By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Despite the contentious political rhetoric, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said crime and illegal crossings along the Mexico-U.S. border have dropped sharply. She attributed the change to an intensified focus on border enforcement and a “smart and effective approach to enforcing immigration laws.” “We have strengthened the Southwest border in a…
Coleen Rowley, a former FBI special agent and legal counsel in the Minneapolis field office, wrote a “whistleblower” memo in May 2002 and testified to the Senate Judiciary on some of the FBI’s pre-9/11 failures. She retired in 2004 and is now a writer and speaker. By COLEEN ROWLEY Minneapolis Star-Tribune A secretive, unaccountable, post-9/11…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced over the weekend that her agency plans to add up to 54 agents in the coming year to Afghanistan to compliment the current lot of 25, the Washington Post reported. The announcement came during Napolitano’s two-day visit to Afghanistan. The added agents will help…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com As if we need to hear more scary stuff on the terrorism front, here’s the latest. The Guardian newspaper in London reports that a senior Yemen government official warned US diplomats shortly after the “underwear” bomber incident last Christmas in Detroit that the country’s main store of radioactive products was poorly…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday that 100 percent of passengers on flights within or bound for the U.S. are now being checked against government watchlists, fulfilling a key 9/11 Commission recommendation a month ahead of schedule. A Homeland Security press release said that Transportation Security Administration reached…
By Janet Napolitano USA Today WASHINGTON — Nearly a year after a thwarted terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner last Christmas Day, the recent attempt by terrorists to conceal and ship explosive devices aboard aircraft bound for the United States reminds us that al-Qaeda and those inspired by its ideology are determined to strike our…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — The U.S. moved Monday to clamp down on the vulnerable area of cargo shipments from abroad. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the banning of “high risk” cargo shipments and a ban on shipments from Yemen and Somalia. “Following the thwarted terrorist plot last week to conceal and ship…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com More signs of the Mexican drug cartels reaching into the U.S.: The Washington Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security is warning Arizona authorities that Mexican drug gangs have sent assassins or “sicarios” into the state to kill bandits who are ambushing and stealing loads of cocaine, marijuana and heroin,…
