Adfero Group HSPI

There are numerous examples of the return that training offers but one of the best examples of its rewards was in Minneapolis, MN. On August 1, 2007, the westward span of the I-35 Bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River killing 13 and injuring 121 others. Almost immediately, city, regional and state emergency personnel responded.

The question that must be asked is what redress exists in the international community to deal with state sponsored cyber warfare? The answer to this question is quite simple: none, because there is no international rule of law that expands the laws of war to cover cyber-attacks.

Striking almost a month after Katrina, Rita struck the Gulf Coast on September 24, 2005 between Texas and Louisiana as a Category 3 storm bringing tremendous destruction and disruption to the region. While the storm only killed seven people compared to the nearly 2,000 killed by Katrina, Rita’s impact and devastation to the Gulf Coast area was also significant. Unfortunately, the impacts of this storm are often overlooked and forgotten, and I fear that is the case with Sec. Napolitano’s recent Action Directive.

The Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Napolitano released two additional action directives related to the administration of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its coordination with state and local partners.

Here’s a statement that should be obvious by now: Our economic stability and national security are conjoined twins – one can’t exist without the other. As this administration focuses on economic stimulus packages to respond to our country’s economic crisis, it is easy to lose sight of Homeland Security priorities.

As he was beginning a meeting with business leaders to discuss his proposed economic stimulus package, President Obama observed that his daughters were surprised to see their school (Sidwell Friends) was cancelled today on account of the weather. The President has again shown his adeptness as a communicator, but if a new era is indeed in Washington it would have been better for him to state the obvious about the DC area – we’re wimps.

Analysis of the use of social media tools during the Mumbai terror attacks, as well as how government agencies might use them in the future for homeland and national security strategies.

Napolitano is right to ask tough questions. While the department has done much to make America safe, more can be done to improve the efficacy of programs. In many cases, the department has been saddled with unworkable congressional mandates.

Several DHS principals flew out to Arizona the week after Christmas to provide briefings on a number of key programs. Perhaps those briefings raised more questions than they answered? Or maybe the Secretary is building a case for dismantling or otherwise restructuring portions of the Department right out of the gate. Due to legislative bars, Napolitano is unable to reorganize her new charge absent congressional approval. In some instances, however, it’s unlikely that congress would need much convincing for a restructuring or reassignment.

For the sake of global freedom and democracy, we may hope that Africa rises in order of priority. But how will smart diplomacy and foreign assistance solve conflicts as diverse as the on-going genocide in Sudan’s Darfur, an Islamic extremist-inspired insurgency in Somalia, and organized ethnic violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo? Change may be needed, indeed.

There were plenty of skeptics prior to Inauguration Day about the amount of security being implemented by the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. And there are still some grumblers. However, the fact that that such a record-setting event went off without a security hitch is testament to the security plans put into place.

President Barack Obama’s nomination of Jane Holl Lute, a retired Army major who worked on the NSC under President Bill Clinton, was announced Friday by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

New RAND Report on the Lessons of Mumbai The Lessons of Mumbai “This study of the Mumbai terrorist attack of November 2008 is part of the RAND Corporation Occasional Papers series. The research for this report was completed in December 2008 and updated as of January 9, 2009. Much of the information available for this [...]

Secretary Napolitano has decided to keep a number of DHS non-career employees on board at the Department through an extended transition phase. It’s a wise move, and one that highlights the confidence the former Arizona Governor brings to her role. As a matter of national security, bipartisanship has never been more important.

If the Homeland Security Council were merged into the NSC infrastructure, there is a danger that it would become a secondary voice unable to compete with those that are first and foremost concerned with breaking international crisis. Distracted by conflict between Pakistan and India and alarming Russian troop movements near the Georgian border, for example, would the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State be as concerned with, say, wildfires in California or new intelligence linking certain European banks to terrorist money laundering schemes?

There will either be a political whitewash that sends Merserle down the river, or a responsible reaction to this incident. That the District Attorney is already openly talking about murder charges suggests that a full-blown internal investigation will heap the blame on Merserle, as the trials of the NYPD officers who shot Sean Bell did, rather than openly accept that there may have been systemic problems, engage with those problems and resolve them.

New DHS officials, incoming National Security Council staff, and citizens interested in the perennial tensions between freedom and security should carefully read The Closing of the American Border and keep it near their desks. This book provides critical strategic lessons gleaned from seven years of hindsight for Americans and their leaders.

What I found most promising on the new Administration’s posted agenda for Homeland Security was its section, “Modernize America’s Aging Infrastructure.” It details three priority areas – Build in Security; Create a National Reinvestment Bank; and, Invest in Critical Infrastructure Projects. Under these three areas, the Obama Team is proposing a radical departure to how we as a nation have long decided, invested and designed our nation’s infrastructure.

The new Administration’s focus on ending combat in Iraq and turning its focus to Afghanistan stands out as a bold departure. It’s focus on shoring up the nation’s critical infrastructure also signals a new approach. What also stands out is what is not given much attention — key among such issues being immigration policy. The plan outlined by the White House offers no sense of how it will tackle this critical matter; indeed, immigration is strangely buried with aviation and transportation security under the catch-all category of “critical infrastructure.”

When I managed the El Dorado Task Force, the top money laundering task force in the nation, I had a nagging belief that some of the criminal and terrorist organizations we were up against were conducting sophisticated money laundering schemes that the federal government lacked the capacity to identify, investigate and neutralize. Simply put, the government lacked the necessary resources and expertise to compete with the criminal minds set on exploiting the ever-evolving complexities of the financial world.