By Meagan Wiseley – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Despite continued threats to the security of the global cyber infrastructure, Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Monday that she is opposed to the Obama administration appointing a cyber security coordinator, or “cyber czar.”

“We don’t need yet another White House czar. A czar would conflict with statutory duties established elsewhere,” Collins said.

Instead, Collins favors a cyber security “center” within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS would appoint a director for the center, and the director would report both to the DHS on a day to day basis, and act as the head adviser to the President on cybersecurity.

“Effectively managing government cybersecurity is going to require more than a few staff crammed into a cubicle in the depths of the White House,” said Collins.

Last Friday, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano opened the DHS’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Coordination Integration Center, which acts as a 24-hour coordinated watch and warning center to bolster cyber information sharing and incident response.

Collins said that despite its effort to manage cyber security, the DHS “still lacks the authority and resources it needs to secure our federal and private sector networks.”

She says her “center” proposal must work in accordance with law enforcement and intelligence agencies, the U.S. military and private owners and operators of critical cyberspace infrastructures.

“It is vitally important that we build a strong public-private partnership to protect cyberspace, a vital engine of our economy, our government, our country and our future,” Collins concluded.

The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security says many health providers across the country have plans for how to handle patients outside the hospital so that the actual tertiary care is reserved for those who are in most need of it. Napolitano adds that this could include providing treatments in tents.

 

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Janet A. Napolitano, United States Secretary of Homeland Security addressed a packed crowd at the Council on Foreign Relations this morning in New York. Her speech entitled: Common Threat, Collective Response: Protecting Against Terrorist Attacks in a Networked World, underscored that America is still vulnerable and we must continue to “comprehend and anticipate the range of new threats, including nuclear, chemical and biological.” She highlighted the greater use by insurgent groups around the world of these types of deadly weapons.

Napolitano also said under the Obama Administration, DHS (Department of Homeland Security) also prioritizes protecting the borders from immigration which she stated may also include terrorists trying to get into the country.

“We have to develop a global environment for security. We have to engage the American people in our collective efforts. ”

She underlined getting greater support from American citizens and to promote airline passenger vigilance aids in building a “culture of preparedness”. Napolitano said that 85 percent of our critical assets are owned by the private sector–and their knowledge of technical assistance can greatly help secure infrastructure. She said better training of local law enforcement is a major part of her workplan in the coming months –stating local law enforcement could work together to analyze and provide intelligence. She also cited the importance in maintaining international partners to broker agreements with allies on monitoring baggage and cargo and to forge agreements to combat serious crime in partnership with the Department of Justice.

“We are a nation of families. Think of us as a hub. We have to strengthen our own networks and build on our international partnerships” she said.

 

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By Courtney Costello- Talk Radio News Service

A number of preparedness experts from the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security emphasized the need for a better communication network between all federal agencies that have a hand in disaster prevention and relief during a House Armed Services Subcommittee hearing on “Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High-Yield Explosives (CBRNE) Consequence Management.”

Chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) detailed the necessity for a “framework of guidance” that would comprehensibly lay out the “roles and responsibilities of local, state and federal responders.” Smith went on to describe that integration of federal agencies like the FBI, DoD, DHS, and FEMA as the cornerstone of efficient disaster prevention and relief in the U.S.

“Our efforts at NorthCom to prepare for and to assist in the aftermath of a CBRNE event, are apart of a combined national response framework. Our collaboration with federal and state partners, government and National Guard are all key to this homeland response strategy and to our level of preparedness as well,” said General Victor Renuart Commander at the U.S. Northern Command.

The panel pointed to the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina as an example of the need for preparedness across all lines of disaster relief.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) checks in live from the Arizona-Mexico border where he says DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano should understand the issue of illegal immigration, having been Governor of a border state. However, says King, Napolitano has her hands tied in terms of enforcing immigration laws because her boss, President Obama, doesn’t support cracking down on illegals. (:28)

 

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Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) checks in live from the Arizona-Mexico border where he says Janet Napolitano’s recent condemnations of work-site immigration raids demonstrates that the DHS is going the wrong way when it comes to enforcing this nation’s immigration laws. (:28)

 

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Coffee Brown, MD, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

Is this a pandemic? What would that mean?

