Artykuły

Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"

Disaster chief loses hurricane relief role after CV allegations


Michael Brown, the head of the Bush administration's disaster relief effort, was relieved yesterday of his role coordinating the response to Hurricane Katrina, after allegations that he had embroidered his professional record and had no emergency management experience.
A US coast guard commander, Rear Admiral Thad Allen, took over relief operations from Mr Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), who was recalled to Washington.
Announcing the move, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, said that "Mike Brown has done everything he possibly could" in leading the response.
Fema, he added, had "a lot of other responsibilities" that required Mr Brown's oversight.
Amid signs that he is haemorrhaging public confidence, President George Bush is to make a third visit tomorrow to the disaster zone, where hopes were rising that Hurricane Katrina's human cost might not be as high as some local officials had first feared.
In New Orleans, as police and troops moved door to door looking for survivors and bodies, Terry Ebbert, the city's head of homeland security, said: "I think there's some encouragement in what we've found in the initial sweeps that some of the catastrophic deaths that some people predicted may not have occurred.
"Numbers so far are relatively minor as compared to the dire projections of 10,000."
It was news the president badly needed. Mr Brown's credentials have become an embarrassment at the centre of a debate over Fema's slow response to the disaster.
Yesterday's polls suggested that the relief debacle is draining public faith in President Bush. The Pew Research Centre found only 38% of Americans approved of the way he was handling the crisis, and the president's overall approval rating fell sharply, to 40%.
Former secretary of state Colin Powell criticised the relief effort, saying "a lot of failures" occurred at all levels of government. Mr Powell, the highest ranking black official in Mr Bush's first term, said he did not believe race was a factor in the slow delivery of relief.
"I think there have been a lot of failures at a lot of levels - local, state and federal," he told ABC News. "I don't think it's racism, I think it's economic."
In the 10 years before joining Fema, Mr Brown's job was to help run shows for the International Arabian Horse Association, but he left under pressure from management after the association was sued over his handling of some of its events.
According to his official biography, Mr Brown's only directly relevant experience was 25 years ago as an "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight".
However, Time magazine's online edition reported yesterday that in his three years working for the local authority in Edmond, Oklahoma (population 70,000), Mr Brown was "more like an intern", with oversight over nothing.
An Edmond spokeswoman, Claudia Deakins, said official records said only that he was employed as "an assistant to the city manager" - not an "assistant city manager".
Mr Brown was hired as Fema's deputy director in 2001 by an old college friend, Joe Allbaugh, who ran the agency until 2003.
Mr Allbaugh, Mr Bush's former campaign manager, was hired this year by Haliburton, vice-president Dick Cheney's former company, to provide advice on disaster relief. Haliburton has been awarded the first big reconstruction contacts in the wake of the storm.
Under "honours and awards" in an online legal directory, FindLaw.com, Mr Brown is listed as an "outstanding political science professor" at Central State University.
Charles Johnson, of the University of Central Oklahoma, as it is now known, told the Guardian: "The only thing I can tell you is that he graduated in political science in 1978. I do not have a record indicating he was a political science professor."
Yesterday, Mr Brown accused the media of bias against him and said his removal was Mr Chertoff's idea. He was "anxious" to return to Washington "to correct all the inaccuracies and lies".


allegation- insynuacja, zarzut
announce- ogłaszać, oznajmiać
bias- stronniczość
credentials- opinia, referencje
dire- złowieszczy, zgubny
embroider- upiększać
haemorrhage- krwawić
inaccuracy- nieścisłość
outstanding- znakomity, wybitny
overall- całkowity, ogólny
oversight- przeoczenie
sue- zaskarżać
sweep- przeszukanie


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