Newsweek breaks the silence on the deployment of US Space Command forces by the White House in New Orleans
By Isiah Scott
In a shocking and revealing March 27, 2006 article “Katrina The Scapegoat”, Mark Hosenball broke the official media blackout of the existence of pre-positioned US Space Command satellite surveillance over New Orleans and the Northern Gulf of Mexico.
The Oval Office, via the US military watched the flooding of New Orleans from the very beginning and did nothing. The US Space multi billion satellites provided real-time alive video of a 200-mile wide event. The March 27, 2006 article “Katrina The Scapegoat”, Newsweek article clearly shows to the America public just how early the Oval Office, US military and FEMA knew about the 17th levee problem.
Newsweek continues to hide the full story of the US Space Command role.
What is the real truth being hidden from African Americans about FEMA and the US military takeover of New Orleans? FEMA’s federal first responder role had illegally already been integration into the NORTHCOM pre Katrina forward deployments. The reason there was only one FEMA official operative in New Orleans the day before Katrina came ashore was because scores of NORTHCOM and US Space units were already illegally operating in the city.
According to Hosenball Newsweek article—“ unnamed policymakers were told the damage to New Orleans might be wore than depicted (from ground reports) on TV (the day of the storm). In an e-mail to Homeland Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson at 11:05 p.m., Patrick Rhode, a top aides to FEMA chief Michael Brow…described a 200-yard levee breach near Lake Pontchartrian, that people were being rescued from housetops, that there were “unconfirmed random body sighting’ and that 60 percent of the seemed flooded.” The FEMA chief of staff and deputy chief of staff were reportedly already process active intelligence from early in the day. “Still HLS spokesmen were reporting getting conflicting information”.
In the March/April 2006 E Magazine, “Arsenic and Old waste” by Jim Motavalli reports that the US Department of Environmental Protection was able to monitor inundation of Katrina flood water within 25 feet of Dupont chemical plant in Mississippi and other mission critical oil and chemical plants using US military satellites . Officially FEMA has only one field agent, left behind in city of New Orleans and no communication uplink or center.
The blast winds and rain from Katrina destroyed most of the communication infrastructure in the New Orleans, cloud cover did not allow for new network satellite observation. FEMA provide the Red Cross and other agencies with all-weather communication uplink from entering the region. The only way from FEMA to have known about events across a two hundred mile range was by use of the US Space Command. Officially the US Space Command and other federal forces and agencies were not deployed until September 3,2006.
FEMA, Homeland Security, the NORTHCOM, FBI and 20 other federal agencies were under direct orders from the Oval Office not to provide any assistance to storm victims until Governor Blanco surrendered the National Guard to the Oval Office. History will record; these Oval Office orders were followed to the letter by all federal agencies and the US military NORTHCOM.
The first few hours after Katrina would be critical to setting up the ground and water military escape routes for the rescue and rapid deployment of forces into hard hit locations like the low 9th ward and the Super Dome.
The local forces and National Guard were forced to operate in the dark, some time with little or no communications for days at a time.
As part of the ruthless Plan B, the Oval Office ordered Homeland Security operatives refuse to allow the American Red Cross or Salvation Army forces into New Orleans. This was done in part to keep the space-based communication infrastructure of the two agencies from breaking the Oval Office’s Condon santaire of New Orleans.
According to the FEMA master plan for New Orleans, US Space Command communications forward ground units were to create a physical uplink to access space-based communication platform for all military and rescue forces i.e. US and state National Guard, regional Guards, local forces.
This unified all weather New Orleans regional space based communication system was agreed to be functional before Katrina came ashore. Everyone knew Katrina’s 178 mph blastwinds would destroy most ground communication in southern Louisiana. President Bush, the US military, Homeland Security and FEMA used the New Orleans uplink board Air Force One the morning Katrina hit New Orleans. The US military New Orleans uplink was used to show off the communication power of the NORTHCOM and US Space vs. the weak Louisiana State National Guard communications uplink. This performance was conducted an hour after Katrina blasts winds of over 178 mph destroyed the New Orleans regional communication grid. A select group of local officials and press were on Air Forces with President Bush for the media event and photo sessions.
Oval Office negotiators tried and failed against the morning of the storm landing to pressure Governor team fighting federalization used this lack of a functional communication grid.
Mid-Morning after Katrina came ashore the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, NORTHCOM participated in a Katrina video conference with federal and state official from Air Force One, while thousand of New Orleans citizen were waiting on there roofs from rescue.
