THE "STRONG ON DEFENSE" MEME

The GOP and its stooges on talk radio constantly harp about how much better they are on National Security than the Demcrats yet we've had strong evidence for years that they are simply incompetent. Why won't someone on the Left point this out?


Intel Centers Losing Anti-Terror Focus
Nov 28, 11:19 PM (ET)
By EILEEN SULLIVAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - Local intelligence-sharing centers set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have had their anti-terrorism mission diluted by a focus on run-of-the-mill street crime and hazards such as hurricanes, a government report concludes.

Of the 43 "fusion centers" already established, only two focus exclusively on preventing terrorism, the Government Accountability Office found in a national survey obtained by The Associated Press. Center directors complain they were hampered by lack of guidance from Washington and were flooded by often redundant information from multiple computer systems.

The GAO findings backed up results from a congressional report this year.

"Although many of the centers initially had purely counterterrorism goals, for numerous reasons they have increasingly gravitated toward an all-crimes and even broader all-hazards approach," according to a Congressional Research Service report from June.