Today at DHS – Monday, July 21
July 21st, 2008 . by HSLEADER
7:00 PM MDT Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Director Connie Patrick will be delivering the opening remarks at the National Law Enforcement Exploring Conference (Denver, CO).
Chertoff: European Terrorists Trying To Enter US
July 18th, 2008 . by HSLEADERFrom MyWay.com, by Eileen Sullivan
WASHINGTON (AP) – European terrorists are trying to enter the United States with European Union passports, and there is no guarantee officials will catch them every time, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.
Chertoff’s comments on Capitol Hill comes as the country is entering a potentially vulnerable period with the presidential nominating conventions coming up next month; the presidential election in November; and the transition to a new administration in January – all of which may be attractive targets for terrorists.
In his last scheduled appearance before the House Homeland Security Committee, Chertoff said that the more time and space al-Qaida and its allies have to recruit, train, experiment and plan, the more problems the U.S. and Europe will face down the road.
ACLU Sues Over New Wiretapping Measure
July 17th, 2008 . by HSLEADERFrom FEDAgent
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit last Thursday to stop the government from conducting surveillance under a new wiretapping law that gives the Bush administration what the ACLU claims is “virtually unchecked power” to intercept Americans’ international e-mails and telephone calls. The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (H.R. 6304), which was passed by Congress last Wednesday and signed by President Bush the following day. The plaintiffs in the case are a coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media organizations that rely on confidential communications.
“Spying on Americans without warrants or judicial approval is an abuse of government power – and that’s exactly what this law allows. The ACLU will not sit by and let this evisceration of the Fourth Amendment go unchallenged,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “Electronic surveillance must be conducted in a constitutional manner that affords the greatest possible protection for individual privacy and free speech rights. The new wiretapping law fails to provide fundamental safeguards that the Constitution unambiguously requires.”
In its legal challenge, the ACLU argues that the new spying law violates Americans’ rights to free speech and privacy under the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution. The group contends that the new law permits the government to conduct intrusive surveillance without ever telling a court who it intends to spy on, what phone lines and email addresses it intends to monitor, where its surveillance targets are located, why it’s conducting the surveillance or whether it suspects any party to the communication of wrongdoing.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks a court order declaring that the new law is unconstitutional and ordering its immediate and permanent halt.
Reproduced with permission of www.FEDAgent.com
Today at DHS – Thursday, July 17
July 17th, 2008 . by HSLEADER
10:00 AM EDT Secretary Chertoff will testify before the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee at a hearing on border security (311 Cannon House Office Building).
2:30 PM EDT Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Administrator Harvey Johnson will testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery in a hearing on FEMA’s disaster response (342 Dirksen Senate Office Building).
Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
July 17th, 2008 . by HSLEADERBy John Taylor
Today’s Drudge Report carried several stories of various newspapers’ dances of death as they struggle with the fiscal reality that their time has passed. And, I couldn’t be happier!
All my life, I have had the frustration and displeasure of reading as their slanted stories and fanatical editorials distorted the news and attempted to shift American public opinion to their own ends. From blatantly biased editorials, to manipulated election polls skewed to help the worst of the worst to, as in the case of the New York Times’ Jason Blair affair, completely fabricated stories, these dirty rags deserve the slow death they are now enduring. I hope they suffer.
The genie who ushered in this mainstream media bloodbath first slipped out of its bottle a quarter of a century ago when CNN first hit the airwaves. Even though Ted Turner is the worst kind of hypocrite liberal media mogul, his genius in the area of cable television, ironically helped pioneer the new media revolution. But, the true tipping point is even more ironically tied directly back to the mainstream media’s own relentless manipulation and corruption.
On January 17, 1998, after Newsweek’s editors spiked the story, fledgling blogger Matt Drudge courageously reported on President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinski. Then, even as conservative talk radio shows and internet sites began to spread the truth, the mainstream media continued to downplay the story and protect the liberal’s sweetheart President. The whitewash by the mainstream media along with the shrill cries of Hillary Clinton of a “vast right wing conspiracy” might have eventually lied and lawyered the President out of the situation, if Lewinski has not made the decision to save a soiled blue dress. The jig was up for Clinton and America saw the big media for the manipulating collaborators that they are!
