Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina

This frame taken from secure government video obtained by The Associated Press shows then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown, center, at the Homeland Security EOC (emergency operations center) in Washington Aug. 28, 2005, taking part in a government video briefing the day before Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29. (AP Photo)

This is incredible. What can I say, but here's more examples of the Bush White House lying to cover their arses. From Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, risk lives in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage of the briefings.

Bush didn't ask a single question during the final government-wide briefing the day before Katrina struck on Aug. 29 but assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

This 29 August, 2005 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite image shows the size of Hurricane Katrina when it made landfall. As New Orleans struggles to rebuild entire neighborhoods destroyed by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, many of those who were caught in its wake are still struggling to rebuild their lives.(AFP/NOAA-HO/File)

Talk about blatant lying here by the Bush White House. They knew how bad Katrina was, when it would hit New Orleans on the next day. The White House was briefed by federal disaster officials, and President Bush didn't ask a single question during that briefing? Talk about an arrogant, contemptual approach to an oncoming disaster! It is like President Bush was a deer frozen in the middle of the road, staring at the oncoming headlights. And he still had the arrogance to lie to the federal disaster officials that the U.S. was fully prepared--when it was obvious that the White House, the military, or the government was not. Continuing on:

Six days of footage and transcripts obtained by The Associated Press show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

Linked by secure video, Bush's bravado on Aug. 29 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm.

A top hurricane expert voiced "grave concerns" about the levees and then-
Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown told the president and
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren't enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome.

"I'm concerned about ... their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe," Brown told his bosses the afternoon before Katrina made landfall.

Some of the footage conflicts with the defenses that federal, state and local officials have made in trying to deflect blame and minimize the political fallout from the failed Katrina response:

_Homeland Security officials have said the "fog of war" blinded them early on to the magnitude of the disaster. But the video and transcripts show federal and local officials discussed threats clearly, reviewed long-made plans and understood Katrina would wreak devastation of historic proportions. "I'm sure it will be the top 10 or 15 when all is said and done," National Hurricane Center's Max Mayfield warned the day Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast.

"I don't buy the `fog of war' defense," Brown told the AP in an interview Wednesday. "It was a fog of bureaucracy."

Bush declared four days after the storm, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees" that gushed deadly flood waters into New Orleans. But the transcripts and video show there was plenty of talk about that possibility--and Bush was worried too.

U.S. President George W. Bush holds up a copy of 'Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned' during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, February 23, 2006. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Mr. President, you have just lied to the American people. A top hurricane official voiced "grave concerns" about the possibility that Katrina would breech the levees.
Or how about this quote: "'I'm sure it will be the top 10 or 15 when all is said and done,' National Hurricane Center's Max Mayfield warned the day Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast." You don't think Mayfield didn't see the possibility that Katrina would breech the levees? You can bet that a number of hurricane officials--or anyone trained in meteorology--could surmise that Katrina was powerful enough to breech the levees. Even your local TV weatherman could have seen that coming.

What is especially funny is that FEMA director Michael 'Heckava Job' Brownie was right. It was the fog of bureaucracy. Only this fog didn't blind the lower level career disaster officials, who knew of the power of Katrina. This fog blinded the White House. It blinded President Bush, Cheney, Rove, Chertoff, Brown, and perhaps the top military officials. This fog started at the top of this nation's top executive leadership, and then flowed down. What is even more astounding is how the White House is playing their political-spin game in claiming they still couldn't anticipate the magnitude of Katrina--even as their lies are now exposed.

Incredible.