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asacco
Managing Editor

Ex-FEMA Chief Brown Blasts DHS

News
Feb 10, 20061 min
CSO and CISOData and Information Security

Michael Brown, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s former chief, said high-level Department of Homeland Security officials were informed of New Orleans’ levee failures the first day Hurricane Katrina hit land, the Associated Press reports via Yahoo News.

A number of top DHS officials had previously stated it had no idea until the following day.

“I find it a little disingenuous,” Brown, who was in charge of FEMA at the time, told a Senate oversight committee.  “For them to claim that we didn’t have awareness of it is just baloney.”

Brown indicated that the “path of failure” was paved by decisions and policies created by DHS, and they led to the agency’s less-than-stellar response.

Brown hasn’t been shy in flinging Katrina-related accusations in the past, but he took it a step further in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, blaming specific sections of the President’s administration.

Brown resigned from FEMA shortly after Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, killing some 13,000 people and displacing countless hundreds of thousands of others.

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asacco
Managing Editor

Al Sacco was a journalist, blogger and editor who covers the fast-paced mobile beat for CIO.com and IDG Enterprise, with a focus on wearable tech, smartphones and tablet PCs. Al managed CIO.com writers and contributors, covered news, and shared insightful expert analysis of key industry happenings. He also wrote a wide variety of tutorials and how-tos to help readers get the most out of their gadgets, and regularly offered up recommendations on software for a number of mobile platforms. Al resides in Boston and is a passionate reader, traveler, beer lover, film buff and Red Sox fan.

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