WP: Brown Ignored Disaster Plan, New Report Says

[Rose Siding]

Michael D. Brown, former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, deliberately ignored a new national disaster plan and circumvented his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, in trying to manage the federal response to Hurricane Katrina directly with the White House, according to a new House report.

By disregarding the National Response Plan, finished in 2004, Brown deprived "the nation of an opportunity to determine whether the NRP worked," the House investigation concludes in an addendum to its Feb. 15 report, "A Failure of Initiative," scheduled for release today.

The all-Republican panel, led by Chairman Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), prepared the supplement after issuing a subpoena and obtaining Brown's sworn deposition Feb. 11, too late to publish in its scathing 520-page study.

By attributing numerous failings to Brown, the new House report obtained by The Washington Post refocuses an unflattering spotlight on the former Bush political loyalist and on the White House. Though he resigned under fire for his handling of the hurricane response, Brown's image was rehabilitated somewhat in videos leaked this month that showed him imploring the government to gear up for Katrina and emphatically warning the White House.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031502320.html

[leesa]

1. Funny. The all-Republican panel feasts on Brown to save their sorry heroes

Bush and Chertoff. I hope they devour one another.

[Kagemusha]

2. I don't think Brown deserves any medals of heroism either.

And neither does Chertoff and his backers in the White House. So I'm with you. Let them go at it as much as they please.

[lebkuchen]

3. Bush put Cheney in charge of domestic security under FEMA

Where was Dick when Katrina struck? Duck hunting? Did he call Brown or Chertoff once?

[AnnieBW]

4. There Was A Plan?

You could have fooled me.