Government
Twelve A-10s that were delivered to Kandahar, Afghanistan, in January have primarily been used to target Taliban revenue streams like narcotics trafficking, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander Gen. Joseph Votel testified before a House panel on Tuesday.
January marked the first time in... Read More »
With biological threats to America and its interests overseas increasing, waiting any longer to commit federal funds to national biodefense would not be in the best interests of the health and well-being of United States’ citizens, nor the country’s security, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on... Read More »
The DoD Information Warfare Symposium presented by the Defense Strategies Institute will take place on March 28-29 at the Mary M. Gates Learning Center in Alexandria, Virginia. Designed for members of the Department of Defense, federal government, private industry, academia, and other stakeholders,... Read More »
Local school districts would have access to federal grant funding to install metal detectors under a bill announced by U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) on Monday to help secure schools.
The bill would require school districts that receive grant funding to limit the number of school entrances to... Read More »
Deportation officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested 145 individuals in South and Central Texas during a seven-day enforcement action, which ended Feb. 16.
Of the 145 arrested, 86 had criminal convictions. Thirty-nine were... Read More »
The State Department and Department of Defense (DoD) signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday that will operationalize the Global Engagement Center (GEC), which will be tasked with coordinating the U.S. government’s counter-propaganda efforts.
GEC was established under a provision of... Read More »
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) lauded new sanctions announced against shipping companies and vessels tied to North Korea on Friday as a necessary move to compel North Korea to engage in “a credible diplomatic process” with denuclearization as the ultimate goal.
The Treasury Department’s... Read More »
Counterfeit goods entering the United States pose challenges for consumers and businesses that need to be addressed by federal agencies that enforce intellectual property rights (IPR), according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Counterfeit goods are hard to spot and, with the... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers in New England, Boston Field Office arrested three subjects in a 24-hour period in two separate instances for narcotics possession and an active warrant.
At the Port of Houlton in Maine, CBP officers encountered two 42-year old male U.S. citizens... Read More »
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reviewed the implementation of Next Generation 911 (NG911), which provides improved capabilities over the legacy 911 system.
The GAO report examines state and local progress, challenges in implementing NG911 and federal actions to address... Read More »
Legislation introduced in the House of Representatives on Friday aims to improve information sharing and engagement among the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) fusion centers, which collect and share information on threats with federal, state, local and private partners.
The DHS Field... Read More »
The Treasury Department announced a sanctions package on Friday that targets 27 entities and 28 vessels tied to North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and four additional countries violating earlier U.S. sanctions by engaging in trade with North Korea.
The Treasury Department’s... Read More »
More than 50 groups marshalled by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) seek an act of Congress to rush urgently needed new antimicrobial drugs to market that protect America’s national security and the health of its citizens against biothreats posed by antimicrobial resistant (AMR)... Read More »
The 2018 Joint Civil & DoD CBRN Symposium presented by the Defense Strategies Institute will take place on March 5-6 at the Mary M. Gates Learning Center in Alexandria, Virginia. The event will provide a forum for members of the Department of Defense, federal government, private industry, academia,... Read More »
A multi-agency team of 30 law enforcement officers recently conducted an active shooter drill at an elementary school in Erie County, Pennsylvania.
Marine Interdiction Agents assigned to Air and Marine Operations’ Erie Marine Unit, agents from U.S. Border Patrol’s Fairview Station and... Read More »
Citing North Korean ballistic missile threats, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called on the Department of Defense (DoD) to include development and deployment of space-based missile defense in the 2018 Missile Defense Review (MDR).
In a letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis, Cruz highlighted... Read More »
More than 80 percent of cybersecurity professionals believe that their employer will experience a “catastrophic” data breach within the next three years, and 66 percent believe that it could “seriously diminish” shareholder value, according to a global study released on Wednesday.... Read More »
A new x-ray image analysis training system that tracks the eye movements of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers as they conduct visual searches of travelers is currently being tested at airports across Oregon.
Known as ScreenADAPT, the technology is being developed by the... Read More »
U.S. Congressman Scott Peters (D-CA), whose 52nd District in San Diego County encompasses a large military presence that partners in strategic national defense, thinks it’s important the United States find smart solutions to biothreats that include preparedness for any catastrophic biological... Read More »
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) will use a new Cyber-Digital Task Force to assess its current efforts to combat global cyberthreats and identify areas of improvement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Tuesday.
The deputy attorney general will appoint a senior department official... Read More »
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Port of Nogales in Arizona recently seized over 200 pounds of methamphetamine and cocaine worth approximately $1 million and apprehended six people after intercepting multiple separate smuggling attempts.
On Feb. 15, officers at the Dennis... Read More »
Charles Perez was sworn in as the director of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Santa Teresa Port on Friday and will oversee and manage all officers, agriculture specialists, and canine enforcement officers working in the port area in his new role.
Perez served as the area port director for... Read More »
Al-Qaeda operative Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun, aka Spin Ghul, 47, was recently sentenced to life in prison following his March 16, 2017, trial conviction of multiple terrorism offenses.
Harun was convicted of offenses including conspiracy to murder American military personnel in... Read More »
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has a plan to secure needed inventories of low-enriched uranium through 2038, but a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) review found that longer-term enriched uranium needs haven’t been clearly defined and cost estimates are... Read More »
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) highlighted last week two new checkpoint technologies recently unveiled at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
The technologies available include facial recognition and less invasive body scanners with increased detection capabilities.... Read More »
After assessing the extent to which critical infrastructure sectors have adopted the federal Framework for Improving Infrastructure Cybersecurity standards, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has since made nine recommendations for improvement.
The framework in question was developed in... Read More »
Using drugs or illegal substances to compel victims of human trafficking to perform commercial sex acts would be considered coercion, and new protections would be established for human trafficking victims, under bicameral legislation introduced on Thursday.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and U.S.... Read More »
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced recently that it is developing a Predictive Threat Model (PTM) to help Custom and Border Protection's (CBP) Air and Marine Operations Center (AMOC) identify and stop nefarious aircraft.
“We can rethink... Read More »
Republican senators introduced legislation on Thursday that would establish a $25 billion trust fund for border security and codify legal protections for people covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rob Portman (R-OH), and John... Read More »
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s Board of Commissioners recently approved the construction of a $30 million permanent U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspection area at the Stewart International Airport to accommodate the increase in international passengers at the airport... Read More »
The 2018 Joint Civil & DoD CBRN Symposium presented by the Defense Strategies Institute will take place on March 5-6 at the Mary M. Gates Learning Center in Alexandria, Virginia. The event will provide a forum for members of the Department of Defense, federal government, private industry, academia,... Read More »
The Open Philanthropy Project awarded a $2.5 million grant to the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense on Thursday, which will be used to help the organization continue to assess biodefense, identify needed changes and make recommendations.
In a 2015 report, the panel made 33 recommendations... Read More »
The Congressional Task Force on Election Security released a report on Wednesday that outlines 10 recommendations to protect state election systems for cyberattacks, including allocating funds, more training, minimum requirements for voting machines, and threat assessments.
The task force was... Read More »
In urging Congress to reject public health cuts proposed by the Trump Administration, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) said on Wednesday that the fiscal year 2019 budget proposal reflects a “narrow and short-sighted understanding of national safety and well-being.”... Read More »
The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Health Security recently on Wednesday a preliminary analysis of health security funding in President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2019 (FY2019) budget, which highlighted several major budgetary and organizational... Read More »
