is the department of homeland security working with alabama in helping them implement that law? > representative scott, could you, your mike -- >> alabama, alabama's immigration law, allows alabama officials to inquire as to immigration status. is the department of homeland security working with alabama to help them implement that law? >> not in that sense. we have been working with the department of justice on a challenge to that law. >> okay. is there any way that, and how would that law affect hispanic citizens? >> you know, i don't know the answer to that question right now. the law has just gone into effect. >> i mean you would have to assume that hispanic citizens would be adversely affected because they would have to be showing i.d. about everywhere they go. other citizens, a situation that other citizens would not have to do. >> i think that should be a real concern, you're correct. >> the prison rape elimination act, has that been applied to i.c.e. facilities? >> yes. we have a zero tolerance policy for sexual harrassment or misconduct by detention officers, be they thos

hasn't stopped the government from labeling them a dangerous threat just this week the department of homeland security released a bulletin warning that anonymous that may be interested in crippling critical infrastructure and the news has caused a lot of news outlets to report on the possible dangers of the hacktivist but where exactly is all that coming from our guest tonight says that it looks more like a dire move to discredit and undermind anonymous by the government than an analysis of a real threat so joining me from our studio in new york is dan kaplan executive editor of essence magazine dan i want to thank you so much for joining us tonight and if you can start by just telling us a little bit more about this bulletin that the department of homeland security put out do they have some kind of evidence some kind of proof as to why anonymous would target critical infrastructure sure but this was something that was circulated internally at the department of homeland security and it appeared on a public website called the public intelligence website this week. to be honest with you it's really base

and if you can start by just telling us a little bit more about this bullet in that the department of homeland security put out do they have some kind of evidence some kind of proof as to why anonymous would target critical infrastructure sure but this was something that was circulated internally at department of homeland security and it appeared on a public website called the public intelligence website this week and to be honest with you it's really based on some sort of you know some pretty scant evidence around you know aligning anonymous with one to cripple critical infrastructure and you really need to take it with a grain of salt i think any kind of details any way you know what is there that evidence there has to be i don't know is there like an e-mail a tweet something in a chat room that was said. yeah well one of the big pieces of evidence is a tweet that i suppose that anonymous member posted giving some information to some reconnaissance work that he or she did into some of these control systems a particular piece of software to be exact and you know when you talk about the control systems

amount if not more of what has been spent on homeland security the last ten years yeah that's right it's not the biggest line item in the federal budget and there are a lot of departments that would like to get rid of that waste money i think some of the spending in the homeland security department though more than wasteful it actually encourages infringements on civil liberties i mean everyone knows the famous stories about kids being. you know the airports and so on boy what's also been going on through the homeland security grant program thirty four billion dollars over the last nine years is the building up slowly at the local level of the militarized service. and you have grants going to localities for security cameras there's a fishing village in alaska that has twenty four hundred people and eighty security cameras you have small towns so throughout the country getting homeland security grants to get armored personnel carriers which are going to be used in no knock drug raids and so this is a little more concerning a little more dangerous than say like a small business administration grant so i think it's worth the emphasis on this kind of spending but you know

should be so who's going to handle that if the problem homeland security doesn't exist anymore well i think. first of all when you abolish the department of homeland security you do get rid of janet napolitano his job but you do not abolish every responsibility for public safety for the federal government i mean a protection against terrorism is a serious responsibility. the federal government meaning agencies to do that kind of thing are not within the d.h.s.s. now the f.b.i. is not within within the d.h.s.s. now you know the you on we'll the combination of twenty two agencies that have responsibilities from everything from counterfeiting to you know disaster relief and it doesn't make any sense going to go into other agencies then making those golden age i think even bigger well what i think you would have some things completely abolished you have say the air marshal service completely abolished the homeland security grant program basically abolished and then you would have things like we're still going to coast guard which is within the homeland security. organization now. but i think one thing the one benefit that you would get out

security includes most but not all of defense and also includes appropriations for the department of homelandsecurity, the department of veterans affairs and international affairs budget categories. however in 2014 and beyond, the budget control act specifies a single cap on discretionary funding. there is an entirely different set of caps in the law that would come into play if legislation from this committee does not generate sufficient deficit reduction. in that case the further cuts in spending will be required based on the traditional defense and nondefense categories. although to make the situation truly confusing the act labels those security non-security as well. we thought it would be most useful for this testimony to focus on the familiar defense and nondefense categories. that they now turn to the first substantive question which is what discretionary spending comprises. in fiscal year 2011 total funding for discretionary programs was about $1.3 trillion of which more than half went to defense and less than half went to nondefense programs. turn out to the second page of the handou

