landing-with no plan of what to do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nicholasstanko

it makes me sick when people make jokes about if its bushs fault.


no, he didnt conjure up a hurricane, but he sure as hell approved alot of aid cuts to pay for his war.



now in the wake of a huge disaster, the guard was away and theyre JUST landing-with no plan of what to do.

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They got a plan....
SHOOT TO KILL!!!

Goodbye, all you gang bangs,
There's nothing you can say
To make me change my mind.
Goodbye. :D

Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run,
Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run.
You better make your face up in
Your favorite disguise.
With your button down lips and your
Roller blind eyes.
With your empty smile
And your hungry heart.
Feel the bile rising from your guilty past.
With your nerves in tatters
When the cockleshell shatters
And the hammers batter
Down the door.
You'd better run.

Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run,
Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run.
You better run all day
And run all night.
Keep your dirty feelings
Deep inside.
And if you're taking your girlfriend
Out tonight
You'd better park the car
Well out of sight.
Cause if they catch you in the back seat
Trying to pick her locks,
They're gonna send you back to mother
In a cardboard box.
You better run.

there are plenty of national gaurd in Louisiana,only like 12% are serving overseas.

Just watched the news over lunch...they said the trucks, troops, and extra cops are rolling in the city right now! :D

YOU BETTER RUN!!!!!!!!!

I'm not saying that anybody will be able to do anything about it, but I sadly await the stories of people getting turned into Swiss cheese by Guardsmen while breaking into a food store to feed their families. I know the gangsters will wind up having done the bulk of the killing of innocents, but I feel really bad for the Guardsmen who have to sort out this terrible situation. I'm not blaming the troops because it is those shitbags who are shooting at innocent refugees who made N'awlins into a warzone in the first place.

God, this is a bad situation. I really hope the relief starts to pick up. I'm really glad the president decided that the relief efforts thus far have been inadequate.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sgt. Pepper

I'm not saying that anybody will be able to do anything about it, but I sadly await the stories of people getting turned into Swiss cheese by Guardsmen while breaking into a food store to feed their families. I know the gangsters will wind up having done the bulk of the killing of innocents, but I feel really bad for the Guardsmen who have to sort out this terrible situation. I'm not blaming the troops because it is those shitbags who are shooting at innocent refugees who made N'awlins into a warzone in the first place.

God, this is a bad situation. I really hope the relief starts to pick up. I'm really glad the president decided that the relief efforts thus far have been inadequate.

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which is exactly why he refused water filtration machines from france and assistance from the u.k. as well.


he's too proud to save innocent lives. grandstanding is key.



way to go, mr. president

yeah, notice how the feds aren't encouraging water filtration systems...there are sport bottles that will clean the dirtiest nastiest water...

the government wants people dependent on them...they socialize the wealth in the country, and transfer it to the elite, with fake monopoly capitalism, which is a fraud, while demonizing free market capitalsm (not heavily government controlled and regulated business like we have today...)and then they phase out the programs because they claim to have less and less money...

it's almost as if they want us to be deindustrialized and drop down to 2nd world status...which it was the federal reserve is basically designed to do...in part.

but the neo-cons (and liberals or the fake left and anyone other establishment figurehead) don't want real self sufficiency...they want to be seen as the heroes, to let things get as bad as possible, then keep offering solutions after you've fucked things up on purpose.

they just need more funding and power to do it...they truly truly care about me and my future, i sure know that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pisshead

yeah, notice how the feds aren't encouraging water filtration systems...there are sport bottles that will clean the dirtiest nastiest water...

the government wants people dependent on them...they socialize the wealth in the country, and transfer it to the elite, with fake monopoly capitalism, which is a fraud, while demonizing free market capitalsm (not heavily government controlled and regulated business like we have today...)and then they phase out the programs because they claim to have less and less money...

it's almost as if they want us to be deindustrialized and drop down to 2nd world status...which it was the federal reserve is basically designed to do...in part.

but the neo-cons (and liberals or the fake left and anyone other establishment figurehead) don't want real self sufficiency...they want to be seen as the heroes, to let things get as bad as possible, then keep offering solutions after you've fucked things up on purpose.

they just need more funding and power to do it...they truly truly care about me and my future, i sure know that.

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Wow!!! Just got stoned and read this. Ya know, you would have a great charactor for a TV sitcom show. You could be like some Kramer dude going around putting down the government....it would be GREAT!!! Not trying to be an ass, it was like a vision! :D
This is some goooood shit! Hey Nick!!! :D Hope ya got as lucky!!! :D

good god, anything in this country happens..you libbies blame it on bush. Why not blame it on the throngs of blacks who are raping/looting stores (and im not talking about food either). Or how bout blame it on the people that IGNORE a mandatory evacuation order.

Only 12% of the Louisiana National Guard are oversees? What have the other 88% been doing for the last 4 days, sucking each others dicks? So much for don't ask don't tell.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tholiak

good god, anything in this country happens..you libbies blame it on bush. Why not blame it on the throngs of blacks who are raping/looting stores (and im not talking about food either). Or how bout blame it on the people that IGNORE a mandatory evacuation order.

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You ignorant piece of shit - that's right, I said it.

The "buck stops" at the White House. The Dep't of Homeland Security, those charged with controlling situations such as these, is under his direct control. FEMA, the group that is supposed to be ever-prepared for ANY emergency scenario, is under the Dep't of Homeland Security under his control. His budget slashed millions that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been begging for for years to fix and reinforce the levee system.

Who the fuck else can you blame?

