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Homeland Security to announce changes

Posted on: Tuesday, 12 July 2005, 21:24 CDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Homeland Security chief will announce changes to the two-year-old department on Wednesday in an effort to boost security and respond to criticism of the agency charged with ensuring the country's safety, officials said.

They said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who ordered a review of the department after taking office in February, will outline steps aimed at better addressing threats to the nation in a speech on Wednesday

"He will be laying out a very clear picture of our priorities," one senior department official said on Tuesday night.

In ordering a review of the department, Chertoff was trying to see how to make the mammoth bureau -- which merged 180,000 employees from 22 agencies -- more effective and efficient.

"The review examined nearly every element of the department ... in order to recommend ways (it) could better manage risk in terms of threat, vulnerability and consequence," the department said in a statement about the changes obtained by Reuters.

One week after attacks on London's transportation network have focused attention again on importance of security to mass transit, Chertoff will announce a goal of creating better transportation security systems to move people and cargo more security and efficiently, the officials said.

Exact details of the changes will be not be released immediately, they said. But Chertoff plans to use new technology to improve transportation security and better detect explosives.

The department's handling of transportation security in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks on the United States has been criticized as inefficient and incomplete.

Some critics say the government too rapidly invested a lot of money in boosting aviation security without doing it properly. Others say other mass transit -- like trains or subways -- are still vulnerable to attacks like those in London or Madrid.

Chertoff also plans to shuffle the bureaucracy of the department by deleting some positions and creating new ones.

As part of an effort to improve preparedness for a future attack, Chertoff will name a new assistant secretary for cyber security and telecommunications.

He will also create a new position of chief medical officer who will be responsible for coordinating response to any biological attacks.

A new chief intelligence officer will be charged with consolidating the 11 parts of the department that are involved in gathering and analyzing intelligence.

Source: REUTERS

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