are they being told what is going on but they have a choice to off now and we gave the department of homeland security a few days to respond and they didn't but after article appeared i think they got enough pressure perhaps or that they did come up with a statement that says that the only thing that's on the volunteers the question is whose goal in tearing up we have some callers they have they haven't responded and so i think it's fair to say that this document that efforts obtained under for you really raises more questions than it answers now so before we reported to you know that according to there was an interview in a dot com that something was being carried out in the northeastern united states do we think in fact the same thing or is that separate. that's probably the same thing it looks like they're going through a few phases of testing they specify i think for round memory serves in this and other documents that have been pried loose from the department of homeland security and so if he sees the test the test and you can probably imagine gets larger more people are involved they indicated i

as called future attribute screening technology or facts so in june they found out the department of homeland security had been conducting tests for several months at an undisclosed location in the northeast united states now we might have a little bit more information as to how it works and who they plan to use it on an internal d.h. has document has been obtained under open government laws by the electronic privacy information center and seen it has been able to take a look so let's find out what's in it joining me to discuss this is declan mccullagh chief political correspondent and i want to thank you so much for joining us tonight and so if you can give us some details here as to what more we learned about fast it was specifically in this memo. right what happened at the electronic privacy information center obtained this document right in the open government and it's dated last year and so it's not current but it's still more information than we had before and it says that fast is being tested on members of the public it also says the fastest personally identifiable information and these are two

more about it. >>> checking our top stories right now a new warning from the fbi and department of homeland securityer the killing of an american-born al qaeda leader in yemen. the bulletin warns that anwar al awlaki's death could spark attacks in the united states by home grown violent extremists. anwar al awlaki was killed by a cia drone strike in yemen. >>> aid workers are still trying to get medical supplies into the besieged libyan city of sirt. a spokesman said they were forced to turn back the first time. revolutionary forces have surrounded the city 5,000 fighters inside loyal to moammar gadhafi. >>> no one propelling down the side of the washington monument today. cloudy weather there has forced the national park service to suspend operations for the day. a team of engineers is assessing damage caused by the august earthquake. work is expected to resume potentially tomorrow. >>> new video of casey anthony has been released. it shows the moment in 2008 that anthony found out the remain of her 2-year-old daughter caylee had been discovered. a judge said the tape was too inflammatory be played

you will -- you were not the secretary of homeland security in 1999. the department of homeland security was not created until three years later. in 1999, we saw members of congress expressed frustration with the imf about the issue of prosecutorial discretion. when chairman smith led a bipartisan -- wrote to a bipartisan letter to attorney general janet reno on that topic, he specifically urged the in best to use prosecutorial discretion to avoid unfair nets -- unfairness and "unjustifiable hardship." in an op ed in the new york times, chairman smith complained was spending its time on cases that cry out for compassion instead of focusing resources on hardened criminals or hardened criminal aliens. i would like to enter the letter and the out a into the record. -- leter and the -- letter and the op-ed into the record. >> you might want to put those letters in the context. they were referring to not making general categories of individuals eligible but going through on a case by case basis. i would not want the gentleman to give a misimpression about the content of t

the senate homeland security committee reviewed the report and heard testimony from the department ofhomeland security and health and human services and from fbi officials. center joe lieberman of connecticut chairs the committee. this is two and a half hours. >> good morning. the hearing will come to order. thanks to our excellent panel of witnesses for coming today to discuss this topic, which is our nation's record over the past decade and improving our defenses against a biological attack or a pandemic. today's hearing is part of our ten years after 9/11 series assessing the status of a number of government homeland security operations that were singled out as an adequate or dysfunctional by the 9/11 commission. the impetus for the review today as everyone will remember actually came a week after the 9/11 attack long before there ever was a 9/11 commission. when our already traumatized nation was shaken by the mailing of anthrax spores to the media organizations and to the united states senators all told, five people died from anthrax inhalation. two of them were postal workers, a

