WASHINGTON – A government review has found threats to federal judges and prosecutors have increased dramatically in the past six years.
Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine concludes there are still gaps in reporting and responding to such threats. No federal judges or prosecutors have been killed in the six year period.

Click here to read more

YAHOO!

RELATED VIDEOS

New Security Rules at Airports

Raw Video: President Obama Orders a ‘Snowbama’

Soapbox: Syria – toward peace or war?

Inside the White House: The Situation Room

Alan Grayson: Is Anyone Minding the Store at the Federal Reserve?

Continuity of the US government.. TOP SECRET!

AP Top Stories

RELATED BLOGS

American Power: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: 'The …
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: ‘The System Worked’. Congresssional Quarterly’s got the full transcript, “Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’.” Here’s the key passage: …
Napolitano Changes Talking Points on “The System” Working …
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has revised her talking points. Yesterday, Napolitano downplayed the ability of Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab’s ability to get on the Northwest Airlines flight with explosives – and despite his …
Michelle Malkin » Clown alert: Janet Napolitano says the “system …
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday that airline security failed in allowing a Nigerian on a terror watch list and allegedly armed with explosives onto a Detroit-bound flight, a turnaround from her declaration a …
DHS: Statement by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet …
Statement by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. share this page. Release Date: December 26, 2009. For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Contact: 202-282-8010. “I am grateful to the passengers and …
The Purple Center: Janet Napolitano, still clueless, still needs …
Janet Napolitano, still clueless, still needs to be fired. Israel’s El Al — the world’s most secure airline. In her column in today’s New York Times, Maureen Dowd quotes Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano saying this on New …
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issues statement …
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issues statement regarding terrorist attack on Flight 253.
Obama taps LAPD Inspector General for U.S. Attorney position …
Andre Birotte Jr, the inspector general of the Los Angeles Police Department, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be the next U.S. attorney for the district that covers Southern California, the White House announced today. …
City Roomâ„¢ – News In Brief – CPS Inspector General Releases 2009 …
The Inspector General for Chicago Public Schools is seeing another jump in the number of complaints for alleged misconduct, waste and fraud within the district this year. The Office of Inspector General released its 2009 report …
hunterkirk – News Clips
In their letter to Holder, Hamsher and Norquist wrote that the White House has stonewalled any inquiries into Emanuel’s role on the board, noting that the acting inspector general was “stripped of his authority earlier this year by the …
Musings On Iraq: Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction …
Chapter 6 of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction’s “Hard Lessons” report on the American effort to rebuild Iraq focuses upon the first days of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). The appointment of Paul Bremer …
Emptywheel » Another New Month, and Still No OPR Report
In addition to potential discipline by a state bar, Department of Justice attorneys are also subject to investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility (“OPR”), see 28 C.F.R. 0.39 and the Office of the Inspector General, …
Inspector General Finds Misconduct at State Police Forensic Lab
An investigation by Inspector General Joseph Fisch into the Trace Evidence Section of the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Center found that Forensic Scientist Garry Veeder routinely failed to conduct a required test and.

WASHINGTON – The brazen attack that killed seven CIA employees at a remote outpost in Afghanistan is likely to raise questions about whether the agency could do more to protect its operatives on dangerous assignments.
Lawmakers on Thursday issued their condolences and withheld any judgment. “We owe these brave men and women, and their families who are forever impacted, our deepest appreciation and thanks,” said Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the House Intelligence Committee chairman who had met with the CIA team on a recent trip to Afghanistan.
Wednesday’s bombing was a devastating blow to the tightknit spy community. Among the seven CIA employees killed was the chief of the CIA post, whom former officials identified as a mother of three. The bombing occurred at a former military base on the edge of Khost city, the capital of Khost province, which borders Pakistan and is a Taliban stronghold.
U.S. officials would not confirm that the bomber had been a member of the Afghan army, leaving open the possibility that the uniform had been stolen.
President Barack Obama and CIA Director Leon Panetta were joined by several leading lawmakers on Thursday in praising agency employees for their work.
In a letter to CIA employees, Obama said their fallen colleagues came from a “long line of patriots” who had helped to keep the nation safe despite grave risks.
Harold E. Brown Jr. of Fairfax, Va., was among the dead, according to his father, Harold E. Brown Sr. The elder Brown said his 37-year-old son, who grew up in Bolton, Mass., served in the Army and worked for the State Department. The CIA did not release information about the victims, citing the sensitivity of their mission and other ongoing operations.
___
Associated Press writers Adam Goldman in New York City, and Pamela Hess and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Click here to read more

YAHOO!

