Homeland Security

Abstract: As 30,000 additional American soldiers are deployed to Afghanistan, the U.S. is also focusing on reintegrating Taliban insurgents into Afghan society. There has been speculation that this new focus is part of a quick-exit strategy for the U.S. While reintegrating as many local Taliban fighters as… Read more

Abstract: President Obama has released his fiscal year 2011 budget request. While the budget increases funding for the Department of Homeland Security by 2 percent, and while the Obama Administration continues to make cyber security, aviation security, and… Read more

On February 4, before several snow storms shut down much of Washington, D.C., the U.S. House of Representatives passed its first cyber security bill of this session. This bill, the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2009, would fund grants and fellowships for cyber research and establish minimum requirements… Read more

Abstract: Despite Congress's mandate in 2007 that the Department of Homeland Security track all foreign visitors biometrically by June 2009, DHS missed the deadline, and biometric exit, as opposed to the current biographic approach, has proved costly without adding much… Read more

In troubled times, the world gets more—not less—dangerous. While the White House would prefer to focus on its chosen remedies for domestic “troubles,” it cannot forget the true dangers of the world in which we live: Foreign policy and national security concerns should be front and center in the… Read more

Abstract: Cargo must be checked--but it is impossible to screen 11.6 million containers every year without bringing the global economy to its knees. How to avoid the paralyzing cargo clog of the Department of Homeland Security's mandate for 100 percent cargo screening?… Read more

In the past week, at least three different House and Senate committees and subcommittees have announced intentions to hold hearings to examine the security failures that led to an attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight landing in Detroit, Michigan, by suspected al-Qaeda operative Umar Farouk… Read more

In 2009, 90 counties across the country became participants in the Secure Communities program. This program provides a modern means for state and local law enforcement to share information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), helping to make immigration processing and removal more efficient. This year alone,… Read more

There are approximately 95 Yemeni terrorists currently at Guantanamo Bay. Setting politics aside, the terror attack on Christmas Day by a Yemeni-inspired, al-Qaeda-trained Nigerian requires the Obama Administration to take a sober look at its Yemeni terrorist transfer policies from Guantanamo. Simply stating, as the Administration has until today, that… Read more

The problem in stopping terrorist travel to the U.S. is not airport screening per se. Trying to turn every airport into another Maginot Line or Fort Knox is going to fail sooner or latter. Instead, the best way to stop terrorist plots is to frustrate them before they get… Read more