The Next Chapter in Bio-Readiness

I am pleased to report that we opened a first-of-its kind biosurveillance center today that gives the nation the ability to see fast-moving, potential health threats in a new way – before it’s too late.

Patterns in illnesses usually are only seen after enough people get sick or die to sound alarms. Investigators then retrace the steps of the victims to determine the source of trouble, but it’s often too late for those who have already been unknowingly exposed.

Whether it’s food contaminated with Salmonella, the first waves of illness from a pandemic flu, or an anthrax attack by terrorists, spotting biological threats sooner means that thousands of lives might be saved.

Traditional methods of detecting such threats often take too long. Our National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC) will change that.

The center will combine all sorts of information – from classified material shared in a secure environment, to transportation and border data, to local media reports – so that events around the country and the world can be connected and analyzed more closely and quickly, and threats bubbling up can be detected earlier than ever before.

This 24-hour operation brings together experts from some agencies that may be obvious. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, for instance, both monitor health patterns. And the Departments of Agriculture, State and Commerce all play critical roles in preventing the global spread of avian flu or Foot-and-Mouth disease while protecting the nation’s economy.

But there is more to the center than a collection of agency representatives.

Through the center’s secure computer network, DHS has now created a whole new level of daily cooperation among private sector partners, health officials and government agencies who now all work together to hunt for early signs of trouble.

The center is developing a clearer picture of what typical health patterns look like so that even a small blip can be investigated before large clusters of people get sick.

Being able to identify emerging threats earlier was one of the key recommendations from the 9/11 Commission. As the Japanese learned in 1995 when the Aum Shinrikyo religious sect released sarin nerve gas on subway lines killing 12 and injuring 5,500, biological attacks are a modern global reality.

Our new surveillance builds on another one of our programs, BioWatch, an environmental early detection program which uses monitors in over 30 urban areas to sniff the air for biological threats.

Dr. Jon R. Krohmer
Acting Assistant Secretary/Chief Medical Officer

Temporary Protected Status Extensions

Earlier this week, the Department announced the extension of temporary protected status (TPS) for certain foreign nationals from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Those three countries are still recovering from the devastating effects of natural disasters. For Honduras and Nicaragua, it was Hurricane Mitch in 1999. For El Salvador, it was a series of severe earthquakes in 2001.

To qualify for an extension, the TPS holder is required to re-register with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Specific re-registration instructions for TPS holders from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua will soon appear in the Federal Register.

There are currently 70,000 Hondurans, 3,500 Nicaraguans and 229,000 Salvadorans with TPS in the United States.

Today’s announcement continues the United States’ long tradition of providing relief to our visitors who, for reasons beyond their control, can’t return to their homes.

Jonathan “Jock” Scharfen
Acting Director, USCIS

Our Newest Cyber Threat

"Every time we were beginning to form into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tried to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and a wonderful method it was for creating the illusion of progress whilst producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization." Petronius (AD 166)

This week the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cyber Security and Science and Technology and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held hearings on cyber security recommendations for the next Administration. In that hearing and in the follow-on press DHS came under criticism for not doing enough to protect our nation's cyber networks. There were even calls for DHS's role in cyber security to be pulled away.

A reorganization of roles and responsibilities is the worst thing that could be done to improve our nation's security posture against very real and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. In January 2008, the current Administration developed Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23, which established the Comprehensive National Cyber Initiative (CNCI). Since then and for the first time in the Nation's history, DHS along with its partners at the Department of Defense (DoD), FBI, and Intelligence Community have an integrated strategy and action plan to improve cyber security across federal, military and civilian networks. We have moved beyond words on paper and debate, and are now driving real improvements to our security. We cannot afford to lose that momentum and interagency unity of effort.

Within DHS, I manage the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), which has the mission to reduce security risks across both physical and cyber infrastructure as well as telecommunications and lead the Department's efforts for the CNCI. Specifically, we lead federal civilian (i.e., ".gov") and private sector network defense. Without question, it is a monumental task - one that requires interagency coordination and focus. As a nation, we cannot afford to be distracted from this mission.

