David Olive

God Bless Secretary Napolitano

February 25, 2009

Congress set an arbitrary deadline on cargo scanning that was made without any semblance of a risk-based analysis, without regard to the sovereignty of foreign governments with whom the Obama Administration says it wants better relations and without any economic analysis of the impacts of their mandate. Congress had a knee-jerk reaction and acted stupidly (in my opinion) in mandating measures that do not measurably add to the safety or security of the supply chain.

Don't Turn a Blind Eye to Mexico

David Olive |

February 19, 2009

While President Obama is having lunch today with the political leadership of our closest neighbor and ally, Canada, the situation to our south has continued to deteriorate.

Will Pelosi, Obama Show Leadership in Reforming Congressional Oversight of DHS?

David Olive |

December 20, 2008

Is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unwilling to spend political capital to finish the job of enacting the recommendations of the 9-11 Commission? It’s time for Congress, and especially Speaker Pelosi, to show some leadership and clean up the mishmash of committees claiming jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security.

Rep. Rob Andrews “gets it.” Is anyone listening?

David Olive |

December 8, 2008

Streamlining congressional oversight of DHS should be a major point of emphasis in DHS Secretary-designate Janet Napolitano’s upcoming confirmation hearing.

“With Friends like these…..”

David Olive |

December 1, 2008

Under normal circumstances, the recently published screed from a group calling itself “Friends of the Border Patrol” would not merit a comment. The so-called report entitled, “Unjustifiable and Impeachable” in print form would, at best, be good as a fire starter to ward off the chill of an early winter. It is seemingly written with an incendiary purpose, and if it had any credibility whatsoever, the flames might just attract a few journalistic “moths” or even congressional investigators. Rightly, it has largely been ignored.

Congressional Chaos

David Olive |

November 25, 2008

Now that President-Elect Obama has all but officially announced that Gov. Janet Napolitano will become the next DHS Secretary, his DHS-focused Transition team will begin prioritizing policy and programming initiatives for his first term. For everyone’s sake, let’s hope working with Congress to reform the current oversight structure is among them.

The Business of Homeland Security – Picking the “right” CTO

David Olive |

November 10, 2008

CNET’s Editor in Chief, Dan Farber, has written an interesting column this past weekend on the potential turf battles that will be created by President-Elect Obama’s campaign promise to create a federal Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Farber says, “it could be difficult to find a worthy candidate from the private sector willing to take on a task of such enormous scope in an environment known to chew up and spit out White House policy czars.”

Secure Flight Program is Ready to Fly

David Olive |

October 24, 2008

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, with the support of TSA Administrator Kip Hawley, announced this week that the Secure Flight program is finally moving forward. They acknowledged that it has taken a very long time to get this passenger name checking system ready to fly but now feel confident that the time taken has not been wasted. DHS and TSA should be commended for finally getting the Secure Flight rule out the door.

Sec. Chertoff Provides Realistic Take on 100% Scanning

David Olive |

October 9, 2008

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson has finally gotten an answer to his question about DHS’s approach to cargo screening mandates. And while he probably won’t like it, DHS has it right – and Congress, and both presidential campaigns, should pay attention to what Secretary Chertoff wrote.

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