Newsweek: Who Knew What?

[cal04]

The discovery of a missing Katrina transcript provides new details about President Bush’s involvement in tracking the hurricane

Web Exclusive
Updated: 7:18 p.m. ET March 1, 2006

March 1, 2006 - The vacationing President George W. Bush was “very engaged” in monitoring Hurricane Katrina developments right from the day that the hurricane made landfall, according to Michael Brown, then chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Brown’s comments about the president surfaced in a transcript of an Aug. 29, 2005, videoconference call produced by Bush administration officials today after they initially told Congress that no such document existed.

During the FEMA-run conference call—one of a series of noon calls in which top local, state and federal officials reported on the progress of the storm and on the government responses to it—Brown says that on Aug. 29, the Monday that Katrina made landfall near New Orleans, he had talked to Bush twice, “once in Crawford and then again on Air Force One.”

The president “remains very very interested in this situation. He’s obviously watching the television a lot, and he had some questions about the . He’s asking questions about reports of breaches. He’s asking about hospitals. He’s very engaged, and he’s asking a lot of really good questions I would expect him to ask,” Brown told the conference call, according to a transcript that was sent to NEWSWEEK by the White House on Wednesday morning.

Later in the conference call, according to the transcript, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco is asked by Joe Hagin, the deputy White House chief of staff, about the status of the New Orleans levees. Blanco replies: “We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees … I think we have not breached the levee. We have not breached the levee at this point in time. That could change, but in some places we have floodwaters coming in New Orleans East and ... St. Bernard Parish where we have waters that are eight to 10 feet deep, and we have people swimming in there. That’s got a considerable amount of water itself.”

more
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11626997/site/newsweek/

[WI_DEM]

1. Bush should be impeached for gross incompetence during

a disaster of this magnitude.

[smtpgirl]

6. EXACTLY

[converted_democrat]

8. Not to mention for lying about it all after the fact.. They lied about

what they knew.. It makes me sick to even think about it..

[Greeby]

2. Obviously they need it spelt out in big letters, so here goes

Talking about 9/11, but it works with almost anything

[smtpgirl]

3. except for the local governments

THEY KNEW EVERYTHING

They left the LA state/local governments to do EVERYTHING the US should have done, that has been my position since Katrina landed in NOLA.

The NOAA site shows the magnitude ot this storm.

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/Storm_pages/katrina2005/sat.html

Go to the high resolution picture between the Aug 29 pictures.

[fishnfla]

4. Mon Aug. 29th

what does the video before then show?

[smtpgirl]

5. that when Bush had the interviews

with MSNBC & others that "We didn't anticipate the breach of the leeves"

Videos show "heck of a job" Brownie & Chertoff on the VTC w/Bush talking about strategy about what to do with evacuations/survivors

[Flabbergasted]

7. This is what you call complete and utter B.S.

A White House official unexpectedly e-mailed the transcript to NEWSWEEK earlier today Wednesday morning—initially without explaining that it was the missing transcript. Two officials familiar with congressional investigations said that the document was turned over to Capitol Hill investigators Tuesday night. Administration officials told both Congress and NEWSWEEK that FEMA officials in Atlanta had taped the Aug. 29 conference call by aiming a video camera at a TV screen rather than following the usual recording procedure. The videotape was subsequently discovered and transcribed.