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Preface
This book is a compendium of
articles about American efforts to achieve homeland security in the wake of
9/11. The atrocities of that day put an end to any notions of
invulnerability in the United States and left the nation with a double
domestic agenda: trying to anticipate and prevent another attack and bracing
to meet one, should it occur. No one familiar with the United States would
consider these missions easy. The country is huge, stretching across an
entire continent and beyond, and generally prosperous, presenting an array
of possible targets; it is an open society and a magnet for immigrants; its
economy depends on commerce, much of which is international; borders are
lightly guarded; immigration laws are not consistently enforced; government
can be inefficient, with overlapping jurisdictions and competing interests;
and the citizenry, though resourceful, is not particularly amenable to
organization.
Americans are no strangers to
disaster—earthquakes, fires, storms, and floods have in fact provided a
template for emergency response. And terrorist actions themselves are not
unknown in the United States, although they are usually home-grown, rather
than foreign-sponsored, and limited in their lethal scope. The 1995 Oklahoma
City bombing was the first large-scale terrorist action on U.S. soil; the
9/11 attacks introduced the new twist of suicide bombers and forced a
massive reassessment of the nation’s vulnerability.
By executive order, President
George W. Bush established the Office of Homeland Security on October 8,
2001, with Tom Ridge, a former governor of Pennsylvania, as director.
Although Bush at first resisted proposals for a cabinet-level department to
meet the threat of terrorism, on November 25, 2002, he signed a bill
creating the Department of Homeland Security. Ridge was sworn in as
secretary the following January.
The new department is largely
a reorganization of existing government agencies in the light of present-day
dangers. Twenty-two agencies that used to be independent, or attached to
other cabinet departments, have been moved into Homeland Security and
sometimes altered in the process, so that roles would not be duplicated. The
department has only just begun to function, and its record cannot yet be
appraised. However, it has achieved some success in rationalizing the
bureaucratic maze, carrying out a long-overdue reform of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, and beefing up the Coast Guard and the Border
Patrol. The major intelligence services remain outside the department’s
purview, however, and within the department there is confusion as to
accountability and enforcement, and an apparent hesitancy about taking the
lead in setting priorities. The department’s attempts to warn of impending
danger through a color-coded alert system, and to encourage citizens to
undertake their own defense with duct tape and plastic sheeting, have
excited both alarm and derision and fueled suspicions that the terrorist
threat is sometimes manipulated for political ends. However, even if the
department has occasionally cried wolf, real wolves are out there, bigger
and badder than the villains of storybooks, and no one is likely to forget
it.
This book is divided into six
sections. The first presents an overview of the tasks faced by the
department and of the uneven progress that has been made in the past two
years. Despite considerable improvement, great areas of vulnerability
persist, and some experts feel that another successful attack—probably a
suicide mission—is likely. Part II focuses on local security and
"first responders"—the police, fire, and medical personnel who
are now attempting to prepare for a disaster of unknown nature and
proportions. Part III is concerned with U.S. intelligence services, their
conflicts and weaknesses, and their newly expanded powers of investigation,
while Part IV deals with immigration and border controls. Airline safety and
seaport security are the subjects of Part V; other possible targets and
other modes of attack—nuclear, cyber, and biological—are briefly
surveyed in
Part VI.
Certain themes reappear
throughout the book. One is money. With two overseas military occupations in
progress, a sputtering domestic economy, and a diminished tax base, the
United States will be hard put to pay for advanced security projects that
could require years of research and development. Even basic measures like
hiring additional border guards can be expensive. The reader will encounter
many complaints about shortfalls in the funds available for homeland
security, and no very reliable assurances of monies to come. A second
recurring theme is technology. High-tech solutions to many of the problems
of surveillance and response are quite possible—some are on the drawing
boards and several are already on the market. However, experts are unanimous
in cautioning that technology is only as good as the people who maintain and
use it. Screens have to be watched, data must be analyzed, and decisions
have to be made, sometimes in a split second, by fallible human beings.
Perhaps the deepest doubts about advanced technology, though, relate to
privacy and civil liberties—the third recurring theme. Civil liberties are
often overlooked in wartime, when victory becomes all-important. A swirl of
controversy surrounds the PATRIOT Act, which has expanded the government’s
powers of investigation and detention, some say too far. In the end the
American people will have to decide where the balance between security and
freedom should lie.
Homeland security is still
very much a work in progress. By the time this book goes to press, some of
the deficiencies described in these articles may already be under repair, or
new problems may have emerged. We have tried, however, to choose articles
that are current and will not date quickly but remain pertinent and
interesting to the general reader. We would like to thank the authors and
the original publishers for permission to reprint, and Richard Stein,
Jennifer Peloso, and the indefatigible Sandra Watson for their help in
producing this book.
Norris Smith
Lynn M. Messina
February 2004
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