about their distrust of corporations and so it would make perfect sense to me for the department of homeland security to you know lean on something like critical infrastructure in order to sort of you know name and shame and get the public to be opposed to a group like anonymous now even when writing about it said at least compared somehow to the way that the government is going after waking me do you think that you are synonymous. i think so i mean again the both of those organizations certainly want to bring to light. corruption that mean to take in place and governments within corporations and anonymous certainly has infiltrated a lot of organizations or launch denial of service attacks making you on able to reach some of these websites of corporations and government agencies so it makes perfect sense the da just wants to sound the alarm that they're going after a critical infrastructure and that's a really scary thing to do i think because when you talk about what scares the daylights out of people within the security industry the people i talk to on a regular basis it's the possibility that some

port of san francisco to accept and expend a grant in the amount of $550,552 from the department of homeland security, 2010 port security grant program for ferry building and ferry terminal mass notification system improvements at the port of san francisco. supervisor mirkarimi: welcome. >> good morning. i am the program manager at the port of san francisco. you're sorry you did tell you a little bit about the mass notification system. we have found that there is not an effective means to communicate to the public in the offense of a disaster -- in the event of a disaster. after the earthquake in 1989, over 300,000 people assembled at the ferry plaza, and there was no means for us to communicate with them how transportation would be handled, what bridges were open or shut, and how there is would be operating. this is a 2010 ford security grant program grant. there are no matching funds. -- this is a 2010 port security grant program grant. the system will have multiple language monitors and an announcement capability throughout the ferry terminal plaza. supervisor mirkarimi: very good. any comments or

to show what can happen--- and what's being done about it ---- the department of homeland security invited cnn and other media outlets for a rare look inside the idaho national laboratory. this section was made to look like a water treatment or chemical plant... another is built to represent a power substation--- both, where specialists can run a wide array of experimentsa including injecting a power grid with a computer virus that could knock out electricity for a wide areaa&. the key is to see how the system reacts and what software upgrades can be done to prevent it from happening in the first place.simon: we don't want to unnecessarily frighten people, but these threats are real. edwards: they are absolutely real. ......but i think the average american doesn't understand but the vast majority of the infrastructure around them is controlled by computer devices and as we all know we can get viruses on our systems at home, these systems are susceptible to similar types of events.and viruses have the potential to leave entire cities.. or entire regionsa with contaiminated water and without

. >>> coming up tonight at 11:00, we'll hear from analyst who say the department of homeland security isn't doing enough to track some of these potentially dangerous malicia groups. >>> we had a beautiful day with a beautiful sunset. absolutely gorgeous. temperature wise coming in at 68 degrees. humidity 42%. the winds are variable at 7 miles per hour. barometer 29.78. it is holding steady. baltimore had blue skies and cirrus clouds up there. it was a gorgeous day. hope you took advantage of it. also what we had that you didn't see but felt were wind gusts. 22 in baltimore. parkton 24. 21 glenwood. maryland's radar not picking up on a lot right now. highs today came in at 74 at the inner harbor. 72 annapolis. 70 cambridge. these 70s are above average. we'll stay that way going into tomorrow. satellite and radar closer view showing there are showers moving into pennsylvania at this time. it is forecasted to try to drop in our direction as we go through the evening. the air is dry. i don't think a lot will make it. maybe a couple sprinkles. we'll stay dry through the evening. that's goo

it wasn't within the department of homeland security. >> i am asking is a former prosecutor who did the cases the department of justice has to approve the supplications, correct? >> that is the procedure, yes. >> in those applications is a narrative or summary of the case. >> that is correct. some one of the department of justice had to know about fast and furious 43 to ever have been approved, connect? >> i can't comment. i don't know that there ever was a t3 approved. sprigg if there were a t3 approved and fast and furious, and there were, the departments of justice would have had to have known about it; correct? >> i'm going to leave that for your own investigation, sir. i'm not going to go comment beyond what i know, and what i know is that after the death of agent terrie, the fast and furious legal became apparent and we became knowledgeable about it. obviously there were problems with the operation. obviously it did not succeed and the inspector general has that under investigation right now. from a law enforcement perspective, from a law enforcement perspective, yes, fast and fur

