My question is exactly what its relationship will be with the existing agencies. Is it the boss, or just another competitor?
I’d say the job should include control over CIA, NSA, and border patrol. The militry still has thier own intelligence outfits for their needs, and they can borrow NSA satellites as needed.
Except for at the borders, the department should have no operational end. It finds the threats, and refers them to either military or the Justice dept (FBI) as the case warrants.
I sort of get the feeling that Bush has lost a sense of confidence in many of these agenceys. Between spies, lost evidence and missed opportunities, Bush may want a new organization to straighten out the old ones.
In the long term, this new office will probably be a very bad thing. Every government agency expands its mission beyond it original charter in order to gain a bigger budget and more authority. This new agency may do some short term good, but what about 10 years from now, when terrorism is no longer front and center on everyone’s mind? Will this office say, “Well, our work is done. Time to pack it in and go home.”? No. Once terrorism is on the run, this office will be constantly looking for new “threats” to national security in order to justify its existence. I fear we just took one more big step toward a police state.
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I was including them in “various law enforcement.”
Throw in some aspects of FEMA, too.
I would imagine the chain still goes like this: if a sheriff’s department or city or state police agency discover some activity that they suspect is a part of a larger possible threat against our national security, they will still report it to the FBI.
The FBI, as it continues to do all the things it has always done, will simply provide information about what they know and what they are doing to this new office.
People in the Homeland Security office will, in turn, make sure agencies such as the CIA, NSA and military have the information, and determine where it fits in to any information they have, or any efforts they have under way.
I don’t think you’ll get any arguments that government agencies can become wasteful, but that’s not a reason to oppose their creation. If it is, then we’d better get busy and start eliminating every governemtn agency older than ten years.
Great. That’s what we need in the short term.
What about ten years from now, when AIDS is no longer on everyone’s mind? What will happen to the White House Office of National AIDS Policy? Let’s just hopep that the day comes when we can say good riddance to offices that are no longer needed.
I don’t think so. Congress has argued for the elimination of Cabinet level positions (and their related organizations) before. If, ten years from now, the Office of Homeland Security becomes obsolete, it can be disolved.
I think Giuliani would have been a better (and nicely symbolic) choice for this.
Well, since you can already have your vehicle and bags searched when going from state-to-state (see: California state border checkpoints), I don’t see how that’s such a jump in logic. IIRC the border stops were originally set up to check for produce during the fruit fly scare. They’re still there and are being used to check for everything from vehicle saftey to illegal immigrants to drugs and weapons.
My fear from the beginning has been that this attack will be used to enhance the already extreme powers we give law enforcement and government agencies in the name of some nebulous “security”.
We need to fight these enemies of our country, no question. We do not, and should not, expand the government’s authority as an excuse to do this. The government has all the authority and power it needs to fight Bin Laden, et al.
Security is a myth. I’m afraid freedom is rapidly becoming one as well.
Benjamin Franklin: “They that can give up an essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Gerald Ford’s: “If the government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you have.”
Apples and oranges. If/when AIDS is cured, the Office of National AIDS Policy clearly becomes irrelevant (if it isn’t already–I have no idea what this office actually does). The Office of Defense of the Realm has no such built-in expiration date. If/when ObL and organization are destroyed, Ridge or whoever will find someone or something else to focus on, with the requisite financial and personnel needs. When was the last time any government agency was killed, let alone a Cabinet-level one?
manhattan
Where does one find these press releases? Does it explain how handing a bucket of cash to the steel mills enhances national security?
My take on the situation is that the Office of Homeland Security will require that all police, fire and other rescue organizations will be required to cooperate with each other and share information without fighting over jurisdiction. I read in the Washington Post that the FBI and the CIA were so busy infighting with each other, that they dropped the ball on the primary goal. I don’t see anything sinister about this scenario. JMHO.
