Department of Homeland Security

[NousDefionsDoc]

Oh yeah, put The Reaper in charge of it all with the Team Sergeant as deputy/Ops Boss.

"Who issued a visa to a hijacker in October?"

"Uh, that was me sir."

BOOM - rucksack goes flying down the main hallway of Foggy Bottom.

[Sacamuelas]

Originally posted by NousDefionsDoc
Right. That new guy from HAMAS would be first. You make a threat as the leader of a tango org, you pay the price.

I am waiting for one of your gurus to start a thread on this loser.

back to this thread's topic...

Great ideas NDD.

[lrd]

How much information do you make available to the public?

[Para]

Originally posted by lrd
How much information do you make available to the public?

Do you allow the public to be scared shitless by the truth? If so, how do you control the effects upon the economy?

[NousDefionsDoc]

Anything that doesn't compromise sources and methods. They stole that color code thing from me, I've been using it for years. It actually works very well if you know how to use it.

You can't put a country the size of the US on the same color - it doesn't tell you anything. You also have to have specific actions to take.

Right now, just going off the news, I would have:

New England - Medium

Texas - Red with the Houston area critical or whatever

Midwest - low (except for maybe Chi-Town)

etc.

With high, police agencies would be forced to step up patrols of critical facilities for example.

This is just a rough idea.

[NousDefionsDoc]

Originally posted by Para
Do you allow the public to be scared shitless by the truth? If so, how do you control the effects upon the economy?

define economy

[Para]

Originally posted by NousDefionsDoc
define economy

The stock market as the public's preception of the quality of the economy. Everyday the news talks about the rise or fall of the NYSE, NASDAQ, Dow Jones, etc... To many bad days leading to talks of recession and public preception becomes a reality. Trading slows, value drops in those exchanges that do happen. Companies have less financial capability, less net worth to borrow money and job growth stiffles or unemployment begins. Companies and people stop spending money because of these insecurities, demand drops and supplies stock pile, and the cycle compounds upon itself.

Why did the news of the POTUS getting a BJ by an intern effect the economy? Was it a tangible economic effect or just a precieved preception of insecurity within the nation? Was the fall of the NYSE, Dow a true measure of finacial instability within our economy following 9/11? Sure, the airline industry should have taken a hit, but how true was the measure of loss to MicroSoft, GE, BioMed, etc...?

[NousDefionsDoc]

So, you measure America's productivity by the NYSE?

If we told everybody that the sky was falling, American's would still get up in the morning and go to work. You can say it would effect the NYSE, but please don't say it would effect the economy - two different things.

[DanUCSB]

Originally posted by NousDefionsDoc
IMO, there are too many cooks in the terrorism soup.

Originally posted by Sacamuelas
Was the creation of the Homeland Security Dept. a HONEST attempt at putting together a more cohesive and integrated CT/security/intelligence capability in place or just a political slight of hand designed to show the POTUS did "something" after 9-11?

Both are related. In a bureaucracy, the first reaction to a crisis is to reorganize. It's easy, cheap, and looks like you're doing something. Which is exactly how we got all the stuff out of 9/11... the demand of the people for their leaders to 'do something', whether it's actually wise or not.

As for the number of agencies and consolidation, good luck. I think it's a good idea, you think it's a good idea... we all do. But right now, if you want cash from the government? Make a fuss about terrorists. It's the biggest boat in town. Check out: http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101...nhomeland.html. Article's about how, just like everything else, terror money's turned into just another porkbarrel boondoggle. For example: "In early 2003, Congress announced a plan that sounded as if it might rectify the distortions in federal outlays—a new $100 million grant for "high threat" urban areas only. In April, Secretary Ridge said seven cities had made the "high threat" list because of population density, the presence of important infrastructure and credible threats—which is to say, because of risk. The roster of cities—New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco and Houston—matched up perfectly with AIR's list of most at-risk cities. // Soon, however, the list of qualifying cities started mysteriously growing. Ridge's office and Congress had received calls from irate city officials who had been left out. In May the roster grew to 30 cities. But the pool of money also expanded by $700 million, so it didn't seem like a problem. "We're thinking, O.K., we're getting 18% of the pot. That's reasonable," remembers an aide for a New York member of Congress. Then, for 2004 money, the Department of Homeland Security announced an even longer list of 50 cities, including Columbus, Ohio, and Fresno, Calif."

This is the main problem, I'd think. Consolidation would solve both problems: it would streamline and increase efficiency, while at the same time eliminating the 'turf war' intelligence problem between agencies. But will it happen? No, if for no other reason than that all these agencies are headed by politicians.

--Dan

[NousDefionsDoc]

You're right of course Dan. But they asked me what I would do.

[Para]

I don't measure America's productivity by the value of the stock market, but I do think Americans as a whole, do associate the strength of our economy by what happens on the stock market over a period of time. With that, I do believe Americans allow intangibles to effect the stock markets, which effect the value of a publically traded company and over time, this will effect the economy, to which this will ultimately effect productivity leading to unemployment. The current cost of funds is allowing corporate America to do more with less, but how much lower can it go? But this is way off topic, so back to the stick at hand.

[NousDefionsDoc]

Originally posted by Para
stick

Ummmmmm, you said the "s" word! TEAM SERGEANT!

[lrd]

Are you trying to get everyone mad at me?

[Surgicalcric]

Originally posted by NousDefionsDoc
...Put everyone on the same comms system - like an Amber alert type deal. As long as they have a clearance, which they should all have...

Its already happening, and is not limited to federal LEO/Agencies. And no clearance needed to talk on the local level.

DHS and FEMA are behind a large push to get every public service agency (LEO, Fire, and EMS) onto 800mHz and off whatever platform they are using now. Most PSA's are multiplexing UHF, but there are still some who use simplex VHF. These are generally the smaller municipal agencies. The reason for this is interoperability.

Shortly after 9.11.01 we, Greenville City, received a grant for 1.28 million from FEMA to upgrade our communications center and switch from our multi-site UHF repeater to 800mHz. The purpose of the change was to allow local agencies communications capability with federal agencies without the IC carrying multiple radios around on scene or having 5 or 6 different radios in the mobile command post. Now every LEO, paramedic, and fire officer has the ability to talk with the local FBI office, FEMA, etc...

Is this a good idea? From an IC standpoint it’s a very good idea. Is it going to change much? Not that I can see. By all appearances it is convenience issue.

I would be interested to hear from the LEO's here if the comms issue has affected their agency in any way.

[Sacamuelas]

Surgicalcric-

Not LE, however, in my area the three main cities LE/FIRE/EMT systems along with the three main county operations in the area are going to an integrated radio/dyspatch system.

That will encompass the entire coast just south of hattiesburg to the water and from AL to LA state lines. All the little cities around can "buy in" to the system too.

Great interagency idea, especially during large scale disaster/emergency operations.