THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 67, April 16, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
HOMELAND SECURITY IN TEWKSBURY, NEW JERSEY
By Alan Caruba
AMERICA'S INTERNAL SECURITY APPARATUS & THE TERROR WAR: THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY & THE ISLAMIST THREAT WITHIN THE U.S.A. -- MUSLIM POPULATION CONCENTRATIONS INSIDE U.S. BORDERS &
THE ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORK THAT OPERATES WITHIN THOSE LOCALITIES -- HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE U.S. HOMELAND
SECURITY BUREAUCRACY IN UNCOVERING THE JIHADIST PLANS & CONSPIRACIES OF AMERICA'S DEADLY INTERNAL
ENEMIES & PROTECTING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FROM ISLAMIST TERRORISM
FULL STORY:
New Jersey, which is not likely a target of terrorist plans, though, I suppose, the state is as vulnerable as anywhere else,
reaped approximately $1,481,990 recently from just one program administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security. Overall, DHS will provide $34.6 million in direct assistance nationwide this year and, since 2005, has disbursed
more than $69.7 million in equipment and training.
Designed to help first responders such as law enforcement and emergency services by enabling them to purchase
equipment, as my eye scanned three pages of cities and towns, I noticed that the Neptune Township police will buy
something called video detective. So did Glen Ridge, where I was briefly editor of the local weekly. Neither my current
hometown nor former one, both of which border Newark, received any grants. Newark received none, perhaps because the
city bought a new garbage truck with a former grant.
Suffice it to say, Avon by the Sea, Chatham, Surf City, Perth Amboy, or Tewksbury are not likely to find themselves
fighting or responding to terrorist attacks, and please do not ask me how New Jersey Fish & Wildlife Law Enforcement got
a piece of the action, purchasing night vision goggles.
I am happy to see my state’s first responders cash in on yet another federal government program. I am sure that people in
other states feel pretty much the same. What’s a Homeland Security Department for if it can’t spread the money around?
But is that security or politics?
In March, 2007, Michael Chertoff, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, addressed the Northern Virginia Technology
Council and, after reading his speech, I am very happy I am not Michael Chertoff. If ever an impossible job was created,
it is his as administrative head of the Homeland Security Department. Consider that he administers twenty-two existing
“legacy systems and functions,” all cobbled together into one big bureaucracy whose purpose is to keep us alive.
Anyone familiar with even just one bureaucracy knows the insanity, insularity, and lethargy that exists when its public
servants realize they barely have to pay any attention to Congress, except at budget review time, and almost never have
to give consideration to the interests, views, and opinions of the general public.
Chertoff, a lean man who has earned the respect of everyone who has encountered him, including the many criminals and
miscreants he sent to jail as a district attorney, defined five “overarching goals” for DHS:
(1) Protecting the nation from dangerous people.
(2) Protecting the nation from dangerous cargo “or things
coming into the country.”
(3) Protecting and hardening our critical infrastructure.
(4) Strengthening our emergency preparedness and response.
(5) “Making sure that we have a fully-integrated and
fully-unified department which is effectively managed....”
As to the last objective, I suspect it may well be sometime into the middle of this century before that happens, if ever.
The children of current DHS personnel will possibly be the best candidates to replace them, having been raised listening
to dinner table discussions about the need for full integration and unification of XYZ agency with ABC agency.
Chertoff does his best to keep fears of an Islamic cataclysm muted. When it became clear that England is a hotbed of
Jihadist plans to kill the infidels of London’s Chelsea, Belgravia or Mayfair districts, he said that the problem in America
is less severe. No pockets of radicals such as the ones the poor Brits must ferret out.
However, Investor’s Business Daily, on February 26, 2007, begged to differ, noting that, “right across the Potomac
from its office is the second-highest concentration of Muslims in the country. Baileys Crossroads, Virginia, is teeming
with Islamic radicals just as hostile to the U.S. government as their counterparts in London.”
The article described Baileys Crossroads as “the heart of the Wahhabi corridor, which includes the safe houses where the
[9-11] hijackers stayed and the mosque where they and dozens of other terrorists have worshipped.” It is home to the
Virginia Jihad Network in an area locals now refer to as “northern Virginiastan.”
There are a number of comparable concentrations that include Dearborn (Michigan), Bridgeview (Illinois), and, in my home
state, Jersey City. This long established hotbed of Islamism was not on the latest list of cities to receive a DHS grant to
buy anything.
I hope and pray that DHS knows what it’s doing. I take some comfort knowing there has not been another attack in the
United States like 9-11, but I am cynical enough to think that the Arabs are smart enough to know not to awaken
Americans from their slumber until another time of the Arabs' choosing.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Government & the Federal Bureaucracy
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
Islamist Terrorism & American Homeland Security
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2007
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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