Department of Homeland Security advises members of Congress on dealing with `active shooter'

Bogus Fox claim that DHS tied shooter to white supremacists is debunked
I reported yesterday that the Department of Homeland Security was denying a Fox story claiming the agency had established possible links between the shooter and a white supremacist organization. Now Ken Vogel debunks the story completely: An Arizona Law Enforcement agency is backing away from a document it produced in the aftermath of Saturday's shootings in Tucson -- and which was leaked to Fox News -- that linked the man accused with carrying out the Crimes to a white nationalist publication...

Threats on members of Congress, staff get reaction
A staff member for Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) received an e-mail threat against Rep. Davis, following Saturday's shooting rampage in Arizona. U.S. Rep. Davis, a Democrat from Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune the email was sent to a Staffer and read "Danny Davis is next," likely referencing the Saturday shooting. Davis' staff then notified the authorities. The threat comes as Illinois lawmakers prepare for inaugural ceremonies in Springfield Monday, where Gov. Pat Quinn and other winners of the N...

Doctor: Rep. Giffords breathing on her own after being shot
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Doctors say an Arizona congresswoman is breathing on her own after being shot in the head. Dr. Michael Lemole, Giffords' neurosurgeon, says they've left a breathing tube in Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to protect her airway, but the congresswoman is drawing breaths on her own. She's alert and responding to doctors. Six people are still hospitalized after the shooting Saturday at a Tucson Grocery Store. The attack killed six and injured 14 others. Giffords, a three-term Dem...

GOP lawmaker to introduce new gun control legislation
Congressman Peter King (R-NY) announced Tuesday he will introduce new Legislation making it illegal to knowingly carry a firearm within 1,000 feet of a member of Congress and Federal Judges.  The new law will also apply to anyone within 1,000 feet of the President or Vice President. Congressman Peter King today also announced that he will introduce Legislation that will make it illegal to knowingly carry a gun within 1,000 feet of the President, Vice President, Members of Congress or judges...

John Rosenthal: Congress-Wake Up and Smell the Gunfire
Gun violence in America results in over 30,000 deaths a year; more than 80 deaths and 200 gun related injuries everyday. In the wake of the latest Mass Shooting in Tucson Arizona, where a mentally unstable 22-year-old gunman bought a semi-automatic pistol and large capacity ammunition clip at a gun store and killed 6 and wounded 14, including a Congresswomen and Federal Judge, members of Congress say they're "shocked". That such a tragedy could happen to one of their own "just doing her job a...

Would-be TSA saboteur sentenced to 2 years in prison
Denver (Reuters) - A former data analyst for the Transportation Security Administration was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in federal Prison for trying to sabotage a computer network used for screening airline passengers. Douglas Duchak, admitted last year to attempting to load malicious code into TSA computer servers in October 2009, about a week after being told he was being let go from his position at the agency's operations center. Duchak had worked at the Colorado Springs facility for f...

Doctor: Giffords breathing on her own
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was breathing on her own and moving both arms after being shot in the head, doctors said Tuesday. Mrs. Giffords still has a breathing tube to prevent infections such as Pneumonia, said Dr. Michael Lemole, her neurosurgeon. "I'm happy to say that she's holding her own," he said. Mrs. Giffords, a three-time Democrat, remained in critical condition at Tucson's University Medical Center since Saturday, when she was shot during a meeting with con...

Doc linking Loughner to racists disavowed
An Arizona Law Enforcement agency is backing away from a document it produced in the aftermath of Saturday’s shootings in Tucson – and which was leaked to Fox News – that linked the man accused with carrying out the Crimes to a white nationalist publication. After Fox News began citing the document in its broadcasts, initially describing it as a memo from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the story was picked up by other media, which suggested that the federal governm...

Words Matter.
( - promoted by Rob Kailey) Right-wing radio personality/shock jock(and former GOP Staffer) Aaron Flint is taking, according to him, a "tongue in cheek" look at the tragedy in Arizona on Twitter. But what this reminded me of was Flint's earlier mockery of the presence of Law Enforcement at congressional events here in Montana. From his blog: No mention, of course, by the New York Times during their "he's a well grounded man" piece of the fact that the Senator felt he couldn't even hold an in...

Reports Downplayed of Loughner's Extremist Ties
Like this Story? Share it: Only On The Web: CBS News digital Journalist Arden Farhi spoke to Tucson-area residents as they reflect on Saturday's shooting and the impact it's had on their community. Chris Wragge speaks with Tucson shooting survivor Eric Fuller about the gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, and his thoughts on Rep. Gabrielle Gifford's recovery. New details about Tuscon gunman Jared Lee Loughner are being revealed as investigators search his home. Ben Tracy reports. Evidence is continuing t...

Leahy Expresses Optimism for 112th Congress
The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy , ushered in the 112th Congress with high hopes outlining his committee’s agenda on Tuesday. The Vermont Democrat spoke specifically on fighting Fraud, promoting innovation and protecting National Security and Constitutional Rights in the digital age. Guests gathered at the Freedom Forum within the Newseum to hear Leahy emphasize the need for Bipartisanship and the elimination of divisive Rhetoric, especially after Saturday̵...

King to introduce gun-restriction legislation in response to Tucson shooting
Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, will introduce Legislation that will make it a federal crime to carry a firearm within 1,000 feet of federal officeholders and judges in response to the shooting in Tucson that killed Judge John Roll and gravely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.  King, who chairs the Homeland Security committee in the House, will get support from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a longtime advocate for Gun Control (via The Daily Caller): Rep. Peter King, a Rep...