RELATED VIDEOS

RELATED BLOGS

Alert 112: bbcbreaking: CIA Director Leon Panetta pays tribute to …
bbcbreaking: CIA Director Leon Panetta pays tribute to the seven agency employees who he says were killed in Afghanistan figh.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news. bbcbreaking: CIA Director Leon Panetta pays tribute to the seven agency employees …
#: bbcbreaking: CIA Director Leon Panetta pays tribute to the …
bbcbreaking: CIA Director Leon Panetta pays tribute to the seven agency employees who he says were killed in Afghanistan figh.. http://ping.fm/74Qe2 Reference: http://ping.fm/6Jwz2 …
Washington – Leon Panetta: Afghanistan's CIA Base Chief Killed in …
All the major, breaking news from around the world. See what’s happening now!
Infidel Bloggers Alliance: CIA Director: 7 CIA Workers Killed in …
In Washington, CIA director Leon Panetta said the seven killed in Wednesday’s attack “were far from home and close to the enemy, doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism.” …
Impeach Obama Today: Actions of Obama and his CIA pick Leon …
Seven Central Intelligence Agency officers and contractors were killed and six more wounded in the suicide bomb attack at Forward Operating Base Chapman, CIA Director Leon Panetta said Thursday,. the second-largest single-day loss for …
CIA Director issues Statement on Casualties in Afghanistan …
CIA Director Leon E. Panetta informed the Agency workforce yesterday that seven of their colleagues were killed and six others were injured on Wednesday at a.

WASHINGTON – The suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a remote outpost in southeastern Afghanistan had been invited onto the base and had not been searched, two former U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday
An experienced CIA debriefer came from Kabul for the meeting, suggesting that the purpose was to gain intelligence, the official said.
The former intelligence official and another former official with knowledge of the attack spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The bombing on Wednesday dealt a blow to the tight-knit spy agency. Among those killed was the chief of the CIA post, whom former officials identified as a mother of three. It also was the single deadliest attack for Americans in Afghanistan since eight soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack on a base in the east on Oct. 3.
President Barack Obama and CIA Director Leon Panetta were joined by several leading lawmakers on Thursday in praising agency employees for their work.
In a letter to CIA employees, Obama said their fallen colleagues came from a “long line of patriots” who had helped to keep the nation safe despite grave risks.
Reyes said the nation owes them “a great debt.”
According to one former agency employee, the death toll represents a significant portion of the CIA’s clandestine force in the region, but is unlikely to cripple the agency because so many of its employees have experience in Afghanistan.
The bigger question for CIA operations will probably be whether the agency moves to tighten safety rules for its employees, the former employee said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Forward Operating Base Chapman used to be a military facility base but was later turned into a CIA base, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Only four known CIA operatives have been killed in Afghanistan since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

CIA officer Micheal “Mike” Spann was killed in a prison uprising in November 2001. An agency officer died in a training exercise in 2003, and two contractors operating out of a CIA base in Shkin district of Paktika province were killed the same year.

___

Click here to read more

YAHOO!

