Department of Homeland Security

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Feds Seize Websites Hawking Knockoffs

Dozens of sites linked to counterfeit goods being shut down

(Newser) - If you've been looking for bargains online the last few days, you may have come across a message instead from your friendly Homeland Security Department: "This website has been seized ..." The feds have been shutting down dozens of sites that appeared to be selling knockoffs of items such...

Let's Scrap Color-Coded Terror Alerts: Homeland Security

Rather than 'threat level red,' you may soon hear 'imminent threat'

(Newser) - America's color-coded terror alert system, long the butt of jokes and the target of complaints, may not be much longer for this world. The Homeland Security Department is proposing a change to the Homeland Security Advisory System, which many have faulted for being too vague or simply a scare tactic,...

Airport Screenings Discreet&mdash; and Crucial

 Airport 
 Screenings 
 Discreet— 
 and Crucial 
janet napolitano
Nov 15, 2010 8:49 AM CST

Airport Screenings Discreet— and Crucial

Napolitano defends new imaging techniques, urges cooperation

(Newser) - Facing pressure over airport security measures, Janet Napolitano defends scanners and pat-downs in USA Today , asking Americans “for cooperation, patience and a commitment to vigilance in the face of a determined enemy.” New imaging machines are “safe, efficient, and protect passenger privacy” and have helped find...

Flights Subject to New Rules After Bomb Plot

Large toner cartridges banned from passengers flights

(Newser) - The recent mail-bomb plot has prompted the Department of Homeland Security to enact new air cargo restrictions, effective immediately, the New York Times reports. Among the changes:
  • Certain packages bound to the US from overseas will be subjects to what the anti-terror agency called “additional and enhanced screening.”
...

Invisible Mexican Border Fence All But Doomed

Homeland Security to decide soon on project's fate

(Newser) - If the "virtual border fence" being constructed along the Mexican border was visible, there still wouldn't be much to look at. The high-tech project has been allocated $1 billion over the last 5 years, but has produced just 53 miles of unreliable coverage along the 2,000-mile border—a...

Feds Tracked Online Sites for Evil Plots

Before inauguration, DHS kept tabs on Facebook, others

(Newser) - The Department of Homeland Security monitored the social network postings of millions of Americans during the Obama inauguration, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has found. DHS set up a “Social Networking Monitoring Center” that kept tabs on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, DailyKos, and NPR, looking for potential conspiracies...

Feds Secretly X-Raying Cars, Drivers

'Drive-by snooping' latest assault on privacy, say critics

(Newser) - Federal investigators are randomly X-raying vehicles and their drivers in a hunt for terrorists and crooks, triggering howls of outrage from privacy advocates. "This really trips up the creep factor because it's one of those things that you sort of intrinsically think the government shouldn't be doing," says...

Want to Visit the US? That'll Be $14, Please

Starting today, tourists from 36 countries charged fee

(Newser) - Starting today, visitors to the US will be required to pay what some are calling a “tourist tax.” Anyone entering the US without a visa will have to pay a whopping $14 to do so, Yahoo reports. The EU lamented this unbearable burden yesterday, calling it “inconsistent...

Drones Now Guard Entire US-Mexico Border

Fourth to launch tomorrow from Texas

(Newser) - From Afghanistan to ... Arizona. With the launch of a fourth drone tomorrow, the entire 2,000-mile US-Mexico border will now be guarded by Predator B drones, according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. And by the beginning of next year, a total of six should be operational, outfitted with night-vision...

Security of the Future: Track Terror Intent in Faces

Project seeks to use biometric clues to point out bad guys

(Newser) - It sounds like something out of Minority Report, but Homeland Security scientists are actually working on a projects they think will be able to identify potential terrorists based on the way they blink, breathe, or balance their weight. Researchers are testing a variety of biometric sensors, in the hopes of...

