After the Storm, Chertoff Vows to Reshape DHS

Chertoff and a senior aide have cited three different times as the point when an interagency crisis management group began meeting in Washington. In television interviews and in House testimony, Chertoff has said he was told about the key event in the flooding of New Orleans -- the irreparable breach of the city's levee system -- at midday Aug. 30, overnight Aug. 29 and, most recently, the morning of Aug. 30.

"I believe this was less about the efficacy of the plan, and more about the lack of execution of the plan," former deputy homeland security secretary and retired Navy Adm. James Loy said recently.

Chertoff has survived with political capital intact in part because of Brown's spectacular fall and President Bush's acceptance of responsibility for the response to the hurricane, members of Congress and analysts said.

Chertoff was in the "wrong spot at the wrong time," said Alan Capps, editor of the Journal of Homeland Security and analyst at the ANSER institute for homeland security. But, Capps added, the secretary's job, tough to begin with, "has just been made more complicated. . . . In this town, you know everybody is gunning for you right now."

In an interview in his offices at a former Navy base in Northwest Washington, Chertoff displayed the command of facts and the stand-up demeanor that wins him admirers in both parties. His diagnosis of what went wrong with the Katrina response is focused and analytical, as is his self-assessment.

"I'm not a politician. I make no bones about the fact that there are people who are terrific about . . . emoting publicly. But actually in this job I think what people want is candor and honesty. What I owe them is a feeling that I am giving them the best information I can," he said.

"I'm prepared to push the envelope on getting stuff done. I'm not going to break the law," he said. "I am disciplined about what I do. . . . But I am fast. I don't think I'm excessively a hankie-twister in decision making."

Chertoff's penchant for action has spurred controversy before. As the Justice Department's No. 3 official, he helped lead its aggressive crackdown against terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks, overseeing the roundup of 762 foreign nationals for immigration violations. None was charged with terrorism-related crimes. The department's inspector general concluded that a "no bond" policy led to lengthy delays in their release, and some faced "a pattern of physical and verbal abuse" while incarcerated.

Chertoff offers no apology. He said failures that led to the Katrina response, such as those surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks, reinforce his charge to mend the Homeland Security Department.

"Nine-eleven woke us up about the need to prevent and get our intelligence right. Katrina woke us up about the need to get prepared," Chertoff said. "The passion that everybody feels after Katrina will be a help in getting this done quickly."

Chertoff blames information gaps and lack of detailed advance planning for Katrina flaws. "The first report from the battlefield is almost always wrong," he said. "That was a great frustration to me. I hate being inaccurate." He added, "The one lesson you have to take away from this . . . [is] to balance the desire to do something very fast against the desire to make sure, before you make a decision."

Chertoff has promised Congress that he will remake FEMA's emergency logistics, communications and operations systems, and leadership, citing high-volume and rapidly expandable business and military models.

More broadly, the focus on his department may be strengthening Chertoff's hand, analysts said. Congress recently passed a $31 billion budget, including many structural changes Chertoff proposed this summer despite objections, chiefly by Democrats, that he would gut FEMA.

Chertoff acknowledged that a 420-page national disaster plan unveiled this winter after two years of work is insufficient. "The National Response Plan is a good plan from a process standpoint. It tells you who should speak to who. . . . That is not a substitute for what I call a substantive plan, which is, 'Okay, what roads do people take to get out?' "

Chertoff also acknowledged that state emergency managers "have a legitimate concern" that the department may have focused excessively on terrorism and biological, nuclear and chemical attacks instead of natural disasters.

Chertoff said he and Deputy Secretary Michael P. Jackson have been "stretched" by having to perform multiple jobs, partly because of the slow pace of Senate confirmation of appointees. He singled out Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), although not by name, for delaying appointments as a protest over being denied a secret May 2004 e-mail from FBI agents about the questioning of terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"If it takes weeks and months to confirm people . . . and if they get held because someone is sore that they didn't get a document," Chertoff said, "that means the deputy and I were here 'home alone' for a long period of time."

While, the Defense Department struggled for 40 years after its creation to merge rival military branches, Chertoff said, "we have to do this a lot quicker. I know we will not accomplish everything we want to accomplish. But if we can move forward significantly, then . . . even if it was not always the most pleasant experience from a personal standpoint, or the easiest, it was worth doing."