Posted on: Monday, January 3, 2005

EDITORIAL
Homeland security: a faith-based activity?

Congress and President Bush have signed off on some mammoth efforts to reshape our internal security apparatus and intelligence-gathering community to prevent a recurrence of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The creation of the Department of Homeland Security is the biggest reorganization of federal agencies since the Department of Defense was created in 1947. Early last month, Bush signed the sweeping Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, a move he said would bolster America's defenses against "stateless networks" of terrorists.

But what if this measure turns out to be little more than a massive shuffling of the deck chairs aboard the Titanic as it steams resolutely toward its iceberg? Among the signs that give us qualms:

• The former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security says in an interview the department is dysfunctional, poorly managed, and has failed to plug serious holes in the nation's safety net — including measures to stop weapons of mass destruction from entering seaports like Honolulu in ship-borne containers.

• The head of the CIA's analytical branch is being forced to step down, the latest in a series of high-level ousters that have prompted unease within the agency since Porter Goss took over as director of central intelligence in September. At least a half-dozen top deputies have been fired or have retired abruptly, including the agency's No. 2 and No. 3 officials. Much of the top tier of the agency's clandestine service is also gone.

The Bush administration soothes that this turmoil is about making the agency more reliable. Critics warn the agency is being emasculated in the name of stamping out politically embarrassing leaks.

• The FBI has announced a new appointment to lead its counterterrorism division — the sixth person to hold this job since 9/11. What kind of stability does this outfit have with leadership averaging six months on the job?

• We still don't have a unified fingerprint database because of infighting among the Justice, State and Homeland Security departments, according to Justice's inspector general. Three years after 9/11, this "creates a risk that a terrorist could enter the country undetected," he said.

It's not comforting to hear that despite immense bureaucratic rearrangement, things may not have changed much at the cutting edge, where actual protection of Americans happens.