Oil companies and even private hotels were allow to used the US military network, the President refused to allow the Louisiana national Guard, New Orleans Police and other local agencies use.
The Oval Office refused NORTHCOM field commanders and victim’s requests to even air drop satellites phones into New Orleans.
Real eyes in the sky over New Orleans GMTI
A critical element of the National Guard/US Space Command uplink was the Ground moving target Indicator (GMTI) satellite network, which would allow the Louisiana National Command to view in real time video feed, the entire region of southern Louisiana and were the flood waters were and the rate they were spreading. GMTI also would allow management the critical landing zones in and around the flooded areas of New Orleans to rapidly move thousands of citizens out of the spreading floor water.
The GMTI core satellites layers allowed President, Vice President, Departmental secretaries and the Oval Office watched live video feeds 24/7 of the collapse of communication grid. They could hear the New Orleans Police Department transmissions and 911 calls begging for help.
The Oval Office used this human drama of Americans children dying to try and pressure the Governor’s team.
More importantly, the GMITI allowed the US Department of Environmental Protection to locate track oil and chemical spill and flood inundations of 350 oil and chemical facilities in the storm footprint.
The GMTI would also allow the National Guard field commanders to make field adjustments to deployment to maximize the effectiveness the 7,000 forces in the field while President Bush made up his mind to join the fight.
Good German soldiers
Why then are the most powerful newspapers in Northern America still beating up Mr. Brown the obvious Oliver North fall guy of the failed Oval Office Coup, in their editorial articles and not the spooks in Oval Office cabal who gave Mr. Brown the orders to do nothing? Mr. Brown, FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, the US military’s NORTHCOM charged with protection the homeland and 20 other federal agencies stood by locked and loaded, like good Germans soldiers, and collectively watched other Americans at risk for four day and did nothing while the city of New Orleans flooded and thousands of its people died on national TV.
Oval Office orchestrated Confusion
Contrary to official media misinformation and lies there was no confusion in the Oval Office, NEC or the Joint Chiefs of staff about the militarization of FEMA role or the strategic importance of taking control of the Louisiana State National Guard as a precondition for controlling the storm recovery and awarding of politically based post-Katrina reconstruction contracts.
Access to the powerful US military satellite communication network was a critical key to taking control of the Louisiana State National Guard and New Orleans relief efforts. Critical elements of the Louisiana National Guard ground uplink infrastructure (staff and phones) were being used in Iraq seriously restricting the states ability to deploy and coordinate seriously reduced its forces. Lack the use of the military space-based communication platform, National Guard mobility and effectiveness was seriously degraded
Denial of access to the US military communication grid was a critical aspect of the Bush endgame plan to use pro Bush elements within the Louisiana National Guard command to pressure the Governor of Louisiana into submission.
Lacking access to the US military space-based communication platform, local Louisiana forces could not effectively communicate with each other, during the critical first hours and day after the storm come ashore. According to the FEMA master plan 30,000 to 60,000 Americans were projected to die in the first 72 hours.
Lack of access to this US military communication platform directly contributed to lose of thousands of American citizens’ lives and over a million homeless and internally displaced American refugees, who happened to be mostly Black.
Michele D. Brown, who was asked to leave as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency stated to a open session Congressional committee on Tuesday 9/27/05, that he had warned the White House of impending disaster (New Orleans flooding) several days before the storm (Katrina) struck. Mr. Brow also said that he had warned Andrew H. Card Jr., President Bush’s chief of staff, at least three days before the hurricane hit New Orleans on Aug.28. Mr. Brown and Congress have been very careful not to ask about his role in the federalization talks between the Oval Office and the Governor of Louisiana.
Mr. Brown to date has not yet revealed the NORTHCOM take over of the FEMA first responder’s role. Admiral Keating revealed the forward prepositionning of NORTHCOM in a press briefing on September 9, 2005. These illegal US military units by passed both FEMA and Homeland Security command and control and reported directly to Admiral Keating command and the Oval Office. This was an open and dangerous violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.
Responding directly to Mr. Brown’s Congressional statements, Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, issued a statement Tuesday night that said, in part; “Yes, we were very focused on it (Katrina). We were acting ahead of the storm because we recognized it was an extremely dangerous hurricane.” Acting ahead of the storm, NORTHCOM and US Space Command had illegally prepostioned US military personal and fleet of military satellites to layer the New Orleans region. The US military had also illegally prepositioned Special Forces, reconnaissance and communication units in the Northern Gulf region.
