DHS to rebuild Project 28 fence

The 28-mile mobile border surveillance system deployed as a prototype of SBInet in Arizona is coming down and will be replaced with an updated version with permanent towers, a spokesman said today. The changeover has been planned from the beginning and does not reflect any new performance concerns regarding Secure Border Initiative’s initial Project 28 segment, said Michael Friel, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “Project 28 was a prototype,” Friel said. “It will continue to be developed and updated to meet our operational needs.”
(Washington Technology story)

TSA's Bi-coastal Launch of Millimeter Wave Imaging Technology

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced April 17 that pilots of millimeter wave technology to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). Millimeter wave is currently in use at Phoenix Sky-Harbor International Airport. Millimeter wave detects weapons, explosives and other threat items concealed under layers of clothing without any physical contact. It is a promising alternative to the physical pat-down.
“The use of whole body imaging is a significant step forward in checkpoint technology,” said TSA Administrator Kip Hawley. “By expanding the use of millimeter wave, we are providing our officers with another tool to enhance security and protect the public from evolving threats.”
(TSA press release)

Progress Report on Data Fusion

The drive to fuse law enforcement and intelligence data across jurisdictional stovepipes has sparked its share of polarized discussion. Proponents tout an ambitious vision of not only seamlessly integrated counter-terror information but a new era of collaborative intelligence. Critics fear the emergence of an unaccountable police state apparatus. In fact, as HSToday found last year in our feature The Fusion Revolution, the fusion center concept has remained a work in progress, less a unified national platform than a patchwork quilt of promising state and local initiatives. The challenge for the federal government and DHS in particular, our sources told us, was to supportively coordinate all these grass-roots efforts with existing legacy networks on the federal level.
(HSToday story)

Airlines would collect fingerprints for US-VISIT

Homeland Security Department officials plan to require commercial airlines and cruise ship lines to collect biometric information from non-immigrant foreign travelers when they leave the United States by the beginning of next year.For years, DHS has been collecting biometric data from such travelers when they arrive in the United States as part of the department's U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program. However, DHS has had a hard time creating an exit system with similar capabilities because of logistical, technological and commercial problems. The exit program is a requirement of a major national security law Congress passed in 2007. After conducting a pilot program, DHS today announced the government’s plan to meet that obligation.
(Federal Computer Week story; Government Executive story)

DHS: Blogs give department a new voice

The Homeland Security Department has launched its blogs partially because the agency wanted a dialog with the public. According to DHS Web Communications Director Gwynne Kostin, the agency’s Leadership Journal was born partly from the intense debate surrounding the now-defeated Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act. DHS officials found they also wanted to put out their own views on the immigration issue. DHS’ is one of about 30 ongoing blogs maintained by government agencies. The Leadership Journal is unusual because DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff contributes to it, making it one of two blogs cabinet officers contribute to. The other is run by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, who launched his after HHS experimented with a temporary open-discussion blog about pandemic flu in May 2007.
Kostin said the blog has already paid off. An April 4 posting by Chertoff emphasized the importance of restricting hand-carried liquids onto commercial aircraft, referring to an ongoing trial of eight Britons who planned to blow up seven trans-Atlantic flights by using liquid explosives. DHS also allows people to comment anonymously on entries. Although the agency combs comments for offensive material, moderators allow sometimes-heated discussions to take place on the blog. Kostin said these discussions are a good way to engage the public on current issues, which is the blog’s primary function. "I really think social media and these tools are really a way to bring people closer to the government," she said.
(Federal Computer Week story; DHS Leadership Journal blog)

DHS establishes centers of excellence

The Homeland Security Department has named five new centers of excellence in counterterrorism research. Each will receive a grant of as much as $2 million a year for four to six years, the department said. The centers are:

• Border Security and Immigration: The University of Arizona at Tucson and University of Texas at El Paso.

• Explosives Detection, Mitigation and Response Northeastern University in Boston and the University of Rhode Island in Kingston.

• Maritime, Island and Port Security: The University of Hawaii in Honolulu and Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J.

• Natural Disasters, Coast Infrastructure and Emergency Management: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss.

