Michael Chertoff

The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority.

The Honourable Jim Prentice, Minister of Industry, and the Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, will meet their Mexican and U.S. counterparts - Secretary of Economy Eduardo Sojo Garza-Aldape, Secretary of the Interior Juan Camilo Mourino Terrazo, Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff in Los Cabos, Mexico, on February 27-28, 2008, to discuss the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).

All but six states have complied with federal requirements to seek an extension of the deadline they face for implementing more secure driver licenses for U.S. citizens or legal residents only under the REAL ID Act.

The Homeland Security Department is trying to quash criticism of its slow development of an exit piece to the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program. Robert Mocny, US-VISIT director, said this week the agency has decided a piece of the exit program will require airlines to collect biometric data of visitors leaving the country when they check in at the airport. Mocny said DHS will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register by January 2008 detailing the program.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced final Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) awards totaling $1.7 billion, including a total of almost $411 million to the nation’s six urban areas at highest risk of a terrorist attack: New York City/Northern New Jersey; the National Capital Region; Los Angeles/Long Beach; the California Bay Area; Houston; and Chicago.

A front page story in the June 13th issue of the Buffalo News had to have raised some eyebrows. The story entitled "Screening at Airport Sizing Up Behavior" revealed that as of mid-May, ten behavioral detection officers have been working at the airport.

OTTAWA (AP) -- Promoting prosperity topped the agenda at a gathering of U.S., Canadian and Mexican Cabinet leaders Friday, but immigration and the threat of terrorism also were key topics at the gathering.

Nine foreign and security ministers from the North American nations met in Ottawa, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership talks were a lead-up to a meeting of the countries' leaders this August in Canada.

In a story that should have rang alarm bells in very newsroom across the nation, armed Mexican entered the United States and attacked unarmed National Guard troops working at a border patrol post near the US-Mexican border. The troops had to retreat to safety. Not surprisingly, the news story received scant coverage by the mainstream news media and hardly a mention on the Fox News Channel. It's a story that should outrage all Americans including President George W. Bush. Unfortunately, President Bush and his Administration did not even comment on this vicious attack on unarmed US troops as well as the unbridled assault on American sovereignty. During a press conference held on Friday afternoon by Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, there was not one word about this unprovoked attack on soldiers.

The US government is building a massive database designed to identify individual terror suspects from fingerprints on objects such as a tea glass in an Iraqi apartment or a shell casing in an abandoned Al Qaeda training camp. The database is being created in part by forensic specialists searching for and preserving evidence overseas. They are collecting unidentified latent fingerprints in places once occupied by Al Qaeda and other suspected terrorists.