2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 21, 2005 NATION/WORLD FEMA officials criticize Brown ...,. ,. 01 NEWS IN BRIEF HEADINESFROMAROUD T We* N ) 3 1 -. .. - .. WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal Emergency Management Agency offi- cials did not respond to repeated warn- ings about deteriorating conditions in New Orleans and the dire need for help as Hurricane Katrina struck, the first FEMA official to arrive conceded yesterday. Marty Bahamonde, a FEMA regional director, told a Senate panel investigating the government's response to the disaster that he gave regular updates to people in contact with then-FEMA Director Michael Brown as early as Aug. 28, one day before Katrina made landfall. In most cases, he was met with silence. In an Aug. 29 phone call to Brown informing him that the first levee had broke, Bahamonde said he received a polite thank you from Brown, who said he would check with the White House. "I think there was a systematic failure at all levels of government to understand the magnitude of the situ- ation," Bahamonde said. The testimony before the Senate Home- land Security Committee contradicted Brown, who has said he wasn't fully aware of the dire conditions until days later and that local officials were most responsible for the sluggish response. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) who chairs the panel, decried the testimony and e-mail released by Bahamonde yester- day as illustrating "a complete disconnect between senior officials and the reality of the situation." "His urgent reports did not appear to prompt an urgent response," Collins said. In e-mails to various FEMA officials, including one to Brown, Bahamonde described a chaotic situation at the Super- dome, where many of the evacuees were sheltered. Bahamonde e-mailed FEMA officials and noted also that local officials were asking for toilet paper, a sign that supplies were lacking at the shelter. "Issues developing at the Superdome. The medical staff at the dome says they will run out of oxygen in about two hours and are looking for alternative oxygen," Bahamonde wrote in an e-mail to region- al director David Passey in a call at 4:46 p.m. CDT on Aug. 28. Less than an hour later, Bahamonde wrote: "Everyone is soaked. This is going to get ugly real fast." Bahamonde said he was stunned that FEMA officials responded by continu- ing to send truckloads of evacuees to the Superdome for two more days even AP PHOTO Charles Eckenrode wheels down 10th Street in Florida's FEMA village yesterday. though they knew supplies were in short supply. "I thought it amazing," he said. "I believed at the time and still do today, that I was confirming the worst-case scenario that everyone had always talked about regarding New Orleans." Later, on Aug. 31, Bahamonde fran- tically e-mailed Brown to tell him that thousands are evacuees were gather- ing in the streets with no food or water and that "estimates are many will die within hours." "Sir, I know that you know the sit- uation is past critical," Bahamonde wrote. Congress favors firearms industry CANCUN Cancun tourists flee tropical storm Tourists packed Cancun's airport desperately seeking flights out, and guests at luxu- ry hotels shuttled to emergency shelters, trying to escape Hurricane Wilma as its outer bands battered the resort's white-sand beaches. Cuba evacuated more than 200,000 people ahead of the Category 4 storm. Wilma, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph, churned toward the Yucatan peninsula and south Florida after hitting Haiti and Jamaica, where it killed at least 13 people. The storm was expected to strike Cancun and its surrounding resorts and sideswipe Cuba today. Forecasters said Wilma would then make a beeline for Florida, where Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency, and make landfall Sunday. "At least for the next couple of days here, we think we're going to have a very pow- erful hurricane here in the Caribbean," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Briefly the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, Wilma was a potentially cata- strophic Category 5 storm before weakening. Its 145 mph winds made it roughly as powerful as Hurricane Katrina when it plowed into the Gulf coast of the United States on Aug. 29, killing more than 1,200 people. KABUL Military will investigate U.S. soldiers The U.S. military and the Afghan government said yesterday they will investigate a TV report that claimed U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters and taunted other Islamic militants. The U.S. military said such abuse would be "repugnant," and the State Department said U.S. embassies around the world have been told to counter a potential backlash by telling local governments that the alleged actions do not reflect American values. A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said the government has launched its own inquiry. "We strongly condemn any disrespect to human bodies regardless of whether they are those of enemies or friends," said Karzai spokesman Karim Rahimi. Australia's SBS television network broadcast video that purportedly showed U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of the suspected Taliban fighters in the hills outside the southern village of Gonbaz, near the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. The network said the video was taken by a freelance journalist, Stephen Dupont, who told The Associated Press he was embedded with the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade earlier this month. Dupont said the burnings happened Oct. 1. HOUSTON DeLay turns himself in to sheriff's office Rep. Tom DeLay turned himself in yesterday at the sheriff's office and was fin- gerprinted, photographed and released on $10,000 bail on conspiracy and money- laundering charges. Accompanied by his attorney, Dick DeGuerin, the former House majority leader showed up about midday yesterday, appeared before a judge and was gone in less than 30 minutes, sheriff's Lt. John Martin said. "Now Ronnie Earle has the mugshot he wanted," DeGuerin said, referring to the Travis County district attorney who brought the charges. DeLay and his lawyer have accused the district attorney of trying to make headlines for himself. The Texas Republican is scheduled to make his first court appearance today in Austin. The charges forced DeLay to give up his House leadership post. BAGHDAD Hussein co-defendant's lawyer kidnapped Ten masked gunmen kidnapped the lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants yesterday, Iraqi police said. Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi, who was in the courtroom for Wednes- day's opening session of the trial, is one of two lawyers for Awad Hamed al-Bandar, one of seven Baath Party officials being tried with Saddam. The gunmen pulled up outside al-Janabi's office in Baghdad's eastern Shaab district yesterday evening, broke into the building and dragged him out, said Police Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi of the Interior Ministry. - Compiled from Daily wire reports r y f / ; S ~ . '5 e t E! w 17'; IC 3): WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress gave the gun lobby its top legislative priority yesterday, passing a bill protect- ing the firearms industry from massive crime-victim lawsuits. President Bush said he will sign it. "Our laws should punish criminals who use guns to commit crimes, not law-abiding manufacturers of lawful products," Bush said in a statement. The House voted 283-144 to send the bill to the president after supporters, led by the National Rifle Association, pro- claimed it vital to protect the industry from being bankrupted by huge jury awards. Opponents, waging a tough battle against growing public support for the legislation, called it proof of the gun lobby's power over the Republican-con- trolled Congress. "This legislation will make the unreg- ulated gun industry the most pampered industry in America," said Kristen Rand, director of the Violence Policy Center. Under the measure, a half-dozen pending lawsuits by local govern- ments against the industry would be dismissed. Anti-gun groups say some lawsuits filed by individuals could be thrown out, too. The Senate passed the bill in July. The bill's passage was the NRA's top legislative priority and would give Bush and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill a rare victory at a time when some top GOP leaders are under indictment or investigation. "Lawsuits seeking to hold the fire- arms industry responsible for the criminal and unlawful use of its prod- ucts are brazen attempts to accom- plish through litigation what has not been achieved by legislation and the democratic process," House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensen- brenner (R-Wis.) told his colleagues. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) did not vote. He is in Texas in connection with his indictment in an alleged scheme to violate state election law. Propelled by GOP election gains and the incidents of lawlessness associated with the passing of Hurricane Katrina, support for the bill has grown since a similar measure passed the House last year and was killed in the Senate. Horrific images of people without the protection of public safety in New Orleans made a particular impression on viewers who had never before felt unsafe, according to the gun lobby. 0 OCT. 26- 7:3OPM SHOW ALL AGES '25 YEARS OF BULLSHIT WORID TOUR CORRECTIONS Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com 0 JASON Z. 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