Part of the mission, according to the
documents obtained by The Associated Press, was
to ``convey a positive image'' about the
government's response for victims.
Acknowledging that such a move would take two
days, Michael Brown, director of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval
from Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made
landfall on Aug. 29.
Before then, FEMA had positioned smaller
rescue and communications teams across the Gulf
Coast. But officials acknowledged the first
department-wide appeal for help came only as the
storm raged.
Brown's memo to Chertoff described Katrina as
``this near catastrophic event'' but otherwise
lacked any urgent language. The memo politely
ended, ``Thank you for your consideration in
helping us to meet our responsibilities.'' (No
pagination)
Michael Brown is not the only one with a bull's
eye on his chest. Former Clinton advisor Sydney
Blumenthal also got in on the fun, placing blame
squarely on the President's shoulders:
In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane
striking New Orleans was one of the three most
likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush
administration cut New Orleans flood control
funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.
(No pagination)
Many in the mainstream media have interpreted
these revelations the same way: gross incompetence
on the part of the government. Apparently, Uncle
Sam cannot get a thing right these days. What the
media has completely missed (or ignored) is how
certain factions within government could use the
Katrina catastrophe to introduce social changes
previously unthinkable. There is a discomforting
possibility that Americans must consider in light
of the fact that there is no one else looking out
for their best interest. It is the possibility
that warnings were ignored and assistance was
intentionally delayed to create a pretext for
unprecedented government growth.
One supporter of this contention is Paul Craig
Roberts, the former Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury. On the 5th September 2005 Alex Jones
show, Roberts: "agreed that FEMA has
deliberately withheld aid, and cut emergency
communication lines, and automatically made the
crisis look worse in order to empower the image of
a police state emerging to 'save the day'"
(Watson and Jones, no pagination). Steve Watson
and Alex Jones also report:
Roberts further commented "There is no
excuse for this, we have never had in our
history the federal government take a week to
respond to a disaster...this is the first time
ever that the help was not mobilized in advance.
The proper procedure is that everything is
mobilized and ready to go." (No pagination)
Roberts can hardly be called a conspiracy
theorist. The former Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury has recognized a certain game plan at
work in the Katrina situation. This game plan has
been used for centuries. Researcher Ralph Epperson
elaborates:
The first step consisted of having the
conspiracy's own people infiltrate the
government (the "pressure from
above.")
The second step was to create a real or
alleged grievance, usually through either an
action of government or through some situation
where the government should have acted and
didn't.
The third step consisted in having a mob
created by the real or alleged grievance that
the government or the conspiracy caused demand
that the problem be solved by a governmental
action (the "pressure from below.")
The fourth step consisted in having the
conspirators in the government remedy the real
or alleged situation with some oppressive
legislation.
The fifth step is a repeat of the last three.
The government does not solve the problem and
the mob demand more and more legislation until
the government becomes totalitarian in nature by
possessing all of the power. (37)
If this method were fully implemented, it would
be no exaggeration to describe the end result as
being a Soviet-style America. One of the
government agencies that have much to gain from
the execution of this technique is FEMA.
Michael Brown may become a sacrificial lamb.
However, the Agency he heads, FEMA, has much to
gain from the Katrina catastrophe. The hurricane
disaster may lead to calls for increasing FEMA's
budget and power. In a hopes of silencing his
critics, the President may favor such a move.
America would then fall back to sleep, believing
FEMA had its back covered in the event of another
disaster. However, several researchers have
recognized that FEMA has little to do with
emergency relief. One such individual was deceased
researcher Jim Keith. In his book, Black
Helicopters Over America, Keith noted the
following concerning FEMA:
FEMA is intended to assume the powers of
government during "emergencies," even
to the extent of taking over the powers of the
President, if the situation is believed to
warrant it. The organization is located in the
top secret National Security Agency facility in
Fort Meade, Maryland. In its more benign
aspects, FEMA is seen as an "umbrella"
agency that, during times of disaster or natural
cataclysm, will step into to throw the stricken
populace life preservers. But there are aspects
of FEMA which have some worried, one being that
only a small percentage, less than 10% of FEMA
employees according to a Congressional
investigation, is engaged in anything having to
do with disaster relief. So what the hell is
FEMA doing behind those closed doors at Fort
Meade? Among other things, the agency is engaged
in compiling computer records on millions of
Americans, to provide a database for CAPS,
Crisis Action Programs, to be deployed whenever
the non-elected bureaucrats of FEMA anticipate
something which might compromise almighty COG,
what they term the "Continuity of
Government." (108)
Was Keith merely being an alarmist when he
penned these words? In his book The
Triangle of Death, former DEA agent Michael
Levine records a conversation he had with a CIA
agent that reinforces Jim Keith's contention:
"How can you be so good at what you do
and have so little understanding of what really
pulls your strings? Don't you realize that there
are factions in your government that want this
to happen - an emergency situation too hot for a
constitutional government to handle."
