Homeland Insecurity (10/26/2004)

Voters say homeland security and terrorism are top concerns. President Bush and Vice President Cheney are trying to increase our fear, implying that voting for John Kerry would make us unsafe. Yet, it is Bush's actions that have sharply increased terrorism worldwide and weakened our homeland defense. Here's some background.

Bush neglected the hunt for Al Qaeda by underfunding and understaffing the intelligence unit charged with tracking it down. At a March, 2002, press conference, Bush said, 'so I don't know where Osama Bin Laden is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him...I truly am not that concerned about him." The New York Times reports that 3 years after the September 11 attacks, fewer CIA experienced case officers are assigned to the unit searching for Osama bin Laden than at the time of the attacks. The Associated Press reports that the Bush Treasury Department "has assigned five times as many agents to investigate Cuban embargo violations as it has to track Osama's financial infrastructure." USA Today reports that Bush shifted resources from bin Laden to the Iraq war in 2002 and moved special forces tracking Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan and into Iraq war preparations, all of which has allowed terrorists to regroup.

Bush says freedom is on the march, but actually it's terrorism that's on the march. According to the Congressional Research Service and other reliable sources, significant terrorist acts -killing, injuries, kidnappings-rose from 60 percent of incidents in 2002 to 89 percent in 2003, have spread from just a few countries to at least 10, and risen to a 20-year high. Ironically, Saudi Arabia now blames the U.S. and its role in Iraq for rising terrorism. New York Times Reporter Joel Brinkley, reporting from Riyadh, found that Saudis express more anger at the U.S. invasion than at the Iraqi insurgents and hold "unremitting disdain for the United States."

Fear and homeland security are Bush's re-election ploys. Yet, he sent our National Guard to Iraq, leaving us with inadequate Guard forces here. Homeland security money is a pork barrel; political clout rules. The Republican-dominated congress allocates funds to favored states rather than those at risk Alaska received $92 per resident, while New York received only $32 per resident. Homeland security seems to promote insecurity rather than meaningful security measures -there are the color codes, advice to buy duct tape and plastic for our windows, and pseudo-security checks at airports. While ordinary, non-terrorist airline passengers are being searched and our nail clippers seized, 90% of the plane cargo goes un-inspected. Most of the cargo arriving at our ports is not inspected. When ABC News demonstrated they were able to ship, undetected, non-dangerous nuclear material into our country, the Bush administration threatened them with prosecution! The government's National Infrastructure Protection Center has issued warnings about possible sabotage of one of our 15,000 industrial chemical plants; a study by the Army surgeon general found that up to 2.4 million people could be killed or wounded by a terrorist attack on a single chemical plant. But the Bush plan suggests plants voluntarily increase security. Meanwhile, last spring, the Department of Homeland Security was told to spend its time setting up monthly terrorism-fighting photo ops for the president. In another example of political abuse, Homeland Security ordered members of Mi Familia Vota, a Latino group, to stop registering voters outside a Miami Beach building where new citizens were being sworn in. Despite the reasons given, which a federal court has since rejected, it sure seemed someone at Homeland Security just didn't want thousands of new Latino voters on the Florida rolls.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said in a September 20th ABC news interview that Bush is losing the terror war because he is not focused on its causes. Bush's plan is to militarily force his views on other nations in the name of liberty and freedom. Meanwhile, Americans abroad are warned they are likely terrorist targets; our defense at home is weakened by the Iraq war; funds that should be used to increase homeland security are used for political purposes. Do American voters really think Bush is the person who will make us safe?

- Judith Kohler

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