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)