Droning On and On
John Villasenor at Brookings released “Cyber-Physical Attacks and Drone Strikes: The Next Homeland Security Threat,” that is well-worth the time to digest. While the thrust of the paper was to highlight the potential ability of U.S. adversaries to use...
DetailsCan a Predator Be Used to Deliver Pizza?
It is a legitimate question to ask what we are getting for our money. An even better question, and one that is not so frequently asked, is “Could we have gotten something better for the money we spent?” CBP...
DetailsPlease Explain This, TSA
Here is a piece I wrote for the Defense Media Network on the recent TSA incident involving a 95-year-old leukemia patient. This instance, like some of the other eye-popping and jaw-dropping cases of the past few months and years...
DetailsFaltering Tools for Fire and Ice
It’s a basic lesson any semi-decent carpenter or weekend handyman knows. If you have the right tools, you can do your job a lot easier and a whole lot better. As basic as this premise might be, it is...
DetailsFrontier Airlines – Making a Hard Turn in the Right Direction
Last week, I wrote a blog post, The Final ‘Frontier’ in Corporate Shame, which focused on Frontier Airlines’ lack of sensitivity concerning the accommodation of first-responders during times of national crisis. To their credit, Frontier Airlines has since recognized...
DetailsA Weiner’s Clearance
This is not the first Weiner problem that Washington has had and poor behavior is not something one political party has an edge over the other. In fact, in the balance sheet of our nation’s 112 Congresses and 44...
DetailsThe Final ‘Frontier’ in Corporate Shame
As a Life Flight helicopter pilot residing just outside of Joplin, Missouri; my father-in-law knew he would be needed to help airlift critically wounded victims of the recent tornado to nearby medical facilities. What he didn’t know is that...
Details“Purposeful Redundancy” of Overlapping DHS Oversight Should be Fixed Before 9-11
Within the past few weeks, testimony from former Congressman Lee Hamilton and an Associated Press story both highlighted the cost — in time and money, if not security — of overlapping jurisdiction of congressional oversight of the Department of...
DetailsAppreciating the Lessons of Gardens of Stone
There is solemnity to Arlington National Cemetery that is unique. It is one of the few places in the Washington area that if you stop and look around, you will only hear soft murmurs of people talking, maybe the...
DetailsThe “One Size Fits All” Rhetoric from DHS Does Not Fit the Facts
I have a suggestion for those hard-working, well-meaning and too-often overwhelmed folks in the DHS Public Affairs shop. Get rid of the “one size fits all” term (“OSFA”) when referring to homeland security programs that Secretary Napolitano wants to...
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