Archive » Homeland Security

***scroll for updates, including new info from Annie Jacobsen (remember Flight 327?)…who were the ringleaders of Bojinka II (is there a better name? let me know)…here’s the reason for the liquid ban: ABC says the jihadists were going to hide the explosives in sports drink bottles…reports of dry runs…USNews now also reporting details involving hydrogen [...]

***updated…10pm Eastern-new details about Haq via AP - he “forced his way through a security door by holding a gun to a 13-year-old girl’s head”…told 911 dispatcher, “These are Jews and I’m tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East…”***
***new photo of Haq via AP…***

***7/30 [...]

***scroll for updates…university library cancels its NYT subscription!…and the WSJ explains the circumstances that led the newspaper to publish its SWIFT story…read the whole thing…the NYTimes covers the House resolution condemning the paper…***
I mentioned the other day that I’d been hearing buzz about a protest at the New York Times building.
It’s coming together and there [...]

You’ve seen tonight’s headlines: FBI detains 7 in domestic terror probe
Seven people are in custody after a sweep by law enforcement authorities in connection with an alleged plot against targets that may have included the Sears Tower, officials told CNN on Thursday.
Officials said no weapons or bomb-making materials had been found in the searches in [...]

But don’t worry. He’s been sent to…Saudi Arabia!
Great, just great:
New Zealand has deported a Yemeni man identified as having direct links with the terrorists involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States who was taking pilot training in the country this year, the government said Saturday.
Rayed Mohammed Abdullah Ali was deported to [...]

Via Fox News/AP:
A New York City man has been hospitalized after inhaling anthrax, but officials believe it was accidental and not related to terrorism.
The man, a doctor, traveled recently to the west coast of Africa and became ill shortly after his return, said a federal law enforcement official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition [...]

Just received via e-mail and posted by Sen. Bill Frist on the VOLPAC blog:
News that a Middle-East based firm is seeking to purchase the operating rights to several U.S. ports - from New York to New Orleans - raise serious questions regarding the safety and security of our homeland.
Post 9/11 prudence warrants - [...]

***At the suggestion of readers, I am opening up the comments section…have at it!…11:12pmEST comments closed…***
Good: Two GOP governors join rising bipartisan opposition to the White House’s secretive port sellout deal with the United Arab Emirates…
Two Republican governors on Monday questioned a Bush administration decision allowing an Arab-owned company to operate six major U. S. [...]

Annie Jacobsen investigates.

Craig Henry at Lead and Gold has some tough words for the media and its double standards.

Earlier this week George Will argued that President Bush should have asked Congress for permission to carry out warrantless eavesdropping of Americans. He is confident that Congress would have changed FISA to approve the program:
Congress, if asked, almost certainly would have made such modifications of law as the president’s plans required.
Just one teensy weensy problem: [...]

Before the quag-Miers, (hat tip: Confederate Yankee for the term) there was the other quag-Myers. That is: Julie Myers, a Bush lawyer with virtually no immigration and customs enforcement experience and minimal managerial experience who has been nominated to head the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. She just happens to be niece of recently [...]

Jerry Seper at the Washington Times reports on more negative reaction to the Bush administration’s troubled nomination of Julie Myers to head the already troubled U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency:
President Bush’s nominee to head U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has drawn the ire of several ICE supervisors and agents who say she is [...]

My new column on the boneheaded Julie Myers nomination is up.
The Roanoke Times weighs in against the nomination.
Maureen Dowd tries to do her best impression of a liberal who cares about border security. No need to pay or register. Just look at the headline and summary.
And via AP, there’s this news of how dense Democrats [...]

**updated**

Another disastrous crony appointment in the making
This is Julie Myers, President Bush’s nominee to head the the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security.
Her nomination is a joke. A bad joke: (via WaPo)
The Bush administration is seeking to appoint a lawyer with little immigration or customs experience to head the [...]

***scroll down for an important update***
A number of us in the blogosphere have been catching wind of rumors that a surface-to-air missile was fired at an America West flight originating out of New York. Here’s a post at Little Green Footballs, where many commenters are wisely skeptical but wanting more info.
I just got off the [...]

