This news on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — Michael Brown, the embattled former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, gave his first public testimony Friday since he resigned in the early days of the storm crisis. During his testimony, Brown said the government’s response had been hampered because of the White House’s preoccupation with the war on terror. He said: “It is my belief [that if] we’ve confirmed that a terrorist has blown up the 17th Street Canal levee, then everybody would have jumped all over that and been trying to do everything they could.” For the first time, Brown also identified a senior White House official he said he first told about breaches of New Orleans levees. Brown said it was either Joe Hagin, the deputy White House chief of staff, or Andrew Card. The White House has maintained it was first informed of the levee breaches the morning of Tuesday, August 30th 2005. But Brown and others have maintained the White House was informed the night before.