06
Junho 2002 Quinta- feira
Criação do Department of Homeland
Security
Washington DC 20:40H - Brasília
22:40H - 06 Junho
Defesanet - Discurso do
Presidente Bush anunciando a criação do Department of
Homeland Security ( Departamento de
Segurança Nacional ). Segundo o Presidente Bush há cerca de 100 órgãos
trabahando na defesa dos Estados Unidos. Porém sem que não haja
cobrança efetiva sobre cada um deles. Assim propõe que os seguintes
órgãos trabalhem sobre um único teto:
-
Guarda Costeira ( Coast Guard );
-
Guarda de Fronteira ( Border Patrol );
-
Alfândega (Customs Service);
-
Imigração( Immigration officials);
-
Administração de Segurança de Transportes(Transportation
Security Administration)
-
Agência de Gerenciamento de Emergências (Federal Emergency
Management Agency)
As missões do Department of
Homeland Security serão quatro:
-
Controle de
fronteiras;
-
Impedir a entrada
de terroristas e explosivos;
-
Trabalhar com
autoridades estaduais e locais para responder a
emergências;
-
Trabalhar para
desenvolver tecnologias que detectem, armas químicas e nucleares,
descobrir drogas e tratamentos para proteger os
cidadãos.
. É a maior
alteração na estrutura do governo americano desde os anos 40. O
texto na íntegra do discuro do President Bush segue abaixo.
Textos mais relevantes
estão marcados em negrito.
Discurso.
Good evening.
During the next few
minutes, I want to update you on the progress we are making in our war
against terror and to propose sweeping changes that will strengthen
our homeland against the ongoing threat of terrorist attacks.
Nearly nine months have
passed since the day that forever changed our country. Debris from
what was once the World Trade Center has been cleared away in 100,000
truckloads. The west side of the Pentagon looks almost as it did on
Sept. 10. And as children finish school and families prepare for
summer vacations, for many, life seems almost normal.
Yet we are a different
nation today -- sadder and stronger, less innocent and more
courageous, more appreciative of life and, for many who serve our
country, more willing to risk life in a great cause.
For those who have lost
family and friends, the pain will never go away, and neither will the
responsibilities that day thrust upon all of us.
America is leading the
civilized world in a titanic struggle against terror. Freedom and fear
are at war. And freedom is winning.
Tonight, over
60,000 American troops are deployed around the world in the war
against terror -- more than 7,000 in Afghanistan, others in the
Philippines, Yemen and the Republic of Georgia to train local
forces.
Next week, Afghanistan
will begin selecting a representative government, even as American
troops, along with our allies, still continuously raid remote al-Qaida
hiding places.
Among those we
have captured is a man named Abu Subaydah, al-Qaida's chief of
operations. From him and from hundreds of others, we are learning more
about how the terrorists plan and operate, information crucial in
anticipating and preventing future attacks.
When credible intelligence
warrants, appropriate law enforcement and local officials are alerted.
These warnings are, unfortunately, a new reality in American life and
we have recently seen an increase in the volume of general
threats.
Americans should continue
to do what you're doing. Go about your lives, but pay attention to
your surroundings. Add your eyes and ears to the protection of our
homeland.
In protecting our country,
we depend on the skill of our people: the troops we send to battle,
intelligence operatives who risk their lives for bits of information,
law enforcement officers who sift for clues and search for suspects.
We are now learning that before Sept. 11, the suspicions and insights
of some of our front-line agents did not get enough
attention.
My administration supports
the important work of the intelligence committees in Congress, to
review the activities of law enforcement and intelligence
agencies.
We need to know when
warnings were missed or signs unheeded, not to point the finger of
blame, but to make sure we correct any problems and prevent them from
happening again.
Based on everything I've
seen, I do not believe anyone could have prevented the horror of Sept.
11. Yet we now know that thousands of trained killers are plotting to
attack us, and this terrible knowledge requires us to act
differently.
