FEMA's Blocking Relief Efforts/LIST/LINKS

[katty]

FEMA's Blocking
Relief Efforts -
An Amazing List
9-8-5


FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/84aa35cc-1da8-11da-b40b-00000e..

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/5/105538/7048

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec..

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec..

FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15147862&BRD=...

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/171718/0826

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509..

FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050902dale..

FEMA turns away generators
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470

That last one is real -- not satire but straight from FEMA's website.

[Robert Oak]

1. thanks

aggregating all of these events is very important.

The Bush administration has an incredible way of rewriting history, especially with the fast flowing, short term memory aspect of current events.

[Kurovski]

2. Looks like a set-up on its face.

A plan to win the "blame game" by undermining local government.

[Helga Scow Stern]

11. Or to facillitate contractors being paid?

I wouldn't put anything past them, especially since they already have a plan in place for dealing with disasters in other countries:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050502/klein/3

The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Naomi Klein

snip--
As in other reconstruction sites, from Haiti to Iraq, tsunami relief has little to do with recovering what was lost. Although hotels and industry have already started reconstructing on the coast, in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and India, governments have passed laws preventing families from rebuilding their oceanfront homes. Hundreds of thousands of people are being forcibly relocated inland, to military style barracks in Aceh and prefab concrete boxes in Thailand. The coast is not being rebuilt as it was--dotted with fishing villages and beaches strewn with handmade nets. Instead, governments, corporations and foreign donors are teaming up to rebuild it as they would like it to be: the beaches as playgrounds for tourists, the oceans as watery mines for corporate fishing fleets, both serviced by privatized airports and highways built on borrowed money.

In January Condoleezza Rice sparked a small controversy by describing the tsunami as "a wonderful opportunity" that "has paid great dividends for us." Many were horrified at the idea of treating a massive human tragedy as a chance to seek advantage. But, if anything, Rice was understating the case. A group calling itself Thailand Tsunami Survivors and Supporters says that for "businessmen-politicians, the tsunami was the answer to their prayers, since it literally wiped these coastal areas clean of the communities which had previously stood in the way of their plans for resorts, hotels, casinos and shrimp farms. To them, all these coastal areas are now open land!"

Disaster, it seems, is the new terra nullius.
--snip

This is facilliated by a new office created a year ago:

snip--
On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate "post-conflict" plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different countries "at the same time," each lasting "five to seven years."
Fittingly, a government devoted to perpetual pre-emptive deconstruction now has a standing office of perpetual pre-emptive reconstruction.
--snip

[texpatriot2004]

3. Another DU thread on this topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4639005

[annabanana]

4. we have to keep very close track of these facts - nominated

[shraby]

5. These are criminal actions which led to the deaths

of a lot of people. It was nothing less than pre-meditated murder. Someone sent the orders knowing it would lead to more deaths.

[katty]

6. indeed-there is a 'pattern'--methinks Cheney dirty hands involved

[texpatriot2004]

7. Another DU thread on this topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x154801

[intheflow]

8. This is a great list, Katty.

I posted it on the Katrina important sources thread, giving you credit, of course. :hi:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4675980&mesg_id=4675980

[katty]

14. the list 'speaks for itself' -- CRIMINAL ENDANGERMENT

[snot]

9. Thank you! Could you possibly

go to http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=106x22805#22817, and post all of this same info as a reply to Post # 8, so the links will all be live?

Read the stuff in the initial post to understand why, and how to title your post. Also, if you're so inclined, pls spread this word where you think helpful.

Thanks!

[Nothing Without Hope]

10. Six of these threads have broken links. They are also DU threads with

good comment threads.

But thanks for the reminder.

[moodforaday]

12. Previous DU thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4660874

And at DKos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/5/16455/30830

[mom cat]

13. Katrina thread in the Activism forum is adding these. Please help build

this resource at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=106&topic_id=22805&mesg_id=22805

Please post items that you might have saved. It is a community resource for all of us so please put things in the right category.

[kath]

15. Since Michael Moore is considering doing a documentary about the Katrina

debacle, it would be a good idea to forward this thread (and the others with links about FEMA blocking relief efforts) to him. Does anyone here have a contact that knows MM?