"To what end?" I asked.
"A suspension of the Constitution, of
course. The legislation is already in place. All
perfectly legal. Check it out yourself. It's
called FEMA. Federal Emergency Management
Agency. 'Turn in your guns, you antigovernment
rabble rousers. And who would be king,
Michael?" (353)
In an interview with William Norman Grigg,
Levine made it clear that this account was not
fictitious:
According to Levine, this shocking exchange
is not the product of an imagination fed by
alarmist myths. "That scenario…came from
a specific conversation I had with a CIA officer
in Argentina in 1979," Levine informed The
New American. "There was a small group of
us gathered for a drinking at the CIA guy's
apartment. There were several Argentine police
officers there as well; at the time, Argentina
was a police state in which people could be
taken into custody without warning, tortured,
and then 'disappeared.'"
"At one point my associate in the CIA
said that he preferred Argentina's approach to
social order, and that America should be more
like that country," Levine continues.
"Somebody asked, 'Well, how does a change
of that sort happen?' The spook replied that it
was necessary to create a situation of public
fear - a sense of impending anarchy and social
upheaval…"(11)
The lack of response on the part of the
government to hurricane Katrina created a
situation just like that described by Levine's CIA
acquaintance. An August 31, 2005 WWLTV news report
seems to suggest that the situation had the
desired effect:
Disgusted and furious with the lawlessness of
looters who have put fear into citizens, New
Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared Martial Law in
the city and directed the city's 1,500 person
police force to do "whatever it takes"
to regain control of the city.
Nagin said that Martial Law means that
officers don't have to worry about civil rights
and Miranda rights in stopping the looters. (No
pagination)
With the proper pretext now in place, FEMA
could enter the scene. Lieutenant-general Carl A.
Strock of the Army Corps of Engineers informed the
press that FEMA was heading up the federal
response: "Ultimately, the corps is directed,
along with 15 other agencies, by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency. 'It is FEMA who is
really calling the shots and setting priorities
here,' General Strock said" (Revkin, no
pagination).
Indeed, FEMA is calling all the shots in New
Orleans. In the event of a larger crisis, the
agency's powers could be further augmented by
Executive Order 11051. This Executive Order would
allow FEMA to enact other Executive Orders,
extending the organization's control over numerous
state and federal functions. This control would
overarch education, welfare, and health services
(Executive Order 11051, no pagination). In
addition, FEMA would wield substantial authority
over America's financial institutions. The agency
would regulate wages, credit, salaries, and the
flow of capital (Executive Order 11051, no
pagination). The nation's means of production and
distribution would also be commandeered (no
pagination). In short, the infrastructure of the
United States would be effectively controlled by
one omnipotent governmental entity. FEMA is a
dictator's wet dream, and with Katrina it is
starting to be given teeth.
The lesson to be learned from Katrina is fairly
obvious. In the event of a catastrophe, we cannot
depend on the government to be our savior. The
politics of disaster are not about relief for the
victims. They are about the acquisition of power.
Sources Cited
- Blumenthal, Sydney. "
Former Clinton Advisor: 'No One Can Say they
Didn't See it Coming'." Spiegel
Online, 31 August 2005.
- Epperson, Ralph. The
Unseen Hand. Tucson, Arizona: Publius
Press, 1985.
- Executive Order 11051: PRESCRIBING
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE OFFICE OF EMERGENCY
PLANNING IN THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE
PRESIDENT. 27 September 1962.
- Grigg, William Norman. "Battle
Lines in the Drug War." New
American, October 27, 1997: pg. 11-16.
- Keith, Jim. Black
Helicopters Over America: Strikeforce for the
New World Order. Lilburn, Georgia:
Illuminet Press, 1994.
- Levine, Michael and Laura Kavanau. The
Triangle of Death. New York: Delacorte
Press, 1996.
- Revkin, Andrew. "
Gazing at Breached Levees, Critics See Years
of Missed Opportunities." New
York Times, 2 September 2005.
- Unsigned document. "FEMA
Chief Sent Help Only When Storm Ended."
Associated Press, 7 September 2005.
- Unsigned document. "Nagin
declares Martial Law to crack down on looters."
WWLTV.com, 31 August 2005.
- Watson, Steve and Alex Jones. "
Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury on
New Orleans: 'Americans Are Being Brainwashed'"
Prison Planet.com, 6 September 2005
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