dhs has developed its policy. question is, what is the status of dni and ctc developing their policies? >> senator, i'm not sure exactly what policy that refers to burt i will have to check and get back to. were very vigilant about getting those policies out. so let me find out whether shortcoming is that was referred to in the report. >> thank you. director leiter? >> senator, i think is one consolidated policy that we're working on that and will take up for the record, and clearly especially in light of these events, and has to be completed so you understand what the rules or we are applying. >> thank you so much for your sponsored. >> senator levin? >> chairman, i add my welcome to the witnesses. abdali someone at dhs flag mr. abdulmutallab for extra immigration screening while the plane was in flight. is that correct? >> yes. >> and what triggered that? >> let me, if i might, senator, explain the process. customs and border protection, when it gets a passenger list, pushes out to the immigration group, known a

just a handful of what gets packed into the dhs.hen we hear a massive web of agencies, it's important to understand how it works. all of the different agencies are tossing their own information at the office of the secretary. and it's up to that little office right here to take everything coming in from this big web, find ways to put it together in such a way, betty and t.j., to do what it takes to keep us safe. so, folks, when you hear about this and the concerns people have about security, that's the sense that we're dealing with. and that is the web right here from you dhs.gov. >> some of these key government agencies are not part of dhs, that seemed a little surprising. >> yes, i'm glad you said that. because a lot of people think everything homeland security as being part of the department of homeland security. but you know what's not? the cia, fbi, the major intelligence agencies are not part of dhs. not only to keep us safe does the dhs need to pull everything together here, they need to cooperate with the cia and fbi and all

apparently someone at dhs plan ned mr. abdulmutallab for additional screening what's the plan was in flight. what triggered that? >> let me explain the process. customs and border protection, when it gets the passenger list, pushes out to the immigration groups known as the aepe, anyone that appears on the terrorist watchlist or on the no fly list. the no fly list is a list given to the carrier, and basically is says do not but the sky onto a plane. the terrorist list is to inform the airport or a foreign government that you should put this person into your secondary screening whatever that happens to be. there is other information that customs has that involves whether that person should be questioned before they are admitted into the united states. it is the difference between whether they should be allowed on a plane, which is really 8 tsa standard -- >> this was an automatic process. >> versus other information that should be explored before they are actually admitted into the united states. >> i understand. this is a

dhs had been given the ability to revoke the says. visas. the secretary should have the ability to review and refuse the visa. i want to get at the issue of why abdulmutallab was allowed to keep it be sahis visa and who hs the authority to look at the individuals listed on the broadest list, identified those with visas and take action to sesuspend them. whose job is that? >> i will admit that when i was told of that authority that i do not have, i was surprised that the state department said that i did have that. it is clear that legal authority resides with the state department. we do not have any authority to do so. the initial look for the screening center, for that number we have already reviewed anybody who already has a visa. we have also been quite aggressive in applying the no- fly criteria for those that do have a visa. we have been using a less legalistic approach in applying those standards. beginning in the late summer of 2008, we began fully in conjunction with the state department, reviewing these applications in a way that i b

apparently someone at dhs plan ned mr. abdulmutallab for additional screening what's the plan was in flight. what triggered that? >> let me explain the process. customs and border protection, when it gets the passenger list, pushes out to the immigration groups known as the aepe, anyone that appears on the terrorist watchlist or on the no fly list. the no fly list is a list given to the carrier, and basically is says do not but the sky onto a plane. the terrorist list is to inform the airport or a foreign government that you should put this person into your secondary screening whatever that happens to be. there is other information that customs has that involves whether that person should be questioned before they are admitted into the united states. it is the difference between whether they should be allowed on a plane, which is really 8 tsa standard -- >> this was an automatic process. >> versus other information that should be explored before they are actually admitted into the united states. >> i understand. this is a

within that travel process, let me briefly describe the dhs role.rst, to accomplish preflight screening, the department of homeland security is one of the principal consumers of the terrorist watch list, which includes the no-fly list. we check against it and use it to keep potential terrorists from boarding price. and to identify travelers who should undergo additional screening. second, within the united states to prevent smuggling of weapons and other dangerous materials on planes, dhs performs a physical screening the airport checkpoints and provides security measures in place. outside the united states, dhs works with foreign governments and airlines to advise them on required security measures for flights bound to the u.s. is also much passengers must prove a threat. tsa does not however screened people are baggage on international airports. i've committed a written statement describing the various tedious programs that work to keep terrorists from boarding planes. but with the attack on december 25th, umar farouk abdulmutallab and should neve