Oval Office secret military plan
The Bush administration secret military plan was to the artificially created a Black crisis at the Super Dome and Convention Center and then leverage ground zero intelligence of the deepening human crisis. These kinds of staged life and death dramas events are very common in oil rich African countries.
This super powerful US military communication platform and federal troops would be offered in negotiations with the Governor of Louisiana. By threatening to refuse to allow use of the US military communication network, the Bush hoped to add pressure on the Governor to federalized her forces. Federal military support would only come after the various states, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi agreed to sign on to federalization of their National Guard forces under direct US military command.
This political power move was triggered by massive negative network reporting of hundred of massive oil links in the New Orleans region. Based on a last minute Bush administration and NORTHCOM change of the federal component of FEMA 2005 master for immediate federal hurricane aid. The FEMA 2005 master plan called for the US military to come under the command and control of the various state National Guard general staff and field commanders.
The secret Oval Office plan called for rather than work with the National Guard fight the storm head on; the federal forces would get out of the way of Katrina (i.e. wait until the local communication grid was degraded) and then deploy US military forces right after the storm passed. The secret Oval Office plan necessitated forward positioning of communication and Special Forces, in order for US Space to show case its power unified command and control capability to coordination and integration of all the major branch of the military, in addition to units from 40 different State National Guard forces.
The Oval Office hoped that after local Louisiana ground coordinate ground communication were destroyed by the storms destructive blast winds, the National Guard would be forces to submit to federalization, just to deploy it small force region force. Then the NORTHCOM commanded by Admiral Keating would bring massive federal rescues forces to bear on the city of New Orleans and other crisis areas in the region.
The eye of the storm missed New Orleans and the windblasts were only 90 mph, not the 178 mph blasts that hit destroyed Blisix, Mississippi over a hundred miles away to the northeast.
Critical to the Oval Office secrets military plan was taking total control of recovery and reconstruction and the awarding of the billions dollars of post-Katrina federal aid. The New York City based Oil and Chemical multinationals were very concern about a potential trillion dollar personal claim from the tons of toxic waste linked into the Mississippi River and city water system following the storm.
The Governor Office apparently throw the dice betting that the killer storm would turn north at the last minute because of the strong easterly Northern Gulf current and the cooler water protecting the approach to the New Olean basin. When Katrina in fact turned north and missed a direct hit on New Orleans, the Oval Office immediately move to Plan B, were was a total stand down and reused of federal assistance.
However, the Governor also knew that billions of dollars of federal Katrina reconstruction contracts had already been signed in Washington as Katrina cross the Gulf of Mexico. President Bush needed total control of the contract awarding process to make good on his political contracts already awarded and signed in Washington before Katrina came ashore in the Northern Gulf.
Because the Governor of Louisiana strongly resisted the Bush secrete takeover plan, the state National Guard was forced to battle Katrina and city wide flooding by itself with most of its critical all weather satellite communication equipment in Iraq. President Bush staff knew the serious communication limitations of the Louisiana National Guard, because they ordered that the Louisiana National Guard equipment be left in southern Iraq.
Critical Time lost cost thousands of lives
The President tried, but failed to blackmail the Governor of Louisiana to submit to his political will and request to surrender all military control of the Louisiana National Guard before the storm came ashore. The fail Oval Office federalization coup d’ estat of Louisiana’s National Guard wasted critical storm preparation time and thousands of lives.
This Louisiana/Oval Office political struggle around federalization, not confusion between federal, state and local forces integration was the primary reasons for the slow deployment and poor coordination of federal forces over the first four days.
According to the Wall Street Journal, NORTHCOM and Space Command units were on the ground and in position for a week ahead of the storm.
Satellite communication uplink infrastructure deployed before storm, was ordered by President not to be turned on.
Thousands of Americans, mostly Black children have unnecessarily lost their lives. A million other were made homeless, and hundreds of thousand of flood victims now face certain destitution.
In exchange for Mr. Brown’s silence in his congressional testimony, about the illegal militarization of FEMA function Mr. Michele Brown the former FEMA is been given so far legal protection by the Bush Administration from any real criminal charges until they leave office in 2009 if the Republican lose the Oval Office. A Brown show trial may be political necessary to take pressure of the Oval Office spooks.
The Oval Office is trying to use the George Tenet fall guy methodology for controlled of critical information for the next phase in the Bush/Cheney political cover-up of their criminal activities in New Orleans.
