SHADES OF 9/11 ALLLLLL OVER AGAIN

[Guest guest]

Michael Chertoff spent umpteen hours preparing a 520

page report to tell Americans that the Katrina

Massacre was " A Failure of Initiative. "

 

A " Failure of Initiative " occurs when a high school's

star quarterback goes out and gets wasted the night

before the big Homecoming Football Game. I refuse to

believe that any American with even half an ounce of

common sense believes that a mere " Failure of

Initiative " is what went down with Katrina.

 

Our government fully KNEW that a big storm was coming.

They fully KNEW that the levees were going to fail

(or, as many claim, would be purposely " helped " to

fail). There was no " failure " whatsoever to prepare

for such an event. Our federal disaster agencies and

our military both knew PRECISELY how to help save

these people from imminent death, and they PURPOSELY

made the conscious and deliberate choice of inactivity

in " NOT recognizing Katrina's likely consequences! "

 

This is shades of the 9/11 Commission and their

complicit partners in crime, the vast majority of

Congress, all over again. Remember Condi Rice's lies

when she claimed with feigned sincerity, Oh how ever

could we have known that " hijackers " would use planes

and smash them into buildings? Well, my friends,

listen up. This is the same toxic garbage they are

now trying to feed us with Katrina.

 

Governmental claims of mock ignorance and ineptitude

along the lines of " Oh, we just clearly were not

prepared for such a storm and failed to take the

required 'initiative' to act " are just not going to

" cut it " this time.

 

Yeah, they sure fooled us (well, some of us) with

9/11. But the second time around? Unfortunately for

the malevolent in power, we are not so stupid nor

naive as to be fooled yet again. Dirty deeds can only

go on for so long before, as they say, " the gig is

up. "

 

And AP article states this morning that an

" independent commission " is going to be appointed to

investigate the " failure of initiative, " just like the

9/11 Commission was investigated. Well, anyone who

has studied the makeup of the 9/11 Commission Panel is

fully aware that this administration could not

possibly have hand-picked more partisan members with

closer inside ties to political leaders, including

Presidents (not to mention the placement of at least

one panel member, Richard Ben-Veniste, with reported

links to organized crime).

 

Most frightening of all to contemplate is that there

is indeed the possibility that Congress may very well

be allowed to get away with the genocidal " failure of

initiative " that was Katrina. Shades of 9/11 deju vu,

all over again, huh? Just like they were allowed to

get away with committing Mass Murder of nearly 3,000

citizens on 9/11, true justice for Katrina's dead may

never take place.

 

Justice may never take place for Katrina's victims,

that is, only *if* we allow them to get away with it.

We are clearly the majority here. And if we, outraged

citizens, organize and mobilize and put an end to the

full governmental participation in their schemes of

ethnic cleansing and gentrification (for the purposes

of profit-making " reconstruction " )? Then - and only

then - can we begin to hold those parties within our

government accountable and responsible for the Katrina

murders.

 

I do not consider the demise of still-to-be-accurately

counted persons associated with the Katrina storm and

levee breaches to be considered mere deaths. Instead,

I call the New Orleans storm a Mass Murder because our

government fully knew, with plenty of advance notice,

that many people were going to die. And many are

saying that it was no accident that they did precious

little to prevent those deaths - predominently lower

income persons of color- from occurring.

 

It is incumbent upon each one of us at this point, I

believe, to look into our hearts and consciences and

ask ourselves if we are going to let our government

get away with the murder of our fellow citizens yet

again?

 

It is now time to gather together and build a MOVEMENT

that will not allow the unconscionable Mass Murders of

Katrina and 9/11 to be white-washed over and

forgotten. On behalf of our neighbors and fellow

citizens in the New Orleans community and surrounding

areas, we simply must not allow another 9/11 Inside

Job-style Cover-Up to be allowed to take place again.

 

In closing, we must also contemplate one more thing.

If they got away with 9/11 (and they did) and we now

allow them to get away with Katrina, as well? We only

have to look on any US map and hazard a guess as to

which city will be targeted for the next " disaster "

(be it termed by Scott McClellan and his controlled

media puppets as " natural " or not).

 

This is why it is absolutely crucial that a strong and

powerful citizen's group be formed immediately to

boldly lobby Congress and demand that a complete and

thorough investigation into Katrina take place. This

group must see to it that a repeat performance of the

9/11 Cover-Up Commission is not allowed to happen yet

again.

