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GAO Slams DHS Over BioWatch Biological Defense System
Mansing writes "Citizens need to evaluate if they are indeed safer for all the 'security precautions' put into place. 'The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has rushed to acquire a new, multibillion-dollar version of the BioWatch system for detecting biological attacks without establishing whether it was needed or would work, according to a new report by a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress. ... The existing system's repeated false alarms have triggered tense, high-stakes deliberations over whether to order mass evacuations, distribute emergency medicines or shut down major venues.' Is this just more money funneled to U.S. companies, or is this really keeping the U.S. safer? Are the same types of 'security precautions' being instituted in Spain and the UK? Or is this preying on fear a uniquely U.S. phenomenon?"
I'm really looking forward to the day when America stops treating terrorists like terrorists and just treats them as common criminals. Then maybe this whole terrorist boogie man boondoggle can go away finally. It'd sure kill the romance of a terrorist as being something more then a common thug or crook.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Generally, yes. But the prospect of having an "objective" computer giving out false positives all the time to keep the terror alive is the fulfillment of at least part of the DHS mission statement.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
I think this is a case of a government department trying to grow.
A business leader will try to grow their business by increasing profits through more sales or greater efficiency. That's the nature of business.
A government department will try to grow by increasing their budget or sphere of influence, which usually means regulations. That's just the nature of government.
DHS exists because It's a great way to dump US tax dollars into privatized money machines. It's hear to stay, voting or not.
That doesn't sound like the thinking of a good citizen. We may have to look into your background, finances, social network activity, phone records, etc. Wrong thinking is punishable, you know. Besides, it's unpatriotic to question the Department of Fatherland..., erm, Homeland Security.
What you folks aren't realizing is that even though he is dead, bin Laden is still winning this war.
His stated aim was never to be able to beat down the United States in a military or conventional war. Even he knew there was no force outside the United States that could do that. The only way to destroy the United States was to create a set of conditions where it would destroy itself and the best way to do that would be to create havoc in its economy. What's happened since the 9/11 attacks and a few other minor events? The US has taken part in a ongoing military action in several countries in the middle east that have cost it hundreds of billions. It's instituted internal measures to counter "terrorism" on its home soil that have cost more hundreds of billions. In an attempt to make everything seem all right, it fostered a false economic boom that finally crashed and put the country on shaky ground economically. Citizens are now encouraged to report each other if they seem to be acting in a suspicious or covert manner. (Could be they are planning to blow something up. Could be they are planning a surprise birthday party. It doesn't matter, it's all suspicious.) And, because the government doesn't learn from its mistakes, this process just keeps on growing. The US is facing yet another credit cap crisis that either hits the wall and reduces the government and the services it provides drastically or gets elevated again creating an even more likely worse event sometime in the future.
bin Laden is winning and you don't even know it. The measures to counter terrorism have already been mentioned earlier in this thread. Quit considering terrorists as some special class of criminal. Their actions are no different than any other kind of criminal and can be prosecuted under normal criminal law, murder of various degrees, illegal weapons use or movement, false accounting practices to fund their operations. All these things are just normal criminal activities if you remove the stigma of the label terrorist.
The most damning thing about the situation right now is the dichotomy between FEMA and the FBI. FEMA promotes emergency preparedness, stockpiling food, water, other supplies, cash (in case the electronic transaction system fails) while at the same time these actions are labeled by the FBI as indicators that someone is a potential terrorist.
You all best get ready to see the United States break apart into a smaller set of unions or independent countries. The larger entity is just about at the end of its rope. Of course, if you look back you might find that the founding fathers never really considered the United States as being a single country from sea to sea. There were plans to foster an independent sister (or brother, for the patriarchal minded among us) state on the west coast. In hindsight, it might have been a good idea; having someone about who could cuff your ears every once in a while when you start acting stupid.
I think it would be reasonable to say that for most people, the choice to drive rather than fly was due primarily to a fear of terrorism (for which security theater might arguably be a solution).
I disagree. There's nothing reasonable about having an opinion without any evidence to support that opinion. We need to keep in mind, for example, that people who are scared of flying due to terrorists, would probably have found some other reason to be scared of flying, if terrorists weren't available.
And we also need to keep in mind that there really is a significant penalty to security theater. Not just the discomfort and uncertainty of the actual search, but also the fact that one has to show up an hour earlier in order to take a flight. Adding an hour to travel time changes the economics of air flight significantly. A lot of flights are rather short.
Specifially, 1,200 deaths per year can be attributed to the TSA
Sorry, but that's just sensationalism and spin, and it misstates what the paper concludes.
The paper you cite says that the 1,200 lives that were lost between 9/11/01 and 2003 "can be attributed solely to the reaction to 9/11," of which the TSA is only a part of, such as fear of flying, fear of terrorism, unemployment, airline ticket prices, and such.
I loathe the TSA as much as the next /.er but misrepresenting facts just weakens your arguments.
I suspect that what we are seeing here is analogous to what happens when children are raised in a "too clean" environment. The body's immune system needs to be kept occupied with low-level threats which happens when kids play outside in a real environment filled with various germs. When over protective parents keep children away from the outside world in a cleaner / protected environment, there is a much increased risk that their immune systems, evolved to attack something, will begin to attack the children's own bodies. Diseases such as asthma, where the immune system over reacts to non-threats are the result.
Similarly Homeland Security seems to be doing more damage the the American people than the threats it was ( allegedly ) created to defend against.
The problem is, if a positive result can mean closing highways, evacuating people and alerting every emergency service to start whatever plan they have drafted up, even a single false result is unacceptable. The same way you wouldn't want NORAD to randomly order nukes launched at someone just because there was a one-in-a-million glitch...