RELATED VIDEOS

Rep. Hoekstra on CIA Director Leon Panetta 5-20-09

Pakistan blast hits Shia procession – 28 Dec 09

[Press TV] Eight CIA Agents Killed By Taleban in Khost Province of Afghanistan

Combat Outpost – Afghanistan

RELATED BLOGS

Alert 112: bbcbreaking: CIA Director Leon Panetta pays tribute to …
bbcbreaking: CIA Director Leon Panetta pays tribute to the seven agency employees who he says were killed in Afghanistan figh.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news. bbcbreaking: CIA Director Leon Panetta pays tribute to the seven agency employees …
#: bbcbreaking: CIA Director Leon Panetta pays tribute to the …
bbcbreaking: CIA Director Leon Panetta pays tribute to the seven agency employees who he says were killed in Afghanistan figh.. http://ping.fm/74Qe2 Reference: http://ping.fm/6Jwz2 …
Washington – Leon Panetta: Afghanistan's CIA Base Chief Killed in …
All the major, breaking news from around the world. See what’s happening now!
Infidel Bloggers Alliance: CIA Director: 7 CIA Workers Killed in …
In Washington, CIA director Leon Panetta said the seven killed in Wednesday’s attack “were far from home and close to the enemy, doing the hard work that must be done to protect our country from terrorism.” …
Leon Panetta: Afghanistan's CIA Base Chief Killed in Attack …
Washington – The CIA said Thursday that seven of its employees were killed and six others wounded in a suicide bombing at a base in Afghanistan. The Associ…
Panetta Speaks on CIA Deaths in Afghanistan « The Washington …
CIA Director Leon E. Panetta informed the Agency workforce today that seven of their colleagues were killed and six others were injured on Wednesday at a Forward Operating Base in Khost Province, Afghanistan. …

The attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner has prompted a review of U.S. security policies. The acting heads of those agencies — both created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — will be at the forefront of these discussions.
Former U.S. attorney Alan Bersin is nominated to run CBP, and former FBI agent and police detective Erroll Southers is the president’s pick for TSA.
Abdulmutallab was not on the government’s terrorist watch list — though he was on a less sensitive and broader database. Those facts are prompting a broad review of the government’s terrorist detection efforts.
“The president is looking for answers on this,” Denis McDonough, chief of staff of the White House National Security Council, told reporters Monday in Hawaii, where President Barack Obama is vacationing. McDonough said officials have begun to assemble information related to watch list procedures. Acting TSA Administrator Gale Rossides is “very able” and “we have a very able team of career professionals at TSA. “Running a security agency with a revolving door is a recipe for failure,” said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla.
Michael Chertoff, who headed the Homeland Security Department in the Bush administration, said if the country is going to work on enhancing security, there needs to be permanent people in place at TSA and Customs and Border Protection. U.S. officials had warning signs that Abdulmutallab might be a threat.
The embassy visit in which Abdulmatallab’s father said he was concerned about his son’s radicalization triggered a Nov. 20 State Department cable from Nigeria to all U.S. diplomatic missions and department headquarters in Washington. It was also shared with the interagency National Counter Terrorism Center, said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.
These concerns landed Abdulmutallab among the about 550,000 names in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, known as TIDE, which is maintained by the NCTC. According to Yemen’s foreign minister, Abdulmutallab was in Yemen from August until early December. Yemen, the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden’s family, has been an al-Qaida haven partly because of a weak central government and rugged terrain, affording al-Qaida fighters numerous places to hide. A Yemen-based group, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, has claimed responsibility for Abdulmutallab’s actions.

___

Associated Press writers Philip Elliott in Honolulu; Lolita Baldor in Washington; Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria; and Donna Abu-Nasr in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report.

Click here to read more

YAHOO!

RELATED VIDEOS

Homeland Security Checkpoint: Video Blog – Day 1

Homeland Security’s Michael Chertoff Gets Pounded With 9/11 Questions By C-SPAN Callers

Continuity of the US government.. TOP SECRET!

RELATED BLOGS

The Canadian Sentinel: No One Leading TSA
Erroll Southers, who was serving as an FBI special agent at the time of the censure, asked a co-worker’s husband who worked for the San Diego Police Department to run a background check on his ex-wife’s boyfriend. We’ve already seen, …
Petty Politics, Poor Priorities and Protecting Us from Terror …
In a time of attack by terrorists using airliners, petty politics continues to prevent Errol Southers from being confirmed to lead the TSA.
L.A. Airport Police Group Says Detroit Attack Shows Need For TSA …
Marshall McClain, president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association, states that the “U.S. Senate should have acted to confirm Erroll Southers as the new TSA administrator before it recessed December 24.” …
TSA Nominee Erroll Southers's Stand on Collective Bargaining Needs …
Congress should wait to confirm any nominee to head the TSA until that nominee states his or her position on mandatory collective bargaining over security procedures.
Matthew Yglesias » DC Population Growth
Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, is blocking the confirmation of Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Security Administration, saying Southers would permit screeners to seek full union representation, a move DeMint says would weaken …
Let The New Security Bumbling Begin … Meanwhile, Why Has the TSA …
Hawley was working to seal those cracks, and the man President Omaba named to replace Hawley, Erroll Southers, has been cooling his heels, waiting for Republicans in Congress to get out of the way so the nomination can be approved. …

