Zippo talk creeps into security hearing
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While members of Congress fretted Wednesday about how to allocate federal aid to best counter the risk of a terrorist attack, one lawmaker chose to focus on cigarette lighters.
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Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will hold a hearing on Capitol Hill on June 20 to discuss the findings of an investigation into the agency's own problems in battling electronic attacks and IT systems intrusions.
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Some congressional Democrats raised security concerns Wednesday about a proposed shipment of 300 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium from the United States to France for conversion into a mixed-oxide fuel.
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The threat of a terrorist attack on the United States still exists, but counterterrorism officials say there is a conspicuous lack of intelligence "chatter" being picked up.
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(InfoWorld) - Fixing cybersecurity problems in the U.S. is a top priority at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said the agency's leader, but lawmakers didn't focus on the issue during a hearing in Congress Wednesday. Cybersecurity is a "very big issue" that DHS remains concerned about, said DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, testifying before the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee. Chertoff didn't go into details because much of the department's cybersecurity efforts are classified, he said. "I can assure you that we are working with other elements of the federal government and giving highest priority an enhanced strategy with respect to cybersecurity," he said. Cybersecurity threats have "enormous potential to do damage to the United States in years to come," Chertoff added. Chertoff testified before the committee in a hearing titled, "Holding the Department of Homeland Security Accountable for Security Gaps." But while cybersecurity problems continue inside and outside of the U.S. government, lawmakers focused on other issues during the hearing, including the hiring of border agents, training of bomb-sniffer dogs, and the scanning of airline cargo. Just this week, the U.S. Department of Defense acknowledged a successful attack on an unclassified e-mail system earlier this year. While not focusing on cybersecurity, committee chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said DHS needs to improve in several areas. Thompson has criticized the department's cybersecurity efforts in the past, but cybersecurity issues were not on Thompson's list of top priorities for Chertoff in the remaining 16 months of U.S. President George Bush's administration. Instead, Thompson called on Chertoff to fill vacancies at DHS, to finish regulations for container security at ports, and to implement a biometric air passenger screening program. "We owe the American people security," Thompson said. "We owe them accountability. And most importantly, we owe them freedom from fear." Other than the short Chertoff statement on cybersecurity, the issue did not come up again in more than 90 minutes of questions from lawmakers. Representative Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican, used part of his question time to complain to Chertoff that many bomb-sniffing dogs used by DHS came from overseas. Rogers urged Chertoff to find ways to breed bomb-sniffing and cadaver dogs in the U.S. "I'm concerned that we are increasingly relying on foreign imported dogs," he said.
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Defence Minister Bill Graham was tight-lipped after meeting with his British counterpart to discuss last week's fire on board HMCS Chicoutimi.
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By Ryan Gabrielson, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.  Sep. 17--Hsinchun Chen goes where terrorists gather. He monitors what they say and, particularly, how they say it. He tracks who they are talking to, and whether they are spreading propaganda or providing training. "They're hiding," Chen said.
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A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency says US officials have been cautioned about the vulnerability of high explosives stored at Iraq&#39;s Al-Qaqaa military
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In the ramp-up to the Republican convention, police and security agencies are putting on a show of force designed to give terrorists pause.
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VANCOUVER - An accused bomber threatened witnesses, telling them to keep their mouths shut about his involvement in an airline attack that killed 331 people, a Crown prosecutor said in closing arguments Tuesday.
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Barney Frank opens hearings on investor protection amid growing scrutiny of the financial services industry.
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The White House has called an urgent multi-agency meeting for Thursday to discuss a potential new al Qaeda threat on U.S. soil, ABC News reported on Tuesday.
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Some of the most dramatic and heated moments in Wednesdayâs House Oversight Committee hearing centered on a nanny, a barbecue, and suggestions of witness tampering.
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During an almost eight-hour hearing, the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Gen. Michael Hayden about the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program, its massive telephone call database and whether he can maintain his independence from the Pentagon.
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MIAMI, June 8 -- Jurors in the terrorism support and conspiracy trial of Jose Padilla heard his voice on an FBI wiretap for the first time Friday, in a conversation that prosecutors say proves he was getting ready to fight jihad overseas.
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Top executives of Verizon   Communications, Sprint Nextel Corp., Cingular and T-Mobile USA   have been invited to testify Friday at a U.S. House Energy and   Commerce Committee hearing into the use of deceptive measures   to obtain personal information, known as pretexting, the panel   said on Monday.
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State's top cop is gathering information about damage that may have been caused by covert attempts to unearth leaks to the media.