Adfero Group HSPI

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson has finally gotten an answer to his question about DHS’s approach to cargo screening mandates. And while he probably won’t like it, DHS has it right – and Congress, and both presidential campaigns, should pay attention to what Secretary Chertoff wrote.

The United States is considering admitting Israel into the Visa Waiver Program, announces a recent news article. Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit stated the reasoning behind this consideration when he said, “It is absurd that the U.S. requires Israelis to have visas, when Americans are exempt from the need for a visa to Israel, and in many states around the world Israelis enter without visas,” Both Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and Under Secretary of State William Burns are in agreement regarding this step toward Israel.

In a rush to lull the public into a sense that everything is ok and to be politically acceptable, we have removed common sense from the airport experience.

I see from yesterday morning’s press reports that House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson has written another letter to DHS asking about the status of the cargo screening mandate Congress has shoved down the throat of the aviation and maritime industries.

The House of Representatives has voted to cut funding for the exit program of the US VISIT, the nation’s first biometric-based system designed to maintain a record of foreign travelers who enter our country, and whether or not they leave when they are supposed to. Congress is short-sighted in not funding this critical homeland security program appropriately.