SaddleBrooke Republican Club » homeland security

King, Thompson Call for End to Congressional Oversight Chaos

Aaron Greenberg — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:30:40 +0000

One thing every parent knows is that no matter how many toys kids have, they will always end up fighting over one they all want. With children, this problem is usually resolved by adults. But what about when adults fight over a toy? That is the problem House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-NY) and Ranking Member Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS ) confront in their letter to Speaker John Boehner (R–OH), in which they call for consolidation of legislative oversight over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). While … More

A Scary Thought: Do We Really Need “If You See Something, Say Something?”

John Mueller — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:40:19 +0000

By John Mueller

At the National Sheriffs’ Association Conference in Washington last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano noted that riders on the DC Metro system can hear her voice repeatedly promoting her department’s “If You See Something, Say Something” terrorism hotline campaign. “That’s a scary thought,” she suggested. Even scarier to me is the campaign itself. It [...]

A Scary Thought: Do We Really Need “If You See Something, Say Something?” is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Preventing Terrorism Requires Collaborative Relationship Between Federal and Local Resources

Scott Erickson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:00:21 +0000

Earlier this month, Sami Osmakac, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in the former Yugoslavia, was arrested near Tampa, Florida, after federal officials uncovered his plan to unleash terrorism upon the United States. After receiving an anonymous tip, undercover FBI agents met with Osmakac and learned the details of his terror plot. Osmakac described his intentions of setting off car bombs in crowded areas throughout Tampa, following such explosions with high-powered assault weapons attacks against the public. “I want to do something terrifying, like one day, one night, something’s going to … More

Violent Extremism Continues to Plague Homeland Security

Scott Erickson — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:25:57 +0000

A recent analysis of data accumulated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland reveals a disturbing depth to the level of extremism and violence perpetrated within the United States over the past decade. In sum, START’s Global Terrorism Database, an open-source database comprising “information on over 87,000 domestic and international terrorist events around the world since 1970,” identified over 200 acts of terrorism having occurred in the United States since 2000. Of those acts, 17 resulted in fatalities. … More

Newt Gingrich and the EMP Threat

John Mueller — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:19:59 +0000

By John Mueller

The front page of yesterday’s New York Times features a story on Newt Gingrich’s “doomsday vision:” an attack over the United States’ airspace known as an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP. Gingrich and a cadre of concerned national security analysts worry that terrorists or rogue states—Iran and North Korea—could detonate a nuclear device over the United [...]

Newt Gingrich and the EMP Threat is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

The Real Trouble With the Defense Authorization Bill

Benjamin H. Friedman — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:30:29 +0000

By Benjamin H. Friedman

The Senate on Thursday passed the 2012 defense-authorization bill. It includes a controversial provision meant to put al-Qaeda suspects and their associates in military custody rather than prosecute them as criminals. The White House has rather weakly threatened a veto, complaining primarily that the bill undercuts their discretion in dealing with terrorists. If the White [...]

The Real Trouble With the Defense Authorization Bill is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog