For less than $150 you can buy all the parts necessary to construct an improvised explosive device that can be carried undetected into virtually any federal building in the country, thanks in large part to security weaknesses with the Federal Protective Service, the agency charged with protecting those buildings.
Terrorism
Homeland Security profiles conservatives, libertarians as “right-wing extremists”
Posted: April 14, 2009 7:20 pm
Did you buy extra ammunition after Barack Obama was elected President, and are you still concerned that he might ban your guns? Are you concerned that the economic crisis could devolve into a depression, or worse? Do you think the federal government has overstepped its authority under the Constitution? If so, the government thinks you’re a right-wing extremist and a potential terrorist threat.
Securing the homeland, one liberty at a time
Posted: December 18, 2008 9:03 pm
Updated: December 18, 2008 11:19 pm
It’s that time again, time for outgoing government bureaucrats to make room for fresh new faces and to say goodbye. Today, outgoing Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff said goodbye to the country in a video. Of course, the government can’t seem to do anything right, and now we can add making simple videos to that list.
Obama McCain: A Man For This Season
Posted: October 17, 2008 4:28 pm
Evil omens re the economy hath melded Obama and McCain into one man, living in the cramped quarters of one craven political soul. Something/someone has to give. President-wannabe Obama McCain steps forth to issue a decree. Let the bailouts begin! Up the oligarchy! State capitalism we are here!
The TSA Follies
Posted: August 2, 2008 8:00 pm
Updated: August 3, 2008 4:36 pm
“Your safety is our priority,” the Transportation Security Administration web site tells us. So how does the TSA explain these four ways it’s keeping air travelers unsafe?
“Our national security system is broken”
Posted: August 1, 2008 6:01 pm
A congressionally mandated study released Wednesday found that the U.S. national security system is outdated and needs major restructuring.
Bloody Toto Guilty of Mortgage Fraud
Posted: July 27, 2008 3:24 pm
A Brooklyn jury has found Emmanuel “Toto” Constant guilty of mortgage fraud and grand larceny. Constant is the former founder and leader of FRAPH, the Haitian paramilitary group that in the early 90’s systematically tortured and murdered thousands of supporters of deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Electric shock for air passengers?
Posted: July 4, 2008 9:26 am
Updated: July 9, 2008 2:25 pm
You check in at the airline ticket counter. But instead of a boarding pass, you get shackled with an electronic bracelet which tracks your every move, contains all your personal information, and can shock you senseless. This vision of the future of air security is being floated around the Department of Homeland Security’s research and development office.
AAMVA to build REAL ID verification hub
Posted: June 22, 2008 2:27 pm
Updated: June 22, 2008 3:04 pm
The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators received a no-bid contract worth millions of dollars to implement a “verification hub” connecting state and federal databases under the REAL ID program.
Protected infrastructure: Ramblin Express casino shuttle
Posted: May 31, 2008 11:51 am
It’s May again, that time of year when the Department of Homeland Security hands out millions of dollars of your hard-earned money to whoever it wants for the strangest of reasons, or none at all, in the name of “infrastructure protection.” Today’s stupid spending: $184,415 for a casino shuttle.
A Global Struggle for Security and Progress
Posted: May 28, 2008 8:15 am
The war on terror could be recast as “A Global Struggle for Security and Progress,” according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo.
The Revolution: A Manifesto
Posted: May 26, 2008 5:05 pm
If “Truth is treason in the empire of lies,” as Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) writes in his new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, then Paul has certainly committed treason by laying out the truth of the precarious state of the United States in 2008.
The TSA Follies
Posted: May 15, 2008 8:59 pm
Ostensibly the Transportation Security Administration exists to keep Americans safe when they fly. In reality it’s a bureaucratic nightmare which never should have been created in the first place. Consider what the TSA has done to pilots and air marshals to put you at risk.
New Hampshire gets REAL ID extension
Posted: March 29, 2008 8:01 pm
The Department of Homeland Security has granted an extension to New Hampshire for compliance with the provisions of the federal REAL ID program.
FBI, CIA recruiting among terrorist sympathizers?
Posted: February 10, 2008 1:28 am
Are you an American terrorist sympathizer but don’t know how to strike back at the Great Satan? Afraid of getting arrested while your plot to blow up something or other is still half-baked? You don’t have to worry anymore. Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency want to hire you.
