Having watched Bush officials, particularly Chertoff, try to pretend this event caught them off guard with no way of anticipating what would happen, my bullshit alert went off. Here’s my take on why they deserve a beating.
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KATRINA: HOTWASH VS. WHITEWASH
by Larry C. Johnson
Homeland Security has published a National Response Plan for dealing with disasters like Katrina. Unfortunately, nobody in a position of leadership in the Bush Administration appears to have read or understood this document. When the “hotwash” comes somebody better learn something. We can’t afford another disaster like this.
What’s a hotwash? After the military conducts a training exercise they carry out a “hotwash”. A hotwash is shorthand for an after action evaluation of the exercise. The hotwash is supposed to provide a chance to discuss the problems and shortfalls identified during the exercise. This process is supposed to lead to “lessons learned”, which, in a perfect world, means that actual learning takes place and we avoid committing the same errors when the real thing happens.
Having spent the last 11 years designing and executing counter terrorism exercises for the US military’s special operations forces, I have had a front row seat for watching how we are prepared to deal with the entire spectrum of terrorist threats.
 Intelligence: The Human Factor (Securing Our Nation) By Patrick Lang Editor: Larry C. Johnson |
Exercises are not just for the military. FEMA and Homeland Security have participated in dozens of exercises. The purpose of a Homeland Security exercise, for example, is to test the decision making and communication procedures that would use in response to say, a category 5 hurricane. The exercise would include making actual contact with State and local officials threatened by the hurricane. Well, guess what? We are not talking hypothetical, there actually was an exercise within the last year that involved Homeland Security and FEMA, which tested the very scenario of a hurricane hitting New Orleans and causing a breach in the levees. It looks like that instead of a ‘hotwash” we got a whitewash. Apparently nobody learned anything.
I don’t know if the Congress will let the President and the heads of Homeland Security and FEMA off the hook, but the media should not let any Administration official offer the lame excuse that this was unexpected or unprecedented disaster. The Administration’s own documents condemn them. Take a look at the Department of Homeland Security’s website. There is a National Response Plan that is supposed to be the guide for responding to disasters like Katrina. Why didn’t they use it?
BELOW: National Response Plan
National Response Plan
“One team, one goal…a safer, more secure America”
The National Response Plan establishes a comprehensive all-hazards approach to enhance the ability of the United States to manage domestic incidents. The plan incorporates best practices and procedures from incident management disciplines—homeland security, emergency management, law enforcement, firefighting, public works, public health, responder and recovery worker health and safety, emergency medical services, and the private sector—and integrates them into a unified structure. It forms the basis of how the federal government coordinates with state, local, and tribal governments and the private sector during incidents. It establishes protocols to help
This document contains the claim that, “The National Response Plan provides mechanisms for expedited and proactive Federal support”. Where in the name of God was the expedited and proactive support?
This is a case of negligence and incompetence that cannot and should not be forgiven. Al Qaeda operatives around the world have watched our bumbling, incompetent response to the hurricane. They have already determined that they can fight us on the ground in Iraq. They may decide that the time has come to bring the war back to our homeland.
Take a look at the section of the National Response Plan below that covers response strategies and coordination with local authorities. The only possible excuse is that the Federal officials forgot to read their own damn report!
(Excerpt of Report)
Planning & Prevention
National Response Plan: Local/Federal Response Strategies & Coordination Structures
National Response Plan Main Page >> Local/Federal Response Strategies & Coordination Structures
Emphasis on Local Response
All incidents are handled at the lowest possible organizational and jurisdictional level. Police, fire, public health and medical, emergency management, and other personnel are responsible for incident management at the local level. For those events that rise to the level of an Incident of National Significance, the Department of Homeland Security provides operational and/or resource coordination for Federal support to on-scene incident command structures.
Proactive Federal Response to Catastrophic Events
The National Response Plan provides mechanisms for expedited and proactive Federal support to ensure critical life-saving assistance and incident containment capabilities are in place to respond quickly and efficiently to catastrophic incidents. These are high-impact, low-probability incidents, including natural disasters and terrorist attacks that result in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, and/or government functions.
