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In case you didn't know, he is Director of TSA.

Here's a link to the Operationg Cyberstorm Report on the DHS web site.

Try here...

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/press_releas e/press_release_0993.xml

I was just there and downloaded the 20-page report from

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interweb/assetlibrary /prep_cyberstormreport_sep06.pdf

Try here...

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/press_releas e/press_release_0993.xml

I was just there and downloaded the 20-page report from

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interweb/assetlibrary /prep_cyberstormreport_sep06.pdf

Link to the actual DHS press release: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=5431/

D'oh. Hadn't thought of my I'm-a-time-traveler joke as an I'm-a-terrorist joke. Now I'm going to get visited by the men with round patches.

Thank you I am starting a site soon for people to post their whistle blowing videos. It will have sponsordhip from the relvent organizations and attorneys Lastest data DHS IG report Defense News article written after it came out Friday Article Defense News just did http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2075954&C=a merica Report Data http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/OIG_06-55 _Aug06.pdf

Things are looking up Article Defense News just did http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2075954&C=a merica Report Data http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/OIG_06-55 _Aug06.pdf

"You're making things pretty. . . . You're changing colors."

That's the FBI policy: they're part of Homeland Security, so their job is mainly to tells what color today is. Otherwise terrorists might have trouble knowing which days we're not checking everyone or paying closest attention.

Or it could be DHS making a publicity move.

You can contact the DHS about public health concerns (or the cdc)... Tell them that your neighbor has been acting very strange lately, and that he installed a dangerous looking electronic device on his house. Also, that now you and your other neighbors are experiencing headaches and nausea, but only while in the vicinity of the device.

You can contact the DHS about public health concerns (or the cdc)... Tell them that your neighbor has been acting very strange lately, and that he installed a dangerous looking electronic device on his house. Also, that now you and your other neighbors are experiencing headaches and nausea, but only while in the vicinity of the device.

Instead of port security, the feds do Marine Infrastructure Recovery Program (MIRP), and SSA Marine - a major port handler announces awhile back it is moving its HQ from Seattle, WA, (USA) to Arizona (USA), presumably to be better positioned for any possibility of port operations in Mexico, when the NAFTA Super Highway gets built; and

While the Carlyle Group, several years ago purchased Trenstar, Inc., which has expertise in RFIDs with regard to container shipping, while the US-Oman Free Trade Agreement was recently passed, making legal foreign ownership of the ports.....see something suspicious going on here?????

land of the prisoners, home of the cowards

Unfortunately, we will never know whether (and how often) the NSA's programs did indeed prevent attacks like 09/11.

What a load of manure. We hear about "elevated threat level"s, &c., all the time. Do you seriously believe that the administration would not have crowed long, and loud, if they had evidence of any attacks which they had successfully blocked? Think of the political capital that would have been reaped through such an act.

Wake up.
</rant>

Now, according to an August 2004 redacted DHS Inspector General report, the Terrorist Screening Center has a phone number and e-mail address where "federal and local organizations," presumably by which they mean law enforcement, can call about mistakes in the Database, suggesting there has been mistakes in this Database. A Washington Post story says an anonymous official said a 'very, very small fraction' of the names in this database are U.S. citizens.

If these names are used by the NSA in deciding whose phone calls to track and who to look up in SWIFT, very probably they could accidentally, or "accidentally," infringe on citizens' rights. There is no way to know this, because the database is classified, and there is also no way to know for certain that this database is used in those operations, although I would guess they probably are.

In order to get into the database, minimum information includes your name and personally identifying information, such as a birthdate, in the director of the Terrorist Screening Center's words. Coincidentally perhaps, this is the information taken when boarding a flight at two international airports. Information is sent to the Transportation Security Authority, and who knows what happens there, though they claim not to keep it forever. The length information obtained at international airports may be preserved and kept by the government is determined by the National Library and Archives in a certain file of theirs. That file is not available online, but I would suppose they'd keep it indefinitely for certain reasons. I learned this through this report. The more you know, eh?

