Homeland Security?
I listened to an NPR reporter absolutely take down Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.
Chertoff had insisted, on the air, that the people at the New Orleans convention center were not in desperate straits, and that food and water was coming in.
When the NPR anchor told him that a reporter had just said there were thousands of people at the convention center desperate for food and water, Chertoff told him not to believe rumors.
‘This isn’t rumor,’ the anchor said. ‘This is a reporter on the ground there who has been to refugee camps.’
Chertoff repeated the scripted bit about help being on the way and that people should go to designated areas for help.
So NPR put the reporter, John Burnett, on the air. ‘Let me be clear to Secretary Chertoff,’ he said,
There are, I estimate, 2,000 people living like animals inside the city convention center and around it. They’ve been there since the hurricane. There’s no food. There’s absolutely no water, there’s no medical treatment. There’s no police and no security. And there are two dead bodies lying on the ground and in a wheelchair beside the convention center — both elderly people, both covered with blankets now.”
Further, Burnett said, the convention center is where people are being told to go — they’re being told it’s a designated help zone (or whatever they’re calling it).
This is a test of homeland security. We knew for days that Katrina was going to hit New Orleans. And, three days later, we still can’t help them?
Have you seen the pictures? Are you reading the reports?
“Living like animals.” Snipers attacking hospitals. “Lord of the Flies.”
This is the United States of America, dammit. And we’re letting this happen in one of our cities?
What would have happened in a terrorist strike? Or in a disaster without warning? Where are our homeland security dollars going?
There are a handful of National Guard there; they’re all in Iraq. Ditto for the Army. Another handful — about 1400 per day for the next three days — are going in, according to Chertoff.
“Anarchy,” read the CNN headline earlier today.
This isn’t anarchy. This is chaos.
Jeanne F says:
My husband and I are heartbroken for the victims of Katrina, but even more so we are disgusted with that poor excuse of a president! We are so quick to help foreign countries, but Mr. Bush and our government are dispicably apathetic in reacting to our fellow citizens and their immediate and basic needs. Why don’t some of the big corporations like pepsi and kraft and coke and I could go on forever with the list, start air dropping pallettes of water and gatorade for electrolites and baby formula and diapers and wipes? For crying out loud, feed these people, drop in some portable radios with batteries so they know that they have not been forgotten. They may be poor, but they are our poor and Mr. Bush you are responsible for taking care of and protecting them. You too big fat corporate America! This is a sin the way our government is handling this! We are in the Nw suburbs of chicago and if we can help shelter a few please email us.