TRUTHOUT ON KATRINA

Rescuers: Boat Operation Suspended
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090105A.shtml
As police and National Guard troops struggled to restore order Thursday in New
Orleans, emergency teams suspended boat rescue operations because conditions in
the flooded city were too dangerous, rescuers said. Thousands are still stranded
in New Orleans.


Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090105I.shtml
Local officials are now saying, the article reports, that had Washington heeded
their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building
up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly
as bad as it turned out to be."


Disasters Keep Coming but FEMA Phased Out
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090105J.shtml
In the days to come, as the nation copes with the disastrous aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina, we will be reminded how important it is to have a federal
agency capable of dealing with natural catastrophes of this sort. ... Which
makes it all the more difficult to understand why the country's premier agency
for dealing with such events - FEMA - is being, in effect, systematically
downgraded and all but dismantled by the Department of Homeland Security.


Sidney Blumenthal | "No One Can Say They Didn't See It Coming"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090105L.shtml
In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three
most likely disasters in the US. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans
flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.


National Guard at Breaking Point in Iraq and Gulf
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090105M.shtml
On Aug. 1, a spokesman for the Louisiana National Guard lamented to a local
reporter that the state might be stretched for security personnel in the event
of a big hurricane. Dozens of high-water vehicles, generators and Humvees were
employed in Iraq, along with 3,000 Louisiana National Guard troops.


NOW | Katrina: Why the Devastation Was So Bad
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090105P.shtml
NOW investigates why the devastation of Katrina was so bad.


Bush "Casual to the Point of Carelessness" on Katrina
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090105Z.shtml
George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially
given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and
wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president
appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality
more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration.