National Safety: A Priority

Published on August 1, 2004 By stevendedalus In Politics

Pardon my naiveté but wasn’t Homeland Security supposed to configure the nation’s intelligence agencies under one roof? Is the color-coded alert a sham if there still is no coordination among the sundry, scattered intelligence agencies? Where does the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that there be a super director of intelligence put Tom Ridge? I thought his job was to gather all probable evidence of an attack and appropriate funds and strategies to the most likely targets. If he still is not in charge of this important defense — and it seems he might not be since he is more concerned over salary insufficient to send his kids to college — and has to go hat in hand and beg for information, then the much heralded Homeland Security Department is a fraud.

It is clear to me that a sprawling agency in command of homeland security should be in an executive position to demand accounting of all intelligence agencies’ information directly or indirectly sabotaging national tranquility in order to apprise the President, Congress, and the people, together with authority and means to take immediate steps to prevent a potential catastrophe.

Why must there be another Czar to further complicate the flow of information for home security? Frankly, I’m no longer sure there is a need for Homeland Security as the answer to tranquility either; rather, the executive branch in itself should strip away the layers of territorial confusion and prioritize no-nonsense national safety. Only a president grounded in pragmatic knowledge can demand this action.

Comments

Madine

on Aug 02, 2004

My understanding about Homeland Security is that their mission regarding intelligence is to make sure that intelligence related to attacks on the US is shared and that appropriate security measures are taken in response to intelligence. However, I don't think their mission is to oversee or manage the gathering of intelligence.

It seems to me that our major intelligence problem is a shortage of spies, not a shortage of bureaucrats.

stevendedalus

on Aug 03, 2004

Amen, we finally have reached a semblance of common ground! Though, I think managing or coordinating intelligence data is the function of Homeland Security--or should be.

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