US (Warner - R) senator urges Pentagon to review disaster role

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http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-09-15T002015Z_01_N14684324_RTRIDST_0_KATRINA-MILITARY.XML

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The head of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday urged the Pentagon to review laws that limit the use of U.S. troops to restore order after a disasters like Hurricane Katrina or a terror attack.

"The only entity in the United States that has the personnel, the equipment, the training and the logistical capacity to lend support to the National Guard and other state entities in an emergency of this scale is the Department of Defense," Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner told Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a letter released by his office.

He said the hurricane was followed by looting and disorder, partly because state and local authorities were unable to cope with the crisis, which he described as the "greatest natural disaster to hit the United States in a century."

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Warner, a former Navy secretary who has repeatedly raised this issue since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, said he did not fault local and state officials because they were confronting a nearly unprecedented crisis.

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