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| Chertoff Advises Against DHS Reorganization The Associated Press says Chertoff made the remarks last week during a speech at Johns Hopkins University. He warned Napolitano not to try to reorganize the department — and not to try to please everyone. Why should Napolitano stay the course? Chertoff cited the terror attacks in Mumbai, India as one good reason. He also mentioned that firefighters, law enforcement, military officials and emergency managers in Mumbai were not coordinated when they responded to the attack. “Emergencies don’t come neatly packaged in stovepipes,” he said, as a way to address the argument by some groups — including the International Association of Emergency Managers — that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be removed from the department because FEMA's mission is to respond to natural disasters and the department’s main mission is to prevent terrorist attacks. Chertoff argued that when different agencies plan and train together they are better suited to respond to disasters of all varieties. “President-elect Barack Obama has said in the past he favors removing FEMA from the department, but he has not raised the issue lately,” AP says. And neither did Napolitano. “She said response to hazards ‘from hurricanes to terrorist attacks’ should be ‘fast, sound, levelheaded and effective. Americans deserve no less,’” AP reports. And what did Chertoff see as Napolitano’s greatest challenge? That would be “the willingness to take on very deeply embedded special interests that tend to have very specific views on a particular issue,” he said. To read the full article, click here: http://www.saukvalley.com/articles/2008/12/03/news/national
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