Bush sought to cut $6M in screening technology

[Roon]

WASHINGTON - As the British terror plot was unfolding, the Bush administration quietly tried to take away $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new explosives detection technology.

Congressional leaders rejected the diversion of funds, the latest in a series of Homeland Security Department steps that have left lawmakers and some of the department’s own experts questioning the commitment to create better antiterror technologies.

Homeland Security’s research arm, the Sciences & Technology Directorate, is a “rudderless ship without a clear way to get back on course,” Republican and Democratic senators on the Appropriations Committee declared recently.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14333164/

[AzDar]

1. "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself"......

(and fear-mongers, of course).

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Do they WANT us to be vulnerable to every wackjob who feels like

blowing shit up?

That was a rhetorical question. Blowing shit up scares people. Scared people do what they're told.

[maddezmom]

3. duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2451571