Watchdog asks, Is DHS protecting the country, or wasting taxpayers' money? Nick Juliano

Published: Wednesday December 5, 2007



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Print This Email This As the Department of Homeland Security -- the cabinet agency created in the wake of 9/11 -- has fallen short in its mission to protect Americans, an independent watchdog charges in its new report. Five years since it began, DHS has left behind, waste, fraud and abuse, while driving away its top talent in favor of Bush cronies, and the results can be seen from the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina to the bomb components that slipped past airport screeners. Citizens for Responsibility an Ethics in Washington has catalogued and quantified many of DHS's missteps and launched a new Web site -- homelandsecurityforsale.org -- to coincide with the agency's fifth anniversary. The site includes CREW's 67-page report on DHS along with a video produced by Robert Greenwald and the BraveNew Foundation tracing DHS's evolution. "Let the cronyism begin," says a caption beneath footage of Tom Ridge's appointment as first DHS secretary. The video and report document the apparent revolving door between DHS and private contractors and lobbying firms that benefitted from homeland security contracts, and they demonstrate the consequences of nominating unqualified political loyalists -- like disgraced FEMA head Michael Brown -- to vital positions. In its report, CREW documents billions of dollars in taxpayer money that was lost on poorly conceived or never-implemented DHS programs, including $1.3 billion on an immigration program aimed at tracking people coming to and leaving the US. The program "has never worked as Congress intended," CREW alleges, naming US-VISIT the top "Failed Program" in its report. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was widely charged with failing New Orleans' residents after Hurricane Katrina, was awarded the dubious distinction as "most troubled DHS component." And the US Customs and Border Protection agency was "most criminal," according to CREW, because of the number of officials charged with protecting the border who have subsequently be charged with aiding illegal immigrants. The Department of Homeland Security is an embarrassment that would be comical if only our national security were not at stake," Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director, said in a news release. "The agency and its leadership must be held accountable for its failures and pushed to do better. The following video was posted at HomelandSecurityForSale.org:



