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His Senate colleagues voted today to allow Sen. Joe Lieberman to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee. For those who are still angry at Lieberman for campaigning against Barack Obama during the presidential election, have no fear. There’s something for you, too. (After all, this is Congress — candy for everybody!) The senators voted to boot Lieberman off of the environmental something-something committee and confiscate his global warming somethingorother subcommittee gavel.

John Kiriakou’s essay on “Iran’s Latin Inroads” is a must read for all concerned with homeland security and international relations. Iran’s influence in Central Eurasia is well documented but did you know:

At the invitation of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Iran has established an ammunition factory, cement factory, and a car assembly plant in Venezuela. Iran Air has established direct air service between Tehran, Syria, and Caracas, Venezuela.

The illicit global drug trade as a ready source of funding for terrorist organizations is a dimension of terrorism that many in Washington, D.C. fail to comprehend, and many more neglect to even talk about.

A re-post (as opposed to original content) would normally go in the “Homeland Blogwatch” section of Security Debrief. However, this interview by New Yorker Pulitzer-winning journalist George Packer with top counter-terrorism strategist David Kilcullen is so insightful we decided to place it in our main content section. If you want to understand the way forward in Afghanistan (and Pakistan and Iraq), read this article.

Glenn Fine, the Inspector General at the Department of Justice, has published a fascinating in-depth memo listing the Top 10 challenges facing the next Attorney General. I’m certain the David Letterman’s list would be much funnier, but this is worth a read anyway.

Word is buzzing about the Internet that President-Elect Obama has chosen Rand Beers to head his transition team for the Department of Homeland Security. UPDATE: Beers is confirmed, as is co-chair Clark Kent Irvin, former DHS IG.

The New York Times has created a fun little interactive feature on its website that lists the most common names being floated for Cabinet picks, and encourages you to weigh in with your own vote. Currently leading the voting is the surprise choice of Richard Clarke. The second-most popular contender is Lee Hamilton.

From immigration laws to cyber-security to emergency preparedness to foreign policy, these blogs will bring you the latest discussions and research taking place with homeland security experts and novices alike. These blogs represent the government, researchers, professionals in the field, and every-day citizens and their offerings on the ever-evolving and important topic of homeland security.

The Secure Communities Initiative, a new program launched by ICE in the last month, is an admirable step to facilitate cooperation with local and federal law enforcement to identify criminal aliens incarcerated in the nation’s jails to prevent them from being released back onto the streets.

History will judge the Bush administration, but I suspect, when it comes to the “war” on terrorism, the evaluation will be positive. Many Presidents talked about the “war” on terrorism, George W. Bush was the first one to fight it.

That is why it is now more important than ever to renew this commitment with the change of administration. The “war” on terrorism was not “Bush’s War” (as portrayed by many in the media), but civilization’s war.

There is an outstanding column by Jonathan Walters of Governing.com discussing the state of FEMA and its performance during two recent major disasters. His commentary focuses on why there has not been a lot of mention of late about the Agency and its responses to these incidents and the important role that state and local governments play in working with FEMA.

By Scott Louis Weber

The United States finds itself in an unprecedented vulnerable state as it welcomes a new president and rescues a battered economy. The downturn in the economy has gutted markets worldwide, fanning the already rising flames of anti-American sentiment. Our economy is reeling; creating a fertile ground for a terrorist attack and history demonstrates that terrorists view periods of transition as optimal times for attack. Now is not the time for corporate America to let down her guard.

As a child, I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up. Somehow it seemed realistic. I’m all grown up now, and I’ll save you the suspense: no, I am not blogging from the moon. I never entered the astronaut program – good thing too because as it turns out, America is no longer in the business of reaching the moon, or even the space station. In fact, these days Ralph Kramden of “The Honeymooners” has better odds of getting Alice into space than NASA does of sending me!

If the Democrats didn’t need Lieberman’s vote, you can be sure that he would have already been offered a “lateral move.” Say to the chairmanship of the Cigarette Butt Disposal and Parking Lot Beautification Committee.

The Government Accountability Office’s homeland security division has gathered a number of its broad issue area reviews as a transition guide, covering topics like border security and transportation security. I’ve found that their work – essentially that of the two individuals I seem to encounter the most, Cathleen Berrick and Richard Stana – to be very fair and insightful. In particular, the GAO reports usually provide a reasonable view of DHS tries to balance the desire to fill security weaknesses with the pushback it gets from private industry, privacy think tanks, and foreign governments. It will be particularly interesting to see how Congressional Democrats – who have used GAO to identify areas where DHS has not been able to meet its own stated program goals or Congressionally-mandated legal requirements to tee up oversight hearings – manage GAO’s oversight of the department now that it will be under their own party’s control.

CNET’s Editor in Chief, Dan Farber, has written an interesting column this past weekend on the potential turf battles that will be created by President-Elect Obama’s campaign promise to create a federal Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Farber says, “it could be difficult to find a worthy candidate from the private sector willing to take on a task of such enormous scope in an environment known to chew up and spit out White House policy czars.”

One of the most important programs being developed by the Department of Homeland Security as the Chertoff regime departs is the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). Individuals traveling under the Visa Waiver Program, who have not been interviewed by a consular official, will be required to submit a short form with biographical information similar to that provided on the I-94 form currently used BEFORE traveling to the U.S. Recognizing that not all travelers will learn of the new requirement and that not all air carriers have built IT connections to check ESTA approvals before boarding, U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans a “soft” enforcement regime for at least several months as the program becomes live. Of course, ESTA is just one layer in our security apparatus that also includes passenger reviewed by CBP at the National Targeting Center and US-VISIT biometrics checks.

There have been lots of articles over the past few days that chronicle the history of this week’s election and its impact upon the fabric of our nation. This piece in today’s Washington Post by Wil Haygood is by far one of the most interesting and moving as it describes this week’s election from the eyes of a man who was truly ‘there’ amongst some of the historical giants of the 20th Century.

Since it is a worthless and juvenile parlor game in Washington to speculate about whom the President will appoint as the next Secretary of Whatever, Supreme Court Justice, Vacant Senate Seat Filler, and, now, National Minister of Lending … we at the Security Debrief want to assure our readers that we are not beneath stooping to such pointless guessing ourselves. And so, without further ado … our bets on the next Secretary of Homeland Security …

Next to none of the nation’s 450 commercial airports were physically designed with security concerns in mind. A few new terminals, like DFW’s International Terminal, are examples that point the way to the future in terms of physical design to enhance security. Too many terminals today concentrate crowds in ticket lobbies adjacent to glass walls separated from motor vehicles by not much more than a sidewalk. That’s an inviting scenario for a terrorist with an IED.