A Mountain of Documents on Hurricane Response, but Democrats Seek More

[cal04]

A Mountain of Documents on Hurricane Response, but Democrats Seek More
In their four months of digging, House and Senate investigators have collected hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and testimony from governors, mayors, Homeland Security and Pentagon officials and dozens of others touched by Hurricane Katrina.

To the Republican leaders of the two committees, the mountains of still-accumulating evidence are sufficient to answer questions about why the government did not do more to prevent a well-predicted disaster scenario from turning into a catastrophe. Democrats say crucial holes still remain, particularly related to what senior White House aides and the president knew, and how they reacted to this knowledge, right before the storm and after it.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and other Democrats on the investigative committees say they are not looking for a smoking-gun document implicating the White House. Instead, they say, they are trying to resolve contradictions and questions that have come up. "What do they have to hide?" Representative Gene Taylor, Democrat of Mississippi, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. "Why don't they just come forward and say, 'This is what we knew, when we knew, and this is how we reacted?' "

The White House said on Tuesday that it would deny requests for e-mail and other correspondence among top White House aides, including the chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr. and the homeland security adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend. In September, speaking in New Orleans, President Bush vowed to "work with members of both parties to make sure this effort is thorough," and his aides say he has done that. "There are some 120 administration officials that have been made available to the committees for interviews or for hearings," Scott McClellan, Mr. Bush's press secretary, said Wednesday, adding that 15,000 pages of White House documents were provided. "We believe they're getting the information they need to do their job."

more
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/national/nationalspecial/26documents.html

[Kagemusha]

1. And their job would be what exactly...?

Finding out what happened, or covering up what happened...?

[Coastie for Truth]

2. I am a Red Cross VOLUNTEER, a Coast Guard veteran, and

a Ham Radio operator ---- and I was standing by to help in relocation.

Based on what I saw and heard - as a fly on the wall - there's a heck of a lot FEMA and DHS and the White House is covering up. And a heck of a lot of blame being shifted onto others.

I would start with--

1. Stealing the States' National Guard forces.
2. Keeping the Red Cross out (and FEMA kept us out - we wanted in)
3. Total lack of preparedness.
4. Relocation based on political/electoral (gerrymandering) considerations.