"Explosive" Debates Expected on House Homeland Security Committee

Amnesty International: Rep. King Unfit to Chair Homeland Security Committee
By Tom Parker, Policy Director for Terrorism, Counterterrorism and Human Rights Yesterday, with the opening of the 112th Congress, Representative Peter King (R-NY) succeeded Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MI) as the Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee. In the past few weeks Congressman King, no stranger to exaggerated sensationalism, has attracted a great deal of media attention for labeling Wikileaks a Terrorist Organization (a stretch by any definition of the term) and calling for the...

Saturday Night Alive?
We all breathed a sigh of relief when the ball fell in New York's Times Square and the Holiday Season this year ended without another terror attack, or attempted attack, on our homeland. You'll recall that on Christmas Day, 2009, the notorious "underwear" bomber tried to blow up his jet over Detroit. Young Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian citizen, wanted to take down his Northwest Airlines Flight 253 right over Detroit's airport. Had he succeeded in detonating his BVDs, his Victims would no...

Ken Blackwell: Saturday Night Alive?
We all breathed a sigh of relief when the ball fell in New York's Times Square and the Holiday Season this year ended without another terror attack, or attempted attack on our homeland. You'll recall that on Christmas Day, 2009, the notorious "underwear" bomber tried to blow up his jet over Detroit. Young Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian citizen, wanted to take down his Northwest Airlines Flight 253 right over Detroit 's airport. Had he succeeded in detonating his BVDs, his Victims would ...

A Productive Role for Homeland Security?
You report that “Homeland Security is working with more than 190 nations to prevent Terrorist Attacks that can disrupt world trade” (“How to Secure the Global Supply Chain,” Jan. 6). Does this mean that Homeland Security is working to prevent the likes of Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Rep. Timothy Ryan, and other protectionists on Pennsylvania Avenue from raising Tariffs and otherwise clogging the global supply chain with debilitating restrictions and regulatio...

Dealing with suspected terrorists: Last orders?
When the coalition was being formed, the two parties made much of their common commitment “to reverse the substantial erosion of Civil Liberties under the Labour government”. High on the list were counter-terrorism laws, notably the control orders introduced in 2005 to restrict the liberty of Terrorist suspects who could be neither prosecuted nor deported. The other big target was the previous government’s extension of the time that suspects could be held without charge. In Jul...

European Coptic churches on alert after attack
Coptic churches around Europe are expressing fears for their safety following a New Year's Day attack on a church in Egypt that had been listed on an Islamist website. The same site, which is affiliated with the al Qaeda terror network, listed 16 Coptic churches in Europe, including four in France and three each in England and Germany. Germany's Federal Office for Criminal Investigations said it has notified state authorities of a general Terrorist Threat against Coptic Christians li...

Investigate Justice Dept.'s efforts against terrorism
Given the Democrats' track record of investigating Republican administrations, they will lack credibility when they Protest Republicans investigating actions by the Obama Administration. Oversight is a primary function of any Congress. The new Republican House majority is expected to conduct several investigations. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has promised to lead six of them, including one that according to Issa's spokesma...

House 'Radicalization' Hearings Worry U.S. Muslims
By Daniel Burke Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) Mass Protests against planned Mosques in New York City and Tennessee. An Oklahoma Referendum to ban Islamic law. A media circus around a Florida pastor's threat to burn Qurans. An outbreak of homegrown Islamic Terrorists. Two U.S.-led wars in predominantly Muslim countries. There was no shortage of topics to discuss at the recent Muslim Public Affairs Council convention in Los Angeles. But the prospect of congressional hearings on the "ra...

Nick Cleggs agonies over control orders show how far he has come
One of the arguments frequently deployed against liberals who demand the abolition of anti-terror Legislation is of the “But what would you do?” variety, imagining a moment when said liberal might, as if by magic, be teleported into a ministerial office and confronted with the secret files held by those who work in the darker areas of government. All that information about what the bad guys are up to would be laid out for them to read - and before you know it, they’d be calling for

King: On Security Policy, GOP Freshmen Have 'Same Mindset'
Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, tells National Review Online that the 87-strong class of Republican freshmen is not only Hawkish on fiscal issues, but on the national-security front, too. “I believe they have the same mindset that I have, that [Rep. Dan] Lungren has, that others have,” he says. “The ones who have reached out to me, and those assigned to the committee, all seem to share my beliefs: totally aggressive against ter...

From a reader
Subject: TSA airport screening results TSA airport screening results 2011 year-to-date statistics on airport screening: Terrorists Discovered 0 Transvestites 133 Hernias 1,485 Hemorrhoid Cases 3,172 Enlarged Prostates 8,249 Breast Implants 59,350 Natural Blondes 3 Source: John Pistole, TSA Administrator Department of Homeland Security ...

Previously Chatty Homeland Security Clams Up After Errors In Domain Seizures Pop Up
As you're probably aware, we've been covering the many serious legal questions raised by Homeland Security's decision to use its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) group to seize a bunch of Domain Names. As we've reported, the basis for the domain name seizures was full of serious technical and legal errors, which called into question the expertise of ICE on this subject. This was made even worse when details revealed that many of the "examples" used to prove infringement were sent by rep...

Bruker adds to detection portfolio
BILLERICA, Mass., Jan. 6 (UPI) -- The radiation instrument detection business of Illinois company Protect-US is now an operation of Bruker Detection Corp. Bruker announced Thursday it acquired the business, which will expand Bruker's product offerings for Homeland Security, under undisclosed terms. Bruker said its current radiation detection product line consists of dose rate and total dose measurement instruments, as well as special Probes for defense reconnaissance, a small niche within the es...

