CREW releases new report exposing massive failures and billions wasted at Dept. of Homeland Security
Five years ago, President Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security. Over the past five years, the American people have become far too familiar with stories about DHS and its gross overruns on projects, the worst employee morale in the federal government, the inoperability of information technology, our exposure to cyber-terrorism or FEMA’s fake press conference.
Today, CREW is releasing a report, Homeland Security for Sale - DHS: Five Years of Mismanagement, detailing massive failures and billions wasted at the Department of Homeland Security.
The report can be found at www.homelandsecurityforsale.org. The website includes a video prepared by Brave New Films.
In the report, CREW details billions of dollars in waste and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars, for example:
• $24 billion has been spent, and at least $178 million wasted, on the failed Coast Guard Deepwater program;
• over $600 million has been allocated for unworkable radiation border scanners;
• $1.3 billion has been lost on the USVISIT program, which was never fully implemented; and
• projected $2 billion loss on the SBInet “virtual fence” border program.
CREW is releasing its report to hold those who run the agency accountable for its massive failures and to spark a public debate about how DHS can and must be improved in the next administration. The next President will have to fix DHS -- and all the candidates need to provide specific plans to address the massive failings outlined in Homeland Security for Sale - DHS: Five Years of Mismanagement.
In CREW fashion, we name names. The report is divided into five sections. For each, we name the worst offender and the runner up earning dishonorable mention:
I. Most Troubled DHS Component: FEMA
Dishonorable Mention: TSA
II. Most Outrageous Contract: Deepwater
Dishonorable Mention: Radiation Detection Portal MonitorsIII.
III. Failed Program: US-VISIT
Dishonorable Mention: SBI
IV. Component with the Most Serious Crime Problem: CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
Dishonorable Mention: TSA
V. Beneficiary of the Revolving Door: Tom Ridge
Dishonorable Mentions: Holman, Buchholz, Davis, Hutchison
The Department of Homeland Security is an embarrassment that would be comical if only our national security were not at stake. The agency and its leadership must be held accountable for its failures and pushed to do better.
This is a shocking and disturbing report. The American people deserve far better from their government. Much better.
What can you do? Ask your presidential candidate what he or she would do to fix DHS in the next administration. The massive problems at DHS have to be solved by the next President. If you get an answer, please send it to fixdhs@citizensforethics.org and it will be posted at HomelandSecurityForSale.org.
Taqiyya
Hey anonymous! The time for taqiyya is up!
Seriously, you propose massive subsidies for alternative energy, appeasement, throwing our ally to the wolves, and the lie that it's Israel who can't live in peace.
You're either a barking moonbat or an islamist.
This was blatantly obvious 3/03! Report is belated!
The DHS in itself was a great idea. DOD came-up with this idea but as soon as DHS opened its doors, it cut-off commuication with DOD and the fraud began! Now departed members of the Bush Administration and former and current members of Congress saw the DHS as their personal moneymaker.
All that is required to secure a DHS contract is to contribute to 1-3 members of Congress' coffers. One of the contributions must go to someone on an appropriations committee. Earmarks are then submitted written in such a manner that only the campaign contributor can fill the resulting contract requirements. The contractor needn't show past performance, certifactes or any other proof it actually is capable of performing a contract. This actually holds true for intelligence agency contracts.
Right now I am under federal protection with a contract taken-out on me, waiting for the Wilkes-Foggo trial to begin and more indictments to be brought for which the recent plea deal of Weldon's Chief of Staff reported yesterday was a very good thing.
A majority of the federal corruption probes have Russia as an underlying common thread and the Weldon probe is apart of the status quo.
The first NSA contractor assigned to me broke things when hotwiring my house, but repaired them. The contractor awarded the contract in 2005, 2006 and 2007 isn't capable of repairing what they broke and they broke a heck of a lot! My entire home needed to be rewired because of them when the electrical was only 13 years old! I have concluded that they actually hold a contract originally awarded by the mafia in 2004 to have me killed in a car accident and it look like an accident, instead involving my home. Yes, they've even caused a fire! It was in 6/04 I went off the road for my company and instead ran a suspended launch from my private home. By early 2005 the only way to kill me and make it look like an accident was to destroy my home's electrical. This newer contractor broke my gas stove so it is turned-on all the time. I have to leave the circuit breaker off so that I don't have another fire. This newer contractor dismantled my clothes dryer, clearly with the intention to make lint enter the engine and catch fire. I undid their damage before they succeeded. I will go the extra mile and say the odds are very high this contractor was selected in an earmark, because the member of Congress that had them awarded the contract has the contract to kill me from the Russian mafia.
The fact is, that the NSA contractor right now trying to kill me likely hasn't security clearances and very likely no background checks were done in its employees and its senior management. They got this contract simply because they bribed the right member of Congress!
