US News reports that in a new tell-all book, Tom Ridge admits manipulating terror threat levels for political motives. In the forthcoming book, Ridge reportedly acknowledges for the first time that he was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he "saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over." But as The Atlantic points out, Ridge apparently gave in to the White House demands anyway, resigning only after the election. Huffington Post also provides additional discussion on this developing story.
posted by saulgoodman on Aug 20, 2009 - 139 comments

2009: A True Story. "My name is Sara Ford and I am 18 years old. I moved to California at the end of last year. Before the first attacks... before everything changed." [Via] [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Aug 3, 2008 - 74 comments

Today's Washington Post: "The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials." [more inside]
posted by ibmcginty on Sep 22, 2007 - 81 comments

Friday scary-flash spook-a-thon: The Minister of Fear [via Kos]
posted by moonbird on Jul 16, 2004 - 1 comment

Homeland Security: falling apart before its even built. The bastard child of Bush's 'small government' ideology and Congress's desperate attempt to secure the nation is unsurprisingly falling apart for lack of support both in funds and from the executive branch. Isn't something worth doing and this important, worth doing well?
posted by skallas on Sep 8, 2003 - 14 comments

Quoram busting Democrats tracked as terrorists. Disagree with the majority Party, and Homeland Security may like a word with you.
posted by the fire you left me on May 15, 2003 - 36 comments

"Feith and Luti see everybody not one hundred per cent with them as one hundred per cent against them—it's a very Manichaean world," a defense consultant said. the "Office of Special Plans"???? i thought the new homeland security bill was going to get people to start working together?
posted by specialk420 on Dec 26, 2002 - 1 comment

Homeland Security "Goodies". "The bill the president supported was 35 pages long. The bill that I've been asked to vote on on Monday or Tuesday is 484 pages long, filled with special-interest legislation, loaded up by the House Republicans in the last few days," Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) The most egregious, Democrats say, is language to protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits over the vaccines they create and their side effects, including wiping out lawsuits already in court.
posted by Espoo2 on Nov 18, 2002 - 39 comments

Homeland Security Cultural Bureau. "HSCB is protecting the interests of the country's national security by employing efforts to direct and guide the parameters of cultural production. " Actions include encouraging Hollywood to make less cynical, more patriotic movies, and shutting down art galleries whose subversive content is a threat to national security. I presume the site is a parodic/political commentary one--since as far as I know such a bureau has not actually been authorized by the Bush White House--but the makers of the site are holding their cards very close to the chest, with content that is nearly indistinguishable from what the real thing (a Bushian arts censorship commission) would actually be.
posted by Rebis on Sep 14, 2002 - 12 comments

House likely to approve homeland security bill that erodes labor protections "But the Senate, which likely takes up the matter next week, so far has pursued a much different course. On Thursday, the Democratic-led Senate Governmental Affairs Committee crafted legislation that would protect all current civil service protections and make it more difficult for the president to move workers out of unions. Bush and other Republicans said the measure would give the president less authority than he has now."

The House seems to be so much more conservative and extremist than the Senate. Heck they're still working on trying to ban selected types of abortion procedures even when there's a strong chance it won't pass constitutional muster and the Senate isn't likely to support them.

Is it your perception that the House is more conservative? If so, why do you think that's true?
posted by Red58 on Jul 26, 2002 - 19 comments

Department of Homeland Security to be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and the Whistleblower Protection Act? The last episode of NOW ran a piece on the FOIA which described how back in 1974 President Ford and his staff, which included Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, opposed Congress' strengthening of the FOIA, and Ford tried unsuccessfully to veto it. Now this new exemption looks like the continuation of a 28 year-old feud. Ridge says it is in order to not "draw a road map of critical infrastructure vulnerabilities," but are complete exemptions really necessary for that? The potential for abuse seems quite dangerous. (Some previous discussions of FOIA revelations here and here).
posted by homunculus on Jul 1, 2002 - 17 comments

Bush to announce new domestic intelligence agency. Just what we need, more spooks.
posted by hob on Jun 6, 2002 - 44 comments