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Blog Excerpts: Covering Homeland Security
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more on "Covering
Homeland Security" |
No Jack Bauer at the real "CTU"
Tue, May 22, 2007
I had the chance today to see the operations center for the National Counter Terrorism Center.
If you’re a fan of the TV show “24,” this place is the equivalent of the show’s “Counter Terrorism Unit,” but without the glamour and raspy voice and incredible stamina of Keifer Sutherland, aka Jack Bauer.
Mike Leiter, the principal deputy director of the NCTC, said he once watched “24” and turned it off after 15 minutes because it was so ridiculous to him.
The surprising thing to me was how close the operations center actually resembles the fictional “CTU.”
It really is a two-story, darkened room in the center of a huge complex. The walls are painted black. Every workstation has at least three computer monitors and one large flat-screen monitor nearby.
Small planes, boats catch eye of Homeland Security
Tue, May 22, 2007
I and the 14 other journalists attending this week’s “Covering Homeland Security” workshop met with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff this morning and he made a little bit of news.
I asked him if he had one last dollar to spend on Homeland Security, where or on what would he spend it? What area – transportation, chemical plants, nuclear, etc. – needs the most attention?
That’s when he announced his plan to “tighten up” rules for general aviation and non-commercial vessels.
In the coming weeks he’ll be rolling out new rules for general aviation and small vessels – non-commercial flights and boats that could be used to smuggle a weapon of mass destruction into the United States.
The plan will demonstrate how the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security has helped to “marry the authority of the Coast Guard and customs protection,” he said.
The fear mongering business
Tue, May 22, 2007
I and the other journalists attending this week’s workshop about homeland security in Washington, D.C., are coming to some realizations about our federal response to terrorism that are a little unsettling to say the least.
First off, the Department of Homeland Security is going through what Condoleezza Rice would call “birth pangs.”
Now five years old, this mish-mash of 22 federal agencies that is Homeland Security is besieged by a merger-mentality and employee morale is reportedly at an all-time low. This comes from several sources today, including former deputy director of the CIA John McLaughlin and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss), who chairs the House committee on homeland security.
Most surprising: 60 percent of the work done in the Department of Homeland Security is done by private contractors.
Where will terrorists strke next?
Mon, May 21, 2007
America is a big country and there are plenty of valuable targets out there for a would-be terrorist to choose from.
So where and what might be the next target of a terrorist attack?
Daniel Prieto, the director of The Homeland Security Center at The Reform Institute, a D.C. think tank, met with us this afternoon and tried to answer that question.
To do so, you must consider the goals of groups like al-Qaida and Prieto points to what he calls the terrorist trifecta: Bodies on the ground, economic impact and symbolism.
Take the Sept. 11 attacks. They resulted in roughly 3,000 casualties and hit the heart of Manhattan’s financial district.
So Prieto is calling for some common sense to be used when agencies like the Department of Homeland Security categorize potential targets across the country.
Covering Homeland Security
Mon, May 21, 2007
I’ll be blogging occasionally this week from Washington, D.C., where I’m attending a “Covering Homeland Security” workshop sponsored by Johns Hopkins University’s International Reporting Project.
So far today we’ve met with John McLaughlin, former deputy director of the CIA, and Cathy Lanier, the DC Metro Police chief.
Our primary focus will be on how well this huge new bureaucracy that we’ve created called the Department of Homeland Security is functioning. Several new layers of government have been established in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and the feds are of course still working out the kinks.
On Tuesday we get to meet Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and tour of the super-secret National Counter Terrorism Center. The 12 journalists on the trip have had to undergo background checks and we’ve been made to promise not to say where exactly the NCTC is.
Copyright © 2007 International Reporting Project. All Rights Reserved.