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Security Debrief

The Evolution of Occupy – Participation in Shareholder Meeting Protests

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May 1, 2012

Last week’s protests at the shareholder meetings of General Electric and Wells Fargo highlight the newest trend in protest against corporations and gives visibility to the power struggle going on within and over the Occupy movement itself. 99% Spring and 99% Power are nationwide protest efforts founded by the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) and MoveOn.org. Both groups have planned to protest at a series of shareholder meetings for their target corporations throughout the Spring and are promoting these protests on their website.

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Report on UC Davis Pepper Spray Incident One Sided, Impaired By Lack of Balance

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April 26, 2012

Last fall, police used pepper spray during protests at the University of California-Davis, and afterwards, the Reynoso Task Force was tasked with investigating the incident and compiling a report. The lack of balance and impartiality in the Reynoso Task Force membership casts doubt onto its conclusions, some of which are valid. As a result, their report is distinctly one-sided, providing serious criticism of the police while not mentioning the roles and responsibilities of protesters and protest organizers.

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A Response to "Kip Hawley’s Suggested TSA Reforms"

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April 23, 2012

By Doug Doan
I previously criticized Kip Hawley for being too timid and for his rather late conversion to understanding TSA security is ineffective, expensive, and demeaning. My key point is that the problems that plague DHS/CBP/TSA are not so much policy driven, but leadership issues. Or, put more bluntly, a succession of poor and timid leaders that are unwilling to make difficult choices or align themselves with unpopular, but wiser, policies until they are safely out of office and pursuing consultant fees. This piece is in response to Jeff Sural’s recent post on Hawley and TSA.

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Remember Today – Oklahoma City

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April 19, 2012

Everyone old and young remembers September 11, because that was a horrific day for America. But let us not forget that horrific event on American soil, started April 19, 1995, when the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was destroyed by a truck bomb, killing 168 of our fellow Americans.

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Abu Zubaida's Clear Ties to al-Qaeda

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April 19, 2012

Here is a piece I published in the Washington Post about Abu Zubaida, at one time al Qaeda’s third in command. While Abu Zubaida’s lawyer argues the absence of charges is evidence of innocence, the facts say otherwise.

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Secret Service in Colombia – Does Due Process Exist in the Press?

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April 18, 2012

One of the great things about the United States is that our forefathers wrote and established a timeless Constitution as a cornerstone to the best nation in the world. It is the basis for the best legal system in the world, where citizens are afforded due process. Sadly, there are more and more instances where the press has self-appointed itself judge, jury and even attorney for both sides. What happened to reporting the facts and not opinions? Indeed, many in the press have tried and convicted the Secret Service agents and officers that were in Colombia recently.

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US Secret Service Woes – Trouble in Colombia

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April 17, 2012

Reporting over the past few days regarding an advance detail of U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Military personnel’s activities in Colombia has been riveting. Being a former federal law enforcement officer, I was not shocked by their activities, but I was truly saddened. People responsible for the safety and security of the President and others just cannot engage in this kind of behavior. Part of the problem could be that the Secret Service is incorrectly situated in DHS. My own sense is that they are in the wrong department, with leadership problems, and are starved for funding.

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Kip Hawley’s New Book – "Why Airport Security is Broken and How to Fix it"

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April 16, 2012

By Doug Doan
Former TSA Boss Kip Hawley has written an important, but flawed, new book, telling us that TSA is a broken agency in need of urgent reform. The book offers thoughtful recommendations for reform, which is why I find it all so sad. The one big issue that Hawley does not much discuss is why he never tried to implement any of these urgent reforms while he was in charge of the very agency that he now tells us, correctly, is broken. And every other DHS senior leader, from the former Secretaries at DHS, Commissioners of CBP, and TSA, has either started, or joined, a consulting company advocating urgent reforms to the very organization that they once led. Let’s also admit that every one of them had the opportunity to implement the reforms that they now advocate in exchange for huge consulting fees.

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Searching for Democracy – Citizenship and Homeland Security

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April 11, 2012

At the launch of the Zócalo Public Square/Cal Humanities “Searching for Democracy” series, Eric Liu, a fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion, asked the audience to consider an issue that pervades all aspects of American life: citizenship. It’s one that cuts across political belief, class, and geography, but “most of us, most of the time, don’t think or talk about” it. This has impacts for America’s security efforts and is something the homeland security community should be willing to think about.

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