Terrorists may target transition

As the Bush administration reaches its final days the U.S. will be faced with its first presidential transition since Sept. 11. This period will come with a supposed great deal of risk.

“History-- including the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the October 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole, as well as more recent attacks in Madrid, London, and Glasgow-- suggests that terrorists may target the times shortly before and after governmental transitions,” said Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) during a hearing on the Department of Homeland Security’s post-election plans.

There has been concerns over whether DHS is ready to meet these risks. DHS has been marred with a high turnover rates and numerous vacancies in executive positions and have faced numerous accusations of mismanagement.

However DHS has taken a series of steps to prepare, including a the security clearances for members of the next administration, performing a number of training exercises, and hiring more executive staff.

“We have been able to reduce our vacancy rate from about 20 percent...to about 13 percent. We have another 35 selections pending so with that...we’ll have our vacancy rate under 10 percent for the first time,” said DHS Undersecretary for Management Elaine C. Duke.

Specialist in Terrorism and National Security Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division John Rollins explained that the proximity of the transitional period may have already sparked a terrorist attack.

“Some national security observers suggest that the attacks that took place in Yemen yesterday may have been taken with the desire to seize the U.S. embassy, thus creating a protracted situation that could influence the U.S. election.”

DC police say looser guns laws would make their jobs harder

The House Oversight and Government Reform committee held a very one-sided hearing today on H.R. 6691, the Second Amendment Enforcement Act. Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) described the bill as a "wholesale evisceration" of DC's gun laws it would allow "military-style rifles" to be carried on the streets of Washington, DC. He repeatedly referred to the bill as "the NRA bill." Other Democrats, including DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, also criticized the bill for imposing changes on DC rather than allowing the DC city council to come up with its own solution. Republicans, including Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) criticized the partisanship of the hearing and said it served no purpose.

The witnesses at the hearing were DC Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier, US Capitol Police Chief Phillip Morse, US Park Police Deputy Chief Kevin Hay, and Washington Nationals Park Director of Securrity Robert Campbell. All espoused the same view: guns are dangerous and would make their work harder. In questioning, Chief Lanier went into some detail about the special considerations ensuring security in Washington, DC. She pointed out that no other city has the number of dignitaries and sensitive areas that Washington has. While other cities can shut down major streets for motorcades, the number of motorcades in DC makes such blockages impossible without seriously disrupting city life. She described a common motorcade attack plan, in which small arms are used to take out security personnel, bringing the motorcade to a stop, after which explosives can be used against the car carrying the VIP. Loosening DC's gun laws, she implied, would make this attack more likely.

Chief Lanier also pointed out that shotguns had been allowed in DC for home defense before the Supreme Court's Heller decision, and revolvers are now allowed as well. Tomorrow DC Delegate Norton and Rep. Waxman will introduce a replacement bill in the House.

Kerry: US in danger of losing in Afghanistan

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) delivered a speech on a new approach to fighting terrorism. Kerry cited a memo authored by Donald Rumsfeld in 2003 that asked if the United States was dissuading more people from becoming terrorists than radical clerics were deploying. Kerry said the United States still is not deterring terrorists, noting al-Qaeda's strength along the Afghan-Pakistani border, the Taliban's resurgence, Hamas's grip in the Gaza Strip, and Hezbollah's influence in Lebanon.

Kerry said the United States should engage in a strategic reorientation already enacted by Saudi Arabia. He stated that the Saudi government has been able to gain the upper-hand in the fight
against terrorism by using counter-indoctrination. According to Kerry, the Saudi government has imams explain Islam's opposition to extremist ideologies to detainees and sponsors messages at soccer matches featuring former terrorists who urge against radical jihad. Kerry said the United States was most successful in the fight against extremism when it provided post-earthquake aid to Pakistan and assisted tsunami relief in Indonesia. Kerry called the Administration's policy of torture and indefinite intention "self-defeating."

To win the global war on terror, Kerry advocated helping Pakistan fight al-Qaeda along the Afghan border and increasing American aid to the Pakistani people, a move he suggested would cause the population to grow tired of extremists' presence. Kerry said "We're in real danger of losing in Afghanistan" and said fixing problems in Pakistan is the only way to prevent a loss from occurring.

Kerry: Remember Bush’s military focus

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) says to let George W. Bush be remembered for an overly militarized focusing on fighting terrorism and to let the next president defeat terrorism by emphasizing America’s moral authority. (0:30)

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.