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30 May 2012

How 9/11 Changed Homeland Security

This refers to the date of a major terror attack on the United States of America, which caused total damage to the World Trade Center’s towers, other critical buildings, as well as a portion of the Pentagon building. The attack was closely linked with one of the terror groups led by the late Osama Bin Laden. The attack occurred on the eleventh day of September in the year 2001 (Cornwell). The essay aims to examine the incident, and strongly suggests that certainly, the attack resulted in significant changes to the Homeland Security approach in the country.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is an agency in the U.S. It is supported by the Federal government, the private sector, as well as citizens, and duly established with the core goal of eliminating terrorism, minimizing the country’s vulnerability to the vice. In addition it also attempts to lower damages as a result of terrorism, and possibly assist the Americans recover from any attacks which may certainly happen in the country. In line with this, the agency controls threats that may affect America’s stability as well as cushion the citizens from the effects of such attacks (Bellavita).

The 9/11 attacks changed many aspects of the American’s lives. In fact, while some changes were temporary others have remained permanent. The Homeland security was indeed changed in a number of ways. As above highlighted, the main function of the agency was to prevent Americans from attacks by terrorists. The agency merged with other government agencies responsible for the maintenance of America’s security. After the attacks, the DHS was established by President George W. Bush in the year 2002. In the same year, other agencies and more specifically, twenty two agencies were merged into one department. However, a number of agencies that had similar mandates to those of the DHS were not combined. These included; the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. The establishment of the DHS portrayed one of the largest reshaping of the executive arm of the Federal government. Several appointments were made including that of Ridge who was the head of Homeland Security in 2001 but two years later, was appointed the first secretary of DHS. All the merged agencies were later transferred to the Homeland’s new department in the month of March 2003. Up to date, DHS is one of the chief executive departments in the Federal government (Chertoff).

Furthermore, homeland security has really been transformed since the attacks eleven years ago. Before the attacks, the security agencies kept most of its top secrets within the agency. However, this is no more and to date, the DHS shares information among the several Federal agencies. It is strongly believed that if this was implemented earlier on before the incident, then the 9/11 attack could have been stopped.

In addition, the DHS has amplified its security surveillance at the country’s entry points including the airports. In line with this, immigration is currently being closely manned using the latest technology. Homeland security continues to change over the years in an effort to protect the domestic population in the U.S (Abraham).

In conclusion, it would be just to suggest that certainly, the Department of Homeland Security has undergone a transformation over the years since the attacks eleven years ago. Such changes have helped the agency to beef up security levels in the U.S thus eradicating direct terror attacks and thereby protecting the citizens against the effects of terrorism.

Works Cited

Abraham, Amani. 10 Years after 9/11, Homeland Security makes changes. 08 September 2011. Web. 23 05 2012.

Bellavita, Christopher. “Changing Homeland Security:What is Homeland Security.” Homeland Security Affairs (2008): 1-2. Print.

Chertoff. “Assessing the First Five Years.” Homeland Security (2009): 1-6. Print.

Cornwell, Derekh. “The 9/11 Terrorist Attack and Overseas Travel to the United States: Initial impacts and Longrun Recovery.” Working Paper (2010): 1-5. Print.