• Government agencies recognized for engagement with industry

    The Washington Homeland Security Roundtable (WHSR) established the Industry Engagement Awards to recognize exceptional efforts by government agencies to collaborate, engage, and partner with industry. Last year, WHSR recognized both the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the U.S. Border Patrol for their engagement and programs with industry through WHSR. At their upcoming 4 December holiday reception, WHSR will again recognize various government leaders of DHS component agencies for their contributions to partnering and engaging with industry.

  • DHS employee calling for mass killing of White people still on DHS payroll

    Ayo Kimathi, a black-nationalist who works as a procurement officer for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE), is calling for “ethnic cleansing” of “black-skinned Uncle Tom race traitors,” and says that “in order for Black people to survive the 21st century, we are going to have to kill a lot of whites — more than our Christian hearts can possibly count.” He was placed on administrative leave three months ago, but still receives his DHS paycheck. “DHS should be tracking Kimathi, not employing him,” Josh Glasstetter of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) says. “This isn’t a mundane human resources matter or a tricky First Amendment question. DHS should have investigated and fired Kimathi months, or even years, ago.”

  • DHS: conspiracy theories about DHS purchases unequivocally false

    Conspiracy theorists have pointed to several DHS solicitations for gear and ammunition as “proof” that the department is in the process of creating, training, and equipping a secret force, the purpose of which would be to suppress public dissent – or worse: one blogger wrote that “Another possible conclusion [regarding DHS’s ammo purchases] is that the bullets are intended to coerce and, if need be, kill us.” DHS flatly rejects these conspiratorial assertions as unequivocally false, saying that each and every purchase is in line with past purchases and in support of on-going, legitimate, and transparent departmental operations.

  • Unjustified overtime pay routinely used by DHS employees

    A report by the Federal Office of Special Counsel (OSC) offers details of what it calls a “gross waste of government funds” and a “profound and entrenched problem”: illegally claimed overtime by DHS employees. The practice, which may add up to 25 percent to an employee’s paycheck, has become so routine that it is often promoted as a perk when managers try to recruit new employees.

  • Bill bolsters DHS’s cybersecurity workforce

    A House panel recently approved HR 3107, a bill aiming to bolster DHS’s cybersecurity workforce. The House Homeland Security Committeeamended the Homeland Security Cybersecurity Boots-on-the-Ground Actto expand DHS’ outreach to candidates for IT security jobs by creating a tuition-for-work fellowship and a program to recruit military veterans and unemployed IT specialists for DHS employment.

  • Johnson’s nomination marks shift in DHS focus

    Analysts say that President Barack Obama’s nomination of Jeh Johnson to replace Janet Napolitano as head of the Department of Homeland Securityis an indication of a shift in DHS priorities — from a focus on immigration and border issues to a focus on security and counterterrorism.

  • Corrupt practices: U.S. visa-granting easily compromised

    While serving as a Foreign Service Officer in Guyana, Thomas Carroll sold visas to anyone who would pay, making millions of dollars in the process. Carroll’s scheme differed from the petty favors and kick-backs, which had typified FSO visa fraud in other embassies and consulates, mostly in scale. He took retail visa fraud and made it wholesale.

  • Jeh Johnson nominated to head DHS

    President Barak Obama will nominate former Pentagon official Jeh (pronounced “Jay”) Johnson as the next secretary of homeland security. Johnson, 56, is a graduate of Morehouse College and Columbia Law School. He is grandson of sociologist and Fisk University president Dr. Charles S. Johnson. From January 2009 to December 2012 he was General Counsel of the Department of Defense.

  • Paul Goldenberg appointed to the Homeland Security Advisory Council

    Paul G. Goldenberg, president of Hamilton, New Jersey-based Cardinal Point Strategies, was appointed to the Homeland Security Advisory Council to serve a 3-year term. Goldenberg has built a career as a criminal justice executive with experience in a variety of government and non-governmental organizations.

  • The side of Homeland Security you won't see on TV

    The way the Department of Homeland Security is often portrayed in popular culture — surveillance and secret agents — leaves out a crucial aspect of its role. It also works on technology to detect attacks as they are happening, and helps federal and local governments prepare for all kinds of disasters, from hurricanes to accidental chemical spills to anthrax attacks. Argonne Laboratory engineers contribute to this effort, helping local and state governments form emergency plans, run drills for a pandemic flu outbreak in the city of Chicago, and analyzed ways to enhance security at plants and factories across the country.

  • Improving resilience of DHS work force

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security should develop and promote a unified strategy and common vision to build and sustain work-force readiness and resilience across the entire agency, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences. DHS expressed concern that it was not reaching the level of impact that it had hoped to achieve with its program to build resilience at the agency and asked the IOM to review its efforts, identify shortcomings, and provide recommendations for a five-year strategic plan.

  • New report highlights unfulfilled recommendation by 9/11 Commission

    New report says that failure to enact one of the key recommendations of the 9/11 Commission – consolidated congressional oversight of DHS – poses a risk to U.S. national security. “While the failure to reform DHS oversight may be invisible to the public, it is not without consequence or risk. Fragmented jurisdiction impedes DHS’ ability to deal with three major vulnerabilities: the threats posed by small aircraft and boats; cyberattacks; and biological weapons,” one of the report’s authors says.

  • Budget cuts force changes in CIA’s document declassification policy

    Sequestration-mandated budget cuts forced the CIA to close its Historical Collections Division office, which declassifies historical documents. Instead, the division’s responsibilities will be transferred to the office that handles Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. “This is very unfortunate,” said Robert Jervis, a Columbia University professor who chairs the CIA’s Historical Review Panel. “There will be fewer releases. We shouldn’t fool ourselves.”

  • DHS employee’s Web site calls for race war, genocide of white people

    During the day, Ayo Kimathi works as a small business specialist at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), dealing with companies which sell handcuffs, ammunition, guns, and other items for agents of the agency. Away from the office, Kimathi runs a Web site called War on the Horizon (WHO), where he says race war in the U.S. is imminent. He calls for the mass killing of whites, and the “ethnic cleaning” of “black-skinned Uncle Tom race traitors.” The latter group includes President Obama (“a treasonous mulatto scum dweller”), Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Rev. Al Sharpton, Lil Wayne, among others.

  • Muslim American groups launch campaign to block Kelly's nomination to DHS post

    Muslim-American groups have launched a campaign to block New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly from becoming DHS Secretary. American Muslims are uneasy with Kelly for what they regard as lack of sensitivity to Muslim concerns, and lack of judgment when it comes to dealing with Muslims. Civil rights advocacy groups and groups representing African American and Latino law enforcement officers have joined forces with the Muslim groups in the campaign against Kelly.