The Homeland Security Mirage

Dear Mr. President,

Homeland Security. Not only a bottomless money pit but an agency that has no purpose, provides virtually no useful intelligence and can’t account for $1.4 billion earmarked for their latest fiasco, “fusion centers,” joint federal, state and local intelligence-gathering centers, a last ditch effort to carve out a niche within the security bureaucracy for themselves. But Congressional investigators found that 4 of 72 “fusion centers” didn’t even exist and that the ones that did often violated privacy laws and created reports that contained no useful information, sat on shelves for months or were never published and, often as not, were “unrelated to terrorism.” The bureaucratic sloths at Homeland Security cried foul, claimed the investigating committee didn’t know what they were talking about but it sounds like those officials should be charged with lying to Congress since they knew of the problems for years but hid them and claimed that the fusion centers were highly valuable and formed the centerpiece of Homeland Security counterterrorism efforts. Or, if they wiggle out of that charge, how about misappropriation of funds, since a lot of the federal money earmarked for “fusion centers” was diverted to state and local agencies for things like SUVs and flat screen TVs. My question is this, Mr. President: If Homeland Security was created to “connect the dots” and share intelligence information with other agencies but can’t and doesn’t (the National Counterterrorism Center actually performs those functions) why do we have a Homeland Security anyway? And if they can lose $1.4 billion on one program, how much have they pissed away total? Is Homeland Security like employment for the incompetent? How about trying them at something useful and productive like repairing roads and bridges or guarding the Y-12 nuclear arms plant in Oak Ridge from 82-year-old activist nuns? God knows we need a lot done here at home. Or maybe this is one of those hapless agencies in the Ship of State that just has to be eliminated and the money used for education and infrastructure. I been ranting about this boondoggle agency for a long time and now it’s official. Senator Tom Coburn (R, Oklahoma) says, “Homeland Security is probably the most ineffective agency in the government besides Social Security.” I disagree on the Social Security part but he’s on the mark about Homeland Security. Like all the other “security” agencies, this one appears to be just another mirage.