Homeland security doing just fine.

[War-Horse]

FBI And ATF  Duking it out and arresting eachother on undercover stings.   Your taxes are well spent.



erry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer

updated 9:36 p.m. MT, Fri., May. 9, 2008
In the five years since the FBI and ATF were merged under the Justice Department to coordinate the fight against terrorism, the rival law enforcement agencies have fought each other for control, wasting time and money and causing duplication of effort, according to law enforcement sources and internal documents.

Their new boss, the attorney general, ordered them to merge their national bomb databases, but the FBI has refused. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has long trained bomb-sniffing dogs; the FBI started a competing program.

At crime scenes, FBI and ATF agents have threatened to arrest one another and battled over jurisdiction and key evidence. The ATF inadvertently bought counterfeit cigarettes from the FBI -- the government selling to the government -- because the agencies are running parallel investigations of tobacco smuggling between Virginia and other states.

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The squabbling poses dangers, many in law enforcement say, in an era in which cooperation is needed more than ever to prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Michael A. Mason, a former head of the FBI's Washington field office who retired in December from a senior post at FBI headquarters, said outside intervention might be needed.

"A lot of these things require a little adult supervision from the Justice Department or Congress, which will resolve a lot of the food fights these two agencies find themselves in," he said. Mason said that although both agencies "have in their hearts the safety and security of this country," he worries about a potential attack "where the ball got dropped, and it's not going to matter whose fault it was because information wasn't passed or shared."

ATF's transfer from the Treasury Department to the FBI's home at Justice after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was supposed to eliminate long-standing tensions between two proud and independent entities,

"We thought we'd get more cooperation from two agencies that ought to be cooperating in the war on terror," Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said of the 2002 law that created the Department of Homeland Security and authorized the merger.

But the transfer, thrown together in the final stages of the largest government reorganization in a half-century, proved to be a merger in name only. ATF came under the Justice Department seal yet maintained its offices and headquarters. Little thought went into melding the distinctive cultures.

"It was all slapdash," said a Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not an authorized spokesman. "One day you wake up, and ATF is part of Justice."

The new law not only failed to repair clashing jurisdictional lines, it also expanded ATF's role in domestic terrorism cases, bringing that agency into conflict with the core mission of the post-Sept. 11 FBI.

Officials from both agencies acknowledged occasional tensions and said they are working hard to protect Americans and ensure smooth relations. They provided numerous examples of cooperation, including the response to bombings in Iraq, the recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina and the investigation of the Virginia Tech massacre led by state and university police.

But law enforcement sources describe an unyielding struggle for control of explosives, arson and tobacco investigations that has played out in recent months at the government's highest levels. A dispute over ATF's role in explosives cases, sources said, has helped delay a White House-ordered national strategy to protect the nation from terrorist bombs.

"Everything that we're doing, they're doing," said one ATF agent not authorized to comment. "It's just a constant battle."

'Sour relationship'
More than 30 ATF agents arrived at the smoldering Pentagon the day after Sept. 11, 2001, to help with the largest criminal investigation in the nation's history. The FBI commander threw them off the site.

Although Arlington County had authority over the scene for the first 10 days after the attacks, the two federal agencies fought over who would take the eventual lead in the investigation, recalled Arlington Fire Chief James H. Schwartz, the incident commander.

The ATF backed down, but before assuming control, the FBI again excluded some ATF agents from the site. Several frustrated ATF agents cut a fence to get closer and were ejected by U.S. marshals, Schwartz said.

"The American people are not being best served by this sour relationship and by the lack of efficiency," Schwartz said. "I think there's a huge risk there, especially when you look at it through the lens of terrorism."

[kh300]

FBI and ATF are not Homeland Security

[War-Horse]

FBI and ATF are not Homeland Security

Its a big banner over the fields.....

[kh300]

Its a big banner over the fields.....

no its not. the ATF is stepping on the toes of the FBI. thats it. its like when the state police try going into NYPD territory, and we tell them to go away beore they hurt themselves

[War-Horse]

FBI and ATF are not Homeland Security

Hmmm. I guess your right.    The FBI is included if its a domestic case but is outside authority if international and becomes independant....ie: terrorist attack.??


Homeland security
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Ten things you may not know about Wikipedia •Jump to: navigation, search
For the United States Cabinet department, see United States Department of Homeland Security.
For the NBC television movie, see Homeland Security (film).
The term homeland security refers to the broad national effort by all levels of government to protect territory from hazards, both internal and external, natural and man-made. The term is also used to refer to the United States Department of Homeland Security itself.

Contents [hide]
1 In the United States
1.1 Criticism
2 Outside the United States
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
 


[edit] In the United States
In the United States, the concept of "homeland security" extends and recombines responsibilities of much of the executive branch, including the United States National Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the United States Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the United States Secret Service, and the Transportation Security Administration. The George W. Bush administration has consolidated many of these activities under the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a new cabinet department established as a result of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. However, much of the nation's homeland security activity remains outside of DHS; for example, the FBI and CIA are not part of the Department, and other agencies such as the Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services play a significant role in certain aspects of homeland security. Homeland security is coordinated at the White House by the Homeland Security Council, currently headed by Frances Townsend.

Homeland security is officially defined by the National Strategy for 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".[1] Because the U.S. Department of Homeland Security includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it also has responsibility for preparedness, response, and recovery to natural disasters.

The term became prominent in the United States following the September 11, 2001 attacks; it had been used only in limited policy circles prior to these attacks. The phrase "security of the American homeland" appears in the 1998 report Catastrophic Terrorism: Elements of a National Policy by Ashton B. Carter, John M. Deutch, and Philip D. Zelikow.

Homeland security is also usually used to connote the civilian aspect of this effort; "homeland defense" refers to its military component, led chiefly by the US Northern Command headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The scope of homeland security includes:

Emergency preparedness and response (for both terrorism and natural disasters), including volunteer medical, police, Emergency Management and fire personnel;
Domestic intelligence activities, largely today within the FBI;
Critical infrastructure protection;
Border security, including both land and maritime borders;
Transportation security, including aviation and maritime transportation;
Biodefense;
Detection of radioactive and radiological materials;