Attacks on US Hit All-Time High
 Attacks on US Hit All-Time High 
May 27, 2010 8:51 AM CDT

Attacks on US Hit All-Time High

Homeland Security memo predicts 'increased frequency'

(Newser) - Attempted attacks against America have reached an all-time high, according to the Department of Homeland Security. "The number and pace of attempted attacks against the United States over the past nine months have surpassed the number of attempts during any other previous one-year period," reads the unclassified DHS...

New Airport Scanners Stacked Up In Storage

Homeland Security took 7 months just to order them

(Newser) - Dozens of full-body airport scanners are gathering dust in storage more than a year after the administration provided Homeland Security with the funds to pay for them. It took the department 7 months just to order the 150 screening machines included in last year's stimulus bill. More than 100 have...

Homeland Security Agents Keep Losing Their Guns

Nearly 300 went missing from 2005 to 2008

(Newser) - Homeland Security agents lose a surprising number of firearms every year, mostly in negligent, preventable incidents, an internal report says. DHS agents lost 289 guns between 2005 and 2008. Common examples include agents leaving weapons in bowling alleys and the restrooms of fast-food restaurants, on car bumpers, truck beds, or...

Judge Gives Bernard Kerik 4 Years in Jail

Term for former NYPD chief is harsher than prosecutors sought

(Newser) - A federal judge sentenced disgraced NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik to four years in prison today, berating him for trying to exploit 9/11. The sentence was harsher than the 27 to 33 months the prosecutor had recommended in Kerik’s plea bargain, in which he admitted to eight charges, including lying...

Critics Decry $58M San Diego Border Fence

Wall designed to block already inhospitable mountain region

(Newser) - Critics are still gnashing their teeth over the Otay Mountain border fence, a 3.6-mile barrier that’s among the most costly and, according to detractors, least necessary ever built. The recently completed $57.7-million fence stands atop an inhospitable mountain just east of San Diego, and critics doubt that...

Number of Illegal Immigrants Falls Nearly 1M

Bad economy and tougher enforcement combine

(Newser) - The number of illegal immigrants in the US plummeted again last year, dropping from 11.6 million to 10.8 million, says the Department of Homeland Security. That’s the second consecutive year it’s fallen, the LA Times reports, and the sharpest drop in at least 30 years. A...

Detroit Bomber Bought Return Ticket

Nothing about ticket would have raised red flag

(Newser) - Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's intention may have been to gain a one-way ticket to paradise by blowing up a Northwest Airlines flight, but the terror suspect purchased a return ticket, congressional aides were told yesterday. It had been widely reported that Abdulmutallab had bought a one-way ticket, something experts said should...

Ignore 'Privacy Ideologues,' We Need Body Scans
 Ignore 'Privacy Ideologues,' 
 We Need Body Scans 
Michael Chertoff
Jan 1, 2010 9:42 AM CST

Ignore 'Privacy Ideologues,' We Need Body Scans

Passengers are at risk without them, says Michael Chertoff

(Newser) - For one former director of homeland security, it's a no-brainer: President Obama must ignore "privacy ideologues" and put full-body scanners at the nation's airports. Otherwise, it's just a matter of time before al-Qaeda strikes successfully with plastics explosives, writes Michael Chertoff. The notion that these imagers amount to "...

Napolitano Backtracks, Says System Failed

Homeland Security chief changes stance; visa oversight probed

(Newser) - Facing a storm of criticism for saying "the system worked" in the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253, Janet Napolitano reversed course today. "Our system did not work in this instance," the Homeland Security secretary said. She added, "No one is happy or satisfied with...

'Attempted Act of Terrorism' Triggers Higher Alert Level

White House: In-flight incident was 'attempted act of terrorism'

(Newser) - The US government has raised the terror alert level for airline flights to orange, the second-highest designation, after today’s incident involving a passenger on a Detroit-bound jet that the White House says was "an attempted act of terrorism." Earlier, a 23-year-old Nigerian claiming ties to al-Qaeda tried...

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