wildcard
21st April 2010, 12:39 AM
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18676
The Transnational Homeland Security State and the Decline of Democracy
When Empire Hits Home, Part 4
by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Global Research, April 15, 2010
This is Part 4 in the series, "When Empire Hits Home."
Part 1: War, Racism and the Empire of Poverty
Part 2: Western Civilization and the Economic Crisis: The Impoverishment of the Middle Class
Part 3: The Global Economic Crisis: Riots, Rebellion and Revolution
As the western world is thrown into debt bondage and the harsh reality of the draconian economic ‘reforms’ to follow, a social collapse seems increasingly inevitable. We will soon witness the collapse of western ‘civilization’. The middle classes of the west will dissolve into the lower labour class. The wealthy class, already nearly at par with the middle class in terms of total consumption, will become the only consuming class.
The state structure itself will be altering; nation-states will become subordinate to supra-national continental governance structures and global governance entities simultaneously. Concurrently, state structures will no longer maintain their democratic facades, as the public state is gutted, where all that remains and is built upon is the state apparatus of oppression. States will become tools of authoritative control, their prime purpose will be in establishing a strong military, as well as police-state apparatus to control the people. This is the dawning of the ‘Homeland Security State’ on a far grander scale than we have previously imagined. The object of ‘totalitarianism’ is to have ‘total control’. In this project of total control, state borders, as we know them today, will have to vanish; the institutions of oppression and control will be globalized.
As society collapses, the social foundations of the middle class will be pulled out from under their feet. When people are thrown to the ground, they tend to want to stand back up again. The middle class will become a rebellious, possibly even revolutionary class, with riots and civil unrest a very likely reality. The lower class itself will likely partake in the unrest; however, the youth of the middle class will be thrown into a ‘poverty of expectations’, where the world as they have known it and the world they had expectations to rise into, will be taken from them. Civil unrest is as inevitable as summer after spring.
When society collapses, the state will close itself over society to prevent the people from overtaking the levers of power and rebuilding a new social foundation. Nation-states are about to reveal to the people of the west their true nature, and that which the people of impoverished lands the world over have been exposed to for so long. At their heart, nations seek and serve power; their skeleton is not the public welfare they speak of espousing, but the apparatus of oppression that they build and expand, regardless of all other considerations.
In February of 2009, Obama’s intelligence chief, Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the economic crisis has become the greatest threat to U.S. national security:
I’d like to begin with the global economic crisis, because it already looms as the most serious one in decades, if not in centuries ... Economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they are prolonged for a one- or two-year period... And instability can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have on law and order, which can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community.[1]
What is being said here is that economic crises (“if they are prolonged for a one or two year periodâ€) pose a major threat to the established powers – the governing and economic powers – in the form of social unrest and rebellion (“regime-threatening instabilityâ€). The colonial possessions – Africa, South America, and Asia – will experience the worst of the economic conditions, which “can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have.†This can then come back to the western nations and imperial powers themselves, as the riots and rebellion will spread home at the same time as they may lose control of their colonial possessions – eliminating western elites from a position of power internationally, and acquiescence domestically. Thus, the rebellion and discontent in the ‘Third World’ “can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community.â€
In this type of scenario, where established western elites are threatened with losing control of vast imperial possessions (resources, key strategic points), while concurrently are threatened with revolt at home, the end result is inevitably the rapid militarization of the foreign and domestic spheres. It is no coincidence that as the economic crisis emerged in late 2007, the Pentagon military Africa Command (AFRICOM) was created in December of 2007, setting the stage for a military-based foreign policy for the entire continent of Africa in an objective aimed at securing its resources.
As the economic crisis continued, the domestic populations of western nations, particularly the United States, were increasingly subjected to further surveillance and police state measures. We have body scanners at airports, legal immunity was granted to corporations that spy on our telephone calls and emails and internet-usage. The Homeland Security State is transnationalizing, following the economic crisis, itself.
The powers of globalization – the state, banks, corporations, foundations, and international organizations – are well aware of the effects this social reorganization will have on the people and the reactions that are likely to arise. After all, these same organized powers have been doing exactly this to the rest of the world for decades and even centuries. What we are about to witness is not entirely new, it’s just being done on an entirely new scale, and it’s largely new to us.
