OT: Chertoff, White House F**ked Up
- From: timepixdc <timepixdc@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 12:30:02 -0600
Katrina Report Spreads Blame
By Spencer S. Hsu
(Washington Post)
Hurricane Katrina exposed the U.S. government's failure to learn the
lessons of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as leaders from
President Bush down disregarded ample warnings of the threat to New
Orleans and did not execute emergency plans or share information that
would have saved lives, according to a blistering report by House
investigators.
A draft of the report, to be released publicly Wednesday, includes 90
findings of failures at all levels of government, according to a senior
investigation staffer who requested anonymity because the document is
not final. Titled "A Failure of Initiative," it is one of three separate
reviews by the House, Senate and White House that will in coming weeks
dissect the response to the nation's costliest natural disaster.
The 600-plus-page report lays primary fault with the passive reaction
and misjudgments of top Bush aides, singling out Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Operations Center and
the White House Homeland Security Council, according to a 60-page
summary of the document obtained by The Washington Post. Regarding Bush,
the report found that "earlier presidential involvement could have
speeded the response" because he alone could have cut through all
bureaucratic resistance.
The report, produced by an 11-member House select committee of
Republicans chaired by Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), proposes few
specific changes. But it is an unusual compendium of criticism by the
House GOP, which generally has not been aggressive in its oversight of
the administration.
The report portrays Chertoff, who took the helm of the department six
months before the storm, as detached from events. It contends he
switched on the government's emergency response systems "late,
ineffectively or not at all," delaying the flow of federal troops and
materiel by as much as three days.
The White House did not fully engage the president or "substantiate,
analyze and act on the information at its disposal," failing to confirm
the collapse of New Orleans's levee system on Aug. 29, the day of
Katrina's landfall, which led to catastrophic flooding of the city of
500,000 people.
On the ground, Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael D.
Brown, who has since resigned, FEMA field commanders and the U.S.
military's commanding general set up rival chains of command. The Coast
Guard, which alone rescued nearly half of 75,000 people stranded in New
Orleans, flew nine helicopters and two airplanes over the city that
first day, but eyewitness reconnaissance did not reach official
Washington before midnight.
At the same time, weaknesses identified by Sept. 11 investigators --
poor communications among first responders, a shortage of qualified
emergency personnel and lack of training and funding -- doomed a
response confronted by overwhelming demands for help.
"If 9/11 was a failure of imagination then Katrina was a failure of
initiative. It was a failure of leadership," the report's preface
states. "In this instance, blinding lack of situational awareness and
disjointed decision making needlessly compounded and prolonged Katrina's
horror."
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