HIDALGO, TEX. — President Obama’s decision last year to send 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border may have been smart politics, but a growing number of skeptics say the deployment is an expensive and inefficient mission that has made little difference in homeland security. Critics of the deployment include budget hawks, who say it is a waste of money, and residents here along the border, who say they are tired of seeing armed troops in their back yard. Read full article > >

See the original post here:
National Guard deployment on U.S.-Mexico border has mixed results

Senators said at a hearing Thursday that Congress should quickly pass a bill that clearly prohibits its members and their staffs from trading stock based on nonpublic information they gather on Capitol Hill. In a two-hour hearing before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, members and witnesses said swift action was necessary because the public’s faith in Congress is at “an all-time low.” Read full article > >

Go here to see the original:
Senate panel weighs congressional insider-trading ban

The Department of Homeland Security is making changes that are aimed at speeding up deportations of convicted criminals and halting those of many illegal immigrants with no criminal record.

Go here to see the original:
Deportation Cases of Illegal Immigrants to Be Reviewed

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano spends a considerable amount of time dealing with cybersecurity threats, including potential attacks on the nation’s infrastructure. But don’t ask her to detail the nation’s biggest cyber enemies. “Oh, I don’t rank them, this isn’t basketball or something,” Napolitano said Thursday, earning her a laugh at the start of a Washington Post Live event on cybersecurity . “Threats are threats.” Read full article > >

Original post:
Janet Napolitano: Hackers have ‘come close’ to major cyberattack

Senators with oversight of the federal workforce said Friday that Congress should freeze the pay of federal employees for a third year and retool calculations of federal retirement benefits in order to cut the federal deficit. Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee , also said no workers in any of the three branches of the federal government should be spared from cuts under consideration by the supercommittee on deficit reduction. Read full article > >

See the original post here:
Key senators back extending federal pay freeze

A senior lawmaker has asked the Department of Homeland Security to hand over e-mails, contracting records and other documents as part of an expansive congressional probe of an alleged $20 million kickback scheme at the Army Corps of Engineers. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) is seeking information about Eyak Technology, known as EyakTek, an Alaska-native corporation that has received more than $1 billion worth of set-aside contracts from DHS and the Army. Read full article > >

See the rest here:
Homeland Security contracts under fire

The Department of Homeland Security said a new report of a threat of a car or truck bomb attack in New York City or Washington was “specific, credible, but unconfirmed.”

See original here:
Bomb Threat Tied to 9/11 Anniversary Is Investigated

One of the biggest annoyances of air travel in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, world may soon be a thing of the past: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday that air passengers will eventually be able to keep their shoes on while passing through airport security checkpoints — but that restrictions on carrying liquids are likely to continue for some time. “You’re going to see better technology over time” that will make it easier to keep your shoes on, but Napolitano would not specify exactly when the changes would occur or what technology is making the process easier. Read full article > >

Read more here:
Napolitano: Keeping shoes on during airport screening coming — eventually

As forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi retreat, they have left a trail of evidence about how his regime operated. The BBC’s Orla Guerin gained access to Col Gaddafi’s homeland security headquarters.

The rest is here:
VIDEO: Gaddafi’s secrets: Inside security HQ

Department of Homeland Security officials have to keep many secrets in the fight against terrorism. Nick Nayak, the department’s top buyer, wants to reverse that practice when dealing with the department’s contractors. For Homeland Security’s $13.4 billion in annual purchases, “the next generation is open, transparent — much more communication with industry upfront,’’ Nayak said in an interview at his Southwest Washington office. Nayak, 46, left a nearly 20-year career at the Internal Revenue Service to become Homeland Security’s chief procurement officer last September. He is pushing the department’s program managers to talk more with potential vendors about what DHS needs to reduce security threats and respond to disasters. The conversations should happen before and after the agency issues contract requests, Nayak said. Read full article > >

The rest is here:
DHS’s chief buyer pushes for more transparency in contracts

The Department of Homeland Security is going to prioritize all 300,000 pending deportation cases. Low on the list would be veterans and military personnel, crime victims and people “brought into this country as young children.”

See the article here:
U.S. to review 300,000 pending deportation cases

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Thursday it will allow many illegal immigrants facing deportation the chance to stay in this country and apply for a work permit, while focusing on removing from the U.S. convicted criminals and those who might be a national security or public safety threat. That will mean a case-by-case review of approximately 300,000 illegal immigrants facing possible deportation in federal immigration courts, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in announcing the policy change. Read full article > >

More:
US plans to make it a priority to deport illegal immigrants who are convicted criminals

The Department of Homeland Security has stepped back for the past two years from conducting its own intelligence and analysis of home-grown extremism, according to current and former department officials, even though law enforcement and civil rights experts have warned of rising extremist threats. The department has cut the number of personnel studying domestic terrorism unrelated to Islam, canceled numerous state and local law enforcement briefings, and held up dissemination of nearly a dozen reports on extremist groups, the officials and others said. Read full article > >

View post:
Homeland Security Department curtails home-grown terror analysis

Lockheed Martin Corp, the world’s biggest aerospace company and the Pentagon’s No. 1 supplier by sales, has been hit by an unspecified cyber incident, the U.S. government said Saturday. The Department of Homeland Security said that it and the Defense Department had offered to help gauge the scope of a “cyber incident impacting LMCO,” as the maker of fighter jets, ships and other major weapons systems is known. The federal government also has offered to help analyze “available data in order to provide recommendations to mitigate further risk,” Chris Ortman, a Homeland Security official, said in an e-mailed reply to a query from Reuters. Read full article > >

See original here:
Lockheed Martin hit by cyber incident, U.S. says

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have warned police across the United States that al Qaeda has a “continuing interest” in attacking oil and natural gas targets, a department spokesman said Friday.

Read more:
Bin Laden raid leads to police warning