Are the FBI and CIA part of the Department of Homeland Security?

[Wetzelbill]

I had a Border patrol investigator tell me that they were totally separated from Homeland security. He also told me that Homeland security was bloated and overfunded, which nearly made my jaw hit the floor. He's terribly ignorant about policy and is a wannabe Repub who calls himself a "Conservative Democrat." Normally, I bear with him and try to teach him, but he knows AZ Republican Congressman John Shadegg who feeds my friend so much BS his IQ has dropped below most farm animals.

[hedda_foil]

1. He's correct. They're completely separate.

[ant]

2. not only are they separate

...from what I've heard CIA and FBI (and, I would guess, others) pretty much just dumped their worst employees on HS. I'm sure that's not true of EVERYONE, I'm sure there are very smart, competent people at HS, but that's what I hear from the people I talk to.

On the other hand, I know that HS took a bunch of chem/bio people from the nonproliferation offices at the Dept. of Energy. They couldn't take nuke because that is, by law I believe, Energy's responsibility, but they pretty much snatched up everything else. So in that case it wasn't about who Energy wanted to give up but who HS could take.

Quite frankly, I'm not convinced HS is really going to do any good. I think the capabilities we need are already there, it's just a matter of coordinating them better. Creating a whole new department seems like overkill to me, but who knows.