• DHS secretary expresses “concerns” over Iranian threats

    Following recent attacks on Israeli officials overseas thought to be perpetrated by Iran and its proxies, DHS secretary Janet Napolitano expressed her concern over potential threats from Iran to domestic targets; speaking before a House panel, Fox Newsreported, Napolitano said the potential for an Iranian attack is “a situation that bears watching.”

  • U.S. places terror sanctions on Iranian spy ministry

    On Thursday the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it had placed sanctions on Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, accusing it of supporting terrorism, committing human rights abuses against Iranians, and participating in the ongoing suppression of protests in Syria

  • In Keene, N.H., locals oppose military equipment for police

    With the help of a $285,933 DHS grant, local police in Keene, New Hampshire were all set to purchase a new armored vehicle until local residents got wind of the plan; the citizens of the quiet New Hampshire town of 23,000, which has only seen two murders since 1999, questioned why police needed such an expensive military-type truck and balked at the militarization of a local force; with federal counterterrorism money continuing to pour into local communities, lawmakers and residents across the country will have to grapple with the same issues as Keene and determine what kind of police force they want to have patrolling the streets

  • Cell phone hackers can track your location without your knowledge

    Using a cheap phone, readily available equipment, and no direct help from a service provider, hackers could listen to unencrypted broadcast messages from cell phone towers

  • Minnesota becomes twenty-seventh state to fully join Secure Communities

    Last week Minnesota joined the controversial federal immigration program known as Secure Communities, while critics continue to blast the program; Minnesota is the twenty-seventh state fully to join the now mandatory program designed to share fingerprint information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

  • New Mexico considers ending immigrant licenses

    Lawmakers in New Mexico are considering a bill that would repeal a state law that permits undocumented immigrants to receive state driver’s licenses

  • Court: Malaysian woman can sue DHS over No-Fly List

    A U.S. appeals court has cleared the way for a Malaysian woman to file a lawsuit against DHS and the FBI for mistakenly placing her on the No-Fly List and arresting her at San Francisco International Airport in 2005; Rahinah Ibrahim, who has never been accused of any crimes, was arrested and placed in a holding cell for two hours

  • Statistical model removes barriers to using fingerprint evidence in court

    Potentially important fingerprint evidence is currently not being considered in legal proceedings owing to shortcomings in the way it is reported; researchers have devised a statistical model to enable the weight of fingerprint evidence to be quantified, paving the way for its full inclusion in the criminal identification process

  • New crime-fighting methods to deter, nab terrorists

    The goal of an emerging field in forensics — chemical forensics — is to use the technology of chemistry to trace weaponized toxic substances and related materials back to their source

  • Legal expert: NDAA does not comply with Constitution

    Shayana Kadidal, the senior managing attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, recently spoke with Homeland Security NewsWire’s executive editor Eugene K. Chow; in the interview Kadidal discusses the legal challenges of closing Guantanamo Bay, the legal consequences of the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and the Obama administration’s position on transferring detainees

  • CBP overtime costs soar, agency seeks solutions

    Over the past six years U.S. Border Patrol agents have accrued more and more overtime pay at the same time that the number of arrests for illegal crossers has fallen to record lows; the cost of overtime has rocketed from roughly $156 million in 2006 to more than $331 million in 2011, with DHS spending more than $1.4 billion total during that time period

  • Fort Wayne Mayor dissolves joint homeland security department

    After six years of operation, the joint Fort Wayne-Allen County Homeland Security Department has been dissolved; last week Tom Henry, the Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana sent a letter to county officials notifying them of the city’s plans to end its agreement to share in the costs of the local homeland security department

  • Customizable crime alert map helps Louisville residents stay safe

    With the help of sophisticated online mapping tools, residents in Louisville, Kentucky can receive customized updates on crime that can be narrowed down to a particular beat

  • D.C. Homeland Security Director resigns amid scandal

    Washington D.C.’s homeland security director, Millicent D. West, abruptly resigned earlier this week amid the ongoing federal investigation of a former District Council member

  • Terrorists focus on five U.S. urban counties, but rural areas not exempt

    Nearly a third of all terrorist attacks from 1970 to 2008 occurred in just five metropolitan U.S. counties, but terrorist events continue to occur in rural areas as well; there are 3,143 counties in the United States; researchers found 65 of these counties to be hot-spots for terrorism, that is, each of these counties experienced a greater than the average number of terrorist attacks between 1970 and 2008