it lead to an investigation at the department of homeland security. >> reporter: the issue is not that carlos montano is an illegal immigrant. he is 24 and lived in the country since he was 8. his defense attorney says he has a legal work permit but he was going through deportation. the issue is that he was a drunk driver that didn't learn from his mistakes. >> mr. carlos montano. >> reporter: a father of two small children pled guilty to five counts in the drunk driving crash that killed sister jeannette mosier. >> reporter: the two nuns in the front seat were severely injured and left with life long complications. they hug a marine reservist that happened upon the scene and gave them first aid. >> had him sit in jail and think about what he has done. >> reporter: montano had a blood alcohol content of point 2 more than twice the legal limit when he struck a guardrail and smashed head on into the nun's vehicle. he pled not guilty to felony murder. his phone is arguing that he didn't mean to kill anyone. >> what he is not guilty of is felony murder. >> reporter: but because he had been

the department of homeland security has issued a bulletin, warning about possible, though unspecified and unconfirmed attacks in the united states in retaliation for the killing today of al qaeda leader anwar al awlaki in yemen. awlaki was a 40-year-old american, a child of privilege from new mexico, who became the number one most influential e van jell list of the murder of americans in the name of islam. here's abc's martha raddatz in afghanistan. >> reporter: terry, the u.s. had actually been tracking awlaki for months, unbeknownst to awlaki the u.s. knew exactly where he was hiding. >> never underestimate the power of fear. >> reporter: anwar awlaki had been considered especially dangerous because he was, in fact, american. and therefore, knew of the targets in the u.s. that could be vulnerable to attacks. today, in a highly targeted attack, he finally met his end. the u.s. had been zeroing in on anwar al awlaki's location for months. u.s. military officials determined awlaki was hiding out in a compound deep in the back country of yemen. what awlaki could never know was high over

of the safety and security of the american people? >> i believe so. but i want to be frank with you, senator. one of the areas where the department of homeland security needs to keep expanding its capacity and capability is in cyber. it is very difficult to hire professionals and this area. there is a lot of competition for these individuals. it is one of the reasons we initially made a decision that we would not tried to replicate a civilian nsa with a military nsa, that there will be arrangements to share some of the technological expertise. this is an area, even in a period of restraint fiscal resources, that needs focus. >> at the moment, if our nsa folks were aware of an attack targeting, say, an american bank, financial processing center, electric utility network, would they need, would you need the kind of the authorities that this legislation can provide in order legislation can provide in order to be able to intervene and

with the department of justice. so homeland security played a role, but off to the side. the fbi was playing a role, but again, off to the side. this is really about the atf and the department of justice. jenna: will you also investigate what you say is off to the side, the fbi and the department of homeland security? or at this point, is that off the table? >> we want to look at everything. we don't know where this tangled web leads. we want to make sure this doesn't happen again. it's thousands of weapons. jenna: are the guns still walking, is this still happening, an 234r5eugs we -- that we don't know about and are later going to hear about like this one? >> well remember, we have over 2000 weapons that went out the doorks only one had a gps device that only worked for a couple of days. what's absolutely shocking about this is we allowed and knowingly put these weapons into the hands of bad guys. we have two dead agents, we have hundreds of crimes that are committed with these guns, we now in the last 48 hours read the news reports about the siniloa having hundreds of t

of expectations people have a about homeland security. the concept of homeland security was a new concept. i grew up in a world where the defense departmentthe justice department had completely separate and distinct areas of authority to deal with security threats. basically looked at a security issue. if it was at denominated -- military issue, a matter of war making, then you have a set of entities that dealt with a said of authorities and a set of legal rules. if itif it was criminal, it wasa different set of laws and very little overlap. homeland security was dealing with the world that does not fit with that categories, where we use all of these tools to deal with threats. which tools we use very indifferent particular situations. we have bin laden who was indicted defended and was also a military target. we needed a department that embodied a new doctrine and understands what used to fall uniquely within the jurisdiction of different federal organizations. it was a challenge in and of itself. admiral allen, we had to build a strategy to deal with a different menu of threats, one of which you could be dealing with medical threats, bi

the port just got approval for a half million dollar grant from the department of homeland security to set up a mass notification system. loud speakers and digital signs will provide the kind of transportation and evacuation information that could have been helpful yesterday had those earthquakes been bigger. >> this is just a reminder that, you know, we live in the land of earthquakes and that eventually, we might have another major one. it doesn't hurt to try to prepare. >> reporter: the port of san francisco says that they're hoping to have that mass notification system set up here at the ferry building in about three years or so. they say now that they have the grants, they can start conceptualizing exactly what they want it to look like and start taking bids from companies who want to make it. live in san francisco, traci grant, nbc bay area news. >> tracy, thank you. good a lot of people are getting proactive. the earth is shaking yesterday but today, a major earthquake rocked the south pacific. thankfully sxwrrkts thankfully,it did not trigger a tsunami. it was 700 miles north o

