Bush to Seek New Powers in Homeland Security Plan

Reuters ^

[RCW2001]

Bush to Seek New Powers in Homeland Security Plan
Last Updated: July 15, 2002 07:54 PM ET
By Adam Entous WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush will unveil the nation's first homeland security plan on Tuesday, calling for new measures to prevent nuclear attacks and for Congress to grant him expanded powers. Administration officials said the 100-page "National Strategy for Homeland Security," which Bush will present to lawmakers at a White House meeting, will set out top priorities, from deploying sensors to prevent terrorists from using nuclear weapons to developing new vaccines in the event of a biological attack. Bush will review ways to deploy the National Guard and use combat air patrols in the nation's defense. The administration will seek new laws expanding presidential authority to extradite suspects, as well as the power to reshuffle federal agencies and funding to respond to new threats. To safeguard sensitive information about U.S. chemical and nuclear plants, officials said Bush would also ask Congress to place new restrictions on laws that allow the public to access government and private sector information. An administration officials said the homeland security plan would help prevent future attacks like those on Sept. 11. Bush has already proposed folding all or parts of 22 agencies -- including the Secret Service, Coast Guard and Border Patrol -- into a new Department of Homeland Security to better guard against new attacks. He has called it the most sweeping reorganization since President Harry Truman confronted the Cold War in 1947. But several powerful lawmakers are pushing for changes. In a speech in Alabama on Monday, Bush appealed to Congress to put aside its differences and create the new department. "We need to know who is coming into our country, why they're coming into our country, and whether or not they're leaving our country when they say they're going to be leaving our country," Bush said. "We need to make sure we've got a coordinating facility within the Homeland Security Department that will take all the bits of intelligence that we gather and coordinate it, and look at it, and assess it, and if there is any vulnerabilities in our country, react to it," he added. But in seeking to secure the country's borders, the administration faces what may be an impossible task: screening out would-be attackers without slowing down the roughly 500 million people, 11.2 million trucks and 2.2 million railway cars that cross into the country each year. "The threat we face is almost infinite," an administration official conceded.

[Darth Sidious]

"The threat we face is almost infinite," an administration official conceded.

Translation: "The power we want is almost infinite."

[goldstategop]

We're at war and will probably be for the rest of our lives.

[Darth Sidious]

We're at war and will probably be for the rest of our lives.

And this administration is continuing the trend from the last one, and from all of human history: when the war is exhausted against external enemies, there are always ones to be found internally.

[sinkspur]

And this administration is continuing the trend from the last one, and from all of human history: when the war is exhausted against external enemies, there are always ones to be found internally.

Paranoia comes naturally to the paranoid.

[Darth Sidious]

And as you often illustrate, one can't expect a deep rebuttal from a shallow mind.

[sinkspur]

And as you often illustrate, one can't expect a deep rebuttal from a shallow mind.

How does one rebut a paranoid who thinks everyone is arrayed against him?

You remind me of my demented uncle, who thought everyone in the world was crazy except him.

[Darth Sidious]

You remind me of my demented uncle, who thought everyone in the world was crazy except him.

You mean your excuse is that your whole family has been insane? I'll send over a crate of Zoloft next Christmas.

[mrsmith]

"deploy the National guard...the power to reshuffle federal agencies and funding to respond to new threats"

I'm fine with everything else, but congress budgets the money, and I'd have to see just what he means about the NG.

[F16Fighter]

"The power we want is almost infinite."

Gonna be a real blast when Hillary flies her broom into the White House some day soon and Homeland Security becomes her personal Gestapo.

[Darth Sidious]

Very doubtful it'll be Hillary: the American people aren't that gullible (right??) but the power will be ready and waiting for someone to pick up and abuse.

Given human nature, I'm also very doubtful that won't happen.

[WhirlwindAttack]

Claire Wolf

Is it time yet?

[philman_36]

Is it time yet?
I can't say for "Clair", but as for myself...the hours turned to minutes some time ago and the minutes are rapidly turning into seconds.

[nravoter]

"We need to know who is coming into our country, why they're coming into our country, and whether or not they're leaving our country when they say they're going to be leaving our country," Bush said.

Whew, thank God we cracked down on illegal immigration and sealed our borders w/ Mexico and Canada when we did!" < /sarcasm>

[F16Fighter]

Oh yeah -- Homeland Security is a "pretty big power grab" alright. HUGE...

But because the full brunt of Homeland Security hasn't fully been implimented, and it's being sold as a supposed "necessary evil to combat domestic terrorism," most American people including many here at FR are buying into this ruse. They just don't yet realize the extent to which the Federal Government will soon be intruding upon all of our lives -- AND just wait until we get the bill to boot!

It's said a lobster doesn't realize it's being boiled until it's too late, right? ;-)

[bok]

You expel all muslims and reject more from coming to the united states, you have no more war. This and the patriot act is a sham to take away freedom, this country is becoming the new soviet union and i believe it. The border is sieve and is open to terrorist attack. Homland siegcurity is a joke.