Critical Releases in Homeland Security: February 9, 2011

From the thesis abstract: "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leverages information technology to increase the effectiveness of first responders during disaster recovery. At the same time, cyber attacks against these information technologies have significantly increased. Unfortunately, cyber attacks have grown faster than the technologies used to defend them. The reliance on technology coupled with the difficulty of defending it makes it unrealistic to assume that communications will always be available when needed. Therefore, it is critical that first responders are prepared to operate when one or some of their communications abilities are lost. Alarmingly, DHS has the responsibility to prepare first responders to operate during disasters; however, they lack the authority to enforce programs to ensure this happens. This lack of authority affects how first responders communicate and provides gaps in DHS efforts to prepare for disasters. Until DHS has the authority to enforce change across all levels of government, communications will not be guaranteed during disaster recovery operations. However, DHS could leverage communication outages during operational exercises to better prepare first responders. This thesis explores DHS exercises on the federal, state and local levels and how they are preparing first responders to operate through cyber attacks."

"This study analyzes the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist organization, an ethno-nationalist separatist terrorist organization that has been operating in Turkey since 1978. Through the lens of the contemporary social movement theory, this thesis attempts to designate and disrupt the key components of the PKK terrorist organization. Ultimately, the study focuses on the 'mobilizing structures' component among the three key variables of this theory in order to disrupt the structure of the PKK terrorist organization. First, the study analyzes in detail sources of terrorist financing, such as state sponsorship, illegal activities, legal activities, extortion and the international diaspora, in order to designate the fundraising assets of the PKK. Next, utilizing geographical information systems (GIS), the study examines the role of geographical safe havens as a mobilization asset in the PKK's armed campaign. The dependence of the PKK's armed campaign on geographical safe havens is spatially and temporally analyzed using data on terrorist incidents in Turkey from 2008 to 2010. Finally, the study concludes with strategic-level policy recommendations that counter the financial and physical structure of the PKK, built in accord with the outcomes of these analyses."

Space security not only plays a vital role in strengthening U.S. national security, it also supports diplomatic efforts and empowers the U.S. economy. As more nations seek space and counterspace abilities, the United States is faced with many difficult challenges. The Department of Defense recently announced the release of the National Security Space Strategy, which was signed jointly by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. This report "charts a path for the next decade to respond to the current and projected space strategic environment." According to the report: "We seek a safe space environment in which all can operate with minimal risk of accidents, breakups, and purposeful interference. We seek a stable space environment in which nations exercise shared responsibility to act as stewards of the space domain and follow norms of behavior. We seek a secure space environment in which responsible nations have access to space and the benefits of space operations without need to exercise their inherent right of self-defense."

"Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Patriot Act), Public Law 107-56, directs the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ or Department) to undertake a series of actions related to claims of civil rights or civil liberties violations allegedly committed by DOJ employees. It also requires the OIG to provide semiannual reports to Congress on the implementation of the OIG's responsibilities under Section 1001. This report, the eighteenth since enactment of the legislation in October 2001, summarizes the OIG's Section 1001-related activities from July1, 2010 through December 31, 2010."

"The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs launched an investigation of the events preceding the attack with two purposes: (1) to assess the information that the U.S. Government possessed prior to the attack and the actions that it took or failed to take in response to that information; and (2) to identify steps necessary to protect the United States against future acts of terrorism by homegrown violent Islamist extremists. This investigation flows from the Committee's four-year, bipartisan review of the threat of violent Islamist extremism to our homeland which has included numerous briefings, hearings, consultations, and the publication of a staff report in 2008 concerning the internet and terrorism."The committee's conclusion on the case is: "Although neither DoD nor the FBI had specific information concerning the time, place, or nature of the attack, they collectively had sufficient information to have detected Hasan's radicalization to violent Islamist extremism but failed both to understand and to act on it. Our investigation found specific and systemic failures in the government's handling of the Hasan case and raises additional concerns about what may be broader systemic issues."