The real legacy of 9/11
According to USA Today, the so-called 'homeland security' business (aka the military-industrial-security complex) is now worth $59 billion a year. That's how much governments and businesses spend to 'thwart terrorosts', whatever that term means in practice. Homeland security is bigger than the motion picture and music industries.
The big winners?
- The usual lineup of military contractors: Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Ericsson, etc.
- Accenture, a $15 billion a year services company headquartered in Bermuda.
- The biometric industry and other whiz-bang technologies with limited or unproven effectivess.
Are we getting any value for all these billions?
Consultant Doug Laird, who worked for the U.S. Secret Service and was Northwest Airlines' security director, criticizes the Department of Homeland Security for awarding so many contracts to large corporations.
In general, he says, the contractors oversell the security value of their goods and services. Further, he says, the government exercises inadequate oversight.
"The DHS has pretty much given them an open check to supply products and services," he says.
Often, the large corporations "have no idea about" the work that needs to be done, Laird says. "In my opinion, it's a total rip-off."
The question on everybody's lips: Has the world become any safer?
I'm tired of hearing the prophets of the globalization movement describe its onslaught as inevitable. The rhetoric goes that we need to adapt to social change if we are to survive, that globalization follows inexorable natural laws that cannot be changed or reversed, that its ruthless 'efficiency' will ultimately lead to a better world, blah blah blah.
Not content to secretly eavesdrop on American citizens without a warrant, the Bush administration is now 
According to BusinessWeek, the American Family Association is