The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country
posted on May 14, 2008 - View this thread

Slate asks, "What's behind the boom in homeland-security and emergency-management majors?"
posted on Mar 29, 2008 - View this thread

Rehearsing the next terror attack. before 911, the government paid little attention to the role of media and public communications in its national exercises. In 2003, Ogilvy PR was asked by the Department of Homeland Security to develop and manage a full-scale, sophisticated media element in support of TOPOFF 3, its most comprehensive terrorism response exercise ever. The result was a simulated yet eerily realistic news broadcast via the Virtual News Network. The TOPOFF 4 exercise is scheduled to take place October 15-19, 2007.
posted on Oct 10, 2007 - View this thread

It's a lesson all listserv managers dread learning the hard way: Don't let your subscribers "Reply to All." The WSJ Washington Wire reports on an incident today in which one user's reply started all those on a Department of Homeland Security "Open Source Intelligence Report" e-mail list on a chain-reaction of replies and counter replies that offers lessons on how (not?) to run an e-mail list. Maybe Michael Chertoff was on to something last year when he stopped using e-mail at all.
posted on Oct 3, 2007 - View this thread

Today's Washington Post: "The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials."
posted on Sep 22, 2007 - View this thread

The United States and the European Union have agreed to expand a security program that shares personal data about millions of U.S.-bound airline passengers a year. Information that potentially can be used includes "racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership" and data about an individual's health, traveling partners and sexual orientation. "Even a request for a king-size bed at a hotel could be noted in the database." "E.U.'s privacy supervisor expressed 'grave concern' over whether the rules 'will be fully compatible with European fundamental rights,' calling the arrangement 'without legal precedent.'"
posted on Jul 28, 2007 - View this thread

Busted! In one of the biggest counterfeit busts in years, a 19-month investigation reached its climax on Tuesday as federal officials conducted early-morning raids throughout the NY metropolitan area, arresting 29 people, seizing more than $230 million in merchandise and ultimately dismantling three operations believed to have imported more than $700 million in fake products over the last 24 months.
posted on Jun 27, 2007 - View this thread

Hacking The Superbowl. John Hargrave spends $40,000 for an elaborate Superbowl prank -- duping the feds, cops, and stadium security in order to pass out thousands of lights to fans, who were told they would spell out "Prince" during the halftime show. Instead, they spell out, uh... well, something. Just what they spell is unclear (though some are having fun "guessing") and Hargrave hasn't said yet (his write-up is up to part 5, hopefully of 6). Can you tell? And was it worth the effort, or is this just an expensive dud?
posted on Feb 14, 2007 - View this thread

There is a killer lurking in your local auto wrecking yard. Sodium Azide, the chemical used in automobile air bags, is available to anyone who asks for it. Conceivably anyone could obtain several pounds of this poison, yet it takes only a few grams to kill. A late model SUV will have enough in it's air bags to kill a couple of hundred people.

It explodes. It kills on contact with the skin. It kills via air, food, or water. It is odorless and colorless. There is no antidote. Even minor exposure will result in permanent damage to brain cells. University of Arizona atmospheric scientist Eric Betterton was one of the first to expose the hazards of this unregulated material in 2000. The author J. A. Jance used it as the poison of choice in her book 'Partners in Crime'.

The perfect terrorist weapon? It would seem so, but the Federal government doesn't regulate it's post-manufacture distribution. Got a grudge? Go pick up a few hundred pounds.
posted on Dec 1, 2006 - View this thread

VBlogger and journalist jailed for refusing to give up footage of protest
Josh Wolf is a video blogger and freelance journalist who was jailed by a U.S. district court on August 1, 2006 for refusing to turn over a collection of videos he recorded during a July 2005 anarchist protest in San Francisco, California. During that event, anarchists allegedly set a police cruiser on fire. [more inside]
posted on Oct 1, 2006 - View this thread

Photo-like X-ray backscattters (even from mobile units), explosive trace portals, CT scanning, and real-time discrimination software clearly reveal such threats as radioactive materials, explosives and key bomb ingredients, chemical weapons, human cargo, weapons and drugs. Even "single molecule biology" analyzers are being developed to detect biological weapons.
posted on Aug 10, 2006 - View this thread