of expectations that people have about homeland security. homeland security was a new concept. i grew up in a world where the defense departmenttment had completely separate and distinct areas of authority to deal with security threats. you basically looked at a security, if it was it the nominating a military issue, a matter of war-making, then you had a set of entities that dealt with it, set of authorities and a set of legal rules and processes. if it was a criminal issue as law enforcement and a different group of people, different set of authorities, different set of laws, and there was very little overlap. what homeland security has adopted was forced to grow up with is a world that it not fit into those categories, world in which we are often using all of these to deal with threats, and which tools we use buried in particular situations. so we can have someone like bin laden who was an indicted defendant that was also somebody that was a military target. and they need to bring together a department that embodies a new doctrine and one that spans what used to fall neatly within the jurisdiction of different federal organ

in addition, the department of homeland security has recently established the national cyber security integration center. this is a center that is to be used not only among dhs and other civilian and defense organizations within the federal government, but also the private sector in order to share information, to monitor ongoing security threats and incidents, and to help increase the collaboration and coordination between these different parties. guest: take that global. other countries have their own policies in place. is there a partnership, a enough of a collaboration on the global level with our allies to address this problem? what you do about those countries that are the ones targeting us in the first place? guest: right. that is something we looked at an issue report last year on some of the global challenges and aspects of cyber security. and we have found that there are a number of different federal agencies involved in these efforts, and there are a number of different efforts on the way. but there did not seem to be as central, coordinated, overarching strategy for maintai

one, it requires a close partnership with the department of homeland security. there were some good things that erka did. they be located in two different parts of the community, set up offices that were successful. we should work with the homeland security. due out reach to the communities on the process and procedures. many people did not know what the exact requirements for and how it was -- requirements were and how it was going to be implemented. the third thing i would add is, we have to do our best to reach every community by working with the new community groups that have emerged since 1986, to make sure that each community has access to services. although, nationwide, the vast majority of those undocumented are latino. and california, while the majority is latino, california actually has a much larger percentage of non-latinos that are not documented. íx"r>> i was hoping you were gog to ask that question. i am not going to repeat the and of reach, but are finding your networks to get to those hard to reach communities. in san jose we have a somali commun

. >> i was the first inspector general in the department of homeland security, i am very focused on the inspector general community. i agree with the premise of your question and the chairman raised this issue. it troubles me we have vacancies that we have. i am especially troubled -- vacancies in the state department and impending retirement and cigar. having said that i urge the administration to fill those and senate to confirm whoever is elected by the administration but it is important our recommendation be implemented. even if there were and there should be even if there were confirmed inspectors general in those agencies it is important to have a special inspector general for the following reasons. each of them is limited jurisdictionwise only to that agency. the special inspector general would have jurisdiction over the range of agencies and there would be the opportunity to insure the whole range of issues is fully vented. >> one question i hope the committee will explore is what is wrong at the department of defense. i want to read from page 162. this has to do with the defens

homeland security. the concept of homeland security was a new concept. i grew up in a world where the defense department and the justice department had completely separate and distinct areas of authority to deal with security threats. you basically looked at a security issue and if it was a denominated military issue of war making them and you had a set of entities that dealt with of the authorities and legal rules and policies and it was a criminal issue or law enforcement or a different group of people and friends of the 40's and law goes forced to to deal with threats and which tools we use in particular situations, so we can have someone like bin laden who is an indicted defendant and a military target and we need to bring together a department that embodies the new doctrine and one that stands what used to fall neatly within the jurisdiction of the different federal organizations was a challenge in and of itself and one of the things we went through with any admiral was to try to build a strategy and a doctor and that takes account of a very different men u.s. threats one in which you can be dealin

and for the head of the department of homeland security to not acknowledge the problem and go to the eneral and say, you know, i wasn't aware of this, if she wasn't, what were you doing, why are you doing? but to simply say, well, the inspector general's handling it from the department of justice, i'm not going to get involved, i just don't find that plausible. megyn: julian, suspect she ultimately -- isn't she ultimately responsible for the safety of those border patrol agents, and doesn't she have an only gaix to get to the bottom of this for guyses under her supervision ultimately? >> yeah. but i think you and jay are missing the point here. i think she said, and it's clear from the record, that the moment the attorney general found out about this, he not only stopped the program, he not only reassigned the head of the atf and fired some of the front line officers in the phoenix office, but he called for an independent investigation. and had janet napolitano started talking to the attorney general and others, you and jay would be screaming at her for interfering in the middle of an

