Bush staff wanted bomb-detect cash moved

[ProSense]

Bush staff wanted bomb-detect cash moved

By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer 22 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - While the British terror suspects were hatching their plot, the Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to divert $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new homeland explosives detection technology.

Congressional leaders rejected the idea, the latest in a series of steps by the
Homeland Security Department that has left lawmakers and some of the department's own experts questioning the commitment to create better anti-terror technologies.

Homeland Security's research arm, called 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.

"The committee is extremely disappointed with the manner in which S&T is being managed within the Department of Homeland Security," the panel wrote June 29 in a bipartisan report accompanying the agency's 2007 budget.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060811/ap_on_go_ot/terror_explosives_detection_4

[ThoughtCriminal]

1. Rate it up and email it!

I've found that republicans are somewhat of a loss at explaining how anything Bush has done contributed to the plot being foiled. Invading Iraq sure as heck didn't deter it. Meanwhile port and airport security continues to suffer while billions are wasted creating the next three generations of terrorists.

[rumpel]

2. Ooops

The department failed to spend $200 million in research and development money from past years, forcing lawmakers to rescind the money this summer.

The administration also was slow to start testing a new liquid explosives detector that the Japanese government provided to the United States earlier this year.

and more oops:

Japan has been using the liquid explosive detectors in its Narita International Airport in Tokyo and demonstrated the technology to U.S. officials at a conference in January, the Japanese Embassy in Washington said.

[ProSense]

3. The Bush administration has its priorities

The Bush administration has its priorities

Posted 11:15 am | Printer Friendly

There seems to be a pattern. Before 9/11, the Bush administration de-emphasized counter-terrorism. Before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the Bush administration slashed funding for the Army Corps of Engineers, levee construction, and the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project.

And in advance of a terrorist plot to carry explosives onto U.S.-bound planes, the Bush administration asked to for explosive-detection technology.

Snip...

It's stunning how much more we could be doing, at hardly unreasonable costs,
but the administration chooses not to.

Snip...

For that matter, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), a senior Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, explained the AP that he urged the administration in 2003 to buy electron scanners, like the ones used at London's airport to detect plastics that might be hidden beneath passenger clothes. "It's been an ongoing frustration about their resistance to purchase off-the-shelf, state-of-the-art equipment that can meet these threats," he said.

Don't worry, though, there will always be plenty of money for tax cuts.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/8191.html

[Fleshdancer]

4. but this new technology makes it harder to exploit the threat of terrorism

How do you expect the republican party to campaign on fear if they actually, you know, make things safer?

:grr:

[snowbear]

5. Wow, this story got a lot of play in the media.......... NOT !!

BTW.. I tried to give this its 5th recommendation, but I got that "24 hour notice".

(I wish DU would change the rating system to 48 hours! )