Reply #5: it means Brown perjured himself before Congress [View All]

[pitohui]

Brown testified that he had an entire FEMA team, including medical staff. In reality, this man was the only person on the scene.

THis is front page of the Times-Picayune (New Orleans) paper today:

WASHINGTON -- Immediately before and after Hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans area, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's lone official in the city e-mailed agency leaders warning of a desperate need for medical help, oxygen canisters, even food and water.

Marty Bahamonde, a FEMA public affairs official with 12 years of experience in disaster areas, on Thursday told a Senate panel investigating the disaster that for reasons he still can't quite comprehend, most of his pleas for help got little or no response.

His testimony, and the printouts of his e-mails to FEMA colleagues, give the clearest indication to date of the chaotic federal response to the disaster. They also directly contradict statements by former FEMA Director Michael Brown that he wasn't aware of the grave conditions in the city for days after the hurricane, as well as his claim in recent House testimony that he had assembled a team of FEMA officials, including doctors, before Katrina made landfall.

"There was only one (FEMA) person there, and that was me," Bahamonde said.

Brown is a perjurer and likely guilty of misappropriations and negligent homicide as well. Incompetency cannot be a defense for crime. I support New Jersey Senator Lautenberg's request that Brown be investigated for perjury. I'm not sure if our Gulf Coast senators are in position to make such a demand, since they need to be fighting to get us appropriations for re-building. But Brown needs to pay for his proven criminal behavior.