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White
House Releases Homeland Security Plan
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| Bush,
with congressional and executive officials, announces the formal
presentation to Congress of the Homeland cabinet department
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WASHINGTON,
July 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. President George W.
Bush presented his plan for homeland security Tuesday, July 16, which
could expand executive powers and engage the U.S. military
domestically if Congress gives it a green light.
The
plan calls for action by government and private industry to prevent a
“new wave of terrorism” in the United States - an open society
that “presents an almost infinite array of potential targets,”
U.S. daily newspaper, the Washington Post reported.
“Protecting
America from attack is our most urgent national priority,” Bush said
in a short speech at the White House to introduce the plan that
current Homeland Security director Tom Ridge has been working on for
eight months.
Calling
it “the best way to protect America,” Ridge on Tuesday called the
White House strategy document “a roadmap designed to take advantage
of the universe of assets we have in this country, in order to protect
ourselves and our country.”
U.S.
Senator Joe Lieberman, who is leading the homeland security effort in
the Senate, described Bush’s homeland security strategy speech as a
rehash Tuesday, and questioned its effectiveness.
“Look,
this is essentially a restatement of what the president and so many of
us have been saying about the way in which American history changed on
September 11th and how we now all have to work together to prevent
future terrorist attacks,” Lieberman told reporters, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported
The
plan, which envisions a cabinet-level Homeland Security department
overseeing 22 entities with more than 170,000 employees and an annual
federal budget of $38 billion, puts a premium on information sharing
and consolidation of services while tightening access to the United
States.
Seeking
to balance homeland security requirements with privacy, "the
homeland security community will view the federal, state and local
governments as one entity," the 75-page document said.
“The
current structure of our government is a patchwork - to put it best -
of overlapping responsibilities, and it really does hinder our ability
to protect the homeland,” said Bush.
An
effort to declassify documents will be made by the new department, to
facilitate access to databases of known criminals, potential terror
targets and hotspots, and ongoing research about chemical or
biological attacks.
Other
initiatives include securing international shipping containers,
augmenting vaccine stockpiles, enhancing the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI)’s analytical capabilities, improving cooperation
among different levels of federal, state and local governments and
upgrading computer security.
Of
the more controversial proposals, the plan calls for the creation of
standardized biometric travel documents for foreign visitors and the
development of screening tools to predict human behavior, such as
“hostile intent,” reports the Post.
The
plan also calls for states to adopt stringent minimum standards for
getting a driver’s license and make terrorism insurance more readily
available to businesses and property owners.
Other
ideas include developing new technology to create better sensors for
detecting weapons of mass destruction, CNN reported.
The
report identifies three key objectives: preventing terrorist attacks
within the United States; reducing the nation’s vulnerability to
terrorism and minimizing the damage while speeding the recovery from
attacks that do occur, reports the Post.
While
it would not have jurisdiction over the FBI, Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) or National Security Agency (NSA), the president wants
the department to work in tandem with the intelligence agencies that
have borne much of the blame for failing to derail the September 11
attacks.
“This
comprehensive plan lays out clear lines of authority and clear
responsibilities - responsibilities for federal employees and for
governors and mayors and community and business leaders and the
American citizens,” Bush said.
Just
how much of the estimated $100 billion annual cost of homeland
security will be paid by state and local governments was unclear in
the plan, though it did acknowledge the federal government's
commitment - $38 billion for fiscal 2003 - would come at the expense
of other programs.
“One
fact dominates all homeland security threat assessments: terrorists
are strategic actors,” the report states. “They choose their
targets deliberately based on the weaknesses they observe in our
defenses and our preparedness.”
“Minimizing
the overall economic impact of fighting the war on terrorism will
require that increased budgetary spending on homeland security occur
within the context of overall fiscal spending restraint” the plan,
entitled “The National Strategy for Homeland Security”, said.
“Our
society presents an almost infinite array of potential targets that
can be attacked through a variety of methods,” the plan continues.
“We must be prepared to adapt as our enemies in the war on terrorism
alter their means of attack.”
Stating
the prevention of such attacks “is a challenge as formidable as any
ever faced by our nation,” the document states that, “Unless we
act to prevent it, a new wave of terrorism, potentially involving the
world's most destructive weapons, looms in America’s future.”
The
plan Bush described as “national” not “federal” also mandates
increased controls on the $2.3 billion in goods entering and exiting
the United States annually, as well as tighter border security and an
overhaul of U.S. immigration services.
Among
the plan’s more controversial elements is the potential that the
U.S. military would be deployed domestically, part of the “total
force” approach employed by the Pentagon.
While
the plan acknowledges “federal law prohibits military personnel from
enforcing the law within the United States,” it notes that “the
threat of catastrophic terrorism requires a thorough review of the
laws... to determine whether domestic preparedness and response
efforts would benefit from greater involvement of military
personnel.”
The
plan also would revive the president’s “reorganization
authority,” effectively allowing Bush to create the new department
at the cabinet level and reassign various agencies - and budgets - to
the new Homeland Security post.
The
restructuring of the current government, as well as criticism that the
plan is overly ambitious with no concrete plans with getting to the
root of preventing terrorism, have prompted a tepid response in
Congress, where both chambers are preparing their own Homeland
Security proposals.
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