Because of how members of Congress judge merit...judge by who gives them the most money, nothing that DOD planned for the DHS has yet to be implemented. For example, the forerunner based on merit for every federal credentialing program since 2002 was the smart wallet. David Safavian, already convicted on other charges related to his relationship with mob-operative Jack Abramoff, had the contractor that invented the smart wallet banned from federal procurement because of its monopoly-power, which isn't a legal excuse. Later during the 9 months Safavian headed OMB's federal procurement before he was arrested early into the Abramoff probe, he fixed the federal worker ID to be a biometric smart card rather than to have open competition involving multiple tech standards.
Even this March...Chertoff is to announce the final rules of the drivers' license standard. He and MP Jackson who is departed for this reason...had a no-bid contract awarded to Digimarc in a backroom deal at the end of last June. This is 100 % illegal! By July 2nd, the Kremlin had given Digimarc a $ 4.6 million bonus for its successful buying of Chertoff, Jackson and other DHS leaders such as Kathleen Kraninger who heads DHS screening from Chertoff's office and only this past October lied to Waxman's Government Reform Committee Information Policy staff. Even more colorful was that they didn't care they were lied to, which means Waxman is one of the members of Congress behind the waste and fraud!
Chertoff has his job b/c the smart wallet inventor tried to become German at the end of 11/04. Wilkes and Foggo bribed German officials to block their financing offer. Chertoff never addressed the issue that the DHS wouldn't fund next-gen technologies. Chertoff also has his job b/c Ridge failed to dedicate staff to medium and long-term planning which was necessary for the smart wallet platform because it is far different than competing platforms. 1 1/2 years after Ridge's resignation was announced the Office of Strategic Plans opened its doors and Chertoff told it to not integrate identification credentials into medium and long-term plans. In other words, the whole reason why this office came to be, became awash!
Chertoff was sold on the public as a federal judge who would restore integrity to DHS contracting. Rather, Chertoff still works for his former employer Latham & Watkins which is a front for the Russian mob! Also, the Russian mob financed 911 and is financing homegrown terror cells. The Russian mob trained the 911 hijackers and is training members of homegrown terror cells operating in western democracies. Politkovskaya and Litvinenko were murdered because they tred to tell us this! Chertoff's role with the US DHS is to keep awarding contracts to publicly traded companies majority owned by the Russian mob so that the Russian mob continues to have a financial incentive to keep homegrown terror attacks active!
Haven't read CREW's report yet, but suspect it is elementary. CREW has a complaint I filed against Cheney and his Russian mob links regarding much of this and the DHS contracting fraud for the Kremlin's benefit, but in greater detail and filed about 6 months ago. It appears CREW never read what I sent. It was more than 20 pages...what a waste of my time to write that all out explaining in greater detail what I wrote above!
Homeland Security fraud
Thank you so much for spelling out, names, dates, events, of those involved in such horrifying amount of corruption in high places, cause us citizens so much harm. Who will guard the henhouse?
term limits for legislators is essential.
Homeland Security fraud
Thank you so much for spelling out, names, dates, events, of those involved in such horrifying amount of corruption in high places, cause us citizens so much harm. Who will guard the henhouse?
term limits for legislators is essential.
The Germans also had a
The Germans also had a "Homeland", or "Fatherland", we all know how that turned out.....
Department of Homeland Security
Should the newly formed department of Home Land Security be dissolved?
http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=1208
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Homeland Security
YES, DHS should be dissolved.
It was hatched by Bush-Cheney to promote fear, violate the Constitution and waste taxpayer monies.
This is a simplistic
This is a simplistic comment.
DHS has a veritable SLEW of incredibly worthwhile and proven effective programs in place. It also clearly has MASSIVE problems and failures in other areas, as this shows.
Don't comment if you haven't researched the good sides as well as the bad sides. That merely makes you a reactionary irrational sheep who is so excited to be screaming about crap that you don't even know completely what you're screaming about anymore because you can't be bothered.
oh, please
You have any examples? DHS has not only functioned as nothing but a patronage farm for Republican contributed but has ruined once worthy agencies like FEMA. Your claim it has done all kinds of good work is ridiculous. Bush and the Republicans are consistently, reflexively opposed to anything that benefits humanity.
OHS was actually created by
OHS was actually created by Bill Clinton, and blocked by the then GOP controlled congress who called it a giant waste of money. (Although the Clinton plan had very little resemblance to what the DHS is today)
Only after 9/11 did Bush&Co decide to adopt the Clinton idea, and changed it from OHS, to DHS.
I.C.E. Program
Why no mention of the costs of this program? And that would be the cost in terms of human lives also. 65 people have died imprisoned since the I.C.E. program implementation. It is scary and it is very real. The I.C.E. program is very much a part of Homeland Security and is funded by it.
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It's All A Farce - Merely a Power Grab
19 men with boxcutters is not a good reason to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a war against a country that had nothing to do with 9-11 either. Some sane, rational responses to 9-11 might have been:
1) Cockpit doors in planes that are secure and voice or iris recognition software that prohibits unauthorized individuals from piloting a jet.
2) A crash program to make America energy-independent.
3) Reaching out a hand of peace to Muslim countries.
4) Cutting all foreign aid to Israel until they can learn to live in peace with the people whose land they stole to form their nation - the Palestinians.