Islami extremist at CPAC 2011
Via The Jawa Report:  Islamic Extremist Suhail Khan to be featured at CPAC 2011 Frank Gaffney at Big Peace reports today on the appearance of Islamic Extremist Suhail Khan at CPAC 2011 next month. Note that Khan is on the board of the American Conservative Union (ACU), which operates CPAC and is a protege of GOP Activist Grover Norquist, who as Gaffney notes co-founded the Islamic Institute with top Al-Qaeda Fundraiser Abdurahman Alamoudi. Gaffney says "It's a Time to Choose for...

FCC to take on public safety network without addressing D Block controversy
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has tentatively scheduled a January vote on Broadband for First Responders, but the item will not address the Controversial D Block that has divided key lawmakers on how to get police and firemen a mobile connection.  An FCC official said that the proposal requires mobile Broadband connections for Public Safety officials are built over 4G LTE networks. The official said the proposal does not address the Controversial D Block of spectrum.  Rather, t...

Islamic extremist Suhail Khan to be featured at CPAC 2011
Frank Gaffney at Big Peace reports today on the appearance of Islamic Extremist Suhail Khan at CPAC 2011 next month. Note that Khan is on the board of the American Conservative Union (ACU), which operates CPAC and is a protege of GOP Activist Grover Norquist, who as Gaffney notes co-founded the Islamic Institute with top Al-Qaeda Fundraiser Abdurahman Alamoudi. Gaffney says "It's a Time to Choose for the Conservative Movement": Then, this evening, WND raised troubling questions about the role...

Congressman Allen West Joins Armed Services Committee; Understands Sharia Threat
A previous blog of mine featured Allen West’s candid remarks about the living legacy of Jihad during a forum in early 2010. Below are extracts from an interview West gave with Frank Gaffney, subsequently, after his election to Congress, this past November 2, 2010. These statements demonstrate that the Congressman-elect clearly understands the full ideological spectrum of the Jihadist threat we face—non-violent as well as violent—rooted in the Sharia. West’s reality-based ...

Wenonah Hauter: We're Blaming the Wrong People for Polluted Tap Water
Recent coverage of the revelations of increased levels of hexavalent chromium (also known as chromium 6) in some of our nation's water supplies vilified the wrong institutions: our municipal water utilities. The real culprits are the industries that dump this and other pollutants into our Drinking Water sources, and the elected officials who are short-sightedly failing to fund our drinking and wastewater systems.   I repeat: tap water and the public agencies that provide it are not the enemy....

Obama chooses William Daley as chief of staff
2. Watching Private Sector profits reach un-precedented levels (while investment goes abroad, hiring moves abroad, and Manufacturing continues to disappear and un-employment continues). 3. Raising the defense Budget 6% (so, when “cuts” come, the defense industries will be safely sandbagged). 4. Allowing the financial industry to 'borrow' from the ‘Public Sector’ (i.e. me and you) at 1% and buy bonds that pay 3% interest (Banks take your $1 and make $2 off each one they &#...

What It Will Take to Finish the Job in Afghanistan
In early December, U.S. ambassador Karl Eikenberry attended a shura in the Zhari district of Afghanistan's Kandahar Province for the first time. "I've been to all 34 of Afghanistan's provinces, but I've never been here before, because the Taliban prevented it," he told the local elders. "A year ago, I would never have believed we could have this meeting, so I congratulate you on your courage." Zhari district is in the heart of the Taliban homeland, an area so dangerous that the district gover...

AP Exclusive: Building a network to hit militants (AP)
WASHINGTON – The Obama Administration has ramped up its secret War on Terror groups with a new Military targeting center to oversee the growing use of Special Operations strikes against suspected Militants in hot spots around the world, according to current and former U.S. officials. Run by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, the new center would be a significant step in streamlining targeting operations previously scattered among U.S. and battlefields abroad and giving elite mili...

The Merida Initiative: A Flawed Counterdrug Policy?
<![CDATA[ The Merida Initiative: A Flawed Counterdrug Policy? by Philip K. Abbott Download The Full Article: The Merida Initiative: A Flawed Counterdrug Policy? Economic integration and dependency under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) successfully paved the way for improved cooperation between the United States and Mexico on a wide range of issues. However, in the aftermath of the September 2001 Terrorist Attacks, the focus of this relationship suddenly shifted from social-econom... </p>

India requests possible Apache sale
NEW DELHI, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- India paved the way to buying 22 Boeing Apache Helicopters plus logistics support by requesting the purchase to the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The DSCA notified the U.S. Congress of the possible foreign Military sale, which doesn't include offset agreements for Manufacturing in India. The shopping list for the Direct Commercial Sale of the AH-64D Block III Apache Helicopters includes engines, equipment, weapons, training and parts worth around $1.4 billi...

Obama Picks Bill Daley as New Chief of Staff
President Obama at 2:30 pm EST today will announce his new Chief of Staff: former Clinton Commerce Secretary Bill Daley. The interim chief of staff, Pete Rouse, will serve as “counselor to the president,” a promotion from his former role. The seventh and youngest child of the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, Daley may be best known by the public for not-conceding on election night as the campaign chair for Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential Campaign. But there’s obviously mu...

Boehner: Real change needed in exchange for debt-limit increase
If the administration wants a hike in the statutory Debt ceiling, they will have to produce some agreement on broad Budget cuts and structural changes first, John Boehner warns today in an e-mail to Bloggers and the media.  Boehner drew the line in the sand while leaving himself some wiggle room on acceptable changes as the Debt Limit rapidly approaches and Congress runs out of maneuvering room (via Instapundit and Jim Geraghty): I’ve been notified that the Obama Administration intends to f...