Flutterby™! : Office of Homeland Security 2001-09-21 15:46:56+00

Office of Homeland Security

2001-09-21 15:46:56+00 by Dan Lyke 7 comments

So in the Bush call for a "War on Terror" he's created an Office of ~~Father~~Homeland Security, appointing Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge to head it. Presumably the Boy Scouts are going to change to brown shirts. But at least it seems that enough restraint is being shown that we're not going to bomb any pharmaceuticals plants in Sudan, claiming falsely that they're producing nerve gas on the basis of poorly designed web pages. I can't find the article I read where the Mossad threw serious doubts on the Bin Laden theory, but given that the FBI is no longer sure about the identities of the hijackers, I think we should be clear about when political maneuvering is about stopping domestic terror, and when it's about an excuse to attack the Taliban.

One of the things that has truly stunned me about the gov't lately is the tin ear that they have for language. "Crusade?" "Infinite Justice?" What?

But "Homeland Security" is the worst (so far, at least). What would have been wrong with "Domestic Security?"

I think the "Infinite" portion refers to how long a pseudo-military policing action with no defined goals, involving violent intervention in a region that's been squabbling for as long as we have written history, will go on. A better name might be "Operation Get Dubya re-Elected and Give Cheney 8 Years After That".

"Homeland Security": Oh, yeah, that's what we need, another layer of bureacracy on top of the FBI. If Ashcroft's lies about wiretapping weren't enough to convince you that the opportunistic bastards are using this as a power-grab, this jingoism sure should. We owe the memory of those killed better than this.

Homeland Security, Domestic Security, Heimatsicherheitsdients... Doesn't matter what you call it.

Think of it as the Office That Might Take Some Law-Enforcement Power Away From Ashcroft.

I thought "crusade" was possibly the biggest blunder Junior has made verbally to date, and though I know he is only the sum of his advisors, I am amazed that not one of them realized that, historically, there isn't much that could have sounded worse to any remaining Islamic friends we may have. Is there no one in the Bush cabinet who has any sense of perspective whatsoever? (There must be. We haven't bombed Afghanistan yet.)

The Mossad article you refer to was from good ol' www.janes.com - but of the two potential culprits that Janes identified one was bin Laden's probable successor, currently based out of Egypt (if I recall correctly)