And another thing, you waste of oxygen, no one merely "ignored" orders to evacuate. Those who could, did. Those who couldn't, who happen to be black and aren't even afforded a pot to piss in - most likely because of many "people" like you, did exactly what they were told and went to the Superdome and the Convention Center only to be left stranded and nearly completely forgotten for nearly a week!

Honestly, take your ignorant vitriol and shove it up your ass. Your mindset disgusts me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bhallg2k

You ignorant piece of shit - that's right, I said it.

The "buck stops" at the White House. The Dep't of Homeland Security, those charged with controlling situations such as these, is under his direct control. FEMA, the group that is supposed to be ever-prepared for ANY emergency scenario, is under the Dep't of Homeland Security under his control. His budget slashed millions that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been begging for for years to fix and reinforce the levee system.

Who the fuck else can you blame?

And another thing, you waste of oxygen, no one merely "ignored" orders to evacuate. Those who could, did. Those who couldn't, who happen to be black and aren't even afforded a pot to piss in - most likely because of many "people" like you, did exactly what they were told and went to the Superdome and the Convention Center only to be left stranded and nearly completely forgotten for nearly a week!

Honestly, take your ignorant vitriol and shove it up your ass. Your mindset disgusts me.

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that was a superb post, man.


oh, and dont worry about tholiak. he mentions something about black people every post possible. he's obviously doing it to get a rise out of people or else he wouldve been posting on a supremist website (unless he does both).


but anyway, leave him be. if you get sick enough of it, just hit your ignore button and he wont even know why noones replying to him anymore.

You're right about that. I shouldn't have posted a word, especially after seeing his pattern of racist remarks.

I just get mad though. I mean, damn. It seems the racists are really coming out of the woodwork for this.

so even if it wasn't bush's fualt (which it is) the system is fucking incompetent i thought we were capitilists or something that din't encourage incompetence oh oh oh and do you remember before this disaster that gas was already 2.69 oh oh oh and there was some people critising the president on the war in irauq anyone remember this the media is fucking retarded for some reason.....

After all the talk about being prepared for the next 9-11, and all the money spend, when it came the responce was worse than any rational person would have thought possible. But that's the thing about these guys, the buck doesn't stop anywhere.

dude when you build a costal city below sea level surrounded by a river and a big fucking lake...bad things are going to happen...it just amazes me that this hasnt happened sooner. as much as i hate bush, he couldnt of prevented this. this state was too busy promoting mardi gras rather than worrying about fixing their ghetto levees. murphys law buddy.

Like I said, they're coming out of the woodwork.

Wolf Blitzer: "You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals, as Jack Cafferty just pointed out, so tragically, so many of these people, almost all of them that we see, are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold."

I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, but I am.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bhallg2k

You're right about that. I shouldn't have posted a word, especially after seeing his pattern of racist remarks.

I just get mad though. I mean, damn. It seems the racists are really coming out of the woodwork for this.

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jesse jackson is the #1 person making this NATURAL DISASTER a race issue.that man is a fucking disgrace.so glad he made it back from his rub and tug with hugo chavez.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bhallg2k

You ignorant piece of shit - that's right, I said it.

The "buck stops" at the White House. The Dep't of Homeland Security, those charged with controlling situations such as these, is under his direct control. FEMA, the group that is supposed to be ever-prepared for ANY emergency scenario, is under the Dep't of Homeland Security under his control. His budget slashed millions that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been begging for for years to fix and reinforce the levee system.

Who the fuck else can you blame?

And another thing, you waste of oxygen, no one merely "ignored" orders to evacuate. Those who could, did. Those who couldn't, who happen to be black and aren't even afforded a pot to piss in - most likely because of many "people" like you, did exactly what they were told and went to the Superdome and the Convention Center only to be left stranded and nearly completely forgotten for nearly a week!

Honestly, take your ignorant vitriol and shove it up your ass. Your mindset disgusts me.

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O.K...O.K......Let me try this......
bhallg2k, in order to have a piece of shit like you your momma must have took one up the ass by a bulldog! Hows, that?? :D

BWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! :D

"no one merely "ignored" orders to evacuate"??? Do you ever watch the news? Read a paper?? Maybe you didn't hear about it but people were having hurricane paties on Burbon street. When the storm was moving in they had interviews with people stating that the storm would calm down to a three by the time it hit shore so party on!! I saw a couple they interviewed on tv, their provisions were two 24 packs of Bud, a bag of oreo cookies and two bottled waters. HMMMMMMM....they were taking it real serious! :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WalkaWalka

so even if it wasn't bush's fualt (which it is) the system is fucking incompetent i thought we were capitilists or something that din't encourage incompetence oh oh oh and do you remember before this disaster that gas was already 2.69 oh oh oh and there was some people critising the president on the war in irauq anyone remember this the media is fucking retarded for some reason.....

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heres a genius!!

obviously this guy hasnt got a clue.too funny.

You fucking right-wingers make me sick.


When will you guys stop sucking bushs dick?




noone blames bush for the hurricane.


PEOPLE BLAME BUSH BECAUSE HE CUT FUNDING TO BUILD BETTER LEVEES.


because he sat on vacation even after it hit...FOR TWO DAYS.



he's done more press conferences and photo ops. now than hes ever done in the last three fucking years instead of actually doing something.




honestly, people hold onto this "cant be avoided due to natural disaster" bullshit just so they can protect their fearless leader who doesnt give a fuck about the people of NO and quite frankly doesnt give a fuck about them either.