Homeland Security Accused of Wasting $500M on Nuke Precautions for BorderBy Catherine Herridge Published September 23, 2010 | FoxNews.com The Department of Homeland Security has wasted up to nearly a half billion dollars in taxpayer money and time on its current plans to develop technology at the nation's borders to detect nuclear material being smuggled into the country, according to two recent GAO reports cited by a Republican senator on Thursday. In one program, the Government Accountability Office concluded the technology was being pushed too hard too fast. In another case, the equipment was too big and it didn't fit into the cargo container inspection lanes. “This is not a picture of good government at work,” said Gene Aloise, a senior investigator with the GAO who covers homeland security. He added that the department had been warned repeatedly about the problems. “It's not good government, it's not best practices and in some cases it wasn't even common sense.” Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, noted that the lack of basic communication smacked of dysfunction. “The first thing that you'd think would be done, would be that the department would talk to the agency that's going to use the equipment to find out what would work,” Collins told Fox News on Capitol Hill. “In this case, millions of dollars was wasted because one office did not talk to another office about what was needed.” A Homeland Security official told Fox News that the department in no way misled Congress over the cargo screening project.... Committee members and staff about the status of technology programs, including Cargo Advanced Automated Radiography System (CAARS), to keep Congress apprised of developments and changes,” the official said in a statement. Collins’ staffers and the GAO investigator say the port container screening program was stalled in 2007 in the research and development phase, yet in the 2009 and 2010 budget requests, the Homeland Security Department was asking for money to buy it. CONTINUED AT: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/23/reports-homeland-security-wasted-m-taxpayer-money-nuke-spending-border/?test=latestnews"EX-DHS CHIEF LINKS POLITICS TO TERROR ALERTS" - (An Exhibit in CV05-00030 - U S Dept of Justice vs Harmon)
Friday, August 28, 2009 5:38 PM
From:
"Bobby Harmon"
To:
"President Barack Obama" <president@whitehouse.gov>, "U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder" <AskDOJ@usdoj.gov>, "David Farmer" <farmerd001@hawaii.rr.com>, "Steven Guttman" sguttman@kdubm.com , more...
Ex-DHS chief links politics to terror alerts Featured Topics:
By DEB RIECHMANN and EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON – Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge claims in a new book that he was pressured by other members of President George W. Bush's Cabinet to raise the nation's terror alert level just before the 2004 presidential election.
Ridge says he objected to raising the security level despite the urgings of former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, according to a publicity release from Ridge's publisher. In the end the alert level was not changed. Ridge said the episode convinced him to follow through with his plans to leave the administration; he resigned on Nov. 30, 2004.
Bush's former homeland security adviser, Frances Townsend, said Thursday that politics never played a role in determining alert levels.
Two tapes were released by al-Qaida in the weeks leading up to the election — one by terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and the other by a man calling himself "Azzam the American." Terrorism experts suspected that "Azzam the American" was Adam Gadahn, a 26-year-old Californian whom the FBI had been urgently seeking.
Townsend said the videotapes contained "very graphic" and "threatening" messages.
Townsend said that anytime there was a discussion of changing the alert level, she first spoke with Ridge and then, if necessary, called a meeting of the homeland security council comprising the secretaries of defense and homeland security, the attorney general and CIA and FBI directors. The group then made a recommendation to the president about whether the color-coded threat level should be raised.
"Never were politics ever discussed in this context in my presence," she said.
Asked if there was any reason for Ridge to have felt pressured, Townsend said: "He was certainly not pressured. And, by the way, he didn't object when it was raised and he certainly didn't object when it wasn't raised."
Ridge's publicist, Joe Rinaldi, said Ridge was out of town and was not doing interviews until his book, "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege ... and How We Can Be Safe Again," is released on Sept. 1.
In 2004, Ridge explained why he didn't feel the alert should be raised. "We don't have to go to (code level) orange to take action in response either to these tapes or just general action to improve security around the country," he said then.
In 2005, months after he resigned, Ridge said his agency has been the most reluctant to raise the alert level. "There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?'" he said during a panel discussion in May 2005. But his book appears to be the first time he publicly attributes some of the pressure to politics.
The Homeland Security Department, which Ridge was the first person to lead, faced criticism in 2004 from Democrats who alleged that raising the alert level was designed to boost support for the Bush administration during an election year.
Ridge, a former Republican congressman and governor of Pennsylvania, was widely named as a potential running mate to John McCain in 2008 before the GOP candidate chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
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August 28, 2009
Dear President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Trustee Farmer, Mr. Guttman, Ms. Neustadter, Judge Kevin Chang, Judge David Ezra, and All Concerned:
Due to the discovery of NEW FACTS related to this lawsuit which I maintain is a "prior restraint" of my constitutional rights of Free Speech and a violation of Federal and State Anti-SLAPP statutes, I am adding the subject Exhibit. You will find additional information on-line at:
Mr. Farmer and Mr. Guttman, in light of this new Exhibit, I again ask you to accept my standing offer that we attempt to NEGOTIATE an out-of-court GLOBAL SETTLEMENT in this case, including my unanswered insurance claims against you and your professional liability insurance carriers, rather than continuing indefinitely these costly court proceedings. These negotiations could be held in complete confidentiality and if no agreement were reached between parties, these legal matters and my separate insurance claims can proceed as before.
Or, as an alternative to NEGOTIATION of a global settlement, I ask if you would be willing to submit the subject case only to non-binding MEDIATION.
Your immediate response is requested.
Very truly yours,
Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU, ARM
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