Multi-Agency Coordination Structures
The National Response Plan establishes multi-agency coordinating structures at the field, regional and headquarters levels. These structures:Enable the execution of the responsibilities of the President through the appropriate Federal department and agencies;
Integrate Federal, State, local, tribal, nongovernmental Organization, and private-sector efforts; and
Provide a national capability that addresses both site-specific incident management activities and broader regional or national issues, such as impacts to the rest of the country, immediate regional or national actions required to avert or prepare for potential subsequent events, and the management of multiple incidents.
New Coordinating Mechanisms Include
Homeland Security Operations Center (HSOC)
The HSOC serves as the primary national-level multi-agency situational awareness and operational coordination center. The HSOC includes elements of the Department of Homeland Security and other Federal departments and agencies.
National Response Coordination Center (NRCC)
The NRCC, a functional component of the HSOC, is a multi-agency center that provides overall Federal response coordination.
Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC)
At the regional level, the RRCC coordinates regional response efforts and implements local Federal program support until a Joint Field Office is established.
Interagency Incident Management Group (IIMG)
A tailored group of senior level Federal interagency representatives who provide strategic advice to the Secretary of Homeland Security during an actual or potential Incident of National Significance.
Joint Field Office (JFO)
A temporary Federal facility established locally to provide a central point for Federal, State, local, and tribal representatives with responsibility for incident support and coordination.
Principal Federal Official (PFO)
A PFO may be designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security during a potential or actual Incident of National Significance. While individual Federal officials retain their authorities pertaining to specific aspects of incident management, the PFO works in conjunction with these officials to coordinate overall Federal incident management efforts.
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This is truly frightening and I am sad to say, not surprising. So the best we got from billions of dollars into the great pork pie called Homeland Security was the terror color coding system?
Larry, I will also point to the Stafford Act of 2000 which spells out the President and Federal Government Disaster Preparedness and Response, which predates Homeland Security. Also noteworthy is the May 2001 announcement that none other than Dick Cheney himself was tasked with our national “preparedness”.
as debraz mentions in their comment, Cheney was tasked with homeland preparedness. Have I missed something this week, or is Cheney not around? Is he on vacation, In Iraq, in the hospital or what? Just seems very strange to me that we haven’t seen him or heard him through all of this. If this is not the case, please forgive an older guy who misses more than he used to these days.
Dick Cheney assigned to preparedness coordination. Well that explains everything. Not being prepared? BIG rebuilding no bid contracts for none other than Haliburton.
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Water spills over a levee along the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana. US authorities ignored warnings that New Orleans was vulnerable to a hurricane nightmare. AFP/POOL/File/Vincent LaforetVirtually everything that has happened in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina struck was predicted by experts and in computer models, so emergency management specialists wonder why authorities were so unprepared. Computer models developed at Louisiana State University and other institutions made detailed projections of what would happen if water flowed over the levees protecting the city or if they failed. ReutersNOLA – THE BIG ONE
Georges Sept. 1998 — A major hurricane could decimate the region, but flooding from even a moderate storm could kill thousands. It’s just a matter of time.
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“They don’t have a clue what’s going on down there,”
Mayor Ray Nagin told WWL-AM radio Thursday night.
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unfortunately, like so many other bureaucrats in government in general, and in the Bush regime in particular, these Homeland Security/Fema heads seem to think that once they devise what they believe to be a great plan that somehow that means they’ve done their job. They seem to believe their plan is so brilliant that they need do nothing more, as though the plan will somehow implement itself. (Note; The neocons have the same massive disconnect with their crackpot war ideology. They think it’s so perfect that it will work itself out regardless of reality).
People like this are characteristically incapable of devising successful strategies for addresing the problems they face. Whether they’re intellectually brilliant like Chertoff or aggresively incompetent like Michael Brown they cannot succeed in these endeavors because they refuse to acknowledge the true nature of the problems they’re confronted with, and because, in many cases, if they do speak the truth about things, (think General Shinseki, Richard Clark, Bunnatine Greenhouse, among others), they’re punished by the regime.
