Oil, oil everywhere but not a drop to drill

According to the Senate Republican Conference, offshore oil drilling will help mend the economy, increase jobs, lower gas prices, and strengthen national security.

"Last year Americans sent more than $700 billion overseas in the form of oil payments, this is the largest wealth transfer in the history of the world," said Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) during a hearing on domestic energy supplies.

"That is $700 billion in foreign bank accounts that could have been invested in American firms, local communities, and American jobs."

Associate Director of the Center for Energy Studies at Louisiana State University David E. Dismukes touched upon the potential energy supply, claiming that there are 41 billion barrels of oil and 210 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves in the restricted areas of the outer continental shelf.

Environmental concerns were addressed as well. Group Director for Upstream and Industry Operations for the American Petroleum Institute Doug Morris explained,

"The offshore industry today has an outstanding environmental record. According to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, since 1980 offshore operators have produced 4.7 billion barrels of oil and the total spills equal only 0.001 percent of this amount."

Security in a Cyber World

The Internet has evolved into a tool of war.

"The Georgia-Russian conflict, perhaps, that is the first instance of a military action containing a clear cyber component. Denial-of-service attacks were launched by Russia against Georgia," said Deputy Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security Paul A. Schneider during a forum on the nation's cyber security posture.

"There were large swaths of Georgians that could not access any information about what was happening in their country. Government websites were defaced and the delivery of government information was seriously curtailed".

To meet high-tech threats such as these the DHS has rolled out a series of safety measures called the Cyber Initiative, with the goal of strengthening the security of both federal and private sector networks, operating and defending in real time, and expanding counter intelligence capabilities against foreign governments.

"Intelligence is one of our best preventative tools. I don't have to go into any detail, you all know the examples...up through World War II with the use of radar. We need to have similar types of tools in order to make better use of intelligence in the cyber domain in order to stop our adversaries before they can launch attacks against us,' said Schneider.

Another important aspect of the initiative is to create a more centralized manner of dealing with cyber threats. The National Security Cyber Center has been recently created to coordinate protection across the federal networks, including the .mil and .gov domains.

Schneider addressed concerns that the initiative could violate the privacy of citizens.

"If someone is seeking to access our systems and possibly inject some sort of malware it is perfectly within our right to take a closer look and see whether that code poses a threat, just as you would ask a few questions from a stranger who would want to enter your house."

Dems outline priorities on national security

Democrats criticized the Republicans for being weak on national security at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) forum. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) said the Democrats need to develop more allies than the Bush administration has done. Bayh said that the U.S. needs "other people standing by our side in our national security interests."

Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) said Afghanistan was "strategically, the most important place in the world." She said that because of its lack of resources and structure, many terrorists have gone there to congregate and regroup. Retired Marine Corps Col. T.X. Hammes said the current U.S. mission in Afghanistan will never be successful until we develop a national security strategy. He also said that an influx of troops will not change the situation there if national security options continue to be "knee-jerk decisions."

The Bush administration "has failed to lead non-proliferation," Tauscher continued. There will soon be 500 nuclear power plants, and 40 will be able to make nuclear weapons on short notice, the congresswoman warned.

Reza Aslan, author of the book "No God but God: the Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam," said that the U.S. is asking "Why do they hate us," when it should ask, "Who the hell are they?" A feeling has developed in the Middle East that the "war on terror" is a "war on Islam." He said that U.S. efforts in that region have radicalized the terrorist groups there.

DHS review will be hard but not impossible

The Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight held a hearing on “The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review,” where they discussed the challenges facing the Department of Homeland Security in doing this review. While the challenges are many and the time short, witnesses assured Congress that the task will be hard but not impossible.

A subsection of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commissions Act of 2007, requires the secretary of the DHS to review the national security of the country every four years. The DHS’ review is due at the end of the year in 2009. The report will set the agenda and define priorities for DHS through 2012, said Christine Wormuth, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The report will not only look at organizational issues, but also issues of strategy, policy, process, program and budget.

The main challenges the DHS faces are the timing of the review right between Administrations, its scope, resources for the review and the need to coordinate with a wide array of stakeholders, Wormuth said. The report will need to be worked on while there are still very few political appointees in place in DHS to run the process. It will be difficult to conduct a truly strategic review with a relatively small number of senior leaders facing a compressed review timetable, she said.

Global and inter-agency communication

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), along with a panel of foreign policy and communications experts, spoke at the Heritage Foundation about creating a new organization to facilitate international communication and diplomacy.

Thornberry said that today's post-Sept. 11 national security issues require government agencies to work together for solutions. In addition, he said that this communication is important for international diplomacy to solve global issues. Thornberry proposed the creation of a private organization much like the United States Information Agency (USIA) which was dissolved in 1999, to reach this goal.

Dr. Michael Doran, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Support to Public Diplomacy, said that learning about the motivations and traditions of other cultures is extremely important for understanding policy positions and decisions in other nations. He also said that this understanding could only be facilitated through greater communication between nations.

James Dickmeyer, director of Foreign Press Centers at the State Department suggested that advanced communication would be easily established by working with international embassies and ambassadors, as these establishments best represent the interests of our nation abroad.