American troops in Afghanistan face an increased threat from “insider” attacks in which the Afghan forces they are there to help and train are turning their guns on their American partners, raising serious questions about the viability of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. The attacks, which have killed 40 U.S. …
What happens to our society if we lose all electricity? A new TV show premiering next month, Revolution, will explore that question. It will be set in a world “where every single piece of technology—computers, planes, cars, phones, even lights—has mysteriously blacked out forever.” Eric Kripke, one of the show’s …
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Newark, Delaware, is facing suspension for refusing to release an illegal immigrant because he was not a “priority target” under the Obama Administration’s new immigration enforcement policies. In March, the officer arrested an individual under suspicion that he was a criminal alien …
Over Thanksgiving weekend of 2006, airport screeners in Toronto began meticulously searching every carry-on bag by hand. The delays caused security lines to pile up. Passengers began missing their flights en masse. To break the bottleneck, supervisors allowed 250,000 passengers to board their flights with “minimal or no screening.” One …
Late last week, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials announced that they had preliminarily approved Sacramento International Airport to begin moving forward with privatizing their screening workforce. The move is part of TSA’s Security Partnership Program (SPP), the nearly eight-year-old program allowing U.S. airports to opt out of federal screening and …
On Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee will meet to discuss the much-debated Chemical Facility Anti Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, which requires that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) establish security standards for facilities that produce, handle, or store potentially dangerous chemicals. Enacted in the aftermath of 9/11, the program was …
Cybersecurity legislation will likely be taken up by the Senate tomorrow. Regrettably, the idea that we just need to do something about cybersecurity seems to be trumping the view that we need to do it right. The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 (CSA), authored by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I–CT) and Susan …
Today, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “Understanding the Homeland Security Threat Landscape.” In announcing the hearing, committee chairman Peter King (R–NY) explained: U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence communities have made significant progress over the past 15 months since the killing of Osama bin Laden. However, even …
