It might be timely to ask: How did we manage for so long without the Dept of Homeland Security?

[cali]

Not that we'll ever get rid of it, but do we really need it? Why?

and a bit about its problems:

<snip>

The Department of Homeland Security has been dogged by persistent criticism over excessive bureaucracy, waste, ineffectiveness and lack of transparency. A House of Representatives subcommittee estimated that as of September 2008 the department has wasted roughly $15 billion in failed contracts.[46] In 2003, the department came under fire after the media revealed that Laura Callahan, Deputy chief information officer at DHS with responsibilities for sensitive national security databases, had obtained her advanced computer science degrees through a diploma mill in a small town in Wyoming. The department was blamed for up to $2 billion of waste and fraud after audits by the Government Accountability Office revealed widespread misuse of government credit cards by DHS employees, with purchases including beer brewing kits, $70,000 of plastic dog booties that were later deemed unusable, boats purchased at double the retail price (many of which later could not be found), and iPods ostensibly for use in "data storage".[47][48][49][50]

<snip>

Fusion centers
Main article: Fusion center

Fusion centers are terrorism prevention and response centers, many of which were created under a joint project between the Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs between 2003 and 2007. The fusion centers gather information not only from government sources, but also from their partners in the private sector.[56][57]

They are designed to promote information sharing at the federal level between agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Justice, US Military and state and local level government. As of July 2009, the Department of Homeland Security recognized at least seventy-two fusion centers.[58] Fusion centers may also be affiliated with an Emergency Operations Center that responds in the event of a disaster.

There are a number of documented criticisms of fusion centers, including relative ineffectiveness at counterterrorism activities, the potential to be used for secondary purposes unrelated to counterterrorism, and their links to violations of civil liberties of American citizens and others.[59]

<snip>

2009 Virginia terrorism threat assessment

In early April 2009, the Virginia Fusion Center came under criticism for publishing a terrorism threat assessment which stated that certain universities are potential hubs for terror related activity.[64] The

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeland_Security_Department

What fucking nonsense is this:

From 2012:

Homeland Security Dept. Pays General Dynamics to Scour Internet for Criticism of its Policies The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been paying a defense contractor $11.4 million to monitor social media websites and other Internet communications to find criticisms of the department’s policies and actions.

A government watchdog organization, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), obtained hundreds of documents from DHS through the Freedom of Information Act and found details of the arrangement with General Dynamics. The company was contracted to monitor the Web for “reports that reflect adversely on DHS,” including sub-agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In testimony submitted to the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, Ginger McCall, director of EPIC’s Open Government Project, stated that “the agency is monitoring constantly, under very broad search terms, and is not limiting that monitoring to events or activities related to natural disasters, acts of terrorism, or manmade disasters….The DHS has no legal authority to engage in this monitoring.”

McCall added: “This has a profound effect on free speech online if you feel like a government law enforcement agency—particularly the Department of Homeland Security, which is supposed to look for terrorists—is monitoring your criticism, your dissent, of the government.”

http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/homeland-security-dept-pays-general-dynamics-to-scour-internet-for-criticism-of-its-policies?news=844094

[msongs]

1. the police state works to crush dissent one dissenter at a time, at our expense of course nt

[MotherPetrie]

2. No shit. Even the name "Homeland Security" is a blight.

[reusrename]

12. Never liked it. Has that Nazi ring to it.

[truebluegreen]

27. +1

An authoritarian ring: the Fatherland, the Motherland...nationalist BS. I thought we were supposed to proud of our principles, not accidents of birth.

[panzerfaust]

28. Absolutely: It is American in neither concept or expression. Very similar to the German "Vaterland"

And likely brought to us by the same - psychologically speaking - people.

[think]

3. DHS paid a defense contractor $11.4 mil to spy on social media

Nice....

[cali]

4. terror is big business and what big business wants.....

[Dawson Leery]

5. DHS should be disbanned at once.

[Mnemosyne]

6. I remember when it was the Dept. of Human Services. Still hesitate when seeing DHS, then realizing

that human services disappeared many moons ago.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. We managed quite well until somebody decided we can't be trusted.

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. you know these things turn into sources for funding for a multitude of local projects all over the

place

Hell, I am way out in the Western Pacific on the little Island of Saipan and I have had buffet dinners purchased for me at local luxury hotels for attending Homeland Security symposiums. Even a bunch of equipment for the hospital has been purchased from money from Homeland Security. It is a bit like what happened with the post World War II military garrison state - Even the doviest of doves in Congress- would fight tooth and nail to keep military bases in their district - bases that the military itself considered redundant and wasteful.

