Slow Katrina response in post-9/11 era makes no sense

Slow Katrina response in post-9/11 era makes no sense

To the editor,

The federal authorities responded to the New Orleans disaster like sloths on sleeping pills.

This obscenely lethargic response is not just a moral outrage. It is also a conundrum. Since 9/11 they've more than doubled the annual military and FEMA budgets, and supposedly spent massive funds and energy preparing for disasters hitting US cities. Over and over we hear the mantra: "It's not if, but when" a city gets nuked by terrorists. Since they admit they can't stop it, where are our hundreds of billions of dollars going, if not to prepare for ultra-rapid, hyper-effective emergency response efforts to rescue devastated cities?

A related enigma: How to explain the disparity between the perfectly coordinated emergency response in New York on 9/11/01, and the New Orleans situation? One of the odd things about 9/11 was the apparent massive incompetence of everybody who should have stopped the attacks, in contrast with the amazing competence of the relief efforts and disaster management. (It turned out that FEMA was in NY already on 9/11/01 setting up for the Tripod 2 biowar exercises scheduled for 9/12/01, which explains why they were so well prepared.*)

If there really is a "war on terror" and they really do expect US cities to be the victims of gigantic terrorist-induced disasters, how could they possibly be so slow getting to New Orleans, America's most strategic city?

A possible answer: 9/11 and the "war on terror" are Orwellian hoaxes, as suggested by the BBC documentary series The Power of Nightmares.** This would explain the incompetence by suggesting that no real effort has been put into preparing for big unexpected terrorist events, because such events are not going to happen--if the wing of the CIA known as "al-Qaida" strikes they'll already have FEMA in place, as they did on 9/11/01.

Is there another answer that makes more sense?

Sincerely,

Kevin Barrett

Instructor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Instructor, Edgewood College

*For documentation on the Tripod 2 exercises and 9/11, use search terms FEMA and Tripod at:

http://www.complete911timeline.org/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1327904,00.html

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Who Will Say 'No More'?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/23/AR2005082301178.html