June 30, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

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This is Classic!

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June 30, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

Something extraordinary will happen at

Washington, DC’s Newseum on July 3.

There, on the day before Independence Day, those who suffered through the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon will tell their stories. For the ages. It’s part of an oral history project sponsored by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, in partnership with StoryCorps.

Attack survivors, members of victims’ families, first responders, volunteer rescuers and other witnesses will record the horrors and heroics they witnessed that day. Their interviews will be maintained at the Library of Congress and become part of the permanent collection at the 9/11 memorial in New York. (While the interviews are being recorded, Newseum visitors will be able to sign one of the “I” beams that will be used in building the memorial.)

It’s important to preserve, forever, the memory of that murderous attack on the American homeland. If we forget the past, it may well revisit us again.

That said, let’s hope members of Congress will read some of these transcripts. It may remind them of their obligation to be ever-vigilant, and to give us laws that will keep us safe, free, and prosperous against a lurking transnational terrorist threat.

Sadly, this year the House on the Hill seems inclined to do anything but that. Here is a short list of really stupid pending legislation. Some entries exemplify “checkbook security”–measures that succeed in spending money, without improving our security.

Others exemplify “feel-good security”–bills that pretend to do something worthwhile, when it’s not. And some demonstrate “checklist security”–meaningless gestures that won’t accomplish much of anything. None of it is real security.

Topping the “dumb” list is a bill called “Providing for Additional Security in States Identification (PASS ID).” Despite its misleading title, PASS ID actually “takes a pass” at implementing a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission: Improving the security of identity credentials like driver’s licenses.

The bill would rescind key provisions of the REAL ID Act, which established national standards. One requirement eliminated is a system that allows states to readily cross-check their data bases to combat fraud and identity theft. While PASS ID wouldn’t roll back REAL ID in its entirety, it would leave us with something akin to a square fort with three walls.

Then there’s the proposed “Chemical Facility Antiterrorism Act.” The Department of Homeland Security has already established reasonable standards for chemical security, but they expire in October. Rather than just reauthorize the standards, this House bill would hijack the issue and force new regulations to advance an activist environmental agenda.

Under this bill, the government gets to decide what chemicals companies should be producing. And the criteria for this decision-making will be “green,” not security. While this will do little to make us safer, it is sure to drive some chemical companies out of business and encourage others to move operations–and jobs–overseas.

Also pending in the House is the “Homeowners Defense Act,” a bill to create a massive government insurance program–allegedly to help Americans recover after a catastrophic disaster. In reality, the main function of the bill is to force all taxpayers to subsidize insurance for folks who opt to live in beach houses in hurricane zones.

Beachfront property offers a pleasant but risky lifestyle, to be sure. But why should these property owners expect others to underwrite their risky behavior? And what in the world does it have to do with security?

And, of course, there’s the “Travel Promotion Act.” This bill proposes an unusual “solution” to the post-9/11 decline in foreign travel to the United States: Slap a tax on foreigners who do visit. The tax money, you see, would then pay for a government-sponsored ad campaign to encourage people to visit.

The geniuses in Congress are really onto something with this one, aren’t they? It could be the start of something really big. How about taxing foreigners who buy U.S. produced beef so the government could launch a “Buy Beef” campaign? Or maybe a special levy on foreigners who buy GM cars. You can almost see the U.S. steel flying off foreign showroom floors, can’t you?

Unfortunately, this through-the-looking-glass logic is all the rage on Capitol Hill. But piling up debt, raising taxes, growing government, strangling private industry, and repealing sound security measures will not make us safer. As unveiled so far this year, the Congressional agenda for homeland security so far just makes our legislative leaders look dumb and dumber.

Examiner Columnist James Jay Carafano is a senior research fellow for national security at The Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org heritage.org)

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June 29, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

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June 29, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

(www.asi-mag.com)
For all our deliberations about enhancing passenger facilitation at airports and reducing the need for multiple checks by numerous government agencies, our best efforts are often stymied by the realities of trying to operate in the most global of all global industries. Aviation, by its very nature, brings together the best and the worst, the most confident and the most vulnerable, and the wealthiest and the poorest of society and places them, in close proximity to each other, in a single aluminium tube miles above the planet’s surface. Whilst we aim to cater for the business traveller and the tourist, the sportsman and the academic, we have to face the fact that we also transport criminals, deportees, anti-social drunkards, victims of human trafficking, psychologically disturbed individuals and those for whom air travel can transport them from destitution to the comparative lap of luxury. Other modes of transport have to contend with similar challenges, but usually only one at a time…….

