Operation Freedom

http://www.friedwire.org/friedspam.html

OPERATION CAJUN FREEDOM
September 8, 2005 (NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana)

There is strong evidence that aid was deliberately withheld by the White House and the Pentagon as part of a strategy for asserting unfettered military control over the city of New Orleans. Both hurricane victims and public officials have given multiple accounts of US authorities actively turning back aid and blocking rescue attempts in the days that followed the breaching of the city’s levees.Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, for example, broke down in tears Sunday during an appearance on the NBC television program "Meet the Press," declaring, "Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area." He cited repeated actions by FEMA that involved the deliberate sabotage of relief efforts. He reported that FEMA turned back trailer truckloads of water sent by Wal-Mart, claiming the city didn’t need them. He also said that the Coast Guard’s offer of fuel urgently needed to power generators was countermanded by FEMA.Finally, he said that just a day earlier FEMA agents had come in and "cut all of our emergency communication lines" without any warning. The local sheriff, he added, had the lines reconnected and then posted armed guards to see that they were not cut again. This last, and most sinister, example is in keeping with the Pentagon’s "information war" doctrine, which demands the complete control of communications in an area targeted for invasion and occupation. There were also reports that the Red Cross was prevented from going into the city and that FEMA refused to allow the unloading of food, water and medical supplies brought by ships into New Orleans harbor.The apparent aim of this organized obstructionist behavior by the agency that is supposedly charged with coordinating relief was to block any significant aid until the military could intervene in the city with overwhelming force. This came on Friday, with military commanders treating New Orleans as a combat operation. This was the term used by Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force, in an interview with the Army Times. "This place is going to look like Little Somalia," said General Jones. "We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control."The newspaper clearly got the message, referring in its report to troops coming in to "fight the insurgency in the city."