Guards Say Homeland Security HQ Insecure
By Larry Margasak
6 March 2006 Associated Press
Two senators who fielded complaints from several Wackenhut employees are asking Homeland’s internal watchdog, the inspector general, to investigate.
“If the allegations brought forward by the whistleblowers are correct, they represent both a security threat and a waste of taxpayer dollars,” Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote. “It would be ironic, to say the least, if DHS were unable to secure its own headquarters.”
Bill would let Homeland Security control ports deals
By Amy Fagan
6 March 2006 The Washington Times
Senate homeland security panel Chairman Susan Collins said yesterday that she will introduce a bill to give the Homeland Security Department the lead in approving foreign takeovers of companies that touch on national security.
The concern over a Dubai-owned company taking over some U.S. seaport operations has spawned a flurry of similar legislation on Capitol Hill, including bills to block the deal or prevent similar future deals.
“The process right now is deeply flawed,” Miss Collins, Maine Republican, said of the interagency committee currently charged with approving acquisitions such as the Dubai deal.
“I think we need to scrap the committee, start again, constitute it within the Department of Homeland Security,” Miss Collins said on ABC‘s “This Week,” adding that a member of the intelligence community also should be part of the review panel.
She said she’ll introduce legislation this week with her committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.
Rather than give a clearly fumbling bureaucracy more authourity it should be brought before Congress to explain its ineptitude.
Harboring Prejudice and Politics: The “Dubai Ports” Debate
James Zogby
27 February 2006
If this anti-UAE campaign succeeds, there is no public diplomacy campaign that can salvage the damage. Arabs, you see—not unlike any other people—react not by what you say about yourself but by how you treat them.
Having said all this, the current exercise in Arab-bashing is, in fact, nothing more than election year politicking at its worst with Democrats feeling that Bush is vulnerable and piling on, and Republicans feeling vulnerable and joining the fray. If it weren’t so serious and dangerous, it might be comical. We’ve seen scenes like this before, as Congressmen and Senators literally trip over each other, risking injury on their way to the microphone, calculating just how outrageous they need to be to guarantee that their sound bite will be the one on the evening news. In this game, facts don’t matter. Instead, hyperventilating on their own rhetoric, exaggerations abound.