Step Up To Serve

By Roy D. Follendore III

July 26, 2002

The Executive Branch proposes and Congress reviews and approves. The President decides that what was approved is not useful so he vetoes the result. Fine.

The whole "Homeland Defense" mess is just that. It is a mess. It is a mess that is going to cost our country trillions of dollars in debt. It is a mess that would want to turn American citizens against themselves just like our enemies do it in Afghanistan. It is based on a war in which we have lost track of our enemy. It is a plan based on confusion, regret, sympathy, fear and anger. It is a proposal that fails takes away American freedoms while attempting to establish a powerful force that goes far beyond justice. It a proposal that would distribute the most private of personal information and the most insane potential accusations against American citizens into the unrelenting and eternal databases of every police organization.

The Congress of the United States was correct in doing their job of preventing the Office of Homeland Defense from taking over the significant duties of the CIA, NSA and the FBI. For the past decade the CIA, NSA and the FBI have had dramatic public successes which have been more than offset by dramatic dismal failures. All three Agencies have been lead by poor middle managers who do not embrace change. All three Agencies have been dogged by their overriding concern for secrecy over duty. They have all three been far more interested in self-serving budgetary politics than National Security. The good people of the CIA, NSA and FBI simply simply need to be reorganized and be lead to doing a better job.

The internal leadership of these three agencies need to not only report to the President and to Congress They need to report directly to the American people. If that is through the Office of Homeland Defense then so be it. But Homeland Defense should not be in charge of everything or another single point failure of National Security will inevitably occur.

The Congress of the United States should therefore stand their ground in protecting the American freedoms to which we all owe so much. If the Agency leaders who have been tasked by the American people can not lead, they should either follow or step out of the way. We must never forget that there are thousands of capable American managers who are willing to step up to serve our country.

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