Homeland Security Ranks Indiana As State With Most Terror Targets

The Homeland Security's National Asset Data Base [PDF] of vulnerable critical infrastructure and key resources "reads like a tally of terrorist targets that a child might have written: Old MacDonald’s Petting Zoo, the Amish Country Popcorn factory, the Mule Day Parade, the Sweetwater Flea Market and an unspecified 'Beach at End of a Street.'" The report noted that Indiana has 8,591 assets listed in the database — more than any other state and 50 percent more than New York. New York had 5,687 listed. Inspector General Richard Skinner finds that the database "is too faulty to accurately help divide federal funds to states and cities."
posted on Jul 12, 2006 - View this thread

The Indiana Department of Homeland Security revealed its newest tool for protecting Hoosiers today: a brand new 53-foot mobile command center. It's the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle!
posted on Jun 8, 2006 - View this thread

Crashing the Wiretapper's Ball Wired News snuck a reporter into the ISS World Conference, a no-press-allowed conference for companies that sell wiretapping equipment to law enforcement, ISPs, telcos, and repressive governments. Hilarity ensues. via
posted on Jun 1, 2006 - View this thread

You can't write anything honest, only fairy tales." "This administration," Bob Graham, the former Senator and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told me, "does not seek the truth as a basis for its judgments, but tries to use intelligence to validate judgments it has already made."

"I spent 30 years at the CIA," said one former official, "and no one was ever interested in knowing whether I was a Republican or a Democrat. That changed with this administration. Now you have loyalty tests."
posted on May 18, 2006 - View this thread

Security expert (and personal hero) Bruce Schneier on the subject of movie plot threats : Sometimes it seems like the people in charge of homeland security spend too much time watching action movies. They defend against specific movie plots instead of against the broad threats of terrorism.

This month, Schneier announces a contest for readers of his blog and newsletter - submit the most unlikely, yet still plausible, terrorist attack scenarios you can come up with.

From the announcement : "The prize will be an autographed copy of Beyond Fear. And if I can swing it, a phone call with a real live movie producer."
posted on Apr 8, 2006 - View this thread

The terrorists in New Jersey have been captured. They're, uhm, like 15 years old. A fine example of how anti-terror laws like the Patriot Act can be subject to mission creep. (The "terrorists" at the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Justice in Pittsburgh seem to be still at large.)
posted on Apr 7, 2006 - View this thread

Sexual Predators on the Internet: Today we heard testimony about sexual exploitation of children on the Internet during a Congressional hearing. Tonight a Homeland Security official is held for soliciting for a child on Internet.
posted on Apr 4, 2006 - View this thread

DHS monitors your credit card payments. (via)
posted on Mar 2, 2006 - View this thread

National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Sometimes, its the unheralded steps, that take you most quickly to your destination. On October 7, 2005, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and their associated domains announced the first release of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Version 0.1. NIEM "establishes a single standard XML foundation for exchanging information between DHS, DOJ, and supporting domains, such as Justice, Emergency Management, and Intelligence." The release of this specification, and the development of the systems that utilize it may actually be the cataylst for more 'progress' in information mining on the individual than most other, well publicized efforts. NIEM Mission: "To assist in developing a unified strategy, partnerships, and technical implementations for national information sharing — laying the foundation for local, state, tribal, and federal interoperability by joining together communities of interest." When you say it like that, it sounds sort of cool!
posted on Jan 12, 2006 - View this thread

Scientists recruit wasps for war on terror No it is not some B movie from the 1950's. Scientists at a Georgia laboratory have developed what could be a low-tech, low-cost weapon in the war on terrorism: trained wasps.
posted on Dec 29, 2005 - View this thread

[TotalitarianismFilter] Don't be asking your college librarian for a copy of that Little Red Book to do a class assignment, or your parents might get a visit from the good folks at the Department of Homeland Security. More evidence that the Bush administration cannot restrain itself when granted enhanced surveillance powers.
posted on Dec 17, 2005 - View this thread