• Transportation Security: Texas Southern University, in Houston, Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Miss., and the University of Connecticut in Storrs.

DHS launches Northern Border pilot programs

While the Homeland Security Department prepares a prototype solution for protecting the northern border, new technologies already are being tested in the field, states a new report from the department’s Customs and Border Protection directorate. The 20-page report said the federal government is in the process of implementing additions in border personnel, infrastructure improvements and technologies to protect the U.S.-Canadian border. The report was written and submitted to Congress under the requirements of the 9/11 Commission implementation law approved last year.
(Washington Technology story)

A tale of two borders

The United States’ strategy for securing its border with Canada primarily will focus on using technology, while the Homeland Security Department’s strategy for securing the southern border also includes hundreds of miles of fencing, DHS’ top official said. Earlier this week DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff told senators on the Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, “We are going to have technology on the northern border, but it’s going to be a different array than what we have at the southern border," he said.
(Washington Technology story)

Chertoff celebrates DHS anniversary

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Wednesday strongly defended border security projects undertaken by his department, asserting that virtual fencing in Arizona is working and that border-control efforts are not being delayed by three years. "I have read in the newspapers that there is a three-year delay and for the life of me I cannot figure out where that comes from," Chertoff said in an interview with reporters marking the five-year anniversary of the Homeland Security Department. "There's no doubt that the process of working out some of the kinks delayed this by five to six months, but to say it's three years, I don't know where that comes from." GAO testified before the House Homeland Security Committee Feb. 27 on the department's SBInet border security program, which includes the building of a virtual fence on 28 miles in southern Arizona, dubbed Project 28.
(Government Executive story)

New TSA blog takes off

Transportation Security Administration officials say they hope their new Evolution of Security blog will become a forum for a lively, open discussion of TSA issues. It is the latest example of federal agencies using new Web technologies to connect with the public.But with its pat-downs and toiletry checks, TSA’s daily function is considerably more invasive and prominent in people’s lives than other agencies that have blogs, such as the General Services Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and, most recently, the Navy.TSA’s blog launched Jan. 30 with a post from Administrator Kip Hawley, who billed the new initiative as a way to improve communication between TSA screeners and passengers -- or, as he put it, to “explain the ‘why’ of what we ask you to do at the checkpoint.”
(Federal Computer Week story; TSA's Evolution of Security blog)

Driver's licenses as border-crossing cards?

British Columbia has asked U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for permission to deploy driver’s licenses that also will serve as border-crossing cards for entry into the United States. The Canadian province wants the card to serve as an entry document in lieu of a passport. British Columbia applied in August to begin implementing the hybrid licenses starting in January 2008. The province’s ministry, along with other provincial governments believed to be interested in developing such hybrid licenses, is awaiting approvals from Chertoff to move forward, according to media reports in Canada.
(Federal Computer Week story)

House approves $34.9B for homeland security

The omnibus spending bill approved by the House of Representatives on Dec. 19 includes $34.9 billion in baseline funding for the Homeland Security Department in fiscal 2008 and boosts major departmental information technology contracting efforts focused on US VISIT and the Real ID Act of 2005. The legislation contains funding not only for large business opportunities for IT contractors at the federal level, but also a wide variety of grants programs that offer additional opportunities. The legislation allocates an additional $2.7 billion for emergency spending for border security, of which $1.6 billion will pay for 370 miles of fencing and for portions of the Secure Border Initiative surveillance system being constructed along the U.S. borders.
(Washington Technology story)

DHS unveils Real ID grants

The Homeland Security Department released grant guidelines this week to assist states in applying for $35 million to begin implementing Real ID requirements for handling personal information associated with driver’s licenses. “These funds will advance the ability of states to verify the legitimacy of documents that applicants present and to confirm that the applicants are who they say they are," said Secretary Michael Chertoff. Under the Real ID Act of 2005, states must meet new rules for collecting, verifying, storing and publishing personal information related to driver’s licenses, and they must share the personal information of license holders with other states.
(Washington Technology story; DHS press release; DHS REAL ID home page)

