Homeland Security
US flight schools admitting foreign nationals without proper clearance
Brian Ross and Eric Longabardi report for ABC News that foreign student pilots are still finding their way into American flight schools despite strict regulations set in place following 9/11. “Under the program, no foreign national can receive flight training in the United States without approval from the Transportation Security Administration.” But the policy is…
Read MoreHomeland Security spending post-9/11
In light of the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., several papers have run stories based on the data tracking how homeland security money has been spent in the last 5 years. Some of these include: “9/11 cash beefs up region” The Cincinnati Enquirer “Post-9/11 funds often used for routine items” Portland…
Read MoreStudent data from financial aid forms shared with FBI
Jonathan D. Glater of The New York Times reports that, as part of post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts, that Federal Education Department shared personal information obtained on student loan applications with the FBI. “Under the program, called Project Strikeback, the Education Department received names from the F.B.I. and checked them against its student aid database, forwarding information…Neither…
Read More“The Long Shadow of 9/11”
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is running a series entitled “The Long Shadow of 9/11” in which they’ve localized the big-picture security issues facing the nation. The stories include an examination of how local police have poured vast resources into anti-terrorism policing; how the FBI has sent national security letters to casino-hotels to access guest information;…
Read MoreSept. 11 – Five years later
The Washington Post has launched a series examining how government agencies have responded to 9/11 in the past five years. Stories include coverage of a failed $170 million contract to rebuild the FBI’s internal case file system, and how training at the FBI Academy fails to adequately keep pace with its new focus on terrorism.
Read MoreAir Marshals Warn System Failures Threaten Security
In a coordinated series that broadcast in Denver, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Dallas, investigative reporter Tony Kovaleski of 7NEWS in Denver spoke to 17 Air Marshals from those four cities who believe current policies jepordize national security. Don Strange, a former director of the Air Marshal Service’s Atlanta office, addressed his concerns in memos to…
Read More$1 million grant issued to study restrictions on public records
Richard Willing of USA Today reports that “The federal government will pay a Texas law school $1 million. . .to produce a national “model statute” that state legislatures and Congress could adopt to ensure that potentially dangerous information ‘stays out of the hands of the bad guys.’” The grant was included in this year’s budget…
Read MoreSpy agency collects data about Americans’ phone calls
Leslie Cauley of the USA Today found the “National Security Agency had been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth.” Cauley’s sources say the agency uses the call data to “analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity” but that…
Read MorePolice use homeland security grants to keep tabs
David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report identified nearly a dozen cases in which city and county police, in the name of homeland security, have surveilled or harassed animal-rights and antiwar protesters, union activists, and even library patrons surfing the Web. The inquiry found federal officials have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars…
Read MoreAgency’s spy satellite technology loses relevance
Michael Fabey of the DefenseNews looks into the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office’s fading imaging- and signals-intelligence program that reportedly has an annual budget of about $7 billion. “A satellite communications technology called spot beaming might help the NRO regain some of its fading signals-intelligence relevance, but imagery’s place as an intel centerpiece may have gone…
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