As I’ve pointed out before concerning deployment of the National Guard to the Southern U.S. border, there is a huge difference between deployed and deployed and under arming orders.  We’ve all seen the videos and read the reports of forcible gun confiscation by the Louisiana National Guard in the aftermath of Katrina.

In an age where no Governor or President has the courage to deploy the National Guard under arming orders to the Southern Border, it’s important to understand how the confiscation of guns occurred in Louisiana.  If the National Guard was actually under arming orders, it marks a significant point in American history.  No National Guard unit has ever deployed to the Southern border to stop the flood of illegal immigrants, but they will go armed against their own countrymen in order to confiscate personal property.

It’s important to know if they were armed (rounds in magazines and chambered, with orders to shoot and under very specific rules for the use of force), and if so, who signed the arming orders and under what pretext it was done.  Additional questions might include under whose authority did they operate, to whom did they directly report, and who issued the order to confiscate weapons?  In fact, the last question may very well be the most important one.

To this end I have begun a request for this information with the Louisiana National Guard, but as of this writing my e-mails have been bounced by the e-mail servers and summarily ignored by the recipients (when not bounced).  Not even the FOIA e-mail functions properly.  I have sent the following e-mails to the LNG and state officials.

June 23, 2014:to:         webmaster@geauxguard.com
date:         Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 11:02 PM
subject:    Contact Concerning Arming Orders

Sir,

I see no other way on your web site to contact command of Louisiana National Guard concerning my questions, so I am reaching out to you to forward this note to your superiors.  This is the first of several questions I have concerning Lousiana National Guard actions during Katrina, but we may as well start with the first one.  I would like to have a traceable paper trail for all of my communications, and if necessary I will fill out the requisite paperwork for FOI request.  Let’s hope that it doesn’t come to that.

My first question concerns whether LNG soldiers were armed (with rounds in magazines and/or chambered) during your response to Katrina.  I would like a PDF copy of your arming orders for this if so.  Your CO will know what I refer to when I say “arming orders.”

Thank you,

Herschel Smith
http://www.captainsjournal.com/

On June 26 and 27 I forwarded the note to the same e-mail address.  Having then located the FOIA e-mail address, I then sent this note on June 28.

to:         LA.FOIA.PA@ng.army.mil
date:         Sat, Jun 28, 2014 at 1:13 AM
subject:     Fwd: Contact Concerning Arming Orders

To whom it may concern,

Please see the note below concerning my request for historical documentation viz. arming orders for the LNG actions during hurricane Katrina.  Let me know if there is other paperwork you would like for me to fill out.  If I am not mistaken this should be fairly easy documentation to produce and thus not very costly to the LNG.

This e-mail bounced until July 1.  On July 8 I sent the following note to a LNG PAO.

to:     denis.ricou@us.army.mil
date:     Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 12:08 AMAs you can see below, my FOIA request is being bounced by your servers for some reason, and ignored by your webmaster for some other reason.  Please forward my request to the appropriate person for resolution.

I forwarded the same note on July 15.  Only July 18 I sent the following note.

to:     Public.Request2@la.gov, denis.ricou@us.army.mil
date:     Fri, Jul 18, 2014 at 10:47 PM

Please see below the request for information concerning arming orders for the LNG during Katrina.  As you can see, my request(s) have been summarily ignored thus far.  I will also be sending a note directly to the governor.

I followed this up with an e-mail to the governor’s office, as follows.

I have sent multiple requests both the the PAO and the FOIA officer at the Louisiana National Guard for information concerning arming orders during Katrina.  Thus far my request(s) have been summarily ignored, if I am not mistaken contrary to the stipulations of federal law.  Please ensure that your NG officers meet my reasonable requests for information.

Herschel Smith, Editor
www.captainsjournal.com

In the interest of openness I am informing my readers as to the difficulty of this project, but I’m not surprised given the subject matter.