recently by the national team work was created between dhs and it deals especially with deportations. would like to know your expectations from the teamwork and the second is about to eps and i would like to extend the question to you. there's been a lot of this question recently on especially this program that was granted for nicaragua and some other nationalities -- it was like ten years ago people discussing what kind of temporary situation is that when the event that actually triggered that program was a solution. i would like to know about that, please. >> i think the gps is beyond the scope of what we are talking. it doesn't involve rac. if you want to of the conversation about it afterwards we can do so to the first question. >> to the first question we do. my national eckert will sell for or to focus on removal and how we can recognize we have a long-term relationship we will continue to remove a sycophant member of el salvadorans. how can make the relationship the most productive and beneficial one possible. we've had our first meeting in el salvador just this past week. it's

on the list is then handled by principally by dhs. generally you want to have on this lists person to meet that criterion should be on that list because it is protection against terrorist attacks -- >> i couldn't agree more and people in this world, a lot of people have the same name and it's difficult to know and one of the reasons we are here can planning is because somebody didn't get on the list. but mr. heyman, someone who can prove that the same man as a dangerous person can somehow be not given as much burden of the airport has otherwise would be the case. >> senator, there's a one-stop shop web site that was developed, www.dhs-trip, and anyone concerned they are inappropriately on the watch list should go there. there is a process that is at adjudicated 56,000 people at this point. >> i just would say i don't think we need to have a prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person is a terrorist before they go on the list. what is the burden normally we would have? that shouldn't be too high. >> it is reasonable suspicion the per

most times the cia and dhs are working it.e want to make sure that each one takes the lead. >> you mentioned intelligence sharing before 9/11. before 9/11, a commission report came out about connecting the dots. there was a pledged then to do better on connecting the dots i am wondering why from the post- 9/11 commission standpoint why dots were not connected. when you say you will improve analysis. how is it like to happen this time when it did not happen that time? >> analysis has improve steadily. we have an amazing track here in the united states. we are identifying these plots early. we are preventing those types of attacks in every instance. what we want to do is make sure the rates are even higher. in the past, you had dots in separate databases. they were separated from one another and were not connected from a network standpoint. there is better access. more employees have more access to the dots that comment. that is the challenge, making sure we can leverage the access to those dots. >> the president mentioned a maj

when dhs was established in 2002, congress authorized the secretary of homeland security to assign dhs personnel to visa-issuing diplomatic posts overseas to review individual visa applications and to initiate investigations of visa-security related matters. fast forward eight years, it's eight years later, and as i understand it, dhs personnel are only in about 15 out of the 220 state department posts around the world. and that small number is even more disturbing when you consider that dhs and the state department have identified 57 posts as being high risk. i also understand that request to expand to three more of these high risk posts were waitingw6 your office for more than a year waiting for approval by the secretary. i realize part of that preceded you, but you've been in office for about a year. and that you signed them just recently. why the delay? here you have a need in a high risk area for dhs personnel. why let it languish for a year? >> it was not languishing, senator. and let me talk about this. it was being evaluated in light of all the work being done at the department

these five recommendations are important areas for dhs and other federal agencies to address concerns revealed by the attempted attack. these are changes that will help us prevent another attack from ever advancing as far as the one dead on christmas day. thank you. >> the president talked about advanced technology spreaies. >> we look at security as a system of letters. there are a best screening technology is an explosive detection technology, it is canines and increased use of them, it is increased law enforcement presence both uniformed and undercover, it is that series undercoverlayers that we will add to the security we already have our airports in the wake of this incident. >> you said that 300 additional scanners will be deployed in 2010. was that planned before this event? how many more on top of that and how much will it cost? >> it was planned before the desperate there wthis. with respect to how many more need to be done, we will be working on that as a part of our ongoing review as to how many are needed. i would caution you not to focus solely on that technology. as i ju

