Adfero Group HSPI

I understand that the NYPD may be reluctant to expose its flaws, but if the officers’ actions resulted from a failure in the system rather than a failure in themselves, it should be identified and publicly rectified, if only to restore faith in the Department’s ability to police itself.

First of all, the changes are very visible. There is an increase in uniformed officers and K-9 support units, in the stations and on the trains. I spoke to a number of the uniformed officers and they sounded pleased and motivated by the new approaches.

Having passed something, members of Congress will go back home and tell their constituents that they did the right thing and addressed the critical security needs of our country. They simply won’t mention the complicated telecom issue, and act as if they took bold action. They’ll feel no sense of urgency to return the matter — which means that the private sector companies, whom the government has begged to join the homeland security effort, will be open targets for lawsuits … and good luck getting such cooperation from the private sector ever again.

Earlier this week, representatives of the chemical industry expressed concerns at a hearing by the House Homeland Security Committee to make the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards regulation – that went into effect in June 2007 and is set to sunset in October 2009 – permanent. The debate shows that Congress needs more education about the nuances of the chemical legislation.

A recently issued Congressional Research Service report expresses concern over the operation of the Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate, including the ability of businesses, researchers and entrepreneurs to access S&T leaders and the effectiveness of the Directorate’s relationships with others. The report seems to overlook many of S&T’s initiatives – if there is any component of DHS that is readily open, accessible and clear on its priorities and the others identified in the CRS Report, it’s the Department’s S&T shop.

Not only is this a crime that hurts the American economy — and therefore results in higher costs for consumers — it is also be the cause of serious illness or even death. If a patient is dependent upon prescription medication and is unwittingly taking counterfeit drugs, her life could be in danger. And yet, these crimes capture little attention in the media and even less in many law enforcement circles.

Pakistan is facing a most defining moment in its history with serious implications to US security interests in the region. As stated in earlier analyses, the United States should have long ago adopted alternative approaches to Pakistan. It did not, and consequently, the situation in Pakistan today is much more dangerous. It is not, however, too late for the United States to re-engage more effectively.

As a longtime train traveler with an interest in security issues, the recently announced Amtrak regulations were of particular interest to me. From initial reports, the regulations appear as if they are likely to improve security without impeding the convenience of rail travel.

It is interesting to see that the Grand Jury investigation into the Sep 16 shootings by Blackwater continues. What is equally interesting is that following the rush of knee-jerk reactions in Congress to throw legislation at the problem that ‘closed the loophole’ by including contractors to the State Department to the Military Jurisdiction Expeditionary Act, which apparently meant that all contractors would now be covered and accountable under US law. Unfortunately, having satisfied themselves that all was now right with the world, the politicians and their staffs wrenched their arms out of their sockets patting themselves on the back for a job well done….if only that were so.

Last night, the Defense Department, via the USS Lake Erie fired a SM-3 missile to intercept a broken spy satellite from the sky rather than letting it break apart in the atmosphere and leave hazardous debris to fall back to the Earth. In the days prior to missile launch, FEMA engaged in a number of preemptory actions.Rather than applaud and support such forward thinking and action, some have used this as another opportunity to make FEMA a punch line and to accuse the agency of acting like Chicken Little crying out to the nation, ‘The sky is falling!’

Threat is found in all sorts of places and even in the smallest of places such as small boats. These craft come in all shapes and sizes, from smaller pleasure craft all the way to speedboats, and a thousand other private and commercial platforms. The U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security faces a difficult task in trying to track, control and mitigate the risks posed by the millions of small boats that regularly operate in U.S. waters. Congress and the Administration should invest in assets that improve the overall security of the maritime domain.

Columnist Bob Novak offers some interesting observations about the connection between the Democrats’ decision to let the FISA reform expire rather than offering a house vote, suggesting that the power of the trial lawyers within the Democratic Party was too powerful to overcome: The recess by House Democrats amounts to a judgment that losing the [...]

The psychological effect in each of these cases is for the psychiatrists, medical experts and ultimately the legal apparatus to decide. My concern is that the crimes demonstrate that the federal safety net in place to catch and treat sufferers is not effective, and that merely educating the soldiers themselves is not working. PTSD is a legitimate threat to anyone who has served in combat or experienced conditions of high stress. Knowing that, and mixing alcohol, loaded weapons and an aggravating situation is a recipe for disaster.

The assassination of the elusive Mughniyah on February 12 could be a major turning point in the Middle East – but in what direction? The answer to that question depends heavily on identifying who was behind the assassination.

We cannot control the motives or demons that afflict mass shooters, but we can control the environment to a degree. This means that schools must think broadly. Preparation and training is not only critical to campus and local law enforcement; all potentially involved individuals — to include students, faculty, administration and staff, contractors, etc., should be included in such plans. Rather than pretending that tragedies cannot visit your campus, it’s time to bring all members of a school’s community together and acknowledge that it just might. And then talk openly about how to respond should the unthinkable occur.

The availability of cheap, disposable cell phones, the growth of the internet, and the emergence of a rapid and complex global telecommunications infrastructure that can route phone calls anywhere in the world has allowed a level of anonymity that terrorists have quickly learned to exploit to mask their plans and operations. This is the context in which the debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) must be conducted.

The Majority Leader of the House Democrats summed up the rather mystifying position of his colleagues today when he stated on the House floor that they have no sense of urgency over the FISA wiretapping debate. One senses that Hoyer didn’t fully appreciate the irony of such a statement, considering how Congress has dithered on FISA reauthorization to the point where it is set to expire in a couple of days.

Yesterday, the Senate did the right thing by passing the Protect America Act and preventing our nation’s private sector national security partners from being left unprotected from frivolous lawsuits, today. It is now up to the House to recognize that without these partners our intelligence and national security communities will ultimately grind to a halt. The private sector brings to bear the innovation, skilled labor and hard work of millions of people every day in the name of our nation’s security.

A key development in the aviation security arena occurred yesterday when TSA formally announced the seven airports that will take part in airport employee screening pilot tests as required by the Omnibus Appropriations Act passed by Congress in January 2008. In the formal TSA announcement, TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said that “[t]hese pilots will give [...]

The Pakistani elections are in seven days, and both enthusiasm and tensions are rising. A straightforward election in a country with demonstrative crowds can be difficult enough to manage, but the Pakistani election is complicated by a terrorist interventions, the very present spectre of the assassinated Benazir Bhutto, the autocratic-like actions of President Musharraf and [...]