Skating on Stilts -- Why We Aren`t Stopping Tomorrow`s Terrorism

A cold drizzle is falling on the Pentagon parking lot. The memorial
for those who died here on 9/11 was dedicated in 2008--just a
year ago--but it`s almost deserted. In nearly four years at the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security (DHS), I never managed to visit any of
the 9/11 memorials. Now that I`m out of office, along with the rest of
the Bush Administration, I have time to pay a quiet visit.

I don`t like the place. Flat and unadorned, it feels like an exten-
sion of the vast Pentagon parking lot. The trees are scrawny, and
the grounds are a utilitarian expanse of gravel and rain-slick paving
stones. Beyond the sparse vegetation and a concrete wall, traffic hisses
and thrums on a highway.

I think I know what the designers had in mind. They wanted
everything understated and austere. There`s a bench and a lighted pool
of water for each victim who died here. Each bench bears a victim`s
name. The benches and the paths trace the course that Flight 77 must
have taken--smack into the massive west wall of the Pentagon that
looms nearby, gray in the rain.

The site is all about good taste and minimalism. Security is tight.
The grounds look as though they`re swept clean each night to remove
any trace of the day`s visitors, their litter, their mess, their grief.

But I`m not in the mood for good taste. The place feels cold and
runic. Some benches arc toward the building; others arc away. Some
of the pools have names in them; most don`t. The benches are arranged
by year, from 1998 to 1930.

I`ve come for a memorial; instead I`ve found some kind of puzzle.

I practice law for a living, but off and on I`ve spent years in govern-
ment. This last tour has been a tough one. DHS was a startup, begun
in the wake of disaster and assembled on the fly. two years in, DHS
suddenly realized that it needed a policy office, and I got the job. A
startup within a startup, the office had to be built from scratch.

Everything was up for grabs--policies, procedures, authorities, per-
sonnel. I knew that wouldn`t last; slowly the demand for routine would
crowd out innovation. So in the midst of chaos--uncertain budgets,
borrowed staff, no backup--I felt the pressure to push new ideas and
policies into place as quickly as possible. Early on, what matters is how
good your ideas are. later, what matters is whether your ideas have
been vetted with every office that thinks it has a stake in the decision.

So all at the same time, I had to build the office, recruit great peo-
ple, solidify the budget, and put a solid policy structure under much
of what DHS did.

I did that. Now I`m tired. I need time to clear my head.

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Stewart A. Baker was the first assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security from 2005 to 2009. He now practices law at Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C., and is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. His law practice covers homeland security, international trade, cybersecurity, data protection, and foreign investment regulation. Baker has also served as general counsel of the Robb Silberman Commission investigating intelligence failures before the Iraq war (2004-5), as general counsel of the National Security Agency (1992-94), and as deputy general counsel of the Education Department (1979-81). He clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court and Judge Frank M. Coffin on the First Circuit Court.