I have some friends on Capitol Hill who speak highly of Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff. Maybe it’s just because he’s a step up from his predecessor, and better than Bush’s original choice for the job (remember Bernie Kerik?), but even Dems tell me this guy is generally on the ball.
That said, after about eight months on the job, Chertoff is being put to the test. Indeed, the devastation from Katrina is the first real crisis faced by the Department of Homeland Security since its inception. So far, I think it’s safe to say there’s cause for concern.
First, on Wednesday, Chertoff appeared on the Today Show and made one of those comments he probably wishes he could take back.
“One of the things that came out of 9/11 in 2001 was an increased focus on getting ourselves ready to deal with all kinds of catastrophes. And while nobody can ever be completely prepared for an event of this horrible magnitude, I’d say we’re much better prepared than we’ve ever been.”
Second, when told that reporters in New Orleans are reporting inhumane conditions at the New Orleans Convention Center, Chertoff told NPR:
“I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don’t have food and water.”
Third, in the same interview, Chertoff said there were only “isolated incidents” of crime among those who are still in New Orleans — despite reports like this one:
Chaos and gunfire hampered efforts to evacuate the Superdome, and, Superintendent P. Edward Compass III of the New Orleans Police Department said, armed thugs have taken control of the secondary makeshift shelter at the convention center. Superintendent Compass said that the thugs repelled eight squads of 11 officers each he had sent to secure the place and that rapes and assaults were occurring unimpeded in the neighboring streets as criminals “preyed upon” passers-by, including stranded tourists.
Later still, Chertoff said 12,000 National Guard will be in New Orleans by today — just five days after the storm hit.
Maybe Chertoff is spinning, or trying to reassure people that things aren’t quite as catastrophic as they seem, but by completely ignoring reality, Chertoff is not only raising questions about his competency, he’s undermining confidence in the entire federal effort.
As for Chertoff’s cabinet agency, University of Virginia’s Tim Naftali seems ready to call it the “Department of Homeland Screw-Up.”
How is it possible that with the fourth anniversary of 9/11 almost upon us, the federal government doesn’t have in hand the capability to prepare for and then manage a large urban disaster, natural or man-made? In terms of the challenge to government, there is little difference between a terrorist attack that wounds many people and renders a significant portion of a city uninhabitable, and the fallout this week from the failure of one of New Orleans’ major levees. Indeed, a terrorist could have chosen a levee for his target. Or a dirty-bomb attack in New Orleans could have caused the same sort of forced evacuation we are seeing and the widespread sickness that is likely to follow.
Chertoff’s Department of Homeland Security demonstrated today that it could organize an impressive press conference in Washington, lining up every participating civilian or military service from the Coast Guard to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to promise its cooperation. But on the ground in Louisiana, where it counts, DHS is turning out to be the sum of its inefficient parts. The department looks like what its biggest critics predicted: a new level of bureaucracy grafted onto a collection of largely ineffectual under-agencies.
What has DHS been doing if not readying itself and its subcomponents for a likely disaster?
It’s a good question.