Leading by Example, by Bill Richardson: on Homeland Security


Qaeda targets oil infrastructure until we wean ourselves off

Bin Laden makes a point of targeting oil infrastructure because he knows what kind of devastating impact he can have on the world’s economy, even on the fundamentals of the global market system, by attacking oil. It’s energy and oil terrorism.

He knows we are dependent on foreign oil, and that our economy remains more oil-intensive than other developed nations’ and that the US suffers more than most countries when oil prices rise. Taking the long view, bin Laden believes that the US is not only vulnerable to volatility in oil prices, but also that it lacks the discipline and vision to wean itself off oil.

Bin Laden knows the US is a sleeping giant--one he wrongly believes will never wake up. He thinks we can’t change.

Source: Leading by Example, by Bill Richardson, p. 32 Oct 26, 2007

Ignoring Nuclear Test Ban creates world distrust

The Bush administration tossed aside the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Our message to the world: We can be trusted to create any kind of weapon of mass destruction we want. Most of the world, I believe, trusts the US to manage its nuclear arsenal carefully and responsibly, and they are resigned to the fact that we will control a large arsenal of highly destructive weapons. Yet they also want us to abide by accepted rules for testing, for development of new weapons, for balancing our strength against other nations’. When we step out of standing agreements, and begin developing new weapons on our own, the world loses faith. Why are we the arbiter of who can own or design weapons of mass destruction? People who don’t trust the US can’t answer that question.
Source: Leading by Example, by Bill Richardson, p. 73 Oct 26, 2007

  • The above quotations are from Leading by Example
    How We Can Inspire an Energy and Security Revolution,
    by Bill Richardson    .
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  • Click here for more quotes by Bill Richardson on Homeland Security.
Candidates and political leaders on Homeland Security:

Retiring Senate as of Jan. 2015:
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AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
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LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
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AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
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