"I'm trying to do something to stop the killings and stop the bombings." -- Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.
DETROIT -- How noble he sounds, a brave knight in the war on terrorism. But in reality, Inhofe is a crass, vile politician who's wrangled a boondoggle deal for a crony using our money.
Like so many things that are done in the name of the war on terror, the real motives come down to power, greed and self-interest.
Surely, there are many sincere and dedicated people both in and out of government who are contributing their talents, and in some cases lives, to protect America and the world from the fundamentalist rage that drives terrorists to murderous acts.
We should be especially careful of those who couch their positions in making the republic safe with religious terms and some kind of supposed inside knowledge of God's views on all this.
Inhofe says that "a spiritual door was opened" for the Sept. 11 attacks because the United States did not support the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank, which Inhofe insists, in his wacky reading of Genesis, was given to Abraham. Never mind that Arab Muslims also claim Abraham as their spiritual and genetic ancestor.
Inhofe's fight to get government funding for a new security device at airports is a perfect illustration of just how politics and patronage are used to carve up the $13 billion the government is planning to spend on homeland security technology.
Ancore, a small California company, has already gotten $20 million from the taxpayers to build and test a cargo inspector and more bucks are on the way as a result of Inhofe's relentless support for the company and his ability to slip the pork through the Republican-controlled Senate.
The new security device is intended for use at airports, border crossings and seaports. The Pentagon and the U.S. Customs Service don't want the Ancore cargo inspector and consider the project a monumental waste of our money.
That's because the National Academy of Science, which advises the government on these technical issues, says the device simply doesn't work. That's right. It doesn't work.
The machine, the size of a car wash, uses non-X-ray technology, a system that shoots bursts of neutrons into luggage, trucks or cargo containers. But the National Academy of Science study found it doesn't always detect explosives easily available to terrorists, and critics says it's too slow and big for use at airports.
But that doesn't faze the aggressive senator, who's made getting the government to use Ancore's product his personal crusade. The Wall Street Journal recently blew the lid on the slippery deal.
First, a little background on Inhofe. Oklahoma has produced some pretty disgusting politicians, but Inhofe reaches into the deepest gutters where curbs provide shadows.
Back in 1972, while a member of the Oklahoma State Senate, Inhofe said Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern should be hanged for his opposition to the Vietnam War.
When Niagara County's Tim McVeigh bombed the Murrah Federal Building, Inhofe was asked how many people worked in the building. The ever-so-sensitive lawmaker couldn't resist taking a shot at lazy bureaucrats, answering, "It depends on how many federal workers played hooky today." That must have been consoling to the families of the victims.
The Christian fundamentalist was first elected to the Senate on the platform of "God, guns and gays," and he's widely considered one of the dumbest members of Congress. But he's dumb like a fox when it comes to getting money for his friends.
Ancore's top lobbyist, Robert J. Thompson, is an Inhofe pal. They have been friends since childhood and Inhofe was in Thompson's wedding party.
The righteous Inhofe says his cozy relationship with Thompson is "totally unrelated" to his efforts to get taxpayer money to finance the highly questionably technology. Sure.
Another company that had a major stake in Ancore kicked in $200,000 for Republican political causes, including Inhofe's war chest. Just coincidence, of course.
When Robert Bonner's nomination to become U.S. Commissioner of Customs was up for Senate confirmation, Inhofe asked him if he supported funding to test the cargo inspector. Bonner said no. Inhofe immediately put a hold on the nomination, a parliamentary maneuver that blocked a vote.
The White House and Bonner capitulated and promised another $10 million to test Ancore's product -- a Rube Goldberg device that will do nothing to protect national security but will please a sleazy politician and his cronies.
Somebody in the Senate should have done the radical thing and stood up on the floor and called Inhofe's move just what it is: A raid on the public treasury to help a pal's company, done in the name of "protecting" our freedom.
Gen. "Stormin'" Norman Schwarzkopf did something radical when he said give peace a chance. The hero of Gulf War One told the Washington Post he sees no need to rush to invade Iraq. "I think it is important for us to wait and see what the inspectors come up with and hopefully they come up with something conclusive. ... It's not a black-and-white situation over there. Whatever path we take, we have to take it with a bit of prudence."
Remember Schwarzkopf campaigned for President George W. Bush and he still plays golf with his daddy.
I always liked Schwarzkopf's blunt style and the fact he never cashed in on his connections in the Middle East, like Bush the Elder, his Secretary of State James A. Baker, and his Defense Secretary, now Vice President Dick Cheney.
They all raked in fortunes, using connections and influence from their public service days, to cut business deals for companies and clients in the "Mid Easy," especially with their Saudi intimates.
Schwarzkopf also has this radical "vision thing" and he's worried about the future of Iraq and unintended consequences of war and military occupation. "What is the postwar Iraq going to look like, with the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shiites? That's a huge question, to my mind. It really should be part of the overall campaign plan."
Don't worry, general, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he's "working" on that. Schwarzkopf made another radical move when he criticized the media darling and vastly overrated Rumsfeld.
"Stormin'" Norman finds Field Marshall Rumsfeld ham-handed and removed from the people who will have to fight the war. "When he makes his comments, it appears that he disregards the Army. He gives the perception that he is the guy driving the train and everybody better fall in line behind him -- or else." Very interesting.
On the brink of war, we need people who are radical in thought and action -- nonviolent, of course.
Even H.L. Mencken, one the 20th century's finest journalists and a conservative curmudgeon, saw their merit.
"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen; he is a good citizen driven to despair."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | February 4 2003 |