"That’s why it’s vital that we continue to partner with our allies overseas to share information and develop international standards to combat the global threat we face."
Of course, the only problem I see is a potential abuse of our data for the purpose of business espionage and the intransparency involved. Many persons in Brussels where shocked how our European financial data was just handed over to American authorities via SWIFT. And Echolon was a concern to the Europarl. As a European citizens I am also a bit annoyed by American public diplomacy activities in Europe, esp. propaganda against France that is taylored to political radicals. While our Navy "combats terrorism" as part of Nato forces I wonder what is done to protect our own critical infrastructure such as oil supply pipelines.
The main task I see is to get our common infrastructure more independent and less vulnerable. In Burma we see how a free Internet serves as a revolutionary tool. Yet, Burma can cut the lines. Make it technologically impossible for governments to intervene and dictorships become technological impossible.
Combating terrorism is a matter of psychological warfare. We have a few-many relation. You cannot combat adhoc sympathizer networks with these formal security measures. The real task is to dissuade the enemy to contravene our model of an open society.
Grüße,
Andre from Germany
September 30, 2007 10:17 AM
Thomas said...
It is nice to read in such a personal kind about your activities. I am not an insider in this security matters, just a common citizen. But from all what I read about it, I have a pretty clear opinion about the governments security activities. We know today that there were already enough such activities done before 9/11 and other attacks, the government was informed before, but did not act. Therefore I do not see the need for further insight into what once was a citizens privacy, the government has had already enough investigation tools, but it was not able to process the data. Here is what has to be improved, the processing, not the spying. I really warmly recommend you to overthink this: Governments in US and Europe intense the observing and restricting on its citizens, it is already clear that freedom, Democracy and human rights suffer severely. Did it never occur to you that this is exactly what the terrorists want? They want to destroy our democratic values, but now they do not even have to act, they just can watch how our governments destroy them on their own. Regards, Thomas – anxious citizen.
September 30, 2007 11:45 AM
Anonymous said...
"While globalization presents us with clear security challenges, it also provides opportunities to expand our cooperation with international partners to protect our shared interests."
Ok, what about stop killing people?
September 30, 2007 3:15 PM
Boris Valkov, EX-US Citizen said...
From protecting our land and sea borders to screening travelers and goods coming from other countries, a large part of our mission necessarily involves relating to and working with partners all over the world. Nothing new since 1776...
That’s why it’s vital that we continue to partner with our allies overseas to share information and develop international standards to combat the global threat we face. Nothing wrong with that...
While globalization presents us with clear security challenges, it also provides opportunities to expand our cooperation with international partners to protect our shared interests. Whose interests? THE GOVERMENTS interests, not that of John and Jane Doe who are living off of welfare, and can't afford medical insurance...
October 1, 2007 8:04 AM
Anonymous said...
" That’s why it’s vital that we continue to partner with our allies overseas to share information and develop international standards to combat the global threat we face." "Working together with our foreign partners to enhance security is clearly a win/win for both sides."
Does DHS get information from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and now Iraq which were the fertile grounds for terrorism? Does DHS shared information with democratic countries like Indonesia, India, Afganistan, france, algeria to protect them from terrorist attacks or threats? If so Statistics please.
Are we any better than 09/11 from the terror threats and attacks? Does DHS enabled the ports and the enforcement officers clear cut identification process for real terrorists without generalising them by colour, demography and features? Specify one Win/Win situation on both sides. Otherwise this is just beaurocratic and unrealistic claims.
To ALL Respective members of DHS,FBI, USCIS, CBP, and ICE. I would respectfully like to submit my findings and thoughts with regards to the efforts to secure the Homeland against the "War on Terror". I am a research analyst for Bio-authentication, Enrolment and Verification. I have become entrenched in legislature and CONOPS that pertain to the "Transformation Process" It is CRITICAL to Identify Correctly who someone is upon Entry or Exit into borders of air, land, sea and VIRTUALLY in CYBERSPACE. The thought of corporate spies keystrokes away from critical computer systems that wage attacks on Fortune 500 Companies, Financial markets and even Governments is a frightening thought. The fight against Terrorism also means Anti-money laundering. With the pandemic of identity theft it leaves ALL borders vulnerable to attacks, not to mention results in 100's of billions of lost dollars. So my first of four questions is; 1.How do we secure the borders, when we don't know where and who the enemy is? 2.What are the enemies doing within the borders? 