Black leaders: New Orleans levees weren't bombed

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Black leaders: New Orleans levees weren't bombed

By Robert "Rob" Redding Jr.

Editor & Publisher

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2005, 9:10 a.m. - Some leaders yesterday declined to back Nation of Islam leader Minister Lewis Farrakhan's theory that the levees in New Orleans' predominantly black Ninth Ward were bombed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"I don't know where he gets his information from," Rev. Jesse Jackson told Redding News Review. "All houses on that side are just wiped out like a bomb hit it. I would think for those who say they heard a bomb that huge barge hitting that wall could have sounded like a bomb."

Jackson also said he did not think that the gaping hole that barge left was intentional.

"I have no evidence it was intentional," he said. "I do not know the intent, I know the evidence."

Scholar Cornel West also had no knowledge of a bomb being used.

"I haven't seen evidence that they were blown up," West told Redding News Review. "It was clear that they were inadequate. We should have made it a priority to make sure they were in place."

Asked about Jackson's claim he said: "Well maybe they know somethin' I don't know."

Both Jackson and West spoke to Redding News Review after addressing Farrakhan's Millions More Movement in the District this weekend.

Farrakhan said at a news conference before the rally it is up to the government to prove the levees were not bombed.

He made no such remark at the rally yesterday, but said the federal government should be charged with "criminal neglect of the people of New Orleans."

On Sept. 23, Farrakhan repeated a white supremacist claim that the levees were purposely destroyed in the city's black sections.

The leader of the black Muslims is first reported to have made this claim on Sept. 13th.

"I heard from a very reliable source who saw a 25 foot deep crater under the levee breach," Farrakhan is reported to have told a crowd in Charlotte. "It may have been blown up to destroy the black part of town and keep the white part dry."

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