Adfero Group HSPI

Security Debrief contributor Scott Borgerson has been busy recently informing Congress and readers of the New York Times about the effects of global warming on foreign affairs and homeland security.

The first phase of the G20 protests passed off peacefully on Saturday, not least because the organisers, the British Trade Unions Council (TUC), does not permit violence or anarchy in any form. In their desire to have their message heard in a manner that is respectful of others, they do not block major arterial routes, they hold their protests in very visible areas that do not interfere with the activities of others, and they actively disavow violence, tasking the police to effect arrests of groups that gather with the clear intention of violence.

I first met Matt Simeone in 2004 during a business trip to the greater New York City area when I was working for DHS’ Private Sector Office. At the time, Matt and several of his fellow officers in the Nassau County Police Department were building one of the country’s first public-private sector information sharing networks. It was called the Security/Police Information Network (SPIN) and it was Matt’s job to lead the team of police officers to put the program in place.

Security Debrief contributor Ellen Howe spoke with Francis Rose at Federal News Radio’s In Depth about Web 2.0 use in the federal government.

When a team of experts led by scholars at The Heritage Foundation and the Center for Strategic and International Studies recommended some serious fixes to the organization of the Department of Homeland Security in their report DHS 2.0 advocated, among other key initiatives creating a policy section in the secretariat that would work for an Undersecretary for Policy and Planning. The need for a policy and planning arm in the department has been apparent for some time now.

On Friday, March 27, 2009 an amazing tenure at DHS will conclude. Al Martinez-Fonts’ services as the Assistant Secretary for the Private Sector will end and he will return to where he came from, the private sector. As Assistant Secretary for the Private Sector and soon as private citizen, Al was, and still is the embodiment of the spirit of American innovation and entrepreneurship.

The word “intelligence” can have multiple meanings. If you were watching last week’s hearing (March 18, 2009) – “Homeland Security Intelligence: Its Relevance and Limitations,” held before the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment you will understand the word much better, especially in terms that Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) described as “what we want and what we don’t want.”

Cops do not write the laws. They are hired and trained to enforce what politicians have written and passed to protect the country. The agents liking or disliking a law is not relevant, their only job is to enforce them. Clearly writing a law and then criticizing those that enforce them only brings new meaning to the word hypocrite.

The Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 mandates the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a system to physically screen 50 percent of cargo transported on passenger aircraft by February 2009 and 100 percent of such cargo by August 2010. This testimony provides preliminary observations on the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) progress in meeting the mandate to screen cargo on passenger aircraft and the challenges TSA and industry stakeholders may face in screening such cargo.

Quite frankly, I don’t believe that there are many US police forces that are truly ready to police crowds in a manner that is constitutionally, morally, and even legally compliant. By failing on any of these a department faces litigation and worse. I hope that I am wrong, but I am convinced that I am not.

Cubans attempting to enter the U.S. illegally are uniquely handled under an immigration law descriptively known as “wet foot/dry foot”. But a new and equally dangerous trend has emerged in the past several years that brings Cubans to the U.S. soil through dangerous Mexico.

On Saturday, March 28, 2009, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, will host a Summit at Tougaloo College in Mississippi entitled Continuing America’s Promise: Doing Business with the Department of Homeland Security.

CQ Homeland Security follows up on Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling ICE agents “un-American” for doing worksite enforcement operations.

Several days ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) spoke at a town hall-type meeting at St. Anthony’s Church in San Francisco, CA. In addressing the assembled crowd, which news coverage described as being filled with both legal and illegal immigrants, the Speaker described the raids that have been conducted on homes and businesses where illegal-immigrants are located as “un-American.” I always thought the answer to that question was the ‘rule of law’ but apparently if I agree with enforcing existing laws, I am, in the words of Speaker Pelosi, “un-American.”

Secretary Napolitano’s held a pen and pad with news media yesterday, which was largely dominated by a discussion of the growing violence on the Mexican border. We have posted the complete transcript.

What’s with members of Congress beating up on the front line officer’s of the Department of Homeland security in recent days? Yesterday contributor Chris Battle wrote about Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s tirade against ICE agents on this blog, and this morning the Washington Post details Rep. Pete DeFazio’s impatience with transportation security officers in Portland, Ore. and just last week it was Senator David Vitter’s antics at Dulles that made the papers.

Security Debrief contributor, Ellen Howe, spoke with Randy Larsen and David McIntyre of Homeland Security: Inside & Out, about the need for human intelligence in the fight against explosives in airports.

Security Debrief Editor Chris Battle talks with Tickle The Wire, an online publication dedicated to federal law-enforcement issues, about the growing use of social media among law enforcement outlets. “When you care about targeting an audience, it doesn’t get any more targeted than this,” Battle says of social network audiences.

ICE agents are … un-American Nazis who like to terrorize our communities. According to our Members of Congress, anyway. If there were any sincerity to such hysterical campaign trail talk, one might ask why Congress doesn’t disband US Immigration and Customs Enforcement? Probably because if they did so, they’d lose their favorite scapegoat for their own failure to pass workable immigration law.

Federalizing the air cargo screening process is a drastic and short sighted solution that would further erode our proven risk-based inspection strategy. We need to find flexible, common-sense solutions to meeting the new mandates that don’t totally disregard the important role that risk-based security plays in our national security model.