The revelation that cargo container inspection regulations are being ignored has sent shudders through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to insiders speaking on background. The allegation was made before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee at a March 24 hearing on the state of maritime security.
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It was long ago evident that this was to be a momentous summer.
In the United States, the Democratic and Republican conventions had been scheduled four years before. As the US Constitution provides, elections will be held in November. Independence will be celebrated on July 4. Athens was awarded the 2004 Olympics in 1997 and will hold the games in August. Whatever else was going to happen in the world, we all knew these rituals would be observed.
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Has Washington shortchanged the Big Apple? Some New York responders think so—and they’ll let the world know just how much when the Republican National Convention comes to town in August.
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Can the European Union states overcome their differences to fight a common threat?
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The cradle of liberty is preparing for a flood of politicos, celebrities, protesters and media in the first political convention since Sept. 11.
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The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on May 6 unanimously approved a $1.1 billion bill to improve the security of the nation’s passenger and freight rail network, which has received increased scrutiny since the March 11 terrorist bombing of a Spanish commuter train.
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Since February 2003, the national alert level has cycled from yellow to orange five times, and we can expect this pattern to continue in the future. While the color alert system has been mocked in the press, no one has offered a reasonable alternative.
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As the world prepares to celebrate the Olympic games amidst the war on terror, a look back at a past tragedy holds some important lessons.
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In the event of a terrorist attack, America’s emergency healthcare network would constitute the front line—but it’s facing an attack of its own; one that’s quieter and more gradual, but in many ways just as deadly.
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Director, Homeland Security, Microsoft Corp.
Redmond has been quiet for a longtime.Microsoft, the Redmond, Wash., software giant that powered the“new economy” of the 1990s, that defined personal computing, whoseoperating system runs roughly 90 percent of all computers in homes andoffices around the world, has been very quiet when it comes to homelandsecurity.
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General Electric Co.’s planned acquisition of InVision Technologies Inc. promises to reshape the explosives detection market, intensifying competition in one of homeland security’s most desirable segments.
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It was on the Seattle to Banbridge Island ferry that I first got an idea of the magnitude of the challenge facing border security officers. One day in April, a Washington State Patrol trooper surveyed the holding area where dozens of cars waited to board the ferry. He was about to walk his bomb-sniffing dog by the cars in an attempt to screen some of the 12 million or so vehicles that use the Washington ferry system annually.
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eMerge2 emerges from DHS’s melange of management systems
Many mergers fail in the private sector because the companies can’t integrate two distinct corporate cultures and two decidedly different budgeting and accounting systems.
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Everyone knows that federal money is slow in coming but no one was sure exactly where the bottleneck lay. A pair of official studies looked at the problem—and revealed some surprising answers.
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Long before the Madrid train bombings that killed 190 people and injured 1,500 on March 11, American counterterrorists whose job is to imagine the most Tom Clancy-like attacks, agreed that Washington, DC’s underground Metro was vulnerable not just to conventional bombings, but to elaborate attacks that could decimate the city’s expansive mass transit system.
In Oklahoma City and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, terrorists got just close enough to their targets to do terrible damage. Since then officials have tried to learn from the experience—but can they implement the lessons fast enough?
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Never heard of the state defense forces? You’re not alone, neither have millions of Americans. One Army officer, however, shows how they can fill a critical gap.
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Since its inception, contractors have wondered how the Department of Homeland Security would purchase the tools of its trade. Now the chief DHS procurement officer gives some insight into the system, its requirements and the future of the Department’s purchasing.
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Every year, the NASCAR Nation arrives at American towns in full force. A look at how HS and local officials protect this exuberant gathering.
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The person breaking into your computer isn’t just doing it for fun anymore—now viruses are becoming big business.
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