Center of Excellence

By Zack Phillips, CQ Staff

When Department of Homeland Security leaders released initial details last month about a massive upcoming procurement for border security technology, they expressed a clear preference for current rather than emerging devices.

However, the border surveillance technology of Airsis Inc. could make a case for classification in both categories. Several federal agencies — including the U.S. Border Patrol — are currently using its intrusion detection system (IDS), and officials for the San Diego-based firm say it is the only such system to use satellites.

Here’s how it works: its ground sensors capture vibrations of any animal, human or vehicle in its range, relay that information to a satellite — via a wireless uplink station — and transmit from the satellite to the operation center. The devices are so sensitive, they can tell the difference between an animal and a human by matching the vibrations against known seismic signatures, says Chief Technology Officer Jim Drewett. Drewett is at the center of the story of how the technology came to be.
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By Benton Ives-Halperin, CQ Staff

The proposed Department of Homeland Security budget has put a spotlight on chemical plant security, with a $10 million request for an office to oversee chemical facilities and their security measures. But, so far, Congress has not passed legislation extending DHS regulatory authority over chemical plants.
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By Benton Ives-Halperin, CQ Staff

The Department of Homeland Security has extended a Temporary Protected Status program for 12 more months for El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
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By Eileen Sullivan, CQ Staff

A successful program that re-stocks equipment at disasters for first-responders may be compromised when it is moved into the Federal Emergency Management Agency next fall, according to some emergency managers.
In October, the Department of Homeland Security plans to transfer the pre-positioned equipment program (PEP) out of the department’s grants and training office and into FEMA, officials said.
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By Benton Ives-Halperin, CQ Staff

In the wake of a recent House report that singled out information sharing as a major problem in the post-Hurricane Katrina response, a defense contractor says those failures will open up major markets for command and control expertise. By highlighting failures in information sharing and command and control systems, the House has presented a “screaming market opportunity” for defense contractors, according to Lawrence Prior, president of SAIC’s Intelligence Group.
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By Eileen Sullivan, CQ Staff

Some of the recommendations outlined in the White House report on the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina would require new legislation, new agency offices or positions, or additional funding.
Among those recommendations are proposals that would:

• Amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (PL 93-288) to require states to meet certain basic standards, such as having mass evacuation plans, in order to receive federal reimbursement.
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By Jeff Stein, CQ Staff

A ring of Marines who were selling bullet-proof vests bound for American soldiers in Iraq has been busted, U.S. civilian and military agencies announced Wednesday.

Some of the body armor showed up for sale later on eBay, an Internet auction site, according to an announcement from the office of Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Department of Homeland Security.
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By Benton Ives-Halperin, CQ Staff

A Pennsylvania county has purchased $5 million worth of laptop computers in an effort to improve data communications for its police, fire department and ambulance crews. The 100 “ruggedized” laptops were bought from Motorola and will serve Chester County, Pa., allowing first responders to receive and transmit more data while working in the field.
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By Patrick Yoest, CQ Staff

With a scheduled March 2 turnover of six U.S. port terminals to a Middle Eastern company, some states are re-examining port leases to try to halt the action.

Several bills set for introduction in Congress next week would also halt the $6.2 billion deal, which would put the terminals in the control of Dubai Ports World, a United Arab Emirates-based company controlled by the UAE government. The sale affects terminals in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Miami.
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By Eileen Sullivan, CQ Staff

Federal agencies must improve collaboration and communications to respond to future disasters, and must plan for the military to step in when local officials are overwhelmed, the White House concluded after an extensive review of the Hurricane Katrina response.

The White House issued a 228-page report Thursday outlining lessons learned from last summer’s devastating Gulf Coast hurricane as well as recommendations for change. Of the 125 recommendations, 11 must be applied before the hurricane season kicks off on June 1, the report said.
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By Caitlin Harrington, CQ Staff

The Bush administration’s approval of a deal allowing a company from the United Arab Emirates to oversee operations at key U.S. ports has pitted the administration against lawmakers worried about national security implications of the sale.

