- (CNN) -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin blasted the slow
pace of federal and state relief efforts in an expletive-laced interview
with local radio station WWL-AM.
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- The following is a transcript of WWL correspondent Garland
Robinette's interview with Nagin on Thursday night. Robinette asked the
mayor about his conversation with President Bush:
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- NAGIN: I told him we had an incredible crisis here and
that his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice. And that
I have been all around this city, and I am very frustrated because we are
not able to marshal resources and we're outmanned in just about every respect.
Listen to the mayor express his frustration in this video -- 12:09)
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- You know the reason why the looters got out of control?
Because we had most of our resources saving people, thousands of people
that were stuck in attics, man, old ladies. ... You pull off the doggone
ventilator vent and you look down there and they're standing in there in
water up to their freaking necks.
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- And they don't have a clue what's going on down here.
They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over
with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of goddamn -- excuse my French
everybody in America, but I am pissed.
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- WWL: Did you say to the president of the United States,
"I need the military in here"?
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- NAGIN: I said, "I need everything."
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- Now, I will tell you this -- and I give the president
some credit on this -- he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get
some stuff done, and his name is [Lt.] Gen. [Russel] Honore.
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- And he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing
and people started moving. And he's getting some stuff done.
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- They ought to give that guy -- if they don't want to
give it to me, give him full authority to get the job done, and we can
save some people.
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- WWL: What do you need right now to get control of this
situation?
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- NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need
500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings
we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come
down here and bus people out here.
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- I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national
disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their
asses moving to New Orleans."
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- That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a
major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is
crazy.
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- I've got 15,000 to 20,000 people over at the convention
center. It's bursting at the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines Parish.
... We don't have anything, and we're sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines
Parish.
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- It's awful down here, man.
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- WWL: Do you believe that the president is seeing this,
holding a news conference on it but can't do anything until [Louisiana
Gov.] Kathleen Blanco requested him to do it? And do you know whether or
not she has made that request?
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- NAGIN: I have no idea what they're doing. But I will
tell you this: You know, God is looking down on all this, and if they are
not doing everything in their power to save people, they are going to pay
the price. Because every day that we delay, people are dying and they're
dying by the hundreds, I'm willing to bet you.
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- We're getting reports and calls that are breaking my
heart, from people saying, "I've been in my attic. I can't take it
anymore. The water is up to my neck. I don't think I can hold out."
And that's happening as we speak.
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- You know what really upsets me, Garland? We told everybody
the importance of the 17th Street Canal issue. We said, "Please, please
take care of this. We don't care what you do. Figure it out."
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- WWL: Who'd you say that to?
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- NAGIN: Everybody: the governor, Homeland Security, FEMA.
You name it, we said it.
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- And they allowed that pumping station next to Pumping
Station 6 to go under water. Our sewage and water board people ... stayed
there and endangered their lives.
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- And what happened when that pumping station went down,
the water started flowing again in the city, and it starting getting to
levels that probably killed more people.
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- In addition to that, we had water flowing through the
pipes in the city. That's a power station over there.
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- So there's no water flowing anywhere on the east bank
of Orleans Parish. So our critical water supply was destroyed because of
lack of action.
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- WWL: Why couldn't they drop the 3,000-pound sandbags
or the containers that they were talking about earlier? Was it an engineering
feat that just couldn't be done?
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- NAGIN: They said it was some pulleys that they had to
manufacture. But, you know, in a state of emergency, man, you are creative,
you figure out ways to get stuff done.
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- Then they told me that they went overnight, and they
built 17 concrete structures and they had the pulleys on them and they
were going to drop them.
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- I flew over that thing yesterday, and it's in the same
shape that it was after the storm hit. There is nothing happening. And
they're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning, and people
are dying down here.
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- WWL: If some of the public called and they're right,
that there's a law that the president, that the federal government can't
do anything without local or state requests, would you request martial
law?
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- NAGIN: I've already called for martial law in the city
of New Orleans. We did that a few days ago.
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- WWL: Did the governor do that, too?
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- NAGIN: I don't know. I don't think so.
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- But we called for martial law when we realized that the
looting was getting out of control. And we redirected all of our police
officers back to patrolling the streets. They were dead-tired from saving
people, but they worked all night because we thought this thing was going
to blow wide open last night. And so we redirected all of our resources,
and we hold it under check.
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- I'm not sure if we can do that another night with the
current resources.
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- And I am telling you right now: They're showing all these
reports of people looting and doing all that weird stuff, and they are
doing that, but people are desperate and they're trying to find food and
water, the majority of them.
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- Now you got some knuckleheads out there, and they are
taking advantage of this lawless -- this situation where, you know, we
can't really control it, and they're doing some awful, awful things. But
that's a small majority of the people. Most people are looking to try and
survive.
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- And one of the things people -- nobody's talked about
this. Drugs flowed in and out of New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan
area so freely it was scary to me, and that's why we were having the escalation
in murders. People don't want to talk about this, but I'm going to talk
about it.
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- You have drug addicts that are now walking around this
city looking for a fix, and that's the reason why they were breaking in
hospitals and drugstores. They're looking for something to take the edge
off of their jones, if you will.
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- And right now, they don't have anything to take the edge
off. And they've probably found guns. So what you're seeing is drug-starving
crazy addicts, drug addicts, that are wrecking havoc. And we don't have
the manpower to adequately deal with it. We can only target certain sections
of the city and form a perimeter around them and hope to God that we're
not overrun.
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- WWL: Well, you and I must be in the minority. Because
apparently there's a section of our citizenry out there that thinks because
of a law that says the federal government can't come in unless requested
by the proper people, that everything that's going on to this point has
been done as good as it can possibly be.
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- NAGIN: Really?
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- WWL: I know you don't feel that way.
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- NAGIN: Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did it
go through a formal process to request?
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- You know, did the Iraqi people request that we go in
there? Did they ask us to go in there? What is more important?
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- And I'll tell you, man, I'm probably going get in a whole
bunch of trouble. I'm probably going to get in so much trouble it ain't
even funny. You probably won't even want to deal with me after this interview
is over.
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- WWL: You and I will be in the funny place together.
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- NAGIN: But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick.
After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to
take care of New York and other places.
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- Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your
oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans
anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell
me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died
and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a
way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.
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- You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking
very clearly.
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- And I don't know whose problem it is. I don't know whether
it's the governor's problem. I don't know whether it's the president's
problem, but somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the
two of them, and figure this out right now.
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- WWL: What can we do here?
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- NAGIN: Keep talking about it.
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- WWL: We'll do that. What else can we do?
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- NAGIN: Organize people to write letters and make calls
to their congressmen, to the president, to the governor. Flood their doggone
offices with requests to do something. This is ridiculous.
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- I don't want to see anybody do anymore goddamn press
conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don't do another press
conference until the resources are in this city. And then come down to
this city and stand with us when there are military trucks and troops that
we can't even count.
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- Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're
not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something,
and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.
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- WWL: I'll say it right now, you're the only politician
that's called and called for arms like this. And if -- whatever it takes,
the governor, president -- whatever law precedent it takes, whatever it
takes, I bet that the people listening to you are on your side.
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- NAGIN: Well, I hope so, Garland. I am just -- I'm at
the point now where it don't matter. People are dying. They don't have
homes. They don't have jobs. The city of New Orleans will never be the
same in this time.
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- WWL: We're both pretty speechless here.
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- NAGIN: Yeah, I don't know what to say. I got to go.
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- WWL: OK. Keep in touch. Keep in touch.
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- http://www.wwltv.com/
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