By LEONARD GRAY

“The Department of Homeland Security” – somehow, it doesn’t quite warm my heart or make me feel more secure about my homeland.

I mean, we already have a host of intelligence and police agencies on the federal level, in addition to state and local authorities, many of which you know, such as the FBI and CIA.

How familiar are you with the NSAor the DIA, the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency?

Oh, and you can also toss in the Secret Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service with its own intelligence arm, U.S. Customs and the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency.

All the Democratic baiting over the lack of information about 9-11 won’t change history at all. It still happened. However, is this really the way to go about making as sure as we can it won’t happen again?

Or rather, should we not examine what we have already and find out what went wrong – and fix it.

This appears, even on the face of it, as a threat to individual liberties and an unnecessary, knee-jerk reaction to salve some political egos more concerned about the 2002 Congressional elections than about fixing our national security.

LEONARD GRAY is assistant managing editor for L’Observateur. He may be reached at (985) 652-9545.