But former administration officials and security experts say both the White House and Congress are to blame for a national security problem with far broader implications: that all of the nation’s 361 seaports suffer serious gaps in security due to a paucity of funding and government inertia.
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Eastern Washington University partners with Bellevue Community College to present a
community forum on wireless security issues.

Recent wireless reconnaissance work has revealed that more than half of Seattle area wireless networks are “open.” That means an outside party is able to use bandwidth, steal security codes or even conduct illegal activity through those open access points.

Eastern Washington University, in partnership with Bellevue Community College, presents “Eastern Edge: Wireless Security” at 11:30 a.m., Friday, April 7, at the Bellevue Doubletree Hotel, featuring John Shovic, PhD, EWU professor of cybersecurity and cofounder of several Northwest technology businesses. Shovic will provide a nontechnical overview of wireless security and how businesses as well as individuals can protect themselves, then invite questions and discussion.

EWU’s Cybersecurity Program is backed by a $2.5 million congressional investment and was one of the first such programs established in the country. Shovic’s innovative teaching techniques have been featured in the Puget Sound Business Journal, and he has offered expert opinion to several national sources, including the Wall Street Journal.
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By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly

In a scathing 520-page report on the Katrina debacle, a House panel yesterday described “a litany of mistakes, misjudgments, lapses, and absurdities all cascading together, blinding us to what was coming and hobbling any collective effort to respond,” The Washington Post’s William Branigan reports. DHS chief Michael Chertoff, on the job for one year, meantime, drew sharp criticism yesterday from both the chairwoman and senior Democrat on the Senate homeland panel, The Associated Press’s Lara Jakes Jordan reports. Chertoff responded with a vow to do better and talk of reforms, The Los Angeles Times’s Johanna Neuman and Edwin Chen recount. “Chertoff’s reputation has been impugned. Now some question whether he can survive in the job,” Neuman adds in another L.A. Times item.
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By Benton Ives-Halperin, CQ Staff

Congress may need to set some baseline interoperability standards for emergency communications equipment, according to several lawmakers. But at least one major business interest is wary of the concept.
“This is a national problem . . . we need to look for leadership from the federal government,” Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., said Wednesday during the first of four expected hearings on interoperability. Reichert said congressional leadership could include setting standards for interoperable communications.

Several first-responder groups agreed that the lack of common standards among communication equipment vendors makes it hard for emergency personnel to talk to one another in a crisis.
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By Tim Starks, CQ Staff

Now that the House has concluded its investigation into the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, lawmakers are calling for a host of legislative fixes, including a potentially contentious plan to restore the independence of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The Republican-dominated House select panel created to examine the response to last year’s catastrophic storm released its final report Wednesday. It was a stinging rebuke of the disaster preparations and the reactions of the federal, state and local governments.
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By Zack Phillips, CQ Staff

Strategic Diagnostics Inc. builds a sensor to detect biological and chemical toxins in water, and this week the firm announced that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has granted the product extensive liability protection.
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By Eileen Sullivan, CQ Staff

At least three emergency managers have turned down the opportunity to be the new permanent Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director before their names were officially thrown into the ring for consideration.

The White House is still on the hunt for a successor to Michael D. Brown, who resigned in September on the heels of a flawed federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
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By Mary Speck, CQ Staff

A proposal to give the president authority to conduct warrantless domestic surveillance — but subject it to stricter congressional oversight — is being circulated by Sen. Mike DeWine, a Republican who sits on both the Intelligence and Judiciary committees.
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By Benton Ives-Halperin, CQ Staff

A series of former intelligence officials told a congressional subcommittee Tuesday that national security whistleblowers are often subject to retaliatory actions, particularly the revocation of security clearances.
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By Jeff Stein, CQ Staff

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., set the number of Central Intelligence Agency employees at 16,000 Thursday, in what appeared to be an inadvertent disclosure of the classified figure in a press conference.

Graham and Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., were in the midst of a joint press conference to urge the repeal of China’s normal trade relations status with the United States when the South Carolinian cited the CIA figure in passing.
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