Department of Homeland Security

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Feds Warn Airlines of Bomb Threat in Toothpaste Tubes

Warning specific to flight to Russia for Olympics

(Newser) - Homeland Security officials say airlines flying to Russia ahead of the Olympics ought to pay special attention to passengers' toothpaste tubes because they could contain explosives to make a bomb, reports ABC News . Authorities say they passed along the threat "out of an abundance of caution" and know of...

Senate OKs New Homeland Security Chief

Jeh C. Johnson confirmed with help from new filibuster rules

(Newser) - Democrats used their newly initiated lower threshold for defeating filibusters yesterday to win Senate confirmation of President Obama's nomination of former top Pentagon lawyer Jeh C. Johnson to be secretary of Homeland Security. On a 57-37 vote, Democrats broke a GOP blockade against Johnson before the Senate minutes later...

Reid Used Clout to Overturn Ruling on Casino Investors

Washington Times: He got visas sped up; agency staffers cry foul

(Newser) - A newspaper report suggests that Harry Reid exercised improper political clout on behalf of a casino in his home state of Nevada. The Washington Times reports that Reid personally intervened when a government agency—the US Citizenship and Immigration Services—rejected a request to speed up visa applications for foreign...

Man Builds Deadly Arsenal Using Airport Store Items
Man Builds Deadly Arsenal Using Airport Store Items
in case you missed it
Nov 30, 2013 6:00 PM CST

Man Builds Deadly Arsenal Using Airport Store Items

Including a gun, grenade, crossbow—and they all work

(Newser) - You may already find it ridiculous that you can't bring the tiniest pair of scissors through an airport security checkpoint, but you'll find it even more absurd after reading this: A North Carolina programmer is proving that even with all those security restrictions, it's still possible to...

TSA's $1B SPOT Program as Effective as Flipping a Coin

Screening 'the same as or slightly better than chance'

(Newser) - Nearly $1 billion spent on a TSA behavioral screening program may have been better spent in Vegas. Started in 2007 at a cost of $200 million a year, the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program trains officers to scan crowded airports for suspicious-looking people. There's just one...

DHS Workers Watch Netflix, Charge Overtime: Report

Dipping into 'candy bowl' cost department $8.7M a year

(Newser) - An Office of Special Counsel report has detailed a "profound and entrenched problem" at six Department of Homeland Security offices, where employees have been dipping into a "candy bowl" of unearned overtime money to boost their paychecks. The routine practice of claiming Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime—meant to compensate...

US to Hand Out Biggest Immigration Fine Ever

Infosys used visitor visas instead of work visas

(Newser) - The federal government is expected to slap a record $35 million immigration fine on Infosys tomorrow, after Homeland Security and State Department investigators found that the Indian outsourcing company had been sneaking workers into the country on cheap visitor visas (B-1), instead of more expensive and harder to get temporary...

Obama: Jeh Johnson Has 'Been There'

President nominates lawyer for Homeland Security post

(Newser) - President Obama today nominated the Pentagon's former top lawyer to help craft US counterterrorism policy as secretary of the Homeland Security Department, suggesting a shift from the department's emphasis on immigration and border security. Jeh C. Johnson, whose first name is pronounced "Jay," would replace Janet...

Obama Taps Trusted Adviser for Homeland Security Post
Obama Taps Trusted Adviser for Homeland Security Post
source says
Oct 17, 2013 4:58 PM CDT

Obama Taps Trusted Adviser for Homeland Security Post

Will nominate Jeh Johnson, source says

(Newser) - President Barack Obama is calling back a trusted counterterrorism adviser from his first term by nominating former top Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson as secretary of homeland security. Obama plans to announce Johnson's nomination tomorrow. He must be confirmed by the Senate before taking over the post most recently held...

US Uses Border Searches to Seize Devices: Manning Ally

Technique allows warrantless search of electronics

(Newser) - If you cross in to or out of the US, the government might seize your electronic devices—whether it's got a warrant or not. David House, a fundraiser for Chelsea Manning's legal defense fund, found that out the hard way in November 2010, after a trip to Mexico....

Homeland Security Worker Runs a Really Scary Website

Calls the president 'a treasonous mulatto scum dweller,' among other things

(Newser) - A disturbing website that advocates for the murder of "a lot of whites" and "black-skinned Uncle Tom race traitors" is run by a Department of Homeland Security employee, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center . The website, War on the Horizon , is run by a person calling himself...

Cops: Smuggler at JFK Had Uranium in Shoes

Feds say he thought he was selling to Iran for nukes

(Newser) - How's this for an unusual airport bust: Authorities say a guy at JFK flew into the country with uranium ore hidden in the soles of his shoes. The suspect thought he was working on a deal to sell that ore and much more to Iran for use in nuclear...

DHS Nominee Under Scrutiny After Helping Hillary's Brother

Mayorkas poised to be new No. 2

(Newser) - The Homeland Security chief is on her way out , and now the man pegged to be the new No. 2—and likely interim chief—might be in hot water. Alejandro Mayorkas is under investigation for his role in helping a company run by a brother of Hillary Clinton, the Associated...

The Short List to Replace Napolitano

Ray Kelly, maybe Joe Lieberman

(Newser) - Janet Napolitano is officially headed for an exit on stage left , which invites the question of who will succeed her at Homeland Security. Politico and the Daily Beast round up some of the frontrunners to be the sprawling department's fourth leader:
  • NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly: Chuck Schumer has already
...

Napolitano Quits to Run UC System

Has run Homeland Security since Obama was elected

(Newser) - Janet Napolitano, who led the burgeoning Department of Homeland Security through a host of policy changes in the era after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US, is resigning. Napolitano, just the third person to lead the decade-old department, told her senior staff today that she would be leaving...

Report Warned About Marathon Finish Line

Cited threat of 'small-scale bombings'

(Newser) - An 18-page report that emerged days before the Boston Marathon proved chillingly accurate in its warning: It said the race's finish line was an "area of increased vulnerability," noting a threat of "small-scale bombings" by extremists, the Los Angeles Times reports. But the report, from the...

Boston Police Chief: FBI Never Told Us of Tamerlan

Ed Davis says his department should have been notified of investigation

(Newser) - Boston's police chief says the FBI never informed his department that it investigated Tamerlan Tsarnaev a while back after getting a warning from Russia. Would it have mattered? Ed Davis told a House panel today that it's impossible to say but that his department "absolutely" would have...

Border Agents Must Now Verify All Student Visas

One of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's friends slipped through

(Newser) - It's the first tangible change in security procedures as a result of the Boston bombings, reports AP : From now on, border agents must check that every foreign student who enters the country has a valid student visa. That hadn't been automatic previously because the agents, oddly, didn't...

What Texas Plant Didn't Reveal to Homeland Security

'A god awful amount of ammonium nitrate'

(Newser) - A lack of sprinklers and fire walls wasn't the only safety issue at the Texas fertilizer plant that exploded, killing at least 14 and injuring hundreds, on Wednesday: West Fertilizer had failed to report the 270 tons of ammonium nitrate it was storing to the Department of Homeland Security,...

GOP Balks at Making Saudis 'Trusted Travelers'

House members point out that most 9/11 hijackers were Saudis

(Newser) - House Republicans are raising concerns about an Obama administration deal to give "pre-approved, low-risk travelers" from Saudi Arabia a quicker pass through customs when entering the US. "Of the 19 individuals who hijacked American planes on September 11, 2011—15 were from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,"...

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