Adfero Group HSPI

I sat down with two senior members of Virginia Task Force 1 for an interview about their experiences during a mission to Japan following the earthquake and tsunami. It’s a five part interview that tells their story in their own words.

As dramatic scenes of destruction from tornados in the South flash across our televisions, many states across the Midwest and South were preparing for a similar calamity: an earthquake along the New Madrid fault line. At 10:15 this morning students in schools across eleven states were practicing their earthquake preparedness actions for “The Great Central U.S. Shakeout.”

A couple of weeks back, I sat down with two senior members of Virginia Task Force 1, Capt. Joseph Knerr and Lt. Rodney Vaughan of Fairfax County’s International Search and Rescue Team for an in-depth interview of what they experienced during a mission to Japan following the earthquake and tsunami. It’s a five part interview that tells their story in their own words.

Today’s NorthJersey.com story by Herb Jackson is the latest in a series of stories about how the mis-mash of congressional oversight is hampering the ability of DHS to perform its mission. The words of former NJ Governor Tom Kean are particularly appropriate, and Congressional leadership should pay close attention. Check out the story for some excellent reading.

The Department of Homeland Security is finally eliminating one of the worst vestiges of the immediate aftermath of 9/11 – the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) that required special travel procedures for those coming from more than two dozen countries that raised terrorism concerns. NSEERS was an understandable, but nonetheless counterproductive, response to the fears of the post-9/11 environment.

The congressional mandate to screen not only domestic U.S. air cargo but now also screen 100 percent of all international inbound cargo continues to confound cargo carriers, freight forwarders and shippers. A recent article in Air Cargo World summed up U.S. and international views of different parties in the aviation supply chain — the consensus, in a nutshell, being confusion. I had the opportunity to offer a few comments

America is getting smarter in its efforts to reduce the risk of a terror attack. Yet, these efforts, while noteworthy, do not eliminate the threats against our country. We are dealing with an intelligent adversary; al-Qaeda’s adaptive capacity continues to serve it well. Armed with knowledge of al-Qaeda’s operational approach, however, citizens can employ a common-sense approach to “See Something, Say Something” and add critical information to our counterterrorism efforts.

I love watching the latest fool-proof Internet technologies and buzz words come along. Sadly, our homeland security is tied to these new technologies, and we are made more vulnerable as a result. Recently, Amazon quietly admitted there was a failure in their system. A failure, by the way, that mucked up not only their works but plenty of others as well.

This past week, McAfee, in conjunction with CSIS, released a report titled, “In the Dark: Crucial Industries Confront Cyberattacks” at the National Press Club. The threats to control systems and other critical infrastructure are severe and changing and while words have been expended on the subject, precious little action to actually protect it has been taken. The report revealed this and other insights.

Tell DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano where you think she should go, and you can win a prize! The more I thought about Napolitano’s recent travel schedule, I wondered how the Security Debrief family might be helpful to her…and have some fun in the process.

As my fellow blogger Rich Cooper posted the other day, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) lowered America’s long-term credit rating to “negative.” I am shocked that is not the headline of every major newspaper – a downgraded dollar could devastate our homeland far worse than any tsunami. It could lose its place as the world’s common financial document.

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano has been making numerous public appearances throughout the country. I applaud Secretary Napolitano’s efforts communicating with the public, but what I do not understand is that among her many domestic travel destinations, Napolitano has never visited the one place Arizona where DHS has made a major investment – the area where the “SBInet” technology has been deployed and is currently being used with great success.

I understand today is the last day for Sean Smith, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. He leaves under a bit of a cloud for having threatened to decapitate staff in the press and legislative affairs shops at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). So it makes me a little nervous to write this post; I don’t want to end up getting pistol-whipped with a stapler.

The decision of the Justice Department not to prosecute the Council on American Islamic Relations and other unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation case is discouraging and very troubling. 246 individuals and organizations were designated as unindicted co-conspirators in the Hamas terror finance case, the United States v. Holy Land Foundation. The failure to further prosecute this case clearly sends the wrong message.

Ranking Member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), commented on the newly announced National Terrorism Alert System (NTAS) in a recent press release. When I read it, I had to shake my head in disgust at the inalienable ability of a number of Members of Congress to not recognize the evolution of an information system but deliver a purely partisan pot-shot at the other side.

The FBI has been trumpeting an apparently unprecedented action – obtaining a court order from U.S. District Judge Vanessa Byrant permitting taking over servers that had been communicating with a “botnet” called Coreflood, a malicious software that infects Microsoft windows-based computers. Coreflood is designed to steal usernames, passwords and financial information.

On April 5, I testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement on a bill that would eliminate the Diversity Visa lottery (DV) program. The hearing was specifically on the SAFE for America Act, and is sponsored by Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA), who has been seeking to do away with the visa lottery for years. This was the first time Goodlatte has received a legislative hearing on this bill.

The Department of Homeland Security today announced the launch of a new terror alert system. You can learn more at the DHS website, where a page dedicated to the new National Terrorism Advisory System outlines system. New alerts will also be posted to this same page.

Yesterday marked the first time that I was involuntarily displaced from my workplace since 9/11. Thankfully, it wasn’t the imminent threat of an attack; rather, the overflowing Potomac River was to blame…or was it? Though Mother Nature may have caused the river to rise, as Ted Steinberg emphasizes, “natural” disasters are more often the work of humans than nature. Hopefully the flooding incident reminds Washingtonians why efforts to enhance our preparedness must remain a priority almost ten years after 9/11.

In an announcement yesterday, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) “lowered its outlook for America’s long-term credit rating to ‘negative’ from ‘stable.’” In other words, we went from “we’re tolerable” to “we stink,” and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen pointed out a year ago, our growing debt is a national security concern.