Katrina Video Refuels Debate Over Bush’s Response

Posted on Mar 3, 2006

AP

This frame taken from secure government video obtained by the Associated Press shows then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown, center, at the Homeland Security emergency operations center in Washington Aug. 28, 2005, taking part in a government video briefing the day before Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29.

The video that made a liar out of Bush on Katrina has reignited the controversy over his administration’s incompetent response to the hurricane.

Democrats are calling for an independent probe into the catastrophe, and the video has even taken enough of the heat off ex-FEMA Director Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown so that he’s now calling for the firing of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff.

Washington Post:

Three days after Hurricane Katrina wiped out most of New Orleans, President Bush appeared on television and said, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” His staff has spent the past six months trying to take back, modify or explain away those 10 words.

The release of a pre-storm video showing officials warning Bush during a conference call that the hurricane approaching the Gulf Coast posed a dire threat to the city and its levees has revived a dispute the White House had hoped to put behind it: Was the president misinformed, misspoken or misleading?

Full story

More Below the Ad

Elsewhere: .

Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.