Yep, not HOMELAND security.
Just domestic.
THANK YOU RICHARD CLARKE. I don't agree with you on a lot of things, but you're a good man.
So, this one's for you.
Nader: Redefine our foreign policy of peace and global security. Work with other countries and UN on development, disease and hunger projects. Kerry also has a whole set of policies on this, but they are under foreign policy. Nader doesn't really have a domestic security or intelligence plan; helping other nations will weaken Al Qaeda (maybe). He would repeal the Patriot Act and end secret detentions. He would cease arrests without charges, allow universal access to attorneys and forbid the use of secret "evidence." He would disallow military tribunals for civilians, eliminate non-combatant status and stop the shredding of "probable cause" determinations. All of this, he claims, would increase the likelihood of apprehending violent criminals. In other words, he'd bring us back to pre-FISA days. Great for civil liberties. Lousy for stopping terrorism. He also wouldn't change FOIA from the Bush "nothing to see here" level we have now. Nor would he stop secretly monitoring lawyer-client conversations. He'd repeal FISA and Patriot, sure ... but he wouldn't tell you what he IS doing. Some of the medical research he proposes would combat bioterror, but he doesn't seem to articulate that.
Kerry -
Also reform foreign policy and military policy: Reform military towards IT and personnel, not big machines. Makes it a more flexible and agile fighting force. Foreign policy to be covered in another diary, but also emphasizes cooperative projects to dry out support for AQ et al. For example, Kerry will build bridges to the Arab and Islamic world by supporting and assisting human rights groups, independent media, and labor unions dedicated to building a democratic culture.
Patriot Act reforms: Stop indefinitely detaining American citizens and give basic rights to those detained. Universal access to lawyers for citizens, and hearings for foreigners to determine their status. No secret monitoring of lawyer-client conversations (TAKE THAT, BUSH AND NADER). Strengthen terrorism laws that work, including sharing information with local law enforcement. Increase oversight of sneak and peek searches, and ensure that there are reasonable safeguards on the use of roving wiretaps and the seizing of library and business records. Assuring that terrorism laws are used to combat terrorism and not in ordinary criminal cases, such as to send the FBI to churches or anti-war demonstrations or to help a political cause. Assuring government is transparent and information is available so that Congress and the public can hold the Justice Department accountable.
Keep these specific parts of the Patriot Act in new laws ... increasing penalties for terrorism, adding new federal crimes on terrorism, limiting statute of limitations for investigating terrorist crime, and prosecution of Federal crimes committed overseas. Nader would eliminate all of these.
Complete the placement of all non-bank financial institutions within U.S. anti-money laundering regulations, so that criminals cannot avoid our money laundering laws by using hedge funds and other unregulated forms of financial institution. He will also freeze assets of foreign banks known to hold funds of terrorist groups. TAKE THAT, BUSH AND NADER.
Get states into the security loop: Give appropriate state and local authorities immediately access to the 58 national terrorist lists; Create a 24-hour operations center in each state to provide a real time intergovernmental link between local and federal law enforcement.
However, oppose blanket permission for police to spy on citizens.
Accountability: Report regularly to congress on anti-terrorism efforts. Restore FOIA to full power. Info is to be disclosed unless classified.
TAKE THAT, BUSH AND NADER.
Intelligence reforms: Reforming domestic intelligence capabilities by immediately making the Director of the CIA the Director of National Intelligence, with real control of national intelligence personnel and budgets. Complete the National Intelligence Review immediately.
Increase the number of linguists in critical languages in our intelligence agencies, and work with key foreign intelligence services to improve human intelligence collection abroad.
Bush and Nader ... yep, you guessed it ... NO SUCH PLANNING.
Port Security: Developing standards for security at ports and other loading facilities for containers and assure facilities can meet basic standards. Containers are the primary vehicle for international cargo commerce, but currently there is no global system for tracking and security. Despite the very real threat of entry of weapons of mass destruction in any one of the millions of containers which come into this country every year, there's no plan under Bush or Nader to fix this. Affordable, existing technology could allow sensors to be placed on containers which could track their position, signal when and where they were entered, and whether they contained radioactive or dangerous chemicals. Kerry will move immediately to protect American ports and commerce by funding and instituting such a system
Improving security in commerce by accelerating the timetable for the action plans agreed to in the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico "smart border" accords. Implementing security measures for cross-border bridges. Pursuing modest safety standards for privately held infrastructure and will help owners find economical ways to pay for increased security.
WMD: In order to control the spread of weapons of mass destruction, Kerry will appoint a high-level Presidential envoy to buy up and destroy stockpiles of loose WMD materials. In comparison, Nader would only cut our nukes and Bush wouldn't do squat.