Blackwater: Coming Home To Roost Blackwater and other mercenary companys run rampant in Iraq, making up the second largest military group in Iraq, outnumbering all other military forces combined. Now they are in New Orleans with no restrictions on use of firearms, seizure of property, taking of life. They are now bidding on security contracts with the U.S. Border Patrol. They could be coming to your city next, to your office building to maintain security. Has all of this 'Homeland Security' finally gone too far?
posted on Sep 24, 2005 - View this thread

The Mara Salvatrucha gang or MS-13 is an international street gang. Operation Community Shield spearheaded by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Dept. of Homeland Security has been arresting street gang members from gangs such as " Sure Inos (which seems to be spelled wrong and even Wiki knows it USA Today & Detroit Free Press); the 18th Street Gang; Latin Kings; the Mexican Mafia; Border Brothers; Brown Pride, Azian Pride;" etc. etc. (all you wanna know about gangs here or going way back - here) over the past few months and recently arrested 582 members of MS-13. So far, ICE has made 1,057 arrests as part of the sting. Rumor has it MS-13 linked with Al-Quedia to smuggle nukes into the US. C'mon, world net daily? The Dept. of Homeland Security (thru ICE) is using federal immigration databases coupled with the names of thousands of suspected gang members from state and local police departments to - at the very least - deport them. Is that ok? Under the new laws it seems legal. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called the gangs "a threat to our homeland security and ... a very urgent law enforcement priority." Yet non-Hispanic whites apparently commit more than half of all violent crimes, but make up only one-quarter of the prison population. I see the need to stop MS-13 and other gangs with international ties as much as the El Rukins were, but they were stopped by the state and local police and the FBI. So is it smarter policing or does the new law enforcement model target 'foreigners' and have the laws been tailor-made to target ghetto and barrio youth? I don't know, but why when I read ICE investigations cheif Marcy Forman say: "We're just getting started" do I get an Einsatzgruppen chill?
posted on Aug 3, 2005 - View this thread

Ethnic profiling by dummies. A group of Sikh tourists visiting New York were "identified" as "foreign looking (read muslims). They were then handcuffed with their arms behind their backs and ordered to kneel on the pavement. Maybe this Sikh man has the right idea.
posted on Jul 31, 2005 - View this thread

Alarming Article on Security Procedures What is alarming is not necessarily that there is a "no-fly" list, or that we have security measures in response to a percieved terrorist threat. What's alarming is that there seems to be no accountabity or due process demanded from public officials. Without accountability, what's to stop public officials from acting arbitrarily, or for some political endeavor? (See the Plame case.) Combined with the Right's seeming position that the president is above the law in prosecuting a war, U.S. Supreme Court Case No. 03-1027 (Rumsfield v. Padilla) and Case No. 03-6696 (Hamdi v. Rumsfield), (see also the recent DOJ position papers), and for the 1st time I am becoming nervous that America might devolve into something like a police state.
posted on Jul 7, 2005 - View this thread

Be afraid: The national threat-alert level today is yellow or "elevated," with "significant risk of terrorist attacks," says the Department of Homeland Security. In fact, the alert level has been elevated since December of 2003, when it was raised from orange. During the election season, the Fox News network flashed the terror alert level in their "crawl" as if there was breaking news -- the sort of thing that prompted some liberal wags to ridicule the entire system. Now former DHS secretary Tom Ridge says that the Bush administration was "really aggressive" about raising the threat-alert level during his tenure, even when the agency felt that the intelligence didn't warrant it.
posted on May 11, 2005 - View this thread

Terry Bressi's long saga
"I was stopped, threatened with lethal force, dragged out of my vehicle, and detained for several hours for no reason - other than requesting to know what law authorized the police to stop me and demand ID after admitting I wasn't suspected of violating any law and I wasn't being detained. Instead of answering my inquiries, the 'peace officers' preferred to initiate force against me."
posted on Apr 12, 2005 - View this thread

wolves join federal sheep board (via dailyrotten)
posted on Mar 6, 2005 - View this thread

