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DHS Secretaries Speak – An Almost-Mount Rushmore Moment

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October 12, 2011

As they walked out onto the stage at George Washington University, it was almost a Mount Rushmore moment. Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff, Janet Napolitano and Thad Allen. Four individuals who by the nature of their respective careers, experiences and positions have become the most recognizable faces associated with homeland security. In a dialogue sponsored by GW’s Homeland Security Policy Institute and the Homeland Security & Defense Business Council, the three DHS Secretaries were “interviewed” by Adm. Allen. If there was any one message the event drove home, it was civil, principled and cooperative leadership exists at the core of the Department and the larger homeland security community.

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HSPI Event Webcast Today Featuring Napolitano, Chertoff and Ridge

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October 11, 2011

Please join The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute today at 5:00 pm for a webcasted event featuring the Hon. Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, the Hon. Michael Chertoff, Former Secretary of Homeland Security, and Hon. Tom Ridge, Former Secretary of Homeland Security. The secretaries will partake in a conversation about the future of homeland security, discussing how the nature of their work has evolved since the creation of the Department, and how to best move forward in this ever-evolving threat environment.

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In Praise of Nick Nayak and the DHS Office of Procurement Operations

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October 11, 2011

A few weeks back, I wrote an “Open Letter to Nick Nayak” in which I expressed, in some rather direct language, my frustration at attending a DHS Office of Health Affairs Industry Day on the Biowatch Generation 3 technology – an Industry Day where oral questions were prohibited and where the DHS officials did nothing other than read verbatim from the slide presentation. Apparently that blog struck a nerve because the response was quick and, as it turns out, rather satisfying.

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omeland Security moves forward with pre-crime detection

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October 10, 2011

Homeland Security moves forward with pre-crime detection : Homeland Security News An internal U.S. Department of Homeland Security document indicates that a controversial program designed to predict whether a person will commit a crime is already being tested on some members of the public voluntarily, CNET has learned. If this sounds a bit like the […]

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Refugees, Settlers and Borders: Addressing the Core Issues in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

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October 10, 2011

Media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute tends to focus on issues that make for better sound bites. The media latches onto largely meaningless but ostensibly easily understandable concepts such as “peace process.” In fact, the core issue of this dispute has always been and will continue to be, regardless of the size or location of land swaps, whether the Palestinians and the larger Arab World are willing to ultimately accept the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East or whether peace agreements with that country are really only temporary expediencies on the road towards “righting the historical wrong” of a Jewish state in the region.

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Rise and Fall of the PFO

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October 7, 2011

The Principal Federal Official (PFO) was a post-9/11 initiative designed to put a senior official on top of the operational response to major disasters. Apparently, the idea of a PFO has fallen on hard times. If the word on the street is right, the current thinking in DHS is that if there is a really big oh-my-God event, the secretary will be the PFO and we’ll leave it at that. That is frankly a really bad idea. Who runs the department while the secretary is acting as PFO, and what happens if there is more than one OMG event at a time?

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It's the Ideology, Stupid

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October 6, 2011

Today, it would be fair to say that U.S. counterterrorism efforts are tactically strong. We are well-positioned to tap the right phones, carry out surveillance of the right targets, and as a result we have a truly remarkable track record of preventing attacks. Where we remain inexcusably weak, however, is in the realm of strategic counterterrorism, or counter-radicalization. Engagement and counterterrorism initiatives are critical, but the wide space between them must be addressed. Missing are policies and programs that contest extremist narratives, empower and network mainstream voices, and promote the free exchange of ideas and publicly challenge extremist ideas.

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Cybersecurity – The Public Health Model

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October 6, 2011

I teach an online Master’s Level course in cybersecurity policy Issues. As part of one of my lessons, I asked students the following question: Can the principles of public health be applied to help understand cybersecurity, or should we stick with a military/defense metaphor? A student offered 10 core functions of public health entities, a stark contrast to traditional law enforcement and security premises centered on enforcement, detection, and deterrence. It is a better fit.

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Life Lessons on Preventing Terrorism

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October 5, 2011

Last week left us with more than enough object lessons about what is important when it comes to good counterterrorism. Getting Anwar al-Awlaki was important, and degrading transnational terrorist networks should always list as job number one. As a recent briefing at the National Institute Justice makes clear, attacks associated with organized networks result in higher deaths per attack. They are more dangerous than “lone-wolfs” and “self-radicalized” violent extremists.

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McCain lashes out at Holder over Fast and Furious memos – The Hill's Twitter Room

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October 5, 2011

McCain lashes out at Holder over Fast and Furious memos – The Hill’s Twitter Room Top Republicans blasted Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday after reports surfaced that he might have known about the controversial “Fast and Furious” gun-tracking operation earlier than he previously claimed.

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