FEMA’s perpetual degeneracy and Brock Long’s smugness seemed to genuinely irritate Vice Adm. Darse E. Crandall, who, for reasons not given to Real Raw News, has remained at Guantanamo Bay since Gretchen Whitmer’s execution, as opposed to flying back to Camp Blaz, Guam.
“Something big is brewing at Blaz,” was all we were told. “Admiral Crandall can try a case anywhere; just give him a crime and a defendant.”
Wednesday’s defendant was the loathsome former FEMA Administrator Brock Long, who had followed in the footsteps of his predecessors, abusing his authority to transform a disaster relief agency into a weaponized arm of the Dept. of Homeland Security. Neither Brock Long nor earlier FEMA bosses, Adm. Crandall mentioned to his paralegal, had a history of criminality before helming FEMA. It was as though the position itself instilled in them a rapacious desire to strip citizens of the rights and freedoms they hold sacred.
Following Wednesday’s lunch recess, Adm. Crandall summoned the prosecution’s first witness, Dr. Daniel Kaniewski, FEMA’s second-ranking official during Long’s reign of terror. Unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 2017, Kaniewski was the agency’s Deputy Administrator for Resilience, responsible for addressing preparedness challenges in times of natural disasters. He spoke about his academic and employment history and was asked to identify the defendant.
“Orange jumpsuit. Handcuffs. Sitting at that table. That’s Brock Long,” Kaniewski said.
The admiral held in his hands a ream of paper. “Mr. Kaniewski, are you familiar with FEMA’s red and blue lists?”
Kaniewski swallowed hard. “I’m not on trial, right?”
“You are a witness, Mr. Kaniewski, a witness who’s been offered conditional prosecutorial immunity in return for honest testimony, which is what we expect of you,” the admiral said.
Kaniewski sighed. “I’ve heard of it.”
“You’ve heard of it? That’s amazing—because the defendant claims he has absolutely no knowledge of it. What have you heard and from whom?” the admiral asked.
“I’ve heard two stories. One says those lists have names of people FEMA feels need watching, people, you know, who don’t particularly like the political environment and the politicians running the country, and it has names of people who own multiple firearms and have bought, eh, excessive quantities of ammunition. The other story goes it’s all part of a roleplay exercise,” Kaniewski explained.
“And from whom did you hear these stories?”
“I honestly can’t recall who told me about the watch list. It was probably more than one person. After that, I asked Brock, the defendant, what the deal was, and he told me the roleplay scenario,” Kaniewski said.
“Do you recall when the defendant told you that?” asked the admiral.
“We’re talking about five, six years ago. I think it was sometime in early 2018,” Kaniewski said.
“I find this perplexing. Internet forums have been replete with rumors of these lists since the internet was a thing. Yet here we have former FEMA officials saying they have no knowledge or only a peripheral knowledge of them. It boggles one’s mind, it really does,” the admiral said.
“I’m telling the truth,” Kaniewski insisted.
“Would it surprise you to know, Mr. Kaniewski, that your name is on the red list?”
Long erupted in anger as the admiral laid a sheet of paper atop the witness stand.
“That’s a lie! His name is not on the list,” Long shouted. “If it’s on there, they doctored it!”
The admiral faced Long. “How would you know whether his name is or is not on the list if you have no knowledge of it?”
Admiral Crandall tapped the page with the tip of an index finger. “That’s your name, Mr. Kaniewski, right there, added on March 10, 2018. And for the record, we didn’t alter it.”
“Why did you do this to me, Brock?” Kaniewski said to Long.
The admiral asked him not to address the defendant. “You weren’t that special, Mr. Kaniewski; the database has 1,540,327 names, alphabetized. You’re in good company. If he didn’t insert your name, someone under his authority did.” He excused the witness.
Deep Staters, the admiral noted, had an uncanny ability to incriminate themselves under pressure. He mentioned how much he appreciated criminals willing to self-snitch.
He introduced a second witness, Mark Knowles, a FEMA Region 3 deputy supervisor from November 2017 – December 2018, after which he resigned from the agency to pursue other ambitions. He described himself as a cocky, ambitious man who never let rules hinder professional progress and said he and Long had often discussed the societal benefits of eradicating people who called themselves patriots.
“Is it safe to assume, Mr. Knowles, that you and the defendant are friends?” the admiral asked.
“We were friends,” Knowles said.
“Please state why you are here today, testifying against your friend.”
Knowles sniggered. “I said we were friends. And because I’d rather spend five years at Hotel GITMO than risk swingin’ from a tree.”
“That’s the deal we offered you?”
“Yup,” Knowles said.
“And why should this tribunal accept your testimony as fact?” the admiral asked.
“No reason you should, except I have receipts for much of it,” Knowles replied.
The admiral instructed Knowles to respond with yes or no answers unless instructed otherwise.
“Mr. Knowles, on March 22, 2018, did you observe the defendant at Barack Hussein Obama’s home in Washington, D.C., while he was there with former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate?” Adm. Crandall asked.
“Yes.”
“Were you a passenger in the defendant’s government vehicle, and did he drive you both from FEMA’s office on 500 C St SW, Washington, D.C., to Obama’s physical address?”
“Mmmhmmm.”
“Yes or no, please,” the admiral reiterated.
“Yes,” Knowles responded.
“Did he tell you why he was going to see Obama?”
“No, he did not. Only said he had to talk with him,” said Knowles.
“Weren’t you curious? And you can elaborate?”
“Sure, but I wasn’t paid to ask questions,” Knowles said.
“And how exactly did you come to observe the defendant conversing with Obama and Fugate?” Adm. Crandall asked.
“Because they were out front with two Secret Service agents when we pulled up. I stayed in the car. Brock got out to meet them before they went inside.”
The admiral displayed a photograph of Long, Obama, and Fugate smiling and shaking hands. He said Knowles had taken the photo through an open car window and that JAG’s experts had forensically examined the image and metadata.
Long squirmed in his seat at the defense table, chewing on his lower lip.
“Mr. Knowles, you captured this with your cell phone, right?” the admiral asked.
“Yep.”
“Why did you take this picture?”
“You never know when something come in handy in the future,” Knowles said.
In response to further questions, Knowles said Long, Obama, and Fugate went inside after minutes of senseless handshaking. He said he waited 45 minutes for Long to exit the dwelling.
“And since you were not in the house, you obviously can’t know what they discussed, right?” the admiral asked.
“Only what Brock told me.”
“And what did he tell you?”
Knowles laughed a little. “That they talked about fucking over Trump. Like if there were severe tornado outbreaks that spring, they’d withhold relief and then blame it on Trump, say he gut funding. And if FEMA got caught with hands in the cookie jar stealing from busted houses, they’d try to blame it on Trump.”
“Let’s step back. What did you and Long do after he finished at Obama’s place?” said the admiral.
“Oh, we went to a regional preparedness meeting not far away.”
“Do you think President Trump knew that Long visited Obama?”
“Hell no,” Knowles said with a chuckle. “I mean, I don’t know as fact, but c’mon, realistically, he didn’t know. Trump was FEMA’s enemy.”
“Why is that?”
“Because Trump wants to purge the Deep State, and FEMA is the Deep State. FEMA is not part of Homeland; FEMA is Homeland. Until you guys came along, FEMA controlled the most fortified arsenal in the country—Mt. Weather. Even Cheyenne has Walmart-grade security compared to what’s at Weather,” Knowles said.
The admiral thanked and dismissed the witness.
I will publish Part III asap. Behind schedule a bit.