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The Great New Orleans Land Grab
By Ernesto Cienfuegos
Global Research, September 13, 2005
La Voz de Aztlan 13 September 2005
Url of this article:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-great-new-orleans-land-grab/941

There were numerous incidents that occurred during and immediately after Katrina struck that point to the “unthinkable”. It now appears that a sophisticated plan was implemented that utilized the “cover of a hurricane” to first destroy and than take over the City of New Orleans? As the world watched the events unfolding, one could not help think that something was terribly afoot concerning the rescue by FEMA of the city’s poor and predominately Black population.

It seems that a well laid out plan was put into effect to grab valuable real estate from well established but poverty stricken Black families of New Orleans. What is being implemented now is nothing less than a sophisticated scheme to purge and ethnically cleanse what Whites have termed “Black and ‘welfare bloated’ New Orleans”.

Among the most telling anomalies pointing to something terribly afoot is the gun battle, killing 5, that occurred at the breached levee between the New Orleans Police Department and, what have now been identified as US military agents. An Associated Press report, which has now disappeared, stated that at least five USA Defense Department personnel where shot dead by New Orleans police officers in the proximity of the breached levee. (Please Note: The original media reports concerning the shootout are now being changed or “cleansed” in a cover-up. We found one original report at http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5256023,00.html La Voz de Aztlan has a mirror page of this report at http://www.aztlan.net/police_kill_five_contractors.htm in case this report gets changed or deleted as well) A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said later that those killed were “federal contractors” on their way to “repair” a canal. The “contractors” were on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain, in an operation to “fix” the 17th Street Canal, according to the Army Corps of Engineers spokesman. Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley of New Orleans later reported that his policemen had shot at eight suspicious people near the breached levee, killing five or six. [see text of AP report at foot of article]

Who were these “military agents” that were killed by the police near the 17th Street Canal breached levee and what were they doing there? Why did the New Orleans police find it necessary to shoot and kill 5 or 6 of them? No one is saying anything and it appears that the news story has now been swept under the rug. Were these US Department of Defense personnel a Special Forces group or Navy Seals with top secret orders to sabotaged the levee? There are verifiable reports that at least 100 New Orleans police officers have disappeared from the face of the earth and that two have committed suicide. Could these be policemen that died defending the levee against sabotage by “federal contractors”?

Another telling incident that points to a “nefarious plan” is what New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said at the height of the crisis. He said publicly, “I fear the CIA may take me out!” Mayor Nagin, a Black, said this twice. He told a reporter for the Associated Press: “If the CIA slips me something and next week you don’t see me, you’ll all know what happened.” Later he told interviewers for CNN on a live broadcast that he feared the “CIA might take me out.” What does Mayor Ray Nagin know and why does he fear the CIA?

In an interview by WWL TV, Mayor Nagin complained vociferously that Louisiana National Guard Blackhawk helicopters were being stopped from dropping sandbags to plug the levee soon after it breached. There is evidence that no repairs were allowed on the levee until after New Orleans was totally flooded!

Many civilian groups who were attempting to aid people trapped in their attics, on their roofs and at the Superdome are reporting that FEMA, other federal agents and the US military essentially “stopped” them from doing so. Convoys that were organized by truckers and carrying “food and water” were blocked by agents of the federal government on the highways and roads leading to New Orleans. The American Red Cross, in addition, encountered numerous incidents and has made formal complaints.

A private ham radio network that deployed throughout the hurricane ravished region reported that the airwaves were being “jammed” making it impossible to communicate emergency information. Churches, hospitals and other essential community groups reported that the first thing that the US military did, when they arrived, was to cut their telephone lines and confiscate communications devices. We all witnessed news reports and heard statements by flood victims concerning the behavior of the US military. Many Black families complained that military vehicles did not stop to assist them but just drove by. One news report showed military personnel playing cards inside a barrack while Black citizens were dying of thirst and hunger.

Today, it is very revealing how the federal government is handling the disaster. They want every Black out of New Orleans and those who insist on staying in their homes will be removed by force. The government, through some media, is utilizing scare tactics to cleanse New Orleans of all Blacks. They want no witnesses and this will make the “land grab” a lot easier to undertake. One scare tactic is calling the flood water “a horrid toxic soup of feces a rotting flesh of corpses”. The military thugs are now getting tough with Black families that have owned their old but beloved homes for many generations. Mr. Rufus Johnson, a family patriarch who lives in the French Quarter, said in an interview, “The army has given me an ultimatum to leave or suffer the consequences of a forced eviction. I do not understand . My entire family and I survived Katrina and now they want to throw me out of the home we have had for generations”. Mr. Johnson lives in a neighborhood where the flood has subsided and his home is not heavily damaged yet FEMA wants him out!

Bush and CheneyThe fact that Vice President Dick Cheney is heavily involved in the FEMA operations from behind the scenes is very troublesome. Cheney and his cronies at Halliburton are in line for the lucrative contracts to “reconstruct a New Orleans”. Deals are already being made with a Las Vegas business group to construct multi-million dollar casinos in the Big Easy on prime real estate that was owned by Black families. Whites throughout history have been notorious “land grabbers”. In the USA they first confiscated land that belonged to American Indians. Most of the Indians ended up in worthless tracts of land called “reservations”. The largest “land grab”, however, was the theft of Aztlan. This occurred soon after the Mexican-American War. In Alta California , vast “Ranchos” were stolen from the Californios through a variety of scams. A favorite ploy was to impose extremely heavy land taxes on the Mexicans and then foreclosing on the properties. The land was then given or sold at very low prices to the Forty Niners who came in large hordes to Alta California during the so called “Gold Rush” of 1849.

Police Kill Five Contractors on La. Bridge

Sunday September 4, 2005 11:16 PM

AP Photo VTAP102

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Police shot eight people carrying guns on a New Orleans bridge Sunday, killing five or six, a deputy chief said. A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said the victims were contractors on their way to repair a canal.

The contractors were walking across a bridge on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to fix the 17th Street Canal, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Corps.

Earlier Sunday, New Orleans Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said police shot at eight people, killing five or six.

The shootings took place on the Danziger Bridge, which spans a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.

No other details were immediately available

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