Douglas Barbour wrote:
> And don't even get me started on comparisons to Bush administration
> behavior from the moment, also in Crawford in August 2001, that the
> President and his advisors ignored the infamous CIA daily intelligence
> briefing on Osama bin Laden ("Bin Laden determined to attack inside
> the U.S."), delivered at a length and with a simplicity that even
> George Bush should have been able to absorb. Speaking of déjà vu all
> over again, his recent behavior re: Katrina echoed strangely his 9/11
> behavior. After all, on 9/11, he first sat paralyzed in a classroom in
> Florida, then boarded Air Force One and headed not for Washington but
> (gulp…) for Louisiana. It was an act of panic if not cowardice that
> was quickly covered over when he finally did make it to Washington and
> later New York City, talking tough and launching his war against Evil.
Tim Russert, hardly a spokesman for The Underground (velvet or
otherwise) was as close to insane as I've ever heard a journalist.
Nagin I can understand: his city was in ruins. Russert went on (of all
outlets) Don Imus' radio show. He mentioned that on 9/11/2001, part of
the tragedy was due to a complete communication/coordination breakdown
between and among the Fire Department, the cops, and the other rescue
units. Nobody knew where anyone was or who was doing what. Homeland
Security was supposed to prevent reoccurences of this mess.
Right.
In the days approaching Katrina's landfall, nobody seemed to be able to
coordinate. You could see that horrible thing massing offshore,
pointing right at the city. Yet there were no troops put on alert, no
rescue ships or land vehicles, and what was there had no way of talking
to the others. The Homeland Security coordinator, Chertoff, claimed he
wasn't told anything! I don't believe him yet I would not be surprised
if this were the truth. The USS Bataan, with several hundred beds and
six operating rooms, sat off the Gulf Coast and was never called into
service.
Russert's final question: "If New York, LA or Chicago, or a nuclear
power station or refinery were attacked by real terrorists today, would
we be ready? Would you want to trust your safety to this government?"
That's why the Bush administration defenders on "talk radio" think
Russert is the reincarnation of Ho Chi Minh. He will ask questions
nobody wants to hear because they can't answer them.
Ken
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Kenneth Wolman
Proposal Development Department
Room SW334
Sarnoff Corporation
609-734-2538
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