Mule Skinner Blues
February 27th, 2009 | Homeland Security | Posted by Steve Losey
The new face of terror?
Say what you will about the Transportation Security Administration, at least they’re being thorough this time. CNN says TSA is requiring some colonial reenactors at an Easton, Pa., historical park to undergo background checks and apply for a Transportation Worker Identification Credential card.
These mule skinners regularly guide two mules named Hank and George as they pull a boat down a two-mile canal at the Hugh Moore Historical Park. Usually only transportation workers such as longshoremen or truck drives are required to apply for TWIC cards, but since the mule skinners hold Coast Guard credentials to operate the canal boat, TSA says they need a TWIC card as well.
Park officials say that’s ridiculous, since the boat travels at 2 miles an hour at best and is an unlikely terror target. They also say TWIC cards will cost the park $100 apiece. And Congress is starting to take notice: Rep. Charles Dent, R-Pa., grilled new Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about the mule skinners at a hearing on Wednesday. Napolitano said TSA would try to be flexible.
‘Now Hank and George, while sometimes are ornery, they are not terrorists,’ Dent said.
But maybe that’s just what they want us to think…
Tags: Congress, Janet Napolitano, Transportation Worker Identification Credential, TSA
Chertoff weighs in on priorities at DHS
December 2nd, 2008 | Homeland Security | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff sat down with reporters from Federal Times this morning to share his thoughts on the transition, the department’s big programs, and its progress over the last six years.
Chertoff gave high marks to the Obama administration’s secretary-designate, Janet Napolitano; he’s known Napolitano for more than a decade, and praised her management style. He also outlined what he saw as the most immediate priorities for the department under the new administration:
- Finish implementing the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which requires all travelers to show a passport when entering the United States, even citizens returning from countries like Canada and Mexico; WHTI was a recommendation of the 9/11 commission,
- Creating a 2010 budget for the department,
- Researching and deploying the next generation of nuclear and biological weapons detectors.
Hopefully we’ll have video of the interview to post later today — check back this afternoon!
Tags: Janet Napolitano, Michael Chertoff
Tracking the transition: Homeland security picks
December 1st, 2008 | Transition | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving weekend! (Back to reality, now.)
A quick heads-up: The president-elect will hold his fourth news conference in a week at 10:40 this morning. He’ll announce his national security team, which is expected to include Sen. Hillary Clinton at State and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano at the Homeland Security Department.
Both have received strong praise from experts and colleagues — and their management styles are profiled in this week’s Federal Times.
We’ll have a full rundown of Obama’s national security picks after the press conference.
Tracking the transition: DHS
November 20th, 2008 | Homeland Security Transition | Posted by Gregg Carlstrom
Note: We’ll continue to update this thread as the president-elect reveals his plans for the Homeland Security Department.
Secretary
President-elect Barack Obama has reportedly offered the job to Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.
Napolitano still has to be vetted by Obama’s transition team; a spokesperson for the Arizona governor’s office declined to comment on the selection.
She would take over a five-year-old agency that is plagued by organizational problems and struggles with many of its core missions, particularly immigration. The department has spent billions on a still-unproven “virtual fence” along the Mexican border; unions say it hasn’t properly trained thousands of new hires at the Border Patrol; and Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been criticized for its high-profile, police-style roundups of illegal immigrants at workplaces.
In an interview this summer, Clark Kent Ervin — a homeland security scholar at the Aspen Institute and now a member of Obama’s transition team — said fixing immigration should be a top priority for the new secretary. That may help to explain Obama’s choice: a governor from a border state who’s won praise for her immigration efforts.
Tags: immigration, Janet Napolitano