04:45

 

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Coffee Brown MD, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

There are three main differences between a normal flu and a pandemic flu, as described by the Department of Homeland Security: incidence, virulence, and demographics.
Incidence refers to how many of us will get it. In a normal year, about 15 percent of 300 million Americans, or about 45 million people will get infected. In a pandemic, rates rise to 25-50 percent, or 75-150 million cases.
Virulence refers to how many of us will die of the infection. In a normal year, that’s about 0.07 percent, or about 35 thousand out those 45 million. In 1918, mortality was about 2.5 percent, which would be about 7.5 million deaths, given today’s population.
Demographics refers to which of us are at most risk. In a normal year, nearly all deaths occur in people over 65 years old. In 1918 and 1957, mortality was highest among school-aged children and young adults.
This summary, with some calculations, comes from information provided by DHS and presented at GlobalSecurity.Org
Let’s compare the 2009 A-H1N1 Flu. “Atypical flu” may be a handier name. “Swine flu” is passe’.
Incidence: As of 05/02/09: There have been 615 confirmed cases in 15 countries. Attack rates so far are too low and data too incomplete to meaningfully calculate.
Virulence: Mortality in Mexico, the country hardest hit so far, is 16 out of 397 cases: about 4 percent, which works out to four thousand per hundred thousand (a common way of expressing this type of number).
The one U.S. death might properly have been considered a Mexican death, since that child contracted the disease there. If calculated as U.S. data: one death out of 141 cases: about point seven percent. If that fatality is not charged to the U.S. account, the mortality rate outside of Mexico is zero percent as of this writing.
Demographics: Reports say that the Mexican victims were young, but I have not been able to locate details to confirm that. The World Health Organization says that more study would be needed to confirm that younger people are more at risk.
Other: The other elements of this flu that merit precautions are that it is genetically unique, meaning we may have no immunity, and that it is slightly out of season, meaning that it exhibits at least some unpredictable behavior.
We are still at phase 5, so clusters of cases in multiple countries, which would define phase 6, have not yet been confirmed.
Per the WHO, there no travel advisories at this time.
Do masks help? Yes, no, and maybe. Yes: as tiny as viruses are, they could slip right through any screen that we could breathe through, but the virus is carried in droplets of exhaled moisture, and those droplets do stick to the mask. No: But the masks dry, and it’s not clear whether the virus survives and detaches into the inhaled air. Maybe: the real test would be whether people with masks get fewer infections (though such people probably also take more precautions in general), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that data is not yet available.

United States Code 135 states that border patrol agents have the authority to perform warrantless searches within a reasonable distance of U.S. maritime and land borders. According to the ACLU, “reasonable” has been interpreted as within 100 miles, a decision that does not sit well with the civil liberties group.

“Courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security, we are seeing wide swaths of the country designated as constitution free zones, where even American citizens are denied their basic constitutional rights,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office during a press conference at the National Press Club.

Fredricksen said that the ACLU was able to use data from the U.S. Census Bureau to estimate that there are 197.4 million people who live within a hundred miles of maritime or coastal borders, which would mean that two-thirds of the U.S. population are exposed to the possibility of being searched without probable cause according to the ACLU.

“This is a classic case of law enforcement powers expanding far beyond their proper boundaries and in this case, we mean that literally,” said Fredrickson.

To show the effects of the Border Patrol’s interpretation, a video was shown of Vince Peppard, a San Diego man who was stopped by Border Patrol agents 15 miles within the U.S. when returning from buying tile in Mexico.

“When I came back from Mexico, they didn’t open my trunk then. But then a half hour later in the United States they were opening my trunk and ransacking my car. I didn’t feel like I was in the United States,” said Peppard.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security, Alan Cohn says that the DHS is committed to producing the best researched document to the best of it’s ability. Outside assistance of contractors and private enterprises is helpful to provide an objective review of the Department. Cohn says the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review is a tremendous opportunity and a tremendous challenge. (0:55)

 

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