Welcome USA TODAY readers
Posted: January 3, 2008 3:18 am
Why did I say that Ron Paul’s foreign policy is the only way to end terrorism?
TSA among most unpopular federal agencies
Posted: January 2, 2008 8:24 am
Santa brought Kip Hawley coal this year, because he’s been a very naughty boy.
TSA can’t find real bombs either
Posted: November 25, 2007 6:34 pm
The excuse we hear from the Transportation Security Administration when yet another report comes out finding that its screeners miss the majority of simulated bomb components that testers attempt to bring through airport checkpoints is that the tests are designed to be difficult and nobody would be able to get away with it if they were real bomb components.
Yet investigators with no insider knowledge were able to smuggle real bomb components, sufficient to assemble powerful improvised explosive devices based on liquid explosives, past the TSA at 19 separate airports, according to a report released November 15.
Mukasey’s Homeland Security Court
Posted: November 8, 2007 12:06 am
One of the requirements for a totalitarian police state is a system of kangaroo courts, star chambers which operate in secret and in parallel to the existing judicial system to convict political prisoners of pretended crimes against the state, which could never survive in the regular courts. And former judge Michael Mukasey, nominee for U.S. Attorney General to replace Alberto Gonzales, has proposed that the United States adopt such a system of courts.
New York gets REAL ID
Posted: November 2, 2007 5:58 pm
New York State will begin issuing new versions of so-called secure driver licenses as well as a version specifically for undocumented immigrants, Gov. Eliot Spitzer said last weekend.
TSA screeners fail most bomb tests
Posted: October 25, 2007 11:19 pm
Transportation Security Administration screeners at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport missed more than 60% of bomb components which undercover agents attempted to smuggle through airport checkpoints, according to a classified report.
Poisoned jawbreakers: the next terrorist attack?
Posted: October 12, 2007 4:49 pm
Town aldermen in Dover, N.J., worried that terrorists could attack the town’s children by poisoning gumballs in coin-operated gumball machines, have launched an inspection of every machine they can find.
We do battle with words, not guns
Posted: October 10, 2007 5:53 am
Here at Homeland Stupidity, no government cow is sacred. Waste, fraud, abuse, plain incompetence, and bad policy are all fair game. As a result, government officials in the higher pay grades tend to be displeased with what they read here. As a general rule, the higher the pay grade, the more displeased.
Therefore, I was not at all surprised to hear that high-ranking officials in the U.S. Marshals Service were upset with Sunday’s published story regarding their Office of Protective Intelligence. I was, however, surprised to spot two surveillance teams while going about my business Tuesday night.
Marshals investigate potential threats to the nation
Posted: October 7, 2007 3:50 am
Updated: October 7, 2007 6:45 pm
Satire became reality Friday afternoon when half a dozen armed federal agents wearing body armor showed up at this author’s home and detained everyone in the house for nearly 90 minutes to determine who might pose a threat to the government.
Terrorist watchlist riddled with errors
Posted: September 17, 2007 10:03 pm
A Justice Department audit of the government’s master list of known and suspected terrorists found errors and inconsistencies which would have allowed terrorists to enter the country undetected and would mistakenly identify innocent Americans as terrorists.
GAO: Not much progress at Homeland Security
Posted: September 12, 2007 4:11 am
In the four years since its creation, the Department of Homeland Security has fallen far short of expectations, according to an extensive Congressional audit released last week.
Clergy response teams to help undermine liberty?
Posted: August 23, 2007 6:10 pm
Over the past decade, cities around the country have established clergy response teams, comprised of pastors, priests and other religious leaders from all religious denominations, to provide aid, counseling and assistance to victims of crime and lately of natural disasters. Now a report suggests that these clergy response teams may be used to help put down civil unrest and enforce martial law.
The Appalachian Summer of Eliot Spitzer
Posted: August 23, 2007 3:42 pm
You won’t believe how much fun the New York State political scene has been this Summer! Like Uncle Ira says, ain’t nothing more persistent than chicken thieves who’ve gotten used to easy pickins.
Vermont accepts the other REAL ID
Posted: August 22, 2007 7:28 pm
The state of Vermont has partnered with the Department of Homeland Security to develop a new driver license document which will be accepted in lieu of a passport for border crossings, the department announced Tuesday.