READ the full article for free in the current edition of ASI on line - see

www.asi-mag.com

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June 29, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

Several blogs and articles have discussed the increasing reluctance of employees to take vacation time, even if it is mandatory. While reading these articles, I can’t help but notice a lack of discussion about the security implications of this.

Internal investigators will tell you that a employee refusing to take vacation time, or refusing to take a large amount of time at once can be a red flag.

Why?

An employee committing embezzlement, fraud, stealing data or otherwise manipulating books or records needs to have continuous control over those systems to maintain the theft and avoid being caught.

In fact, many aspects of what we consider to be “model” employee behavior can actually be a red flag:

Volunteers often for new projects and duties; particularly in security, finance, or record keeping duties. Often these duties, like processing receipts for reimbursement, are the least desirable duties. After a few volunteer projects, a manager might find that least privilege and separation of duties policies may be being circumvented.
Early in, late out. First in and last out employees have access to files, computers and offices with little or no security or monitoring measures. The employee offering to make coffee in the morning maybe up to something more than making sure the office is perky.
Constantly remaining in touch while on vacation, doing work while on vacation, and working overtime before and after vacation. These may all be attempts at communicating with someone in collusion with the fraud, or at maintaining control over the work product. If your employee insists that he or she completes all work before going on vacation instead of handing over the materials to another employee, this could be cause for concern.

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=46656434&gid=55857&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Finformation-security-resources%2Ecom%2F2009%2F06%2F28%2Fsun-tzu-and-the-art-of-cio-success%2F&urlhash=v65W&trk=news_discuss

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June 29, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

Mark Sanford isn’t the only person relishing the King of Pop’s demise—national-security experts are warning that his death could distract from Iran’s increasing crackdown on democracy.

The jokes popped up almost immediately that Mark Sanford was the luckiest guy on earth after word broke that Michael Jackson had suffered a heart attack. But the notion that Jackson’s death, which preempted virtually all other news coverage on the cable networks last night, is sucking up media attention from other matters carries a dark edge to it as well. National-security experts are warning that without sustained attention on Iran, its repressive tactics could grow more deadly in the coming days.

The Jackson story, paired with Farrah Fawcett’s death and Sanford’s own scandal, “without a doubt” poses a danger in Iran, according to Michael Rubin, an American Enterprise Institute scholar and former Bush administration official.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-06-26/will-michael-jackson-doom-iran/

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June 29, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

The news out of North Korea gets stranger and stranger. Now, the word is that North Korea is criticizing our positioning of missile defense systems around Hawaii — calling the deployment part of a plot to attack the regime and saying it would bolster its nuclear arsenal in retaliation. What a second here. Isn’t Kim Jong Il the guy who claimed he wanted to test a missile by firing it towards Hawaii…essentially starting this whole thing?? And, now our missile defense system is seen as an offense again North Korea?

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=46703691&gid=55857&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egotgeoint%2Ecom%2Farchives%2Fmonday-morning-news-wrap-up-joe-biden-to-mediate-intel-turf-battles-n-korea-sees-hawaii-missile-defense-a-threat%2F&urlhash=P_B0&trk=news_discuss

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June 12, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

The Homeland Security Department has delayed “until September implementing a rule requiring federal contractors to verify that new hires are eligible to work in the United States, the fourth time the Obama administration has postponed the requirement,” reports NextGov. “… U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which manages E-Verify, said the delay will give the administration more time to examine the system and the requirement placed on contractors.
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090605_6483.php

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June 12, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

Terrorists and foreign governments regularly attempt to obtain sensitive dual-use and military technology from manufacturers and distributors within the United States,” but the Government Accountability Office found that “sensitive dual-use and military technology can be easily and legally purchased from manufacturers and distributors within the United States and illegally exported without detection,” despite controls by the State and Commerce departments. The GAO in a related report “called for the executive and legislative branches to conduct a fundamental reexamination of the current programs and processes” governing the export of critical technologies.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-767T

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June 12, 2009 by Tim McDowell.

The United Nations World Health Organization “has declared a global flu pandemic after holding an emergency meeting,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… It means the swine flu virus is spreading in at least two regions of the world with rising cases being seen in the UK, Australia, Japan and Chile. The move does not necessarily mean the virus is causing more severe illness or more deaths.” Worldwide, there have been 21,940 cases with 125 deaths, reports WHO—up from 19,273 cases and 117 deaths as of last week. As of Wednesday, the United States had 13,217 confirmed and probable cases of swine flu and 27 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—up from 11,054 cases and 17 deaths as of last week.

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