In the past six months we have made great progress in this role. We have begun deployment of EINSTEIN 2 ( pdf), which will give us comprehensive, real-time intrusion detection capabilities and one point of situational awareness across all executive branch agencies. We have engaged the private sector to develop partnerships and to improve information sharing. And we have built the core of a management team with the experience and expertise to continue to lead this effort into the future. We have accomplished much in a relatively short amount of time. Securing our nation's cyber networks is a complex and expansive problem, and it took years of growing cyberspace dependence to put us in this position - it will take a solid plan and resolve to accomplish results.

I respect the strong resumes and experience of many of the people that are publicly weighing in on these issues, and, in fact, many of them were previously in key posts that had an opportunity to impact our nation's cyber security. I encourage them to actually spend some time with DHS discussing our plan before they finalize their conclusions and go public with their recommendations.

I certainly agree that we can still do much to continue to improve cyber security in our nation, but calls for reorganization at this point simply makes no sense. We have a plan and are on a path that will address these serious national cyber vulnerabilities. We must stay the course.

Robert D. Jamison
Under Secretary National Protection & Programs

Ike Response

I’ve spent the past two days in Texas meeting with state and local leaders and visiting evacuees and distribution centers in Houston and surrounding areas. From what I’ve seen during my two visits, there’s no question that Ike was an extremely strong storm that has left much of Galveston temporarily uninhabitable and affected millions of residents along the Texas coast.

While I can understand people’s desire to return to their homes, this environment provides a stark reminder that it’s often the after-effects of a hurricane that pose the greatest danger to health and safety. With limited electrical power, healthcare, and basic services, it’s imperative that evacuees remain patient until officials get things such as water, sewage, and electricity up and running.

Despite the widespread destruction, however, I can tell you that emergency managers and relief workers – including FEMA employees, faith-based organizations, and hundreds of volunteers – are working feverishly to provide supplies as quickly as possible to those in need. The resilience of Texas residents affected by this storm was evident in a Houston shelter I visited yesterday, where I met with several evacuees while their children played with one another in a local church (which had also been used to house Katrina and Rita evacuees three years ago).

As we work collaboratively to get these services up and running, it’s important to keep in mind an old saying, “they don’t call it a disaster for nothing.” In other words, emergency management is never an exact science and responders at every level must be prepared to adapt to unforeseen challenges. For example, earlier this week electrical workers from Ohio and other Midwestern states who were restoring power in Texas were called back to their home states following widespread power outages caused by Ike’s remnants. This reinforces the need to remain flexible, nimble, and adapt to changing circumstances.

Michael Chertoff

The Homeland Security State and Local Intelligence Community of Interest

What began as a pilot program between the department and six states two years ago has grown into the first nationwide network of intelligence analysts focused on homeland security ever created in the United States. It is called the Homeland Security State and Local Intelligence Community of Interest (HS SLIC), and it allows intelligence analysts in 45 states, the District of Columbia and seven federal agencies to share sensitive homeland security intelligence information and analysis on a daily basis. We expect it to expand to all 50 states soon, and become a key element of the National Fusion Center Network that I wrote about earlier.

When I came to the Department in late 2005, DHS did not have a dedicated intelligence information sharing channel with the intelligence analysts at the state and local fusion centers. I asked my staff to travel to the leading fusion centers around the country to understand and document their requirements for a direct partnership with the department's integrated intelligence enterprise.

When President Bush issued guidelines for information sharing between the federal and state and local governments in December 2005, I asked my staff to develop a pilot program that would meet these requirements and enable federal, state and local intelligence professions to gather and share accurate and timely intelligence information and strategic analysis that would help protect nation. From March to September 2006, we tested this program with six states – Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Virginia. The pilot demonstrated that a full, open and equal partnership among federal, state, and local intelligence professionals could be developed and trusted by all its members.

With the support of the pilot states — their fusion center and intelligence leadership and the respective homeland security advisers — we have turned that pilot into the Homeland Security State and Local Intelligence Community of Interest (HS SLIC). Today, intelligence analysts from the homeland security, intelligence and law enforcement communities in 45 states, the District of Columbia and seven federal agencies share sensitive homeland security intelligence information and analyses on a daily basis. The HS SLIC enables them to meet, avert or respond to current, emerging and future threats to homeland security.