. >> let me start and then if i can pass it to my friend at dhs in terms of the screening procedures and what is accessed at the borders whether p. at the airport or otherwise. in the way the system is setup, there is a very large terrorist screening database which is populated via various agencies information. and from that, there is a select d. list were the person there is a show and it has to be made with regard to the person's association with terrorism in order to get on that list. >> but this guy was on the bigger list. >> he was on a much bigger list i do not know how myself of that particular list is treated as a mini comes to the airport be not evidently not treated here it is the right? >> for the creation of the terrorist watch list, the ts db was intended specifically so they did not go out to create their own determination of who is a terrorist. the list that you refer to called tides is the larger list that contributes to the terrorist watch list. somebody has to be nominated from that list and has to be determined by the nctc process to make the cut as it were for som

i think the dhs took steps to say that we're going to protect security and we are going to build and privacy protections about personal information. they did not go as far as they would have, even according to dhs if they had privacy protections built in. we were moving in the direction of coming to the right balance there. real-life became and overturn that. -- overturned that fromt he com -- rom the -- from the committee's work. i do think that that is true. there are some privacy groups that were skeptical of license reform. we still feel that the move towards license reform is important. even if we were going to repeal it, it would be replaced with another process. or to put in the privacy protections as we do in pass id. that is why we support those provisions. this idea that reality -- real id or the original negotiator is demonstrated the false -- devon -- demonstrably false. >> i would like to ask you about an especially important issue that was magnified by the enactment of real id. this is the issue of how to protect and personally identify -- to protect personally identifi

most times the cia and dhs are working it. we want to make sure that each one takes the lead. >> you mentioned intelligence sharing before 9/11. before 9/11, a commission report came out about connecting the dots. there was a pledged then to do better on connecting the dots i am wondering why from the post- 9/11 commission standpoint why dots were not connected. when you say you will improve analysis. how is it like to happen this time when it did not happen that time? >> analysis has improve steadily. we have an amazing track here in the united states. we are identifying these plots early. we are preventing those types of attacks in every instance. what we want to do is make sure the rates are even higher. in the past, you had dots in separate databases. they were separated from one another and were not connected from a network standpoint. there is better access. more employees have more access to the dots that comment. that is the challenge, making sure we can leverage the access to those dots. >> the president mentioned a m

virus, that should have been handled by dhs, there is no excess of terrorism there. the administration says and i find it is hard to believe politically, not -- they will to get immigration reform at some point this year. the respect of whether they should or shouldn't. if they do, i would argue that the department of homeland security should not be the point agency for that and it's been announced dhs and the secretary would be the point people for that. of course there is more of a security connection to immigration than is the case for the swine flu. the department of homeland security processes immigration benefits and enforces immigration law so they will have to be involved and consulted with the security component of immigration is very small. it is largely overwhelmingly an economic issue, social and cultural issue. the point is dhs was conceived in the wake of the terror attack to prevent the next terror attack and counterterrorism ought to be its focus. .. the reason for doing it was the bush administration's tendency, wrongly, to think that the homeland se

most times the cia and dhs are working it.e want to make sure that each one takes the lead. >> you mentioned intelligence sharing before 9/11. before 9/11, a commission report came out about connecting the dots. there was a pledged then to do better on connecting the dots i am wondering why from the post- 9/11 commission standpoint why dots were not connected. when you say you will improve analysis. how is it like to happen this time when it did not happen that time? >> analysis has improve steadily. we have an amazing track here in the united states. we are identifying these plots early. we are preventing those types of attacks in every instance. what we want to do is make sure the rates are even higher. in the past, you had dots in separate databases. they were separated from one another and were not connected from a network standpoint. there is better access. more employees have more access to the dots that comment. that is the challenge, making sure we can leverage the access to those dots. >> the president mentioned a maj

. >> let me start and then if i can pass it to my friend at dhs in terms of the screening procedures and what is accessed at the borders whether p. at the airport or otherwise. in the way the system is setup, there is a very large terrorist screening database which is populated via various agencies information. and from that, there is a select d. list were the person there is a show and it has to be made with regard to the person's association with terrorism in order to get on that list. >> but this guy was on the bigger list. >> he was on a much bigger list i do not know how myself of that particular list is treated as a mini comes to the airport be not evidently not treated here it is the right? >> for the creation of the terrorist watch list, the ts db was intended specifically so they did not go out to create their own determination of who is a terrorist. the list that you refer to called tides is the larger list that contributes to the terrorist watch list. somebody has to be nominated from that list and has to be determined by the nctc process to make the cut as it were for som

