Virginia Metze Reading List WEEKEND ALERT! Mercenaries in New Orleans

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" Virginia Metze " <vmetze

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 22:32:02 -0500

Reading List WEEKEND ALERT! Mercenaries in New Orleans

 

 

 

 

 

Some really important news involving New Orleans is making the rounds,

and I have received URLs and copies of the articles and I think I

should send the stories around to all of you. This news is so awful I

can't believe I am in America. I knew that the mercenaries were being

brought in, but didn't fully realize how terribly they are treating

American citizens who are suffering.

 

Armed mercenaries in AMERICA? Not in my America! You would think we

had been conquered by some foreign power but it is our own government

that is trashing the constitution and making these dreadful power

plays. How can they (NeoCons) possibly hate this country so much?

 

Thank you so much for making sure I knew about these articles. I

really appreciate it!

 

Sounds like some people should be arrested for murder...

Overkill: Feared Blackwater Mercenaries Deploy in New Orleans

by Jeremy Scahill and Daniela Crespo

Democracy Now

Reprinted at Common Dreams and Truthout

 

NEW ORLEANS -- Heavily armed paramilitary mercenaries from the

Blackwater private security firm, infamous for their work in Iraq, are

openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans. Some of the mercenaries

say they have been " deputized " by the Louisiana governor; indeed some

are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges on their

chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their arms. They

say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and

have been given the authority to use lethal force. Several mercenaries

we spoke with said they had served in Iraq on the personal security

details of the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer and

the former US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte.

 

" This is a totally new thing to have guys like us working CONUS

(Continental United States), " a heavily armed Blackwater mercenary

told us as we stood on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. " We're

much better equipped to deal with the situation in Iraq. "

 

Blackwater mercenaries are some of the most feared professional

killers in the world and they are accustomed to operating without

worry of legal consequences. Their presence on the streets of New

Orleans should be a cause for serious concern for the remaining

residents of the city and raises alarming questions about why the

government would allow men trained to kill with impunity in places

like Iraq and Afghanistan to operate here. Some of the men now

patrolling the streets of New Orleans returned from Iraq as recently

as 2 weeks ago. [...] Read the rest at Democracy Now:

http://www.democracynow.org/static/Overkill.shtml or

http://tinyurl.com/ba8av

 

or Common Dreams News center:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0910-07.htm or

http://tinyurl.com/8ezak

 

or TruthOut: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091005A.shtml or

http://tinyurl.com/7sv9r

 

St. Bernard residents told to leave, or else

By MARLON MANUEL

Cox News Service

Thursday, September 08, 2005

 

ST. BERNARD PARISH, La. — " All Our Visitors Bring Happiness, " reads

the wrought iron sign on the front column of Albert Cousin's

102-year-old Victorian house.

Not Wednesday.

 

Sheriff's deputies in body armor and holding rifles came to try to

force Cousin and other residents of St. Bernard Parish to get out of town.

 

For the past few days, residents have found comfort in food and water

brought by units of the Georgia National Guard, who arrived Labor Day

weekend. The roughly 160 members of the 190th MP Company from Kennesaw

and the 178th MP Company from Monroe have passed out rations. Some of

them ran a checkpoint and provided security at a barracks for their

colleagues Wednesday as others transported Navy SEAL teams aiding

rescue efforts.

 

Such efforts were necessary in low-lying coastal St. Bernard, hit hard

by the storm and now suffering pollution from refinery products,

sewage and bodies. Survivors were still being found Wednesday, and

recovery officials are encountering grim scenes: Thirty people died at

a flooded nursing home in St. Bernard, and state Rep. Nita Hutter said

the staff had left the elderly residents behind in their beds. [...]

Read the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/dna3l

 

M U S T R E A D ! ! !

 

from Newsweek:

How Bush Blew It

 

Bureaucratic timidity. Bad phone lines. And a failure of imagination.

Why the government was so slow to respond to catastrophe.

 

By Evan Thomas

Newsweek

 

Sept. 19, 2005 issue - It's a standing joke among the president's top

aides: who gets to deliver the bad news? Warm and hearty in public,

Bush can be cold and snappish in private, and aides sometimes cringe

before the displeasure of the president of the United States, or, as

he is known in West Wing jargon, POTUS. The bad news on this early

morning, Tuesday, Aug. 30, some 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina had

ripped through New Orleans, was that the president would have to cut

short his five-week vacation by a couple of days and return to

Washington. The president's chief of staff, Andrew Card; his deputy

chief of staff, Joe Hagin; his counselor, Dan Bartlett, and his

spokesman, Scott McClellan, held a conference call to discuss the

question of the president's early return and the delicate task of

telling him. Hagin, it was decided, as senior aide on the ground,

would do the deed.

 

The president did not growl this time. He had already decided to

return to Washington and hold a meeting of his top advisers on the

following day, Wednesday. This would give them a day to get back from

their vacations and their staffs to work up some ideas about what to

do in the aftermath of the storm. President Bush knew the storm and

its consequences had been bad; but he didn't quite realize how bad.

 

The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because

it might displease the president, did not really sink in until

Thursday night. Some White House staffers were watching the evening

news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports

coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the

newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to

the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.

 

How this could be—how the president of the United States could have

even less " situational awareness, " as they say in the military, than

the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century—is

one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that,

despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a

national disgrace. [...] Read the rest at

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/

 

EMSNETWORK (EMS is apparently Emergency Medical Service) has lots of

stories about the hurricane victims in New Orleans. See

http://www.emsnetwork.org/artman/publish/katrina.shtml#18453 or

http://tinyurl.com/btjgr

 

I don't usually post entire Internet posts or articles. However, this

contains much valuable information for those who are trying to end the

disgraceful situation in New Orleans. It was sent out by one of the

most trustworthy activists.

 

FEMA's Blocking Relief Efforts - An Amazing List

 

If anyone has anymore, please add them on and let's figure out what to

do with them.

 

9-8-5 FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/84aa35cc-1da8-11da-b40b-00000e

<http://news.ft.com/cms/s/84aa35cc-1da8-11da-b40b-00000e> ..

 

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/5/105538/7048

<http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/5/105538/7048>

 

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec> ..

 

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec> ..

 

FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm

<http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm>

 

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15147862 & BRD=

<http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15147862 & BRD=> ...

 

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/171718/0826

<http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/171718/0826>

 

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509

<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509> ..

 

FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050902dale

<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050902dale> .

 

FEMA turns away generators

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

<http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html>

 

FEMA: " First Responders Urged Not To Respond "

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470

<http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470>

That last one is real -- not satire but straight from FEMA's website.

 

What do our potential enemies think of the way our government

responded to an emergency? I would think it would be important for us

to at least LOOK competent. We neither were, nor looked like we were.

 

New Orleans has become Baghdad, says `People's Daily'

Friday, September 09, 2005

The Manila Times

 

BEIJING: China's most important state-run newspaper has accused US

President George W. Bush and his administration of " negligence of

duty " in its response to the disaster wreaked by Hurricane Katrina.

 

The People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, said

there was no excuse for Bush's slow reaction to the unfolding tragedy.

 

" For the Bush administration, `unexpected' perhaps can be a lame

excuse, but it can never explain away the government negligence of

duty, " it said in an opinion piece carried on its English language

website Thursday. [...] Read the rest at:

http://tinyurl.com/9u2aj

 

There will never be a charge for this reading list and I won't ask for

contributions.

 

It may be freely distributed as long as it is sent out in its entirety

with this statement attached and no charge is made. Of course you are

free to use the URLs in your own posts, etc.

 

© Virginia Metze

 

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