Cold Frame

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This book is dedicated to the operational-level men and women of all the agencies striving to sweep back the tide of global anti-American terrorism. They work long and hard, some in offices, others out alone in the dangerous weeds, both at home and abroad, and, in the main, they have succeeded in keeping us relatively safe, often despite Washington and all of its intricate and partisan political machinations. That problem is the genesis of the well-known bureaucratic greeting formula: Hello. We’re from headquarters. We’re here to help you. And, universally, in reply: Hello. We’re so glad you’re here …

The third-largest federal agency in the entire United States government, behind the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense, is the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It has a $61 billion publicly disclosed budget, and subagencies that include the U.S. Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, the entire Secret Service, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In 2013, it counted 240,000 full-time employees plus a slightly larger number of contractors.

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