The kill-me-first dress code is dead. It’s good news for air marshals who exposed this reckless bureaucratic idiocy last December. Via the Washington Post:
The dress code for federal air marshals has been modified, apparently relegating a fashion spat to the back of the Homeland Security closet.
The issue of what the marshals wear when flying [...]

Via AP this morning:
A flight from Los Angeles to London was diverted to Boston early Tuesday because three Pakistani passengers were acting suspiciously, but nothing amiss was found and the three were released after questioning, authorities said.
United Airlines Flight 934 landed in Boston shortly before 3 a.m., Logan Airport spokesman Phil Orlandella said. Three people [...]

Joe Gandelman points to this NYTimes story today on what police departments are doing–or rather, not doing–to prevent suicide bombings on American soil.
Many of the police departments mentioned in the story continue to maintain reckless sanctuary policies; other moonbat cities, like Portland, Oregon, refuse to cooperate with federal counterterrorism efforts.
The Times, of course, neglects to [...]

Here’s my column for the NY Post on the city’s futile random bag search policy. Excerpt:
WHAT’S the point? In the wake of the latest terrorist attacks in London, Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD announced plans to conduct random searches of packages and backpacks carried by subway riders.
“Random,” of course, is a synonym for blind. And [...]

The civil liberties chicken littles are squawking over the NYPD’s new ridiculous random bag search policy, which I mock for polar opposite reasons and will have more on tomorrow in an exclusive column for the NY Post.
Meantime, there’s a t-shirt war going on. Drudge links to this one from “immigrants rights activist” Tony Lu. Ace [...]

You’ve seen some of the news coverage by now of Bassam Khalaf, the self-proclaimed “crazy, suicidal Arabic” rapper fired from his job as a TSA baggage screener.
But did you know that he’s not the only Islamist who has been poking through your luggage?
Debbie Schlussel has the lowdown on both.
Repeat: Political correctness is the handmaiden of [...]

My new column is up: Curse of the language corrupters.
As aggravating as the BBC’s linguistic whitewashers are, our own are just as bad or worse:
How many times have you heard some cable TV talking head or political hack urging us to be on “heightened alert” without having the courage to spell out exactly what that [...]

Rather than relax security requirements for translators, as the CIA is reportedly considering, why not train more native-born Americans in Arabic? Former DoD translator Erik Saar, co-author of “Inside the Wire,” was trained to read and write Arabic in just two years.
It’s not just the CIA that has had problems finding suitable translators. Saar notes [...]

Winds of Change brings you a must-read monthly briefing on hatred in “the dark places the mainstream media sometimes seem determined to look away from, to better understand our declared enemies on their own terms and without illusions.” Check it out.

Am getting word that the BRAC list of bases slated for closure or realignment is out. It’s supposed to come out officially tomorrow (blogged about yesterday here).
Jeff Quinton has the scoop via W. Thomas Smith. The list is unconfirmed and at a quick glance matches up with the list In From the Cold posted the [...]

Big buzz in the military community over The Base Realignment and Closure Commission, which is expected to release its recommendations for base closures on Friday. One media outlet calls it the “Mother of all BRACs;” others are referring to Friday as “Black Friday.” DOD release is here.
So, which bases are on the list?
Intel blogger Spook [...]

Sergio Khorosh, the Russian man who was charged yesterday with possessing and attempting to sell more than 1,000 fake FBI, Secret Service, DEA, and NYPD badges, was apparently finding (or trying to find) sellers via the the Internet:

As if the badges aren’t enough trouble, immigration officials who searched Khorosh’s apartment say they also found NYPD [...]

The Navy is investigating a troubling stowaway incident (blogged about here last month):
The Navy is investigating how a man was able to sneak on board an American aircraft carrier in port in England last month.
On April 9, the man made it past British and American security at Portsmouth, then apparently onto a liberty boat that [...]

From the Left Coast lunacy files, the Los Angeles Times reports today that the city of Portland is withdrawing its cops from the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force:
This city is expected today to become the first in the nation to pull out of an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, following a series of disagreements between [...]