The US Commission on National Security in the 21st Century
In addressing the issue of ‘Homeland Security’, it is important to analyze the origins of the structure, itself. In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security was officially formed in 2003 in reaction to the events of 9/11 and with the stated intent of ‘protecting the homeland’ from threats, primarily terrorism. Pushing the official myth aside, we can see that ‘Homeland Security’ was planned in advance of 9/11, and is not about protecting, but rather controlling, the people.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton and the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, established a commission to look at how the United States “provides for its security in a more comprehensive way than had been done in the last half centuryâ€:
The Secretary of Defense funded that effort and, in conjunction with the Secretary of State and the National Security Advisors, selected 14 prominent Americans to serve on that Commission, and provide the guidance and the strategic direction, and ultimately all of the important policy choices that would be made by the Commission.[2]
The final report was released on January 31, 2001, and was the most comprehensive review of US national security since the National Security Act of 1947, which created the CIA and the National Security Council.
The two Co-Chairs of the Commission were Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman. Commissioners included Anne Armstrong, who has served on the boards of American Express, Halliburton, General Motors, as well as the board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), one of the premier think tanks in the United States; Norman Ralph Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin, one of the largest weapons manufacturers and military corporations in the world; John Rogers Galvin, a retired General and former Supreme Allied Commander of Europe for NATO; Leslie Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, a former Pentagon and State Department official; Newt Gingrich, then Speaker of the House, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a neo-conservative think tank; Lee Hamilton, who would later be Co-Chair of the 9/11 Commission, a former Congressman for over 30 years who is currently President of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and is a long-time member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission; Donald Rice, former CEO of RAND Corporation, a major Pentagon-linked think tank, and has served on the boards of Wells Fargo, Unocal, and Chevron; and James R. Schlesinger, former US Secretary of Defense, former Secretary of Energy, former CIA director, had previously worked with the RAND Corporation, and was more recently a Senior Adviser to Lehman Brothers.
In short, the Commission was made up of key individuals heavily linked to America’s highly influential network of elite think tanks, premier among them, the Council on Foreign Relations, but also including the American Enterprise Institute, CSIS, and the RAND Corporation. This was, without a doubt, an elite-driven commission.
The Commission produced three major reports. The first report, New World Coming: American Security in the 21st Century, was released in September of 1999, and was designed to take a look at the global environment over the next 25 years. The report made 12 key observations, among them were:
1) An economically strong United States is likely to remain a primary political, military, and cultural force through 2025, and will thus have a significant role in shaping the international environment.
4) World energy supplies will remain largely based on fossil fuels.
5) While much of the world will experience economic growth, disparities in income will increase and widespread poverty will persist.
8) Though it will raise important issues of sovereignty, the United States will find in its national interest to work with and strengthen a variety of international organizations.
9) The United States will remain the principal military power in the world.
11) We should expect conflicts in which adversaries, because of cultural affinities different from our own, will resort to forms and levels of violence shocking to our sensibilities.[3]
They give a variety of conclusions in their report. The first among them was that, “America will become increasingly vulnerable to hostile attack on our homeland, and our military superiority will not entirely protect us.†They state quite emphatically that, “Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers.†Another major conclusion stated that, “The national security of all advanced states will be increasingly affected by the vulnerabilities of the evolving global economic infrastructure.â€[4] Expanding upon this conclusion, the report stated:
[E]conomic integration and fragmentation will co-exist. Serious and unexpected economic downturns, major disparities of wealth, volatile capital flows, increasing vulnerabilities in global electronic infrastructures, labor and social disruptions, and pressures for increased protectionism will also occur... For most advanced states, major threats to national security will broaden beyond the purely military.[5]
Another major conclusion of the report was that, “Energy will continue to have major strategic significance,†emphasizing that Persian Gulf oil is a necessity to control. Another key conclusion of the Commission was that, “The sovereignty of states will come under pressure, but will endure,†elaborating that:
The international system will wrestle constantly over the next quarter century to establish the proper balance between fealty to the state on the one hand, and the impetus to build effective transnational institutions on the other. This struggle will be played out in the debate over international institutions to regulate financial markets, international policing and peace-making agencies, as well as several other shared global problems. Nevertheless, global forces, especially economic ones, will continue to batter the concept of national sovereignty.[6]
Further conclusions of the Commission include seeing an increase in “the deliberate terrorizing of civilian populations,†military competition in space, and that, “The United States will be called upon frequently to intervene militarily.â€[7]
The second report of the Commission, commonly known as the Hart-Rudman Commission, Seeking a National Strategy, was released in April of 2000. In this report, the Commission emphasized the importance of maintaining and expanding the American empire, as “The maintenance of America’s strength is a long-term commitment and cannot be assured without conscious, dedicated effort.â€[8]
In focusing on protecting America’s “vital interests,†the report stated that, “U.S. military, law enforcement, intelligence, economic, financial, and diplomatic means must be effectively integrated for this purpose.â€[9] The report also suggests that the United States must control “Persian Gulf and other major energy supplies,†cynically claiming that this would be done to ensure that energy supplies “are not wielded as political weapons directed against the United States or its allies and friends.â€[10]
The report further recommends that the United States “needs five kinds of military capabilitiesâ€:
* nuclear capabilities to deter and protect the United States and its allies from attack;
* homeland security capabilities;
* conventional capabilities necessary to win major wars;
* rapidly employable expeditionary/intervention capabilities; and
* humanitarian relief and constabulary capabilities.[11]
The third and final report of the Hart-Rudman Commission, Road Map for National Security, was published in February of 2001. The main conclusion of the Commission was that, “significant changes must be made in the structures and processes of the U.S. national security apparatus.†Chief among the recommendations was “Securing the National Homeland.†The report warned prophetically that, “A direct attack against American citizens on American soil is likely over the next quarter century.†Based upon this assumption:
We therefore recommend the creation of an independent National Homeland Security Agency (NHSA) with responsibility for planning, coordinating, and integrating various U.S. government activities involved in homeland security. NHSA would be built upon the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with the three organizations currently on the front line of border security—the Coast Guard, the Customs Service, and the Border Patrol—transferred to it. NHSA would not only protect American lives, but also assume responsibility for overseeing the protection of the nation’s critical infrastructure, including information technology.[12]
As a part of the creation of a National Homeland Security Agency, the Commission further recommended the involvement of the Department of Defense in this process and structure, as well as reorganizing the National Guard so that homeland security becomes its “primary mission.â€[13]
In March of 2001, six months prior to the 9/11 attacks, Congressman Mac Thornberry proposed a bill to create a National Homeland Security Agency based upon the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman Commission. Hearings were held, but no further action was taken on the bill.[14]
Roughly six months later, the September 11th attacks took place in the United States. On 9/11, a live Fox News report of the Pentagon attacks stated that, “The part of the Pentagon that was struck today by an airliner was in fact undergoing renovation, and as a consequence, not all the offices there were occupied.†Further, the reporter stated that, “A couple of the offices that were in that portion of the Pentagon – or portions that were struck – were offices that deal with trying to deal with counter-terrorism. One is called the Office of Homeland Defense, it’s a newly-created office that was slated to get a big budget increase.â€[15]
Warren Rudman, co-Chair of the Commission spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations within days of the September 11th attacks, commenting on how the recommendations of the Commission had not been thoroughly put in place prior to the attacks. He stated that, “Unfortunately, we Americans I guess sometimes have to get hit with a two by four to get with it. I have no doubt that we will get with it.†Senator Gary Hart, the other co-Chair, stated that the events of 9/11 “are in fact the introduction to a totally new century.†Lee Hamilton, another commissioner, told the same audience at the Council on Foreign Relations that the “War on Terror†is “a permanent war, that it is an ongoing war.†He further stated that, “We must strengthen dramatically our defense of the homeland, and that means putting a lot more resources into borders and airports and cities, and protecting the critical infrastructure of the country.â€[16]
Eleven days after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush announced he would create an Office of Homeland Security in the White House, of which he would appoint Governor Tom Ridge as director. On October 8, 2001, Executive Order 13228 was issued, establishing two agencies within the White House: the Office of Homeland Security (OHS), “tasked to develop and implement a national strategy to coordinate federal, state, and local counter-terrorism efforts to secure the country from and respond to terrorist threats or attacks,†and the Homeland Security Council (HSC), “to advise the President on homeland security matters, mirroring the role the National Security Council (NSC) plays in national security.â€[17]
In October of 2001, Senator Joe Lieberman introduced a bill to establish a Department of National Homeland Security, following the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman Commission. While hearings were held, no further action was initially taken. On June 6, 2002, President Bush gave a speech in which he proposed the creation of a permanent Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security.[18] On June 18, 2002, Bush formally submitted his proposal for the Department of Homeland Security to Congress as the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The House passed the bill on July 26, 2002, and the Senate on November 19, 2002. Bush signed the Homeland Security Act of 2002 into law on November 25, 2002.[19] The Department of Homeland Security thus became operational on January 24, 2003, with Tom Ridge as the first Secretary of Homeland Security.
