BORDER AND TRANSPORTATION SECURITY

Border and Transportation Security

Border and Transportation Security

The United States of America used to be confident in the knowledge that the country was safe from war and acts of terrorism due to the fact that America is surrounded by oceans and seas that effectively deter any violent attacks upon the country. The Japanese proved this theory wrong when they successfully attacked Pearl Harbor and engaged the United States as one of the two countries involved in the Second World War, the other country being Germany.

Upon the defeat of the Japanese and Germans, the peacetime era was ushered in and the United States somehow became involved in keeping peace the world over, effectively making the country the world police force. The country was effectively detached from the acts of war and terror across the world. The United States was again deemed to be impenetrable and capable of defending itself by air, land, or sea. Indeed, as a military force, the country is something to be reckoned with.

The concentration by then should have shifted to protecting the homeland from the threats posed by those countries and political leaders whom the United States openly opposed. By 1997, the term Homeland Defense was thrown around a lot by the Department of Defense and coined in order to describe their idea of an organization or agency whose sole responsibility would be to defend the homeland during times of necessity or foreign attack. (History, March, 2007)But the country let its guard down and became lax, homeland security wise. The National Defense Panel had warned the country's leaders as early as 1997 that the U.S. mainland and its territories were becoming a target for terrorist threats and suggested a redirection of the security attention towards these areas. This report fell upon deaf ears and even though there were several attempts to refocus the attention towards protecting the homeland, it took the events of September 11, 2001 to finally bring the country to the violent reality that the U.S. was indeed a terrorist target and was open to even the most simple of terrorist acts. The reality that homeland security did not exist for America and its territories finally hit home.

By definition, Homeland Security is tasked to protect the homeland from any internal and external threats of terrorism either by deterrence, prevention, or pre-emption. It has been tasked to insure the safety and sovereignty of the homeland population, territory, and infrastructure. As the events of September 11, 2001 demonstrated, homeland security, as a concept, protection, or a security department did not exist. All that existed were several agencies to gather information but not really assigned to assimilate and act upon such security threat reports. (Department of Homeland Security: History, August, 2007)Thus, the Muslim extremist group known as Al-Qaeda successfully managed to integrate a sleeper cell into the country and effectively plan how to use our own equipment and infrastructures against us. On that fateful day of September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were ...