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Right Back Into Politics: The ARROGANCE of Homeland Security

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Bloviating Zeppelin: Right Back Into Politics: The ARROGANCE of Homeland Security

Bloviating Zeppelin

(in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Right Back Into Politics: The ARROGANCE of Homeland Security


Let's examine this pull quote from today's interview with Janet Napolitano, on Sunday's CNN broadcast of "State of the Union":

Napolitano defended the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, who didn't know about a roundup of terrorist suspects in Britain when asked about the arrests on ABC News earlier this week. The gaffe created an awkward moment for the man in charge of the nation's intelligence community.

Napolitano and President Barack Obama's homeland security adviser, John Brennan, appeared on the show with Clapper. They said Clapper had been preoccupied with handling problems on the Korean peninsula and passage of a nuclear weapons treaty with Russia.

Napolitano said in the CNN interview that homeland security officials were fully aware what was happening in Britain.

"Well, let's be fair," she said. "I knew. John Brennan knew ... So one of the things I think that should be very clear to the American people is that those of us in homeland security who needed to know, we knew."

[I wrote about Clapper's ignorance last Thursday, here.]

So let's be clear, besides "fair":

It's apparently more important that Janet Napolitano knew of London's case arrests than the DNI, the Director of National Intelligence, the US head of the entire intelligence community, the boss of the CIA, the NSA, the NRO, the DIA, and certainly -- many levels down -- Janet Napolitano?

Translation of "Napolitano-speak" to the DNI and to American's DEM:

1. I knew more than Clapper;
2. I don't mind throwing him under the bus;
3. I'm covering my ass no matter what Clapper says;

So let's again be clear; it seems to me that we're only getting two predominant "ances" from America's intelligence community these days: ignorance or arrogance. Take your pick; it's hourly-dependent.

Or do I miss my mark?

BZ


9 Comments:

Blogger mrchuck said...

She doesn't give a shit about this Country,, and never has.
Just a conniving bitch her whole life, and nothing more.
I am actually surprised she came out of Arizona politics, and not Massachusetts.
It will become Congress's job to keep her in line and embarrass her for the next 2 years, or until she jumps off of Obama's sinking political ship.

Sun Dec 26, 11:25:00 AM PST  
Blogger A Jacksonian said...

Remember that DHS is just like DNI: a created uber-bureaucracy that tries to make many disparate pieces that didn't play all that well with each other accountable to a single head.

Instead it added another layer of bureaucracy over the disparate organizations so that they could point fingers at IT. Thus the idea is when you add bureaucracy onto bureaucracy with the intent of creating something better: incompetence goes up, timeliness goes down and accountability is lessened.

More people.

More money.

Less capability.

Less adaptability.

Less accountability.

You were told about these things for years, now they come home to roost. We are less safe with a DNI and DHS than we were before 9/11, because more bureaucracy is not the answer.

Sun Dec 26, 11:52:00 AM PST  
Blogger TexasFred said...

On target, no adjustment needed.. Fire at will!

Sun Dec 26, 11:53:00 AM PST  
Blogger Bloviating Zeppelin said...

Seems to me, MrC, she focuses on the convenience of technology, in the wrong areas, instead of the plain and obvious: focus on those whose history has indicated the greatest proclivity towards recent public attempts to kill Americans.

AJ: and again, sir, you have hit the nail squarely on the proverbial head. More bureaucracy does not streamline prior existing bureaucracy.

TF: I am attempting to Fred, I am attempting to.

BZ

Sun Dec 26, 12:24:00 PM PST  
Blogger Capt. Schmoe said...

10 ringed it BZ. Sad to say. a shining example of the current administration's inability to perform.

Sun Dec 26, 12:38:00 PM PST  
Blogger Bloviating Zeppelin said...

Jena Baker McNeill hit another nail on the head when she wrote:

"If a would-be terrorist is waiting in the TSA screening line with a bomb in his shorts, the public already is in danger and the government already has failed."

That is PRECISELY MY POINT.

99.99% of the "homeland security work" should be done WAY BEFORE any ill-willed individual even gets close to stepping into a TSA line.

It is called PROFILING, it is called WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES, it is called letting the LE agencies DO THEIR WORK. The job that I know, PERSONALLY, having worked for local and federal LE venues, they CAN DO if just ALLOWED.

BZ

Sun Dec 26, 12:59:00 PM PST  
Blogger A Jacksonian said...

From Jerry Pournelle his statement on the Iron Law of Bureaucracy:
"It will always be this way: TSA is a jobs program. It does little to nothing to increase security and we all know it. But the jobs for the TSA people are Civil Service which means entitlements. See Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy, which predicted this situation.

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions."

Remember that this is true for any bureaucracy.

Sun Dec 26, 01:10:00 PM PST  
Blogger David Wyatt said...

Wow, AJ & BZ, more truth in your above statements than millions of government speeches.

Tue Dec 28, 05:27:00 PM PST  
Blogger Maggie Thornton said...

I wrote about the same thing Z. You hit the mark perfectly. Clapper is also the chief intelligence advisor to the President - he still didn't have the need to know.

Napolitano and Brennan are both disgraceful.

Sun Jan 02, 06:39:00 PM PST  

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