Cartoon #207: “Homeland Security 2005”

The question arose immediately after Hurricane Katrina. What if the flooding in New Orleans had been caused by terrorists instead of a hurricane? The destruction of New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities exposed the Department of Homeland Security as the snake oil critics said it was.

President Bush got most of his votes in the 2004 election from people who felt safer sticking with the 9/11 Commander-in-Chief. They were fooled.

Hopefully those voters will learn from the thousands of deaths caused by the inaction of DHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and support the removal of Bush from his figurehead role as President of the United States. Bush created DHS in 2002 and placed FEMA under its control. The first Chief of DHS, Bush crony Joe Albaugh, resigned after Bush was reelected and recommended an old buddy as his replacement. Current DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff was given the job despite having no experience in emergency management.

As usual, calls for a Congressional investigation of government failure in response to Katrina are being countered by calls for “an independent national commission” to examine the relief effort. Informed citizens should know by now that such a blue-ribbon commission is code for a criminal coverup. If a Katrina “Warren Commission” takes over, watch the following charges diminish or disappear in its “investigation”:

According to a New York Times report by Scott Shane, Sept. 5, 2005, FEMA officials, workers and/or agents allegedly

• turned away three trailer trucks loaded with water sent by Wal-Mart.


• prevented the Coast Guard from delivering 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel.


• cut the emergency communication lines for Jefferson Parish on Saturday, Sept. 3, causing the sheriff to restore it and post armed guards to protect it from FEMA.


• interfered inexplicably with the delivery of aid from other states, including New Mexico and Illinois.


• failed to act to allow the use of U.S. Forest Service water tanker aircraft to fight fires on the New Orleans riverfront.


• blamed its gross inaction on the victims, alleging a lack of preparedness by the City of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana.