Twenty-eight government agencies, from local Louisiana parishes to the White House, reported that New Orleans levees were breached Aug. 29, the day Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, documents released Thursday show.
A timeline of e-mails, situation updates and weather reports, pieced together by Senate Democrats, indicates the Bush administration knew as early as 8:30 a.m. EST about levee failures that would ultimately lead to massive flooding of the city and its surrounding parishes.
[snip]
Shortly after the disaster, Bush said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." He later said his comment was meant to suggest that there had been a false sense of relief that the levees had held when the storm passed, only to break a few hours later.
The Bush administration has said it knew definitively early Tuesday, the day after the storm, that the levees had been breached, based on an Army Corps of Engineers assessment. (emphasis mine)
Most of the information coming out of the White House never passes the smell test with me. They have never earned my trust, and don't deserve it. Regarding Katrina, it was appalling to hear Bush, Scotty and other officials claim they didn't know the extent of the damage being done in the Gulf Coast. How could they be in the dark, when the rest of the world was watching with horror as we saw countless people being abandoned?
Simple. They are a pack of liars.
At least one branch of Congress needs to be retaken by the Democrats in November to finally begin the full investigations of the many instances where failed leadership led to needless death. The Republicans cannot be trusted to hold them accountable.
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