• Tampa police already training for 2012 RNC convention

    In preparation for next year’s Republican National Convention in Tampa Bay Florida, nearly every local police department employee is required to attend a three-day training course; the mandatory training is designed to teach officers how to control large crowds

  • The TSA-Chaffetz skirmish: The latest round

    In the past ten days we have witnessed an intense legal-political skirmish between DHS and two of its staunchest critics on the Hill — Representatives Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Darrell Issa (R-California); at issue is information that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had given the subcommittee headed by Chaffetz ahead of hearings the subcommittee was to hold on airport security; Chaffetz released the information in some of these documents to the press a day before the hearings, then repeated the information in his open-to-the-public opening statement; DHS angrily charged that in revealing the information, Chaffetz had violated the law

  • DHS wastes billions in procurement process

    A recent DHS Inspector General report found that the agency had not leveraged its collective buying power thereby losing billions of dollars in potential cost savings; the report found that DHS’s various agencies individually bought $170 million worth of small x-ray machines, metal detectors, and hand-held radiation detectors rather than purchasing those items together, in a practice known as strategic sourcing.

  • DHS chastises Chaffetz for disclosing sensitive information

    Last week, DHS officials chastised Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) for disclosing sensitive security information to the press; in a letter, Joseph Maher, DHS’s deputy counsel, scolded Chaffetz, the chair of the House Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense, and Foreign Operations, for openly discussing “sensitive security information” provided by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA); the letter comes in response to Chaffetz’s comments last week that revealed that there have been more than 25,000 security breaches at U.S. airports since November 2001

  • Improving disaster response amidst budget crunch

    As lawmakers struggle to cut the budget and reduce spending, some are seeking find ways to be more efficient with disaster response and recovery funds; the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee held a hearing to explore ways to make the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s (FEMA) disaster response more efficient

  • OBL planned to kill Obama on 9/11

    Osama Bib Laden was putting together a team of al Qaeda operatives whose mission was to use a shoulder-fired missile to bring down Air Force One or Marine one — the president’s helicopter - on the anniversary of the 9/11 attack; the plot was gleaned from digital storage media picked up on 2 May at OBL’s compound in Pakistan; other plots were discussed, among them flying an explosives-filled plane into a sports stadium on 4th July, and killing General David Petraeus

  • FBI investigates News Corp. for potential 9/11 victim hacks

    Lawmakers in the United States have waded into the growing controversy that has engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s media empire; on Wednesday several Democratic senators and Representative Pete King (R-New York), requested that the FBI begin an investigation into whether News Corp. attempted to hack into the phones of 9/11 victims; in response to their calls, the FBI opened an investigation into News Corp. to determine if the allegations of bribery and wiretapping are true

  • Minneapolis man single-handedly battles Islamic extremism

    Individuals like Abdirizak Bihi, who single handedly tries to keep young Somali-American teenagers from becoming radicalized, are part of a growing trend that officials in Washington call “CVE,” combatting violent extremism; since the 9/11 attacks, there have been fifty-one domestically produced jihadist plots or attacks in the United States and that number is steadily growing

  • ASIS International awards Florida school Selects money for security

    Orlando, Florida, Palmetto Elementary School is located in one of the city’s highest crime areas; the school has won a $20,000 from ASIS International for security enhancements; the money will be used for the addition of both indoor and outdoor surveillance cameras to act as both a deterrent for potential wrongdoers and to enable the school’s security team to identify those who have committed crimes on the school’s large campus

  • Senators concerned about terrorists entering U.S.

    U.S. lawmakers have lingering concerns about the ability for terrorists to enter the country following last week’s Senate hearing that investigated how two Iraqi nationals with terrorist ties were able to enter the United States and live in Bowling Green, Kentucky for several years; A Government Accountability Report (GAO), released on the same day as the hearing, found four critical gaps in preventing terrorists from entering the United States

  • Bill to allow DHS to seize authority over U.S. coastlines

    The House is currently considering a bill that would cede control of America’s coastlines to DHS; under the proposed National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act, the Secretary of the Interior would forfeit authority of all public coast lands to the Secretary of Homeland Security, whenever the DHS chief sees fit

  • Mica says TSA needs more independence from DHS

    According to Representative John Mica (R-Florida), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) needs more independence from DHS so that it may operate more efficiently; in an interview with Bloomberg, Mica, the chairman of the House Transportation committee said, TSA should be given “the authority to whack and hack some of the bad out”

  • Troubled radiation screening program gets additional $300 million

    The Advanced Spectroscopic Portal (ASP) procurement program has hit another snag in its short-lived, yet troubled life; a recent unreleased Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that DHS plans to spend more than $300 million dollars to purchase several hundred ASPs, radiation detection equipment, that has not been fully tested and may not even work at all

  • Judge orders DHS to clarify whether Secure Communities is mandatory

    On Monday, a New York judge ordered federal immigration officials to provide clarification on whether or not states and local law enforcement agencies had the ability to opt out of the controversial Secure Communities immigration enforcement program; the judge’s ruling comes as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit launched by several immigration and legal rights groups

  • Texas gets second UAV

    Border agents in south Texas will be getting additional help thanks to the deployment of a second unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the area; currently there are four UAVs deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border and three of them are based in Arizona; the second drone is expected to arrive later this year or in the early part of next year.