Thanks, Bill... no really. If nothing else, I guess it's a step up from 'Fatherland.'
But not much of one.
A newly declassified White House policy directive regarding counterterrorism policies pre-Bush administration indicated not only “an increased rate of renditions, apprehensions, and convictions of terrorists,” and “a large increase in counterterrorism funding.” but also just how our government came to start using the term "Homeland." (and here all this time I thought 'homeland' was just an extension of (the)Dick Cheney's perverted Third Reich fetish.)
But that White House directive — Presidential Policy Directive 62, Protection Against Unconventional Threats to the Homeland and Americans Overseas — was issued by President Bill Clinton, and dates from May 22, 1998.
Even the title of the directive, with its early use of the oddly dissonant term “homeland” to refer to the United States, suggests a greater continuity of government policy before and after 9/11 than may be generally recognized.
By the way, whatever happened to using "stateside?" Or "... on this side of the pond," or the incredibly-mundane-sounding-but-sufficiently-explanatory, "back here in this country?"
But I digress...
The story appears at the Federation Of American Scientists website: PDD 62: Counterterrorism Policy Prior to 9/11
According to an unclassified White House fact sheet published at the time, “This Directive creates a new and more systematic approach to fighting the terrorist threat of the next century. It reinforces the mission of the many U.S. agencies charged with roles in defeating terrorism; it also codifies and clarifies their activities in the wide range of U.S. counter-terrorism programs, from apprehension and prosecution of terrorists to increasing transportation security, enhancing response capabilities and protecting the computer-based systems that lie at the heart of America’s economy.”
Actually, the directive remained classified until March of this year. It was finally released by the
Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (thanks to an unidentified requester).
It was made available through the Clinton presidential library.
Gee thanks, big dog!
(and some of you probably thought all we had to thank Clinton for was NAFTA)