Open Target

"If the Homeland Security Department had listened to Clark Kent Ervin three years ago, it might not be in its current financial predicament of having to sacrifice funding for prime terror targets like New York to meet its budget.

As the department's first inspector general, Ervin warned brass that the mammoth agency would be targeted by greedy Beltway contractors "like buzzards homing in on carrion." And he said that if they weren't careful, they could wind up wasting billions devoted to protecting the homeland, leaving Americans vulnerable to attack.

Ervin's warnings have proved all-too prescient. And now the frustrated former official blows the whistle on monumental waste and fraud at DHS in a tell-all memoir, "Open Target."