Continues at link:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18676
The Transnational Homeland Security State and the Decline of Democracy
When Empire Hits Home, Part 4
by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Global Research, April 15, 2010
This is Part 4 in the series, "When Empire Hits Home."
Part 1: War, Racism and the Empire of Poverty
Part 2: Western Civilization and the Economic Crisis: The Impoverishment of the Middle Class
Part 3: The Global Economic Crisis: Riots, Rebellion and Revolution
As the western world is thrown into debt bondage and the harsh reality of the draconian economic ‘reforms’ to follow, a social collapse seems increasingly inevitable. We will soon witness the collapse of western ‘civilization’. The middle classes of the west will dissolve into the lower labour class. The wealthy class, already nearly at par with the middle class in terms of total consumption, will become the only consuming class.
The state structure itself will be altering; nation-states will become subordinate to supra-national continental governance structures and global governance entities simultaneously. Concurrently, state structures will no longer maintain their democratic facades, as the public state is gutted, where all that remains and is built upon is the state apparatus of oppression. States will become tools of authoritative control, their prime purpose will be in establishing a strong military, as well as police-state apparatus to control the people. This is the dawning of the ‘Homeland Security State’ on a far grander scale than we have previously imagined. The object of ‘totalitarianism’ is to have ‘total control’. In this project of total control, state borders, as we know them today, will have to vanish; the institutions of oppression and control will be globalized.
As society collapses, the social foundations of the middle class will be pulled out from under their feet. When people are thrown to the ground, they tend to want to stand back up again. The middle class will become a rebellious, possibly even revolutionary class, with riots and civil unrest a very likely reality. The lower class itself will likely partake in the unrest; however, the youth of the middle class will be thrown into a ‘poverty of expectations’, where the world as they have known it and the world they had expectations to rise into, will be taken from them. Civil unrest is as inevitable as summer after spring.
When society collapses, the state will close itself over society to prevent the people from overtaking the levers of power and rebuilding a new social foundation. Nation-states are about to reveal to the people of the west their true nature, and that which the people of impoverished lands the world over have been exposed to for so long. At their heart, nations seek and serve power; their skeleton is not the public welfare they speak of espousing, but the apparatus of oppression that they build and expand, regardless of all other considerations.
In February of 2009, Obama’s intelligence chief, Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the economic crisis has become the greatest threat to U.S. national security:
I’d like to begin with the global economic crisis, because it already looms as the most serious one in decades, if not in centuries ... Economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they are prolonged for a one- or two-year period... And instability can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have on law and order, which can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community.[1]
What is being said here is that economic crises (“if they are prolonged for a one or two year periodâ€) pose a major threat to the established powers – the governing and economic powers – in the form of social unrest and rebellion (“regime-threatening instabilityâ€). The colonial possessions – Africa, South America, and Asia – will experience the worst of the economic conditions, which “can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have.†This can then come back to the western nations and imperial powers themselves, as the riots and rebellion will spread home at the same time as they may lose control of their colonial possessions – eliminating western elites from a position of power internationally, and acquiescence domestically. Thus, the rebellion and discontent in the ‘Third World’ “can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community.â€
In this type of scenario, where established western elites are threatened with losing control of vast imperial possessions (resources, key strategic points), while concurrently are threatened with revolt at home, the end result is inevitably the rapid militarization of the foreign and domestic spheres. It is no coincidence that as the economic crisis emerged in late 2007, the Pentagon military Africa Command (AFRICOM) was created in December of 2007, setting the stage for a military-based foreign policy for the entire continent of Africa in an objective aimed at securing its resources.
As the economic crisis continued, the domestic populations of western nations, particularly the United States, were increasingly subjected to further surveillance and police state measures. We have body scanners at airports, legal immunity was granted to corporations that spy on our telephone calls and emails and internet-usage. The Homeland Security State is transnationalizing, following the economic crisis, itself.
The powers of globalization – the state, banks, corporations, foundations, and international organizations – are well aware of the effects this social reorganization will have on the people and the reactions that are likely to arise. After all, these same organized powers have been doing exactly this to the rest of the world for decades and even centuries. What we are about to witness is not entirely new, it’s just being done on an entirely new scale, and it’s largely new to us.