First Defenders: Kerry will restore funding for the COPS program. He will initiate a similar program to hire 100,000 new firefighters. Hire 5,000 additional law enforcement officials who are trained in Homeland Security to help coordinate efforts in their communities. Immediately fund the backlog of requests for protective gear. Create an "Orange Alert Fund" to reimburse communities for some of the additional costs incurred by responding to a higher threat level. Develop basic national standards and by create a strategic regional alert network for smaller municipalities. When intelligence exists that there is a terrorist threat in certain locations, Kerry will work to ensure that it is shared with local law enforcement and the threat level should be raised in those locations accordingly.
Defense of America Initiative: Enlisting the National Guard in Homeland Security. Homeland security should be a central mission of the National Guard. Guard members should be trained to serve as personnel in the event of an attack, helping evacuate or quarantine people, assisting in medical units; and helping communities set up and execute plans. Expanding Americorps to Make Homeland Security a Core Mission. John Kerry believes that Americorps should be doubled and its mission expanded to include homeland security. Americorps members could be trained to help in emergency medical response, community planning, and other homeland security activities.
Creating a New Community Defense Service. This service would be comprised of hundreds of thousands of Americans in neighborhoods all over the country. Volunteer Service Captains would receive training and education to assist their communities in the event of an attack Like the Civil Defense Program that existed during World War II, service captains would act as a 21st century Neighborhood Watch. They would be trained to help identify local health professionals and experts in the area, provide information on local evacuation or quarantine plans, and stand ready to be of assistance to first defenders in the hours after an attack -- providing needed manpower to deal with the aftermath.
Call on the Private Sector to Help Bring Technological Innovations to the War on Terrorism. This should include: gathering the nation's greatest scientists to develop needed vaccines and antidotes to the biological and chemical scourges (similar to the work that is already being done to protect troops on the battlefield from biological and chemical agents); partnering with the technology community to improve detection technologies and developing and implementing new security systems to prevent tampering with goods in transit.
Medical Security: Provide real time reporting of disease outbreaks and track and monitor health trends. A new real time detection system would pool confidential patient data and pharmacy usage across the country to alert public health officials when disease is on the rise. Provide training to health providers and assist hospitals and other providers in developing plans for a surge in patients. Increase Research for Diagnostic Tests, Vaccines, and Treatments. Bring together the best of the public and private sectors to develop broad-spectrum designer antidotes so that our first responders - and our population -- can be protected and treated from the widest possible range of attacks.
Further Air Security: All air cargo on passenger planes will be screened, not 5%. Advanced security checkpoints at our airports that are capable of detecting explosives to ensure that they are not smuggled on aircrafts. Bush hasn't fully implemented this yet.
Bush -
We know this guy's foreign cooperation record. AQ is at all time highs for recruiting.
More on that in a later diary.
TTIC - Continue to keep localities largely in the dark. Consolidate information at the top of the Federal Level. No regular reporting on anti-terrorism efforts to us or Congress.
Cargo - Inspect 5% of cargo before it leaves for U.S. No new initiatives on THIS side of the sea trade. In addition, only 2/3 of trading partners have agreed to this. The rest? We're still going to trade with them.
Require electronic advance cargo manifests from sea carriers 96 hours prior to arrival to give officials more time to check for potentially dangerous crew, passengers, and cargo.
"Are you carrying terrorist sleepers? No? Ok."
The Coast Guard will get 700 high-speed vessels with new communications equipment.
Smart Borders - Signed it. But still no promise to Canada to implement it. Mexico neither.
Continue to fingerprint and photograph SOME of the visitors to the USA. COntinue to track foreign students. Kerry would also do the latter, but not the former. Nader would do neither, as far as I can tell.
Continue port security patrols (walking around them, not inspections) and air patrols. Continue to board "high interest vessels," interdict illegal migrants.
Created and maintain "Maritime Security Zones."
There are no definitions for any of these things, or who is doing them.
Homeland Security Watch Center - No one can figure out what this does, because it's never met.
Kerry would eliminate it. Nader might keep it.
Air Security - As is. 5% of Cargo. The screeners you see now. More national guard at airports and train stations and on highways.
FBI - continue focus on terrorism.
Installation security - continue to arrest people with shady IDs at government and military installations.
Medical Security - Acquire next-generation vaccines and other products to counter bioterror threats. Same as other two.
Deploy equipment to quickly detect the spread of terrorist agents like anthrax in time to distribute life-saving medicines to citizens affected. No epidemiological studies, a la Kerry.
Increase the number of FDA inspectors by 700, doubling its capacity to conduct safety inspections of our food systems. Of course, USDA is where the Mad Cow is, and where most bioterror against farming could be stopped.
DHS - keep real world measures and cyberterror measures as is. Unclear what other two would do about cyberterror. Unclear if Osama has a computer. His AQ minions, do, though.
First Responders - Continue to underfund police and fire and stick the localities with the bill.
Especially for equipment and communications.
Make sure that hospitals have rapid secure communications and laboratory capacity as well as preparedness and infrastructure improvements.
Good. My hospital has lab capacity.
Centralize planning at the top. Communicate poorly to localities.
Continue the Ready campaign ... scaring the shit out of little kids whenever he feels like it.
Two words. Duct tape.