PENTAGON SURPLUS SALE:
"Much of the equipment could be useful to terroriststs"

From the AP via Yahoo courtesy of AlterNet:

Undercover government investigators purchased sensitive surplus military equipment such as launcher mounts for shoulder-fired missiles and guided missile radar test sets from a Defense Department contractor.

Much of the equipment could be useful to terrorists, according to a draft report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

In June, two GAO investigators spent $1.1 million on such equipment at two excess property warehouses. Their purchases included several types of body armor inserts used by troops in
Iraq and Afghanistan, an all-band antenna used to track aircraft, and a digital signal converter used in naval surveillance.

And

Thousands of items that should have been destroyed were sold to the public, the report said. Much of the equipment was sold for pennies on the dollar.

Click here for the rest.

You know, what with the crazed chainsaw murderer from Canada a couple of years back being allowed through border security with his weapon, bloodied, in his baggage, the virtual lack of protections at chemical plants throughout the land, chronically unexamined cargo containers coming into the country through the ports, the clusterfuck hurricane evacuations in Louisiana and Texas last year, the week that it took for the Department of Homeland Security to respond to the post-Katrina flooding disaster in New Orleans, the reappropriation of security dollars from New York and other obvious targets to venues such as petting zoos and stamp museums, and now this mind boggling sale of high tech military equipment for super-cheap to people without any sort of clearance, I'm really starting to wonder what, if anything, the Bush administration is doing here at home to keep us safe from the very real threat of global terrorism. It is an irony, indeed, that so many Americans in 2004 voted for Bush because, despite his total failure in Iraq, they felt safer with him at the helm. Of course, there isn't such a thing as irony anymore; the Republicans killed it shortly after 9/11. It was replaced by the simple maxim well articulated a while ago on the Senate floor by Vice President Cheney to Senator Patrick Leahy, "Go fuck yourself."

We've been lucky so far that there have been no terrorist attacks since the WTC was hit. But I'm sure it's bound to happen again eventually, especially because it appears that the White House's only strategy for homeland security is to violate civil liberties. That is, it's pretty hard for me to think that they don't want another attack. And when that happens, you can bet your booty that the Republicans will use it as an excuse to amass more power: "You see? We told you that terrorists are bad. Now line up to have your computer chip implanted."

Christ, it's like the whole fucking country's on acid.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$