This is an opinion piece, for those looking for links, analysis, or wholesale support of members in the current administration; you will find a cornucopia of factual material on the internet. If you wish to comment for, or against my argument, I welcome your input.
My opposition to the formation of a Dept. of Homeland Security began with the Bush administration. My initial objection was to both the cost, and administrative nightmares associated with creating another agency to monitor US citizens, with the potential to hamper foreign intelligence gathering.
We all should remember shrub’s remarks after Katrina, “Heck of a job, Brownie”. As we all know, nothing could be further from the truth. Appointing bureaucrats or awarding political supporters has consequences. President Obama has a historical reference.
More below:
If anyone has the time, or desire to check out my comments on the appointment of Napolitano to head the department, DK has a history. Briefly, my objection to this appointment was Ms. Napolitano’s lack of experience working for any agency involved in intelligence, counter intelligence, or security. I’ve not changed my opinion.
The recent Secret Service scandal is further evidence that moving Presidential security from Treasury to Homeland Security was not prudent, cost effective, or in the best interests of President Obama.
The following failures have occurred since the formation of Homeland Security: Please read the entire article referenced
http://www.usatoday.com/...
Ex-official tells of Homeland Security failures
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The government agency responsible for protecting the nation against terrorist attack is a dysfunctional, poorly managed bureaucracy that has failed to plug serious holes in the nation's safety net, the Department of Homeland Security's former internal watchdog warns.
Clark Kent Ervin, who served as the department's inspector general until earlier this month, said in an interview last week that airport security isn't tight enough and that little has been done to safeguard other forms of mass transit. Ervin said ports remain vulnerable to terrorists trying to smuggle weapons into the country. He added that immigration and customs investigators are hampered in their efforts to track down illegal immigrants because they often lack gas money for their cars.
How about a book written by Wall Street Journal reporters?
http://books.google.ca/...
Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security
Christopher Cooper, Robert Block
Macmillan, May 29, 2007 - 352 pages
“[A] tightly crafted, very readable book . . . the best in-depth contemporary analysis we are going to get.”—Stephen Flynn, The Washington Post When Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on August 29, 2005, federal and state officials were not prepared for the devastation it would bring. In this searing indictment of what went wrong, Christopher Cooper and Robert Block take readers inside FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security to reveal the inexcusable mismanagement during the crisis—the bad decisions that were made, the facts that were ignored, and the individuals who saw that the system was broken but did nothing to fix it.
Here's a little something from Harvard, written in Dec. 2007.
http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/...
"Fixing the Department of Homeland Security"
Policy Brief, Progressive Policy Institute
November 2007
Author: Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
Belfer Center Programs or Projects
In November 2002, Congress passed legislation creating the first new Cabinet department in more than a decade — the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Now in its fourth year, the department is plagued with problems and chronic mismanagement. If DHS is to fulfill its mission, the next president will have to take a hard look at the agency and make some major structural changes.
The department's biggest and most spectacular failure was its abysmal response to Hurricane Katrina. The list of DHS shortcomings, however, does not begin or end with that historic debacle. To cite but a few examples, the color-coded terrorism alert system has succeeded primarily in sowing confusion, and the department has yet to come up with a plan to deal with an outbreak of Avian flu.
A deeper indication of the department's plight is its failure to attract and retain staff. This is not merely an administrative problem for DHS; it is potentially a life-threatening circumstance. After all, this is the department charged with protecting the public from terrorist threats. If it cannot hire and keep individuals who are willing and able to carry out that difficult mission, our nation's ability to detect and prevent attacks could be compromised.
Now, statements made by Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow from Dec. 2007
http://crooksandliars.com/...
On Wednesday's Countdown, Keith Olbermann and Air America's Rachel Maddow (who is apparently challenging Pat Buchanan's standing as MSNBC's permanent guest, more power to her) discuss CREW's recent report on the massive failures of the Department of Homeland Security. http://www.citizensforethics.org/...
You can find out more about DHS's failures on the new site Homeland Security for Sale, complete with this video, created by Brave New Films.
In its report, CREW details billions of dollars in waste and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars, for example:
• $24 billion has been spent, and at least $178 million wasted, on the failed Coast Guard Deepwater program;
• over $600 million has been allocated for unworkable radiation border scanners;
• $1.3 billion has been lost on the US-VISIT program, which was never fully implemented and
• projected $2 billion loss on the SBInet “virtual fence” border program.
CREW’s report consists of five sections:
I. Most Troubled DHS Component: FEMA -- Dishonorable Mention: TSA
II. Most Outrageous Contract: Deepwater -- Dishonorable Mention: Radiation Detection Portal Monitors
III. Failed Program: US-VISIT -- Dishonorable Mention: SBInet
IV. Component with the Most Serious Crime Problem: CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) -- Dishonorable Mention: TSA
V. Beneficiary of the Revolving Door: Tom Ridge -- Dishonorable Mentions: Holman, Buchholz, Davis, Hutchison
If you board a commercial airline, you will remember the reason we remove our shoes.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...
'The solution to many if not all of these inconveniences is better and better technology.' (Ms. Napolitano in Sept. 2011)
The policy on shoe checks stemmed from the December 22, 2001 attempt by Richard Reid to ignite explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami.
It appears that the State Dept. took the biggest hit in the “Underwear Bomber” incident. Can anyone tell me who was responsible for preventing the attack at Fort Hood, or the murder of CIA agents in Afghanistan in 2009?
Well, you tell me this is 2012. OK, for my friends in Chicago.
http://www.suntimes.com/...
Feds find failures in Cook Co. homeland security project
By Carol Marin and Don Moseley January 8, 2012
Project Shield was supposed to make citizens safer. But in the end, the $45-million Homeland Security program more resembled a disaster, wasting taxpayers’ dollars and failing to make a single citizen more secure.
The failed Cook County initiative was replete with equipment that failed to work, missing records and untrained first responders according to a report by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Are we wasting taxpayer dollars while increasing threats to our individual freedoms? Can we afford to continue spending billions on technology solutions that focus on subjecting loyal Americans to security screenings? What evidence do we have that critical thinking is given a priority over the latest PYA (protect your ass) rhetoric, or the clamor for funding a Department that should be called the Department of Failure, wasted dollars, and an embarrassment for President Obama’s administration?
I’ll be online for a couple of hours after posting. Hope to hear from you