Bush Says He'll Head Investigation Into Katrina Debacle - Video Inside

[Gold9472]

Bush Says He'll Head Investigation Into Katrina Debacle

Click Here (rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/hur/hur090605_bush.rm)

"What I intend to do is lead an investigation into what went wrong, and what went right."

As I said in regards to 9/11 when the President appointed the commission himself, that's like appointing your own jury in a murder investigation.

[Gold9472]

Bush Says He'll Find Out What Went Wrong

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050906/ap_on_go_pr_wh/katrina_washington_44

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer Tue Sep 6,11:36 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Buffeted by criticism over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush said Tuesday he will oversee an investigation into what went wrong and why — in part to be sure the country could withstand more storms or attack.

Bush also announced he is sending Vice President Dick Cheney to the Gulf Coast region on Thursday to help determine whether the government is doing all that it can.

"Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way of getting the job done for the people," the president said after a meeting at the White House with his Cabinet on storm recovery efforts.

"What I intend to do is lead an investigation to find out what went right and what went wrong," Bush said. "We still live in an unsettled world. We want to make sure we can respond properly if there is a WMD (weapons of mass destruction) attack or another major storm."

But Bush said now is not the time to point fingers and he did not respond to calls for a commission to investigate the response.

"One of the things people want us to do here is play the blame game," he said. "We got to solve problems. There will be ample time to figure out what went right and what went wrong."

Bush was devoting most of his day to the recovery effort. After the Cabinet meeting, he was gathering with the congressional leaders, representatives of charitable organizations and with Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to talk about assistance for displaced students and closed schools.

McClellan said the president also was increasing what he described as a sizable personal contribution to the Red Cross and also was sending money to the Salvation Army.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., had told reporters Monday that the Homeland Security Committee would convene hearings as Congress returns this week to examine the "weaknesses and strengths" of the federal response and to "apply the lessons learned."

There has been heavy criticism of the government's response to the hurricane, and city and state officials, Republicans and Democrats have assailed the Federal Emergency Management Agency led by Michael Brown. Bush, during an inspection tour of the devastated region last Friday, praised Brown, telling him, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Bush did not respond directly when asked if anyone on his disaster response team should be replaced.

The president said that he and his Cabinet members were focused on planning in several areas of immediate need — restoring basic services to affected areas, draining the water from New Orleans, removing debris, assessing public health and safety threats and housing for those displaced by the storm. "Most importantly," Bush said, officials are trying to figure out how to get Social Security checks to people now scattered across the country in private homes, churches and other shelters.

"This administration is not going to rest until every life is saved, until every family is reconnected, until the recovery is complete," he said.

[PhilosophyGenius]

I wouldnt be suprised if the investiagtion ended up blaming local officials and the military while Bush get's another free pass.

Holla!

[Gold9472]

Bush to lead inquiry into Katrina

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4220246.stm

US President George W Bush says he will lead an investigation into how the Hurricane Katrina disaster was handled.

"I'm going to find out over time what went right and what went wrong," he said in reply to criticism that the authorities were too slow to respond.

The US Senate is to hold two inquiries of its own into the disaster which hit the Gulf Coast and New Orleans.

Officials in New Orleans have urged its last residents to leave the swamped city, saying it is now uninhabitable.

The city's Times-Picayune newspaper has demanded the sacking of top officials at the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).

One allegation levelled at Fema is that at the height of the crisis it turned away water and diesel because of bureaucracy.

In other developments:

Environmental experts warn that human sewage and chemical pollution from the flooded city could create a second disaster if they are pumped out untreated into Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi

Two United Nations aid agencies, Unicef and the World Health Organisation, send teams of specialists to Texas and Georgia to help the US federal emergency effort.

'No blame game'
Ex-president Bill Clinton, and his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, have been among those calling for an inquiry into the handling of Katrina.

How the different levels of government had reacted to Katrina would be examined, Mr Bush said, but he refused to "play the blame game" and said he wanted to focus on the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the storm.

America, he added, had to be sure it could respond properly to another disaster, whether natural or an attack with weapons of mass destruction.

And he announced that Vice-President Dick Cheney would visit the Gulf Coast region on Thursday to help assess the government's work.

Mr Bush's promise of an investigation falls well short of demands being made by his opponents for a full, independent inquiry, the BBC's Jonathan Beale reports from Washington.

The Senate's homeland security committee and governmental affairs committee are holding their own inquiries, with the latter pointing to "the lack of preparedness and the ineffective initial response to a disaster that had been predicted for years".

America's top soldier, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, has denied the military was slow to respond.

"Not only was there no delay, I think we... were pushing support before we were formally asked for it," he said.

'Turning the corner'
Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, has said the relief effort is finally starting to "turn the corner".

"There's still a significant amount of water but instead of having 80% of the city under water I would estimate that we have 60% of the city under water," Mr Nagin said.

Officials say they have repaired one of the five floodwalls known to have been breached and have started pumping water out into Lake Pontchartrain.

But they said it could take up to three months to finish the job.

Thousands of people are estimated to have been killed in the city.

[Gold9472]

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