A new excuse for rising fascism and more of a police state every day

Chertoff says Europe poses terrorism threat

By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Wednesday that one of the biggest threats to U.S. security may now come from within Europe.

In an interview with BBC radio, Chertoff said that American authorities were becoming increasingly aware of a real risk of Europe becoming a "platform for terrorists".

He said it was important to step up security checks on passengers coming from Europe to the United States.

"One of the things we have become concerned about lately is the possibility of Europe becoming a platform for a threat against the United States," Chertoff said.

"We have watched the rise of home-grown terrorism," he added, citing the Madrid train bombing in March 2004 and recent foiled plots in Britain and Germany.

"That suggests to us that the terrorists are increasingly looking to Europe both as a target and as a platform for terrorist attacks."

Chertoff's comments came after reports that British intelligence services are investigating an Islamist Web site which said that a branch of al Qaeda had been established in Britain.

Security experts fear a posting on the site, urging young Muslim men to rise up against what it called infidels such as Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former Prime Minister Tony Blair, may be genuine.

Chertoff said that while Washington had no plans to suspend a visa waiver program that allows most Europeans who travel to the United States as tourists to do so without a visa, authorities would like to step up advance checks on travelers.

"We do want to elevate some of the security measures in the program," he said, proposing an advance travel authorization system which would require potential visitors to register online their intention to travel to America to allow authorities to clear them in advance.

Chertoff also said that the absence of any attacks in the United States since September 11, 2001 had created "a certain sense of complacency" which needed to be dispelled.

"When I lift my eyes and look around the world and I look at what happens in Britain and Germany and Spain and Bali and Pakistan, I don't see terrorism going away, I see an al Qaeda that's emboldened, he said.

"I don't see any diminishment of the threat and my concern is that we not relax and let the enemy get ahead of us."

Original article posted here.

The shit keeps swirling around the toilet: Cronies switching seats at the Justice Department and Department of "Homeland" Security

CNN: Bush Plans To Install Inexperienced, Bush Loyalist Clay Johnson At Homeland Security

This morning, CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux reported that “very senior level sources” inside the administration are telling her that Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff will replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Additionally, these sources say Chertoff will be replaced at Homeland Security by Clay Johnson III, the Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget. Watch it:

Johnson, who has no homeland security experience, is a professional Bush loyalist. While Johnson may have familiarity with some aspects of DHS’s budget, he appears to have no experience in the many responsibilities of the department, including immigration, air travel security, disaster response, and other aspects of our nation’s homeland defense.

He is one of Bush’s oldest friends, having attended both prep school and college with the President. Johnson served as Bush’s gubernatorial chief of staff in Texas before heading up the Bush-Cheney transition team.

When Bush first chose Johnson as his chief of staff in Texas, he said it was specifically because of his friend’s loyalty to him:

“I want someone whose primary interest is me — George Bush — and who doesn’t hope to parlay this into something and isn’t trying to curry favor with this one or that one,” Bush told Johnson and his wife, Anne Sewell Johnson, over lunch.

Asked about his relationship to Bush, Johnson told the New York Times recently that “there’s a lot of devotion to George Bush the person.” Johnson, who “is probably the only person to have spanked” the president’s dog, Barney, “keeps a George Bush doll on his desk.”

Clay Johnson appears to bring the same qualifications to Homeland Security that Alberto Gonzales brought to the Justice Department.

Original article posted here.