WASHINGTON – Investigators piecing together a brazen attempt to bring down a trans-Atlantic airliner said Sunday the suspect tucked a small bag holding his deadly concoction on his body, using an explosive that would have been easily detected with the right airport equipment.
His success in smuggling and partially igniting the material on Friday’s flight to Detroit prompted the Obama administration to promise a sweeping review of aviation security.
Adding to the airborne jitters, a second Nigerian man was detained Sunday from the same Northwest flight to Detroit after he locked himself in the plane’s bathroom. Despite the government’s decision after the attempted Friday attack to mobilize more air marshals, none was on the Sunday flight from Amsterdam, according to a government report obtained by The Associated Press.
Stiffer boarding measures met passengers at gates as authorities warned travelers to expect extra delays returning home from holidays. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced a review of air safety on two broad fronts, saying the government will investigate its systems for placing suspicious travelers on watch lists and for detecting explosives before passengers board flights.
Law enforcement officials believed the suspect tried to ignite a two-part concoction of PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive, setting off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation.
Abdulmutallab’s lawyer said Sunday that he is now in a federal prison in Milan, Mich.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano hastened to assure people that flying is “very, very safe.”
That brought a sharp rebuke from Rep. Peter King of New York, the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee. An apparent malfunction in a device designed to detonate the high explosive PETN may have been all that saved the 278 passengers and the crew aboard Northwest Flight 253. Law enforcement officials say Abdulmutallab hid a condom or condom-like pouch below his torso containing PETN, the primary ingredient in detonating cords used for industrial explosions.
Airport “puffer” machines that blow air on a passenger to collect and analyze residues would probably have detected the powder, as would bomb-sniffing dogs or a hands-on search using a swab, they said, but most passengers in airports only go through magnetometers, which detect metal rather than explosives. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.
A video posted online four days before the bombing attempt featured an al-Qaida operative in Yemen threatening the U.S. and saying “we are carrying a bomb.” In November, Abdulmutallab had been placed in a database of more than 500,000 names of people suspected of terrorist ties. Despite that red flag, Abdulmutallab was not elevated to more exclusive — and perhaps manageable — lists of some 18,000 people who are designated for additional security searches or barred from flying altogether. Nigerian Information Minister Dora Akunyili said Abdulmutallab, who was living in London, sneaked back into Nigeria to catch the flight that would take him to Amsterdam and Detroit. Abdulmutallab had a U.S. visa issued in June 2008 and valid through June 2010.

Gibbs was noncommittal on that question. On Saturday, two Middle Eastern men thought to have been acting suspicious aboard a flight bound for Phoenix were detained and questioned by federal anti-terrorism authorities before being released. That incident — and Sunday’s incident in Detroit — led the Council on American-Islamic Relations to urge airline security personnel to avoid ethnic and religious profiling.

Napolitano spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union” as well as on NBC and ABC. King appeared on CBS; McConnell appeared on ABC.

___

Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan, Matt Lee and Devlin Barrett in Washington; Ed White in Detroit; Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria; and Donna Abu-Nasr in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report.

Click here to read more

YAHOO!

RELATED VIDEOS

Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano told that there was no evidence that an attempt to blow up a Detroit bound plane was part of a larger terror plot

FBI Shoe Bomb Video

Warhawk-Recruit to Air Marshal Customizations

Continuity of the US government.. TOP SECRET!

RELATED BLOGS

DHS: Statement by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet …
Statement by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. share this page. Release Date: December 26, 2009. For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Contact: 202-282-8010. “I am grateful to the passengers and …
American Power: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: 'The …
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: ‘The System Worked’. Congresssional Quarterly’s got the full transcript, “Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’.” Here’s the key passage: …
Napolitano: System Like 'Clockwork ' After Attack, Not So Sure …
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told me this morning on.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issues statement …
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issues statement regarding terrorist attack on Flight 253.
Janet Napolitano — open bets on firing resignation day [Darleen Click]
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit airline flight Christmas Day demonstrated that “the system worked.” … one can almost feel IQ points being peeled …
lgstarr: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: dumb as a rock
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: dumb as a rock. Or maybe it’s just that she thinks we’re all dumb as a rocks. “The system worked…” she told CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union.” How did it work? …