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Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney Blasts Government For Creating
“New Underclass of Katrina Homeless”
FEMA Fails Katrina Evacuees on Housing: Hotel Evictions Continue,
Promises of Trailers and Rental Assistance Unmet
Are New Orleans Evacuees Being Denied the Right to Vote?
U.N. Report Calls for the Closing of Guantanamo, Former Prison
Chaplain Yee Details Abuses
Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney Blasts Government For
Creating “New Underclass of Katrina Homeless”
The House select committee examining the federal response
to Hurricane Katrina recently released a 600-page report criticizing
all levels of government for the disaster. Democrats had refused
to be involved in the committee officially, but a few participated
informally and released their own supplementary reports. We
speak with Georgia Congressmember Cynthia McKinney, one of
the participating Democrats. [includes rush
transcript]
The report titled “A Failure of Initiative”
blames the government for “an abdication of the most
solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare.”
The report assigned blame to all levels of government for
the failed response to the storm. But Homeland Security Chief
Michael Chertoff and President Bush’s staff drew the
heaviest fire. The report says Chertoff should have moved
two days before Katrina hit – when the National Weather
Service issued dire warnings about the storm and that the
Homeland Security Department should have done more to help
the Gulf Coast. It states “the failure of complete evacuation
resulted in hundreds of deaths and severe suffering for thousands.”
The report goes on to say that “if 9/11 was a failure
of imagination, then Katrina was a failure of initiative.”
The committee that prepared the report was comprised of eleven
Republicans. Democrats refused to be involved officially because
they feared a whitewash. However, two Democratic Louisiana
Representatives – William Jefferson and Charlie Melancon-
participated informally in the committee’s activities.
Georgia Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney also participated.
All three Democrats released their own supplementary reports
and said that the official House Committee report did not
go far enough especially in addressing the needs of thousands
of hurricane victims who remain homeless. They also called
for Michael Chertoff to resign.
- Rep. Cynthia McKinney, (D – Georgia)
FEMA Fails Katrina Evacuees on Housing: Hotel Evictions
Continue, Promises of Trailers and Rental Assistance Unmet
Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff spoke about the
ongoing hotel evictions of Hurricane Katrina evacuees during
his testimony before the bi-partisan Senate Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs. We speak with attorneys
Bill Quigley and Tracie Washington, who represent a number
of evacuees staying in hotels and facing eviction, and also
an evacuee, about the ongoing housing crisis. [includes rush
transcript]
Chertoff has been on the defensive since a Government Accountability
Office Report was filed on February 1st. That report and the
House report filed yesterday sharply criticized his agency’s
response to the disaster. After Chertoff’s opening statement,
the hearing was interrupted by audience member Reverend Lennox
Yearwood. He is CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus.
In Wednesday’s hearing, Chertoff admitted to several
failures, including that he and his department had moved far
too slowly in obtaining buses to evacuate the thousands of
refugees stranded in the New Orleans superdome and Convention
Center. Chertoff also admitted to wrongly entrusting former
FEMA head Michael Brown with managing the response to the
disaster. In testimony last week Michael Brown admitted to
willfully working to circumvent Mr. Chertoff’s authority
during and after the hurricane.
Chertoff blamed his department’s failures on lapses
in management and communication and also said that the Department
of Homeland Security’s excessive focus on the threat
of terrorism had hindered its ability to prepare for a natural
disaster. Chertoff also spoke yesterday about the ongoing
hotel evictions of evacuees.
- Tracie Washington, an Attorney based in New Orleans and
currently representing a number of evacuees who are staying
in hotels and are facing eviction.
- Bill Quigley, law professor at Loyola University
- Debra Bell, Katrina evacuee living in Houston who will
have to be out of her hotel by March 1st.
Are New Orleans Evacuees Being Denied the Right to
Vote?
We look at how Hurricane Katrina is affecting the political
power of New Orleans residents. Upcoming local elections will
include a race for mayor with only one black candidate –
incumbent Ray Nagin. Lawyers have filed a lawsuit alleging
Louisiana’s emergency election plan will disenfranchise
thousands of displaced voters, the majority of whom are African-American.
[includes rush
transcript]
Local elections in New Orleans are set for April. Among other
races, voters will cast ballots for mayor. Incumbent Mayor
Ray Nagin is facing challenges from more than half a dozen
contestants but remains the only black candidate in the race.
Last week, the Advancement Project filed a federal lawsuit
challenging election plans for New Orleans, alleging the plan
puts too much emphasis on absentee voting and would keep blacks
out of office. According to the lawsuit, Louisiana’s
emergency election plan following Hurricane Katrina will disenfranchise
thousands of displaced voters, the vast majority of whom are
African-American, therefore violating the 1965 Voting Rights
Act.
- Penda Hair, Co-Director of the Advancement
Project and former Director of the Washington, D.C.
office of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund,
Inc.
U.N. Report Calls for the Closing of Guantanamo,
Former Prison Chaplain Yee Details Abuses
The United Nations has called on the Bush administration
to immediately close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba.
In a report on conditions at the prison recently released,
the U.N. says the United States should try all detainees or
release them "without further delay." We speak with
former military Chaplain Yee, who was falsely accused of espionage
by the U.S military and faced death penalty charges that were
eventually dropped. [includes rush
transcript]
The report, summarizing an investigation by five U.N. experts,
urges the U.S. government to "refrain from any practice
amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment", including the force-feeding of hunger
strikers through nasal tubes.
The report goes on to state, "In the case of the Guantanamo
Bay detainees, the U.S. executive operates as judge, as prosecutor,
and as defense council: this constitutes serious violations
of various guarantees of the right to a fair trial before
an independent tribunal.”
About 500 men are being held at the site. Charges have never
been filed against most of them.
The U.S. has rejected most of the allegations, saying that
the five investigators never actually visited Guantanamo Bay.
The U.S. invited the U.N. to the camp, but refused to grant
the investigators the right to speak to detainees in private.
The U.N. said that private interviews were a "totally
non-negotiable pre-condition" for conducting the visit
and refused to send investigators.
The report’s findings were based on interviews with
former detainees, public documents, media reports, lawyers
and a questionnaire filled out by the U.S. government.
Last October, Democracy Now! co-hosts Juan Gonzalez and Amy
Goodman interviewed attorney Julia Tarver, who represents
ten detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Three of her clients were
taking part in a hunger strike to protest conditions at the
prison.
- Julia Tarver, attorney representing ten detainees at
Guantanamo Bay
We speak with someone who has spent time in Guantanamo Bay
both as a member of the U.S. army and as a prisoner: Chaplain
James Yee. He was one of the first Muslim Chaplains commissioned
by the U.S Army. Yee was posted in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in
2002, but less than a year after serving there, he was accused
of espionage by the military and faced charges so severe,
that he was threatened with the death penalty. The charges
were eventually reduced and eight months later, dropped altogether.
- Chaplain Yee, Former military Chaplain who was falsely
accused of espionage by the U.S military, wrote a book about
his experiences called "For God and Country: Faith
and Patriotism Under Fire."
United
Nations Report, PDF file.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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