recently by the national team work was created between dhs and it deals especially with deportations. i would like to know your expectations from the teamwork and the second is about to eps and i would like to extend the question to you. there's been a lot of this question recently on especially this program that was granted for nicaragua and some other nationalities -- it was like ten years ago people discussing what kind of temporary situation is that when the event that actually triggered that program was a solution. i would like to know about that, please. >> i think the gps is beyond the scope of what we are talking. it doesn't involve rac. if you want to of the conversation about it afterwards we can do so to the first question. >> to the first question we do. my national eckert will sell for or to focus on removal and how we can recognize we have a long-term relationship we will continue to remove a sycophant member of el salvadorans. how can make the relationship the most productive and beneficial one possible. we've had our first meeting in el salvador just this past week. it

apparently someone at dhs plan ned mr.dditional screening what's the plan was in flight. what triggered that? >> let me explain the process. customs and border protection, when it gets the passenger list, pushes out to the immigration groups known as the aepe, anyone that appears on the terrorist watchlist or on the no fly list. the no fly list is a list given to the carrier, and basically is says do not but the sky onto a plane. the terrorist list is to inform the airport or a foreign government that you should put this person into your secondary screening whatever that happens to be. there is other information that customs has that involves whether that person should be questioned before they are admitted into the united states. admitted into the united states. it is the difference it is the difference between whether they should be allowed of a playing, which is a national different standard -- >> this is an automatic process? >> yes. versus is there other information when they are here that should be explored before th

i feel very strongly about making dhs a success.ontribute to that, i am delighted to do. mr. chairman, ranking member collins, members of the committee, it is a pleasure to be here. i have raised four concerns in my testimony and i will talk about one of them today and that is the source document problem. i think it is easiest to understand that if you have heard the story, as i have heard, from relatives of a carpenter with three kids who took a vacation in the virgin islands around 2002 or so. in the course of that his wallet was stolen. two years later he started hearing that he was wanted for speeding tickets and other abuses of a license in florida. as someone had walked into the department of motor vehicles in florida, it presented his social security card and a birth certificate from the virgin islands in his name. on the strength of that, florida gave this impostor a driver's license in his man -- his name. he tried to cure the problem from new york. he was unable to do so. he moved to florida and in the course of moving in

there was special confidence in some of the officials -- janet napolitano, dhs secretary.hey had trouble explaining why the suspect was going to be treated as a criminal suspect as opposed to an enemy combatants. he did not explain why it not an enemy combatants. host: we will listen to what his comments were. on the decision by the state department to close the embassy in yemen. john brennan's response this morning. guest: there indications that they are targeting our embassy and our personnel. we will not take chances with the lives of our diplomats and others overseas. we made a decision overnight. i spoke with ambassador sessions last night and this morning to make sure we are doing everything possible to protect diplomats there. we are working closely with yemenis. we will not take chances. >> you had indications, intelligence that they might try to explode a bomb or attacked the embassy? >> al qaeda has been trying to carry out attacks over the past month. in november, 2008, there were trying. there are a number of operatives determined to carry out such attacks. we

most times the cia and dhs are working it.e want to make sure that each one takes the lead. >> you mentioned intelligence sharing before 9/11. before 9/11, a commission report came out about connecting the dots. there was a pledged then to do better on connecting the dots i am wondering why from the post- 9/11 commission standpoint why dots were not connected. when you say you will improve analysis. how is it like to happen this time when it did not happen that time? >> analysis has improve steadily. we have an amazing track here in the united states. we are identifying these plots early. we are preventing those types of attacks in every instance. what we want to do is make sure the rates are even higher. in the past, you had dots in separate databases. they were separated from one another and were not connected from a network standpoint. there is better access. more employees have more access to the dots that comment. that is the challenge, making sure we can leverage the access to those dots. >> the president mentioned a maj

information about lisa security units and we talked about this a little bit last week about that to dhsonly has a certain amount of an visas security. >> 14 small countries. >> he is charging that the reason that there aren't more visas security units is these have been due to each sections and road blocks from the state department, specifically that the ambassador is inhibiting the ability of dhs to carry out its mission in cities like london, nairobi and kuwait city even though dhs has identified as needing them so my question is, has the state department blocked the expansion of the program and needs to or is it due to a lack of capability on dhs part to actually man the post? .. >> also he raises the issue about how many other foreign nationals are classified as possible terrorists as opposed to actual i guess card-carrying terrorists, so that they are, you know, perhaps if you were an actual terrorist for visa would be revoked and this is what we talked about that he was in the national classified terrorist but a possible terrorist, and what kind of steps are you taking to ensure p

