People's Democracy

on file

IN dramatic and sometimes agonising terms, federal disaster officials warned president Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.

Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on August 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

The footage show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realise they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.

Linked by secure video, Bush expressed a confidence on August 28 that starkly contrasted with the dire warnings his disaster chief and numerous federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm.

--- The Times of India, March 3 

A MAJORITY of Americans believe the recent sectarian violence in Iraq is heading the way of an outright civil war and that the US should begin withdrawing its troops from that country, according to a new poll.

The Washington Post, ABC News polls shows 80 per cent believing that recent sectarian violence makes civil war in Iraq likely, with more than one-third saying that such a conflict is “very likely” to happen. More than half of those surveyed --- 52 per cent --- have said that the US should begin withdrawing forces. Whereas one in six favour an immediate pullout, about a third of those surveyed believed this should happen over a period of time.

In what can be seen as a message to the Bush White House, two-thirds of those surveyed believed president George W Bush does not have a clear plan for handling the Iraq situation.

--- The Statesman, March 8