www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by cargo
'Shoot to kill', troops told

Iraq-tested US troops with shoot-to-kill orders were deployed in New Orleans today to restore law and order after days of chaos and looting in the hurricane-devastated city.

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said the 300 troopers from the Arkansas National Guard had been authorised to open fire on "hoodlums'' who have been terrorising the flooded city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Their deployment came amid intense criticism of the government for a tardy response to the disaster, which is feared to have killed thousands of people and left hundreds of thousands more stranded and homeless.

"These troops are fresh back from Iraq, well trained, experienced, battle tested and under my orders to restore order in the streets,'' Blanco said.

"They have M-16s and they are locked and loaded.
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"These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will,'' said Blanco.

How long until these looters are tagged with "terrorist"? Or are they already?

www.guardian.co.uk...
Doctors at two desperately crippled hospitals in New Orleans called The Associated Press Thursday morning pleading for rescue, saying they were nearly out of food and power and had been forced to move patients to higher floors to escape looters.

``We have been trying to call the mayor's office, we have been trying to call the governor's office ... we have tried to use any inside pressure we can. We are turning to you. Please help us,'' said Dr. Norman McSwain, chief of trauma surgery at Charity Hospital, the larger of two public hospitals.

www.washingtonpost.com...
New Orleans Cops Use Single Radio Channel

By BRUCE MEYERSON
The Associated Press
Thursday, September 1, 2005; 8:56 PM

-- When the phones don't work, improvise. That's what emergency responders and civilians were forced to do in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which trashed the telephone system on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi.

Police in New Orleans, their main communications system knocked out, have been taking turns talking on a single radio channel with their walkie talkies. The Mississippi National Guard even resorted to ancient battlefield tactics, sending runners back and forth among commanders with information....
(pg2)
"That has posed some problems with people talking over each other," said Warren Riley, the deputy police chief. "We probably have 20 agencies on one channel right now."

www.newsday.com...[/ur l]
AP National News
New Orleans Levees No Match for Katrina
By DAVID CRARY
AP National Writer
August 31, 2005, 5:24 PM EDT

Even before Hurricane Katrina struck, experts were warning that the network of earthen, steel and concrete barriers that protected the city was inadequate -- and they proved tragically correct...

Marine scientist Ivor van Heerden of Louisiana State University, who has developed flooding models for New Orleans, was among those issuing dire predictions as Katrina approached, warnings that turned out to be grimly accurate.

"We're talking about an incredible environmental disaster," said van Heerden before the storm arrived. He predicted that floodwaters would overcome the levee system, fill the low-lying areas of the city and then remain trapped there well after the storm passed -- creating a giant, stagnant pool contaminated with debris, sewage and other hazardous materials....

[url=http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3335758]http://www.chron.com
The foretelling of a deadly disaster in New Orleans
FEMA ranked hurricane scenario highly likely in '01
By ERIC BERGER
Editor's note: This article was originally published on Dec. 1, 2001, in the Houston Chronicle. Because of its relevance to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, it is being republished.
New Orleans is sinking.

And its main buffer from a hurricane, the protective Mississippi River delta, is quickly eroding away, leaving the historic city perilously close to disaster.

So vulnerable, in fact, that earlier this year the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked the potential damage to New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country.