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Feb. 15, 2006 - The business world and government departments depend upon it, grade-school kids are taught how to use it and Osama bin Laden’s followers have become skilled practitioners. But congressional investigations of government responses to Hurricane Katrina have revealed that two of the nation’s key crisis managers, the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, do not use e-mail.

During the course of their inquiries, which culminated this week in public hearings and the release of a scathing House committee report, congressional investigators sent the Bush administration extensive requests for papers and e-mails documenting how the administration responded before and after the hurricane made landfall on the Gulf Coast near New Orleans last August. The White House refused to turn over high-level documentation, asserting that communications between President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and their aides were covered by executive privilege.

When it came to documentation of how Secretaries Michael Chertoff and Donald Rumsfeld responded to Katrina, however, congressional investigators got a different answer from the administration. The House committee established to investigate Katrina was “informed that neither Secretary Chertoff nor Secretary Rumsfeld use e-mail,” reported Reps. Charlie Melancon and William Jefferson, two Louisiana Democrats who participated in the inquiry despite a boycott by other House Democrats who felt that the inquiry was too partisan. The Democrats made the disclosure in a report attached as an appendix to a widely publicized investigative report released today by the Republican majority which led the House Katrina investigation. (The Democrats’ report added that despite investigators’ requests for other documentation, “We received no other records we requested, such as phone logs, e-mail records of assistants, or other internal communications that would show how Secretary Chertoff and Secretary Rumsfeld received information, communicated with other government officials, or gave orders.”)

Spokesmen for the two officials maintain that Rumsfeld and Chertoff were kept informed during Katrina the same way as they keep in touch during other crises: through aides and a variety of other communications methods. “This is a large organization with a very competent staff that that kept the secretary well informed on Defense Department operations throughout Katrina,” Bryan Whitman, a Defense spokesman, told NEWSWEEK.   Brian Besanceney, Chertoff’s top spokesman, said:  “Every senior DHS official knows that, if they have important information to convey to the secretary, they go to his office or pick up the phone.”

But Dr. Irwin Redlener, a disaster-preparedness expert at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, expressed surprise that two officials in such critical positions would not be adept at routine methods of modern communication. “This can’t be true,” he said, only half-jokingly. “It’s almost inconceivable in 2006 for officials at that level of government not to be directly connected to systems of communications.”

During the Clinton administration, some congressional investigators criticized, and even lampooned, former FBI director Louis Freeh for not using e-mail or computers. They said Freeh’s cyberphobia hampered the ability of bureau agents to communicate with each other and to move critical information around the chain of command.

A spokesman for the current FBI director, Robert Mueller, told NEWSWEEK that not only is this FBI chief an enthusiastic e-mail user, but he also uses a BlackBerry portable e-mail device to keep in touch with critical messages. Other administration officials told NEWSWEEK that the government’s top three intelligence officials, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, his chief deputy, Gen. Michael Hayden and CIA Director Porter Goss all are experienced e-mail users.

Congressional investigators report that Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, another key cabinet official involved in managing Katrina—and who would have critical responsibilities during future crises—does use e-mail. Representatives Melancon and Jefferson note, however, that “although e-mails to and from other officials at [Leavitt’s] department make clear that Secretary Leavitt was sending and receiving e-mails relating to Katrina,” such documentation from Leavitt was not turned over by the administration to Katrina investigators on Capitol Hill.

Redlener says that not being in touch directly with a stream of critical e-mail communications can create a “distancing” between top officials and details of the crises facing them. Even though such officials may keep in touch with events through aides, Redlener said, for them not to be directly connected to e-mail creates a “disconnect from the real world.”

Both Democrats and Republicans involved in the House committee that investigated Katrina were critical of Chertoff’s handling of the crisis, particularly in its earliest stages. In their report, GOP majority investigators harshly criticized Chertoff for not making critical bureaucratic moves that post-9/11 disaster-management plans designate the responsibility of the Homeland Security chief. Chertoff exercised these responsibilities “late, ineffectively or not at all,” said the report. (Democrats Melancon and Jefferson called on Chertoff to resign.) In testimony prepared for delivery to Congress Wednesday, Chertoff acknowledged, “We at the department are our own harshest critics,” and added “We’re committed to using the lessons learned from Katrina to increase our ability to plan for and respond to catastrophic events.”

Homeland Security spokesman Besanceney offered a detailed description of how Chertoff keeps in touch with events without the use of e-mail. “His primary method of staying informed during an emergency is via the Homeland Security Operations Center and its staff, who operate 24/7/365.  When he is at headquarters, they will come in and brief him when something is happening—and/or he will go over to the HSOC for information, sometimes unannounced.  Sometimes these briefings are verbal, sometimes they are written (e.g., there were two written daily situation reports at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. [during Katrina]).”

Besanceney continued, “This is generally how he operated in Katrina.  He also went down to the NRCC, which is FEMA's command center, in person on a number of occasions later during the first week of Katrina as he was growing increasingly frustrated with the information flow from the field. FEMA's command center is 20-25 minutes door to door from his office.”

The Homeland Security spokesman added: “When out of the office, [Chertoff] maintains communications via a variety of different methods ranging from the good old-fashioned phone to an actual comms team that travels with him on out-of-town visits.  He flies via government aircraft with a full communications package so he can be reached while airborne. He also has a military aide—a Coast Guard officer—who communicates with the HSOC when they need to reach him.  And, of course, his Secret Service detail is always with him.”

Defense officials were less forthcoming regarding Rumsfeld’s communications arrangements, with an official insisting that “As a member of the National Command Authority, the Secretary of Defense has constant, uninterrupted communication capability no matter where he goes or what he is doing.” The official added that “Video teleconferencing, telephone, radio, satellite are all means of conducting daily business.” The official insisted that during Katrina, “The Secretary was very engaged with the responsible unified commands (Northcom) and the Staff Components in the Pentagon (Joint Staff and the Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security) as well appropriate special staff (Public Affairs, Legal, Legislative).” However, a Defense official also indicated that some Pentagon officials are wary of e-mail because it does leave behind a “record that gets scrutinized.”

In their appendix to the Republicans’ majority report on the administration’s response to Katrina, Representatives Melancon and Jefferson complained that in addition to the lack of e-mail records from Chertoff and Rumsfeld, “The White House withheld scores of critical documents, prevented all but a single White House official from even speaking to Congress, and made clear that a full and complete accounting would have to take a back seat to shielding White House actions through unprecedented and sweeping claims of executive privilege.” The Democrats say that when staffers argued in one meeting with an administration representative that White House documentation had been turned over during previous congressional investigations, a White House official told them: “You’re not getting Andrew Card’s e-mails.”

White House officials have maintained that the White House is not meant to be a crisis command post and that in the case of an event like Katrina, the White House was relying heavily on the Homeland Security Department’s operations center for information on the extent of the disaster and government responses to it. The White House is conducting its own internal inquiry into Katrina responses, which is expected to acknowledge sweeping problems with the federal government’s handling of the crisis. This review is expected largely to avoid pointing the finger of blame at individual officials. For now, though, even some of the administration’s sympathizers presumably are wondering whether it’s time for the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to get their fingers on the keyboard.