- Eye witnesses are starting to come forward, some
only a block away from the 17th St Canal levee break, saying they
heard a loud, powerful explosion right before water starting gushing
in, as they ended up in a matter of minutes floating downstream on
their rooftops.
-
- Terry Adams, who lives one block away from the 17th
St. break, remembers hearing what sounded "like a bomb going off" from
where the levee gave-way before rushing water forced him to his
rooftop.
-
- "Everything was calm, it was late at night and the
storm had passed. I thought we had dodged a bullet and there was no
water in my house and I was only a block away from the 17 th St.
break," said Adams, a lower 9th Ward resident, in an extended
conversation this week from New Orleans.
-
- "Then I heard what sounded like a bomb go off from
the direction of where the levee gave-way and within a matter of
minutes I was forced up on my roof where I floated for about a mile
into town before somehow getting to safety."
-
- Asked if he was sure he heard an explosion, he
added: "Water breaking a levee isn't going to make the noise I heard
and besides, the levee should have broke before or during the storm,
not afterward.
-
- "I heard an explosion and so did a lot of other
people. It came right from where the levee broke. What else could it
have been but somebody blowing up the levee?"
-
- The question of how the levee burst in one gigantic
place at the 17th St. and London Ave. drainage canals, estimated by
some to be a gaping hole three football fields long, as well as a
number of other locations, has been on the minds of other local
residents from the lower 9 th Ward besides Adams, many hearing the
same explosions but being ignored by the mainstream media, putting
their accounts in the realm of conspiracy theorists.
-
- For example, whenever the subject of the levees
being intentionally detonated comes up, most mainstream commentators
like ABC's Michel Martin, dismiss even the slightest possibility of
foul play, appeasing Black listeners with comments such as
this:
-
- "Anybody with any knowledge of history can
understand why a lot of people can feel this way, but any real
possibility that the levies were intentionally exploded must be
dismissed."
-
- However, according to Ryan Washington, a long time
New Orleans bus driver and former resident of the lower 9th Ward who
grew up playing football on top the levee, said the possibility of
government dirty work and foul play isn't so far fetched.
-
- Now living in nearby Slidell, also hard hit by the
hurricane, he has talked to numerous eye witnesses who say the exact
same thing as Adams, insisting the levee was blown up and didn't
give-way by natural means.
-
- Washington also said the media should not
concentrate on testimony from experts, new commentators and government
officials, who have biased opinions, buy emphasis should be placed on
interviewed the hundreds if not thousands of people who heard or saw
something the night the levees blew.
-
- "Why don't they talk to the people who were there?
Why are they relying on government experts who have a reason to hide
the truth? I personally am gathering a list of people, a long list,
who saw and heard what really happened that night," said Washington,
in a telephone conversation this week from New Orleans.
-
- He added that government officials have been wanted
to get hold of the valuable lower 9th Ward property ever since 1965
when Hurricane Betsy flooded the area and the same suspicions of foul
play circulated through his neighborhood.
-
- "I even have talked to many reporters on the scene
and tell them to get the story from the horse's mouth and talk to the
people," said Washington, adding it's easier to hear and learn the
real truth on a city bus than behind the veil of city hall and the
corrupted television cameras.
-
- "The stories about people hearing and seeing
explosions, as well as stories about bomb residue being found at the
scene, never see the light of day or get in the papers or on
television.
-
- "And if they do, these stories are always dismissed
as being crazy or discredited by experts or government officials, who
I personally don't believe one bit."
-
- According to Washington, several important factors
convince him beyond a reasonable doubt that the levees were blown
intentionally to racially cleanse the city, as well as the first step
in a redevelopment plan to put up high rise casinos and hotels in the
lower 9 th Ward.
-
- "First, they always say that explosion was a power
generator. But the power was off when the levees blew and the power
station they were talking about was not in the vicinity of where the
explosions were heard," said Washington. "Next, they say the barge in
the canal broke the levees. I never once saw a barge in the canal in
all the years I lived there.
-
- "Also, if it did plow through the levee, it never
would have made such a noise or cause an immediate break three
football fields long. Further, why were immediately on the scene to
fence of the levees so no one could see what happened when it too them
more than 10 days in some cases to rescue people. What are they
hiding?
