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09/16/2005:

"New Orleans: Dress Rehearsal for American Lockdown"

The war has come home to America, right here, right now and so have myriad questions so disturbing that most Americans, even if they know what the questions are, are terrified to ask:

Why is Blackwater USA, the principal mercenary force outsourced by the Pentagon to fight in Iraq, now patrolling the streets of New Orleans?

Why the disgraceful, ghastly slowness of response by the federal government to the Katrina disaster? Why FEMA’s destruction of communication lines and implacable refusal to allow food, water, and medicine into the city? (http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/, September 6)

Why have reconstruction and clean-up contracts conveniently fallen, with perfect timing, to Halliburton and Bechtel, the two U.S. corporations most infamous for their expertise in rebuilding Iraq and worldwide whatever the U.S. military has blown up?
globalresearch.ca

The Militarization of New Orleans. From Victims to Vandals: Mass Media and New Orleans

Ominously, in his speech last night Bush said one of the 'lessons of Katrina' was the need for "greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces."