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Grant Aims to Ring New York City With Portable Radiation Detectors

September 23, 2008 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Matt Korade

Terrorists attempting to smuggle a nuclear or radiological "dirty" bomb into New York City could soon be met with a thousand-man mobile radiation-detection net.

The Department of Homeland Security granted $29.5 million to New York's finest, as well as 11 fellow law-enforcement and public-health partners across the Hudson, out east, upstate, and across the Sound, to set up a roving network of portable radiation detecting devices with one goal in mind: to help ensure the devastation seen on 9/11, or worse, never happens again.

Tags: detection, DHS, New York City, radiation

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Biometrics, Other DHS Travel Programs Making Progress

August 8, 2008 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Rob Margetta, CQ Staff

Kathy Kraninger, head of the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Screening Coordination, gave a rundown today on progress made in the highest profile screening programs, including:

The Electronic System for Travel Authorization

Kraninger called the program "the biggest thing we're working through and certainly the thing that's gotten the most attention." ESTA deals with how DHS processes foreign air passengers who can travel to America visa-free, because their countries are members of the Visa Waiver Program. It requires such travelers to fill out an online form with biographical and security information three days prior to departure.

Tags: biometrics, DHS, Kraninger, Rob Margetta, travel

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New Handheld Radio Promises "Interoperability" for Early Responders

August 4, 2008 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Rob Marghetta, CQ Staff

The technology and communication provider Harris Corp. has announced its contender in a market the Department of Homeland Security is pushing private industry to invest in: handheld interoperable emergency communications,

Just two months ago, DHS's Science and Technology Directorate said it wants companies to find ways to allow local, state and federal law enforcement and emergency officers to talk to one another, and that's exactly what Unity, its new family of multiband software-defined radios does, Harris said Friday.

Tags: Department of Homeland Security, DHS, Harris Corp., interoperability, radio, Rob Margetta

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Working to Avoid Domestic Bombings

July 13, 2008 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Rob Margetta, CQ Staff

Homeland Security Protective Security Coordination Division Director Bill Flynn said the type of scenario that costs him sleep played out just before the Fourth of July weekend.

On July 3, New York police found a van that contained an explosive device wired for remote detonation, just as people across the country were preparing for the holiday.

Tags: bombs, DHS, IED, Rob Margetta, terrorism

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The E-Verify System: Protection or Hindrance?

June 30, 2008 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Caitlin Webber, CQ Staff

The debate over the E-Verify program is less one about statistics, or even policy, than it is about two states of mind.

One says nobody should have to prove to the government that they are qualified to work in the United States. The government should have to prove they are not.

The other says that people have to be sorted out in order to enforce the law, and both must be examined to separate the legal from the illegal.

Those points of view aren't even mutually exclusive. But neither side gives the other an inch.

Tags: ACLU, Caitlin Webber, DHS, E-verify, Heath Shuler, immigration, National Immigration Law Center, NumbersUSA, Social Security

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Integrated Technology Acquisition Plan Suggested for DHS

June 26, 2008 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Daniel Fowler and Rob Margetta, CQ Staff

A Homeland Security Advisory Council task force is recommending that the Department of Homeland Security create a new technologies acquisition strategy for the entire department and a plan for implementing it -- an idea popular with contractors and the department.

The recommendation was part of an Essential Technology Task Force report that the full council adopted at its meeting Wednesday.

Tags: Daniel Fowler, DHS, Homeland Security, Homeland Security Advisory Council, Rob Margetta

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DHS Plans to Improve Chemical Facility Security

June 23, 2008 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Rob Margetta, CQ Staff

The Department of Homeland Security will take the second step in its process to regulate facilities that use and store hazardous chemicals this week, sending out letters to 7,000 sites to tell them they have been designated "high risk."

The letters represent the advancement of DHS' plan to improve chemical security across the board. Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection Robert Stephan said he wants to eliminate any perception among terrorists that American chemical facilities are soft targets.

Tags: chemical facilities, Department of Homeland Security, DHS, Margetta

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