Posted 11/26/2005 02:46:00 PM by Douglas

Here's another thing Brownie could focus on with his new consulting firm: Misleading testimony.

In his Sept. 27 testimony to the House panel that also is investigating the government's response, Brown had said that he sent a dozen FEMA staffers, including a medical team, to New Orleans before Katrina struck. He said Bahamonde was designated as his liaison to New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin.

Not true, Bahamonde said Thursday. "I was the only one" Brown sent to New Orleans before the hurricane, Bahamonde said. He added, "I was not sent there to be a liaison with anyone."

Brown testified that Bahamonde had sent him a "fairly routine kind of e-mail" on Monday, Aug. 29, describing the "general conditions" at the Superdome. Bahamonde also communicated later that day, Brown testified, that the shelter "had plenty of food" to feed those thronging there.

Not so, Bahamonde said Thursday. "Nothing I did was routine as I tried to express in the best way I could the urgency and need for medical teams before the hurricane hit because there was already a critical situation developing there on Sunday."

He never told Brown, he said, that food supplies were adequate.

Who ya gonna believe? Brownie, or his subordinate that was actually there? Not to mention he had over 12 years of FEMA experience. Yet oddly, no experience with Arabian horses.