Is That Legal?

". . . why they thought a terrorist attack was a likelier follow-up to a New Orleans hurricane than a breached levee."

Eric, should this sentence end with something like, "especially given the numerous studies, including the 5-part Times-Picayune piece, the National Geographic story, to name two, that described a breached levee followed by deadly flooding as the most likely post-hurricance disaster scenario for New Orleans."

Moreover, why would DHS and the Administration expect terrorism to be a logical post-script to a a deadly hurricane hitting the Delta? Are they saying there's already a terrorist cell in New Orleans but they didn't tell anyone (or was)? Or was their theory that, with New Orleans flooded, a terrorist cell would penetrate the city . . . wearing waiters . . . and then cut off communications by, hmmmm, doing nothing because all communication was already cut-off?

Or, given the premise of Purple Cresent II ("The physical attack winds up flooding New Orleans"), was this group of adminstration experts thinking that -- with the city flooded, like it is now -- it would nonetheless continue to function robustly, making a computer/communications attack a serious threat?

I'll be the first to say, I'm not nearly as smart as Chertoff (Harvard/Harvard). Or Rumsfeld (Princeton). Or Condi (Stanford Prof).

But under any of the foregoing scenarios I posit, I feel secure in saying, these people are not in touch with the same reality I live in . . . as evidenced by New Orleans today.

The fact is, the federal government KNEW that there was a serious threat to the levee system from hurricanes:

"Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the Corps commander, conceded Friday that the government had known the New Orleans levees could never withstand a hurricane higher than a Category 3. Corps officials shuddered, he said, when they realized that Katrina was barreling down on the Gulf Coast with the vastly greater destructive force of a Category 5 — the strongest type of hurricane.

Washington, he said, had rolled the dice."

Another source states that it was well-known that the levee walls in some places were two feet shorter (and therefore thinner) than would be required in a category three hurricane!

I am holding this administration responsible for the deaths of everyone who would be alive today BUT FOR reasonable and prudent precautions not taken, reasonable and prudent warnings not given, and reasonable, prudent, and timely humanitarian aid not provided.

By the causation language you can bet I believe these reckless inactions constitute criminal and prosecutable offenses.

The terrorism part makes a great deal of sense to me.

On Wednesday, my wife was on her way to Norfolk, Va (key naval base is located there) to take my baby son to the dentist and ran into a major roadblock on the way. This was not a run-of-the-mill sobriety checkpoint (this was at noon on a weekday). She said the law enforcement officers asked many rather intrusive questions, probably because they saw the handicapped tag on the rearview mirror (my eldest son is disabled). She commented to me that in her view it looked more like a potential terrorism checkpoint.

Perhaps it was.

I posted a little thing pushing your basic logic a bit farther on my blog.

"What happens when terrorist or would be hackers attempt to disrupt communications infrastructure concurrent with a natural disaster"

Didn't FEMA do just that, cut communications lines, as well as other disruptions, according to Mr. Broussard who appeared on Meet the Press today? Are they turning this into Purple Crescent III?

I hate feeling paranoid like this.

Logically, this is completely impossible. Are we to believe there are terror cells in, for example, San Francisco, waiting for the next major earthquake to strike? It would be highly inefficient to wait for a national disaster to strike, rather than just striking without notice.

I suppose Mr. Chertoff also reads the paper to find out if there are any terrorist attacks in the offing. How dare that bastard even suggest he was unaware? How dare they try to spin this into another groups lap? It is time to hold Bush and his lying cronies responsible. They are at fault for the response and no amount of lying or finger pointing will alter this. If there is a descent soul left in Washington, he or she should start impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney.

Dear Leader sat on his ass in a classroom reading a book about a goat while people hurled themselves out of tall buildings in New York City on 9-11. It took him four days to finally get his chickenshit ass to Manhattan where rich white men do business.

So why should this disaster be any different?

This is the same chickenshit who went AWOL in time of war in 1972. Do you think he somehow turned into a hero since then?

The entire nation knew this storm was headed to the Gulf Coast with Cat5 force on Sunday. It hit Sunday night and the levee failed on Monday morning. On Tuesday Dear Leader was strumming his guitar. And it wasn't till Wednesday afternoon that the decision was made to get federal help into NOLA to start evacuating people.

It took him another day to even do a fly-over where poor black people were suffering and dying.

The entire world sees with crystal clarity the incompetence of this Republican Administration.

Will the American Media?

This would explain the heighten level of police guarding the subways in NJ and NYC this week. I was wondering why I was seeing more police in the North after a Hurricane in the South and no real terrorist news in the press.

I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, "New Orleans Dodged The Bullet,"

The director of DHS is getting his information from the newspapers? We ARE in trouble.

As a Louisiana native and gulf coast resident, I have lived through many hurricanes. I lived in New Orleans for several years. EVERYONE THERE KNEW A BREAK IN THE LEVEES COULD OCCUR AT ANY TIME AND WOULD BE CATASTROPHIC. Most of my friends felt this way 'Okay, this could happen, but in the meantime, laisez les bon temps roulez!'

Liken it to living with the threat of an earthquake in CA.

That's why most people heeded the evacuations and got out. Most of the ones who stayed did NOT ask for help before the storm. What do you think the response might have been if droves of people showed up at the Superdome Saturday and said 'help us' - I think the local governments would have been forced into action then. Their pre-storm efforts were lackadaisical at best.

FEMA took 3-4 days last year to assist after Hurricane Ivan. I am not surprised that the flooding caused greater logistical difficulty for them - and remember that FEMA had to respond to residents in three other states affected by Katrina as well. As a gulf coast resident, I am stocked at the beginning of hurricane season with water, food and batteries. I know better than to rely on any government agency.

I think many people in New Orleans also had 'cry wolf' syndrome. I place blame for the loss of life equally on those who stayed and the government agencies that failed to protect and aid them - with the brunt of the blame to fall on Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco's inept shoulders.

Have we examined the levee breaks with divers? Do we know for sure that terrorists didn't cause the levee breaks? I just don't see anything about the possibility of this. It seems like it would make so much sense and be easy to do. It is also something to consider before rebuilding/strengthening the cities and rebuilding the city there.

I have never heard so much BS as I have here. You are all freakin' nuts. FEMA, as a federal agency has to receive STATE AUTHORIZATION before they can enter a state. Blanco dragged her feet, both before and after the actual storm hit. Dear Leader asked her to issue the evacuation order and she delayed. Nagin was busy looking after himself when all this occured. Bill Clinton didn't send FEMA to help Hurricane Andrew victims until almost 30 days later. And to BSdetector, quit basing all your stupid misinformation on Micheal Moore movies. Learn to think for yourself.