Anyway, hope I've not abused Slashdot karma. Thanks for reading.

all the orange terror alerts before the last election

It was funny how those typically came when Bush was low in the polls. Poor Kerry didn't even have a chance to play with the colors.

For the historical orange to yellow to orange oscillations take a look here:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.dhs.gov/dh spublic/display?theme=29

for the current level be sure to check:

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=29

A circuit breaker only trips AFTER a short. Don't be such an intentional idiot - there's a big difference between a 600v or 12kv line shorting out and your measly 15-amp 110v line.

A quick search shows http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/safety/tips/electrical.sht m that electical fires

During a typical year, home electrical problems account for 67,800 fires, 485 deaths, and $868 million in property losses. Home electrical wiring causes twice as many fires as electrical appliances.

I'm sure some of them even had breakers ...

If only they were really doing that for 'cognitive balance' and not for blind allegiance...

Thumb prints are taken of visitors and (as a mandatory measure) immigrants quite regularly now. See the DHS's page on the US VISIT program. They have my fingerprints on file and I really had no choice in the matter.

DNA isn't that far off.

However, most EU citizens on short trips to the US don't need visas, they travel on what's called the visa waiver program. That requires you to fill in a short form essentially stating you're a "normal person" and you get a stamp at immigration and in you go.

Nowadays, in addition to the short form they take fingerprints and a photo. This is part of the US-VISIT program.

The short form, I-94W, is a constant source of amusement for travelers to the US. It contains classics such as: "Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offense or crime involving moral turpitude or [...] ?" and "Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or [...] ?".

These are the 34 items, taken from the DHS document at http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/CBP-DHS_P NRUndertakings5-25-04.pdf which also describes how easily the data can be distributed, and how "deleted after 3.5 years" doesn't really mean what it says, but may mean that your data goes into a file marked "deleted, honest, and reely hard to read because it's raw data" and kept for 8 years or more.

1. PNR record locator code
2. Date of reservation
3. Date(s) of intended travel
4. Name
5. Other names on PNR
6. Address
7. All forms of payment information
8. Billing address
9. Contact telephone numbers
10. All travel itinerary for specific PNR
11. Frequent flyer information (limited to miles flown and address(es))
12. Travel agency
13. Travel agent
14. Code share PNR information
15. Travel status of passenger
16. Split/Divided PNR information
17. Email address
18. Ticketing field information
19. General remarks
20. Ticket number
21. Seat number
22. Date of ticket issuance
23. No show history
24. Bag tag numbers
25. Go show information
26. OSI information
27. SSI/SSR information
28. Received from information
29. All historical changes to the PNR
30. Number of travelers on PNR
31. Seat information
32. One-way tickets
33. Any collected APIS information
34. ATFQ fields

* US VISIT intends to build upon the technologies and management systems previously employed for entry in order to realize an automated entry exit process. RFID technology offers a solution for a potentially faster, biometrically enhanced entry exit operation.

* Using an automatic identifier, RFID technology can detect a visitor at a distance (up to 100 feet) and provide primary inspection with entry information. RFID technology can also provide a mechanism for an accurate and timely record of exits without requiring visitors to interrupt their travels by stopping or even slowing down to check out.
...
* US VISIT will ensure that our visitors' information is always protected. The RFID technology used by US VISIT will protect sensitive information because it will read only a randomly-generated number that links to visitors' information stored securely in a database. It will also be tamper proof and difficult to counterfeit or surreptitiously read.

Not only that, this is discussing doing that while the RFID equipped form is in the possession of the person in a moving car...

A couple of inches? Yeah, right.

--
Tomas

Surely you aren't suggesting that in this post-911 world, your loving president should be spending money on anything other than the security of the homeland? Imagine what those COMMIES in the LIBERAL MEDIA! would do to him if spending on Protecting America's Children, Puppies and Kittens were to fail to keep pace with Moore's Law?

