Water, Logged Document by document, inquiry skewers Bush's Katrina coverup

[dajoki]

Water, Logged
Document by document, inquiry skewers Bush's Katrina cover-up

by James Ridgeway
February 10th, 2006 6:18 PM


WASHINGTON, D.C.—In strokes large and small, the congressional inquiry into the government’s handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster is beginning to paint just the kind of picture of incompetence and neglect that the Bush administration hoped the public would never see. On Friday, former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown sounded like a Ninth Ward resident stuck on a rooftop when he complained to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, “I feel somewhat abandoned.”
It now turns out that the federal chain of command knew—or should have known—that flood-control measures in New Orleans failed on the day Katrina made landfall. A FEMA official toured the area on the afternoon of Monday, August 29, hours after the storm hit, and saw that the levees had been breached and severe flooding had begun. Documents turned up by the congressional investigation show that both FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security got a report of this official’s observations at 9:27 that night. The White House had the word by at least midnight, it’s now clear, instead of having been surprised by the news—as it had claimed—on the morning of August 30.

Still, the real story here is not so much who knew what when, but why the White House, led by Karl Rove and with President Bush as the principal player, needed a cover-up at all.

Consider this timeline of August 29, compiled from online records at the Center for American Progress’s Think Progress, the Center for Cooperative Research:http://www.cooperativeresearch.org Talking Points Memo:http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/katrina-timeline.php
andDkosopedia.com:http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Hurricane_Katrina_Chronology

August 29, 6:10 a.m. Katrina makes landfall.

Sometime before 8 a.m. The storm surge sends water over the banks of the Industrial Canal; the Army Corps of Engineers reports that “a barge broke loose and crashed through the floodwall, opening a breach that accelerated flooding into the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish.”

8 a.m. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin appears on the Today show and says, “I’ve gotten reports this morning that there is already water coming over some of the levee systems. In the Lower Ninth Ward, we’ve had one of our pumping stations to stop operating, so we will have significant flooding. It is just a matter of how much.”

By 9 a.m. The Times Picayune reports that floodwaters in the Lakeview district have risen above porch steps. Around the same time, the 17th Street levee and the London Avenue canal are discovered breached. St. Bernard Parish reports widespread flooding. Parish council chair Joey DiFatta says, “Water is inundating everywhere. We have buildings and roofs collapsing.”

That morning, Bush tells reporters he has spoken to Homeland Security secretary Mike Chertoff. “So I called him. I said, ‘Are you working with the governor?’ He said, ‘You bet we are.’ ”

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By afternoon, the federal response became one grand photo op.
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[chalky]

1. kicking.

n/t

[texpatriot2004]

2. GOP Culture of Corruption and the Cover-up Congress nm

[dajoki]

4. Dems must show some spine...

but,except for a few, i'm still waiting.

[dajoki]

3. don't they realize...

that we know their schemes already?