Bush gets surveillance “blank check”
Posted: August 11, 2007 12:17 am
Last weekend the Bush administration pushed through Congress a law to bolster the government’s ability to intercept the electronic communications of foreigners and other “persons reasonably believed to be outside the U.S.” without a court order.
Bruce Schneier vs. Kip Hawley
Posted: August 4, 2007 2:20 am
Renowned security expert Bruce Schneier conducted an extensive interview with Transportation Security Administration head Kip Hawley, and asked him, in essence, when is airport security going to start making sense?
NSA spying program tip of iceberg
Posted: August 2, 2007 12:35 am
In late 2001, President Bush signed an executive order authorizing a controversial National Security Agency program, and on Tuesday, director of national intelligence Mike McConnell revealed that the executive order authorized not only the “terrorist surveillance program” whose existence was revealed in 2005, but a series of other programs as well.
No security at Sky Harbor
Posted: July 23, 2007 4:27 pm
“Sky Harbor’s not safe and hasn’t been for a long time.” So says one airport employee at the Phoenix, Ariz., airport.
The Transportation Security Administration has been going home at midnight and returning at 4:30 a.m. During those hours, it’s easy to walk into the sterile areas of the airport entirely unscreened.
TSA seizes water, lets bombs through
Posted: July 19, 2007 12:38 pm
Updated: July 19, 2007 1:11 pm
Several people walked into Albany International Airport in Colonie, N.Y., in late June, carry-on bags stuffed full of bomb parts, and strolled to the security checkpoint.
Transportation Security Administration screeners seized every bottle of water from all of them.
FBI launches criminal probe into national security letter misuse
Posted: July 18, 2007 8:39 pm
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reported to have launched a criminal investigation into FBI employees’ alleged misuse of national security letters to obtain information on Americans.
The news just keeps breaking
Posted: July 18, 2007 3:22 am
Updates to stories previously covered at Homeland Stupidity.
Four potential risks to intelligence fusion centers
Posted: July 16, 2007 11:08 pm
Updated: July 17, 2007 2:44 am
The more than 40 local and regional intelligence fusion centers created after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to improve information sharing between the federal government and state, local and tribal law enforcement, are failing to accomplish their mission of protecting the homeland.
The news just keeps breaking
Posted: July 10, 2007 4:24 pm
Updates to stories previously covered at Homeland Stupidity include spying, spying and more spying.
Bits of homeland stupidity
Posted: July 1, 2007 6:34 pm
Getting security right is a challenge for the best of us. But when you put security in the hands of government, getting it right is a virtually insurmountable obstacle. Here are a few ways government made you less secure and wasted your money over the last couple of weeks.
Land crossing passport requirement delayed
Posted: July 1, 2007 5:24 pm
Updated: July 1, 2007 5:56 pm
The Bush administration has suspended a pending rule which would have required travelers re-entering the country from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean by land or sea to present passports at entry.
Pulp Fiction Iraq
Posted: June 29, 2007 6:04 pm
With a groan of pleasure akin to torment, George surged into the Fertile Crescent again and again.
DHS computer security still sucks
Posted: June 28, 2007 5:06 pm
Government auditors told a Congressional committee last week that computer security at the Department of Homeland Security still needs improvement, even after years of work to remedy the problems.
Audit: National security letter misuse widespread
Posted: June 16, 2007 1:19 am
A new audit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s use of national security letters to gain access to information about domestic phone calls, e-mails and personal financial information revealed over 1,000 cases where agents may have violated the law or regulations governing the use of the letters.
Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t learn
Posted: June 10, 2007 7:37 am
The military desperately needs Arabic linguists in order to provide translation services in the ongoing war in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. But at least one Navy linguist is no longer providing those much-needed services, because, for some in the Pentagon, there’s a war more important than the war on terror.
RFID passport card privacy threat debated
Posted: May 31, 2007 7:39 pm
A passport card set to be issued by the State Department for travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean doesn’t require privacy protection, even though it uses a radio frequency identification chip which can be read from 20 feet away, because the chip itself doesn’t contain personal information, according to the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Help not wanted if you’re an anarchist
Posted: May 23, 2007 1:29 pm
Members of a group who went to Greensburg, Kan., to assist in relief efforts after a May 5 tornado destroyed most of the town were forcibly ejected by police on the scene for being “federal security threats.”