The tragedy for the Gulf states,(ironically both the gulf states here in the US and the Gulf states as in the Persian Gulf), the Bush regime consistently rewards obedience and loyalty at the expense of truth and competence. No matter how idiotic or irrational or simplistic the official White House line is, anyone who challenges it in the process of trying to do their job in a reality-based way is ignored, ridiculed, demoted or dismissed. And this means the way is always clear for the hacks to rise to the top.
I’m beginning to have my doubts our country can remain intact through another 3 1/2 years of these lunatic’s rule.
stopped me cold, because that’s what I think this is. I can’t prove it, of course. Not to generalize too broadly, but most of the MBAs I’ve worked with have a similar response: push costs and work down the ladder; delegate decisions downward to avoid accountability; use fewer people than necessary to press for the maximum “productivity;” and use another groups’s resources and collect for their use from a third source. These are just some of the things I’ve seen consistently, not an exhaustive list. However, these same MBA principles seem to me to have been applied in Iraq as well.
Simultaneously, they’re “starving the beast,” working on their long-term plan.
I reacted to that apparent emphasis on the “local response” angle, as thought it was included in the plan specifically to provide a way for the Feds to absolve themselves of failure by blaming the locals. But of course any undue emphasis on a requirement tied directly to local response is completely irrational as far as disaster planning is concerned, if for no other reason that major disaster by it’s nature more often than not would tend to eliminate the viability of local response from the getgo.
Indeed, the entire raison d’etre for a Federal authority in such matters is to be able to mount an effective effort regardless of whether there’s a functioning local authority or not.
“Provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare,” yeah. The kind of thing that affects the whole nation. I think our Declaration of Independence spelled out that when these things are not done, the people must change the government.
The damage, suffering, and death bushco could do between now and 2006 is awful to consider. I’m hoping the rally in DC on Sept. 24th turns into a Katarina-sized storm … something like the Ukraine.
If “9/11 changed everything” (a lame excuse for lawlessness in the administration), Katarina has at least given all the people a clear look at the character of “George” (in honor of Cindy Sheehan). Hope the change is overwhelming.
Yes! What’s the use of having a Federal government and giving it so much money if it’s not going to bother to take advantage of the strength of our shared national unity and serve the people well? What’s the reason for such a government to exist if not to serve?
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WASHINGTON – Another 10,000 National Guard troops are being sent to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, raising their number to about 40,000, but questions linger about the speed with which troops were deployed.
Several states ready and willing to send National Guard troops to the rescue in New Orleans didn’t get the go-ahead until days after the storm struck — a delay nearly certain to be investigated by Congress.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state’s National Guard last Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn’t come from Washington until late Thursday.
WHY??
Is it because Bush signed a Federal State of Emergency?
My last contribution for the night – it’s late European time …
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bush and cheney Must Resign
They have failed the nation and their incompetence can no longer be tolerated. Their agenda can no longer be tolerated.
bush and cheney must resign. There is no other acceptable response.
Hastert is next in line. He may assume the Presidency until as a caretaker until the elections of 2008. He may not advance the unacceptable and intolerable Republican agenda.
Sen. Harry Reid threatened to respond to the “nuclear option” by no longer giving deference to the Republican agenda. It is time he does so as soon as bush and cheney resign.
Shut down government until bush and cheney and their entire administration resign.
Once they resign and Hastert is sworn in and assembles a new cabinet and new department heads of FEMA and Homeland Security in particular then Sen. Harry Reid may advance the Democratic agenda to repair the massive damaged caused this nation by the Republican agenda.
By this time it will be close to the 2006 elections and We the People will replace the Republican Majority with Democrats.
The Democrats may be warned now…
We will not tolerate a Democratic replacement of the same old manure. They must immediately set about righting the wrongs that the Republican agenda… with much Democratic complicity… has wrought on this nation. You are served notice.
This is not a D or R thing. It is time for government to be about the people’s business. We will accept no less… or we will replace you too.