Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
From the Homeland Security website:
- With strong bipartisan support President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security – the most comprehensive reorganization of the Federal government in a half-century. The Department of Homeland Security consolidates 22 agencies and 180,000 employees, unifying once-fragmented Federal functions in a single agency dedicated to protecting America from terrorism.
- Improving Intelligence
- The dramatic increase in information sharing allowed by the PATRIOT Act has enabled law enforcement to find and dismantle terror cells
- Improving Aviation, Border, and Port Security
The CIA, the FBI and several other operations all report up to Homeland Security now. So it's pretty clear that the Department of Homeland Security has the mandate to consolidate all intelligence efforts of the US, including espionage, counter-espionage, elimination of anti-American and counter-revolutionary formations within the US, guarding the borders, and guarding the leaders of the government as well as state and critical state property (such as weapons research etc). It also investigates and prosecutes those who steal state property and white collar crimes via the FBI.
It's interesting to note that several years (decades) ago there was another organization in another country that did exactly the same thing. This organization though was not American and thus was portrayed by the West as being an evil entity characterized by all that is bad in mankind. But when it comes right down to it, this other organization had a mandate to consolidate all intelligence efforts, liquidate "enemies of the state", guard the borders, guard the leaders of the government, guard state property and invstigate and prosecute crimes within the state.
This organization was known as the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti and was formed in 1954. In 1991, after a failed coup attempt, Mikhail Gorbachev had the KGB dismantled.
From the Homeland Security website:
- With strong bipartisan support President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security – the most comprehensive reorganization of the Federal government in a half-century. The Department of Homeland Security consolidates 22 agencies and 180,000 employees, unifying once-fragmented Federal functions in a single agency dedicated to protecting America from terrorism.
- Improving Intelligence
- The dramatic increase in information sharing allowed by the PATRIOT Act has enabled law enforcement to find and dismantle terror cells
- Improving Aviation, Border, and Port Security
The CIA, the FBI and several other operations all report up to Homeland Security now. So it's pretty clear that the Department of Homeland Security has the mandate to consolidate all intelligence efforts of the US, including espionage, counter-espionage, elimination of anti-American and counter-revolutionary formations within the US, guarding the borders, and guarding the leaders of the government as well as state and critical state property (such as weapons research etc). It also investigates and prosecutes those who steal state property and white collar crimes via the FBI.
It's interesting to note that several years (decades) ago there was another organization in another country that did exactly the same thing. This organization though was not American and thus was portrayed by the West as being an evil entity characterized by all that is bad in mankind. But when it comes right down to it, this other organization had a mandate to consolidate all intelligence efforts, liquidate "enemies of the state", guard the borders, guard the leaders of the government, guard state property and invstigate and prosecute crimes within the state.
This organization was known as the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti and was formed in 1954. In 1991, after a failed coup attempt, Mikhail Gorbachev had the KGB dismantled.