Ron Paul gains support in second GOP debate
Posted: May 16, 2007 4:09 am
Updated: May 16, 2007 4:39 am
For those who doubted that Rep. Ron Paul was a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, the debate Tuesday night in South Carolina put all doubts to rest. Paul stirred up a firestorm of controversy for suggesting that the Department of Homeland Security made national security even more inefficient after September 11 than before, and especially for his assertion that U.S. foreign policy over the past several decades contributed to the rise of Islamic terrorism.
But viewers at home responded, putting Ron Paul in second place in FOX’s own tamper-proof viewer poll.
You are the homegrown terrorist threat
Posted: May 13, 2007 11:26 pm
If you’re an American reading this, then under expansive definitions being used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and several states in their counterterrorism training, you just might be a domestic terrorist.
Airlines to be forced to fingerprint departing visitors
Posted: May 10, 2007 3:08 am
If you’re planning a visit to the U.S., you already have to give up your fingerprints and retinal scans to the Department of Homeland Security in order to enter the country. Now the department wants to require every visitor to go through the same procedure in order to leave the country.
And they want to force the airlines to collect your biometric information, rather than do it themselves.
DHS: You’ll take a national ID and you’ll like it
Posted: May 9, 2007 2:33 am
The Department of Homeland Security will move forward with plans to implement the REAL ID Act despite widespread opposition from citizens and state legislatures.
Terrorist hoaxes can only get better?
Posted: May 9, 2007 12:07 am
Boston became the laughingstock of the country earlier this year after two incidents in which it responded to harmless devices as if they were real terrorist threats. Now Sen. Ed Kennedy (D-Mass.) wants to make absurd overreaction into national policy.
Who wants a national ID?
Posted: May 2, 2007 6:31 pm
The majority of Americans, it seems, support the idea of a national ID, as long as it doesn’t contain biometric information, according to a recent UPI/Zogby poll. But a large coalition of groups from every part of the political spectrum has gotten together to oppose the REAL ID Act as a threat to Americans’ security.
Is that homeless guy a terrorist?
Posted: May 2, 2007 2:28 am
Updated: May 2, 2007 4:23 am
It’s said in the Bible that the poor will always be among us. In Springfield, Ill., as in most cities across the U.S., the homeless are at the public library. They use the restroom in the stairwell of the parking garage on top of which the library sits and they store their meager tarp-covered possessions next to the building. And mayor Tim Davlin is apparently at his wit’s end trying to deal with the homeless problem.
But a local alderman has come up with a novel idea to clean up downtown Springfield: Suggest a terrorist threat from homeless people.
Peace Bridge border inspection talks end
Posted: April 26, 2007 11:08 pm
Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff broke off talks with Canada on Wednesday over a plan to move the U.S. border inspection facility at the Peace Bridge from its current location in Buffalo, N.Y., to the Canadian side of the border.
The dispute, it turns out, was over when the U.S. could take fingerprints of Canadians who aren’t even crossing into the U.S.
It’s only suspicious if you’re dressed like a “terrorist”
Posted: April 24, 2007 10:41 pm
If you’re a potential threat, and you want to get those critical pictures of a bridge or a nuclear reactor, what do you do? After all, these days you’re bound to have cops on your ass within minutes.
Backpacks give Newton, Mass., school officials bomb scare
Posted: April 18, 2007 12:15 pm
Even living as close to Boston as I do, I don’t always get the news about happenings in and around Boston until much later. So more than a week after it happened, I find out about yet another stupid bomb scare, this time at a high school in Newton, Mass.
Stop illegal spying
Posted: April 15, 2007 2:18 pm
“Terrorists win when the fear of them induces us to destroy the rights that make us free.” Those were the words of one victim of post-9/11 anti-terrorism hysteria to a Congressional committee on Wednesday. So we got national security letters, a terrorist surveillance program, and probably many other programs, but instead of stopping terrorists, these programs have targeted ordinary Americans.
Washington state pretends to reject REAL ID
Posted: April 12, 2007 10:33 am
Washington state Gov. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign a bill passed last week which would ostensibly prevent the state from participating in the REAL ID program, at least until the government ponies up some money to pay for it.
Census bureau gave up WWII internment camp evaders
Posted: April 5, 2007 6:05 am
Updated: April 5, 2007 6:48 am
The United States Census Bureau turned over names and addresses of American citizens of Japanese descent to the Secret Service during World War II. How dare those supposedly patriotic Americans not turn themselves in to their designated concentration camps!