Every week, HS SLIC members meet virtually via a secure Internet portal to discuss emergent threats and analytic topics. Annually, DHS also hosts a national HS SLIC analytic conference and regional conferences at the classified level to discuss important analytic topics and threat trends, such as border security or threats to critical infrastructure. And most importantly, all of this collaboration is being done securely while supporting and upholding federal, state and local laws and policies to protect civil liberties and the privacy rights of our citizens.

By all accounts, the HS SLIC "virtual community" has been a tremendous success. Information is shared as never before, and shared responsibly; state and local needs for information are being met; analytic products are being jointly written; and analysts are seeing trends and patterns across information stovepipes that they were not able to see before. Together with the DHS State and Local Fusion Center program and its deployment of DHS intelligence officers and intelligence technology to the fusion centers, the HS SLIC has made significant strides toward increasing the flow of intelligence information and collaborative analysis at all levels of government. The beneficiary is the American people we all serve.

Charlie Allen
Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis and Chief Intelligence Officer

Citizenship Day: An Opportunity to Reflect

My earlier entries for the Leadership Journal discussed the day-to-day operations of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and our efforts to improve service. Today, I would like to recognize the importance of Citizenship Day for our agency and our nation.

The law creating Citizenship Day was written in 2004 to celebrate the signing of the Constitution and recognize those who have become citizens. This holiday reminds us of the importance of citizenship.

Throughout our rich history, immigrants have come to the United States seeking liberty and a better life. Many decided to become citizens and have played key roles in the success of our Nation.

Citizenship Day reminds us that many of our greatest citizens were born in other countries. Alexander Hamilton, born on the tiny Caribbean island of Nevis, served with George Washington in the Revolutionary War and as our first Secretary of the Treasury. Felix Frankfurter, a civil rights supporter and Supreme Court Justice, came to the United States with his parents from Austria in the 1890s. Knute Rockne, who first moved to Chicago from Norway as a young boy, was one of America’s greatest college football coaches.

These and other great Americans remind us today and every day that citizenship is far more than a piece of paper – it is part of what makes our nation great. USCIS has no mission of greater importance than that of naturalizing citizens. This week alone, we will welcome nearly 40,000 new citizens during 177 ceremonies across the country.

The photograph next to this entry shows the pride of new Americans. Attending naturalization ceremonies and watching new citizens raise their right hand and wave the flag is the best part of my job.

Jonathan “Jock” Scharfen

Acting Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Yes We Are Safer

Last week, the nation marked the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in solemn fashion, focusing on memorials and reflection, rather than on point scoring. Too bad Richard Clarke couldn’t manage to do the same.

Clarke, the official in charge of antiterrorism efforts before 9/11, commemorated the anniversary of the attacks by publishing a finger-pointing screed in U.S. News and World Report.

Clarke’s argument went something like the following: Here we are, seven years after 9/11. We haven’t been attacked. But we could be. Al Qaeda still exists, Bin Laden remains at large, and terrorists still commit terrorism. We’re backsliding, and no safer now then we were then. On the home front, our borders are still porous, we’re still not screening people, and security grants are too much about pork and not enough about real risk.

Clarke is mostly wrong.

In fact, we are safer today than we were seven years ago. We haven’t been attacked since 9/11 in part because we have destroyed al Qaeda’s headquarters, enhanced our intelligence assets across the globe, captured and killed terrorists on nearly every continent, and partnered with our allies on information sharing and other security-related efforts.

Today, al Qaeda no longer has a state sponsor. Contrary to Clarke’s claims, most of its original leadership has been captured or killed. It is losing in Iraq -- thanks to the surge and to the Awakening movement among the Sunni tribes--and its savage attacks on innocents have reduced its popularity there and across the Muslim world. Muslim scholars and clerics are increasingly condemning its beliefs and behavior as a desecration of Islam.

