A lot of us saw it coming. George W. Bush's imperial legacy -- the Orwellian intelligence super-agency, "Homeland Security" -- is now a billion and a half over budget and will probably be abandoned. So much for Republican fiscal responsibility.
The construction of a massive new headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security, billed as critical for national security and the revitalization of Southeast Washington, is running more than $1.5 billion over budget, is 11 years behind schedule and may never be completed, according to planning documents and federal officials.
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the George W. Bush administration called for a new, centralized headquarters to strengthen the department’s ability to coordinate the fight against terrorism and respond to natural disasters. More than 50 historic buildings would be renovated and new ones erected on the grounds of St. Elizabeths, a onetime insane asylum with a panoramic view of the District. ...WaPo
St. Elizabeth's could have been more useful to Republicans in its original form. The budget for completing the new DHS complex is now $4.5 billion.
Back in 2006, Clark Kent Irvin, the former Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security, was interviewed by Steve Roberts on NPR about the former IG's criticisms of the Department. The driver of a semi phoned in a comment about the absence of security at the Department of Homeland Security.
Roberts: Let's talk to some of our callers and get their views on this issue. First up is Dee, who's behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler, I gather. Thanks for calling!
Dee: Hi....I thank you for speaking up on this because I drive, of course, all over the country and deliver and pick up at so many different places -- ports, submarine bases, army bases. They never check in the back of my trailer. Never. They don't ask for a passport when I go into the port. And the biggest laugh that I've seen is our Homeland Security building whose loading dock is UNDER the building! And no one looks in the back of the trailer.
Ervin: I think what you're pointing out is what I point out in the book, that is to say, there are so many things that are common sense, so easy to do, that cost nothing or virtually nothing, and yet the Department hasn't taken these common sense steps. As I say, it indicates a lack of seriousness and a lack of urgency about the peril we remain in.
Dee: They're so worried about things coming from without -- it would be so easy from within. And that's already happened once. Why did we not learn!
Ervin: Exactly. ...TheScribe
