Report links Iraq war to relief-effort delay - Analysis commission by Pentagon also finds 'corruption' in New Orleans city government

WorldNetDaily:

A report commissioned by the U.S. Defense Department to analyze the problematic relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has found that both a lack of National Guard troops – due to heavy deployment in Iraq – and "corruption and mismanagement" in the New Orleans city government contributed to a lack of federal response effectiveness and to the level of damage the storm caused.

According to the London Independent, which says it has seen a copy of the confidential report, the analysis also talks of how military personnel had to "sneak off post" to help with relief efforts because their commander had refused permission.

The slowness in federal response to Katrina led to the resignation of the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown, and has contributed to President Bush's slipping approval ratings.

"The U.S. military has long planned for war on two fronts. This is as close as we have come to [that] reality since the Second World War; the results have been disastrous," reads the report, according to the Independent.

The document was compiled by Stephen Henthorne, a former professor of the U.S. Army's War College and an adviser to the Pentagon who was a deputy director in the Louisiana relief efforts.

The report also faults local officials for diverting money meant to bolster the levee system that protected New Orleans from floodwaters.

It charts how "corruption and mismanagement within the New Orleans city government" had "diverted money earmarked for improving flood protection to other, more vote-getting, projects. Past mayors and governors gambled that the long-expected Big Killer hurricane would never happen. That bet was lost with Hurricane Katrina."

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