GOV'T STILL NAPPING AS NEW 9/11 LOOMS

"I believe in the next five years - can't tell you when, where, what or how - there will be an attack,"

Geez, I think my magic eight ball could have given the same prediction.

Perhaps I can offer a few things, here, from someone who's manning the ramparts...

There are two military operations going on right now: Enduring Freedom (OED), and Noble Eagle (ONE). OED deals with US deployments overseas, either direct combat or counterterrorist ops. ONE is the Homeland Security fight, and it's been going on since 12 SEP 01.

ONE deals a lot with Force Protection; keeping key installations secure, logistics maintained, etc. Bridges and tunnels must be patrolled, power and water safeguarded, and ports of entry secured. And that last one is a biggie.

Ports of entry are land-, air-, and sea-borne transit for just about everything this nation consumes. And Department of Homeland Security has got the mission. DHS as an entity is relatively new, and all the sections of the orchestra aren't playing exactly right yet, but there are a bunch of good people who never see the limelight, who are getting the missions accomplished, one at a time.

I agree with other FReepers on some points. Yes, the borders are porous, and more can be done to make them less so. Yes, the problem exists of Muslim infiltration, but how to solve it, and still retain our laws? Yes, the guys in the green suits are straining at the bit to go after the Jihadis, but who's to say who the Jihadis ARE? We don't go after our own people - presumption of innocence.

Considering where we were three years ago, we've achieved great things on the home front. We'll achieve even more, tomorrow. But if one big thing had to be pointed at, it's this: at least everyone's THINKING about the home front. And that makes me smile while I'm on watch.

Thanks, Folks.

Yes, I see Motorola has been very sucessfull in planting this since they have suceeded in getting their P25 "standard" mandated.

I don't know if anyone in the world is better prepared than Israel and they aren't able to stop these mad animals.

Oh, they could stop them permanently if the United States would unleash them to deal with the pack of mad animals in the only way that works with mad animals.

I don't understand some of the hand wringing, since what Rudman thinks we need is more man power and equipment, to do what? Wait until the burning inferno cools enough to get close with man power and equipment? Rudman has always been somewhat of a alarmist and contrarian, in my opinion.

Rudman suggested that better equipment could have avoided "the horrific loss of life of New York firefighters" on Sept. 11, 2001.

The FDNY already had that better equipment (I presume he's referring to radios that actually work in WTC-height buildings). The problem was as soon as they got it, the radios DIDN'T WORK because the cheap-ass company that got the patronage bid sent them worthless crap, and the FDNY was forced to go back to their old radios while the City practically had to initiate legal action against the manufacturer of the "new" radios to get them to even begin to work on fixing the problems. (To my knowledge, the "new" radios still are not fit for use.)

In the end, it was RAT corruption that kept New York's Bravest from hearing that order to evacuate the buildings, not a lack of money or equipment.

The Dems must be drooling over this report and are using it as an attack on President Bush. Charlie Rose featured it on his PBS show last night (I changed the channel).

Didn't work in 2002, won't work in 2004. Time and time again, the polls show that if the voters blame anyone at all, they blame the Clinton Administration for leaving us wide open to attack.

If the RATS try to use this report, it will cause the GOP to gain votes, not lose them.

Getting rid of the terrorist organization CAIR would reduce the risk to US. If only Mueller would stop having lunch with them.

From Daniel Pipes' Weblog today:

Weblog

United States of America v. Randall Todd Royer. For several years, one of my severest and most persistent critics has been one Randall ("Ismail") Royer, an American convert to Islam. Here's a typical comment of his from his weblog dated Sept. 17, 2002: after calling me a "pop bigot" he comments on my "War on Campus" article with the following elevated and elegant commentary: "[Pipes] has served up another steaming shovelful of fertilizer. What a joy it is to read this guy. His stuff requires no real effort to deconstruct, no deliberate propaganda analysis to realize how he intends to deceive the reader."

I mention this unsavory person because today he was indicted and arrested for his association with terrorism, specifically his having joined the Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba, traveled to Pakistan, done propaganda work for it, and "fired at Indian positions in Kashmir." In addition, the indictment also states that Royer "possessed in his automobile an AK-47-style rifle and 219 rounds of ammunition" in September 2001. The grand jury charges that Royer "did unlawfully and knowingly begin, provide for, prepare a means for, and take part in a military expedition and enterprise to be carried on from the United States against the territory and dominion of India, a foreign state with whom the United States was at peace."

It's also worth nothing that Royer was working for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), militant Islam's most aggressive political organization in North America, when he began training with Lashkar-e-Taiba. (He served there variously as a communications specialist and a civil rights coordinator.) This means that CAIR now has a record of at least two former employees indicted and arrested in 2003 on terrorism charges; the other was Bassem Khafagi, CAIR's director of community relations before his arrest this January. Oh, and one must not forget that a member of CAIR's advisory board, Siraj Wahhaj, was named as "one of the "unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators" in the attempt to blow up New York City monuments nearly a decade ago. So, CAIR not only apologizes for terrorism but is now implicitly accused of having more direct links to it. (June 27, 2003)