Report: Homeland Security Not So Secure
After reading that a group of Australian comics got past $250 million worth of security with a fake motorcade at the APEC summit Thursday in Sydney, you might think that kind of thing would never happen in the United States. But not so fast.
A government report released Thursday is casting doubt on how well the Department of Homeland Security is doing its job. Auditors from the Government Accountability Office (which seems to be kicking butt and taking names lately) said that the department cannot take credit for the fact that there have been no attacks on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001. (Ouch.)
"Auditors said the nation is safer than it was that day in 2001, but the department has poorly managed its mission," The Associated Press reports. The GAO identified 171 performance expectations and found the department "achieved fewer than half since it formed four years ago."
The GAO gave the department high marks for maritime security, an area in which it made "substantial progress." But its efforts in emergency preparedness and response, science and technology, human capital management and information technology management all got the lowest marks.
Homeland Security is disputing the report. Maybe the department wants to talk to the GAO about some of its grading, just like the Pentagon did after a GAO report challenged its rosier picture of what's happening in Iraq.
12:54 PM ET | 09- 7-2007 | permalink