Once things like this become a subsidy for local economies and local governments - they become all the harder to get rid of.

[Laelth]

14. True. All true.

We need a new WPA, and we need to transition the DHS into the new WPA so that we keep all the local pork while actually doing something useful for the people.

-Laelth

[ThoughtCriminal]

9. Why would any organization NOT monitor the web for adverse reports about itself?

They are more likely to learn about ways they are screwing up from outside observation.

If an organization has critics, it should be reading the criticism. In the past this would be reading newspapers, letters to the editor, professional journals, etc.

Unfortunately, self improvement does not seem to be the NSA's objective.

It becomes a problem when the the media is being monitored so that active efforts can be made to suppress the criticism, rather than finding ways to solve problems. When you threaten whistle-blowers, it becomes obvious that they are checking the suggestion box for fingerprints rather than ideas.

Second problem is what is included in "Monitoring the web". I do not have a problem with monitoring news stories, web sites, public forums, or lol-cat blogs. Private communications are a different matter.

[cali]

16. really? a multi million dollar contract to General Dynamics to do this?

you think that's legit?

[ThoughtCriminal]

17. You think ten guys could do that?

I'd only charge 100k could do a Google search every day and once a week or so and make a report, but I'd probably only get about 0.01% of even the public information - no blogs, social media or non-english sites.

How much do you think it would cost?

[cali]

21. I have no idea, but why can't they do it in house?

why the fuck should it be contracted out?

And that's granting that it should be done at all- which I don't grant.

[NRaleighLiberal]

10. where would the duct tape and plastic industry be without them?

Seriously, get rid of it - it is the result of overreaction and fear mongering, and as someone above said, a blight in every sense of the word.

[KG]

11. massive pork project promoted by the party that claims to hate big gov't

and, as always, aided and abetted by the supposed opposition party.

[1-Old-Man]

13. We got through WW-II and the Cold War without it and back then we had real threats

Countries with nuclear bombs and bombers and rockets and submarines to deliver them used to threaten us. We had real honest to god spies in this country too. But what we didn't have was Big Brother in the form of an NSA working domestically or any need for a Patriot Act. If we didn't need the Patriot Act back then we don't need it now, if we didn't need a Department of Homeland Security (it dame sure does have a Nazi ring to it) back then we sure as hell is hot don't need it now.

[ThoughtCriminal]

19. No. We had Edgar J Hoover's F.B.I.

And boy, they were pretty much doing the same shit - and put little or no restraint on going after citizens on purely political motivation.

DHS was just re-branding and to some extent, more sharing between domestic and foreign spying.

[1-Old-Man]

20. Hoover's FBI wasn't a puddle of piss compared to the DHS.

I would wager that more people in the DHS have top secret clearances today than ever worked for Hoover at one time.

[OmahaBlueDog]

15. If DHS is responsible for the security of the homeland, then what is DoD defending?

To me it seems like we already had a defense department.

Also, the NID (National Intelligence Directorate) was created to solve the exact same problem the OSS/CIA was created to solve -- intelligence operations not talking to one another, and a bigger picture being missed.

[NightWatcher]

18. Most of the agencies under DHS had already existed. They were just under different offices

INS and Border Patrol were under DOJ, now they are called ICE and are under DHS.

The Coast Guard used to be under the DoD, now they fall under DHS.

The DHS was primarily a reorganization so that responsibility and information had a smoother flow to it (whether it does or not is in question since the addition of another layer of bureaucracy).

[cali]

24. yep. I don't see how there's a smoother flow of info

and new areas if not departments were added. not to mention the bureaucracy.

[Coyotl]

22. I like to call it the Redneck Welfare System

All those Bushbots with great salaries and pensions and health care until the grave, that's what the DHS is all about, security for Christian Republican Loyalists.

[Enthusiast]

26. I suspect you are correct....nt

[kentuck]

23. With a budget of $70-$80 billion per year...

America should be ashamed of itself.

[Enthusiast]

25. Scour the internet for criticism of its policies.

These people are fighting for our freedom? I don't think so.

Don't you see why this is an abuse by the government? Won't you acknowledge that this is fundamentally un-American? We now have a shit nation - officially.