Robbers using FEMA uniforms, badges

According to a local NO TV station, FEMA uniforms and badges have been stolen, and are being used by robbers to loot.

...The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Saturday that many FEMA uniforms, badges and letterheads have been stolen in the New Orleans area are being used as fake identification by robbers.

FEMA leaders said the crooks are referring to themselves as "FEMA Procurement Officers," even though no such officers exist...

http://www.wdsu.com/news/4932913/detail.html

This truly is looting, unlike much of the scavaging by people who had gone days without food or water.  IMO, it is also another example of the gross incompetence of a weakened FEMA under the Bush admin.

Juan Cole (www.juancole.com), the UMich Middle East expert whose blog on Iraq is the only good thing to have come out of the war on Iraq, today posts a great comparison: the Bush administration's attitude toward the looting in New Orleans, and the looting in Baghdad.

A must read.

•  They Can't Even Guard

  Their own uniforms and badges and we expect them to manage a national emergency?

  by eafredel on Sun Sep 04, 2005 at 09:05:40 AM PDT

•  more shades of Iraq

  police officers who quit, disappear, or just walk off the job

  stolen uniforms being used by crooks

  what's next ???

  shooting journalists, airstrikes against suspected looter hideouts ???

  by knowthings on Sun Sep 04, 2005 at 09:07:11 AM PDT

•  What Could Be More Appropriate

  Than robbers and looters in FEMA uniforms.  Makes a lot of sense, really.

  by bincbom on Sun Sep 04, 2005 at 09:09:10 AM PDT

•  Another nail in the coffin of NOLA

  when it needs to be another nail in the coffin for FEMA.

  Recommend this diary, please.

  Then forward this info and link to the networks.  Counter Chertoff's spin that Homeland Security is moving forward down there, at last -- when it can't even secure its own offices.

  by Cream City on Sun Sep 04, 2005 at 09:19:21 AM PDT

•  Maybe I'm just getting Paranoid, but...

  How the hell does Fema know what robbers are doing in NO? From everything I've read, they don't actually have any people on the ground in there.
  ...On the other hand, it sure is convenient for FEMA. For instance, Jefferson Parish president Broussard reported on Meet the Press this morning that "Yesterday - yesterday - FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines.  They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line" And now when faced with stuff like that, or the fact that FEMA turned back trucks of water coming in, the wingers can say "Oh, those must have been looters posing as FEMA agents. FEMA would never have done that."
  What we're seeing now with all of the Chertoff and Brown interviews isn't aimed at us. What they're doing is tossing out just enough deniability - muddying the waters, if you will - to keep the Republican base in line. The base will believe the President over the lies of the "Liberal Media". And it seems to be working so far.

  by jeremybloom on Sun Sep 04, 2005 at 10:13:40 AM PDT