Health officials are investigating a salmonella outbreak that reportedly has sickened nearly 400 people in 42 states, but they do not yet know exactly how the bacteria has been spreading. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not named all the states, but Ohio health officials have reported at least 50 people in [...]
The Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies have released a bulletin reminding local law enforcement (as if it wasn’t already crystal clear) that the inauguration could present an enticing target for potential terrorists. But the bulletin states that there is currently no credible threat information related to the Jan. 20 event. (CBS)
President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to scrap the way President Bush oversaw domestic security in the White House and name a former Central Intelligence Agency official to coordinate counterterrorism, people close to the transition said Wednesday. (NY Times)
U.S. cities are vulnerable to an attack like the gun-and-grenade assault that terrorized Mumbai for three days and killed 179 people, the White House homeland security adviser said on Wednesday. Ken Wainstein told a Washington think tank that the Mumbai attacks in November showed the effectiveness of a low-technology coordinated assault on an open city. [...]
The Department of Homeland Security will collect millions of new electronic records about private planes, imported cargo, foreign visitors and federal contractors as part of an array of controversial last-minute security policies imposed by the Bush administration. Businesses say the policies are costly, and worry that sensitive information could be released if a database is [...]
“Homeland Security USA,” an ABC reality series about the men and women who police our borders, has the look and sound of a documentary without the pesky burden of responsibility — it’s homage, not reportage. And that’s not a surprise, given that the executive producer, Arnold Shapiro, the creator of “Rescue 911” and “Big Brother,” [...]
In filling four senior Justice Department positions Monday, President-elect Barack Obama signaled that he intends to roll back Bush administration counterterrorism policies authorizing harsh interrogation techniques, warrantless spying and indefinite detentions of terrorism suspects. The most startling shift was Obama’s pick of Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen to take charge of the Office of [...]
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his second-in-command have been rendered ineffective by international anti-terrorist efforts, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said on Tuesday. The comments by Dell Dailey, the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator, were among the Bush administration’s most confident declarations of progress against bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al Zawahri. (Reuters)
The FBI said on Monday it had launched one of the largest hiring blitzes in its 100-year history involving 2,100 professional staff vacancies and 850 special agents aimed at filling its most critical vacancies.
Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram will discuss with U.S. officials how to model India’s future Homeland Security Agency on the lines of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during a Jan. 9-10 visit to Washington, sources in the Indian Home Ministry said. Chidambaram replaced Home Minister Shiv Raj Patel as a fallout of the Nov. [...]