Cards, Libby and Rove and longtime Cheney aides David Addington and John Hannah were the key insiders’ players in the Bush/Cheney criminal attempt to federalized Louisiana State National Guard forces during the flooding of New Orleans. They kept the stand down ordered in force over Admiral Keating and his locked and loaded forces for over four days before, during and after Katrina stormed came ashore in the Northern Gulf.
Many of these Oval Office spooks directly responsible for masterminding the federalization plan, are now looking for a political cover like the CIA leak to justified leaving the Bush Administration before the criminal indictments come down for the abuse of power and state terrorism in New Orleans.
The critical role-played by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and US Space in the attempted to take over of the Louisiana National Guard in the early phase before the storm came ashore in Mississippi is slowly building into a political ground swell within the General Powell networks inside the military.
Former Secretary of State C.Powell’s chief of staff attacks on the “Oval Office Cabal” and the Senate closed session over intelligence Bush used to justified the war are part of a growing grass root movement building around New Orleans the German storm trooper role the US military was unwillingly forced to play by the Oval Office Cabal.
Presidential order
Mr. Brown’s open session Congressional statements and the White house and mainstream media blaming and attacks provide a rich field of insider information about the failure and political economy of Katrina. Mr. Brown’s Congressional statement also creates the clearest evidence for the immediate removal of the president, vice president, secretaries of defense, state and homeland security.
Former head of FEMA, Mr. Brown, the person legally most responsible for the critical first linkage with the federal government was willfully and knowingly left out of the Oval Office critical loop. There is clear evidence that the President men had consolidated the de facto FEMA function under the New NORTHCOM structure.
FEMA as such, appears to have already been reduced by the Homeland Security a shell agency. The forward NORTHCOM and US Space Command units already in New Orleans in front of Katrina were not even communicating with the local FEMA officers.
According to the New York Times, the lone FEMA officer left on his own in New Orleans in front of Katrina was order by FEMA officials in the Oval Office network in Washington to leave the city.
He reportedly was totally unaware of US military units deployed in the city before the storm.
FEMA under US military control
If Mr. Brown closed door congressional statements are found to be true, President Bush, Michael Chertoff and his other top aides should stand trail for mass murder, high treason and state terrorism.
Mr. Brown statements suggest that top leadership of the federal government charged with the task of providing first responders aid to state and local rescue has pushed him out the critical information loop and was left helpless by Homeland Security and the Department of Defense.
Suppression of the FEMA fuction , US Space Command primary function
The New York Times and other mainstream media have completely blacked out any reference or coverage of the critical FEMA/US Space uplink critical task clearly outlined and agreed to in the FEMA 2005 hurricane master plan.
The New York Times in its ruthless attack on Brown’s behavior before and during the critical hours of Katrina coming ashore in New Orleans region never once addressed the failure of US Space Command ground units to provide communication services to local forces before the storm, as the FEMA 2005 hurricane master plan clearly specified.
Mainstream media out of fear of the reaction of the US military element of the Oval Office cabal has to date refused to cover the failed satellite uplink task aspect of the Bush secret plan to pressure the Louisiana Governor to federalize her National Guard.
The space-based military phones that FEMA, Space Command and NORTHCOM and other state National Guard had in the region were not given to Louisianan local forces to replace their satellite phones taken and order by the Oval Office left in southern Iraq. Even after the Katrina had passed through the city, no satellite phones were even air dropped to local rescue forces by the US military or Homeland security.
NORTHCOM/US Space Command had agreed as a backup to supply New Orleans and the Louisiana National Guard replacement advanced space-based communication for coordinating the initial rescue operations before, during and immediately following the Hurricane Katrina.
Homeland Security officers voided the orders for additional satellite phones. NORTHCOM field commanders requests phone from NORTHCOM and Homeland Security headquarters before the storm hit. They were ordered by the Oval Office to stand down while federalization negotiations were in process with the Governor of Louisiana.
Use of US Space communication in the opening phase of Katrina would allow the all ground and sea forces to maintain communication during the 145 mile per hour winds and storm surge.
The first few hours after Katrina
Contrary to press reports, there was no confusion on the part of the Oval Office in terms of the communication grid or access. The President refused to allow the National Guard to interface communication grids as part of a political endgame to pressure the Governor of Louisiana to federalized her army.
Admiral Keating, his general staff and other base commanders helplessly watched as the New Orleans military communication grid went off line.
This refusal by the President becomes even more critical when the National Guard main forward operational center and critical transition assets were flooded out in New Orleans. National Guard forces were forces to regroup and deploy with little communication as the flooding spread deeper into the city at night.