 

If anyone is aware of such a citizen's effort already

in process? Please write to me off-list ~ thanks.

 

Permission granted to forward and publish widely.

 

Cathy Garger

Maryland

savorsuccesslady

 

 

 

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour,

11 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The deaths and suffering of thousands of

Hurricane Katrina's victims might have been avoided if

the government had heeded lessons from the 2001 terror

attacks and taken a proactive stance toward disaster

preparedness, a House inquiry concludes.

 

But from President Bush on down to local officials

there was largely a reactive posture to the

catastrophic Aug. 29 storm — even when faced with

early warnings about its deadly potential.

 

A 520-page report, titled " A Failure of Initiative, "

was being released Wednesday as Michael Chertoff

testifies before a Senate committee conducting a

separate investigation of the government's Katrina

response.

 

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report

Tuesday night.

" The preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina

should disturb all Americans, " said the report,

written by a Republican-dominated special House

committee chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.

 

" Passivity did the most damage, " it said. " The failure

of initiative cost lives, prolonged suffering, and

left all Americans justifiably concerned our

government is no better prepared to protect its people

than it was before 9/11, even if we are. "

 

The hard-hitting findings allocated blame to state and

local authorities and concluded that the federal

government's single largest failure was in not

recognizing Katrina's likely consequences as it

approached. That could have prompted a mobilization of

federal assets for a post-storm evacuation of a

flooded New Orleans, the report said, meaning aid

" would have arrived several days earlier. "

 

It also found that Bush could have speeded the

response by becoming involved in the crisis earlier

and says he was not receiving guidance from a disaster

specialist who would have understood the scope of the

storm's destruction.

 

" Earlier presidential involvement might have resulted

in a more effective response, " the inquiry concluded.

 

White House spokesman Allen Abney declined to comment

Tuesday night. On Monday, White House homeland

security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend said Bush was

" fully involved " in Washington's preparations and

response to Katrina.

The inquiry into one of the nation's worst natural

disasters looked at everything from the evacuation to

the military's role to planning for emergency supplies

and in each category found much to criticize. The

House study is the first to be completed in a series

of inquiries by Congress and the Bush administration

into the massive failures exposed by Katrina.

 

Katrina left more than 1,300 people dead in Louisiana,

Mississippi and Alabama, hundreds of thousands

homeless and tens of billions of dollars worth of

damage. Bush has accepted responsibility for the

federal government's shortfalls, but the storm

response continues to generate finger-pointing.

 

House Democrats who participated in the inquiry could

not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday night.

But in a 59-page response released last Sunday, Reps.

Charlie Melancon and William Jefferson of Louisiana

said that while they largely agreed with its

conclusions, the report falls short of holding " anyone

accountable for these failures. "

 

Despite its accomplishments, the committee " adopted an

approach that largely eschews direct accountability, "

Melancon and Jefferson said in their assessment.

The report finds fault with Chertoff for failing to

activate a national plan to trigger fast relief, and

with Homeland Security for overseeing a bare-bones and

inexperienced emergency response staff. It found that

the military played an invaluable role in the response

but lacked coordination with Homeland Security and

other relief agencies.

Moreover, federal agencies were unclear about their

responsibilities under a national response plan issued

a year ago. And lessons learned from Hurricane Pam — a

fictional storm designed to test Gulf Coast

preparedness — went unheeded.

 

Describing similar delays, the report concludes that

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor

Ray Nagin waited until too late to order a mandatory

evacuation of the city. Despite warnings of Katrina's

potential destruction 56 hours ahead of landfall, the

evacuation order came only 19 hours before Katrina

hit.

Charitable organizations such as the American Red

Cross were described as overwhelmed by the sheer size

of demands, leading to water, food and other supply

shortages and disorganized sheltering processes.

 

The House panel spent five months investigating the

failures. It interviewed scores of federal, state and

local authorities, sorted through more than 500,000

pages of e-mails, memos and other documents and held

nine public hearings spotlighting sometimes feeble

explanations by officials.

 

Though some Democrats — mostly representing Gulf Coast

districts — participated in the House inquiry, their

party leaders boycotted it, holding out for an

independent commission similar to the one that

investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

___

Associated Press writers Douglass K. Daniel and Hope

Yen contributed to this report.

 

http://news./s/ap/katrina_washington;_ylt=AtNspJJ2rzKBYqEFyYVn3F.s0NUE;\

_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--