Adfero Group HSPI

The Heritage Foundation will host next week a forum on cargo security entitled Homeland Security and Inspecting Shipping Containers: Debating the Way Forward. Two of Security Debrief’s contributors will participate – former DHS Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, who is also now head of the Safe Commerce Coalition, and Dr. James Carafano, who is the senior fellow for foreign policy, homeland security and counter-terrorism issues at the Foundation.

Recently, I learned that President Bush will name Michele Leonhart as the Administration’s nominee to be the permanent head of the Drug Enforcement Administration. The President’s decision to name such a worthy and dedicated public servant to the post should be commended.

Recently, CQ’s Dan Fowler wrote an in-depth investigative analysis on the rather abrupt end to a Gulf Coast program providing emergency alerts to deaf and blind citizens because of a lack of continued funding from FEMA . The Deaf Link pilot program provided critical services to over 2,500 subscribers in three states, but was deemed as too costly to continue by some officials. Earlier in the week, Security DeBrief contributor Rich Cooper had addressed the injustice of not maintaining an emergency alert system that is capable of reaching all members of the American people – including those in the deaf community – in his piece The Forgotten Portion of “We the People” that had an accompanying American Sign Language translation in a YouTube video.

Mr. Carter’s revisionist history reminds one of the international bullying of Maoist China and the Soviet Union’s fearless invasion of Afghanistan under his presidency. It’s as if the former president is sleepwalking through history, in a lovely dream of righting all the wrongs he failed to right as president. What a nightmare for the rest of us.

Criminal threats have evolved over the years. New responsibilities in a post-9/11 environment challenge law enforcement at the local, state and federal level. Emergency response capabilities are increasingly part of any street cop’s job. But the resource most critical for so many of these challenges—the patrol car—has never evolved to keep pace.

While NYPD officers were acquitted of a battery of charges related to the death of Sean Bell, it is clear that the department needs to review and re-evaluate its training and use-of-force operations. Fifty rounds fired at a target that does not pose an immediate threat, is retreating and is more than a handful of feet away is not an appropriate or professional use of force for officers equipped with pistols. Hopefully, this regrettable situation will lead to a serious review within NYPD.

Recently declassified documents disclose the bureaucratic side of al Qaeda and the terrorist organization’s continuing struggle with funding. The documents were captured in Afghanistan and Iraq and date from the early 90s to the present. They reflect an organization obsessed with paperwork, and the control and flow of money – something that has become more difficult in the post 9/11 world.

Much is made about morale at the Department and appropriately so. There are lots of ways to improve it. Better salaries and leadership/career development opportunities are just two. So is a better work environment. Investing in the physical infrastructure of the place you want working 24-7, 365 days a year without stop, without risk of physical breakdown and that is not an embarrassment is not a luxury – it’s a requirement.

US policy towards Hamas is boosting Iran’s standing and influence in the Middle East, increasing the Iranian threat to Israeli security, neutralizing American efforts to contain Iranian ambitions, and endangering the long term interests of the United States in that region. The question that should be seriously debated in Washington still stands: should the United States talk to Hamas?

Agree or disagree, the fact is that President Bush’s DHS has made a Herculean effort to move from day to day crisis management to a more thoughtful consideration of threat based risk management priorities. As all parts of DHS begin placing emphasis on emergency preparedness, TSA is emerging as an excellent example.

The 2004 Madrid subway attacks and the 2005 London subway and bus attacks demonstrate that the terrorists consider passenger rail and mass transit as preferred targets. The rising fuel costs for automobiles and congested air travel could logically push more passengers to rail throughout the course of the year and beyond. This is where DHS and DOT should place their emphasis.

One of the great things about the Internet is that anyone with anything on their mind can say anything they want, regardless of how informed and insightful they might be. To illustrate this point I present Exhibit A – David Axe of Wired Magazine’s latest posting, “It’s a Major Prize,” attacking Admiral Allen and the U.S. Coast Guard.

To listen to the paranoid debate now taking place over the REAL ID Act in Congress, some state legislatures and the blogosphere, one might think that this legislation was some Bush administration plot to create a national identity card and spy on innocent Americans. The reality is much more serious and mundane. In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombings and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, there is a need to set some kind of minimum standards to ensure that driver’s licenses and other forms of government-issued identification cannot be tampered with and used by terrorists.

After five years of getting beaten up routinely by the Congress on a bipartisan basis, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) appears to have found a whole new set of friends in Congress. As sister agencies CBP, ICE and FEMA face increasing scrutiny and oversight, Kip Hawley’s recent testimony shows that Members are almost surprisingly satisfied with the the security aspects of air travel.

What is it with some American politicians and their fawning over terrorists? Has 9/11 become blasé? Jimmy Carter goes on a highly publicized Terror Tourism trip to sit at the feet of Hamas. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley pronounces Weather Underground bomber Bill Ayers a “distinguished” and “valued” member of the Chicago community.

Recent news stories chronicle efforts by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to implement a nationwide emergency alert system that notifies users of an emergency via text messages to cell phones and other electronic devices. The FCC and others are to be applauded for putting forward such a system. It certainly complements the work of the post-Katrina Report that came out in June 2006, but part of me feels that the train has already left the station on this issue.

Hailed as “the world’s foremost Islamic scholar” (Wall Street Journal) and as “the doyen of Middle Eastern studies” (New York Times), Princeton Professor Bernard Lewis’s will speak on the current cultural and political environment in the Middle East at this week’s annual conference of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa’s (ASMEA).

At first glance, the positions of the three major Presidential candidates regarding Iran’s nuclear ambitions do not seem much different. All three express concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and all three seem committed to stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Taking a second look at the candidates’ positions, however, one finds differences mainly centering on the question of how and when to negotiate with Iran.

Headlines around the world have reported on the growing crisis over food shortages and the spiraling costs of everyday staples that are putting hunger on the plates of people who have never experienced it. Rice shortages in the Philippines and this past weekend’s food riots in Haiti are just two stories in what is quickly becoming a very dangerous situation – in the short term and most certainly the long term.

The FBI wants to Google you. Online, offline, underline. And they’d prefer to do it without your knowledge, thank you very much.

They are asking us to trust them.

They have a surprisingly short memory of the history of their institution.