Security Debrief contributor James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation does a guest interview on the respected emergency preparedness blog: “In Case of Emergency, Read Blog.” Carafano discusses a report he co-authored with David Heyman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
It appears DHS transition pains have reared their head in the obscure land of I-9s, resulting in the last minute postponement of a new revised Form I-9 that was scheduled to take effect this past Monday, February 2, 2009. This week, however, many employers proceed with confusion while many others will be using the wrong Form I-9.
Several recent amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will sunset on December 31, 2009.
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress has focused considerable attention on how intelligence is collected, analyzed, and disseminated in order to protect the homeland against terrorist threats. Prior to 9/11, it was possible to make a distinction between “domestic intelligence”—primarily law enforcement information collected within the United States—and “foreign intelligence”— primarily military, political, and economic intelligence collected outside the country.
Dr. David Eisenman, a scholar in the field of terrorism preparedness at UCLA, reports on a study he recently published with colleagues documenting the disproportionate fears caused by terrorism and terrorism preparedness/response policies among minorities, individuals with mental illness, and individuals with physical disabilities.
The Quadrennial Roles and Missions Review (QRM) offered a unique opportunity for the Defense Department to further our strategic priorities by assessing responsibilities of individual components and evaluating improvements to the way we do business across our enterprise.
From the moment we first stood up DHS, the entire leadership made the case and operated under the principle that a successful homeland security model required a true partnership with the private sector. That meant going beyond simple advisory committees but developing programs in which the government and private sector could work together, as well as acknowledging that — with more than 80 percent of the nation’s critical infrastructure being owned by the private sector — those outside of government had just as much at stake and spent just as much time looking for solutions to protect that infrastructure.
Coastal shipping should be thought of in a preparedness and recovery context. Similar to the maritime evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11, an American Dunkirk, or how coastal shipping helped get the Gulf coast going again after Katrina (after the Jones Act was temporarily suspended), rebuilding America’s maritime infrastructure would bring intangible yet critically valuable security benefits.
As the honeymoon period for the new Administration fades, so too does the ability to avoid the proverbial third rail called immigration. The decision to further postpone implementation of the E-Verify rule marks one of the first decisions regarding immigration that the Obama Administration has taken.
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