Apologies to Allan for taking his entire newsletter opening but the first part about the Whitey movie is too cool and the second part about warrants coming out of balls is too damn funny …. Damon/Affleck to Make Whitey Bulger Film; Feds Bust 8 NYPD Cops Well, it was just a matter of time that […]
Tickle The Wire » Allan Lengel Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Jr. is an honorable man. So I believe him when he tells Congress he didn’t know about ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious until the controversy exploded in 2011. The problem is that he needs to take responsibility for it. Period.
US Congress Proposes Voluntary Air Cargo Screening – Food Logistics The US Senate Subcommittee on Transportation Security has proposed a new Transportation The proposed air cargo advanced screening (ACAS) program encourages cargo carriers to provide shipment level data for air cargo bound for the US, enabling the TSA to target and inspect high-risk cargo at […]
U.S.-Canada Perimeter Security in 2011 – Council on Foreign Relations Nearly a decade after the United States and Canada set the early template for cross-border cooperation in the post-9/11 era with the 2001 Smart Border Accords, the two governments finally appear ready to take the next step towards a genuine system of “perimeter security.” The […]
Why Obama Should Take Out Iran’s Nuclear Program | Foreign Affairs According to the recent IAEA report, Iran is closer to having nuclear weapons that was widely assumed. Once it does goes nuclear, Tehran will be almost impossible to stop. To prevent it, the Obama administration must use military force–and soon.
When the news broke yesterday with rumors and news reports that former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge could be in the running to be the next President of Penn State, I have to admit to some very mixed feelings. They weren’t negative mixed feelings but rather selfish ones. As one of the people fortunate enough to serve under Ridge in the early days of DHS, I got to observe one of the most dynamic individuals I’ve ever met in my life. If his move to Penn State should come to pass, the institution will gain someone who not only can navigate the most dangerous of seas but bring people together in service in ways never done before.
Richard Clarke is at it again. In a conference this week, he stridently appealed to the audience. He warned that the President aught not consider going to war any time in the near future. This because our cyber capabilities are so weak and America’s enemies are sure to use cyber attacks against us. Dick Clarke is a competent and farsighted man who has served this Nation long and well. Why does he seem to relish wallowing in hyperbole? We are NOT boxed in by our cyber insecurities to the point of having no options.
I welcome you to join us on Thursday, November 10, 2011 from 2:00 – 3:00pm for an HSPI Policy and Research Forum event featuring John S. Pistole, Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Mr. Pistole will discuss risk-based, intelligence-driven counterterrorism efforts, and will highlight the layered security approach and advances of TSA technology over the last decade.
For months, DHS has made considerable effort to engage the public with its “See Something, Say Something” campaign. Over the past few days, however, I’ve been wrestling with instances where people who saw and heard some things and did nothing. Take the murder of Jayna Murray in Maryland, the child sex abuse indictment against a Penn State football coach, and a Chinese toddler struck by cars and left helpless in the street. I can offer no acceptable form of explanation for these terrible instances other than to say we’ve failed all of them as friends, neighbors and fellow human beings.
It has been four years since Congress made the bone-headed move mandating 100 percent screening of passenger plane cargo. Serious risk management is not Congress’s bag, as the institution demonstrates often. Fortunately, some elements within DHS sought to forge a new path, wisely piloting a program to conduct risk analyses of inbound air cargo and to focus DHS’s resources on the high-risk cargo, rather than attempting to subject all cargo to the same level of physical screening. This “risk-based” screening has been successful for DHS in other contexts.
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