The BBC interviewed Lieutenant Commander Sean Kelly of the United States Northern Command.
The Northern Command, based in Colorado, is directly responsible for giving material aid to the relief agencies after a disaster. They have millions of MRE's, millions of litres of water, search and rescue helicopters, all staged throughout the area, including the U.S.S. Bataan literally FOLLOWING the Hurricane, waiting for the aftermath, absolutely poised to attack the problem.
Then they did nothing. They waited. Why? Because, in his own words, "we have to wait until the President authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can't just act in this fashion, we have to wait for the President to give us permission."
A link to the video follows the break.
http://news.globalfreepress.com/movs/katrina/BBC_Katrina.mpg
This is absolute proof that lays the blame for the delay in the help right at Bush's feet.
And it is just more proof that the worst enemy America faces is the George W. Bush administration.
When are these people going to finally be thrown in jail? You can't just impeach. You have to remove all of them from power.
They are a menace, and they are killing people every day.
EDITED TO ADD: For those who can't watch the video, or are on dial-up, here is a transcript. I cut and pasted this from a poster at DU named DRM604 who posted this in the first place.
Announcer: The relief operation is the largest ever conducted in America. It's being coordinated by the US Northern Command in Colorado. Leftenant Commander Sean Kelly explains how the relief effort is being organized.
Kelly: US Northern Command is the command that coordinates the military support for our federal and state agencies. They call up and request a capability and we try and provide that capability, whether it's medical resources, search and rescue helicopters, food, water, transportation, communications; that's what we provide.
A: So it sounds like you're providing a bit of everything. I mean, do you know how much you're actually providing?
K: Right now we've got 4,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marine and coast guardsmen supporting this. They've delivered more than 9 million meals, I can't remember how many millions of liters of water.
A: 9 million meals? Do you actually have 9 million meals?
K: It's those "meals ready to eat". The packaged meals that the Army takes out with them out in the field. We have 9 million of 'em ready. I know at least 100,000 went to the Superdome the other night to help the people out there in New Orleans. So they're staged at various places throughout Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.
A: Now I'm sure you're aware of the criticism that the authorities have been slow to respond to this. When did you get the order to start relief work?
K: NorthCom started planning before the storm even hit. We were ready for the storm when it hit Florida because, as you remember, it crossed the bottom part of Florida, and then we were plaining, you know, once it was pointed towards the Gulf Coast. So what we did was we activated what we call defense coordinating officers to work with the state to say okay, what do you think you'll need, and we set up staging bases that could be started. We had the USS Baton sailing almost behind the hurricane so that after the hurricane made landfall it's search and rescue helicopters would be available almost immediately. So we had things ready. The only caveat is, we have to wait until the President authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can't just act in this fashion, we have to wait for the President to give us permission.
A: Now I gather that your engineers are also involved in pumping some of that flood water out of the areas.
K: Yes, our military personnel are helping to reconstruct the levees which frees up the engineers to start pumping out the waters so that hopefully New Orleans can be high and dry soon enough.