This progress has come because we abandoned the practice of treating terrorism solely as a criminal matter – exactly the kind of September 10 policy that Clarke celebrates in his article.

Closer to home, the Department of Homeland Security has made clear progress that belies Clarke’s claims.

At the border that Clarke thinks is so porous, DHS has built hundreds of miles of fence and will double the size of the Border Patrol. We’ve also deployed fingerprint-based screening and radiation portal monitors at all of our border entry points.

To protect against a repeat attack, DHS has built nearly two dozen layers of security into our aviation system, and it has developed comprehensive security plans for other critical infrastructure.

Clarke claims that the executive branch has proved incapable of managing new terrorism programs to success. Tell that to US-VISIT – a massive government IT project that compares fingerprints of travelers to a database of millions and does it in 30 seconds for officials all across the country and the world. We got it up and running from scratch, despite the doubters. And it’s so successful that we’re expanding it to collect all ten prints and to compare them to prints found in terrorist safe houses around the world. We’ve done all that since Dick Clarke left government – and without a word of support from him.

Despite his claims of backsliding, it’s DHS that has been battling complacency, and Clarke who seems to have been sitting on the sidelines.

We’re the ones who’ve been fighting for the carefully targeted, risk-based homeland security grants he favors. It’s Congress that has added billions and made them less risk-based. Has Clarke criticized Congress or praised DHS for our risk based approach? If so, I missed it.

On our southern border, DHS’s fence-building and increased border enforcement have been hampered by local NIMBY (“not-in-my-backyard”) forces and advocates for illegal immigration. Did Dick Clarke speak out against them? Not so I’ve noticed.

To secure our northern border, we’re implementing tougher document standards, and we were ready to require all travelers to produce a passport or passport-equivalent by the end of this year. Where was Dick Clarke when Congress decided to push back that deadline to mid-2009? I don’t remember an op-ed then complaining about how porous this would make our Canadian border.

Clarke says that terrorists who look European have been trained by al Qaeda and may have European Union passports and clean identities unknown to intelligence agencies. He thinks such people could enter the United States almost as easily as did the 9/11 hijackers. It’s indeed true that during Dick Clarke’s tenure, Europeans could come to the US without any opportunity to screen them before they were in the air. As of this January, though, no foreign travelers other than Canadians will be able to come to the US without supplying -- in advance -- the information we need to screen them. At last, we’ll have the time and information we need to investigate risky travelers (and to prepare a rude surprise for terrorists who try this route). That’s all happened since Dick Clarke left government, and without any support from him.

There’s no question that Dick Clarke contributed to strengthening our national security, but his recent assertions are not only incorrect, they disrespect the work of many national security professionals he once called colleagues. That is indeed unfortunate.

Stewart Baker
Assistant Secretary for Policy

9/11 Anniversary

It's been a year since we launched the leadership journal, and I'd like to thank our readers for keeping up with our posts and sharing your thoughts. The journal has been a valuable way to get information out to you and to receive your feedback; and it's been a useful medium to share some personal insights about what we see and do on a daily basis. I've learned from our exchanges, and I hope you have as well.

In my initial post, I asked readers whether they thought 9/11 was fading. Perhaps a partial answer to that question can be found in Tuesday’s edition of The New York Times, which again referred to the "fading memory" of 9/11 in an article that recounted the stories of several individuals who were injured in the attacks but managed to survive against overwhelming odds.

I can tell you from my own perspective that while the memory of 9/11 has aged another year, it has certainly not faded. This was reinforced today when I visited Ground Zero in New York City to participate in the annual 9/11 memorial ceremony. Thousands of people – friends, family members, government officials, and ordinary citizens – came together to pay their respects, honor the victims, and read their names aloud. It was an important reminder of the horrors of that day, but also the tremendous valor and sacrifice of the first responders and ordinary citizens who gave their lives trying to save their fellow citizens.

We have now gone seven years without another major attack on our own soil. Few would have thought that possible in 2001. It is a testament to the men and women who work every day to protect our country and who have not allowed the memory of 9/11 to fade. By remembering that day, it helps us recommit ourselves to our present purpose.

