Congressional Katrina Report - Bush Failed

From a report to be released in the next day or so...

Hurricane Katrina exposed the U.S. government's failure to learn the lessons of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as leaders from President Bush down disregarded ample warnings of the threat to New Orleans and did not execute emergency plans or share information that would have saved lives, according to a blistering report by House investigators.

The investigators were all Republican, by the way. The Democrats boycotted the committee initially expecting it was nothing but a whitewash.

The 600-plus-page report lays primary fault with the passive reaction and misjudgments of top Bush aides, singling out Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Operations Center and the White House Homeland Security Council, according to a 60-page summary of the document obtained by The Washington Post. Regarding Bush, the report found that "earlier presidential involvement could have speeded the response" because he alone could have cut through all bureaucratic resistance.

But Bush stayed on vacation. Remember the picture of his playing guitar? Nero fiddling while Rome burned. Remember the night out shoe shopping in NY for Rice? The Administration didn't get fully into the game for more than 2 days. It has been found that Bush was made aware of the dire state of New Orleans the first night!

About 56 hours before Katrina made landfall, the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center cited an "extremely high probability" that New Orleans would be flooded and tens of thousands of residents killed.

Given those warnings, the report notes Bush's televised statement on Sept. 1 that "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees," and concludes: "Comments such as those . . . do not appear to be consistent with the advice and counsel one would expect to have been provided by a senior disaster professional."

In other words, either Bush is lying or he appointed incompetent people to run FEMA and the DHS. Take your pick. Entire article here.