Can we close DHS now, please?
I was against the creation of the Department of Homeland Security from the start. Instead of streamlining our intelligence services, and working with state law enforcement agencies, President Bush took the advice of the 9-1 Commission and created this bureaucratic nightmare. The Federal Protective Service Security, a component of DHS, was found to have failed a vital GAO test on an epic level, and Congress isn't pleased:
Members of Congress on Wednesday blasted "disturbing" and "outrageous" security failures in the nation's federal buildings after government investigators smuggled bomb-making materials past the police agency charged with protecting those buildings.
The Government Accountability Office released a report detailing how investigators carried liquid bomb-making materials past security at 10 federal buildings in 10 cities -- a shocking exposure lawmakers said shows the country's vulnerability eight years after the attacks on the World Trade Center and 14 years after the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, blamed the Federal Protective Service Security for failing to provide adequate security and proper training to its 13,000 security guards during a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill. The agency, which is responsible for providing security at about 9,000 federal buildings around the country, has 1,200 full-time employees and roughly 13,000 contract guards.
"In short, GAO has found that the Federal Protective Service is not doing enough to make sure its 13,000 guards are qualified and trained for their jobs -- and doing what they're required to do," said Lieberman, who was joined by Susan Collins, R-Maine., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio.
Lieberman, I-Ct., said the GAO's probe included such troubling findings as a report that 73 percent of FPS contract guards lacked valid certifications and a report that one security guard allowed a baby to pass through an X-ray machine -- breaches in security he said make the country vulnerable to terrorist attack. Lieberman said the guard, who was later fired, filed a lawsuit and won after FPS could not provide sufficient proof that he had been properly trained. The GAO report found that a vast majority of security guards received no X-ray or metal detection training at all.
The undisclosed buildings at the center of the probe were all labeled "Security Level IV," or high-risk.
Collins said the report also found that the state of Maine has only two FPS inspectors to officiate over security at federal buildings and conduct the necessary inspection at the state's 24 points of entry.
"The findings of covert security tests conducted by GAO investigators are stunning and completely unacceptable. In post-9/11 America, I cannot fathom how security breaches of this magnitude were allowed to occur," said Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the committee. "These security lapses and others show a disturbing pattern by the Federal Protective Service of poor training, lapsed documentation, lax management, inconsistent enforcement of security standards and little rigor."
"We taxpayers are simply not receiving the security we pay for and should expect FPS to provide," she added.
The GAO found other problems with guard training and reported that in one check of security, investigators found a guard asleep on the job after taking the painkiller Percocet. In another, they found that a guard failed to recognize or did not properly X-ray a box carrying handguns at the loading dock of a facility.
"As we approach the eighth anniversary of 9/11, and 14 years after Oklahoma City, it is simply unacceptable that federal employees working within buildings under FPS' protection, and the visitors who pass through them, are so utterly exposed to potential attack by terrorists and other enemies," Lieberman said.
Liebs is right, this is unacceptable, but what can we expect. DHS has been a walking cluster-f*ck from the word go. It has not had a great track record of doing it's job properly, or competently. I know of a DHS agent who is constantly complaining about the bureaucratic red tape he has to go through when filing reports or requesting information. And he told me that it's only gotten worse with Napolitano at the helm. It's bad enough that she's decided the borders aren't a security risk, and the fact she no longer wants to take terrorism seriously, but my buddy said that the bean counters are out in force at DHS. More concern is made for a budget, and not enough focus is maintained on DHS's mission -- to protect the country from potential attack.
DHS should be forced to close it's doors. Distribute it's budget to our intelligence agencies, and streamline them. There's no need for this bureaucracy any longer, especially when they have ill-trained individuals that can't stop a simple test being launched against them to see if they're doing their job. It's clear the FPS isn't, and this falls to DHS to explain. Sure, we'd like to see Napolitano's head roll over the results of this test, but we'd rather see the entire agency shuttered.
Publius II
Members of Congress on Wednesday blasted "disturbing" and "outrageous" security failures in the nation's federal buildings after government investigators smuggled bomb-making materials past the police agency charged with protecting those buildings.
The Government Accountability Office released a report detailing how investigators carried liquid bomb-making materials past security at 10 federal buildings in 10 cities -- a shocking exposure lawmakers said shows the country's vulnerability eight years after the attacks on the World Trade Center and 14 years after the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, blamed the Federal Protective Service Security for failing to provide adequate security and proper training to its 13,000 security guards during a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill. The agency, which is responsible for providing security at about 9,000 federal buildings around the country, has 1,200 full-time employees and roughly 13,000 contract guards.
"In short, GAO has found that the Federal Protective Service is not doing enough to make sure its 13,000 guards are qualified and trained for their jobs -- and doing what they're required to do," said Lieberman, who was joined by Susan Collins, R-Maine., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio.
Lieberman, I-Ct., said the GAO's probe included such troubling findings as a report that 73 percent of FPS contract guards lacked valid certifications and a report that one security guard allowed a baby to pass through an X-ray machine -- breaches in security he said make the country vulnerable to terrorist attack. Lieberman said the guard, who was later fired, filed a lawsuit and won after FPS could not provide sufficient proof that he had been properly trained. The GAO report found that a vast majority of security guards received no X-ray or metal detection training at all.
The undisclosed buildings at the center of the probe were all labeled "Security Level IV," or high-risk.
Collins said the report also found that the state of Maine has only two FPS inspectors to officiate over security at federal buildings and conduct the necessary inspection at the state's 24 points of entry.
"The findings of covert security tests conducted by GAO investigators are stunning and completely unacceptable. In post-9/11 America, I cannot fathom how security breaches of this magnitude were allowed to occur," said Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the committee. "These security lapses and others show a disturbing pattern by the Federal Protective Service of poor training, lapsed documentation, lax management, inconsistent enforcement of security standards and little rigor."
"We taxpayers are simply not receiving the security we pay for and should expect FPS to provide," she added.
The GAO found other problems with guard training and reported that in one check of security, investigators found a guard asleep on the job after taking the painkiller Percocet. In another, they found that a guard failed to recognize or did not properly X-ray a box carrying handguns at the loading dock of a facility.
"As we approach the eighth anniversary of 9/11, and 14 years after Oklahoma City, it is simply unacceptable that federal employees working within buildings under FPS' protection, and the visitors who pass through them, are so utterly exposed to potential attack by terrorists and other enemies," Lieberman said.
Liebs is right, this is unacceptable, but what can we expect. DHS has been a walking cluster-f*ck from the word go. It has not had a great track record of doing it's job properly, or competently. I know of a DHS agent who is constantly complaining about the bureaucratic red tape he has to go through when filing reports or requesting information. And he told me that it's only gotten worse with Napolitano at the helm. It's bad enough that she's decided the borders aren't a security risk, and the fact she no longer wants to take terrorism seriously, but my buddy said that the bean counters are out in force at DHS. More concern is made for a budget, and not enough focus is maintained on DHS's mission -- to protect the country from potential attack.
DHS should be forced to close it's doors. Distribute it's budget to our intelligence agencies, and streamline them. There's no need for this bureaucracy any longer, especially when they have ill-trained individuals that can't stop a simple test being launched against them to see if they're doing their job. It's clear the FPS isn't, and this falls to DHS to explain. Sure, we'd like to see Napolitano's head roll over the results of this test, but we'd rather see the entire agency shuttered.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 10:53 AM
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