Adfero Group HSPI

By Guest Contributor Douglas Doan
President Obama’s stimulus funds to the Department of Homeland Security were designed to improve infrastructure, creating an excellent opportunity to improve our ports-of-entry infrastructure and improve the economy via enhanced trade facilitation. Instead, Customs and Border Protection has used those funds to advance purely enforcement operations. Perhaps CBP should become cBP — or maybe just BP — as customs funding is so often diverted to protection operations.

The federal government should be in good enough shape to get through a really bad flu season. Here is why. While H1N1 is more contagious than other strains of seasonal flu we have seen in recent years, it actually appears to be less lethal. If more folks die from medical complications due to flu (on average 36,000 die each year), it will be because more folks get sick. Washington should be able to handle the extra stress (that is the conclusion of a recent research study by the Heritage Foundation).

9/11 is the motivation for the people on the front lines in our nation’s airports and to this day the agency’s mission is to prevent such an attack from ever happening again. The focus of the agency is to protect the transportation network and prevent another act of terror. It is also about the resiliency of the transportation network so that if something happens in air, transit, or rail, that the system is not crippled.

The Coast Guard offered the following statement on this morning’s training excersises on the Potomac River.

First responders unfurl a giant American flag over the side of the Pentagon building after the attacks of September 11th.

In life you get to meet a lot of people, but there are very few that can do things that are extra-ordinary. Erroll Southers is one of those people. Nominated by the President to be the next Administrator of TSA, he takes on one of the most challenging and public-engaging entities anywhere in government.

On this 8th Anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, across America people will stop and reflect on where they were, what they were doing and how their lives changed because of the events of that tragic day. Whenever that next “bad day” event occurs, it is NOT the US Department of Homeland Security that will be the first to arrive at the scene. It will be the local first responders – police, fire, emergency medical and rescue personnel – who will be there first.

The White House announced its intent to nominate Erroll G. Southers as the next administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Any word on CBP, DEA, ATF …?

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), cross border traffic is down 12.5% over the last year. An article in yesterday’s USAToday argued that the implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) – which requires U.S. citizens as well as Canadian and Bermudans to possess a passport or similar document when entering the country – is responsible for the bulk of the decrease.

This subject could seem to some like a much less important element of cyber security than others. They could not be more wrong. In fact, this could be the key to success, particularly in the long term. If we fail in this sort of effort, all our other cyber security measures will be wasted.

There was news yesterday of three convictions in the plot to blow-up international flights bound for the United States. The trial is a cogent reminder that the transnational terrorists are still out there. They are trying to kill us. We need to stop them.

Remember during the early years of the Department of Homeland Security when the distribution of federal homeland grants was a source of frequent and major controversy? Now think about the last time you heard about a major grants controversy? It’s been a while.

I am told, almost as if by way of explanation, that the people doing the shooting in Juarez are very good at what they do. They kill well. They don’t often miss. This is not collateral damage. The executed can usually be tied to the drug trade. Gang-related, as they say in the United States. Small-time dealers who owe money. The double-crossed. The nasty business of achieving dominance over rivals. Still, that doesn’t account for the judges killed. The law enforcement agents and soldiers. The reporters who cover the killings and who end up resented and dead for the effort. It doesn’t account, exactly, for the 18 murdered in cold blood at the rehab center on September 3rd.

In today’s world, the definition of security has changed. George Orwell once said, ”People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” That is still true today, as the war on terrorism has shown, but along side of those rough men, we require a new breed of warrior.

The roller-coaster ride of narcotics enforcement in Mexico continues with the recent decriminalization of personal use drug possession. At a time when the current administration in Mexico is in an all-out war with the drug cartels, could anyone have guessed this one?

While Al Gore claimed to invent the internet, he didn’t. Some say Leonard Kleinrock did, others say it was a government agency called DARPA. If you listen to some members of Congress lately, however, apparently President Obama will soon be able to control the internet. In fact, the Cybersecurity Act of 2009 and/or similar draft legislation by Senators Rockefeller/Snow, would give the President the power to ‘control’ the internet in case of emergency.

DHS still has the lead for the US Government in the cyber arena. That responsibility is a hold over from the Bush Administration. Many experts feel that since DHS could not gain sufficient traction in this area, they should have the duty removed, and given to someone else in the government.