Two years ago, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita slammed into the
southern Gulf coast of the United States, providing a convenient crisis for a
criminal pillage of New Orleans, and militarization of the region.
What remains unaddressed, but fully corroborated by the
eyewitness testimony of survivors, is the fact that in the immediate aftermath
of the storms, the Bush administration, in conjunction with state and local
authorities:
- Allowed
New Orleans and adjoining areas to fall into anarchy, leaving storm
victims isolated and in danger of violence.
- Turned
New Orleans into a police state, teeming with armed troops and mercenaries
from Blackwater USA.
- Deliberately
withheld and blocked relief and federal assistance.
- Ethnically
cleansed large portions of the African-American population, through
various means, from �evacuation� and �relocation� to cold-blooded murder.
- Seizeed
political control of the oil-rich (but once inconveniently
African-American) South.
Two years later, this holocaust remains fully in effect. New
Orleans and neighboring areas have not been rebuilt or �revitalized,� and
remain (deliberately) without federal assistance. The hardest-hit areas that
were left to rot remain devastated, its citizens still suffering, surviving
only through the courageous work
of local activists.
The recently held International Tribunal on
Hurricane Katrina and Rita provided harrowing testimony from survivors and
eyewitnesses, such as Malik Rahim of Common
Ground, about the unaddressed crimes that occurred, the continuing horror
of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and the continuing cover-up of political
officials on every level. (To hear audio from the Tribunal, including Rahim�s
account, go to Pacifica Radio�s Hard
Knock Radio.)
To commemorate the anniversary of the event, it is
instructive to revisit some of the analysis and reporting from the immediate
wake of Katrina, including the following:
Hurricane
Katrina and holocaust: Slow response or deliberate extermination?
Pacifica Radio�s Flashpoints
program (listen to archived programs for September 7, 9, 12 and 16, 2005,
featuring interviews with Malik Rahim of Common
Ground and the 9/12/07 interview with investigative reporter Jeremy
Scahill, who has also written a book about Blackwater).
Militarization
of New Orleans:police state is here
Militarization
of the US homeland: the more you ask, the more you shall receive
As
noted by Michel Chossudovsky and
others, Katrina/New Orleans was �not a situation of political inertia. Quite
the opposite. The military has taken control of the emergency procedures,�
laying more groundwork for a full-scale police state within US borders.