You're missing the point: DHS is an umbrella organization that includes the Secret Service, which is responsible for "financial instituation fraud, [and] identity theft", among other things (from here: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/ed itorial_0515.xml). Looking into this sort of scam is exactly what DHS should be doing.

The misdirection in the story is that people hear "Homeland Security" and think terrorism, and the article doesn't dispel that notion.

You can look at http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/ed itorial_0644.xml to see a sort of org chart for Homeland Security. They own Customs, Immigration, TSA, FEMA, USSS, Air Marshals, Coast Guard, and various other things.

They don't have the FBI, CIA, NSA, DEA (although they have an Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement), the US Marshals, or BATF.

Hmm, did you notice above that USSS (i.e. Secret Service) is part of them? Which means that they do have federal juristiction over financial fraud. (The protecting POTUS thing is just something they do in their spare time)

They also, interestingly, have a department of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties: Daniel W. Sutherland is in charge. You'd think that being a Civil Rights lawyer who works for the Government would be difficult, but he's managed it for almost 20 years...

The DHS isn't just about terrorism. It covers other aspects related to this story.

Yep, they can't stop copying existing western programs ...

The article states nothing about these employees actually trying to enforce Homeland Security regulatinos, they were clearly speaking on their own behalf. This was irresponsible, as they were in uniform and on duty. Keep on mind that they were also part of a subsidiary of the DHS. This is the same thing as if a fey Marines still in uniform did the same thing. It isn't Department of Defense policy to enforce indecency, but that doesn't mean they can keep every one of their thousands of employees from doing this kind of thing out of personal ignorance. Homeland Security is only focused on the safety of people, look at their site and look into their operations(http://www.dhs.gov./ They are not investigators, they are not crime stoppers, those guards were sent there to patrol and they stepped out of bounds. Look into the matter more and you can be sure they got in trouble for this irresponsible move on their part. Some people just are not aware that playboy is available at the library for its articles. If this mess was actually caused by a Homeland Security rule, I would say it might be a big deal, but clearly it had NOTHING to do with them except for that two employees stepped out of bounds while in uniform, and they need to be reprimanded.

For those of us in the US, there may be some degree of concern that these guys could decide the kit is a Threat To National Security or somesuch...

With $105 billion in this type of crime in 2005, I'm glad the Department of Homeland Security has had their budget cut to $16 million. That should stop those crooks!

I think that you are mistaken.

Cyber Security is enhanced in the budget to augment a 24/7 cyber threat watch, warning, and response capability that would identify emerging threats and vulnerabilities and coordinate responses to major cyber security incidents. An increase of $5 million is proposed in the budget for this effort, bringing the program total to $73.3 million.

-h-

Now with the NSA's IIS .NET bungle - perhaps they got persistent cookies when they went to rather insecure Passport authentication scheme

If I were you I would be worried. Here you are having an open conversation about Mao among a group of people with leftist tendencies. Guilt by association. Based on your reasoning it would be reasonable for DHS to come visit you because of your participation here. Better yet, why don't you report yourself. If you go to the DHS web site (http://www.dhs.gov/) it is easy enough to find the link to the FBI site to report suspected criminal activity related to terrorism (https://tips.fbi.gov/).

Was is Special Agent Scott Kohler or Bill Perry by any chance? Here are their phone numbers and Kohler's email:

24 hour: 617 565 5640
Direct/VM: 617 303 5643
Fax: 617 565 5659
Beeper: 877 713 9872
E-mail: skohler@usss.dhs.gov

Reply to this posting if it was one of the guys above. I am exposing them now because of their harrassment of us Massachusetts guys...

I know I'm jumping in late, but if just a few people see this and respond, it'll do some good.

Go to the following sites and complain:

Department of Homeland Security - Select "Security Threats" - This is a threat to national security.