you have a need in a high risk area with the dhs personnel. why let it languished for a year? >> we are not languishing. that's me talk about this. it was a being evaluated in light of all of the work being done about where our assets are. people need to have their highest use around the world. let me talk about the visa security program at both levels, there is a difficulty. they make the department's in a way where we run visas or we do not. either we do the relocations or we do not. we live in a half cast world right now. the base's security program is a screening/investigative program where in the embassies where we have it, they go out and do further research. as you have mentioned, it is limited and does not cover all of the embassy's nor can it, by itself be more than or should it be more than the winning -- many layers that should be constructed here. i would suggest to the committee that this is one of the things we need to look at. areas of the department where we kind of have authority and the kind of do not. we kind of have personnel, and we kind of do not. , but y

there is a whole lot of examples of that in the government hhs and dhs are arguing over who ought toate the labs. well okay, get over it to get the same thing with particularly relatively modest amount of funding is a whole lot of things we could be doing if we just follow through the idea that this is a priority and i think what held throughout the government if everybody understood this is a priority. that means we are willing to sacrifice things ideally we would not want to sacrifice in order to accomplish this. we have to have that mentality in order to deal with this. >> michael of arms control association. a couple of questions. first may potential biological weapons attack and the second is on what scale are we talking about? obviously there is different levels of weaponization and effectiveness. what is the most likely scale that we would be looking at? >> colonel larson, could you discuss the eight principal pathogens that have been identified by the department of homeland security? >> i'm not going to list them all but the ec once so to save the ones that have been around 5

it's been announced that dhs and the secretary would be the point people for that. there is more of a security connection to immigration that is the case for the swine flu. the department of homeland security processes immigration benefits and enforces immigration laws. they will have to be involved. they will have to be consulted. but the security component of immigration is really very small. it is largely overwhelmingly economic issue, a social cultural issue that the point is dhs was conceived in the wake of a terror attack to try to prevent the next terror attack at a counterterrorism ought to be its focus. the second quick point is i worry, and i was part of the transition. i was appointed as the inspector general for the department of homeland security at its inception by the bush administration and i was the cochairman of the transition team for the obama and ministration for the department of homeland security pics i bring i think appropriate and nonpartisan perspective to an issue that i think ought to be nonpartisan. that is homeland security. so one of t

made it, when you look at the president's report from john brennan it is exculpatory when it comes to dhs. secretary chertoff will tell you the same thing you can only operate on information you get. the fact that the cia didn't do anything. the fact that the state department didn't pull the visa, multi-entry visa should have been pulled as soon as the dad walked in the door. the fact they didn't put this individual on the no-fly list immediately those are done outside the department. >> sean: these terrorists come from wealthy backgrounds and families for example osama bin laden son of a billionaire construction guy in saudi arabia. atta son of wealthy egypt doctor. this kid comes from a wealthy background. hillary clinton said we cannot stop terrorism or defeat ideologues of violent extremism when hundreds of millions of people see a future with no jobs, no hope, no way to catch up to the developed world. so we're responsible? poverty is responsible for extremism? >> i've never bought into that theory. if you look in the background of the individuals apprehended don't forget the veries

he voted against dhs vulnerabilities.k he has questions to answer, too. >> rich, let me ask you, obviously this intelligence apparatus was put in place by a republican administration. can president obama really be blamed for the failures after less than a year in office? >> i don't know that anybody is blaming obama -- president obama for the failure. as he properly said, it was a systematic failure. for those of us, but michael can't agree with this, in the green room he might, for those of us who watch this closely, it wasn't what happened. that stuff happens, just too much going on to stop everything. but i think what got everybody's attention was the reaction of the administration after the event from secretary napolitano to the fact that the president didn't come out for three days. that's got everybody's antenna up saying why can't they get this organized? that's why the story has gone on so long. it's not anybody saying president obama or janet napolitano should have figured this out ahead of time. to use the secre