Please report suspicious activity at Wal-Mart to the Department of Homeland Security
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Newsweek: DHS tried to warn us about attacks from right-wing extremists, didnt they?
The title of the piece, printed above a photo of Loughner’s home and the now famous crazy-eyes mugshot: “The Missed Warning Signs.” Am I awake? Two years before the Tucson massacre, the Department of Homeland Security warned in a report that right-wing Extremism was on the rise and could prompt “lone wolves” to launch attacks. But the agency backed away from the report amid intense criticism from Republicans, including future House Speaker John Boehner. The report...

Arizona DHS: Loughner not influenced by extremist group
The Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center, a division of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security, acknowledges to my colleague Ken Vogel that it produced a memo reported on by Fox News over the weekend that suggested the suspect in the Tucson attacks may have been influenced by American Renaissance -- a theory it now says the evidence does not support: David Denlinger, commander of the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center ack...

Novelist: Homeland Security recruited me to 'attack' USA...
Author Brad Meltzer will speak about his experiences being recruited by the Department of Homeland Security's Red Cell program at a book reading Tuesday. Abe Lincoln still No. 1 I was a real-life Secret Agent. I didn't have the hand-grenade cuff links or the poison-dart pen, but in 2004 I was recruited by the Department of Homeland Security for its Red Cell program. As they described it - and as The Washington Post later reported - Red Cell was the government's way of trying to antici...

Homeland Security walking back Jewish claim on Giffords
You will recall that I posted yesterday that the attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords' life was because she is Jewish. That post was based on a memo from the Department of Homeland Security that was posted by Fox News' Greta van Sustern on her blog. Now, the Department of Homeland Security is walking back that memo. Fox News's report yesterday initially claimed that a DHS memo had outlined the possible connection, and defined American Renaissance as a "pro-white Racist organization" th...

Glock pistol sales surge in aftermath of Arizona shootings
After a Glock-wielding gunman killed six people at a Tucson shopping center on Jan. 8, Greg Wolff, the owner of two Arizona gun shops, told his manager to get ready for a stampede of new customers. Wolff was right. Instead of hurting sales, the massacre had the $499 semi-automatic pistols -- popular with police, sport shooters and gangsters -- flying out the doors of his Glockmeister stores in Mesa and Phoenix. “We’re at double our volume over what we usually do,” Wolff said tw...

Glock Pistol Sales Surge in Aftermath of Arizona Shootings
Source: Bloomberg After a Glock-wielding gunman killed six people at a Tucson shopping center on Jan. 8, Greg Wolff, the owner of two Arizona gun shops, told his manager to get ready for a stampede of new customers. Wolff was right. Instead of hurting sales, the massacre had the $499 semi-automatic pistols -- popular with police, sport shooters and gangsters -- flying out the doors of his Glockmeister stores in Mesa and Phoenix. “We’re at double our volume over what we usually do,” Wolff sai

Adam Kissel: UC Berkeley Chancellor Blames Arizona Shooting on 'Hateful Speech'
Yesterday morning, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau e-mailed the campus community with regard to the horrendous Mass Shooting in Arizona that killed a Federal Judge, a 9-year-old girl, and several others while gravely injuring Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the apparent target of the attack. Like many others in the News Media and on blogs and Twitter, Birgeneau chose to put the blame for the shooting on the "climate" of Speech in Arizona, while lamenting what he sees as similar problems at...

Ariz. lawmakers seek ban on funeral protests
TUCSON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Arizona lawmakers were rushing to pass a law Tuesday that would protect the families of Tucson's Shooting Victims from Funeral Protests. The leader of a Kansas sect of self-proclaimed Baptists says "God sent" the man accused of shooting 20 people in Arizona, killing six of them. GALLERY: The aftermath of the Rep. Giffords shooting In a telephone interview with the New Times in Phoenix, Shirley Phelps-Roper, a leader of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, said 22-year...

House Resolution Would Condemn Giffords Attack (Full Text)
Members of Congress and staff members observe a moment of silence for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and other Shooting Victims, Monday, Jan. 10, 2011, on the East Steps of the Capitol on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) The House of Representatives on Wednesday will vote on a resolution declaring that the House "condemns in the strongest possible terms the horrific attack" in Tucson, Arizona that left six dead, a congresswoman in critical condition and 13 ot...

The costs of protecting our elected officials against an assassins bullet
In light of last Saturday’s tragedy, the U.S. Congress is working an abbreviated schedule this week. Legislative action has been suspended through Wednesday of next week so that our elected leaders can join the rest of the nation in mourning a senseless tragedy. Once work resumes, the House is expected to entertain a proposal to extend armed security protection to all 535 members of Congress at all times. The idea, which is understandable in the light of recent events, has its roots in the...

Closed for Business: Members, aides undeterred
When we left the Capitol on Friday of last week, we were prepping for the coverage of the bickering that was going to ensue on the House floor this week. The GOP had decided on seven hours of debate on the "Repeal the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act" starting today and ending with a vote to repeal the bill tomorrow. It was going to be, as one Democratic congresswoman repeated multiple times, "political theater." And Journalists were already stocking up on Popcorn and Dr. Pepper to watch the fire...

Would-be TSA saboteur sentenced to 2 years in prison
By Robert Boczkiewicz Denver | Tue Jan 11, 2011 3:07pm EST Denver (Reuters) - A former data analyst for the Transportation Security Administration was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in federal Prison for trying to sabotage a computer network used for screening airline passengers. Douglas Duchak, admitted last year to attempting to load malicious code into TSA computer servers in October 2009, about a week after being told he was being let go from his position at the agency's operations cen...