US Secret Service Electronics Crimes Branch - They do computer fraud cases.

FBI

I know I'm jumping in WAY late in this conversation, but if just a few people see this and respond, it'll do some good.

Go to the following sites and complain:

Department of Homeland Security - Select "Security Threats"

US Secret Service - They do computer fraud cases.

FBI

I believe US-CERT falls under DHS

Hushed: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

It made the local news last night. Local here meaning NYC, only the largest TV market in the US... I only caught it on the "more news at 10/11" blurb while watching something else. It hit the Star Ledger yesterday according to Google News. It looks like it hit AP. It's all over Google News.

Just at what point would it be not hushed? Perhaps you're waiting for the DHS Threat Level to be raised? No luck yet...

The Feds are primarily responsible, and don't even need local approval to go into catastrophes like Katrina. Even if the governor perhaps doesn't approve, which she did, in advance of the storm. She approved NM Guard assistance before the storm, too, but it took 4 days for DC to process the paperwork.

So you go fuck yourself. You're some sick bastard, to say New Orleanians "deserve what they get" for electing inept, corrupt, incompetents, who did their job. While you suck Bush's cock as he bungles his way through another catastrope killing Americans without reason, without plan. You are truly demented that you are sticking to your script while Americans die. You are already fucked over, "royally", by your own King George.

You'll say anything to hang on to your corrupt Republican grip on power.

Louisianans "deserved" what they got? You deserve a stake through the heart.

Try reading the National Response Plan that Bush, DHS and FEMA all screwed up. Killing thousands of Americans. I hope you're next on the order of people killed by Bush hypocrisy. I'm tired of hearing your lies about how Bush needs all the power, and none of the responsiblity.

You are listening to the white house PR campaign again. The state requested aid on Friday before the hurricane, and the president signed the federal state of emergency on Sunday. At that point DHS had the statutory authority needed to handle the situation, but their response was muddled and ineffective until later in the following week.

I know you may chalk this response up to a loony from the left, but consider the following line: "President George W. Bush declared major disasters for impacted areas in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama....With these disaster declarations the federal government is able to bring its full resources to bear in helping residents in the impacted states with emergency needs and recovery support. "

My source? A DHS press release from 8/31.
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4771

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/ed itorial_0566.xml

"When an incident or potential incident is of such severity, magnitude, and/or complexity that it is considered an Incident of National Significance, the Secretary of Homeland Security initiates actions to prepare for, respond to, and recover from the incident." (NHP, 15)

"The President leads the Nation in responding efficiently and ensuring the necessary resources are applied quickly and effectively to all Incidents of National Significance." (NHP, 15)

"Standard procedures regarding requests for assistance may be expedited, or under extreme circumstances, suspended in the immediate aftermath of an event of catastrophic magnitude." (NRP, 44)

The part where it contradicts the National Response Plan. By the time you get to the second page it talks about "proactive" Federal responses to rare, mass-casualty events.

>George Bush had been trying to get the local government to declare a need for federal assistance.

I can't find a cite for this offhand but I did read that Governor Bianco (yes, she has a name, even if she is a Democrat) requested Federal troops on August 26 and a Federal state of emergency on August 27.

>If you don't know what the fuck you're talking about just keep your damn partisan bullshit to yourself!

Well, we can agree on that point.

Here is the email link (FEMAOPA@dhs.gov)

Let FEMA know that there are multiple OS's and web-browsers in the world. Leaving 1/10th of the population out of the loop isn't only a bad idea from the perspective of what's fair, it's not smart for our Country to rely on one OS/Browser/etc.. from a Federal Emergency point of view. Hopefully they listen (afterall, that's the job of FEMA).