i look forward to hearing from our experts from the department of homeland security, the department ofustice, and the state department on how the situation on the ground has evolved, the impact on u.s. personnel and their activities, and tactical ways to squashed this criminal insurgency. i now would like to recognize him mr. keating for five minutes for an opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for holding today's subcommittee. i appreciate the opportunity to jointly examine this very important topic. our combined presence indicates the extent to which we take the security of our southern border seriously and i look forward to looking. -- to working on this topic. we are here today to examine the progress of the merit initiative and how effective it has been. the brutality of -- the brutality has overshadowed a number of facts relevant to our discussion today. as we seek tangible solutions to the increasing levels of violence in mexico, let us remember that those -- the mexican military is not always impartial. yes, mexico is an ally, but we cannot take battles betwe

he warms fact the rise of extremists and the lack of involvement from the department of homeland security we are lacking strategic analysis. >> reporter: justin spent sixer years investigating extremists at home in the united states but two years ago he said the agency stopped. >> they got worse and more constraining. got to the point where myself and my analyst we couldn't do our job. >> reporter: homeland security secretary defends the department. >> we maximize the opportunity to intercept and prevent violence. >> reporter: while a handful of government agencies recruiting dhs are charged with investigating domestic threats, johnson said it's the only agency that doesn't need a criminal cause to investigate giving them a unique position. >> we were the guard on that watch tower looking at the threat out there. >> reporter: threat that not only come from groups but also individuals. >> we have groups and individualsa putting together that kind of weaponry and lose of it's a concern >> darryl johnson said the internet mass helped fuel the groups. more are going online to market themselve

department of homeland security. prior to her appointment, she served as policy adviser for innovation, higher education, and economic development to then governor janet napolitano. before that, she was special adviser to the president and director of strategic projects for the office of the president at arizona state university. thank you, all, very much for being here. i would now like to turn to ambassador brown field and recognize him for five minutes. thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, ranking members, members of the foreign fairs, and homeland security committees. thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. i have a run statement for the record which i have submitted and would like to offer a brief oral summary. mr. chairman, i do not intend to spend your time describing the origin, history, and purpose of the initiative. you know them better than i do. i'll say this has been more of a partnership between two governments than a traditional foreign assistance program, that the cong

we could not get information from noaa, or any information from the department of homeland security, information from the administration. they are withholding it. we have the responsibility in making sure that taxpayers dollars are spent wisely and that taxpayers will not be harmed. business interests and jobs will not be harmed by what this administration is doing. but they are stonewalling. at the same time, they're trying to force through the ok for lightsquared to be able to put in place there ground-based broadband system. it's not right. just asking the administration to produce what we need it to be able to vet this. the fcc to stop this information so that we can get the information and go for it in a transparent way. and what the ramifications of this system that lightsquared wants in place. host: if you do not get the information, what happens next? guest: we'll use every tool we have. host: including subpoenas? guest: if we have to. absolutely. we have that power. if we need to, absolutely we will do that. we have to get this information and it's timely that we do it. if w

lastly -- the department of homeland security has been the largest reorganization of the federal government since the creation of the department of defense. it has been immense. it is not until you are in it that you realize how our immense it actually is. as that reorganization has occurred it impacts other participants in the so-called interagency because for example the department of homeland security has a huge international footprint and we are negotiating international agreements all the time and we have people stationed in 75 countries around the world today. that culture which is relatively post 9/11 where ministers of the interior, homeland security secretary have their own international pathways to communicate and relationships. that is a new and evolving set of international relationships that i think will only grow more robust as time goes on. conversely now we have a situation where as the department of homeland security matures and there is greater realization about its role and responsibility and statutory mandate that means adjustments in other members of the federal family

