The Department of Homeland Security was created "to develop and coordinate a comprehensive national strategy to strengthen protections against terrorist threats or attacks in the U.S.," according to the Department of State. Ostensibly, the Department will help prevent, prepare for, manage, and recover from future terrorist attacks on American soil. The most visible contribution of the Department of Homeland Security is its much-ridiculed color-coded terrorism alarm system.

The Department of Homeland Security is partly a symbolic response to the failure of existing American intelligence organizations like the CIA and NSA to predict or prevent the September 11 attacks. Boosting both intelligence and homeland security has been a primary concern of the government because of the potential proliferation of terrorist cells in the United States.

In addition to some structural changes to the federal government, the Bush administration also initiated landmark counter-terrorist legislation the most significant of which is the U.S.A....
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