A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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It is said that Global Warming is the greatest hoax ever played upon mankind. Coming in a very close second is -- the need for a Department of Homeland Security -- the greatest hoax ever played upon the people of the United States.
For the life of me, I can't figure out why we ever thought we needed such a department in the first place. Its creation is the very apex of examples of knee-jerk reactions.
At the time DHS was created, we already had more than enough intelligence agencies. The problem was -- they were not coordinating with each other -- at least as far as intelligence gathered referencing terrorism and the physical, geographical, place on the globe we call home -- America.
That could have been fixed, repaired, made whole. But that is not the way Progressives/Statists/Socialists who absolutely adore BIG government think. THEY think MORE government, expanded power over the people, MORE taxpayer money to squander, and, well, you get the picture.
DHS is the crown jewel in the "tiara" of the American left. With DHS they get darn near everything they need to control the populace of America.
And consider this: The goal, at the creation of the DHS, was stated as -- allowing the top intelligence agencies (commonly thought of as the FBI and the CIA) to coordinate and "talk" with each other far easier, and with more regularity, than before DHS. But -- when you look closely at the formulation of the agencies under the DHS umbrella today -- the FBI and the CIA are STILL independent of DHS. (Cue the sighing and the eye-rolling!)
Columnist Glen Greenwald, in an article back in 2011, called it “Exaggerating, manipulating and exploiting the Terrorist threat for profit and power.” Here's what Greenwald said then: "Exaggerating, manipulating and exploiting the Terrorist threat for profit and power has been the biggest scam of the decade; only Wall Street’s ability to make the Government prop it up and profit from the crisis it created at the expense of everyone else can compete for that title. Nothing has altered the mind set of the American citizenry more than a decade’s worth of fear-mongering So compelling is fear-based propaganda, so beholden are our government institutions to these private Security State factions, and so unaccountable is the power bestowed by these programs, that even a full decade after the only Terrorist attacks on U.S. soil,* its growth continues more or less unabated.” (*Editor's note: Remember this article was written before the Boston Bombing.) SOURCE: http://www.salon.com/2011/08/29/terrorism_39/
" ... while the Security State has little to do with addressing ostensible Terrorist threats, it has much to do with targeting perceived domestic and political threats, especially threats brought about by social unrest from austerity and the growing wealth gap." says Greenwald.
Then Greenwald zeros in on the concern of many Americans about DHS today. He continues: " ... the prime aim of the growing Surveillance State is to impose domestic order, preserve prevailing economic prerogatives and stifle dissent and anticipated unrest." SOURCE: http://www.salon.com/2011/08/29/terrorism_39/
Liberty News Network (LNN) national correspondent and law-enforcement advocate, Andy Ramirez, in an article at thenewamerican.com was quoted as saying: "Agencies like CBP, ICE, TSA, and the like were placed under DHS' roof for command and control purposes. However the real purpose has been to keep the facts from reaching the public. In point of fact, DHS is a propaganda ministry in its own right, given the blatant misinformation released by top officials. In the wrong hands it could easily act in a way similar to ‘State Security’.” SOURCE: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/immigration/item/14941-homeland-security-demands-obedience-in-message-to-agents
The concern of many Americans today is whether the US government has any real intention of protecting citizens from terrorism. Or, is the goal to harness it, and actually use terror as a political tool of oppression against its own people.
Consider the following: "The DHS serves only one purpose. It shows the American people the Feds are "doing something" about terrorism. But that is a lie . . .
The two agencies most responsible for failure to coordinate and "connect the dots" before 9/11 are the FBI and CIA. Yet neither the CIA nor the FBI (a domestic agency) has been placed under the DHS umbrella. This makes a coordinated, DHS-led antiterrorism strategy impossible. Leaving FBI and CIA out defeats the very purpose of the DHS.
As if that's not bad enough, taxpayers are defrauded too. Only 25% of DHS anti-terrorism "grants" to local governments goes to actual terrorism prevention and response. DHS is a definitional example of pork-barrel politics -- a Department of Porkland Security."
The article continues:
"The crimes of the DHS's Transportation Security Agency (TSA) are well-known. DownsizeDC.org already has a campaign against this heinous agency.
But there are even more ominous developments which threaten your civil liberties.
For instance, the DHS is funding a "pre-crime" program called FAST. This "Minority Report" styled boondoggle conducts experiments to "predict whether a person will commit a crime."
DHS is betting on algorithms: it’s building a 'prototype screening facility' that it hopes will use factors such as ethnicity, gender, breathing, and heart rate to 'detect cues indicative of mal-intent.'
It gets worse.
The DHS provides funding for unaccountable "fusion centers." These are state, local, and regional intelligence information centers created to help share information between law enforcement agencies. There's little or no actual coordination or sharing of information between fusion centers and the FBI. Fusion centers can actually undermine FBI anti-terrorism efforts because they duplicate the work of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces.
Fusion centers have issued politically-charged "threat reports." The DHS itself has also issued its own threat assessments. Among these various reports, we find that potential terrorists can be recruited from . . .
Student groups at historically black colleges
Politically active Islamic groups
Members of third parties, including
Libertarian, Constitution, and Green parties
Pro-life AND pro-choice groups
Environmentalists and anti-war activists
Tea Party AND anti-Tea Party groups (one could rightfully expect that Occupy has recently made it into of these assessments)
That is to say, ANYONE who dissents or is dissatisfied with the Status Quo might be a terrorist. Such assessments reflect the paranoid minds of Statist bureaucrats and their political bosses, rather than reality.
Will the combination of pre-crime boondoggles and "fusion" assessments provide the basis for infiltration into the private lives and activities of ALL peaceful people?" We recommend you read this article ("Abolish the Homeland Security Department") in its entirety at: https://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/dhs/
This scribe has made no secret of my distaste for the DHS from day one. I have noted, numerous times, how the very name of the agency conjures up memories of 1930's Germany.
Well, the folks at "Downsize DC" (https://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/dhs/
) clearly agree with me. They say: "... the word "homeland" is offensive. It evokes the "blood and soil" patriotism of European-style nationalism or totalitarianism rather than the American patriotism traditionally understood as devotion to republican liberty. One has to wonder, was the initial use of the word "homeland" intentional? . . . is it conditioning us for the collar of tyrannical rule?" SOURCE: https://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/dhs/
Abolishing the Department of Homeland Security is an idea whose time came rather a while ago. The question now is whether this parasite can be eradicated -- without killing the host -- America.
You may recall that a young English novelist, named Mary Shelly, wrote of just such a problem we face in America today in her book titled: "The Modern Prometheus." You may recognize the book better by its later, more popular, title: "Frankenstein."
© J. D. Longstreet
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