Step Six: Homeland Security

Posted Thursday, December 10, 2009, at 10:18 AM

The Department of Homeland Security has the following goals:

·	Awareness--Identify and understand threats, assess vulnerabilities, determine potential impacts and disseminate timely information to our homeland security partners and the American public.
·	Prevention--Detect, deter and mitigate threats to our homeland.
·	Protection--Safeguard our people and their freedoms, critical infrastructure, property and the economy of our Nation from acts of terrorism, natural disasters, or other emergencies.
·	Response--Lead, manage and coordinate the national response to acts of terrorism, natural disasters, or other emergencies.
·	Recovery--Lead national, state, local and private sector efforts to restore services and rebuild communities after acts of terrorism, natural disasters, or other emergencies.
·	Service--Serve the public effectively by facilitating lawful trade, travel and immigration.
·	Organizational Excellence--Value our most important resource, our people. Create a culture that promotes a common identity, innovation, mutual respect, accountability and teamwork to achieve efficiencies, effectiveness, and operational synergies.

These are lofty and legitimate goals. In spite of the department's failures, particularly in New Orleans in 2005, their accomplishment is essential if American citizens are to be protected in today's world.

Money is not the only answer but a 50 percent increase in the department's 2009 budget request from $50 billion to $75 billion would represent only 3.7 percent of the bloated 2008 military budget.

The department now has 200,000 employees. Adequate augmentation of the number of Coast Guard sailors, air marshals, port inspectors and border patrol persons, as well as ships and other equipment could be accomplished with the increase and the result would be real defense of our country--Jim Frost.

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I thought you were in favor of consolidating "Intelligence Organizations". Eliminating dulication of effort and bureaucracy between competing organizations to reduce cost and increase efficiency.

The Department of Homeland Security would seem to fit within the FBI with liason function between the CIA and NSA, US Marshals, etc. Colating, analyzing, prioritizing and disseminating intelligence to the appropriate authorities. Kind of like the original mission of the CIA.

Throwing money at the problem by robbing from the "bloated ... military buget" does nothing towards reducing costs or increasing efficiencies. I agee that we have too many intelligence organizations and they lose effectiveness to inter-agency squabbles. Let's fix our Homeland Security problem by addressing those issues first.

-- Posted by jonpeters on Sat, Dec 12, 2009, at 1:14 PM

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Berkley Bedell--Retirement from the U.S. Congress in 1987, neither dulled my interest in the well-being of the people of the United States nor my worries about our governance. I began work in 2006 on a book outlining the country's problems and offering solutions. Jim Frost--I share Berkley's concerns and in 2007 began the job of researching, editing and assisting with writing his book. By early 2009, after finally weathering George W. Bush and recognizing how much the past eight wasted years have set the world back, our focus changed. We had seen no meaningful progress in the efforts to stem the threat of nuclear weapons, reverse global warming, preserve natural resources, reduce military spending, fight disease and hunger, improve health care, deal with the increasing gulf between rich people and poor people, establish a workable economic system, or clean up the political process. For us, these three things became self-evident: First, the problems are global; the U.S. cannot by itself control or solve them. Second, the perfect storm of worldwide catastrophe is already upon us; what must be said cannot wait. Third, in seeking solutions, the problems must be put before as many people as possible as quickly as possible. This blog is the result. There will be much more. We invite you to participate.

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