A Defense That's Offensively Weak (says Homeland security is weak)

E-mail: liberties@nytimes.com


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/10/opinion/10dowd.html?th
March 10, 2005
OP-ED COLUMNIST
A Defense That's Offensively Weak
By MAUREEN DOWD


.......Now that they've belatedly started to recruit Arabic speakers - after the military forced out more than 300 linguists considered important to the war in terror in the past decade because they happened to be gay - our intelligence agencies are not sure whether they're signing up the good guys or the bad guys. We can't get into Al Qaeda's inner councils, but has Al Qaeda gotten inside ours?

The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday that about 40 Americans seeking jobs at U.S. intelligence agencies were turned away because of possible ties to terrorist groups. Paul Redmond, a longtime C.I.A. officer, said it was an "actuarial certainty" that spies had infiltrated U.S. security agencies: "I think we're worse off than we've ever been."

At the same time, dozens of terror suspects on federal watch lists have been allowed to buy firearms legally in our country, according to a G.A.O. investigation. No wonder Porter Goss, the new C.I.A. director, seems dazed and confused.

While the president and the neocons try to remake the Middle East to help future generations, can't they find a little time to remake our security to protect this generation?