GOP panel blasts U.S. response to Katrina

By Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Hurricane Katrina exposed the U.S. government's failure to learn lessons from the Sept. 11 attacks, as leaders from President Bush down disregarded ample warnings of the threat to New Orleans and did not execute emergency plans or share information that would have saved lives, according to a blistering report by House investigators.

A draft of the report, to be released publicly Wednesday, includes 90 findings of failures at all levels of government, according to a senior investigation staffer who requested anonymity because the document is not final. Titled "A Failure of Initiative," it is one of three separate reviews by the House, Senate and White House that in coming weeks will dissect the response to the nation's costliest natural disaster.

The 600-plus-page report lays primary fault with the passive reaction and misjudgments of top Bush aides, singling out Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Operations Center and the White House Homeland Security Council, according to a 60-page summary of the document. Regarding Bush, the report found that "earlier presidential involvement could have speeded the response" because he alone could have cut through all bureaucratic resistance.

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This nation is in deep trouble because of these idiots in the White House. They can manage to get Bush off his vacation to sign an unconstitutional law invading the personal lives of the Schiavos, yet when millions of Americans are threatened with what appears to be the worst hurricane in U.S. history, Mr. Bush spends his time on the golf links. Americans everywhere should be outraged. Unfortunately, the Bush sychophants will continue to make up excuses for this this utter incompetence.