It also reminds us that we must strike a balance between fear and hysteria on the one hand and a dangerous complacency on the other. That is a balance we try to achieve every day at the Department of Homeland Security. I'd like to thank you for your interest in our perspective and for sharing your views on our efforts. We look forward to hearing more in the future.

Michael Chertoff

A Missed Opportunity

Tomorrow our nation will mark the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Since that time, there have been no successful attacks on our homeland. Common sense suggests that the terrorists did not suddenly and inexplicably lose interest in striking us again. Indeed, our government has helped disrupt a number of plots including the one uncovered two summers ago to hijack transatlantic airliners in London.

Yet in a just-released report on our progress since 9/11, the House’s Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs Committees paint an unrecognizable portrait of where we stand today. Contrary to the report’s assertions, the Department’s employees have worked tirelessly to implement over 250 distinct requirements in the ‘9/11 Recommendations Act,’ as well as hundreds of requirements in other laws.

Just over a year after enactment, the Department has made substantial progress implementing the legislative requirements, and often in the face of inconsistent or unclear congressional priorities. The report is littered with a host of egregious and embarrassing errors. To cite but a few examples:

• The report states that the Department has made “no progress” with respect to section 1701, which mandates scanning in foreign ports for U.S.-bound cargo. In fact, DHS has deployed scanning systems in multiple foreign ports and thus far has met every obligation and deadline in section 1701. The numerous businesses, foreign governments, and departmental components involved in and affected by the deployed scanning systems strongly rebut the claim of “no progress.”
• The report states that there has been “little progress” with respect to Section 1101, which requires an operational National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC) by September 30, 2008. In fact, NBIC is now operational, fully satisfies the statutory requirements, and recently disseminated a report on a salmonella outbreak.
• The report states that regarding Section 711, which modernizes the Visa Waiver Program, “initial steps have been taken but significant implementation challenges remain.” In fact, virtually all of the major implementation challenges have been addressed, and DHS has not missed any statutory deadlines. Moreover, DHS already has realized substantial security gains – in particular, increased information-sharing with foreign partners – as a result of efforts undertaken in accordance with section 711. (More on the work of our Department and its people.)
  

In addition to the numerous errors in the report, of which the examples above are merely illustrative, many of the statements in the report actually rebut the report’s assertion that the “Administration has ignored the law.”

With respect to Section 1001, which requires the establishment and use of a prioritized list of critical infrastructure, the report acknowledges that “…DHS provided Congress with the list of prioritized critical infrastructure and, thus, fulfilled that requirement of Section 1001.” The report goes on to assert, illogically and incorrectly, that DHS does not use this list.

Finally, it is unfortunate that the report ignores Congress’s failure to implement one of the most important recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. That bipartisan body recommended that Congress “create a single, principal point of oversight and review for homeland security.” With more than 80 committees and subcommittees often imposing inconsistent obligations on DHS, Congress has made it exceedingly difficult to prioritize tasks in a manner that best reduces overall risk to the country. While the Department’s employees work to implement the 250+ requirements of the 9/11 Recommendations Act, on top of the hundreds of pre-existing legal obligations, Congress would do well to heed the one recommendation directed toward reducing the fragmented congressional oversight.

On this solemn anniversary, the Committee has squandered a genuine opportunity to commend the brave men and women of this Department, the intelligence community, first responders, and law enforcement nationwide, for their outstanding job in protecting the homeland. In sum, the 218,000 dedicated members of this Department will continue to serve this nation with honor and distinction, and we who are privileged to lead them will continue our efforts to work with Congress on behalf of our homeland and its people.

Paul A. Schneider
Deputy Secretary

Information Sharing: Vital Building Block Toward a Safer and More Secure Nation

We all know how catastrophic the results can be when the right people do not get the right information at the right time. That is why we have made information sharing a national priority, and here at the Department of Homeland Security, a critical part of our mission.