Chertoff sets priorities for 2008

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff highlighted the department's 2007 achievements Dec. 12, also naming four key areas that he plans to focus on in the coming year: border security and immigration, secure identity, cybersecurity, and operations. Chertoff also said the department will spend the next year looking internally to improve the way it functions as a single, unified institution. He said one of the obstacles is excessive congressional oversight. While insisting that he believes monitoring is good for the department, he said DHS is dealing with "oversight run amok." In 2007, DHS officials testified before Congress 224 times. In the five-year history of the agency, officials have provided 7,800 written reports and answered 13,000 questions for the record.
(Government Executive story; DHS press release with Chertoff's complete remarks)

DHS accepts delivery of electronic fence

Amid a strong warning from Congress, the Homeland Security Department conditionally accepted delivery of the first phase of a controversial electronic border fence from contractor Boeing Co., and awarded the company a $64 million contract to build the next phase. At a press conference held Dec. 7, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff accepted the delivery of the first phase of the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet), a high-tech surveillance system consisting of radars, cameras and ground sensors connected by a wireless satellite network along a 28-mile section in southern Arizona. Chertoff said he was "satisfied for now" with the work Boeing has done on the first phase of the contract, known as Project 28. But he added, DHS would continue to be a tough customer, which he said means "if we're not satisfied with something, we're going to tell them [Boeing] we're not satisfied with it... I told the head of Boeing some time back, 'Look, I'm not, you know, you don't have a lock on this entire border.'"
(Government Executive story; DHS SBI update; DHS SBI home page)

DHS, FBI to integrate fingerprint databases

The Homeland Security Department began testing a fingerprint scanning application in certain airports so it can tap into an FBI database to identify more accurately whether visiting foreigners may be criminals, illegal immigrants or terrorists. Under a pilot project, foreigners landing in Dulles International Airport outside Washington have begun to have the fingerprint from each finger scanned when they enter the United States. Nine other major airports, including John F. Kennedy International in New York, will do the same starting in early 2008.
(Government Executive story)

Fusion centers report data access issues

Many state and local officials who work at fusion centers report problems logging onto federal networks and have difficulty handling the high volume of information they receive from federal authorities, according to a recent survey by government auditors. Nonfederal authorities started forming fusion centers to improve information sharing after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Since then the national authorities have become increasingly involved — particularly the Homeland Security Department and FBI, who have field agents assigned to some of the centers.
(Washington Technology story)

Visualization tools assist maritime security

New visualization tools are helping the Coast Guard develop situational awareness at the Port of Miami, but more assistance is needed to track small boats and noncooperative vessels, according to congressional testimony given this week. The Homeland Security Department’s Directorate of Science and Technology is funding the Visualization Tools for Situational Awareness and Emergency Response program, also known as Viz Tools.
(Washington Technology story)

Staying On Track

Asa Hutchinson likes to joke about the time he had 30 days to spend $350 million. It was the end of August 2003, and Hutchinson was the first undersecretary of Border and Transportation Security at the newly formed Homeland Security Department. His directorate's most pressing priority was meeting a congressional mandate to install by the end of the calendar year a system to track the entrance of foreign nationals through the nation's 115 international airports and cruise ship terminals at 14 seaports. The system was called US VISIT. And not only did DHS need to have US VISIT up and running by the end of the year, but it had to spend its 2003 appropriation for the program - which actually totaled about $362 million - by the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30. "That was a tight deadline," recalls Hutchinson, now a partner at the Washington law firm Venable LLC and chief executive officer of the Little Rock, Ark.-based Hutchinson Group. "We had a lot of detractors who said it couldn't be done." (Government Executive story)

U.S. expands security rule for Canadians

U.S. officials will start taking 10 fingerprints from Canadians entering the country on visas when they start expanding a four-year security program this month. Under US-VISIT, Canadians on visas have been required to scan their two index fingers and have a digital photograph taken. The biometrics are used to identify people by linking them to their visas or passports. Now, all fingers will be scanned, starting Nov. 30 at Washington Dulles International Airport and nine other major airports in early 2008.
(Canadian Press story)