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"Shoot to kill" - The Herald Sun - Australia's biggest-selling daily newspaper - 03sep05
US TROOPS have been ordered to shoot to kill to stop the anarchy that has overtaken hurricane-devastated New Orleans.
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said the 300 troopers from the Arkansas National Guard had been authorised to open fire on "hoodlums" who terrorised the flooded city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
US TROOPS have been ordered to shoot to kill to stop the anarchy that has overtaken hurricane-devastated New Orleans.
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said the 300 troopers from the Arkansas National Guard had been authorised to open fire on "hoodlums" who terrorised the flooded city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The deployment came amid intense criticism of the Bush Administration for a tardy response to the disaster, which is feared to have killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands 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," Ms Blanco said.
"They have M-16s and they are locked and loaded.
"These troops know how to shoot and kill, and are more than willing to do so if necessary. And I expect they will."
Four days after the killer storm slammed into the US Gulf Coast, New Orleans was plagued by gun battles and rapes. Gangs of looters and carjackers roved the streets, and bodies lay in the open.
Horror stories emerged from the Superdome, including of killings, child rapes, and thugs openly smoking crack cocaine.
It started as a refuge for 20,000 but turned into a "concentration camp" in debilitating humidity and the rank smell of backed-up toilets.
A National Guardsman was shot outside the Superdome, and a shot was also fired at a Chinook helicopter taking part in the operation to move refugees out of the stadium.
"The last few days were utter hell. We were treated like animals," said Baron Duncan, who took shelter in the stadium.
About 10 Australians fled the Superdome yesterday and were cowering in the foyer of the Hilton Hotel.As thousands finally escaped the Superdome horror on a bus convoy to Houston yesterday, the New Orleans Convention Centre became a second flashpoint.Up to 20,000 people who had taken shelter at the centre to await buses grew increasingly hostile.
Police Chief Eddie Compass said he sent in 88 officers to quell the situation, but they were quickly beaten back by an angry mob.
"We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten," he said.
"Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon."
Two Victorian women are believed to be at the Convention Centre.
Sharon Whyte, of Kilmore, said her mother, Pamela, and cousin Karen had not had fresh water since Tuesday.
Outside the Convention Centre, the footpaths were packed with people desperate for food, water or medical care. At least seven bodies were outside.
An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead on a grassy median strip as hungry babies cried around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered with a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet.
The street was choked with sewage, dirty nappies, bottles and rubbish.
People chanted, "Help, help!" and a woman led the crowd in reciting the 23rd Psalm.
Hospitals were evacuated after power ran out, and helicopters ferrying patients and babies drew gunfire.
"This is a war zone," said Melissa Murray, 32, a Louisiana state corrections officer helping in the relief effort.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued an urgent plea for help for up to 20,000 refugees stuck in the convention centre, which he said was "unsanitary and unsafe" and running out of supplies.
"This is a desperate SOS," Mayor Nagin said.
Governor Blanco said up to 300,000 survivors might still be stuck in the disaster area, and at least 40,000 uniformed troops were needed for New Orleans alone.
Armoured personnel carriers patrolled Canal Street, which borders New Orleans' famous French Quarter district of bars and clubs.
At a city airport, scores of people, many of them seriously ill, waited for flights out to shelter and proper medical care.
President George W. Bush said looters should be treated with "zero tolerance", and also urged Americans to conserve petrol.
"Don't buy gas if you don't need it," he said.
With several refineries on the Gulf Coast shut, retail petrol prices soared to records.
Prime Minister John Howard yesterday announced a $10 million donation to the hurricane relief operation.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-050901health,1,3711537.story?coll=chi-news-hed and
Earlier Friday, facing blistering criticism for his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, U.S. President George W. Bush admitted "results are not acceptable" before he vowed to step up aid to the flood-ravaged region.
