by Paul Collins
from
ParanoiaMagazine Website
In the wake of hurricane Katrina, many
within the government are ducking for cover as the blame game
begins. One individual who has been targeted is Michael Brown, the
director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Associated
Press reported the following:
The top U.S. disaster official
waited hours after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast
before he proposed to his boss sending at least 1,000 Homeland
Security workers into the region to support rescuers, internal
documents show.
Part of the mission, according to the documents obtained by The
Associated Press, was to "convey a positive image" about the
government's response for victims.
Acknowledging that such a move would
take two days, Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made
landfall on Aug 29.
Before then, FEMA had positioned smaller rescue and
communications teams across the Gulf Coast. But officials
acknowledged the first department-wide appeal for help came only
as the storm raged.
Brown's memo to Chertoff described Katrina as,
"this near
catastrophic event" but otherwise lacked any urgent language.
The memo politely ended, "Thank you for your consideration in
helping us to meet our responsibilities."
(No pagination)
Michael Brown is not the only one
with a bull's eye on his chest. Former Clinton advisor Sydney
Blumenthal also got in on the fun, placing blame squarely on the
President's shoulders:
In 2001, FEMA warned that a
hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely
disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New
Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq
war.
(No pagination)
Many in the mainstream media have
interpreted these revelations the same way: gross incompetence on
the part of the government. Apparently, Uncle Sam cannot get a
thing right these days. What the media has completely missed (or
ignored) is how certain factions within government could use the
Katrina catastrophe to introduce social changes previously
unthinkable. There is a discomforting possibility that Americans
must consider in light of the fact that there is no one else looking
out for their best interest. It is the possibility that warnings
were ignored and assistance was intentionally delayed to create a
pretext for unprecedented government growth.
One supporter of this contention is Paul Craig Roberts, the
former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. On the 5th
September 2005 Alex Jones show, Roberts:
"agreed that FEMA has
deliberately withheld aid, and cut emergency communication
lines, and automatically made the crisis look worse in order to
empower the image of a police state emerging to 'save the
day'"
(Watson and Jones, no pagination).
Steve Watson and Alex Jones
also report:
Roberts further commented,
"There is no excuse for this, we
have never had in our history the federal government take a week
to respond to a disaster... this is the first time ever that the
help was not mobilized in advance. The proper procedure is that
everything is mobilized and ready to go."
(No pagination)
Roberts can hardly be called a
conspiracy theorist. The former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
has recognized a certain game plan at work in the Katrina situation.
This game plan has been used for centuries. Researcher Ralph
Epperson elaborates:
The first step consisted of having
the conspiracy's own people infiltrate the government (the
"pressure from above.")
The second step was to create a real or alleged grievance,
usually through either an action of government or through some
situation where the government should have acted and didn't.
The third step consisted in having a mob created by the real or
alleged grievance that the government or the conspiracy caused
demand that the problem be solved by a governmental action (the
"pressure from below.")
The fourth step consisted in having the conspirators in the
government remedy the real or alleged situation with some
oppressive legislation.
The fifth step is a repeat of the last three. The government
does not solve the problem and the mob demand more and more
legislation until the government becomes totalitarian in
nature by possessing all of the power. (37)
If this method were fully implemented,
it would be no exaggeration to describe the end result as being a
Soviet-style America. One of the government agencies that have
much to gain from the execution of this technique is FEMA.
Michael Brown may become a sacrificial lamb. However, the
Agency he heads, FEMA, has much to gain from the Katrina
catastrophe. The hurricane disaster may lead to calls for
increasing FEMA's budget and power. In a hopes of silencing his
critics, the President may favor such a move.
America would then fall back to sleep,
believing FEMA had its back covered in the event of another
disaster. However, several researchers have recognized that FEMA has
little to do with emergency relief. One such individual was deceased
researcher Jim Keith. In his book,
Black Helicopters Over America,
Keith noted the following concerning FEMA:
FEMA is intended to assume the
powers of government during "emergencies," even to the extent of
taking over the powers of the President, if the situation is
believed to warrant it. The organization is located in the top
secret National Security Agency facility in Fort Meade,
Maryland. In its more benign aspects, FEMA is seen as an
"umbrella" agency that, during times of disaster or natural
cataclysm, will step into to throw the stricken populace life
preservers. But there are aspects of FEMA which have some
worried, one being that only a small percentage, less than 10%
of FEMA employees according to a Congressional investigation, is
engaged in anything having to do with disaster relief.
So what the hell is FEMA
doing behind those closed doors at
Fort Meade?
Among other things, the agency is engaged in compiling computer
records on millions of Americans, to provide a database for
CAPS, Crisis Action Programs, to be deployed whenever the
non-elected bureaucrats of FEMA anticipate something
which might compromise almighty COG, what they term the
"Continuity of Government."
Was Keith merely being an
alarmist when he penned these words? In his book
The Triangle of Death, former DEA
agent Michael Levine records a conversation he had with a
CIA agent that reinforces Jim Keith's contention:
"How can you be so good at what you
do and have so little understanding of what really pulls your
strings? Don't you realize that there are factions in your
government that want this to happen – an emergency situation
too hot for a constitutional government to handle."