Virtually everyone at DHS has a role in information sharing, which is an essential weapon against threats to the homeland. As those who want to do harm to the nation become more sophisticated, we, too, must be more creative and develop innovative ways to thwart potential attacks. We must continue working to develop coherent policies, create effective governance structures and break down any barriers that prevent us from building sustainable networks and relationships that will secure the nation -- not only now, but in the years to come..

The recently released DHS Information Sharing Strategy exemplifies the Department’s commitment to doing exactly that. A first-of-its-kind document for DHS, the strategy provides direction and guidance for all of the Department’s information-sharing initiatives. It describes how we can transform DHS into an organization that promotes an environment where information is shared in a strategic, efficient manner.

The Strategy is based on a set of five guiding principles:

1. Fostering information sharing is a core Department mission.
2. The Department must use the established governance structure to make decisions regarding information-sharing issues.
3. The Department must commit sufficient resources to information sharing.
4. The Department must measure progress toward information sharing goals.
5. The Department must maintain information and data security and protect privacy and civil liberties.

The DHS Information Sharing Strategy is more than a piece of paper. By articulating our priorities in such a fashion, we are sending a clear message: information sharing is no longer optional; it is a vital building block toward a safer and more secure nation.

While our Information Sharing Strategy is a huge step forward, it is only one of a number of ways DHS is moving ahead. One of our most notable accomplishments to date has been the creation of a set of high-level governance structures that will ensure the Department continues to advance with information-sharing initiatives in a unified, coherent fashion.

The Information Sharing Governance Board is an executive-level body that drives Department-wide information sharing initiatives to completion. The Information Sharing Coordinating Council is a working-group made up of action officers from across all DHS Components, ensuring every sector of the Department is represented in information-sharing efforts.

But strategies, policies and governance structures are not enough. We must also work to address cultural barriers that exist across the Department. As the Secretary has said, “We are One DHS.” In order to achieve this vision, we are blending the many tactical missions of the Department. This led us to develop a set of Shared Mission Communities that will cut across the Department and build relationships based around common missions and not organizational structures.

Beyond DHS, we must share information with all federal, State, local, tribal, private sector and international partners as well. That is one reason our Strategy is not only consistent with, but complementary to the President’s National Strategy for Information Sharing, as well as the United States Intelligence Community Information Sharing Strategy.

To sustain a robust federal information sharing environment, we maintain close relationships with the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice and its Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, to name just a few. However, our responsibility to protect the homeland requires successful partnerships which extend beyond the federal government. We wholeheartedly support the state and local fusion centers across the country with personnel, training and funding. The centers provide deployed DHS analysts the opportunity to work side-by-side and exchange information with their state, local and tribal counterparts, and law enforcement and public safety officers. To date, the Department has deployed 25 intelligence officers to fusion centers across the country with plans to have a total of 35 in the field by the end of the year.

To foster collaboration and share best practices and lessons learned within the fusion center network, DHS sponsors the Homeland Security State and Local Intelligence Community of Interest (HS SLIC), a virtual community of intelligence analysts. Its membership has grown significantly in the past year with members now representing 45 states, the District of Columbia, and seven federal departments. We have also established a HS SLIC Advisory Board, which includes state and local leaders of the HS SLIC to advise the Office of Intelligence and Analysis leadership on issues relating to intelligence collaboration with our non-federal partners. Through the HS SLIC, members are able to post intelligence products so that there is effective vertical information sharing between the states and the national Intelligence Community and horizontally between the states. Fusion center analysts across the country meet via teleconference weekly with their DHS counterparts to discuss homeland security threat issues. Through these activities, DHS is making the HS SLIC a significant contributor to the National Strategy for Information Sharing.

Another initiative in which we are contributing significant leadership is with the Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group (ITACG), which was established at the direction of the President and the 9/11 Commission Act to facilitate increased sharing of terrorism-related information between the national Intelligence Community and our state, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector partners. By pulling together in one place state, local, tribal, territorial, and federal homeland security, law enforcement, and intelligence officers at the National Counterterrorism Center, the ITACG now serves as a focal point to guide the development and dissemination of federal terrorism-related intelligence products through DHS and the FBI to our State, local, tribal territorial, and private sector partners.