During the first hours after the 17th Street rupture, many citizens lives in New Orleans were unnecessary lost that could have been saved by GMITI night operational helicopter units. National Guard helicopters were unable to deploy because of the lack night communication infrastructure. The Oval Office monitor the Louisiana National Guard struggles via illegal forward ground forces in New Orleans and US military spy satellites listening in on National Guard communications grids.
US Space Command, US Storm Troopers
Critical post Katrina preparation and evacuation time was wasted by the Oval Office while Bush’s federalization team tried to have his way with the Governor of Louisiana and the Louisiana National Guard forces.
The critical three elements of the Katrina defense plan was lost with the failure to create all weather space-based communication interfaces before, during and immediately following the storm passing. Everyone in hurricane planning knew that the storm would destroy the New Orleans ground communication grid and police and National Guard forces would need massive amount of bandwidth to communicate on what was left of the communication infrastructure.
The local FEMA forward elements, according to the 2005 master plan would linkup with the local city; country and states rescue agencies alone with the forward NORTHCOM forces already on the ground before the storm.
FEMA task of conduct the initial needs assessment and crisis/ rescues interventions were lost to the lack of field communication with local agencies.
Other southern regional National Guards and federal forces would be deploying under the direction to the Louisiana National Guard commanders to areas as need. Communications was a mission critical aspect of integrating and deploying other states National Guard unit into a crisis region.
The one of FEMA first tasks was to immediately interface with the US Space Command ground teams to create a massive space-based communication uplink to replace the down communication grid in New Orleans.
Because of the Oval Office orders, not infrastructure or phones in the region, this critical task would have to wait four day. Thousand of live would be lost because forces could not communication with each other’s. President, Vice President, Departmental Secretaries and insider like Cards, Libby and Rove and longtime Cheney aides David Addington and John Hannah are direct responsible these needless deaths
Critical importance of uplink
This FEMA/US Space Command uplink would allow the Louisiana National Guard command and control to leverage the multi billion US military Internet centric communication grids to coordinate and integrate the other deploying National Guard forces from Northern Louisiana and other states into New Orleans and other coastal cities under attack from Katrina. Given the spreading flood waters, the forward landing zones (LZ) would be moving in front of the rising floodwaters. There were over 100 dry landing zones points in and around the city for rapid evacuations of ten of thousands of at risk populations.
So the first few days, the Louisiana National Guard and New Orleans Police forces could not effectively coordinate their overwhelmed forces because of limited communications and bandwidth. Even with the power and funding the FEMA once had, it could not have controlled the deployment of US military forces into New Orleans.
These facts are commonly known by the mainstream newspapers like the New York Times, but still remain blacked out of their coverage or analysis for fear of opening a serious discussion of US Space Command role.
The New York Times and other press have focused attacks on Mr. Brown and the shell agency called FEMA, but not the over funded US Space Command that reports to the Joint chief of staff, secretary of Defense, the Vice President, secretary of Homeland security and some times to the President, never to FEMA.
Why have these powerful targets been shared?
Doctrine of Sovereign Immunity and Mass Murder, state terrorism
The New York Times knows that any serious coverage of the President order to refused Space communications to Louisiana and the city of New Orleans open the question of the legal issue of the Doctrine of Sovereign Immunity. President Bush abuse of power in Louisiana is a rare case were the maybe legally questioned by the victims of Katrina on the grounds that Bush willfully and purposefully did nothing for three days. During that time, the President inactive unnecessarily exposed the effected citizens to major personal material lost and death. The doctrine of Sovereign Immunity does not protect the state from the acts of mass murder and state terrorism.
There is a legal aspect of the for the total Oval Office in the purely political decision not to create the critical uplink that runs through FEMA, the US Space Command, the NORTHCOM, Homeland Security, the Pentagon, the vice President to President Bush ranch command center were he was trying to politically hide.
The official Washington and media debate about the firing of Michele Brown by President Bush offers African Americans their first insider view into the Bush mismanagement of the hurricane Katrina. Michele Brown is the first Bush spooks to speak out.
He is important, not so much what his says, what he does not say. The primary task of FEMA according to the FEMA Hurricanes master plan was to created space-based uplink that would allow all the rescuers to communicate and coordinate their together all their forces in one unified command and control structure.
The FEMA function at the time Katrina came ashore was in the advanced phase of transition to being illegally militarized by leaders of Homeland Security. The emerging evidence suggested FEMA was illegally reduced to a near paper illusion and totally of the critical management loop.