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Ear to the Ground

U.S. Missed the Boat on Allies’ Katrina Aid

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Posted on Apr 29, 2007

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. declined, delayed or didn’t collect aid in the form of supplies, manpower and hundreds of millions of dollars from Israel, Canada and Britain.  The Washington Post reports that the three countries offered $854 million, of which only $40 million has been used, according to State Department figures.


Washington Post:

Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.

In addition, valuable supplies and services—such as cellphone systems, medicine and cruise ships—were delayed or declined because the government could not handle them. In some cases, supplies were wasted.

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By don knutsen, April 30, 2007 at 4:26 pm #

Pete..re: the blackshirts after Katrina...Check out the previous articles on “ Blackwater “..the soldiers for hire that our goverment is using in Iraq, after Katrina & elsewhere. Its hard to believe, but true, Rumsfeld has long been an advocate for privatizing soldiers for hire to do their bidding and not be accountable to our people / congress. These guys were paid around $350 p/day on average I’ve read and billed the goverment ( us ) $950 or so for each individual. and you thought we didn’t have to worry about something like that in america ? Well, in Cheney world we do have to deal with it. Welcome to the ugly future.

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By Toby, April 30, 2007 at 11:23 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Personally, I believe the chaos in Iraq was the plan. Two many things happened that almost guaranteed the Iraqi’s would turn against us.

The Americans scripted media event tearing down Saddam’s statue, and selling it as an Iraqi action.

The deliberate looking the other way while hooligans looted and trashed everything.

The nightly home invasions. Leaving behind damaged property and people.

The needless incarceration of thousands of men and boys guilty only of being Iraqi.

The utter destruction of the Iraqi infa-structure.

The claims of rebuilding while destroying at twice the clip.

The shooting of civilians at check-points.

Thousands of dead children that have never been deemed important enough to keep count of.

The killing of a group of kids playing soccer then planting weapons on their bodies.

Setting up a puppet government guaranteed to divide the people.

Turning a bunch of private mercenaries loose without any accountability.

Missing money.

Missing people.

Missing responsible United States leadership.

Our administration ... missing in action.

And that’s the short list for just the first year.

Katrina. Like Bush’s GWOT and his war in Iraq demonstrates the same kind of useless thought process that drives his for profit and power wars.

The lack of proper response.

Correction: The lack of adequate response ...
... uh, the lack of response period.

Here we are almost two years later and where’s the response? Pittley little from Homeland Security’s various response teams. Cant be bothered with anything unless it’s “terrorist” related.

Somebody needs to explain to HSD what terror is. They really don’t have a clue.

But then how could anyone expect anyone appointed to do anything by this administration to do anything?
Let alone understand it!

No need to repeat all the names, titles, and accusations leveled at these people a million or more times.

USELESS pretty well sums it up.

[Unless of course, you place value on indifference, destruction and failure, traits highly valued by FAUX republicans.]

Which calls for the need to understand the real reason for the chaos a republican administration and their congress people and various supporters love to create.

Adequate and proper response is counter-productive if the goal is chaos.
Chaos creates the need for “specialists” and specialists spring from “privatization” which places itself in the position of being able to use available tax dollars to line their personal pockets.

In other words, we pay taxes, repubs take those taxes and give them to private companies set up to respond to the chaos created by said repubs.

Organized crime.

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By Hammo, April 30, 2007 at 8:12 am #

There seem to be interesting comparisons on how the Bush-Cheney administration handled Hurricane Katrina and the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Was it simple incompetence, covert agendas, combinations of both? Information about this in:

“Iraq invasion and occupation, Gulf Coast hurricane disaster have links” (AmericanChronicle.com)

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle. asp?articleID=3421

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By Pete, April 30, 2007 at 4:29 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

More of a question. In the aftermath of Katrina, the Lt.General in charge, whose first name was I believe Honore,stopped a bunch of heavily armed people wearing black T-shirts, and demanded that they put their weapons down and reminded them that they were in America. He and his men had to step towards this vehicle to get them to comply. I assumed that they were members of the NOPD, but lately, I’m starting to think they were private security people. Does anyone else remember this incident and does anyone know who the blackshirts were?

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By Leefeller, April 29, 2007 at 8:59 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Powers that be, did not want other countries to see up close, the utter incompetence of Bush in action.  If Bush treats his own people this way, what kind of treatment could the rest of the world expect?  Well, they should know now anyway.

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