AP: Lawmakers Ask Who Analyzes Threats

[DoYouEverWonder]

AP Wire

February 26, 2004, 5:38 PM EST

WASHINGTON -- An office overseen by the central intelligence director now plays the key role of analyzing threats to the United States, even though the Department of Homeland Security was opened a year ago for that very reason.

Lawmakers are asking pointed questions about who's in charge, amid worries that the overlap and confusion that plagued intelligence efforts before Sept. 11, 2001, could recur.

<snip>

Critics note that Homeland lacks resource and hasn't hired all the employees Congress has funded.

"It's a joke," said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief who still maintains contacts in the intelligence community. "What do you gain by having a DHS intelligence shop?"

Privately, even some in U.S. law enforcement and intelligence circles have quietly called Homeland's analysts inexperienced and reactionary.




Ah, let the turf wars begin. Just what we need when we are supposed to be focusing on preventing future terrorist attacks. This is what happens when you have an imbecile running the country who makes radical changes without considering the consequences of those changes.

[Journeyman]

1. Oh, come on, cut Shrub a break. . .

he vacillated over this issue more than any other, first opposing DHS, then opposing it, later wanting a modified version, then going whole heartedly behind a definite maybe. Had it not been for his desire to overshadow the testimony of those FBI agents testifying before Congress about what they knew in the months before 9/11, Shrub might never have come down firmly in favor of maybe doing something. Now, $18 billion later, with no guidance from above and plenty of grubbing about below, we're saddled with an expensive boondoggle who's only discernible purpose is to give Tom Ridge a safe place to practice learning his colors. I think it's totally unfair to expect more from Shrub, given the measure of the man's mind.

[9215]

2. Bush family profits from the planned chaos. (links)

Bucky Bush and Bank of America, etc.
http://www.bushnews.com/april2.htm

<http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3308.htm>

"In recent years the problem has been excerbated by the ‘gutting’ of the government through wholesale deregulation and privatisation, which has enabled those with the ‘right’ connections to gain access to vast gobs of money in the form of subsidies and lucrative contracts (eg Marvin Bush’s Ignite corporation, or the Kuwaiti Harken Oil deals, Choicepoint’s Homeland Security contracts and the software company it uses, Sybase Inc which has Bush family connections). The effect has been to turn various and sundry government agencies into hollow shells. Companies can then effectively write themselves blank cheques or simply ignore the toothless edicts issued by the regulators (eg the SEC over the Silverado S&L scandal)."

...Marvin Bush, the brother of President Bush and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, joined the board of directors of Fresh Del Monte in 1998, after the alleged events took place. Marvin Bush was re-elected to the company's board this year for a term ending in 2005, and served on the board's critically important audit and compensation committees.
In October, Bush decided to resign from the board at the end of 2002. Without any public notice of Bush's planned departure by Fresh Del Monte, news of his pending resignation was not reported until last month."
<http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3336.htm>

The links between these companies is strange. All have a Bush connection as well as a World Trade Centre, United Airlines, Dulles International Airport security, aviation and Kuwaiti connection. What is known, is that SEC regulations were breached by Marvin Bush in filings submitted to the SEC

Who is Marvin P. Bush?
The public rarely sees Marvin P. Bush, brother of President Bush II.
Marvin P. Bush is the founder (1993) and Managing Partner of Winston Partners Group of Vienna, Virginia. It's a private investment company. He is also the Managing General Partner of Winston Growth Fund, LLP; Winston International Growth Fund, LP; Winston Small Cap Growth Fund, LP; all related companies.

Before this, he spent 12 years in the investment business with the firms of Mosley, Hallgarten, Estabrook and Weeden, Shearson Lehman Brothers, and John Stewart Darrel & Company.

In January, 1998, Marvin Bush was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Fresh Del Monte Produce company, the giant fruit company (major product bananas) that makes the canned goods we buy in our markets. Del Monte is owned by a very wealthy family from Kuwait, the Abu-Ghazaleh family. Mohammed Abu-Ghazaleh is the CEO and he has several family members on the Board alongside Marvin Bush. Another member of the Fresh Del Monte Board of Directors is Stephen Way, who is a major Bush fundraiser. Way is the head of the Houston-based HCC Insurance Holdings Company. In early 2000, Stephen Way acquired the appointment of Marvin Bush to the Board of Directors of HCC. In that transaction, Bush not only landed a very large salary, but a sweet stock option deal. He purchased about $130,000 worth of HCC stock which is now valued at close to $600,000, not even one year later.
Marvin Bush is also on the Board of Directors of something called the Kerrco Company.

Marvin also was named to the Board of Directors of the Stratesec Company, another large publicly-traded firm. This company is very secretive and you can find virtually nothing about it. Their website does not allow entry to several links unless one has a password. Virginia-based Stratesec is a provider of high-tech security systems. Two of the major customers for which they provide security are the Dulles International Airport at Washington, D.C. and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Stratesec's revenues recently went up by 60%, due to what the company describes as "new customers" Prominent people at Stratesec also include former Reagan operatives including Barry McDaniel and Air Force General James A. Abrahamson (who was involved in the Reagan "Star Wars" project). Stratesec is a company is heavily inter-related with the Kuwam Corporation ("Kuw" = Kuwait; "am" = America). Kuwam is a major Kuwaiti Company into many, many activities including the aircraft business. Stratesec's Chief Executive is also the Managing Director of Kuwam Corporation and Kuwam's Chairman Mishal Yousef Saud Al Sabah sits on Stratesec's Board of Directors. Stratesec is providing the primary security for one of the most sensitive airports in the world. Dulles in D.C., has a heavy middle eastern airline connection.

[damnraddem]

3. But the Office of Homeland Gestapo isn't about analyzing threats ...

to the U.S.

It's about creating threats to U.S. freedoms.