Since that time, millions of blogs, including my own www.hsleader.com, have sprung up to provide first hand and much more accurate second hand accounts of the world around us. Although there are certainly fringe elements and outright nuts that take up space on the blogosphere, for the most part, the public is pretty good at figuring out which bloggers they can trust. More importantly, the mainstream media has had to become more honest and the world is becoming a much more transparent place.
The new media’s drive for the truth has shown equally revealing regarding the current White House. As the blogosphere has played an important role in unraveling the Administration’s conspiracy to smear Valerie Plame and reveal her identity as a covert CIA officer. In this case, again, the new media helped tear away at the one lie after another to eventually reveal the Vice President as the treasonous warmonger who burned Plame to further the drive to begin the war with Iraq. As the “reformed” media and blogosphere investigate, the story continues to track from the Vice President through Karl Rove to the Oval Office. This Tuesday, the President claimed executive privilege in a last ditch effort to mask his own role in the cannibalism of the CIA officer.
Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, the new media doesn’t seem to care as much about the various affiliations of the player’s in a story as they do about getting to the truth of the given matter. This refreshing approach is proving to be very good news for truth, justice and liberty, as more and more tales of government corruption and other lies are coming to light and with fewer news groups are willing or able whitewash and cover-up such stories. Simply put, today’s quietly spiked story is tomorrow’s Drudge headline or wildfire YouTube hit.
Thankfully, the Constitution and First Amendment that assure American’s the right to a free press, have endured the dark days of the three network media and corrupt fabrications and manipulations of papers like the New York Times. Although not yet dead, they are crippled, discredited and the vultures are starting to circle. And, the really great thing is that today a young American just beginning to take an interest in the news of the world is just as likely to get their reports from someone like Matt Drudge or even me, than from corrupted mass media spin! And, to that I say, “God Bless America!”
FLASH: USA TODAY ad sales fell 27% in June…
Today at DHS – Wednesday, July 16
July 16th, 2008 . by HSLEADER
10:00 AM EDT Assistant Secretary for Policy Development Richard Barth and US-VISIT Director Robert Mocny will testify before the House Homeland Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism at a hearing on the Visa Waiver Program and Biometric Exit Requirements (311 Cannon House Office Building).
10:00 AM EDT Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) Deputy Director Chuck Gallaway and DNDO Architecture Assistant Director Mark Mullen will testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in a hearing on the Global Nuclear Detection Architecture (342 Dirksen Senate Office Building).
2:00 PM EDT U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen will testify before the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation on Coast Guard ice breaking (2167 Rayburn House Office Building).
2:00 PM EDT Office of Health Affairs Deputy Assistant Secretary for Biodefense and WMD Robert Hooks will testify before the House Homeland Security Committee, Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology in a hearing entitled “One Year Later – Implementing the Biosurveillance Requirements of the ‘9/11 Act’” (311 Cannon House Office Building).
FBI Agent Missing In Iran
July 15th, 2008 . by HSLEADERFrom FBI Release
FBI Seeking Information about Missing Retired Special Agent Robert Levinson
Retired FBI Special Agent Robert Levinson has been missing since March 2007 and is believed to be in Iran. As Mr. Levinson is a retired Special Agent, the FBI has an interest in his disappearance. Through the FBI’s legal attaché offices worldwide, the FBI is working with the Department of State to gather information regarding his safety and whereabouts.
The FBI has obtained information that Mr. Levinson arrived on Iran’s Kish Island on March 8, 2007, had several meetings at the Maryam Hotel, and then checked out the next day. However, Mr. Levinson did not fly to Dubai on a previously scheduled flight. There is no record of Mr. Levinson leaving Kish Island. Nor is there any record of Mr. Levinson using his passport or credit cards after March 9, 2007.
“This is a matter of great concern for the FBI. Bob had a long and distinguished FBI career, and he has a wife, four daughters, three sons, one grandchild, and another on the way, all awaiting his return. Plain and simple, our goal is to bring Bob home to his family,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Joseph Persichini, Jr., Washington Field Office.
Anyone with information about Mr. Levinson’s disappearance should contact their local FBI field office, or if outside the U.S., the legal attaché at the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. You can also submit information on the web at www.fbi.gov.
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