What do America, Iraq, Turkey, Palestine and other hardnosed Third World countries now have in common?
Security directorates.
The new Dept. of Homeland Security has four directorates: science and technology, emergency preparation and response, information analysis/infrastructure protection and border and transportation security.
According to wordsmiths, directorate means—among other things—beadledom, red tape, clan, gang, groupthink, mob, authority, godfather.
Directorates were popular in Hitchcock films depicting ugly brutes in ill-fitting double-breasted suits asking for papers and escorting innocents into clunky dark cars.
Imagine Secretary Tom Ridge wearing a monocle, carrying a riding crop and saying, “Things will be easier if you’d just be more reasonable.”
Your papers, please. (9 MARCH 2003)
