Open Source Homeland

Friendfeed for watchlists!

New DHS program to automate transmission of watch list data — Government Computer News.

DHS and the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), which maintains the consolidated database, are putting in place a program called DHS Watchlist Service (WLS). WLS will replace multiple data feeds from TSC to Homeland Security agencies that handle various missions such as counterterrorism, law enforcement and border security, the department’s privacy office said in an assessment of the program.

Misplaced priorities at the DHS. Hopefully, we’ll soon turn our collective attention to more pressing matters.

Jim Hightower: Why ‘homeland security’ is so often despised – poconorecord.com – The Pocono Record
The Department’s charm was on glaring display just before Christmas, when it sued the Nature Conservancy to condemn land near Brownsville, Texas, for the project. The conservancy owns and runs a unique 1,000-acre preserve along the Rio Grande, and the federal wall builders wanted to take a 60-foot-wide strip from the preserve, amounting to about eight acres.

Why fuss over eight acres? Well, you’d assume that the wall would be going up on the actual border, but no. They want to build this section a mile and a half from the border, thus putting three-fourths of the preserve in a no-man’s land between the wall and Mexico. The most critical part of the wildlife habitat, and even the home of the preserve’s manager, would be cut off by the wall, effectively destroying the park, which is home to two kinds of endangered wildcats and a rare palm forest.

Editorial – Cracking the Homeland Security Monolith – NYTimes.com
The House has moved to put some common sense into the security mystique. Lawmakers approved a measure to force the Department of Homeland Security to produce declassified versions of potential threats to give a heads-up to ground-level responders who lack classified clearance. Overclassification became a danger “elevated to an art form” in the Bush administration, noted the bill’s sponsor, Representative Jane Harman.

The DHS has moved to a “responsibility to provide” approach when it comes to information. I’m sure that’s not true in a lot of instances,  but at least it’s something that is viewed as a standard.

Greater Information Sharing: The Office of Intelligence and Analysis I&A leads DHS efforts to improve the sharing of information and intelligence with federal, state, local and tribal partners, and to change the culture from a “need to know” approach to a “responsibility to provide.” I&A has deployed 22 intelligence officers to Fusion Centers across the country, with a goal of 35 by the end of 2008. DHS has also deployed networks such as the Homeland Security Data Network, a system for securely communicating classified information, to 18 centers and anticipates deploying to 40 centers next year.

 In These Times gets their back up over this, but I have zero issue with it. Sharing relevant information in common sense ways keeps us safer. Just because there is potential for abuse doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it.

FDNY Spies — In These Times
In New York City, the Department of Homeland Security is training New York City firefighters to assist in gathering intelligence information during routine inspections and emergencies.

In November, the Associated Press reported that in New York, Homeland Security was testing a program called the Fire Service Intelligence Enterprise FSIE to help identify “material or behavior that may indicate terrorist activities.”