Bush Picks New Homeland Protector Bush has chosen Judge Michael Chertoff to be the next Secretary of Homeland Security. The liberal Alliance For Justice concedes that Chertoff is "a talented attorney and an intelligent, committed public servant," but cites his role as counsel in the Whitewater investigation as a reason for caution. Other government watchers are somewhat chilled by the fact that Chertoff is the second Bush cabinet nominee to be connected to the torture scandal.
posted on Jan 11, 2005 - View this thread

Homeland Security - multimedia artist and activist John Douglas portrays himself as a one-man citizen soldier army in a series of provocative photographic tableaus. NSFW.
posted on Dec 18, 2004 - View this thread

Less than 60 percent of federal homeland-security funding sent to New York State this year has ended up in New York City.

New York’s elected officials often complain about the way the Department of Homeland Security distributes money. They repeat the finding that America spends more money per capita securing Wyoming than protecting New York State. Quietly, however, New York officials in both parties have created a local copy of Congress’ spending priorities, distributing money to places like remote Wyoming County.

For example, Ontario County (pop. 100,000) is purchasing a climate-controlled mobile command post, said Jeffrey Harloff, director of the county’s emergency-management office. Mr. Harloff will buy the vehicle with his share of the Department of Homeland Security’s main grant to the state. How will he use the command post? It depends on who’s asking.

"If it’s the federal government asking me, it is for the intended purpose of W.M.D. incidents and HazMat incidents," Mr. Harloff said. "In reality, we’re going to use it for everyday stuff in our office."
posted on Dec 10, 2004 - View this thread

"The principle issue is the federal government's total disregard of local government," said Gerald Cayer, director of Portland's Department of Health and Human Services. "It's the Department of Homeland Security not appreciating other levels of government as they go through their work." The feds take 5 Honduran nationals from a jail in Bangor, Maine, where they've been held since Sept. 27, and without any notice to local health or law enforcement officials, drop the men off this week at a homeless shelter 2 hours south in Portland. When he asked whether the city would be reimbursed by the federal government for providing services to the men, Cayer said, he was told that the department did not have the money for that.
posted on Nov 18, 2004 - View this thread

The arrival of secret law. Americans can now be obligated to comply with legally-binding regulations that are unknown to them, and that indeed they are forbidden to know. This is not some dismal Eastern European allegory. It is part of a continuing transformation of American government that is leaving it less open, less accountable and less susceptible to rational deliberation as a vehicle for change.
posted on Nov 18, 2004 - View this thread

I feel safer already! Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security lowered the terror alert-level for the financial-services sector in the NY/DC area from orange to yellow, which has nothing, repeat nothing, to do with the election. "We don't do politics here at this department," days DHS deputy secretary James Loy. When the alert was jacked up back in August, some felt otherwise.
posted on Nov 11, 2004 - View this thread

Tom Ridge's war profiteering. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has been reported to hold investments in at least seven different companies directly benefiting from new Homeland Security projects. "In response to a late afternoon telephone inquiry, DHS spokesman Brian Roehrkasse first said the department did not have enough time to answer questions ... Pressed further, he shouted an expletive to a reporter and hung up. "
posted on Sep 25, 2004 - View this thread

Are You Ready? September will be National Preparedness Month, with an announcement on Sept. 9th. Throughout September 2004, the US Department of Homeland Security, American Red Cross, American Prepared Campaign, the National Association of Broadcasters, the US Department of Education and other partners, will host a series of events to highlight the importance of citizen emergency preparedness. Nothing like keeping us scared, huh? And it's only 3 years since 9/11--you think they could have done this sooner maybe? There's a skimpy calendar (PDF), with Parade Magazine, Starbucks and NASCAR mentioned. And for the kids, a Ready Deputy contest.
posted on Aug 8, 2004 - View this thread

Timeline of Terror Alerts. A collected list of political events over the last two years and the action from the Department of Homeland Security that occured within 24 hours of each event. Readers have even submitted more examples in the comments. Partisan exploitation of numerous coincidences? Or a developing pattern?
posted on Aug 5, 2004 - View this thread

Friday scary-flash spook-a-thon: The Minister of Fear [via Kos]
posted on Jul 16, 2004 - View this thread