I discovered the other day that some people, when they talk about "responsible disclosure guidelines", actually have a specific document in mind - but can't be bothered to include the URL.
The document's title is "National Infrastructure Advisory Council - Vulnerability Disclosure Framework - FINAL REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS".
Here it is: http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/vdwgrepor t.pdf

There is actually something called the National Response Plan published by DHS in December 2004 which is just coming in to effect that outlines in excruciating detail how the DHS and the rest of the Federal government is supposed to respond to incidents such as this. It was obviously written with a major terrorism incident in mind but applies equally to natural disasters when they rich a threshold called "event of national significance".

It is mind numbing exercise in bureaucracy to read. The parts I've struggled through though suggest the burden for disaster response is almost entirely placed on the backs of state and local governments and the Feds only support them and can only step in and take control when the local officials "overwhelmed" which they obviously were in this case.

Having just seen Chertoff's press conference the cynic in me thinks that in fact the Bush administration probably intentionally sat on their hands for a few days because they want the situation to spiral out of control. They now have the opportunity to justify declaring an "event of national significance" and Federalizing the whole situation. Chertoff indicated this was in fact a golden opportunity to christen the National Response Plan.

There is a wicked double edged sword at play here. For disasters of this epic scale obviously the Federal government and the military have vast resources to bring to bear.

It is however setting a dangerous precedent. The reason we have the Posse Commitatus act passed in 1878 was that during and after the Civil War the U.S. military ran rough shod over the South, devastating most of it, and imposing martial law to the misfortune of Southerners who in many case had their land and property confiscated by carpetbaggers with military support. Sherman's march to the sea, though perhaps a legitimate military action in some books, is in others an act of savagery and gratuitous revenge in others. Its not open to dispute that it was a case of a Federal army applied a scorched Earth strategy to a huge swath of the South.

Its great that there is now aid flowing to those that need it but the thing to watch now is how far the Federal government overcorrects and uses this incident as a justification for dramatically expanding the ability of the Federal government and the military to exert martial law in the U.S. and to overrule the power of the states and their governors. It will be interesting in particular to see if they actually do deploy all the new DOD toys for "non lethal" crowd control here to establish precent for using them in times of anarchy, a precedent that could be used downt he road to suppress antiwar or anti government demonstrations.

9/11 was used as a basis by the power hungry Bush administation to justify the Patriot Act, National Intelligence Reform and dramatically expanding the powers of the executive to engage in arbitrary arrest and detention in the U.S of U.S citizens without due process.

I am willing to wager this incident will be used as the basis in coming months to overturn Posse Comitatus and to give the Federal government broad new powers to impose martial law and to seize control of cities and states in the U.S. in order to "restore order". They are still tiptoeing very carefully, for example in using the 82nd airborne in non policing roles to free up the Guard for policing duty because that is the law. Don't be at all surprised if six months from now laws will be passed the give the Federal government sweeping new power to intervene in domestic affairs. This will be a plus in dealing with major disasters. But, the other edge is it will give the President sweeping new power to impose martial law and approach dictatorship.

The cynic in me thinks the Bush administration saw the chaos in New Orleans, let it spiral out of control for a few days and, as is there way, saw a silver lining that it may turn in t a tool to let them vastly expand their alre

http://www.fema.gov/ has lots of stuff up, but dhs.gov doesn't. How weird.

I can't imagine the web staff are qualified to do on site rescue work so can't be so busy that they can't produce something for the public.

Can anyone explain me what the Department of Homeland Security really is? Because I've been thinking it was a crisis center that can react on any disasters by nature, "terrorists" or whatever. 3 days for evacuation for a million dollar department? plundering? Is New Orleans such a big city to support and guard for looting? Why don't they use water purification units or tablets? It was known something huge, big enormous was coming; why didn't they start evacuating?

I wonder where your money really is going to?
I'm impressed and kudos to the guy who keeps up the good work though, he seems to be taking his work more serious than some others running the country ...
no offense intended to anyone of'course...

The Infocon is intended to measure change. We can't stay on yellow for ever.

Excellent observation. Now when will the Department of Homeland Security figure this out?