I find it interesting that Mitch Cohen wrote: "Why have food and water been BLOCKED from reaching tens of thousands of poor people? On Thursday, the government used the excuse that there were some very scattered gunshots (two or three instances only) -- around 1/50th of the number of gunshots that occur in New York City on an average day -- to shut down voluntary rescue operations and to scrounge for 5,000 National Guard troops fully armed, with "shoot to kill" orders -- at a huge economic cost. They even refused to allow voluntary workers who had rescued over 1,000 people in boats over the previous days to continue on Thursday, using the
several gunshots (and who knows WHO shot off those rounds?) to say "It's too dangerous". The volunteers wanted to continue their rescue operations and had to be "convinced" at gunpoint to "cease and desist." There is something sinister going down -- it's not simply incompetence or negligence. How could FEMA and Homeland Security not have something so basic as bottled drinking water in the SuperDome, which was long a part of the hurricane plan? One police officer in charge of his 120-person unit said yesterday that his squad was provided with only 70 small bottles of water. Last year, New Orleans residents -- the only area in the entire state that voted in huge numbers against the candidacy of George Bush -- also fought off attempts to privatize the drinking water supply. One of the first acts of Governor Kathleen Blanco during this crisis was to TURN OFF the drinking water, to force people to
evacuate. There was no health reason to turn it off, as the water is drawn into a separate system from the Mississippi River, not the polluted lake, and purified through self-powered purification plants separate from the main electric grid. If necessary, people could have been told to boil their water -- strangely, the municipal natural gas used in stoves was still functioning properly as of Thursday night! There are thousands of New Orleans residents who are refusing to evacuate because they don't want to leave their pets, their homes, or who have no money to do so nor place to go. The government -- which COULD HAVE and SHOULD HAVE provided water and food to residents of New Orleans -- has NOT done so INTENTIONALLY to force people to evacuate by starving them out.
This is a crime of the gravest sort. (Obviously, we do not even have parachutes to send in some emergency food and water.)
several gunshots (and who knows WHO shot off those rounds?) to say "It's too dangerous". The volunteers wanted to continue their rescue operations and had to be "convinced" at gunpoint to "cease and desist." There is something sinister going down -- it's not simply incompetence or negligence. How could FEMA and Homeland Security not have something so basic as bottled drinking water in the SuperDome, which was long a part of the hurricane plan? One police officer in charge of his 120-person unit said yesterday that his squad was provided with only 70 small bottles of water. Last year, New Orleans residents -- the only area in the entire state that voted in huge numbers against the candidacy of George Bush -- also fought off attempts to privatize the drinking water supply. One of the first acts of Governor Kathleen Blanco during this crisis was to TURN OFF the drinking water, to force people to
evacuate. There was no health reason to turn it off, as the water is drawn into a separate system from the Mississippi River, not the polluted lake, and purified through self-powered purification plants separate from the main electric grid. If necessary, people could have been told to boil their water -- strangely, the municipal natural gas used in stoves was still functioning properly as of Thursday night! There are thousands of New Orleans residents who are refusing to evacuate because they don't want to leave their pets, their homes, or who have no money to do so nor place to go. The government -- which COULD HAVE and SHOULD HAVE provided water and food to residents of New Orleans -- has NOT done so INTENTIONALLY to force people to evacuate by starving them out.
This is a crime of the gravest sort. (Obviously, we do not even have parachutes to send in some emergency food and water.)
Should New Orleans be rebuilt the way it was? Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert took some political heat on Thursday, for asking that question. In an interview with the Daily Herald published on Thursday, Hastert said, "It doesn't make sense to me" to spend billions of federal dollars on rebuilding a city that remains vulnerable to disaster. Hastert told the suburban Chicago newspaper, "certainly we should ask" questions about doing such a thing. http://www.gopusa.com/news/2005/september/0902_hastert_neworleans.shtml
When you "fiddle around" it simply means that you are not doing what you should be doing in a prompt fashion. Nero Claudius Caesar, A.D. 37 - 68. Roman Emperor, A.D. 54-68. - When conflagration destroyed half of Rome (A.D. 64), Nero accused the Christians of starting it and began the first Roman persecution of Christians. Nero himself may, in fact, have played the pyromaniac behind this fire -- he might personally have started the blaze, or perhaps he just fiddled around and restrained the efforts of the fire brigades.
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