and -- >> well, dhs and tsa have put in to place for the foreseeable future enhanced security.are not chosen by -- they are chosen by what has been determined as state sponsors of terrorism. that's how that list currently has been, and in other ways, has been devised in the past. >> like post-9/11, just to get to this point we are right now? >> i will doublecheck on that. >> did the president played any role in john kerry's decision not to run for governor of michigan and as a the white house playing any role now in talking to democratic candidates about running? >> none that i'm aware of in the decision by the lieutenant governor today. and i can check with political affairs about something ongoing. >> robert, chairman charlie rangel of ways and means suggest that the conference will be just the sight of a rubberstamp. is there anything in specific that the president would like to see be include at this point and a final conference bill? has the president accepted at this point this will just be pretty much a quick run through? >> look, we've discussed in here over the course

it would be absolutely disastrous to have dhs come in, regulate us. >> larry: so they told you if you don't plead guilty they would deport your wife? >> no, they never said that. but the topic came up. if we had endured, if i had said i'm not guilty, we would have to endure two to three years of the trial process. i wouldn't be able to go to work. i mean, who is going to hire me? and attorneys' fees would be, you know, extremely high. my wife would be going through this immense torture, my kids through school. did i want to put my kids through all that? i took the easy way out at this juncture, and that is to go ahead and take that plea. >> larry: you and the wife were sentenced in late december. at the time your attorney said what you did was wrong and what had taken place was your fault. let's take a look at the brief statement you made to the court. watch. >> i'm very, very sorry and i'm going to apologize to all the rescue workers out there and the people that got involved in the community. >> larry: your attorney said you were wrong. obviously you did something wrong. obviously i

was a very difficult organizational challenge, because we had to bring, as you say from the field, dhs and hhs to work closely with counselor affairs. think we have evacuated more than 11,000 at this point. more than 11,000 americans, and we are dealing with a lot of very complicated issues of people who are citizens with children who aren't and vice aversea. i mean, we have a lot of very difficult problems that the law doesn't give us a lot of leeway on, but our integrated teams are working hard to get answer for people. so those of you who have been in the field, who have seen comparable -- there's nothing comparable burks situations where we all had to quickly move into action, know how difficult this has been and i appreciate the recognition for the team down on the ground. [applause] >> madam secretary, i've admired you for a long time and one of your former con constituents. >> thank you. >> i'm a college professor and here on a sabbatical year. and when i arrived here only a few months ago i was pleased to discover i was going to be in the bureau for democracy of human rights an

. >> let me ask you speaking of votes, the 2010 dhs appropriations measure which set aside $1 billionexplosive detection systems is something you voted against. you can tell us quickly why? >> well, unfortunately, it was another bill filled with wasteful earmarks and a lot of politics. the primary recommendation of the 9/11 commission and you just had its chairman on before, was to make sure that all of these intelligence agencies were speaking to each other. so this bill did not even address the primary recommendation of the 9/11 concerns. >> so you support the billion dollars for the detection devices? >> yes, i do, but i'm not going to be blackmailed in to voting for bills with thousands of earmarks and wasteful spending and bills that don't address the security concerns. so this bill actually allowed convicted felons to work in secure areas of our ports. this was something advocated by the unions. and so we've got to look at the local bill, not just the title on the front page. >> and senator mccaskill, very quickly, yes or no, should there be these screening devices at every airp

the umbrella department of homeland security, the tsa, which is a part of dhs.tor of national intelligence and this national counterterrorism center. all of these agencies were supposed to prevent this failure to connect the dots and that's what we have here. the fact that the suspect, abdulmutallab's own father, not just anybody but a respected nigerian banker, former government official, went to our certainly i not once personally but twice, talked to not one government agent but two at least. state department and central intelligence agency, expressed concerns about his son's increasing radicalism, said that he might be in yemen, concerned about him. we know that yemen is a hotbed of terrorism. and yet the only thing that happened here was he was placed on the most general of terror watch lists, so general 500,000-plus names, as to be useless. at a minimum it seems to me, since we know al qaeda continues to be focused on aviation, the suspect ought to have been placed on the selectee list, about 14,000 people, in which case at a minimum he'd have been subject

these lists are not controlled by, dhs. by law. congress insists the airlines do the screening. lists are made by the counterterrorism center and terrorist screening center. by law, congress directed the centers pe run by the director of the national intelligence and f bi, respeck savely. visas are issued by the state department. the department of homeland security sets policies for the counselor affairs office that issue sorrys is a and that has never happened because of squabbling between the two departments. taking them on might make sense if the latest attack was the department's fault but it wasn't. dumping millions in aviation security might make sense if we can guarantee this won't a happen again but we can't. we have to block them before they start. that's better way than dumping more money into wasteful programs that try to child proof america against every potential terrorist attack. that's james from to washington times this morning and we'll talk more about the procedures and how the counterterrorism works with juan zarate a little later in the program. dan, republic

