IP: NYTimes -- Dept. of Political Security

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

June 9, 2002

Dept. of Political Security
By MAUREEN DOWD

ASHINGTON ‹ With the most daring reorganization of government in half a
century, George W. Bush hopes to protect something he holds dear: himself.

After weeks of scalding revelations about a cascade of leads and warnings
prefiguring the 9/11 attacks that were ignored by the U.S. government, the
president created the Department of Political Security.

Or, as the White House calls it for public consumption, the Department of
Homeland Security.

Mr. Bush's surprise move was a complete 180, designed to knock F.B.I.
Cassandra Coleen Rowley off front pages. He had resisted the idea of a
cabinet department focusing on domestic defense for nine months.

But clearly, Iago Rove saw his master's invincibility cracking and did a
little whispering in W.'s ear. Why not use national security policy for
scandal management?

So the minimalist Texan who had sneered about the larded federal bureaucracy
all through his presidential campaign stepped before the cameras to slather
on a little more lard ‹ and nervous Republicans all over town found
themselves suddenly praying that bigger government could save those in need
(of re-election), after all.

By introducing yet another color-coded flow chart, the president tried to
recapture his fading aura of wartime omnipotence. The White House even gave
lawmakers "sample op-ed" pieces they could rewrite and submit to their local
papers, beginning: "President Bush's most important job is to protect and
defend the American people."

Even that champion of bloated government, Teddy Kennedy, seemed dubious:
"The question is whether shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic is the way
to go."

And others wondered whether it would be too unwieldy to have a department
with 22 agencies devoted to eradicating both Al Qaeda and boll weevils. (The
proposed Homeland behemoth does not include the F.B.I. or C.I.A., but it
would envelop the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.)

All day Thursday, before Mr. Bush addressed the nation, Special Agent
Rowley, who was sporting a special badge allowing her to pack heat in the
Capitol, and Bobby Three Sticks Mueller, who wasn't, had given the Senate
Intelligence Committee a stunning and gruesome portrait of just how far gone
the bureau is.

Their testimony made clear that there is no point in creating a huge new
department of dysfunction to gather more intelligence on terrorists when
counterterrorism agents don't even bother to read, analyze and disseminate
the torrent of intelligence they already get.

"I think at the present time it's not done very well," Ms. Rowley said about
the clogged-up information flow. Looking at the bureaucratic trellis of the
F.B.I. reorganization chart, she asked: "Why create more? It's not going to
be an answer."

There are already too many pompous gatekeepers between the F.B.I. chief and
the field offices, she said. And the computers are ridiculous, unable to
send e-mail or access the Internet or to search for two words together, like
"aviation" and "school."

The blunt Midwesterner with the oversized glasses suggested that the
disarray was less about modernity than the ancient flaws of ego and ambition
‹ "careerists" with a "don't rock the boat" attitude that hampered
aggressive investigations. (Mr. Bush's plan would do nothing to disempower
them.)

Mr. Mueller was confessing all kinds of dysfunction, as well. "When I first
came in, I did a tour," he recalled. "There's a computer room downstairs . .
. there were a number of different computer systems. There were Sun
Microsystems, there were Apples, there were Compaqs, there were Dells. And I
said, `What's this?' And the response was, every division had a separate
computer system until a year or two ago."

Asked how long it would take to get their computers up to snuff, Mr. Mueller
replied: two to three years.

If we're really in a national emergency, couldn't the president call
America's software geniuses and tell them to wire up the F.B.I. this week?

Maybe if Mr. Bush brings Rudy Giuliani in as the new cabinet officer, he can
work magic. But reorganization is an old dodge here.

The shape of the government is not as important as the policy of the
government. If he makes the policy aggressive and pre-emptive, the president
can conduct the war on terror from the National Gallery of Art.

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company | Permissions | Privacy Policy          

For archives see:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/