What is "homeland security?" The federal bureaucracy doesn't know, and that's problematic for a government that has been fighting the ill-defined "war on terror" following 9/11, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service.
In short, "homeland security" is whatever the government says it is.
Thirty federal entities -- among them agriculture, education, labor, treasury and social security -- are receiving "homeland security" funding. The actual Department of Homeland Security, created in the aftermath of 9/11, receives 52 percent of the "homeland security" money pie, according to the Tuesday report.
"Ten years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. government does not have a single definition for homeland security," the report said. "Currently, different strategic documents and mission statements offer varying missions that are derived from different homeland security definitions."
The Congressional Research Service examined seven key documents from the White House and Department of Homeland Security outlining the government's "homeland security mission."
A main theme in the mission statements was terrorism. But only one statement included "border and maritime security, and immigration," the report said. Natural disasters were included in four of them, the report noted. Another definition used the phrase "other hazards" to define any threat other than terrorism.
According to the report, first published by Secrecy News, what that means in the real world is this:
The real definition is probably classified. The government would have to kill you if they told you what it was.