the senate version of homeland security bills for 2010 include an amendment encouraging dhs to conduct an evacuation that includes monitoring, tracking, and continued care. the hospital will be testifying in the second panel. they excluded executing this function for the state during the response to hurricane katrina, and they have a great deal to share. i'm going to summarize the rest of my statement, because i am anxious to get to the panel. but let me say a few more things. after the hurricane, demand for mental illness services spiked. that was combined with the laws of work force capability creating a severe gap, straining medical workers and facilities. it is startling to know the department of psychiatry screen 12,000 schools in the 2005 and 2006 year, and 18% of them had a family member killed in a hurricane. 49% of them had met the threshold for mental health peripheral. one year later, the rate was lower, but still 30% 320% of displaced children in louisiana still suffer from depression or anxiety. the suicide and attempted suicide for adults, the rates are startling. some ar

i made sure dhs public schools got more money than ever, teachers got the highest pay while i was therei'm to the point now where i look at the cheal evenings and deficits with children of color. in some areas. 80% of the black boys drop out. in our city, in seventh grade, 70% of our black boys aren't reading at grade level and can't produce math at grade level. i'm really talking about throwing a lifeline out to all we can. to me, it's not a policy debate. i'm talking about the role of educationing these kids. that's what i support. host: randall here on the dracks line. you are on now. good morning. caller: this is worth waiting for. overall, i like what he's saying. i don't like the way city council tries to force these things on us. our education system in the district has a good example. instead of trying to reply kate what has been around 20 years, he cose to send money out to a private entity. the other thing is to parents. no matter what programs you are with, you are throwing money away. i don't know how you can rally all those parents to be involved with your children. this pl

there is a whole lot of examples of that in the government hhs and dhs are arguing over who ought torticularly relatively modest amount of funding is a whole lot of things we could be doing if we just follow through the idea that this is a priority and i think what held throughout the government if everybody understood this is a priority. that means we are willing to sacrifice things ideally we would not want to sacrifice in order to accomplish this. we have to have that mentality in order to deal with this. >> michael of arms control association. a couple of questions. first may potential biological weapons attack and the second is on what scale are we talking about? obviously there is different levels of weaponization and effectiveness. what is the most likely scale that we would be looking at? >> colonel larson, could you discuss the eight principal pathogens that have been identified by the department of homeland security? >> i'm not going to list them all but the ec once so to save the ones that have been around 50 years of the patients with an iced like anthrax the costly, thos

aid or dhs for specificity. >> now that the details of the deal with the labor unions was made publicals who have so-called catalog -- cadillac plans negotiated through collective bargaining to be exempt until 2018 from the proposed excise tax, whereas those who may be in the exact same situation not part of labor unions, even though they want to be an accompanying existed or maybe in right to work states, why is it fair for one group to not pay the tax and another to pay? >> i have asked for to see what numbers they can run. we are talking about an exceedingly small number of people. i think the premise of your question would impact. well, it is 40% tax on the insurance company for the excess of their policy over the threshold, right? so, the new threshold is $24,000, right? >> if it was not a big deal the labor unions would not have pushed so hard to be exempt until 2018? >>ç it is not a 40% tax, but it is above the threshold on an insurance company but not an individual. >> not an inconsiderable tax. >> i would say that obviously there is, just as it is for the insurance fee, just

there is a whole lot of examples of that in the government hhs and dhs are arguing over who ought toregulate the labs. well okay, get over it to get the same thing with particularly relatively modest amount of funding is a whole lot of things we could be doing if we just follow through the idea that this is a priority and i think what held throughout the government if everybody understood this is a priority. that means we are willing to sacrifice things ideally we would not want to sacrifice in order to accomplish this. we have to have that mentality in order to deal with this. >> michael of arms control association. a couple of questions. first may potential biological weapons attack and the second is on what scale are we talking about? obviously there is different levels of weaponization and effectiveness. what is the most likely scale that we would be looking at? >> colonel larson, could you discuss the eight principal pathogens that have been identified by the department of homeland security? >> i'm not going to list them all but the ec once so to save the ones that have been aro

