David Olive

In Praise of Nick Nayak and the DHS Office of Procurement Operations

October 11, 2011

A few weeks back, I wrote an “Open Letter to Nick Nayak” in which I expressed, in some rather direct language, my frustration at attending a DHS Office of Health Affairs Industry Day on the Biowatch Generation 3 technology – an Industry Day where oral questions were prohibited and where the DHS officials did nothing other than read verbatim from the slide presentation. Apparently that blog struck a nerve because the response was quick and, as it turns out, rather satisfying.

Doing Business with DHS: An Open Letter to Nick Nayak

David Olive |

September 14, 2011

A continuing (and welcomed) theme of some DHS presentations has been the importance of maintaining a dialogue with all Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stakeholders, including the private sector. While the messages have been well received in the audiences where I was privileged to sit, unfortunately, those messages do not seem fully to have permeated DHS – yet. My specific concern is triggered by an event labeled as a Biowatch Gen3 Industry Day held by the Office of Health Affairs on Monday, September 12, 2011. Unlike other DHS Industry Day sessions, which have been substantively informative, procedurally interactive and programatically insightful, this event was a complete waste of time for almost everyone there.

Congress Must "Shape Up," 9/11 Commission member says

David Olive |

September 1, 2011

Yesterday the 9/11 Commission members got together and talked about their views on what has been learned, and what has been done, since their report was issued several years back. One pointed resonated: Congress needs to reform the way it conducts homeland security oversight. Is anyone on the Hill willing to lead this effort?

Emergency Response and Network Congestion – A Matter of Bandwidth

David Olive |

August 31, 2011

As the East Coast is cleaning up from the effects of Hurricane Irene, pundits have not been shy in expressing opinions about the use (mostly about the benefits) of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter to get information out to affected audiences. The FCC has launched an inquiry into whether phone calls to 911 emergency response agencies were affected by congestion on the cellular phone communications networks. The FCC might also look into how media solicitations for viewer video affects network congestion.

Post VA, DC Earthquake, After Action Report Required

David Olive |

August 24, 2011

One of the best descriptions of what it is like to work in Washington, DC, can be summed up with the old canard, “After all is said and done, there will be a lot more said than done.” I have every confidence that will be the situation following the earthquake we experienced early Tuesday afternoon. Less than 24 hours from the event, it is presumptuous to draw final conclusions, but there are some things that need to be addressed immediately.

Yet Another Misguided Reference to Using Predator Drones for Border Surveillance

David Olive |

August 16, 2011

This morning’s Politico contains a story suggesting Texas Governor Rick Perry believes Predator drones should be used for border surveillance purposes on the U.S.’s southwest border. While the headline may have been more suggestive than the now-presidential candidate actually said, the idea of using Predators is one Governor Perry ought to revisit, and quickly.

Congress Heal Thyself – An Inch-Stone Approach

David Olive |

August 15, 2011

If we can’t “fix” the problem of overlapping congressional jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security, can we make congressional oversight work more efficiently? That question has been rattling around in my mind over the past few weeks, especially as we look back at the events of the decade since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In an environment where “working cooperatively” seems to be a political liability, I wonder if another approach to the problem of unnecessary and wasteful congressional oversight of DHS might be worth exploring. If we can’t get rid of the overlaps, can we at least force the “turf warriors” to sit at the same table?

Doing Homeland Security at the Speed of Bureaucracy

David Olive |

July 22, 2011

It is all but impossible for DHS to fulfill its mission of protecting the homeland when the bureaucratic processes they must work with fail to recognize that sometimes a partial solution is better than a delayed solution. Last week the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Management held a hearing on technology acquisition. I have little hope that GAO will ever understand the real-world environment in which homeland security acquisition ought to occur. The GAO report released to coincide with the hearing shows me that they just don’t “get it.”

Droning On and On

David Olive |

July 6, 2011

John Villasenor at Brookings released “Cyber-Physical Attacks and Drone Strikes: The Next Homeland Security Threat,” that is well-worth the time to digest. While the thrust of the paper was to highlight the potential ability of U.S. adversaries to use UAVs to launch a cyber-physical attack, I could not help but think of how such unmanned vehicles might be used for reconnaissance and surveillance purposes along the border. While CBP pursues a “one size fits all” strategy of using Predator UAVs as their sole unmanned platform, the rest of the world apparently sees the advantages of using a mix of significantly smaller unmanned aircraft for surveillance purposes.

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