The US Commission on National Security in the 21st Century
In addressing the issue of ‘Homeland Security’, it is important to analyze the origins of the structure, itself. In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security was officially formed in 2003 in reaction to the events of 9/11 and with the stated intent of ‘protecting the homeland’ from threats, primarily terrorism. Pushing the official myth aside, we can see that ‘Homeland Security’ was planned in advance of 9/11, and is not about protecting, but rather controlling, the people.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton and the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, established a commission to look at how the United States “provides for its security in a more comprehensive way than had been done in the last half centuryâ€:
The Secretary of Defense funded that effort and, in conjunction with the Secretary of State and the National Security Advisors, selected 14 prominent Americans to serve on that Commission, and provide the guidance and the strategic direction, and ultimately all of the important policy choices that would be made by the Commission.[2]
The final report was released on January 31, 2001, and was the most comprehensive review of US national security since the National Security Act of 1947, which created the CIA and the National Security Council.
The two Co-Chairs of the Commission were Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman. Commissioners included Anne Armstrong, who has served on the boards of American Express, Halliburton, General Motors, as well as the board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), one of the premier think tanks in the United States; Norman Ralph Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin, one of the largest weapons manufacturers and military corporations in the world; John Rogers Galvin, a retired General and former Supreme Allied Commander of Europe for NATO; Leslie Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, a former Pentagon and State Department official; Newt Gingrich, then Speaker of the House, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a neo-conservative think tank; Lee Hamilton, who would later be Co-Chair of the 9/11 Commission, a former Congressman for over 30 years who is currently President of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and is a long-time member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission; Donald Rice, former CEO of RAND Corporation, a major Pentagon-linked think tank, and has served on the boards of Wells Fargo, Unocal, and Chevron; and James R. Schlesinger, former US Secretary of Defense, former Secretary of Energy, former CIA director, had previously worked with the RAND Corporation, and was more recently a Senior Adviser to Lehman Brothers.
In short, the Commission was made up of key individuals heavily linked to America’s highly influential network of elite think tanks, premier among them, the Council on Foreign Relations, but also including the American Enterprise Institute, CSIS, and the RAND Corporation. This was, without a doubt, an elite-driven commission.
The Commission produced three major reports. The first report, New World Coming: American Security in the 21st Century, was released in September of 1999, and was designed to take a look at the global environment over the next 25 years. The report made 12 key observations, among them were:
1) An economically strong United States is likely to remain a primary political, military, and cultural force through 2025, and will thus have a significant role in shaping the international environment.
4) World energy supplies will remain largely based on fossil fuels.
5) While much of the world will experience economic growth, disparities in income will increase and widespread poverty will persist.
8) Though it will raise important issues of sovereignty, the United States will find in its national interest to work with and strengthen a variety of international organizations.
9) The United States will remain the principal military power in the world.
11) We should expect conflicts in which adversaries, because of cultural affinities different from our own, will resort to forms and levels of violence shocking to our sensibilities.[3]
They give a variety of conclusions in their report. The first among them was that, “America will become increasingly vulnerable to hostile attack on our homeland, and our military superiority will not entirely protect us.†They state quite emphatically that, “Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers.†Another major conclusion stated that, “The national security of all advanced states will be increasingly affected by the vulnerabilities of the evolving global economic infrastructure.â€[4] Expanding upon this conclusion, the report stated:
[E]conomic integration and fragmentation will co-exist. Serious and unexpected economic downturns, major disparities of wealth, volatile capital flows, increasing vulnerabilities in global electronic infrastructures, labor and social disruptions, and pressures for increased protectionism will also occur... For most advanced states, major threats to national security will broaden beyond the purely military.[5]
Another major conclusion of the report was that, “Energy will continue to have major strategic significance,†emphasizing that Persian Gulf oil is a necessity to control. Another key conclusion of the Commission was that, “The sovereignty of states will come under pressure, but will endure,†elaborating that:
The international system will wrestle constantly over the next quarter century to establish the proper balance between fealty to the state on the one hand, and the impetus to build effective transnational institutions on the other. This struggle will be played out in the debate over international institutions to regulate financial markets, international policing and peace-making agencies, as well as several other shared global problems. Nevertheless, global forces, especially economic ones, will continue to batter the concept of national sovereignty.[6]
Further conclusions of the Commission include seeing an increase in “the deliberate terrorizing of civilian populations,†military competition in space, and that, “The United States will be called upon frequently to intervene militarily.â€[7]
