Executive Vice President, USProtect
Homeland security is nothing new for Pat Pentland. In fact, Pentland told HSToday that the Department of Homeland Security—and the very term “homeland security”—was born in his office on his white board.
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When an accident shut down Mississippi shipping, New Orleans authorities suddenly realized just how vulnerable their critical port might be—and started taking action.
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As soon as the lights went out, panickedthoughts turned to terror: Nearly a year ago, on Aug. 14, the powergrid collapsed. Some 50 million people from Manhattan to Detroit, alongwithsections of Canada, lost power. In New York, memories still freshof the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, residents and emergency officialsfeared the worst. What was happening? There was little news to access.After all, no one could turn on the TV or get on the Internet.Speculation was all that was left.
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Responders and emergency managers can select from a broad range of wireless solutions as they seek to improve their communications. All have great advantages—and vulnerabilities.
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“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
—Wendell Philips, 1852
“The price of eternal vigilance is indifference.”
—
Marshall McLuhan, 1964
The price of indifference is cynicism—and that’s what we’re seeing today.
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One of the crown jewels of DHS’s proposed aviation security program, the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System II (CAPPS II), imploded on July 14, apparently falling victim to the one-two punch of civil libertarians and the desire of the administration not to increase the air travel “hassle factor” in an election year.
A tanker overturns on the Interstate outside a rural township; drums containing flammable chemicals are punctured in a factory; a fire at a local chemical plant requires the evacuation of nearby residents. Similar events may havehappened in your community. It’s also likely that most members of your community were unaffected or even unaware of these incidents. This is due to the planning, prevention and mitigation efforts of Local Emergency Planning Committees and the first responders who implement their policies. Since 1992, these groups have been aided through the Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness (HMEP) grant program, which awards funds to states, territories and tribal governments to support key training and planning activities.
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Once again, America’s nuclear labs are in the spotlight for security breaches. But there’s a long history behind the current incidents.
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A new brain-scanning technology could provide a key counterterrorism tool.
The latest law-enforcement tool to gain popularity aims to tap involuntary brain waves to help separate the guilty from the innocent.
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The Coast Guard’s $17 billion, 20-year Deepwater modernization effort is offering tremendous potential as a market for aircraft, ships and even unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
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Assistant Vice President, Government Services, Hughes Network Solutions
For George Spohn, an awareness of homeland security came early—on April 19, 1995, to be exact.
“I was sitting in the Atlanta airport when the call came in,” Spohn remembered. At the time, Spohn was an executive at Skytel, a wireless communications and messaging company. The Alfred P. Murrah federal office building in Oklahoma City had been destroyed by a terrorist bomb, and the General Services Administration had contacted Skytel to obtain its two-way pagers. Spohn was soon on his way to Oklahoma City to oversee the distribution. “We handed out about five or six hundred units,” he said.
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There’s no doubt that government and industry are determined to make aviation more secure—the issue now is finding the means to do it.
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With over 5,000 miles of border, Canadian aviation security measures have a critical impact on the security of the entire North American continent.
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Despite new attention being paid to the crisis in the American trauma care system funding woes continue to take their toll.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is implementing a strategic IT framework at a cost of billions of dollars without it being under the control—or even the authority—of the department’s chief information officer (CIO), an official of the General Accounting Office (GAO) told the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
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Before the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its research arm, the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), can be funded, problems must be ironed out, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO), Congress’s accounting arm.
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Like millions of other Americans, I’ll be traveling this summer. I’ll be taking an international flight and then touring countries in the Eastern Mediterranean. The reservations are made, the money is paid, the arrangements were finalized long ago.
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With the world traveling on summer holidays, the infamous takeover of the Achille Lauro holds lessons that are relevant today.
They certainly didn’t seem like a bunch of guys on a cruise.
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The programs, the money and the determination are there to reduce the danger posed by man—portable antiaircraft missiles. But will the programs succeed in defeating the threat before terrorists score a success?
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Cities and counties are at the forefront of forging best practices in the new field of homeland security. The states are doing their best to circle the wagons within their jurisdictions among regions, counties, cities and towns, as well as special districts. The federal government is also grappling with our nation’s security, with the assistance of the newest federal agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
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