Hurricane Katrina Conspiracy
Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in US history, costing over $108 billion dollars. Over 1800 people are reported to have died as a result of the Hurricane which swept the Gulf Coast from central Florida to Mexico. Coastal areas were severely hit and thousands of people had their homes destroyed. Up to 80% of city areas ended up being flooded., and many of the deaths were attributed to Levee and Floodwall failure. Up to 60,000 people were stranded in New Orleans, with the coastal guard rescuing up to 33,000.
Hurricane Katrina – Disaster Response
It is generally accepted that the response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was not up to an acceptable standard. FEMA director Michael Brown and New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Eddie Compass both tendered their resignation in response to a barrage of criticism after the poor responses from the respective agencies. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco also came under fire. Brown testified that Blanco had not requested coastal parishes in Louisiana to be included in a State of Emergency, which he says he found shocking. This was later found to be incorrect on Brown’s part. In response to increased reports of looting in the aftermath of the disaster, Blanco did state that;
“ They have M16s and are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will ”
This was at a time where people did not have access to basic amenities such as food, water and transport. Several shootings occurred between civilians and the emergency police forces. In one incident two unarmed civilians were killed. 11 police officer appeared in court in relation to the shootings. Blanco also refused to let the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) take over operations, saying that her National Guard could manage.
There is little argument that the response to the disaster was itself a disaster on all levels, and that political power struggles did not alleviate the problem in any way. The conduct of police officials was less than stellar. The National Guard was commended for it’s response.
Hurricane Katrina – HAARP
Any sort of natural catastrophe in the US is linked to HAARP by conspiracy theorists. HAARP construction began in 1993. HAARP stood for High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program and was dismantled in the summer of 2014. The purpose of the program was to analyze the ionosphere to develop enhancement technology for radio and satellite. It is jointly funded by the US Air Force, the US Navy, the University of Alaska and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The year that funding for HAARP was at it’s highest was also the year that three savage hurricanes also hit the US, prompting theorists to claim that HAARP had the ability to control the weather. There are also claims that HAARP led to the Flight TWA 800 explosion as well as to earthquakes in Thailand. Theorists claim that HAARP was used to enhance hurricane Katrina to a category 5 hurricane and that it traveled in a straight line as opposed to most other Hurricanes, which travel in random paths. There is no science to back up these theories. As with most conspiracy theories, David Icke posted an article on his website alleging that Hurricane Katrina was steered into New Orleans.
All conspiracy roads lead back to one of two sources – Alien Reptiles and Illuminati Control. Claims from many theorists indicate that the Illuminati use HAARP as a tool to control the minds of the masses via shortwave radio communication. The counter argument to this case is that HAARP waves are too short to be measured.
However an extremely well-respected and mainstream physicist Dr. Michio Kaku has publicly stated on CBS News that weather modification is possible by the government. While he does not mention HAARP outright, it may bring the theory a little bit more towards the center.
Hurricane Katrina – A Corporate Plan
“By the time Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and the nexus of Republican politicians, think tanks and land developers started talking about ‘clean sheets’ and exciting opportunities, it was clear that this was now the preferred method of advancing corporate goals: using moments of collective trauma to engage in radical social and economic engineering.”
-Naomi Klein The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
The idea is that the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was utilized by Corporations and Politicians to grab even more money and power. And this is a fact that cannot be debated. It was just an opportunity that was capitalized upon by…Capitalists. Nothing out of the ordinary. But perhaps not the most ethical of maneuvers by the business owners. However, this goes further when HAARP technology is used as a tool to orchestrate the disaster in order to give more profits for oil tycoons and business owners.
The underlying rationale behind this sinister theory being that millions of the black underclass were displaced following the aftermath of Katrina, their property reclaimed by land developers. Insurance does not cover natural disasters. And they were unable to return due to bureaucracy and law enforcement, many of the former housing sites toxic debris fields yet to be cleared up years after the disaster. Conspiracy theorist claim that this synthetic disaster was a war mainly on poor and black people, whereas others propose that Hurricane Katrina was orchestrated as an experiment in fear and anarchy. The incompetence of government authorities is cited as being a concerted effort to do nothing as opposed to a lack of communication and organization. Liberals who emphasize with the socio-economic plight of underprivileged black communities will never go as far as to consider a concerted effort within government to keep these communities oppressed. They will then view people who agree with them for a different reason as conspiratorial in their reasoning.
It has also been alleged by homeowners near the levees, which were supposed to withstand a category 4 hurricane (Katrina being a category 3 when it hit New Orleans), that they were intentionally blown up during the flooding. This was also referenced in Spike Lee’s documentary “When the Levee’s broke: A requiem in Four Parts”. Supposedly the levees were blown to in order to flood the poorer areas while leaving the upper class districts intact. The question of course is whether or not the sounds of the explosion were due to the levees breaking due to underwater controlled charges or due to the levees breaking under the force of the water.
Operation Blackwater – Hostile Defense Contractors
According to some reports, DHS security contractors set up headquarters in New Orleans before the Hurricane hit, and claimed they had authority to use “whatever force they deemed necessary” to secure law and order. The important point being these were contracted security forces and not national authorities. This seems to imply that the security forces already believed that the city was going to turn into a war-zone and went in with a mindset of defense and brutality. It was reported in The Times that while all civilians were ordered to turn in all weapons, this did not apply to private security guards employed by the wealthy to secure their property.
The term “Katrina Time” was given to immigrants and blacks who were randomly arrested following the instigation of martial law in Katrina’s aftermath. Dave Eggers recounts the story in his book Zeitoun of a Syrian immigrant who was arrested for organizing makeshift relief efforts and rescuing people in his boat. He was questioned as a terrorist. Katrina time was made possible due to the prevailing conditions at the time, with no due process or standard of proof. Most of the accusations of rape, police brutality and looting were deemed to be false by mainstream Media outlets at the time of the Hurricane. Since then there has been an onslaught of anecdotal evidence which indicates the contrary.
Hurricane Katrina Conclusion
While HAARP, Illuminati mind control and concerted government action all form part of a typical conspiracy theorist’s arsenal, the claims of police brutality are well documented and historically verified. The political emphasis on maintaining law and order as opposed to helping the needy created a terrible atmosphere for violence and conflict. There have been many accounts of racism and brutality by people with guns in positions of authority. Sadly when these people are additionally given license to kill by the governor and told that the location is going to be a war-zone, it is going to lead to innocent deaths, which is most likely what happened taking into account standard human psychology.
Hurricane Katrina Conspiracy Documentary
Most of the conspiracy documentaries about Katrina were Amateur style. Below is a professional one caught under our radar called; The Unheard Story of Hurricane Katrina: Blackwater, White Militias & Community Empowerment.