The second report of the Commission, commonly known as the Hart-Rudman Commission, Seeking a National Strategy, was released in April of 2000. In this report, the Commission emphasized the importance of maintaining and expanding the American empire, as “The maintenance of America’s strength is a long-term commitment and cannot be assured without conscious, dedicated effort.â€[8]
In focusing on protecting America’s “vital interests,†the report stated that, “U.S. military, law enforcement, intelligence, economic, financial, and diplomatic means must be effectively integrated for this purpose.â€[9] The report also suggests that the United States must control “Persian Gulf and other major energy supplies,†cynically claiming that this would be done to ensure that energy supplies “are not wielded as political weapons directed against the United States or its allies and friends.â€[10]
The report further recommends that the United States “needs five kinds of military capabilitiesâ€:
* nuclear capabilities to deter and protect the United States and its allies from attack;
* homeland security capabilities;
* conventional capabilities necessary to win major wars;
* rapidly employable expeditionary/intervention capabilities; and
* humanitarian relief and constabulary capabilities.[11]
The third and final report of the Hart-Rudman Commission, Road Map for National Security, was published in February of 2001. The main conclusion of the Commission was that, “significant changes must be made in the structures and processes of the U.S. national security apparatus.†Chief among the recommendations was “Securing the National Homeland.†The report warned prophetically that, “A direct attack against American citizens on American soil is likely over the next quarter century.†Based upon this assumption:
We therefore recommend the creation of an independent National Homeland Security Agency (NHSA) with responsibility for planning, coordinating, and integrating various U.S. government activities involved in homeland security. NHSA would be built upon the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with the three organizations currently on the front line of border security—the Coast Guard, the Customs Service, and the Border Patrol—transferred to it. NHSA would not only protect American lives, but also assume responsibility for overseeing the protection of the nation’s critical infrastructure, including information technology.[12]
As a part of the creation of a National Homeland Security Agency, the Commission further recommended the involvement of the Department of Defense in this process and structure, as well as reorganizing the National Guard so that homeland security becomes its “primary mission.â€[13]
In March of 2001, six months prior to the 9/11 attacks, Congressman Mac Thornberry proposed a bill to create a National Homeland Security Agency based upon the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman Commission. Hearings were held, but no further action was taken on the bill.[14]
Roughly six months later, the September 11th attacks took place in the United States. On 9/11, a live Fox News report of the Pentagon attacks stated that, “The part of the Pentagon that was struck today by an airliner was in fact undergoing renovation, and as a consequence, not all the offices there were occupied.†Further, the reporter stated that, “A couple of the offices that were in that portion of the Pentagon – or portions that were struck – were offices that deal with trying to deal with counter-terrorism. One is called the Office of Homeland Defense, it’s a newly-created office that was slated to get a big budget increase.â€[15]
Warren Rudman, co-Chair of the Commission spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations within days of the September 11th attacks, commenting on how the recommendations of the Commission had not been thoroughly put in place prior to the attacks. He stated that, “Unfortunately, we Americans I guess sometimes have to get hit with a two by four to get with it. I have no doubt that we will get with it.†Senator Gary Hart, the other co-Chair, stated that the events of 9/11 “are in fact the introduction to a totally new century.†Lee Hamilton, another commissioner, told the same audience at the Council on Foreign Relations that the “War on Terror†is “a permanent war, that it is an ongoing war.†He further stated that, “We must strengthen dramatically our defense of the homeland, and that means putting a lot more resources into borders and airports and cities, and protecting the critical infrastructure of the country.â€[16]
Eleven days after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush announced he would create an Office of Homeland Security in the White House, of which he would appoint Governor Tom Ridge as director. On October 8, 2001, Executive Order 13228 was issued, establishing two agencies within the White House: the Office of Homeland Security (OHS), “tasked to develop and implement a national strategy to coordinate federal, state, and local counter-terrorism efforts to secure the country from and respond to terrorist threats or attacks,†and the Homeland Security Council (HSC), “to advise the President on homeland security matters, mirroring the role the National Security Council (NSC) plays in national security.â€[17]
In October of 2001, Senator Joe Lieberman introduced a bill to establish a Department of National Homeland Security, following the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman Commission. While hearings were held, no further action was initially taken. On June 6, 2002, President Bush gave a speech in which he proposed the creation of a permanent Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security.[18] On June 18, 2002, Bush formally submitted his proposal for the Department of Homeland Security to Congress as the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The House passed the bill on July 26, 2002, and the Senate on November 19, 2002. Bush signed the Homeland Security Act of 2002 into law on November 25, 2002.[19] The Department of Homeland Security thus became operational on January 24, 2003, with Tom Ridge as the first Secretary of Homeland Security.
Continues at link:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18676