Some serious problems happening with Homeland Security, under Governor Ridge!

Ridge Discovers Size of Home Security Task (in NY Times

Choice quotes from Philip Shenon's article:

"Shortly after noon on Friday, Feb. 7, the nation's secretary of homeland security, Tom Ridge, announced that the nation had been placed on "high risk" of terrorist attacks. As he issued his dire warning, almost nobody in Washington knew that eight hours earlier, a team of heavily armed security agents of a hostile foreign government had landed on American soil....Luckily, the four men were not terrorists. They were defecting Cubans, agents of the Cuban coast guard, who arrived in Key West, Fla., aboard a 30-foot government patrol boat, the Cuban flag still flapping from the mast.

Carrying two AK-47 rifles and full clips of ammunition, they docked their boat before dawn at the marina of the local Hyatt hotel, a short distance from the United States Coast Guard station. Undetected, the Cubans, still in their camouflage uniforms and black boots, marched into the middle of the sultry Florida resort town looking for someone to surrender to."
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"On Wednesday, the Justice Department's inspector general reported that the immigration agencies now answering to Mr. Ridge had lost track of thousands of illegal immigrants who had final court orders for deportation, including many from Iraq, Iran and five other countries identified as state sponsors of terrorism. "This group may include potential terrorists who threaten our national security," the report warned."
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President Bush has acknowledged in recent days that the government had not provided state and local governments with most of the $3.5 billion it promised after the Sept. 11 attacks to organize against new terrorist strikes, a budget shortfall for which he has tried to blame Congress.