If you're a front-line
worker for the FBI, the CIA, some other law enforcement or
intelligence agency and you see something that raises suspicions, I
want you to repeat it immediately. I expect your supervisors to treat
it with the seriousness it deserves. Information must be fully shared
so we can follow every lead to find the one that may prevent
tragedy.
I applaud the leaders and
employees at the FBI and CIA for beginning essential reforms. They
must continue to think and act differently to defeat the
enemy.
The first and best way to
secure America's homeland is to attack the enemy where he hides and
plans, and we're doing just that.
We're also taking
significant steps to strengthen our homeland protections: securing
cockpits, tightening our borders, stockpiling vaccines, increasing
security at water treatment and nuclear power plants.
After Sept. 11, we needed
to move quickly, and so I appointed Tom Ridge as my homeland security
adviser. As Gov. Ridge has worked with all levels of government to
prepare a national strategy, and as we have learned more about the
plans and capabilities of the terrorist network, we have concluded
that our government must be reorganized to deal more effectively with
the new threats of the 21st century.
So tonight, I ask the
Congress to join me in creating a single, permanent department with an
overriding and urgent mission: securing the homeland of America and
protecting the American people.
Right now, as many
as 100 different government agencies have some responsibilities for
homeland security, and no one has final
accountability.
For example, the Coast
Guard has several missions, from search and rescue to maritime treaty
enforcement. It reports to the Transportation Department, whose
primary responsibilities are roads, rails, bridges and the
airways.
The Customs Service, among
other duties, collects tariffs and prevents smuggling, and it is part
of the Treasury Department, whose primary responsibility is fiscal
policy, not security.
Tonight, I propose
a permanent Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security to unite
essential agencies that must work more closely together -- among them,
the Coast Guard, the Border Patrol, the Customs Service, immigration
officials, the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal
Emergency Management Agency.
Employees of this new
agency will come to work every morning knowing their most important
job is to protect their fellow citizens.
The Department of Homeland
Security will be charged with four primary tasks. This new agency will
control our borders and prevent terrorists and explosives from
entering our country. It will work with state and local authorities to
respond quickly and effectively to emergencies. It will bring together
our best scientists to develop technologies that detect biological,
chemical and nuclear weapons, and to discover the drugs and treatments
to best protect our citizens.
And this new
department will review intelligence and law enforcement information
from all agencies of government and produce a single daily picture of
threats against our homeland. Analysts will be responsible for
imagining the worst and planing to counter it.
The reason to create this
department is not to create the size of government, but to increase
its focus and effectiveness. The staff of this new department will be
largely drawn from the agencies we are combining. By ending
duplication and overlap, we will spend less on overhead and more on
protecting America.
This reorganization will
give the good people of our government their best opportunity to
succeed by organizing our resources in a way that is thorough and
unified.
What I'm proposing
tonight is the most extensive reorganization of the federal government
since the 1940s.
During his presidency,
Harry Truman recognized that our nation's fragmented defenses had to
be reorganized to win the Cold War. He proposed uniting our military
forces under a single Department of Defense, and creating the National
Security Council to bring together defense, intelligence and
diplomacy.
Truman's reforms are still
helping us to fight terror abroad. And now we need similar dramatic
reforms to secure our people at home.
Only the United States
Congress can create a new department of government. So tonight, I ask
for your help in encouraging your representatives to support my
plan.
We face an urgent need.
And we must move quickly, this year, before the end of the
congressional session.
All in our government have
learned a great deal since Sept. 11, and we must act on every lesson.
We are stronger and better prepared tonight than we were on that
terrible morning. And with your help, and the support of the Congress,
we will be stronger still.
History has called our
nation into action. History has placed a great challenge before us.
Will America, with our unique position in power, blink in the face of
terror, or will we lead to a freer, more civilized world?
There's only one answer.
This great country will lead the world to safety, security, peace and
freedom.
Thank you for listening,
good night, and may God bless America.
END
