I give S&T high marks for beginning to open itself to the public and media in a transparent fashion. The roundtable gave me an opportunity to ask questions about how the Commercialization office might be tied closer with the acquisition process (something where the public and private sector would find benefit, I believe.)
By Edward Alden
The front page of the New York Times this week has re-launched the debate over whether the United States should finally complete the long promised comprehensive entry-exit system as a tool for preventing terrorist attacks. It should be a short debate: the answer is no. To confront the enormous logistical difficulties of creating a comprehensive entry-exit system for minimal investigative benefits doesn’t make a shred of sense.
DHS strips Sheriff Arpaio of immigration authority | Immigration | eastvalleytribune.com The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has stripped Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio of his authority to arrest suspected illegal immigrants based solely on their immigration status. But Arpaio said Tuesday he plans to continue his controversial “crime suppression operations,” despite DHS’s decision to […]
If Americans think we have problems with the recent disruption of a suspected terrorist cell in New York, they haven’t seen anything yet.
The pursuit of bureaucratic dominance after 9/11 gave us the divorce of counter-terror from counter-crime, creating a duopoly that is massively expensive in terms of money, manpower and effectiveness. Illegal immigration and smuggling are becoming a major focus of manpower, and runs the risk of the same bureaucratic wrangling that sacrifices effect and efficiency in the name of departmental primacy.
The White House says that President Obama is taking the unusual step of personally lobbying the international Olympic committee in order to help create jobs, spur tourism and promote economic growth for the US and especially his home town of Chicago. Certainly, the President should promote trade and tourism, but it is a pity that he can’t get DHS fully on board and willing to make a similar commitment.
In the years since September 11, 2001, twenty-four terror plots have been disrupted in the United States. This is top of mind given recent arrests in Denver and New York. What will be next? What should we be anticipating, and, are we managing risk appropriately? It is not just up to the government, what are you doing in your life?
As part of is ongoing outreach on QHSR, DHS hosted another Bloggers Roundtable to talk about the third portion of its homeland security dialogue.
It is too early to speculate, but based on previous behavior at DHS as well as other extensive quadrennial reviews that have occurred elsewhere, it’s fairly obvious at what’s going to happen at the end of the rainbow. Reorganization is in the future and it will have lots of insights, diverse stakeholder inputs, analysis and documentation to guide it.
The arrest of Richard Cramer earlier this month is very disturbing news for many reasons. Cramer was arrested by DEA on September 4th for his participation in a conspiracy to provide members of a Mexican drug cartel with information and background on U.S. narcotics enforcement activities.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) conducted a survey of its top performing confidential sources a couple years ago, and asked them to list in order of importance the factors that allow global drug trafficking cartels [and terrorist organizations] to succeed. At the very top of the list for every respondent was the single word— ‘CORRUPTION.’
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