Congress to Let Loose Deluge of Oil Spill Hearings This Week – CQ Homeland Security
The floodgates of congressional oversight are set to open on the federal response to the recent Gulf Coast oil spill, with nearly a half-dozen hearings scheduled for this week alone. Committee staff say the hearing will examine the plans and preparations that were in place before the spill and won’t be limited to federal readiness.
Legendary singer-song writer Jim Croce had a classic song, “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.” The same could be said for Stafford Act – you don’t want to mess with it. Such was much of the message from many witnesses at the Senate’s Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery hearing, “Stafford Act Reform: Sharper Tools for a Smarter Recovery.” While each of the witnesses conveyed their unwavering support for the Stafford Act and its structures, they cautioned Congress from messing with it.
Several weeks ago, a number of my colleagues posted about DHS/Administration plans to discontinue National Level Exercises (NLEs) to cut costs. NLEs are designed to show each top leader across the government how the government works as a whole and what each agency is responsible for during an emergency or event that impacts the lives of Americans. I recall then-Arizona Governor (now DHS Secretary) Janet Napolitano expressing concern to Secretary Chertoff that the NLEs were all prescripted and a waste of time to professionals in the response and law enforcement business. I am a big proponent of exercises as a proactive means of ensuring readiness.
Last week we experienced a major “event” in the financial world. In a matter of minutes, the New York Stock Exchange lost nearly 1000 points or about $1 trillion. It caused panic and kicked off numerous investigations as to the catalyst of the dramatic and expensive incident. There are five possible reasons for the market fall, but despite lots of hand wringing and conspiracy theorizing, pretty much all the experts agreed that it was not a terrorist incident.
If you want to scare a cyber-lay person, have them watch Bruce Willis chase virtual terrorists in “Live Free or Die Hard” and tell them it is all possible. In the film, the entire digital infrastructure of our country is brought to a stand still by a small group of very talented hackers. OK, professional analysts have told me it could not happen today. It could, however, happen in the not too distant future, particularly if present trends continue. The keys to that scenario are SCADA systems.
At a Cloud Computing Summit this week, initial questions were simple and basic; later, the question grew almost hostile. I remain an advocate for Cloud Computing. I am convinced that its economic, ecological and efficiency pluses will out weigh its potential downsides in the end. The mostly government crowd was not so sure. They were asking tough questions and were more than a little skeptical.
The attempted car bombing in Times Square and the unfolding environmental disaster in the Gulf Coast remind us of the importance of preparing for emergencies. Particularly when companies face lawsuits alleging failure to safeguard employees, customers or the community – lawsuits that are common when the unexpected occurs – companies face the question: “Should more have been done?” Two private sector preparedness programs administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can help a business’s employees, customers, and community and may even limit liability.
Shippers Meet Goal for Passenger Flight Cargo Exams – Business Week
U.S. shippers met a goal to inspect 75 percent of cargo such as fish and flowers traveling with checked bags on passenger flights after air-freight companies added gear to meet rules for examining all shipments.
I have been critical in the past of the fact that DHS has not done enough about cybersecurity. I believe DHS is the correct part of the federal government to lead on cyber issues, but it always seemed that everything was on hold. It turns out I was wrong. I attended a superb cybersecurity event, and while I would love to give you a complete blow-by-blow recount of the excellent panel presentations and the Q&A, it was all done on a non-attribution basis. Despite that, I do feel compelled to share some of what I heard.
DOE removes from its Web site a guide on nuclear plant air attacks – Homeland Security Newswire
A document on federal Web sites since June 2008 that served as a virtual how-to manual for attacking a nuclear plant with an airplane has been removed from the sites at the request of Three Mile Island Alert, a mid-state watchdog group.
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