Eastasia plans attacks on Eurasia "Efforts each of you make to be vigilant – such as reporting suspicious items or activities to authorities – do make a difference. Every citizen using their common sense and eyes and ears can support our national effort to stop the terrorists. Thank you for your continued resolve in the face of the ongoing threat of terrorism. We must continue to work together – to ensure that the freedom we just celebrated continues as the hallmark of this great nation." Are you scared yet?
posted on Jul 8, 2004 - View this thread

Stasi, meet Highway Watch: The Department of Homeland Security this year gave $19.3 million to the American Trucking Associations, which is based So far, 10,000 truckers have signed on to become amateur sleuths. Over the next year, the goal is to add tollbooth workers, rest-stop employees and construction crews, creating a corps of 400,000 people drawn from every state. A child of Operation TIPS, of course.
posted on Jul 1, 2004 - View this thread

Reach Out and Zap Someone. Bruce Schneier points out a link on how to turn a normal everyday disposable camera into a stun gun in his most recent Crypto-Gram. Honestly Mr. DHS it's to take pictures of the kids...
posted on May 17, 2004 - View this thread

How We Got Homeland Security Wrong -- If all the federal homeland-security grants from last year are added together, Wyoming received $61 a person while California got just $14, according to data gathered at TIME's request by the Public Policy Institute of California, an independent, nonprofit research organization. Alaska received an impressive $58 a resident, while New York got less than $25. On and on goes the upside-down math of the new homeland-security funding. The TIME article uses AIR Worldwide Corp.'s Terrorism Loss Estimation Model.
posted on Mar 22, 2004 - View this thread

Bush directing Homeland Security to Stage Photo-Ops? This article from next week's Time is in itself a well-detailed examination of the campaign strategies for both sides in the 2004 race, but some bloggers have caught a disturbing paragraph in the middle of the article: "As the Bush team sorts out its internal mechanics, it will press the advantage of incumbency. Administration sources tell TIME that employees at the Department of Homeland Security have been asked to keep their eyes open for opportunities to pose the President in settings that might highlight the Administration's efforts to make the nation safer. The goal, they are being told, is to provide Bush with one homeland-security photo-op a month. "
posted on Mar 15, 2004 - View this thread

Extremely funny Quicktime interview with the designer who invented the Homeland Security Advisory System, "to let the general public know how close they were to dying".
posted on Mar 11, 2004 - View this thread

Rhode Island's nut case governor decided to repeal the Bill of Rights. Fortunately, he got knocked upside the head first. (Obnoxious registration required.)
posted on Feb 20, 2004 - View this thread

That U.S. intelligence agencies confuse terrorists with children on passenger jets is a reminder that data collection is easy, but data analysis is hard. That must be why the six-year-old daughter of one of Boing Boing's co-founders is on the CAPPS list as a security risk. All this is also a reminder that we need privacy safeguards for these data mining programs.
posted on Jan 11, 2004 - View this thread

All US Air Passengers to be Profiled, and 1% Will be Banned from Boarding. In the most aggressive -- and, some say, invasive -- step yet, the federal government and the airlines will phase in a computer system next year to measure the risk posed by every passenger on every flight in the United States. Up to 8 percent of passengers who board flights will be coded "yellow" and pulled for additional screening. An estimated 1 to 2 percent will be labeled "red" and will be prohibited from boarding. These passengers also will face police questioning and may be arrested. [More Inside....]
posted on Sep 9, 2003 - View this thread

Homeland Security: falling apart before its even built. The bastard child of Bush's 'small government' ideology and Congress's desperate attempt to secure the nation is unsurprisingly falling apart for lack of support both in funds and from the executive branch. Isn't something worth doing and this important, worth doing well?
posted on Sep 8, 2003 - View this thread

Southeast Airlines has plans to install digital video cameras throughout the cabins of its planes to record the faces and activities of its passengers at all times. Furthermore, the charter airline will store the digitized video for up to 10 years. And it may use face recognition software to match faces to names and personal records.
posted on Jul 18, 2003 - View this thread