EXCLUSIVE: Ex-FEMA Chief Says Tapes 'Speak For Themselves'

Michael Brown shared some very candid thoughts with me, not only about the videos showing President Bush and Homeland Security officials knew of the potential disaster of Hurricane Katrina, but about his life after the storm.

In an exclusive interview, he tells me that the tape simply confirms what he's been saying all along, that he did sound the alarm bells.

"I'm glad it's coming out because despite the media reports and the general perception that I was a dummy that didn't know what I was doing, I knew exactly what I was doing," he said in an interview at his home.

Former FEMA director Michael Brown says the video footage of the final briefing before Katrina struck is proof that President Bush and other officials were informed that the storm would wreak devastation of disastrous proportions. First from the National Hurricane director Max Mayfield, who said: "I don't think any model with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not but that is obviously a very, very grave concern."

And participating in a briefing from his ranch in Texas, the president heard Brown say these words specifically about the Superdome.

"You may or may not know the Superdome is 12 feet below sea level. So I don't know what the heck ? about that roof. I don't know if that roof is designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. Not to be gross here but I'm concerned about the medical and mortuary resources and their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe."

When asked if he?s feels vindicated by the video, Brown said: ?It?s not for me to judge whether I?m vindicated or not...I know in my heart what I was doing. And what I was trying to do and the tapes speak for themselves."

Six months after Katrina, Brown says it's hard to hear the critiques.

"It's been very, very stressful obviously to be called a scapegoat and to have media people charging to your home in the middle of the night to do interviews. It is very, very difficult but I have a very loving wife and supportive family."

As for the president who said he was never warned about the possibility of the levees breaking, Brown says he holds no ill will towards his former boss.

"I've seen this president up close and personal. and I know the compassion that he has in his heart for people suffering from disasters...so I was always concerned about him getting a bad rap about not knowing about these things he knew what was going on."

The president has yet to comment on the tape but a spokesman for Homeland Security says it contains "nothing new or insightful" and that the agency has already participated in a "lessons-learned review." Brown went on to tell me he hopes the organization that he once headed will stop re-organizing and allow the hard working men and women who work there to "do their jobs". Brown says he's planning to move back to Colorado. But he will still maintain an office here in Washington where he is now doing consulting work.

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