[CTRL] Study Finds Most Border Officers Feel Security Ought to Be Better

[Jim Rarey]

-Caveat Lector- They are mixing apples and oranges here. Homeland defense is talking primarily about travelers coming through airports or crossing the border on buses at check points.   The real problem is the estimated one thousand per day who sneak across the border between check points. Of those who are caught, an increasing percentage are Arabs or mid-easterners.   JR   http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/politics/24border.html?pagewanted=print&position=   August 24, 2004 Study Finds Most Border Officers Feel Security Ought to Be Better By RACHEL L. SWARNS ASHINGTON, Aug. 23 - More than 60 percent of Border Patrol agents and immigration officers surveyed for a study issued on Monday said the Department of Homeland Security could do more to stop potential terrorists from entering the country, and more than a third said they were not satisfied that they had the tools and training to do so. The survey, of 500 border agents and immigration inspectors, was conducted for the unions representing them by Peter D. Hart Research Associates. It found them sharply divided on whether the country was safer now than before the 9/11 attacks: 53 percent said it was, but 44 percent said it was no safer or was less safe. "Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, it was extremely easy to enter the United States illegally," said T. J. Bonner, president of one of the unions, the National Border Patrol Council. ''Incredibly, this has not changed in any meaningful way." The survey also found low morale to be pervasive. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security dismissed the survey as biased and inaccurate, saying it offered only a limited snapshot of the views of the department's 42,000 employees. They cited a number of strides, among them airport inspectors' collection of digital fingerprints and photographs from more than six million foreign visitors since January, the first move toward creating a comprehensive system to screen travelers. In the last six months, the officials said, the department has turned away hundreds of criminals, travelers with fake documents, including fraudulent passports, and others barred from entry to the United States. The study did include some positive findings. Sixty-four percent of the employees surveyed described themselves as very satisfied or fairly satisfied with their workload, and 59 percent said they received the support they needed from their immediate supervisors. The study, conducted from July 30 through Aug. 7, had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus five percentage points. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | RSS | Help | Back to Top www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om