Homeland Security Department Gets Better Grades in 2nd Major Test

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/14/washington/14chertoff.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print


August 14, 2006
Homeland Security Department Gets Better Grades in 2nd Major Test
By ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 — Right after Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast last year, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, flew to Atlanta for a conference on bird flu — and then spent months parrying criticism that his department had flunked the first big test of its existence.

Last week, the department confronted a second major test, the arrests in Britain of 24 men suspected of plotting to blow up airliners bound for the United States.

In this case, the initial reviews of Mr. Chertoff’s performance have been largely positive. The Homeland Security Department responded quickly to impose new security measures on the fear that some plotters might still be at large.

Questions remain about the agency’s bureaucracy and its ability to anticipate threats rather than just react to them. But it is notable that Mr. Chertoff is being praised by some people who once bitterly chastised him or even called for his resignation.

“Until....

[napi21]

1. I heard this on cspan this AM. I really can't give credit to DHS

for the quick implimentation of the new "flying rules" though. The initial decision regarding what items to ban began in the UK, and as far as I know, the implimentation here was just a follow the leader, and made by the TSA.

To give DHS credit for NOT screwing it up is a little silly.

[opihimoimoi]

4. That Chertoff guy??? Get the HOOK, he is faking his way through

He is another Crony.

[rodeodance]

5. they had several days to plan. And all the talk was secret.

[rodeodance]

6. It was the controlled WH message that makes it all seem correct.

........

Mr. King, Senator Collins and Representative Thompson all said that Mr. Chertoff’s effort in his role as the Bush administration’s public face on security also represented an improvement, not just from the way he handled Hurricane Katrina, but compared with his predecessor, Tom Ridge.

Instead of communicating through dueling appearances by the attorney general, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the homeland security secretary, as sometimes happened during Mr. Ridge’s tenure, this time, the administration seemed to be speaking with a single, clear message, and one that seemed informed and confident, they said.

But critics and senior department officials said there were still considerable grounds for improvement in the agency’s operations.

Since Mr. Chertoff took over in February 2005, for example, the department has not issued fraud-proof identification cards for transportation workers. It has also not completed negotiations to make advance information on passengers on all planes headed to the United States available before they take off, nor has it developed an improved system for screening passenger names automatically on domestic flights.........

[rodeodance]

2. more.

..Mr. Chertoff and his agencies — which include the Transportation Security Administration, the air marshals, Customs and Border Protection and other departments involved in the response to the British plot — did not play a role in apprehending the terror suspects.

But ever since Aug. 4, when Mr. Chertoff said he learned that a scheme to bomb planes destined for the United States could unfold before the end of August, his agency has been developing an effort to prevent such an attack, he said in an interview at his office on Sunday.

The work began in secret at the Homeland Security Department headquarters, Mr. Chertoff said, where he and fewer than a half-dozen of his top aides met to devise two plans: what to do if a plot were successful and planes started blowing up, and what to do if arrests were to take place before such a catastrophe unfolded.

The first plan involved a course of action for shutting down national airspace if necessary, similar to what happened after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It included guidelines for when planes might be turned back to their cities of origin, when they might be allowed to complete their flights or when they would be ordered to land at the closest airport, he said, as well as directions on when taking such steps might be appropriate.............

[Virginia Dare]

3. The bar has been set so low...

anything better than complete and total disaster is considered a job well down for DHS. :wtf:

[SmokingJacket]

7. As if they had ANYTHING to do with it!

Damn, people love to swallow this propaganda. But why???