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Contributor:

David Olive

TSA Names Rod Allison as Acting Deputy Administrator

On the day before Thanksgiving, in the midst of one of the busiest travel days of the year, TSA Administrator Pete Neffenger announced to TSA employees that Roderick Allison had been named the Acting Deputy Administrator.

Early Thoughts on the Paris Terrorists’ Attacks

There are still many questions that remain to be answered about the Paris terrorist attacks, but so long as there is an internal struggle within Islam and countries where Islamists are fighting each other, we have to expect more events like what was seen in Paris.

Biodefense Blue Ribbon Panel Report Sends Strong Messages – Is Anyone Listening?

The Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense recently released its report following a year-long study of how America can and should address biological threats. It deserves serious attention by policy makers, health practitioners and political pundits. Why? Because the threat and impact of a biological “event” is not receiving sufficient attention.

DHS Finalizes Strategy on Countering Violent Extremism

At last week’s meeting of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism And Responses to Terrorism, DHS Science and Technology Directorate Undersecretary Reginald Brothers announced the completion of a department-wide Countering Violent Extremism strategy.

The Intense Personalization of Caring

Everywhere I turn, I get the sense that people are thinking, “If I cannot control it, I don’t worry about it.” When I read the latest Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, I wondered if DHS employees are expressing the same “why-should-I-care” messages that I have been hearing across the country.

TSA Rolls Out A New Website…and It Needs Work

Last week, TSA rolled out its new website. If the GAO were writing a review of the site, it would no doubt conclude that “progress has been made but much work remains to be done.” In fact, there is so much more work that needs to be done that I’m surprised TSA released it when it did.

A Congressional Hearing ‘Do-Over’ Done Very Well

A few weeks back, I recommended that the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies have a “do-over” of a hearing where the subject was private sector interaction with DHS S&T. The reason I recommended this was because the most successful private sector program at S&T – the SAFETY Act implementation – was never mentioned. On July 28, the same Subcommittee held that “do-over.”

Open Letter to Joseph Kolb and Fox News – What’s In A Name?

Dear Fox News’ Joseph Kolb: How long will it take before you realize that Border Patrol agents and CBP’s Office of Field Operations officers are NOT the same thing? On Friday night, July 31, you published a story that gets them mixed up. You need to fix this and offer an apology.

Human Factors – A Prerequisite for a DHS CVE Office

The proposed Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Act of 2015 (H.R. 2899) could benefit from a bit more study and debate. The bill would create a CVE Office within DHS, filling a hole that should not exist in DHS. It was not always this way.