3.How are they using the economy to benefit in the black market trade and spend the USD with the vehicle being ID.THEFT. Secure Boarder Initiative, WHTI, US-VISIT, NEXUS, FAST,REAL ID, SENTRI, IDENT and IAFIS have all in some part failed and now there is the USCIS backlog of over 1,244,166 million and counting are waiting for FBI background checks and various other naturalization and immigration manual paper based channels and biometric enrolment make the wait times ridiculous and unacceptable. A solution as the USCIS Ombudsman stated is to build a Remote Virtual Up-front processing IVR Kiosk system that is language independent and can enrol, authenticate and verify who someone is. If you apply the CONOPS of the Information sharing environment (ISE) to USCIS the KEY is unification of information into the Biometric Storage System and Global On-line Enrolment System. The greatest fault within the 1.9 billion US-VISIT program is that the system does not have data mining built into the system and unfortunately DHS and CBP, FBI and ICE do not know if someone EXITED the US or if they are still lingering within the borders. The last question is; How do you get them out? Under Section 326 of the Patriot Act (Verification of Identification) along with the IRTPA SEC. 7208. The solution was biometrics. The GOALS simply have not been met and they are as follows; . BIOMETRIC ENTRY AND EXIT DATA SYSTEM. ENTRY-EXIT SYSTEM GOALS. —The Department of Homeland Security shall operate the biometric entry and exit system so that it— (1) serves as a vital counterterrorism tool; (2) screens travelers efficiently and in a welcoming manner; (3) provides inspectors and related personnel with adequate real-time information; (4) ensures flexibility of training and security protocols to most effectively comply with security mandates; (5) integrates relevant databases and plans for database modifications to address volume increase and database usage; . (6) improves database search capacities by utilizing language algorithms to detect alternate names. My research has lead me to your blog and I find it thrilling to sit in a virtual forum with people that have the willpower to move the masses and have $46.5 billion to split in order to do it! I have been formulating many solutions for the 6 KEY GOALS and integrations for technologies that have NIST standards. Let's solve this conundrum together so that we may locate the True Enemies and Terrorists and know their true name with their own ONEVOICE. If we can't touch or feel them, perhaps we can hear them better. I prefer Voice chats to binary code. Lastly and most importantly, I wish you all strength and courage at this time of need and loss and I send blessings for a grace period for the United States of America. Be well & live well, Zell.
October 29, 2007 2:41 AM
[Photo]This week I traveled to Canada to speak with international commissioners from around the world on data privacy and to Mexico to meet with Mexican officials and governors from our border states. All this travel illustrates how global the mission of homeland security really is.
From protecting our land and sea borders to screening travelers and goods coming from other countries, a large part of our mission necessarily involves relating to and working with partners all over the world.
In our 21st-century global environment, people, goods, money, and ideas routinely move around the world in a matter of seconds and hours, rather than days and weeks. Unfortunately, so can terrorists. We need to look no further than to 9/11, where the plot was hatched in Central Asia, using recruits from Saudi Arabia who trained in Afghanistan, planned in Europe and launched their attack in America.
That’s why it’s vital that we continue to partner with our allies overseas to share information and develop international standards to combat the global threat we face.
Working together with our foreign partners to enhance security is clearly a win/win for both sides. When we screen cargo overseas and strengthen the security of the international supply chain, we’re not only keeping America safe, but also increasing the safety of countries where the cargo originates. And through advanced planning and coordination with these partners, we can mitigate the effects of natural disasters and help stop the spread of infectious diseases.
While globalization presents us with clear security challenges, it also provides opportunities to expand our cooperation with international partners to protect our shared interests. I’ll keep you updated on our progress as we work with our colleagues overseas, as well as those here in the U.S. to combat terrorism and keep the homeland safe.
Thanks for reading. I look forward to hearing from you.
6 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formGuten Tag.
"That’s why it’s vital that we continue to partner with our allies overseas to share information and develop international standards to combat the global threat we face."
Of course, the only problem I see is a potential abuse of our data for the purpose of business espionage and the intransparency involved. Many persons in Brussels where shocked how our European financial data was just handed over to American authorities via SWIFT. And Echolon was a concern to the Europarl. As a European citizens I am also a bit annoyed by American public diplomacy activities in Europe, esp. propaganda against France that is taylored to political radicals. While our Navy "combats terrorism" as part of Nato forces I wonder what is done to protect our own critical infrastructure such as oil supply pipelines.
The main task I see is to get our common infrastructure more independent and less vulnerable. In Burma we see how a free Internet serves as a revolutionary tool. Yet, Burma can cut the lines. Make it technologically impossible for governments to intervene and dictorships become technological impossible.
Combating terrorism is a matter of psychological warfare. We have a few-many relation. You cannot combat adhoc sympathizer networks with these formal security measures. The real task is to dissuade the enemy to contravene our model of an open society.
Grüße,
Andre from Germany
September 30, 2007 10:17 AM
It is nice to read in such a personal kind about your activities. I am not an insider in this security matters, just a common citizen. But from all what I read about it, I have a pretty clear opinion about the governments security activities. We know today that there were already enough such activities done before 9/11 and other attacks, the government was informed before, but did not act. Therefore I do not see the need for further insight into what once was a citizens privacy, the government has had already enough investigation tools, but it was not able to process the data. Here is what has to be improved, the processing, not the spying. I really warmly recommend you to overthink this: Governments in US and Europe intense the observing and restricting on its citizens, it is already clear that freedom, Democracy and human rights suffer severely. Did it never occur to you that this is exactly what the terrorists want? They want to destroy our democratic values, but now they do not even have to act, they just can watch how our governments destroy them on their own.
