September 14, 2005

President Bush's greatly celebrated "apology" for Hurricane Katrina tells us that we are now in the second phase of the White House diversionary strategy; nothing more. The administration's first plan, which was to deny everything by opining, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees," has been dismissed as nonsense by a profoundly engaged public. Now, we're on to "Phase Two", a more thoughtful approach that replicates the strategy that was used following 9-11. But, before we get to that, let's take a moment to articulate the charges as we see them against Mr. Bush.

There is abundant evidence suggesting that the federal government "intentionally" withheld vital aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Whatever the political motivation may have been is of no interest to us here; simply that the life-saving aid was purposely suspended. At the very least, Bush is guilty of criminal negligence; at the most premeditated murder; I leave that for the experts to decide. The profusion of stories that followed the events as they were unfolding in New Orleans all tell the same story with brilliant clarity. Here is a sampling of some of the headlines from just a week ago:

``FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations.''
``FEMA turns away experienced firefighters.''
``FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks.''
``FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel.''
``Homeland Security won't let Red Cross deliver food.''
``FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans.''
``FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid.''
``FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board.''
``FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck.''
``FEMA turns away generators.''
``FEMA first responders urged not to respond.''

These articles have created a considerable dilemma for the administration; a crisis that requires a skillful media-strategy to revise the facts "as we all know them" and transform them into an apology for criminal negligence.

A careful reading of the Bush statement tells us that he accepts no responsibility for himself, but has adroitly shifted the blame onto the federal government; everyone's favorite whipping boy. This, of course, was the same strategy implemented after 9-11 when (after a year of dodging an independent investigation) Bush was able to place the blame on the Intelligence services. Everything we know now, tells us that that was not the case. "The lights were blinking red" as George Tenet said, and the administration certainly knew that a major attack on American soil was in the works.

The same is true here. The media are in "full-spin mode" revising the deliberate, criminal action of the administration, into a storyline of government blundering and hesitation.
No way.
I hope that the readers of this column will not fall for this conspicuous deception.
The media spin has suddenly morphed into "Bush's unwillingness to acknowledge mistakes".
Diversion.

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," said Bush.
Once again; diversion. We are not interested in the government's "response capability" nor are we interested in a "humbled" Bush. (as many of the papers are stating) We are only interested in whether food, water and medicine were deliberately withheld from Katrina's victims. This is the basis for criminal charges against the President and those directly involved in subverting the rescue effort.

I would ask everyone reading this article to take whatever knowledge they have of the real events as they took place (and are now part of the public record) including Aaron Broussard's claims that the government "murdered " the people in New Orleans (for sabotaging shipments of food, water and diesel fuel) and do a simple Google search of "Bush's apology". Any careful investigation of the 1200 articles now posted will prove that the media is creating a smokescreen of disinformation to protect the political establishment. The media-narrative has deftly shifted the emphasis from the basic facts of criminal negligence and, perhaps, premeditated murder, to a story of government unresponsiveness.

The Bush administration was directly complicit in the murder countless American citizens. This is not something that we can afford to ignore.

Courtesy and Copyright © Mike Whitney