TSA misses liquid explosives, weapons in tests
Posted: April 4, 2007 4:42 am
The Transportation Security Administration is supposed to be interdicting, among other things, liquid explosives, before someone manages to smuggle them aboard an aircraft and blow it up in a highly implausible movie-plot threat. Instead, they’ve been seizing and throwing away your bottled water and soda. So it shouldn’t be any surprise that TSA screeners at Denver International Airport failed to find 90% of weapons and explosives during recent tests.
Too busy to be April fooled
Posted: April 2, 2007 5:18 am
In case you haven’t noticed, there haven’t been any posts here in several days. This is primarily because I’ve been wrapped up with another project which has taken up virtually all of my time since the last post. To make it up to you, I’m just going to give you links to several interesting items in my unread list for you to enjoy.
“We hacked the Super Bowl”
Posted: March 29, 2007 2:27 am
Updated: March 29, 2007 3:31 am
Security for the Super Bowl, held in Miami, Fla., on February 4, was so tight that no potential threat could possibly have penetrated the multiple layers of defenses surrounding the event. But, it seems, half a dozen pranksters not only penetrated the event but demonstrated that “perfect” security is impossible.
No-buy list snags innocent Americans
Posted: March 28, 2007 7:13 am
The federal government expects you to do your part to help catch terrorists, by screening everyone you do business with against a public blacklist of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers maintained by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Worse, people are actually starting to do this, and the national credit reporting agencies are now putting the government’s black marks on the wrong people’s credit reports.
Washington state accepts REAL ID, gets bonus
Posted: March 26, 2007 10:18 pm
REAL ID, that bitter pill which will further centralize identification of virtually every American, not to mention cost you untold billions of dollars, is so tough to swallow that many states are balking at it. But one state is eagerly accepting REAL ID after the Department of Homeland Security held out a carrot along with its sharp stick.
Hillary and Rudy Sitting In a Tree
Posted: March 25, 2007 9:00 pm
With each presidential election the candidates seem more proscribed and the selection process more truncated. Inner party poopers, talking heads and big money try to seal the deal before the ink is dry on the last guy. This time the dumb beats loudest for Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. Hillary and Rudy are more alike than they’re different.
Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment
Posted: March 25, 2007 12:06 am
The master list the federal government keeps of known and suspected terrorists, from which other government agencies derive their own watch lists, already hundreds of thousands of names large, is growing out of control, filling with “fragmentary,” “inconsistent” and “sometimes just flat-out wrong” information, a top counterterrorism official said.
New R2-D2 mailboxes are not a bomb
Posted: March 22, 2007 3:47 am
Updated: March 22, 2007 6:15 am
In honor of Star Wars’ 30th anniversary, the United States Postal Service is unveiling a new commemorative stamp March 29. And my very own Lincoln, Neb., is one of 200 cities nationwide to be selected for a new mailbox to mark the event.
TSA “surges” screening in airport secure areas
Posted: March 13, 2007 3:42 pm
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the airport, the Transportation Security Administration announced Tuesday that it would begin random screening of airport employees and passengers within airport secure areas nationwide.
FBI audit finds improper use of national security letters
Posted: March 11, 2007 11:53 pm
The Federal Bureau of Investigation repeatedly broke the law in order to obtain personal information about tens of thousands of Americans, much of which was never related to any sort of investigation, according to an inspector general’s report released Friday.
Homeland Security data mining may have violated privacy law
Posted: March 4, 2007 8:33 pm
Updated: March 4, 2007 8:56 pm
“Soccer teams, family reunions and Civil War re-enactors” are in danger of being misidentified as terrorists from a data-mining program the Department of Homeland Security is testing which may have already violated privacy laws.
OKC bombing investigation should be reopened
Posted: March 2, 2007 3:08 pm
The former deputy assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in charge of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing has said that the case should be reopened.
DHS issues REAL ID draft regulations
Posted: March 1, 2007 5:08 pm
The Department of Homeland Security has issued proposed regulations which will dictate what states must put on their driver licenses and identification cards to comply with the REAL ID Act of 2005 and implement the national ID scheme which Americans have said time and again that they do not want.
The silver lining on this dark cloud is that most of the worst possible rules, such as RFID or fingerprinting requirements, didn’t make it into the proposed regulations.