security from the beginning? and i was, i was pleased to hear from both representative of the department of homeland security and the representative for i.t. security for general services administration that they are building that into the system. doesn't mean it's easy though at all. >> host: well, and on that, too, they were -- the two administration officials were talking about the launch of fred ramp -- fed ramp, and they were finalizing those security requirements for cloud computing services, um, for the federal government to use. but that launch has been pushed back, um, that draft was released i think last year, and it's been pushed back and pushed back to deal with concerns from stakeholders. does that concern you, that that launch has been pushed back? and also agencies are still moving to the cloud even though it's not finalized there. >> guest: well, first of all, we've got to get it right, so it would not do us very good in the long run for us to end up with an incomplete model where we ignored things that we learned going on, first. secondly, what i am concerned about is whether or not the differen

has the power department of homeland security and those contracts of course are being paid with our own taxpayer money and the way that they do it is they have for example a facility in georgia with two thousand beds and so they draw up a contract to get paid two hundred dollars a night for any individual that occupies that bed space and so their main goal their main intent is to drive more occupancy like a hotel the hotel has its yearly budget it's a yearly forecast of how many people there are going to know what the percentage rate of occupancy is going to be in their hotels they have the same thing in fact in two thousand and five they had an annual report that said harder harder sentencing harder in fortune and harder particularly grounded. war and drug policy and immigration will drive our occupancy rates higher and that's exactly what they're doing this year they're partnering up with interest groups like the american legislative exchange council with politicians where they're hijacking all of these state legislatures and they're pushing for laws for anti immigration rights and by

the case with the pentagon despite its reputation for classifying everything, it's the department of homeland security that appears to have gone overboard. andy menchee who covers our publication several times got tired of having to route everything through a single nameless e-mail address that he filed a freedom of infection act request to get the telephone numbers and individual e-mail addresses of staff. this is what he got. that's right. he got the names, but the phone numbers and e-mail addresses were redacted. this would be funny if it weren't so absurd. these are people employed by taxpayers to answer questions about the it's their job to be by the media. a dhs spokesperson blames the redaction of the telephone numbers and e-mail addresses on the department's foia team. he misses the point. this entire episode happened because his entire office refused to provide contact information for its staff. of all the information that needs to be kept secret to protect the republic, this isn't it. thanks very much for joining us for "this week in defense news." i'm vago muradian. you can watch this progr

department of homeland security. prior to her appointment, she served as policy adviser for innovation, higher education, and economic development to then governor janet napolitano. before that, she was special adviser to the president and director of strategic projects for the office of the president at arizona state university. thank you, all, very much for being here. i would now like to turn to ambassador brown field and recognize him for five minutes. thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman ranking members, members of the foreign fairs and homeland security committees. thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. i have a run statement for the record which i have submitted and would like to offer a brief oral summary. mr. chairman i do not intend to spend your time describing the origin history and purpose of the initiative. you know them better than i do. i'll say this has been more of a partnership between two governments than a traditional foreign assistance program, that the congress

we can't get the emperor -- any information from the department of homeland security and we can't getany information from the administration. they are withholding it. we have the responsibility of making sure the taxpayers dollars are spent wisely and taxpayers are not going to be harmed. their jobs are not going to be harmed by with this administration is doing and they are stonewalling all at the same time they are trying to force through the okay for lightsquared to be able to put in place their ground-based broadband system. it's not right. i am just asking all the administration to produce what we need to be able to get this and the fcc needs to stop this process until we can get that information and we can go forward in a transparent way so we can find out what scientists and what the ramifications of the system that lightsquared wants to put in place. >> host: you put in october 7 deadline in your letter. if you don't get the information what happens next? >> guest: we are going to keep on trying and we will use every tool that we have. >> host: including subpoenas? >> guest: i

the fbi and department of homeland security are telling local law enforcement to be prepared for a possible retaliatory attack connected to the cia drone strike that killed anwar al awlaki. one of al qaeda's leading voices in the arain bien peninsula. the warning sent to local police -- we assess that al awlaki's standing as a preeminent english-language advocate of violence could trigger hves to take violent action to avenge his death. that's the abbreviation for home-grown violent death. no response to his death, we are concerned about the possibility that autonomous extremists might react violently and warn about the possible use of biological or chemical agents in any kind of attack. along with al awlaki, khan, considered an important person in the al qaeda command. just who is that, though? we'll explain at the bottom of the hour. we go to charlotte, north carolina, where khan once lived. >>> five past the hour. >>> american college student amanda knox may spend the weekend in an italian prison, appealing her murder conviction in the death of her roommate. the verdict could come as soo