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With the upcoming Iranian parliamentary elections approaching on March 14th, the United States is facing new questions about how to deal with the Iranian regime with options ranging from the imposition of additional sanctions to diplomatic engagement to the use of military force.

Congressman Waxman has extended his investigative activities into Blackwater to include the company’s treatment of employees as independent contractors; this is not news, as the allegations arose last year. It is interesting that the issue’s reprise has received media exposure and attention. I am not a Beltway expert by any means, but it is informative that the Committee has gone to pains to let the public know that it continues to pursue Blackwater through any means, relevant or not.

With the Space Shuttle era soon coming to an end and NASA transitioning to another launch system (Constellation), the US will be dependent on our former Communist rival to allow us access the International Space Station and any other place we might want to go in low-Earth orbit for several years.

The creation of DHS was the first major step we took in a new era of Darwinism (survival of the fittest). For too long, we allowed our country’s power and success to breed bureaucracies and complacencies that fostered individualized, self-focused operational cultures to take root. As a result, we often ignored and overlooked the threats and challenges (foreign and domestic; terrorism and Mother Nature) that were gaining in strength and consequence.

Spike TV announced today the launch of a reality show that chronicles the real-life battles faced by the nation’s premier drug cops at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In allowing cameras to get this close to the action, the DEA is shedding its traditionally tight-lipped persona and breaks new ground in educating the public about the risks its agents face every day. Check out a trailer for the show, called simply “DEA,” on Spike TV’s website.

Recent Defense Department reports on Chinese computer network operations in 2007 should be a clear indication that the United States needs to step up its cyber defense policy to address a growing threat to its national security.

It seems somehow fitting that the state that launched the Civil War is once again leading the charge to defy the federal government — though in this case the stakes are far less deadly. Rather than bullets flying, you can expect a lot of curses. And even then only at airport terminals.

There are many levels of government and countless private sector groups that own or have great influence over the assets of this nation and play a role in determining what level of defense or security they need. As result of recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission that were reinforced in the aftermath of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Congress has actively developed and passed Public Law 110-53 (9/11 Commission Act 2007). As part of the new law, DHS will soon develop a business continuity accreditation and certification program for use by the private sector.

Next week, the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) will sponsor its second large-scale national cyber exercise, Cyber Storm II. During my time at DHS, my involvement with the first Cyber Storm, along with other training programs, taught me how important these exercises are to enhance preparedness. In particular, Cyber Storm II has added importance and will help raise the consciousness of government and business leaders to serve as a vivid reminder that along with its many benefits, the global IT revolution carries a new generation of risk.

For anyone who has never been in a roundtable session like we were having, it’s important to note that the Secretary opened the session with the Bloggers without a note card in his palm or a pile of papers in his hands to reference in typical Washington principal fashion to remind him of who he was meeting with and why, and what he was supposed to say to them. He immediately sat down and you could almost hear the starter’s pistol fire, “BANG!” and he was out of his starter’s block rounding the first curve on the track of information he wanted to convey.

Last week, the Center for American Progress released a report, ‘Safe at Home: A National Security Strategy to Protect the American Homeland, the Real Central Front’ that offers its vision for what the future of homeland security should look like. For all of the things it professes that we should do, the Report is painfully shallow on recognizing the foundations that have been built and established over the past five years to enhance border protection, chemical security, emergency management, security operations at airports, ports and a number of other areas.

While skeptics of enhanced intelligence-gathering tools attack as “fear mongers” anybody who suggests that the FISA reform legislation needs to be passed quickly in the name of national security, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton makes clear that politicizing the war on terror can and will be a bipartisan effort when it suits the political temper. Check out her latest ad.