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Aref Assaf
Bush:
America is safe; Muslims May Fly Again Unhindered
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22046131
12-01-2007
According to the Associated
Press, President Bush plans to drastically cut
counterterrorism funding for police, firefighters and rescue
departments across the country. It is hard to understand the
planned cut in light of the fact that the Bush Administration
has not ceased to warn Americans of the growing domestic threats
facing our nation's infrastructures.
These plans do
appear to be at odds with some of the
administration’s own policies. For example,
the White House recently promised continued
funding for state and regional intelligence
“fusion centers” — information-sharing
centers the administration deems critical to
preventing another terrorist attack. Cutting
the grants would limit money available for
the centers. The White House’s plan to
eliminate the port, transit, and other
grants, which are popular with state and
local officials, would not go into effect
until Sept. 30, 2008. Congress is unlikely
to support the cuts and will ultimately
decide the fate of the programs and the
funding levels when it hashes out the
department’s 2009 budget next year.
We can expect
now that Congress will reject Bush's
requests because these funds have been a
bonanza for local agencies entrusted with
ensuring security preparedness.
Bush's plan calls for drastic cuts in areas where
Homeland Security
officials had constantly sought increases. The department
requested $900 million for grants to U.S. cities at greatest
risk of attack. But the White House only wants to provide $400
million for that program, to be divided among no more than 45
urban areas.
The cuts
come at a time when Congress has just passed HR 1955, which would
commit millions of federal funds to track and prevent domestic
terrorism.
The proposed law,
The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention
Act of 2007
(H.R. 1955), was passed by the House of Representatives in a
404-6 vote Oct. 23. (The Senate is currently considering a
companion bill, S. 1959.) The act would establish a "National
Commission on the prevention of violent radicalization and
ideologically based violence" and a university-based "Center for
Excellence" to "examine and report upon the facts and causes of
violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism and ideologically
based violence in the United States" in order to develop policy
for "prevention, disruption and mitigation."
Many observers fear that the proposed law will be used against
U.S.-based groups engaged in legal but unpopular political
activism, ranging from political Islamists to animal-rights and
environmental campaigners to radical right-wing organizations.
There is concern, too, that the bill will undermine academic
integrity and is the latest salvo in a decade-long government
grab for power at the expense of civil liberties.
Should we believe
Bush and save taxpayers' money? Or should we trust Congress to find
ways to spend it? Is it too soon expect the repeal of the PATRIOT
ACT? The No-Fly List? Visa restrictions for Arabs and Muslims?
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