Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
So what would one suggest we call the House Committe On Internal Security* this time?  |
DHS US-VISIT with oversight by 68 congressional committees
even though that program is just for foreign nationals coming in - like the underwear bomber
The US internal security piece is seriously lacking. With everyone surprised that the agencies weren't integrating their databases (connecting the dots) with UW bomber, perhaps the public is more receptive to the government tracking / combining more personal information.
What ever happened to Total Information Awareness that got sidelined a couple of years ago because of concerns about civil liberties? Domestic CI is a difficult balance between personal privacy (individual rights) and national security. Is any agency
really responsible for domestic CI? Not that I know of. LE and ARNG do internal security for individual states, but no federal agency has authority across the whole US. As big as DHS is, they will likely end up lightly, but insidiously policing internal security just because they have access to so much of the relevant resources.
Like TR and HowardCohodas, I believe that we underestimate the dangers of a fifth column. Yes, the threat of extremist Muslims and Arab revolutionaries is incipient but they are motivated and lethal. Just look at Britain.
I'm no expert on Verona, but recall a primary example of infiltration is the COMINTERN and the US communist party during the Cold War. Espionage was a regular activity of the American CP. It's goal was to promote communism and the ideology of the Soviet Union through political means (front groups) in the US. They infiltrated and subverted exploitable groups that included assets like sympathetic US communists.
What is that quote about empires rot from within? Overreach and complacency, etc.