Is The U.S. Department Of Homeland Security Spending Its Billions Wisely?

Patrick Tucker, Defense One: How US Counterterrorism Funds Ended Up in the Orlando Terrorist’s Pocket

The U.S. spends billions a year on counterterrorism, with generally poor oversight.

Before Omar Mateen took the lives of 49 people in Orlando on June 12, he was a licensed security guard with British-based G4S, a company that rode the post-9/11 wave of counterterrorism budgets. The Florida shooting has focused critical attention on the company, which has been the subject of a number of embarrassing reports. But G4S is just a symptom of a larger problem: counterterrorism spending in the United States is generally poorly managed and monitored.

In Chasing Ghosts: The Policing of Terrorism, published in November, John Mueller and Mark Stewart argue that public anxiety about terrorism has resulted in the rapid expansion of counterterrorist programs and investments, very little of which justifies its cost. By their numbers, the United States spends roughly $115 billion per year on domestic homeland security, much of it on a variety of agencies, programs, technologies, and other efforts to disrupt or deter domestic terrorism. They write that the counterterrorism field includes at least 1,072 governmental organizations and agencies, plus some 2,000 private companies funded by U.S. tax dollars. That means lots of money for companies like G4S, which hired Mateen back in 2007.

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WNU Editor: A sobering number .... $115 billion per year on domestic homeland security .... and little if any oversight. That is more money being spent than what Russia spends on its military .... plus a few others.

Homeland Security Needs Better Security

Josh Rogin, Bloomberg: Homeland Security Is Spilling a Lot of Secrets

The Department of Homeland Security suffered over 100 "spills" of classified information last year, 40 percent of which came from one office, according to a leaked internal document I obtained. Officials and lawmakers told me that until the Department imposes stricter policies and sounder practices to better protect sensitive intelligence, the vulnerabilities there could be exploited. Not only does this raise the threat that hostile actors could get their hands on classified information, but may lead to other U.S. agencies keeping DHS out of the loop on major security issues.

A spill is not the same as an unauthorized disclosure of classified information. A Homeland Security official explained that spills often include “the accidental, inadvertent, or intentional introduction of classified information into an unclassified information technology system, or higher-level classified information into a lower-level classified information technology system, to include non-government systems.”

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WNU Editor: For some reason I am thinking of Hillary Clinton and her unprotected server after reading this article.

A Commentary On How Homeland Security Hasn't Made Us Safer

Homeland Security Hasn't Made Us Safer -- Anne Applebaum, Foreign Policy

Hardly anyone has seriously scrutinized either the priorities or the spending patterns of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its junior partner, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), since their hurried creation in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Sure, they get criticized plenty. But year in, year out, they continue to grow faster and cost more -- presumably because Americans think they are being protected from terrorism by all that spending. Yet there is no evidence whatsoever that the agencies are making Americans any safer.

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My Comment: Good questions are raised .... but I doubt that Homeland Security will be answering them.

Homeland Security Leaders Defend Vet Memo

Photo: Jane Lute, deputy director of U.S. Homeland Security, speaks at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum in Oklahoma City, Sunday. Sue Ogrocki / AP

From MSNBC:

Officials warn that right-wing extremists could lure veterans to join.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Top Department of Homeland Security officials on Sunday defended an agency intelligence assessment warning that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan could be susceptible to recruitment by right-wing extremists, though one said it should have been "more tightly written and presented."

Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano said on CNN's "State of the Union" that she regrets that some people took offense over the report, but added that "a number of groups far too numerous to mention" were targeting returning veterans to carry out domestic terrorism attacks.

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My Comment: I call this defending the indefensible. What was released last week was only a 9 page summary .... they are not releasing the full report. I would wager that the full report must carry some real doozers that they do not want us to know about.

Adrift On Border Security -- A Commentary

Photo: Janet Napolitano

From The Washington Times:

Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano seems to be floundering on immigration and national security issues.

Not only is she continuing her quixotic campaign against Real ID, the main federal law safeguarding the integrity of drivers' licenses and keeping them out of the hands of terrorists, but she has also been weak and apologetic about the efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to do its job - removing illegal aliens from the United States. By contrast, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who had turned his state into a sanctuary for Illegal aliens, has reversed himself regarding drivers' licenses for illegals and complying with Real ID.

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My Comment: Janet Napolitano is of the philosophy (within the Democratic Party) of open borders and immigration. Open immigration does not only provide an electoral base for the Party at election time, but they are also an important component for what some political leaders visualize a future multicultural America should look like it.

But reality is diferent. U.S. Federal prisons now hold tens of thousands of convicted illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes. Mexico's drug and cartel war is now spilling into border states .... including into Janet Napolitan's state of Arizona.

The media .... which has been compliant in the past .... are now reporting on the carnage that is occuring in Mexico, and the impact that it is having on the U.S. U.S. Security Agencies within her own department are now not only voicing their fears of a crime wave swamping the U.S., but the possibility of terror cells now having an easy avenue to move in.

If 9/11 thought us anything, it is that immigration and security walk hand in hand. But it appears that this Secretary has a different point of view.

The Department Of Homeland Security In Action -- A Commentary

Border Bullies -- Michael Yon

A Thai friend with whom I have traveled in Europe and Asia took time off from her job to meet me in Florida over the holidays. This was a good time for me, as it was between reporting stints in the war. My friend, Aew, had volunteered to work with me in Afghanistan or Iraq, but I declined because many people around me get shot or blown up. So we were looking forward to spending some vacation time together. She comes from a good family; and one that is wealthier than most American families. She didn’t come here for a job. Well-educated, she has a master's degree and works as a bank officer in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Aew was excited about the prospect of visiting America for the first time, though she had traveled to many other countries and had the passport stamps to prove it. She had no problem getting a U.S. visa, and she was paying her own way to fly.

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