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A new and very interesting concept is growing among a community of dedicated national security professionals. Diplomats, soldiers, law enforcement officers, intelligence operatives, cyber warriors and development specialists are being aided by sociologists, psychologists, and policy academicians. Their unifying concept is that 21st century warfare in the post-9/11 world requires a different viewpoint than what we have applied in the past. This new integrated concept is called Fifth Generation Warfare.

The ITRR controversy in Pennsylvania raises important questions about protesters, free speech, free assembly, the relationship between protesters and threats to critical infrastructure, and the quality of contractor support to government entities. An argument can certainly be made in this instance that the Governor threw out the baby with the bathwater. The provision of intelligence services to protect critical infrastructure and key resources is essential, but so is a fundamental understanding of the types of threats and the risks that they pose, including being able to distinguish threats from opportunities.

I have spoken recently quite a few times about the possibility of cyber attacks on SCADA systems. Well, now we have had a very high profile one. The Stuxnet worm has infected a large number of PCs involved in industrial control systems. What I do know is that this shows that the so-called experts who have discounted control system attacks as low in likelihood (because they are not fully hooked to the net and because the systems are idiosyncratic) are wrong. It takes a better weapon, and more care to emplace it, but it can be done, and indeed has been.

Secretary Napolitano’s recent Senate testimony focused on the myriad threats to the homeland and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) efforts to address them. She emphasized that the terrorist threat to global aviation continues to be significant. The ultimate goal of both DHS and the international community should be an aviation security regime based on an individualized, threat-based approach using advance information, enhanced targeting, and an interactive system to prohibit boarding or to designate individuals for additional screening measures prior to boarding.

A few weeks ago, Security Debrief hosted a superb session with one of the most intriguing people I have ever met. A former judge, Ms. Shannen Rossmiller characterizes herself as a “cyber operative.” Her function can best be described as a nontraditional intel gatherer for cyber counter intelligence. She works over the Net on jihadi radicalization and recruitment issues, and she is a new cyber warrior on a new battlefield.

As luck would have it, the question of all questions about TSA would not be the first questioned asked. It instead would be the last. Presiding at today’s hearing, Chairwoman Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) had the honor of asking the question on the future of unionizing the Agency’s Transportation Security Officers (TSOs). As regular readers of Security Debrief know, my friend and fellow Catalyst Partner, David Olive and I made a bet about what the first question would be at TSA Administrator John Pistole’s first appearance before the House Homeland’s Subcommittee on Transportation Security & Infrastructure Protection. Unfortunately for me, that question came at the very end of the hearing and not at the beginning, as I had bet.

By Doug Doan
Yesterday’s hearing on the salmonella outbreak that resulted in a huge recall of eggs offers important and disturbing insight into the government’s expanding role in food safety. If you ever thought that these hearings were called in an honest attempt to find out what happened, what went wrong, and what actions could be taken to prevent a similar problem and actually improve the safety of our food supply, think again. That is not how these hearings work. In fact, the hearing was really a prop for the FDA to push a favorite hobby horse of ever-expanding control, budgets, regulations and authorities.

At a full hearing of the Senate Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee with DHS Sec. Janet Napolitano, FBI Director Robert Mueller and NCTC Director Michael Leiter, the message delivered was loud and clear. The risk of smaller scale, more individualized attacks by al Qaeda and its sympathizers within the United States is growing. Period. There should be no more blissful ignorance to our operating environment in America. It can not be afforded.

Before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, DHS Secretary Napolitano, FBI Director Mueller and NCTC Director Leiter each underscored the growing threat of homegrown terrorism and warned that there are increasing numbers of Americans inspired by al Qaeda. This summer, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released an English-language magazine, appropriately titled Inspire. This is a dangerous tool, in part because it isn’t masses of jihad-waging Americans that we foresee threatening homeland security – it’s the lone wolf radicalized in secret, which is exactly for whom Inspire was written.

Like any office space, there is plenty of banter back and forth between my colleagues and me at Catalyst Partners. While we make the arbitrary sports bets with one another, we also, from time to time, will make a bet on which member of Congress is going to ask the nastiest question at a Congressional Hearing; who will come unglued to rail at a witness; and so forth. This week, my friend and fellow Catalyst Partner David Olive and I bet lunch on what topic House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson will open the hearing with: TSA and unions or cargo screening? Cast your vote here before the hearing.

