Homeland Security people working in Iraq - really!

[donsu]

Far From Homeland, Staff Deployed in Iraq
New Department Aids Reconstruction

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10733-2003Jul31.html

-snip-

Since President Bush declared the end of major combat in May, workers from throughout the new department have been toiling on reconstruction tasks there. Officials in Washington insist the assignments -- from promoting aviation security at Baghdad International Airport to retrieving ancient artifacts looted from Iraqi museums -- are about protecting the U.S. homeland.

"We think helping to secure Iraq helps make the United States a more secure country," said Gordon Johndroe, a department spokesman. "Making sure that aviation travel out of Iraq is safe directly affects our homeland security. Making sure that goods and people are not smuggled into or out of Iraq helps our homeland security."

-snip-

Rep. Jim Turner (Tex.), the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, said he saw nothing wrong with such deployments.
-snip-
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I couldn't post all of the HS depts that have sent people.

It seems as if the bushgang is operating as if Iraq is now a state of the United States. whose going to tell the Iraqis?

[htuttle]

1. I guess DHS is our new SMERSH

No coincidence that DHS is the department with the least external oversight, and the highest concentration of Bush loyalists.

[DagmarK]

2. I think you are thinking the DHS is a separate little agency.......

It encompasses practically every federal agency we had!

It IS the federal govt all under one umbrella......

DOJ
DOD
INS (or whatever they call it these days.....
Commerce
Agriculture
DOE
CIA
FBI
NSA
Secret Service
Coast Guard


Or, rather: see teh organizational chart here: http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/DHS_Org_Chart.ppt

Oh yeah, it's an understatement to say that the DHS has the least oversight. TOM RIDGE runs the entire agency arm of the federal govt. Though I think he considers Bush his boss -- and that's the crux of the problem. The federal agencies are no longer an arm of the CONGRESS (when hitorically the exec office merely had the power to appoint cabinet heads but not DIRECT them). The exec office controls the WHOLE kitnkaboodle!

[DagmarK]

3. And DHS was the solution to the problem that bush ignored an aug memo...

"we aren't streamlined" "Our agencies aren't working and talking together"

Because Bush LIHOP.....we have the friggin 4th reich......

And we went along with it.

And our Congress passed it with flying colors...and very little debate.

And Microsoft with their swiss cheese like security in their software just got the contract to provide computers throughout the DHS. Great, just great.

We are soooooo FUCKED!!!!!!!!