Government's Hobbled Giant – Homeland Security Is Struggling

[kskiska]

Sunday, September 7, 2003; Page A01

Six months after it was established to protect the nation from terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security is hobbled by money woes, disorganization, turf battles and unsteady support from the White House, and has made only halting progress toward its goals, according to administration officials and independent experts.

The top two officials under Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge are stepping down amid criticism from some White House officials and elsewhere in the administration. So few people want to work at the department that more than 15 people declined requests to apply for the top post in its intelligence unit -- and many others turned down offers to run several other key offices, government officials said.

Desperately needed repairs to the department's cramped, red-brick headquarters on a Navy facility in Northwest Washington have been stalled by a shortage of money. Some employees at the complex do not have the secure telephone lines required to do their work, the officials said.

As a result, the department has made little progress on some of the main challenges cited when it was created in March by merging 22 federal agencies and their 170,000 employees, according to officials in the Bush administration and Congress, as well as some outside experts. The Bush administration initially resisted establishing the department but eventually agreed.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36519-2003Sep6.html

[ILeft]

1. Yes, but Dapper Tom Ridge is still looking... well... dapper.

And we all know that the CEO of Bush, Inc. wants everyone in his organization to look sharp!

Another example of a total f**kup by Dubya. The old reverse-Midas touch in action. Who the hell is going to clean up this mess? Where are the adults???

[hedda_foil]

2. This is EXACTLY what Senator Byrd said would happen.

Then again, even he probably couldn't have known just how much the bushgang fucks up everything they take on.

[aquart]

3. It does nothing. Let it die.

[bemildred]

4. Putting lipstick on a pig

won't make it dance. The notion that a
revision of the org-chart was what was needed
was boneheaded to start with, and no amount
of bullshit will fix it.

[teryang]

6. Couldn't agree more

It was an assinine and dangerous plan. The problem with the domestic and national security of this country is that the "greatest threats of the 21st Century" aren't even recognized. It is politically incorrect to do so. They all pretty much have something to do with our current illegitimate, incompetent and corrupt regime. How do you get a belligerent and secretive regime to investigate its own activities and that of its erstwhile "allies" Israel, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan? There are no checks and balances extent at the present. Obviously, the greatest threat to national and world security is the lack of accountability and legitimacy in our electoral process. Ultimately, that is the only thing that potentially could set this power drunk belligerent tyranny aright.

With real elections you could try a real investigation into 911 and anthrax, energy ties and meetings of the regimes top officials related to Afghanistan, Enron and the California energy scams. You could try to monitor activities of foreign lobby organizations, foundations and think tanks which are little more than fronts or covers for intelligence operations (rather than patronizing their suspect proteges with political appointments). You could reverse the penetration of critical national security functions in the Pentagon by secretive and unaccountable contractors. You could investigate with a view toward criminal prosecution for false official statements and war crimes the current high level civilian appointees to the Pentagon who are the immediate threat to national security and world peace. Just getting them out of office isn't enough.

[stevedeshazer]

5. Another fuckup here

From the article:
"

In May, Ridge signed an agreement with Attorney General John D. Ashcroft that had been vetted by Lawlor's
aides. It established the Justice Department -- not Homeland Security -- as the lead agency investigating the
financing of terrorism. But the memo's wording suggested that the Secret Service, which is part of the new
department, would be required to halt hundreds of probes and forgo its tradition of financial investigations.
Ridge apologized to enraged Secret Service officials, and the rift took months to heal, officials said. "

I don't imagine SS agents and their superiors take too kindly to being jacked around by that pussy Ridge.

170,000 employees! Now that's a lot of crayons.

[4dsc]

7. call it Homeland Insecurity!!!

Did anybody expect anything less to come of this department?