By Brian Lake
Usually when National Preparedness Month rolls around in September, you’ll find me talking to emergency managers, first responders, disability service providers, my friends, my girlfriend and the guy I met in the park while walking my dog about inclusive emergency preparedness for disability communities. This year is no different. This year has had two very significant milestones: the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. One marks how far we have come; the other marks how far we still have to go.

Business Executives for National Security (BENS) hosted the first of a new series of round tables today that will cover Cyber Security and Cyber War. This first meeting was a discussion with Jeffery Carr, the author of “Inside Cyber Warfare,” and the discussion moved between the threats, the government responses to them and why the government is not doing too well. The bottom line was this: Carr believes we are presently involved in a cyber war.

It’s not at all unusual for a Hollywood celebrity to make an appearance on Capitol Hill. Whether they are advocating for a particular cause or issue, their public visibility has the ability to shine a greater light on a particular subject matter than what might otherwise be offered. That’s why I greet the news that Oscar winner Kevin Costner is serving as a witness before the House Homeland Security Committee with some cautious enthusiasm. At the Wednesday hearing, Costner will be just one of several witnesses that hopefully will provide some lessons learned from what has been and continues to be the disaster with no end – the Gulf oil spill.

Former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge commented yesterday about when streamlining congressional oversight of DHS might occur. This is not the first time Secretary Ridge has weighed in on the problems of having DHS report to over 100 congressional committees and subcommittees, and his thoughts have been echoed by his two predecessors, Michael Chertoff and Janet Napolitano, and a chorus of other voices. Perhaps this is one of the few issues that members on both sides of the aisle agree upon this election year, but to date, the leadership of both parties has sat on their hands and ignored the calls for reform of the oversight morass.

As an article in the Washington Post recently pointed out, India is overhauling its homeland security, and U.S. companies are vying for its business. This story makes all kinds of sense for all kinds of reasons. The strategic partnership between the United States and India has been growing for several years. First, the countries share a common cause on many fronts, especially on battling terrorism. Second, India needs help. One opportunity to build U.S.-Indian CT cooperation would be to “internationalize” the SAFETY Act.

At the National Press Club, the SANS Institute and GovExec Magazine held a superb two-hour session that broached the controversial, ill-defined and critical issues around Cyber War. It was an excellent discussion with true experts. It would have been worth it to go beyond the time limits, as we ran out of time well before we ran out of questions. What follows is not a transcript but my paraphrased review of what was covered.

At this morning’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing, “The Evolving Nature of Terrorism – Nine Years after the 9/11 Attacks” (a hearing worth listening to more than once), Steve Flynn committed a characteristic act of candor when he said that one of the many things that encouraged terrorist activity was the “spasmatic reaction” of Congress. He is right, of course, and not one member of the Homeland Security Committee challenged his comment. That was telling in its’ own right and worth remembering.

By a resounding and expected margin, Washington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty was defeated for re-election by Council Chairman, Vincent Gray. While I am not a District resident or a Fenty fan, I was impressed with his results and more importantly, the people he put into positions of authority. For as much as I liked what Michelle Rhee, his hand-picked Schools Chancellor, did to fix the disaster known as DC Schools, it was his Police Chief, Cathy Lanier, who I think has done an outstanding job. Her leadership of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has been inspiring on so many levels. I think she has shown herself to be an excellent leader in protecting the safety and security of the District’s citizens.

By Douglas Doan
Last week, experts in and out of government debated the extent and potency of the threat from Muslim extremists. Meanwhile, Secretary Napolitano spent time talking about the fear of attack from homegrown terrorists. But what was most interesting of all is that nobody wanted to talk about the single greatest threat to the nation, which was recently highlighted by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mullen, and then later reinforced by Secretary of State Clinton. This new threat is not the Taliban, or some bin Laden splinter group, but the ever growing U.S. national debt.

The National Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (NSI) encourages law enforcement agencies at the local, state, tribal and regional levels to share suspicious activity reports (SARs) with each other to enhance investigations and analysis. This landmark initiative gives police the ability to search nationwide suspicious activity for clues to help piece together criminal conspiracies and prevent major crimes. To help agencies make sense of NSI, here are several tips for maximizing the benefits as originally intended by the initiative.