-
- "Please someone from the media come down here and
get the real story as I have talked to so many people who feel the
same way I do. The government has been trying to get our land since
1965 and they are still trying today."
-
- Besides numerous residents suspecting foul play, New
York filmmaker Spike Lee in October Lee said on Friday night's Real
Time with Bill Maher on HBO, that he believes Louis Farakhan's
allegation that a levee was blown up to flood the nearly all-Black 9th
Ward.
-
- Lee added that "a choice had to be made, one
neighborhood got to save another neighborhood and flood another 'hood,
flood another neighborhood." He then engaged in a heated battle of
words with neo con shill and MSNBC reporter, bow tied Tucker Carlson,
who dismissed Lee as conspiracy theorist spreading paranoia and
fear.
-
- At this point the short exchange between the two
shows Carlson's true colors as a government propagandist and as far
from being a journalist as George W. Bush himself:
-
- Lee: "Presidents have been assassinated. So why is
that so far-fetched? Do you think that election in 2000 was fair? You
don't think that was rigged If they can rig an election, they can do
anything!"
-
- Carlson: "I was in New Orleans right after the
hurricane in the ninth ward. And while I didn't hear anybody say the
levee was blown up by the federal government, I did interview a bunch
of people who were stuck there who said they believed this was part of
the conspiracy to rid New Orleans of black people. They honestly
believed that. I didn't argue with them, I just listened to what they
said and I felt bad for them. So as you sit here -- who is someone who
is rich and has option -- and are watched by people who are poor and
have no options, it seems to me it's your responsibility, your
obligation to tell them the truth and you know the truth, which is the
federal government did not blow up the levees so don't feed the
paranoia and the crazies."
-
- Lee: "First of all, how's that feeding the
paranoia?"
-
- Carlson: "Because you're saying it's entirely
possible when you know perfectly well it's not possible."
-
- Lee: "How's it not possible?"
-
- Although numerous questions remain unanswered about
the reason behind the levee controversy, one question never posed was
how could a man like Carlson ever call himself a fair-minded
journalist after comments made on Real Time?
-
- "I know why," said Washington. "These journalists
are as corrupt as the government folks they write about. I'm only a
bus driver but I know the difference between right and wrong and the
media is dead wrong by not covering this story fairly.
-
- One of the biggest controversies still brewing is
the preliminary results of the three main investigatory groups looking
at why the levees erupted. The groups, all tied to government
interests, include the National Science Foundation in conjunction with
the American Society of Civil Engineers; the United States Army Corps
of Engineers; and the third group being funded by the State of
Louisiana, led by scientists at the Louisiana State University
hurricane center.
-
- Although each investigation is independent of the
other, scientists claim to be sharing data, coming to some surprising
preliminary conclusions, one of which could have enormous
consequences.
-
- In a recent article by John M. Barry analyzing the
data from the three groups, he looks at some of the suspicious
preliminary questions, raising even more questions of how could the
17th St. levee break with such a small storm surge emanating from Lake
Pontchartrain not the Gulf of Mexico.
-
- "We know that Hurricane Katrina made landfall with
enormous power, devastating the Gulf Coast, and that the levee on the
Industrial Canal in New Orleans was overtopped by a storm surge coming
directly from the Gulf of Mexico. When a levee is overtopped, there is
basically nothing that can be done. Water pouring over a levee long
enough will, in effect, wash part of the levee away. That's what
happened on the Industrial Canal, resulting in the flooding of part of
the Ninth Ward, along with much of St. Bernard and Plaquemines
Parishes.
-
- "But most of New Orleans was not flooded by water
coming directly from the Gulf. It was flooded from the north and rear
by Lake Pontchartrain , when levees failed along the 17th Street and
London Avenue drainage canals. Initially, the Corps of Engineers said
that the storm was so great that it overtopped these levees
also.
-
- "But after inspecting the levees and reviewing storm
data, all three investigating teams agree: Hurricane Katrina hit Lake
Pontchartrain with far less strength than it did the Gulf Coast, and
the storm surge fell well short of the tops of the levees. In fact, a
design or construction flaw caused them to collapse in the face of a
force they were designed to hold. In other words, if the levies had
performed as they were supposed to, the deaths in New Orleans proper,
the scenes in the Superdome and the city's devastation would never
have taken place."
-
- For more informative articles, go to
www.arcticbeacon.com.
-
- Greg Szymanski
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