Each day, airports work to ensure that air travel is safe and secure. In fact, it is the industry’s number one priority. Partnering with airlines; tenants; the Transportation Security Administration (TSA); and federal, state and local law enforcement, airports are working aggressively to enhance security. Last week, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, introduced the “Biometric Enhancement and Airport Vulnerability Reduction Act of 2008,” which would direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a study on how airports can transition to biometric control systems for airport workers who have unescorted access to secure or sterile areas of the an airport.

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Donnie Wahlberg set for new TNT drama - TV Squad The title may change, but the set up is Donnie as a war hero who becomes an officer for the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration). His beat is Boston, Donnie’s hometown. The show is being scripted by Walon Green (Law & Order) and Avent will direct the [...]

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Yesterday, Colombian officials announced that they were extraditing 14 suspected drug traffickers to the United States to face a host of charges ranging from conspiracy to import to cocaine manufacturing. Within the law enforcement and drug control community, the Colombian government’s move is unprecedented. The country has long maintained a tradition of refusing to extradite even its most notorious drug cartel leaders.

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Homeland Security Daily Wire has the inside take on new propulsion technology that could potentially fuel the next generation of surveillance machines: Here is a question from High School science class: Pass a current or magnetic field through a conducting fluid — and what will happen? Answer: it will generate a force. Numerous aerospace engineers have [...]

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Recently, I came across an editorial titled "Vigilantes at ICE" that was critical of ICE worksite enforcement initiatives, indicating that the agency was operating outside its intended mission - national security - and specifically, was failing in its goal to protect the U.S. from the next terrorist attack. The editorial was personally insulting to me and greatly mis-represented reality. Although resources are limited, no one has forgotten the "core mission" of national security that is the number one priority for ICE and the Department as a whole.

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When former Secretary Tom Ridge departed DHS, the international registered traveler program was placed on hold with the new leadership focused on a range of other significant international travel issues. However, CBP continued to press the case for its risk management tool and DHS approved the initiative earlier this year which was branded Global Entry and announced in April of this year. To truly succeed in fulfilling its potential, however, the Global Entry program will need a number of important enhancements.

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Anne Broche at CNET News recaps the latest in HB-1 news: The U.S. Congress won’t be beefing up the number of H-1B visas anytime soon, the chief legal adviser to an influential Republican predicted Monday. Proposals to raise the annual H-1B cap would sail through Congress if called up for a floor vote, but political considerations mean [...]

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Resiliency is emerging as the underlying theme for protecting infrastructure, integrated in both policy drafting and boots-on-the-ground tactics across a number of different transportation industries. Two recent conferences - one focusing on the maritime industry and one on the trucking industry - illustrate that to move towards resiliency, there needs to be a solid infrastructure established by the government as well as a business incentive for industries to take action.

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Despite the stereotypes in the media, not every terrorist is going to look like he or she comes from Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan. They don’t have official “Member of the International Brotherhood of Terrorism” identification cards. They will say things like, “I just need to get a job to feed my family” rather than “Will you help sneak me across the border so that I can blow up the Pentagon?” They will look like Middle Eastern in some cases, yes, but they will also look German or French or Canadian or American or Mexican in others. They will look like me and you.

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Jonah Czerwinski at Homeland Security Watch details the latest in the draft of the National Incident Management System: FEMA is accepting comments on the draft National Incident Management System (NIMS). NIMS is a nationwide template for federal, state/local governments, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations to coordinate in prevention, response, and mitigation efforts. The draft NIMS [...]

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A raft of organizations in Denver are being represented by the ACLU in suing the City of Denver and the Secret Service, in order to establish where and how they can exercise their rights to protest or promote a range of issues during the upcoming Democratic Convention.

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Youssef M. Ibrahim blogs on the threat posed by homegrown terrorism: In the very real war on terror, a nosy squabble over “fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here” clouds a simple truth: namely, that “they” are here already. Indeed, Islamists are busy constructing a wing of jihad in America’s backyard. The common [...]

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In Homeland Security’s Joseph Varner previews the upcoming power shift between Vladimir Putin and his anointed successor Dimitri Anatolyevich, detailing the new President’s background in the Russian legal and political communities and explaining why there will be little change in the country’s day-to-day leadership: On foreign and national security policy, Medvedev is also likely to continue [...]

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If timing is everything, the House Homeland Security Committee could not have picked a more interesting or appropriate time to begin a month of hearings focused on ‘resilience.’ Recent events - ranging from the devastating cyclone in Burma to skyrocketing gas prices - lend themselves quite nicely to the central point that was discussed by hearing witnesses and Committee Members: “Are we ready to bounce back from a blow when it happens?”

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We see the "100 Percent" debate playing itself out between DHS and Democrats on the Hill -- in the areas of employee screening at our nation’s airports, the screening of air cargo, and the screening of shipping containers coming from overseas. In all these instances, Democrats have passed legislative mandates requiring DHS to implement the costly solution of 100% scanning. DHS has been correct to push back, and they should do so more forcefully.

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Harris writes: "Increased airport security and scrutiny of foreign visitors are not the primary causes of America's global image problem. The excesses of Abu Ghraib, the existence of the Guantanamo prison (which all the presidential candidates say they want to shutter) and our controversial and passionately debated interrogation practices have done more to diminish our global standing than some gruff Customs officials or aggressive airport security personnel."

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Responding to an announcement that UC Berkeley will be hosting a conference tittled “Deconstructing Islamaphobia,” the Counterterrorism Blog’s Jeffrey Breinholt works in a reference to the Brady Bunch to illustrate how the academic process of deconstruction works and why it might not be an effective tool for conference attendees: What the conference organizers might not have [...]

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An article last week implies that the Amtrak's rail security upgrades are akin to smoke and mirrors. I might remind these critics that every government agency and business has competing budgetary needs and face a challenge of achieving their missions with the money, staff and resources on hand. Amtrak is no different. Securing operations is only a part of its mission, and trying to spread the available money as far as possible is never easy.

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When one thinks of a "victimless crime", many thoughts come to mind. One of the most perplexing, particularly in light of the current economic crisis facing the United States, is "piracy" and more specifically, the theft of "intellectual property rights" (IPR). The federal government estimates that U.S. businesses lose $250 billion per year in sales to "pirated" goods. That's right, billion - not million.

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WIRED’s Ryan Singel reports on the continued secrecy of the Department of Homeland Security’s so-called “Manhattan Project” that has prompted members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee to “beg” for more details on the cybersecurity initiative. The government’s new cyber-security “Manhattan Project” is so secretive that a key Senate oversight panel has been reduced to writing [...]

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