WWW,
2005 (Archived) - In the wake
of hurricane Katrina, many within the
government are ducking for cover as the
blame game begins. One individual who has
been targeted is Michael Brown, the director
of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Associated Press
reported the following:
The top U.S. disaster official waited
hours after Hurricane Katrina struck the
Gulf Coast before he proposed to his boss
sending at least 1,000 Homeland Security
workers into the region to support
rescuers, internal documents show.
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