"To what end?" I asked.
"A suspension of the Constitution, of course. The
legislation is already in place. All perfectly legal. Check it
out yourself. It's called FEMA. Federal Emergency
Management Agency. 'Turn in your guns, you antigovernment
rabble rousers. And who would be king, Michael?"
In an interview with William Norman
Grigg, Levine made it clear that this account was not
fictitious:
According to Levine, this
shocking exchange is not the product of an imagination fed by
alarmist.
"That scenario… came from a specific
conversation I had with a CIA officer in Argentina in
1979," Levine informed The New American.
"There was a small group of us
gathered for a drinking at the CIA guy's apartment. There
were several Argentine police officers there as well; at the
time, Argentina was a police state in which people could be
taken into custody without warning, tortured, and then
'disappeared.'"
"At one point my associate in the CIA said that he
preferred Argentina's approach to social order, and that America
should be more like that country," Levine continues.
"Somebody asked, 'Well, how does a change of that sort happen?'
The spook replied that it was necessary to create a situation
of public fear – a sense of impending anarchy and social
upheaval…"
The lack of response on the part of the
government to hurricane Katrina created a situation just like
that described by Levine's CIA acquaintance. An August 31, 2005
WWLTV news report seems to suggest that the situation had the
desired effect:
Disgusted and furious with the
lawlessness of looters who have put fear into citizens, New
Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared Martial Law in the
city and directed the city's 1,500 person police force to do
"whatever it takes" to regain control of the city.
Nagin said that Martial Law means that officers don't
have to worry about civil rights and Miranda rights in stopping
the looters.
(No pagination)
With the proper pretext now in place,
FEMA could enter the scene. Lieutenant-general Carl A. Strock
of the Army Corps of Engineers informed the press that FEMA
was heading up the federal response:
"Ultimately, the corps is directed,
along with 15 other agencies, by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency. 'It is FEMA who is really calling the
shots and setting priorities here,' General Strock said"
(Revkin, no pagination).
Indeed, FEMA is calling all the
shots in New Orleans. In the event of a larger crisis, the agency's
powers could be further augmented by Executive Order 11051.
This Executive Order would allow FEMA to enact other Executive
Orders, extending the organization's control over numerous state and
federal functions. This control would overarch education, welfare,
and health services (Executive Order 11051, no pagination). In
addition, FEMA would wield substantial authority over
America's financial institutions.
The agency would regulate wages, credit,
salaries, and the flow of capital (Executive Order 11051, no
pagination). The nation's means of production and distribution would
also be commandeered (no pagination). In short, the infrastructure
of the United States would be effectively controlled by one
omnipotent governmental entity. FEMA is a dictator's wet dream,
and with Katrina it is starting to be given teeth.
-
The lesson to be learned
from Katrina is fairly obvious.
-
In the event of a
catastrophe, we cannot depend on the government to be
our savior.
-
The politics of disaster are
not about relief for the victims.
-
They are about the
acquisition of power.
Sources Cited
-
Blumenthal, Sydney. "Former Clinton
Advisor: 'No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming'." Spiegel
Online, 31 August 2005
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,372455,00.html
-
Epperson, Ralph. The Unseen Hand.
Tucson, Arizona: Publius Press, 1985.
-
Executive Order 11051: PRESCRIBING
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE OFFICE OF EMERGENCY
PLANNING IN THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT. 27 September
1962
http://www.disastercenter.com/laworder/11051.htm
-
Grigg, William Norman. "Battle Lines
in the Drug War." New American, October 27, 1997: pg. 11-16.
-
Keith, Jim. Black Helicopters Over
America: Strikeforce for the New World Order. Lilburn, Georgia:
Illuminet Press, 1994.
-
Levine, Michael and Laura Kavanau.
The Triangle of Death. New York: Delacorte Press, 1996.
-
Revkin, Andrew. "Gazing at Breached
Levees, Critics See Years of Missed Opportunities." New York
Times, 2 September 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/national/nationalspecial/02levee.html
-
Unsigned document. "FEMA Chief Sent
Help Only When Storm Ended." Associated Press, 7 September 2005
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050907%2F0218843615.htm
&photoid=20050904LADM120&ewp=ewp_news_0905fema
-
Unsigned document. "Nagin declares
Martial Law to crack down on looters." WWLTV.com, 31 August 2005
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL083105lawless.1242410b.html
-
Watson, Steve and Alex Jones.
"Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury on New Orleans:
'Americans Are Being Brainwashed'" Prison Planet.Com, 6
September 2005
http://prisonplanet.com/Pages/Sept05/060905brainwashed.htm
About the Author
Paul D. Collins has studied
suppressed history and the shadowy undercurrents of world
political dynamics for roughly eleven years. In 1999, he
completed his Associate of Arts and Science degree. He is
working to complete his Bachelor's degree, with a major in
Communications and a minor in Political Science.
Paul has authored another book
entitled
The Hidden Face of Terrorism: The Dark
Side of Social Engineering, From Antiquity to September 11.
He also co-authored
The Ascendancy of the Scientific
Dictatorship.
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