Ron Paul grassroots support proved
Posted: February 25, 2007 8:26 pm
Updated: February 26, 2007 2:55 pm
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) drew a crowd of 150 supporters to Pembroke, N.H., late Saturday night to support his potential bid for the Republican Presidential nomination.
The fundraising reception, organized by a supporter and held at a private home, raised over $14,000 for Paul’s campaign.
Bomb or not?
Posted: February 23, 2007 4:29 pm
Police these days are seeing bombs everywhere, even though there really aren’t any actual bombs. It’s clear that they need help.
Justice Department terrorism statistics wrong
Posted: February 21, 2007 2:46 pm
Most of the terrorism statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice are inaccurate, with prosecutors routinely counting as terrorism cases those with no known links to terrorism, according to an inspector general’s report.
DHS will share threat information after all
Posted: February 16, 2007 10:14 pm
The Department of Homeland Security had previously objected to having state and local participants in a group meant to send them relevant and useful threat information, saying it would cause “unnecessary confusion.” But state and local governments have long complained that DHS doesn’t share information with them in a timely manner, nor does it always share the information that they need.
TSA wants 2,000 more ID checkers
Posted: February 15, 2007 7:01 pm
The Transportation Security Administration wants to hire 1,300 people, and divert 700 more from actual airport screening duties, to look for fake IDs.
Conservatives to scrap UK ID cards
Posted: February 6, 2007 3:39 pm
The Conservative party in Britain will scrap Tony Blair’s planned compulsory ID card scheme if it wins the next election, according to a statement by Shadow Home Secretary David Davis.
DHS wants local, state officials in the dark on threats
Posted: February 3, 2007 4:53 pm
We already know that the Department of Homeland Security just doesn’t want to play well with others. In this case, others are state and local governments. DHS also doesn’t want to share, and what it doesn’t want to share is critical threat information.
Super Bowl prepares for terrorist threat
Posted: January 31, 2007 12:28 pm
Security is being beefed up to the highest level for Super Bowl XLI, being held this Sunday in Miami, Fla. National Football League officials have said there is no specific threat against the event, but that the “high profile” of the event makes it “attractive to terrorists,” said Milt Ahlerich, NFL vice president of security.
Transportation worker identity cards not secure
Posted: January 30, 2007 6:40 am
Updated: January 31, 2007 11:12 am
The Transportation Security Administration’s special identification cards it plans to issue to transportation, port and maritime workers are fraught with problems which could compromise the security of the whole system.
Terrorists in Texarkana?
Posted: January 26, 2007 9:00 am
The city of Texarkana, Texas, has found the terrorists, and with money from the Department of Homeland Security, is going to go round ‘em all up.
Or, perhaps, not.
UK support for civil liberties falls
Posted: January 24, 2007 10:34 am
A recent study of social attitudes in Britain has discovered that support for civil liberties is on the wane, with the majority of the population seeing infringements on their rights as a reasonable price for apparent security.
2007 State of the Union Address
Posted: January 24, 2007 12:32 am
The rite of custom brings us together at a defining hour — when decisions are hard and courage is needed. We enter the year 2007 with large endeavors underway, and others that are ours to begin. In all of this, much is asked of us. We must have the will to face difficult challenges and determined enemies — and the wisdom to face them together.
The TSA Follies
Posted: January 20, 2007 3:30 am
The Transportation Security Administration is making changes to its procedures, retraining its employees, and hiring terrorist sympathizers.
Terrorist surveillance program to require warrants
Posted: January 18, 2007 3:40 am
The Bush administration will stop conducting warrantless surveillance on Americans with suspected ties to terrorism, and will give the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court jurisdiction over the so-called terrorist surveillance program run by the National Security Agency since shortly after 9/11 and first disclosed in December 2005.
Supreme Court refuses Gilmore due process case
Posted: January 9, 2007 3:26 pm
On Monday the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a Ninth Circuit appeals court decision which found that Americans do not have a “right to travel by any particular form of transportation” and do not have the right to know the laws and regulations they must obey.
EU travellers’ fingerprints to be added to national database
Posted: January 9, 2007 1:39 am
Beginning this summer, European travellers to the U.S. will face even more affronts to their civil liberties when new regulations designed to combat terrorism come into effect. “This must be the Keystone Cops school of border control.”
