[Infowarrior] - WH redefining 'homeland security'

[Richard Forno]

Obama officials present a strategic redefining of Homeland Security's  
mission

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/01/AR2010020104087_pf.html
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 1, 2010; 11:44 PM

The Obama administration Monday delivered to Congress the nation's  
first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, defining homeland security  
for the first time as including hazards beyond terrorism, in a  
strategic document intended to drive long-term budget decisions.

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In July 2002, nearly a year before the Homeland Security Department  
was created under former president George W. Bush, a handful of  
advisers hastily drafted in private a 90-page national homeland  
security strategy. That document was later criticized for weakening  
the response to Hurricane Katrina by overemphasizing terrorism at the  
expense of natural disasters, and in October 2007, the Bush  
administration updated it.
The 2007 strategy still defined homeland security as "a concerted  
national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States,  
reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage  
and recover from attacks that do occur." However, the document stated  
that effective preparation for "catastrophic natural disasters and man- 
made disasters" was also important to increasing security.

DHS took that shift further in a September 2008 strategic document,  
setting out a mission statement that acknowledged other "threats and  
hazards" and the department's role in securing borders "while  
welcoming lawful immigrants, visitors, and trade."

The Obama administration's review focuses on terrorism as the foremost  
of many threats, defining homeland security as "a concerted national  
effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient  
against terrorism and other hazards, where American interests,  
aspirations, and way of life can thrive."

The QHSR lists five missions, backed by 14 specific goals: preventing  
terrorism and enhancing security, particularly against chemical,  
biological, nuclear and radiological threats; securing U.S. borders;  
enforcing the nation's immigration laws; securing cyberspace; and  
ensuring resilience to disasters.

By comparison, the 2007 national strategy update set four goals:  
prevention and disruption of terror attacks; protection of the public  
and critical assets; response to and recovery from incidents; and  
strengthening the nation's homeland security foundation.

The review states that preventing terrorism remains the cornerstone of  
homeland security, while it identifies other hazards, including mass  
cyberattacks, pandemics, natural disasters, illegal trafficking and  
transnational crime. The review notes the danger of complacency and  
restores the strategic aim of mitigating risks before disasters occur.

In a two-page introductory letter, President Obama's homeland security  
secretary, Janet Napolitano, highlighted what she called a broad  
national homeland security "enterprise," of which her department is  
only "one among many components."

Key systems, such as computer networks and power plants, are privately  
controlled; state and local governments lead emergency responses to  
natural disasters; and other federal agencies investigate terrorism,  
Napolitano said.

"Homeland security will only be optimized when we fully leverage the  
distributed and decentralized nature of the entire enterprise in the  
pursuit of our common goals," Napolitano said.