according to dhs, children have been legally confirmed as orphans are eligible for into country adoption by the government of haiti and are being adopted by u.s. citizens. also, children who have been previously identified by an adoption service provider or facilitator as eligible for into country adoption and have been matched to u.s. citizen prospective adoptive parents, while is a wonderful step forward in helping the children in haiti, we must not forget the children who have been orphaned by the earthquake and have relatives in the united states. these children are all alone in such a chaotic an unstable environment. i strongly believe that we have a moral obligation to reunite these children with their families in the united states. it must be done -- more must be done to identify those individuals and create a pathway to their relatives in the united states. i want to thank again everyone for their diligence. the cbc in particular, for being a great resource to the haitian-a meaghan -- haitian- american community. we have made our provincpresenc. >> we have congresswomen sheila ja

agencies like other countries do, where all border w3protection, including visas, should be handled by dhsst, as i think the white house indicated yesterday, we have been scrubbing databases, and as a result ofw3 that actio, additional visas have been foç haveñr suspected tiesq to terrorism. there are a lot of numbers out there, but this is an ongoing process, and rest assured in light of what happened with these databases, there have been additional actions taken. >> can you quantify that? >> no. >> how do we know this is actually happening if you do not know? >> i do know. i can say broadly that since 9- 11 roughly 1700 visas have been -- >> since 9-11? >> roughly 1700 visas have been revoked -- let me finish. >> we knew that last week. >> have we added to that number since december 25? the answer is yes. i am not going to talk about a number. i do not think it is truthful to get into a score board about how many people have we found today who have links to terrorism. that is not something we feel comfortable discussing publicly. >> you may not think it is useful, but i think to the gene

but dhs does not have the to possibilit -- have the capacity to deal with all the counter- terrorismssues and the country. to the caller's point, part of this is being able to use intelligence wisely to figure out who may be suspect and who may not be. i think we need to be careful with profiling and making distinctions, because we certainly have cases where u.s. citizens, of both past and present, not only have been radicalized, but have joined forces with al qaeda. the headley case out of chicago, where a citizen was helping last party toward the -- helping lashkar-e-taiba. zazi, an afghan-american citizen, apparently trained by al qaeda and sent back to commit some sort of attack in denver, on his way to new york. we need to be careful, because there is a home run problem that we have to contend with that is not necessarily feed into -- homegrown problem we have to contend with that does not necessarily fit into a clear dividing line. host: last call is from maryland. caller: well, good morning. thank you for taking my call. this is my first time calling, so i hope you will be pat

. >> dhs? >> i do know. raymond f. burkhardt, will greet him in san francisco and los angeles. >>ion his itinerary, we will der to taiwan. >> [inaudible] said yesterday that the movement and its present were threatened -- president were threatened [unintelligible] do you have reaction? >> can you start again? >> the deputy head of fatah has said the movement and mud abbas were threatened by the u.s. -- mahmoud abbas were threatened by the u.s. boycott [unintelligible] >> our policy on this is clear. we would like to see a stronger palestinian government that has greater capacity to serve the needs of the palestinian people. we support the prime minister in his efforts to build stronger institutions and to continue to grow the palestinian economy and to professionalize the palestinian and security forces. if others want to join this effort, they know what they have to do. and the existing palestinian authority is guided by the principles and we will continue to support any effort towards reconciliation that is guided by these principles, including recognition of israel and suppo

but dhs does not have the to possibilit -- have the capacity to deal with all the counter- terrorism issues and the country. to the caller's point, part of this is being able to use intelligence wisely to figure out who may be suspect and who may not be. i think we need to be careful with profiling and making distinctions, because we certainly have cases where u.s. citizens, of both past and present, not only have been radicalized, but have joined forces with al qaeda. the headley case out of chicago, where a citizen was helping last party toward the -- helping lashkar-e-taiba. zazi, an afghan-american citizen, apparently trained by al qaeda and sent back to commit some sort of attack in denver, on his way to new york. we need to be careful, because there is a home run problem that we have to contend with that is not necessarily feed into -- homegrown problem we have to contend with that does not necessarily fit into a clear dividing line. host: last call is from maryland. caller: well, good morning. thank you for taking my call. this is my first time calling, so i hope you will be p