New graphic torture photos from Iraq
Posted: January 7, 2007 1:14 am
On Saturday, a source in the Army in Baghdad was able to find a computer with functioning e-mail and sent out eight shocking images of U.S. troops doing unspeakable things to Iraqi citizens. After carefully reviewing the images, I am convinced there is a compelling public interest in publishing the images.
Parents are cautioned that these images, as the source who obtained the photos said, “are graphic and may cause a physical reaction.”
Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties
Posted: January 6, 2007 7:51 pm
In June, the Future of Freedom Foundation will host Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties, a four-day conference examining the intersection of these two burning issues, with an eye to restoring the limited-government principles on which the U.S. was founded.
There’s just one small problem.
Transportation workers identity credential to cost $159
Posted: January 5, 2007 8:42 pm
The Transportation Security Administration is requiring port and maritime workers and truckers to purchase a $159 identity document and undergo a “threat assessment” to provide secured access to seaports, airports and other such facilities, but doesn’t yet have the technology to read the cards.
OneDOJ, two databases
Posted: December 28, 2006 6:01 pm
The U.S. Department of Justice is building a set of databases and database interconnections which will allow state and law enforcement agencies to search not only federal law enforcement agencies’ case files, but also other state and local agencies’ data.
It’s rare that I get to say a major news outlet screwed up a news story, so I’ll say it now. A major news outlet omitted several key details on the nature and extent of “OneDOJ,” the department’s new information sharing initative.
“Some rights must be repealed”
Posted: December 27, 2006 4:40 pm
The so-called Global War on Terror is having serious ramifications at home. Over the past five years we’ve watched the erosion of civil liberties in the name of “homeland security.” Now the erosion is picking up speed, with recent direct attacks on both the First Amendment and the Second Amendment.
A Baghdad Christmas
Posted: December 24, 2006 12:53 pm
It’s no secret that I’m no fan of the war in Iraq. It was based on a flawed premise and, as far as I can see, has degenerated into a quagmire just short of civil war. And it’s been a colossal waste of money, thanks to the Department of Defense’s complete inability to keep a proper set of books.
Yet the people over there waging that war are fighting a dangerous enemy which wants to kill not only them, but eventually, the rest of us.
Two years of Homeland Stupidity
Posted: December 21, 2006 3:29 pm
Updated: December 21, 2006 3:54 pm
Homeland Stupidity is a bit over two years old, so as 2006 draws to a close it’s time again to look back at what has passed, and to look forward at what may come.
Some other site I read is doing a “Top 20 posts of 2006″ as a year-end review. But I’ve always been about bringing attention to important things which might otherwise pass unnoticed, so I’m going to do something different: The top stories you probably missed.
DHS: Passenger screening no threat to privacy
Posted: December 20, 2006 4:16 am
The Department of Homeland Security defended its use of a controversial passenger screening system Wednesday, saying the system uses link analysis techniques of the kind which would have caught the 9/11 hijackers had they been employed and that the program “does not pose a threat to privacy.”
US-VISIT land exit tracking to be sidelined
Posted: December 18, 2006 2:55 am
A Department of Homeland Security plan to track foreign visitors leaving the U.S. by land will be set aside after a report showed that it would be too expensive and cause significant inconvenience to travelers who frequently cross the border.
Chertoff: Real ID not “invasion of privacy”
Posted: December 17, 2006 5:45 am
The REAL ID Act of 2005, which mandates that states conform their driver’s licenses and identification cards to a common standard defined by the Department of Homeland Security and that states put personal information into a central database, is being sold as a secure document which will protect us all from terrorism, illegal immigration and identity theft.
But it will do no such thing.
“Nothing is going well” with border agriculture inspections
Posted: December 15, 2006 5:21 am
One of the lesser known functions to be rolled into the Department of Homeland Security was the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s port inspectors. Charged with inspecting people and things entering the country to prevent foreign pests and diseases from entering the country, Agriculture and Quarantine Inspection was formerly under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But many agriculture inspectors believe the service has become less effective since they were merged into DHS’s Customs and Border Protection, according to a recent survey.
Save liberty before America finally destroys it
Posted: December 13, 2006 4:15 am
How much freedom, how much liberty, how much of America’s very soul, are you willing to give up to be secure? Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff says freedom should be subject to a cost-benefit analysis. He says that’s what you want.
