Tom: For Pete's sake...It is Italian, with an "a".
If you want to turn Watman Enterprises over to a UAE company, go ahead. I don't think American ports should be operated by other than American companies. I don't care if it was the P and 0, I would prefer an American company with the state of the world today.
Here is some more fodder for your endless cheerleading of Mike Brown, Chertoff and the gang. Why wouldn't they give those e-mails to the congressional committee trying to figure out just what happened? There were lots and lots of republicans on the committees. How can we make it better if we don't see the whole picture?
__________________________
The Back-Channel Chatter After Katrina
A series of previously unreleased e-mails shows an administration in chaos in the wake of the storm.
By Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Feb. 27, 2006 issue - At 9 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, as Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans, FEMA Director Michael Brown appeared on "Larry King Live" and announced, "This is a catastrophic disaster ... We've got some storm surges that have come across the levees." Less than an hour later, at 9:51, Brown received an e-mail from White House chief of staff Andy Card, who told him he had been kept "well-informed about your reports. Anything you want me to do??" Brown replied, "Thanks for writing, Andy. This is a bad one. Housing, transportation and environment could be long term issues."
Card may have been concerned, but he wasn't in a position to be of much help. Like President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and homeland-security adviser Frances Townsend, Card was on vacation when the hurricane struck. Back at the White House, the job of monitoring the storm was left to Kenneth Rapuano, Townsend's deputy. At 10 p.m., Rapuano left the White House to go home for the night, believing everything was under control.
It wasn't. Half an hour later, at 10:30 p.m., the Homeland Security Operations Center sent out a two-page bulletin reporting massive flooding and bodies floating in the water. Rapuano later told Congress that no one at the White House woke him to tell him about the report, and he didn't realize the extent of the damage until 6 the following morning, when another Homeland bulletin warned that "it could take months to dewater" the city. Only then did it begin to dawn on top administration officials, including the president, how grave a human—and political—disaster they were facing.
Six months later, there still isn't a clear account of what Bush and his top aides were doing in the hours and days after the levees crumbled and the misery set in. The prolonged confusion is partly explained by the White House's refusal to turn over many of the records and e-mails requested by the Senate and a special House committee investigating the fiasco. In a blistering report last week, the Republican-led House committee said the poor response "cost lives" and "prolonged suffering."
Brown, now trying to restore his image, gave Congress a set of e-mails sent as the catastrophe unfolded. The e-mails, obtained by NEWSWEEK, provide the latest—though still incomplete—picture of senior officials' chatter amid the chaos.
Four days after Katrina hit, on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 1, it was finally clear to everyone that things had gone horribly wrong. But Brown and other officials seemed mired in office politics. Brooks Altshuler, Brown's policy director, worried that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was growing unhappy with Brown's performance. "Please talk up the Secretary during your press avails I.e. 'Solid team with solid support from the secretary etc.'" Altshuler wrote his boss. "Unconfirmed, but people are noticing and they are reading into friction ... " Brown angrily responded that he had told the Homeland secretary that his numerous phone calls were "killing me ... He assures me he is not trying to interfere, but they are literally driving me crazy ... "
By the following Tuesday, Sept. 6, the post-Katrina backlash was in full frenzy. Brown realized his job was in jeopardy. At 8:32 a.m., Clay Johnson III, a longtime Bush aide, e-mailed Brown. "What a great opportunity for every cheap-shot artist in the world to take a free swing at you and the president." Brown replied, "Yes ... And if [Bush] doesn't have confidence in me—which is understandable considering the circumstances—let me know. I will readily step aside." Johnson's reply: "I've not heard one person here disparage you [sic] work. I'll keep you informed."
In an interview last week, Brown told NEWSWEEK he was frustrated because Chertoff tried to micromanage the disaster. "I couldn't do my job," he said. (Neither Chertoff nor the White House responded to requests for comment.) By the time he exchanged e-mails with Johnson, he says, he was ready to "walk off" the job. As it turned out, he didn't have the chance. Three days later, Chertoff sent Brown back to Washington—where he remains, awaiting the results of the White House's own probe of what went wrong.
© 2006 Newsweek, Inc. | Subscribe to Newsweek |