Through these and other efforts, I envision an environment where all of those vested in the protection of the nation are working in concert. I am pleased with how far we have come to develop effective technological solutions as well as reduce the cultural barriers that once impeded the flow of information--much progress has already been made.

Building trusted relationships takes dedication and patience. Creating a cohesive environment within an organization as vast as DHS and the federal government at large takes commitment and perseverance. Protecting our nation from the myriad of threats that we face takes courage and resolve. We are and must be up to the task.

Charlie Allen
Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis and Chief Intelligence Officer

Gustav Response and Recovery

Late yesterday I returned from Louisiana with President Bush, after having spent the past several days with Governor Jindal and his team as we monitored Gustav's arrival and initiated response and recovery efforts. I met with several parish presidents and first responders while I was there, and toured many of the communities that were hit hard by this storm. I can tell you that the men and women on the ground who are ensuring the safe return of millions of evacuees are going on little sleep and are working in difficult conditions, but are forging ahead with remarkable determination.

There is still flooding in some areas, and several downed trees and debris-littered roads; but the biggest challenge we're facing right now is downed power lines. State officials are working with FEMA and local power companies to repair these lines as quickly as possible, but it will clearly take several days until power is restored across the region.

I want to take a moment to specifically thank the parish presidents, state officials, and first responders who had a hand in coordinating an enormously successful evacuation prior to Gustav's landfall. As a result of their efforts, our search and rescue operations have been relatively minimal because most of the people in harm's way evacuated well before Gustav's arrival. I also want to thank everyone who assisted with what Governor Jindal described as the largest medical evacuation in their history. It was a true testament to the benefits of pre-planning and coordination, and is a model that should be repeated as we prepare for the oncoming storms currently gaining strength in the Atlantic.

As we identify additional challenges and focus on priorities such as medical needs, power restoration, and debris removal, it's important to recognize that this will be a long-term effort. While the initial planning, preparedness, and evacuation measures were well coordinated, we still have a great deal of work ahead of us. I encourage everyone along the Gulf Coast that is involved in this effort to apply the same vigor and focus on response and recovery as they did for pre-hurricane preparations.

Of course, we must also remain flexible and nimble – Hanna, Ike, and Josephine will present their own sets of challenges in the coming days, as will additional weather systems during this busy period of the 2008 hurricane season.

I encourage residents in Hanna's likely impact area to emulate what Louisianans have done by listening to local officials' instructions and preparing to sustain themselves for at least three days (please visit www.ready.gov for more information). I also encourage everyone to keep up the good work as we roll up our sleeves and continue to respond to this storm and prepare for those ahead.

Michael Chertoff

Gustav Preparations

As we closely monitor Gustav's landfall from Baton Rouge's Emergency Operations Center and remain poised to begin response efforts, I want to briefly update you with some of what I saw on the ground as we finalized our preparations yesterday.

People are taking this storm seriously. More than a million residents have evacuated well ahead of landfall, and those with special needs have been moved out of harm's way.

I've been spending time with Governor Jindal and Mayor Nagin and have been in close communication with Governor Barbour, as well as other state and local officials. I can tell you that preparations for this storm were well coordinated at every level, and everyone is now focused on responding as quickly as possible.

FEMA has pre-positioned assets and personnel in strategic locations and is poised to move in as soon as it's safe to assist with response and recovery operations. Other DHS personnel including ICE, CBP, TSA and Coast Guard teams have been deployed to assist with evacuations and are standing by to begin search and rescue operations as needed. Additional federal partners, including the Department of Defense and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, have also deployed assets and personnel to the region and are preparing for response activities.

This will be a severe hurricane and is having a major impact as it continues to move ashore. While the levees around New Orleans have been strengthened since Katrina, there is a still a real risk of flooding because of possible overtopping and rain.

For those who must shelter in place, I hope that you heeded advice to be prepared to sustain yourself for at least 72 hours. This means having enough food, water, and medicine to last for three days.

I'll continue monitoring the storm from Louisiana and will update you as time and circumstances allow. I encourage you to visit www.ready.gov for additional preparedness information.

Michael Chertoff