One of the great things about the Internet is that anyone with anything on their mind can say anything they want, regardless of how informed and insightful they might be. To illustrate this point I present Exhibit A – David Axe of Wired Magazine’s latest posting, “It’s a Major Prize,” attacking Admiral Allen and the U.S. Coast Guard.

To listen to the paranoid debate now taking place over the REAL ID Act in Congress, some state legislatures and the blogosphere, one might think that this legislation was some Bush administration plot to create a national identity card and spy on innocent Americans. The reality is much more serious and mundane. In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombings and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, there is a need to set some kind of minimum standards to ensure that driver’s licenses and other forms of government-issued identification cannot be tampered with and used by terrorists.

SpyTalk’s Jeff Stein feels sorry for the CIA official who led a team of agents in the 2003 kidnapping al-Qaeda operative Abu Garu in Milan only to become a fugitive wanted by Italian police two years later. The CQ Politics editor chronicles how the mission Bob Lady led devolved from what might have been [...]

After five years of getting beaten up routinely by the Congress on a bipartisan basis, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) appears to have found a whole new set of friends in Congress. As sister agencies CBP, ICE and FEMA face increasing scrutiny and oversight, Kip Hawley’s recent testimony shows that Members are almost surprisingly satisfied with the the security aspects of air travel.

The Unofficial Coast Guard Blog reviews the recently released 2007 DHS Employee Survey Results and breaks down the high points for Coast Guard employees. Joe Coastie notes: “We, the USCG, are more satisfied with or job than the DHS as a whole.”

Virginia Tech Massacre One Year Later — (EMSResponder.com)
A white candle lit at the stroke of midnight began a day of mourning Wednesday on Virginia Tech’s campus, exactly one year after the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history left 32 people and the gunman dead.

Specter: Mukasey Is ‘Still Wearing His Robe’ - Capitol Briefing
“Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) today accused the Bush administration of being overly obstinate on a range of controversial issues, expressing particular frustration at Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s unwillingness to compromise.
“Mukasey is non-negotiable,” Specter said at a meeting with the Washington Post editorial board. “Mukasey is still [...]

What is it with some American politicians and their fawning over terrorists? Has 9/11 become blasé? Jimmy Carter goes on a highly publicized Terror Tourism trip to sit at the feet of Hamas. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley pronounces Weather Underground bomber Bill Ayers a “distinguished” and “valued” member of the Chicago community.

Recent news stories chronicle efforts by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to implement a nationwide emergency alert system that notifies users of an emergency via text messages to cell phones and other electronic devices. The FCC and others are to be applauded for putting forward such a system. It certainly complements the work of the post-Katrina Report that came out in June 2006, but part of me feels that the train has already left the station on this issue.

Hailed as “the world’s foremost Islamic scholar” (Wall Street Journal) and as “the doyen of Middle Eastern studies” (New York Times), Princeton Professor Bernard Lewis’s will speak on the current cultural and political environment in the Middle East at this week’s annual conference of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa’s (ASMEA).

At first glance, the positions of the three major Presidential candidates regarding Iran’s nuclear ambitions do not seem much different. All three express concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and all three seem committed to stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Taking a second look at the candidates’ positions, however, one finds differences mainly centering on the question of how and when to negotiate with Iran.

Headlines around the world have reported on the growing crisis over food shortages and the spiraling costs of everyday staples that are putting hunger on the plates of people who have never experienced it. Rice shortages in the Philippines and this past weekend’s food riots in Haiti are just two stories in what is quickly becoming a very dangerous situation – in the short term and most certainly the long term.

It’s no accident that of all the military services, the Navy’s got one of the best unofficial blogs: The Destroyermen, edited by an officer aboard the USS Russell (which was a back-up ship in the notorious satellite shoot two months ago).

The FBI wants to Google you. Online, offline, underline. And they’d prefer to do it without your knowledge, thank you very much.

They are asking us to trust them.

They have a surprisingly short memory of the history of their institution.

Last week, FEMA began sharing the lessons learned from the TOPOFF 4 Exercises with some of the nation’s leading emergency managers. TOPOFF (short for Top Officials Exercise) is a full scale exercise that takes place every two years in defined locations to test the readiness, response and reaction of participating communities to see, very simply, “What Works” & “What Doesn’t.” FEMA had already shared some of the initial lessons from TOPOFF 4 - which took place in Guam, Phoenix, AZ and Portland, OR in October 2007, and last week’s efforts are another good step to make sure we understand how well we are doing in ‘dealing’ with various ‘events.’

The RNC Welcoming Committee, which describes itself as an anarchist / anti-authoritarian organizing body preparing for the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, announced the purchase of tasers to equip rioters - excuse me, ‘members and friends’, - during the upcoming Convention. This raises two equally worrying possibilities about the public order dangers presented by the group.

Below is an excerpt of an opinion article published in today’s Washington Times. To read the article in full, visit the Times website. The article discusses the ongoing need to protect U.S. financial infrastructures as part of the overall homeland security strategy.

Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey blogs that Gitmo has become an increasingly elusive entity: an issue that all three of the top presidential candidates agree on. Despite the unanimous consensus that a problem exists, none of the Senators have presented a solution for closing the detainee center.  Morrissey predicts that we really have only two feasible [...]

The recent report by DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner about the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its progress to institute reforms called for in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina underscores that federal preparedness not necessarily equate to national preparedness. DHS and FEMA have critical but not exclusive responsibility for advancing national preparedness. Thus, leaders in Washington have the responsibility to look for investments in national - not simply federal – solutions for addressing gaps and shortfalls.

At the invitation of DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, last week, Airports Council International – North America staff met with the Secretary and TSA Administrator Kip Hawley to discuss the security benefits of the Registered Traveler Program.
Secretary Chertoff engaged in a discussion and dialogue with the assembled group regarding this matter which included high-level DHS and [...]