From The Ramparts

Things That Make You Go Hmm?

Things That Make You Go Hmm?


September 05, 2005At least five people shot dead by police as they walked across a New Orleans bridge yesterday were contractors working for the US Defense department, according to a report by The Associated Press. A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said the victims were contractors on their way to repair a canal, the new agency said, quoting a Defense Department spokesman. The contractors crossing the bridge to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain, in an operation to fix the 17th Street Canal, according to the spokesman. The shootings took place on the Danziger Bridge, across a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River. Early on Sunday, Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley of New Orleans said police shot at eight people, killing five or six. No other details were immediately available.-www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16494579%5E12377,00.html

Thanks to the US mass media the dominant perception of those poor and infirm black people trapped in New Orleans is they are all deadbeats, looters and thieves. This is an added insult to the injury of insensitivity, brazen callousness and overt racism of the Bu$h administration from the president on down who sat on its hands did nothing for days as the situation in the Gulf Coast worsened. The media lap dogs did their part to take the guilt off of Bu$h and Co. by portraying the black unfortunates trapped in New Orleans as looters (although they took an entirely different view of whites photographed scavenging for food and water). These images and words played with people’s minds allowing some to conclude these black people were somehow less than; less deserving of the help the Bu$h cabal was withholding whether due to callousness, ineptitude or racism. When the national Guard and Active Duty troops finally converged on the city, they came in with a mind-set combat operations were the first option/priority. Even the Mayor of the beleaguered city admitted the criminal element was minuscule and pleaded that the first priority of the guardsmen and troops be rescue and evacuation. But the psychological warfare/ propaganda damage was already done. The media had already etched this notion that the city was on the verge of anarchy into the psyche of the world. Guardsman and active duty troops arrived in New Orleans in a trigger happy mood looking to get some bodies and notches on their M-16s. A cursory review of the world press will show the same AP story about Iraq veterans beings sent to New Orleans to stem the tide of “lawlessness” that for the most part was a hyped figment of the white media’s racist imagination, just like Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. The following story with no by-line or agency of origin was circulated around the world: “NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana : Iraq-tested US troops with shoot-to-kill orders were deployed in New Orleans on Thursday to restore law and order after days of chaos and looting in the hurricane-devastated city.
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said the 300 troopers from the Arkansas National Guard had been authorised to open fire on ‘hoodlums’ who have been terrorising the flooded city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Their deployment came amid intense criticism of the government for a tardy response to the disaster, which is feared to have killed thousands of people and left hundreds of thousands more stranded and homeless. This headline story appeared on an Asia Website, http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/166193/1/.html I suspect it was written by a Bu$h operative rather than a staff journalist. CNN carried the following piece of negative propaganda: “NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- A fearful Friday has arrived in lawless New Orleans, with police snipers stationed on the roof of their precinct, trying to protect it from the armed thugs roaming seemingly at will through the flood-ravaged city. The surreal scene comes amid wretched chaos, with incredible scenes of desperation for those people still marooned in the city more than three days after Hurricane Katrina struck a deadly and devastating blow.” These are more than bluffs or ploys to discourage looting they were designed to serve a much more nefarious purpose.
Reports of looting weren’t widespread or rampant enough for CNN to categorize the situation as “lawless”. Could this be more than an attempt to cover Bu$h’s sorry behind or gloss over the ineptitude of his cronies at FEMA? Could this be part of a media psy-op and practice drill by FEMA to prepare FEMA and US citizens for a military assault on a major AmeriKKKan city? As outlandish as this may seem, it is not that far fetched once you ask yourself, why was the primary emphasis of the military on combat rather than rescue and evacuation? Why did FEMA turn back truckloads of desperately needed supplies? Why has FEMA prevented the Red Cross from entering the city? Michael Brown, the head of FEMA, is obviously incompetent but these decisions just don’t make sense! Unless you postulate there is another agenda at work here; other than taking the heat off of Bu$h. Why did a recent issue of Army Times carry this article, “Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans By Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer
NEW ORLEANS — Combat operations are underway on the streets “to take this city back” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. ‘This place is going to look like Little Somalia,’ Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. ‘We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.’
Jones said the military first needs to establish security throughout the city. Military and police officials have said there are several large areas of the city are in a full state of anarchy.
Dozens of military trucks and up-armored Humvees left the staging area just after 11 a.m. Friday, while hundreds more troops arrived at the same staging area in the city via Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters. ‘We’re here to do whatever they need us to do,’ Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon, of the Oklahoma National Guard’s 1345th Transportation Company. ‘We packed to stay as long as it takes.’ While some fight the insurgency in the city, other carry on with rescue and evacuation operations. Helicopters are still pulling hundreds of stranded people from rooftops of flooded homes.” http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1077495.php. The average US citizen doesn’t read Army Times! This was military in house stuff! Note the adversarial language and the General’s racist reference to “Little Somalia”, a direct gab at New Orleans’ African-American population. (I wonder if the General realizes the US military got its’ ass kicked in Somalia?) What did he mean by his boast of “taking the city back”, back from what or whom, the flood waters, the poor and infirm? That’s the task of the Army Corps of Engineers and rescuers. Ask yourself why the writer used the word “insurgency”when not even the frustrated and overwhelmed Governor of Louisiana or the Mayor who saw first hand what was happening in the city called the situation an insurgency? Given the overall callousness and class bias in this situation, is it that farfetched to believe the Bu$hites used this disaster as a FEMA/military staging practice op for a fascist attack on a US city during its most vulnerable and dire time of need? The Wshington Post report a power struggle emergef between the Bu$hits and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and Louisiana official, “Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday. The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.” /www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680_pf.html. Is this what I suspect it is, a power play between Bu$h and Louisiana state and local authorities? Things that make you go hmmm?

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 8:42 PM