-Caveat Lector- >From http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,5362279% 255E401,00.html
Print this page Terror fighting agency tangled up in red tape By Robert Lusetich in Los Angeles 26oct02 AS the Washington DC region cowered in fear this past fortnight, many Americans were wondering where was Tom Ridge and the Department of Homeland Security? Certainly not co-ordinating the response to what may have been an act of terror. Instead, Ridge was sitting in his office as Congress bickered over the shape of the new department, which would represent the biggest shake-up in the structure of the federal bureaucracy since the creation of the Department of Defence and the CIA in 1947. There is no doubt the US needs a homeland security post to co-ordinate federal agencies in the face of attack. There was no better example of how lost the US is on this front than the US Immigration Department's clearance of Mohammad Atta's application to study at a flight school six months after he plunged a plane into the World Trade Centre. But whether the creation of a new cabinet-level federal bureaucracy -- which will cost an estimated $US37.7 billion ($68 billion) a year and will report to an unprecedented 88 congressional committees and sub-committees -- will really protect Americans from another major terrorist attack is far from certain. While no one disputes that there needs to be better co-ordination between federal agencies and swifter sharing of intelligence and potential threats, many critics believe little will change even if congressional Democrats go along with President George W. Bush's proposed department. Unless agencies such as the CIA and FBI -- which are notoriously reluctant to share sensitive intelligence -- change their cultures, the war on terror could become as unwieldy and as unsuccessful as the war on drugs. At meetings of the National Security Council's counter-terrorism security group, the CIA and FBI do not share information if members of about 15 other agencies represented do not have appropriate security clearances. Local and state police agencies have also complained that while they provide hard information to the federal agencies, in return they get only vague warnings. "If this homeland security is going to work, they're going to have to have the intelligence and not just what people want to give them," says senator Richard Shelby. "Otherwise, we're going to waste our money." Surprisingly, Ridge acknowledges such a possibility. "We need a new kind of government organisation that isn't so doggone cumbersome and isn't micromanaged," he says. "If all you've done is move the boxes around, you create a new department in name only." The real question, however, is whether there really is anything any government can do to stop another attack. The FBI, after all, was warned by one of its own agents of suspicious behaviour by the men who became the suicide hijackers and ignored it. The CIA is similarly guilty. What is to say the same advices won't again be cast aside? While there has been a tremendous expansion of increasingly sophisticated security at US airports, there is still no screening method to identify plastic knives or plastic explosives of the kind the would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid smuggled on to a flight from London to the US. At US ports, only 2 per cent of cargo containers that enter the country are checked by customs officers. In New York's subway system, there is no real security checks. A suicide bomber could just walk in. The US borders with Canada and Mexico are porous. The Immigration Service, which critics contend is perhaps the most incompetent department in the US Government, recently said it would take up to two years to install cameras on poles along the Canadian border because the "sites are undergoing five- to seven-month environmental assessments prior to disturbing any land where a pole may be placed". "What we needed was (Gulf War commander, General Norman) Schwarzkopf-type leadership and Marine Corps discipline, and what they've created is the (Department of Motor Vehicles) from hell," said Michael Boyd, an aviation and security consultant. "Instead of responding in a warlike manner, we have countered terrorism with overwhelming bureaucracy." privacy © Davies Bros ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A<>E<>R + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; I don't believe everything I read or send (but that doesn't stop me from considering it; obviously SOMEBODY thinks it's important) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. 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