Regards, Thomas – anxious citizen.
September 30, 2007 11:45 AM
"While globalization presents us with clear security challenges, it also provides opportunities to expand our cooperation with international partners to protect our shared interests."
Ok, what about stop killing people?
September 30, 2007 3:15 PM
From protecting our land and sea borders to screening travelers and goods coming from other countries, a large part of our mission necessarily involves relating to and working with partners all over the world.
Nothing new since 1776...
That’s why it’s vital that we continue to partner with our allies overseas to share information and develop international standards to combat the global threat we face.
Nothing wrong with that...
While globalization presents us with clear security challenges, it also provides opportunities to expand our cooperation with international partners to protect our shared interests.
Whose interests? THE GOVERMENTS interests, not that of John and Jane Doe who are living off of welfare, and can't afford medical insurance...
October 1, 2007 8:04 AM
" That’s why it’s vital that we continue to partner with our allies overseas to share information and develop international standards to combat the global threat we face."
"Working together with our foreign partners to enhance security is clearly a win/win for both sides."
Does DHS get information from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and now Iraq which were the fertile grounds for terrorism? Does DHS shared information with democratic countries like Indonesia, India, Afganistan, france, algeria to protect them from terrorist attacks or threats? If so Statistics please.
Are we any better than 09/11 from the terror threats and attacks?
Does DHS enabled the ports and the enforcement officers clear cut identification process for real terrorists without generalising them by colour, demography and features?
Specify one Win/Win situation on both sides.
Otherwise this is just beaurocratic and unrealistic claims.
-Anonymous
October 1, 2007 7:18 PM
To ALL Respective members of DHS,FBI, USCIS, CBP, and ICE. I would respectfully like to submit my findings and thoughts with regards to the efforts to secure the Homeland against the "War on Terror". I am a research analyst for Bio-authentication, Enrolment and Verification. I have become entrenched in legislature and CONOPS that pertain to the "Transformation Process" It is CRITICAL to Identify Correctly who someone is upon Entry or Exit into borders of air, land, sea and VIRTUALLY in CYBERSPACE. The thought of corporate spies keystrokes away from critical computer systems that wage attacks on Fortune 500 Companies, Financial markets and even Governments is a frightening thought. The fight against Terrorism also means Anti-money laundering. With the pandemic of identity theft it leaves ALL borders vulnerable to attacks, not to mention results in 100's of billions of lost dollars. So my first of four questions is; 1.How do we secure the borders, when we don't know where and who the enemy is? 2.What are the enemies doing within the borders? 3.How are they using the economy to benefit in the black market trade and spend the USD with the vehicle being ID.THEFT. Secure Boarder Initiative, WHTI, US-VISIT, NEXUS, FAST,REAL ID, SENTRI, IDENT and IAFIS have all in some part failed and now there is the USCIS backlog of over 1,244,166 million and counting are waiting for FBI background checks and various other naturalization and immigration manual paper based channels and biometric enrolment make the wait times ridiculous and unacceptable. A solution as the USCIS Ombudsman stated is to build a Remote Virtual Up-front processing IVR Kiosk system that is language independent and can enrol, authenticate and verify who someone is. If you apply the CONOPS of the Information sharing environment (ISE) to USCIS the KEY is unification of information into the Biometric Storage System and Global On-line Enrolment System. The greatest fault within the 1.9 billion US-VISIT program is that the system does not have data mining built into the system and unfortunately DHS and CBP, FBI and ICE do not know if someone EXITED the US or if they are still lingering within the borders. The last question is; How do you get them out? Under Section 326 of the Patriot Act (Verification of Identification) along with the IRTPA SEC. 7208. The solution was biometrics. The GOALS simply have not been met and they are as follows; . BIOMETRIC ENTRY AND EXIT DATA SYSTEM. ENTRY-EXIT SYSTEM GOALS. —The Department of Homeland Security shall operate the biometric entry and exit system so that it—
(1) serves as a vital counterterrorism tool;
(2) screens travelers efficiently and in a welcoming manner;
(3) provides inspectors and related personnel with adequate real-time information;
(4) ensures flexibility of training and security protocols to most effectively comply with security mandates;
(5) integrates relevant databases and plans for database modifications to address volume increase and database usage; . (6) improves database search capacities by utilizing language algorithms to detect alternate names. My research has lead me to your blog and I find it thrilling to sit in a virtual forum with people that have the willpower to move the masses and have $46.5 billion to split in order to do it! I have been formulating many solutions for the 6 KEY GOALS and integrations for technologies that have NIST standards. Let's solve this conundrum together so that we may locate the True Enemies and Terrorists and know their true name with their own ONEVOICE. If we can't touch or feel them, perhaps we can hear them better. I prefer Voice chats to binary code. Lastly and most importantly, I wish you all strength and courage at this time of need and loss and I send blessings for a grace period for the United States of America. Be well & live well, Zell.
October 29, 2007 2:41 AM