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On Wednesday, December 3rd, the Majority Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security will host a series of roundtable discussions on the future of privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties at the Department of Homeland Security.

A collection of stories and online backgrounders about the latest analysis of the terror attack in Mumbai and the perpetrators behind it. Check back for ongoing updates.

Five advantages which Gov. Napolitano can use to move the Department of Homeland Security forward.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans on having 20 airports operational by the end of 2009. However, despite the solid nature of the program, enrollment numbers have been quite low – around 5000 at last count. To CBP’s great credit, they have recognized that bringing in one traveler at a time to the CBP offices in the basement of airports is not a way to grow the program quickly.

This week’s conviction of five former organizers of the Holy Land Foundation, an Islamic charity operating in Dallas, for funneling more that $12 million to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, is clearly the most significant victory in the effort to crack down on terror financing through certain Islamic charitable groups that serve as front groups for terror operations.

Now that President-Elect Obama has all but officially announced that Gov. Janet Napolitano will become the next DHS Secretary, his DHS-focused Transition team will begin prioritizing policy and programming initiatives for his first term. For everyone’s sake, let’s hope working with Congress to reform the current oversight structure is among them.

It appears that Rick Perry, the governor of border state Texas, has just discovered he has illegal aliens in his jails. And that some of them are being released back into the community to possibly commit more crimes when they should have been deported. (Federal law dictates that aliens convicted of felonies are automatically eligible for deportation.) He wants some heads to roll – just preferably not his. So he has written the classic “strongly worded letter” to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Before the Obama Administration starts moving around the government’s organizational boxes, they should seriously look at FEMA’s recent successes. They may just find out they’ve already got a helluva engine to help them secure the homeland.

The NY Times reports on a conflict between the NYPD and FBI on a series of eavesdropping measures. Unusually, I will comment in detail on the rights and wrongs of broad brush surveillance measures, as the facts in the report are sparse. I will note that a generic warrant request that seems to be for ‘telephones in the subway’ is unacceptably broad, and that the justification materials for the warrant must be interesting reading.

This past Monday, I attended a Blogger’s Roundtable with Secretary Chertoff and TSA Administrator Kip Hawley to discuss aviation security initiatives. While the Secretary’s prepared remarks focused on the flurry of activity the Department is doing with General Aviation security (which I think is a step in the right direction), the discussion soon drifted to the usual set of issues – Secure Flight, Registered Traveler, shoe screening, unionization of screeners, transition activity, lines at airports ….and the list goes on.

If Philip Morris released findings indicating that cigarettes are healthy, would you believe them? How about believing Sean Penn’s analysis of the war in Iraq, or Pamela Anderson’s take on the humane treatment of animals? Of course you wouldn’t! You’d consider the source and walk away. Why, then, do people put stock in anything the Center for American Progress (CAP) has to say regarding chemical security?

Governor Janet Napolitano brings several critical qualities to the role as the chief executive of the Department of Homeland Security. First, as governor of Arizona she is a chief executive. It can’t be emphasized enough how important executive management skills are for this job. You have two herculean tasks confronting you: one is the security mission itself, but the other is the ongoing management challenges that still must be addressed in this massive merger that created DHS.

Larry J. Gispert, president of the International Association of Emergency Managers, was quoted yesterday indicating IAEM’s position calling for the removal of FEMA from DHS. But Gispert is missing the larger point. We should be focusing on building a truly national emergency response operation involving coordination with state and local agencies rather than shuffling agencies at the federal level.

Napolitano will be the first woman to lead the Department, following Secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff under President Bush. She brings not only her direct experience governing the state of Arizona, one of the border states that has seen some of the most violent acitivity among immigrant and drug smuggling gangs, but she also brings credible law enforcement experience as a former U.S. Attorney and state Attorney General.

The Age of Unity may indeed be upon us. The right-leaning Heritage Foundation and left-leaning Center for American Progress appear to be in significant agreement on at least one thing: The need for a BRAC-like commission of independent voices to review the tangle of homeland security laws and mandates issued in the frantic years after 9/11.

Of all the important cases handled by Michael J. Garcia, who for three years has held arguably the most prestigious United States attorney’s post in the country, perhaps the one that drew the most attention is the case he did not file against New York Governor Elliot Spitzer.

I do not doubt the actions they are undertaking for general aviation are worthwhile and necessary, but in an era where our financial resources are becoming more and more constricted, we need to be upfront about what our homeland security actions cost and how we will pay for them. We’ve not done that with this rule – at least not in the actions of this week.

Corporate America has intensified its efforts to detect, prevent, and mitigate terrorist attacks. As part of that effort, many corporations, in good faith, hire outside consultants to review and make recommendations on ways to improve security. However, a company’s best efforts to protect its facilities and provide a safe and secure working environment for its employees may ultimately result in increased liability.

The list narrows with admittedly long-shot olive-branch choice Joe Lieberman maintaining his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee and Eric Holder allegedly slotted for Attorney General, bumping Janet Napolitano off the DOJ short list and moving her up on the DHS nominee list. However, a new name has suddenly surfaced in celebrity host Ryan Seacrest.

The road to confirmation of the next Secretary of DHS is cleared of one of the biggest potholes it could have experienced. The fact that the Senate Democratic leadership settled this as quickly as they did is a tremendous credit to them. By making sure the road ahead for the prospective DHS nominee is clear (baring some unforeseen problem on the nominee’s part (aka Bernie Kerik problems), the Obama Team can continue to move forward with the Transition that has the eyes of much of Washington watching.