The longer I sat and watched, the more concerned I became,
until I got up and walked out. —Rand Beers, counterterrorism official

Another high-level
government careerist has come out to denounce the Administration’s
handling of… well, this time it’s the War on Terrorism. In a Wash
ington
Post interview [also CNN]
Rand Beers is quoted as saying he “never felt so strongly about something
in my life” so he has defected to Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) campaign.
Beers charged that the Whitehouse “wasn’t matching its deeds to its words
in the war on terrorism. They’re making us less secure, not more secure.”
Homeland security, he says, suffers from “policy constipation. Nothing
gets done.”

The Immigration and Naturalization Service, he said, needs
further reorganization. The Homeland Security Department is
underfunded. (WP)

Comments? I got nothin’. I’m not allowed
to comment on policy because policy is way above my pay
grade. But back in January
I wrote this:

Reading the tea leave I conclude that budget cuts in
staffing are on the way: the port is scaling back outward assignments, the
union is jokeying with management over increasing the workload, and USCS –
which always gets hit before us – has had overtime slashed. …Expect
longer lines at airports.

There was a meeting of
higher-than-mes recently. The INS-legacy supervisors came out warning that
the Folks Up-Stairs (who are mostly legacy Customs) have decided to
“slash” overtime for our people. We’re going to see our inspections staff
shrink on every shift and the schedules wiggled to swallow up as much
overtime as possible. My Sups concede that that means longer lines for
passengers (think over an hour), but the orders come from Up There.
If you don’t like it write your Congress-critter or ask the
immigration/passport control officer (still wearing INS patches) for U.S.
Customs complaint card. Many of us will be keeping a stack of response
cards in our booths (supplies limited).

What about being systemically underfunded? Uh… Maybe another time…
When I’ve gathered the links.

P.S. On a related note: back in March diplomat John Brady Kiesling sent
a public
resignation letter to Secretary of State Powell.