Homeland Security

Ten Years After 9/11: Three Eyewitness Perspectives On DHS’s Creation

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About This Program:
In this mini-documentary exclusive for Breaking Gov, award-winning journalist Dan Verton brings us back to the day that changed the world and traces the evolution of the homeland security mission through the eyes of three men who were present at its creation.

This is the story of the birth and evolution of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as told by the nation’s first secretary of Homeland Security, the deputy for counterterrorism on the National Security Council, and the CIA’s deputy director of intelligence, who would go on to become the first Staff Director for the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 7, 2011 at 12:01 PM

Ex DHS Secretary Says Border Can Be Secured Despite Budget Crunch

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The nation’s first Secretary of Homeland Security says the border can be secured using commercially available technologies, and that the Department of Homeland Security’s failed multibillion-dollar contract with Boeing Co. to build an electronic border fence ran counter to the legislation that created the DHS in the first place.

Tom Ridge, who served in that role under President George W. Bush, recently praised the Department of Homeland Security for putting an end in January to Boeing Co.’s multibillion-dollar contract for the Secure Border Initiative (SBInet). After nearly five years and $1 billion in taxpayer funding, the deal netted a mere 28-mile prototype and a 53-mile permanent segment of electronic sensors in Arizona. According to Ridge, the effort failed in large part because it did not leverage commercially available technology. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 26, 2011 at 7:01 AM

Ridge Blasts Public Safety Wireless Battle; Calls Congress’ Inaction ‘A Bloody Outrage’

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The nation’s first Secretary of Homeland Security said Congress has “failed” America’s first responders by not acting on legislation that would dedicate wireless communications spectrum to a nationwide, interoperable, public safety network and said it is unlikely anything will pass before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

“It’s wrong. It’s really wrong for them to have failed these first responders,” said Tom Ridge, appointed by President George W. Bush shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 to lead the homeland security effort, and who subsequently became America’s first Secretary of Homeland Security in 2003. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 19, 2011 at 9:45 AM

Budget Crisis Threatens DHS Tech Innovation

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If the fiscal 2012 Homeland Security Appropriations bill now under consideration in the Senate becomes law, it would slash research and development funding by 81%, effectively ending the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate’s ability to innovate across a multitude of critical technology areas.

That’s the warning from Paul Benda, the newly-appointed Director of the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA). Keep reading →

 /  Published July 26, 2011 at 11:00 AM
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