Sept. 11‚ 2001‚ is etched in our collective memory as a day of profound tragedy and heroism. It was a time when duty demanded unwavering resolve in the face of unprecedented threats. On that day‚ I was a lieutenant in the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington‚ D.C.‚ responsible for the security planning for all the major events in the city and supporting the Secret Service in protecting the president and vice president. At 9:03 a.m.‚ I was on the phone with the Secret Service when I watched in horror as the second plane struck the World Trade Center on live television. At 9:37 a.m.‚ a tremor passed through my office as American Airlines Flight 77‚ crashed into the Pentagon just two miles away. Moments later‚ I would be running onto the White House grounds to help implement enhanced security measures around the complex. Over the next several years‚ I worked with various federal agencies to help secure our nation’s capital. I administered the oath of office to thousands of National Guard troops‚ swearing them in as special police officers under the Defense Support of Civil Authorities program‚ helping secure the White House‚ the U.S. Capitol‚ and other critical sites in Washington. This was a textbook example of federal resources supporting local agencies to enhance security‚ and this type of coordination was occurring in cities across the country. On Dec. 17‚ 2003‚ President George W. Bush signed Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8 (HSPD-8)‚ codifying federal cooperation and support to state and local agencies to help prevent and mitigate threats to our country. That directive underscored the critical importance of federal cooperation in bolstering the security efforts of state and local authorities. Today‚ we are witnessing another national disaster‚ as millions of unauthorized‚ unvetted border-crossers pour into our country. Illegal immigration is an urgent national crisis and threat to our homeland‚ bringing increased violent crime into our communities and cities. Individuals with extensive criminal backgrounds‚ gang members‚ and individuals on the terrorist watchlist have been encountered crossing our porous borders. Innumerable military fighting-age males are being encountered daily‚ many coming from adversarial countries. Along with this mass influx‚ we are also seeing significant increases in human trafficking‚ sex trafficking‚ the exploitation of minors‚ and the mass importation of deadly narcotics. The FBI alone has seized enough fentanyl over the past two years to kill 270 million people. While I am not implying that every illegal migrant poses a serious threat‚ some very dangerous criminal elements are taking advantage of our open borders to set up operations in the United States. Just this year‚ we have seen numerous heinous crimes committed by individuals here illegally‚ including the brutal slaying of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley‚ reportedly by a Venezuela-based gang member; the killing of a Washington state trooper; and the sexual assault of a minor in Virginia.   In February‚ the FBI warned that members of violent Venezuelan gangs were entering the U.S. and joining forces with MS-13. We are seeing evidence of violent South American gangs organizing and developing criminal operations in our country. In March‚ the Los Angeles Police Department established a task force to deal with 900 residential burglaries that have occurred this year at the hands of South American gang members. These violent gangs create a very real threat to our first responders. The courageous men and women of law enforcement are having to deal with the increase in crime‚ in addition to violence against the police. One has only to look at the headlines in Mexico‚ Brazil‚ Venezuela‚ and Haiti‚ among other countries‚ to see the threat these criminal organizations pose to law and order. As these gangs become more entrenched and organized in our towns and cities‚ we are likely to experience more of the same. The spirit of unity embodied by HSPD-8 and the “one team” effort to secure our homeland after Sept. 11 does not appear to exist today. We do not see the same sense of urgency and cooperation between federal and local authorities in the mission to secure our borders. As a result‚ local law enforcement is being forced to address increasing threats to the safety and security of our communities. Federal agencies impeding local law enforcement efforts to address this crisis further exacerbate an already dire situation‚ undermining our mission and efforts to keep our homeland safe. The Homeland Security directives are presidential directives. The president has the ability and authority to address this serious issue. More importantly‚ the president has the trust and expectation of the American people and our first responders to do everything he can to keep our homeland safe. It’s time to act before more of our citizens and first responders get hurt or killed because of failed policies and lack of cooperation. The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation. The post Where Are the Executive Actions to Secure the Border&;#63; A Look Back at 9/11 appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Only a quarter of the way through 2024‚ an undeniable reality has emerged: America’s critical infrastructure faces an unparalleled threat of cyberattack. As foreign adversaries‚ emboldened and armed with advanced tools‚ push the boundaries of our cybersecurity measures and prime themselves to launch attacks‚ Americans must ask: If the federal government is taking action‚ is it the right action&;#63; During a national security summit last week at Vanderbilt University‚ FBI Director Christopher Wray emphasized the seriousness of the cyberthreat to the U.S. Wray declared that China has made it clear that it considers every sector that makes our society run as fair game in its bid to dominate on the world stage‚ and that its plan is to land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic and break America’s will to resist. Wray’s comments are the most recent in a series of warnings about China’s intentions from key government officials. In January‚ the FBI director was joined by Army Gen. Paul Nakasone‚ then director of the National Security Agency‚ and Jen Easterly‚ director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency‚ in testifying before the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. The three officials testified to the troubling shift from the Chinese Communist Party’s historical focus on espionage to one of preparing and launching destructive cyberattacks against U.S. critical infrastructure. As with most of what Americans see from the federal government‚ the public messaging on this development seems reactive and without a sense of urgency. Case in point: Last Friday‚ the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Strategy‚ Policy‚ and Plans issued in the Federal Register what it calls a Recommendation Regarding Emergency Action in Aviation. On the surface‚ the notice continues prior messaging regarding the threat to U.S. critical infrastructure. But the details suggest that this was intended to be a “nothing to see here” release to the public. The details are clear. On March 7‚ 2023‚ the Transportation Security Administration‚ which is part of the Department of Homeland Security‚ issued Joint Emergency Amendment 23-011 to certain aviation stakeholders‚ to address a significant cybersecurity threat to the aviation system. This notice triggered a statutory review of plans by the Transportation Security Oversight Board. On April 20‚ 2023‚ the board recommended that a cybersecurity emergency warranted the Transportation Security Administration’s decision to expedite implementation of critical cyber-mitigation measures through the exercise of emergency regulatory authority. The fact that DHS filed its notice in the Federal Register precisely one year after the oversight panel’s recommendation‚ and on a Friday‚ reveals the Biden administration’s desire to avoid public messaging. This notice of a cybersecurity emergency for the aviation industry is just the most recent in a growing list of warnings from the Department of Homeland Security. Earlier last week‚ ABC News reported that DHS sent out an alert that public emergency communications systems were a likely target for cyberattacks‚ only to see system outages across four states affecting millions of Americans later that same evening. It is not a sustainable strategy to continue to absorb cyberattack after cyberattack without taking action to stop them. And yet that appears to be the course the Biden administration is set on. In fact‚ despite the growing number of cybersecurity experts‚ and the higher salaries these positions command‚ the trends are going in the wrong direction. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report‚ the mean time to identify a data breach in 2023 was 204 days. That demonstrates not much has changed since 2016‚ when the mean time to identify a data breach was 201 days. DHS’ role in cybersecurity has been muddled by interagency squabbling and a lack of clear focus. The department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency must find a way to engage proactively with critical infrastructure owners and operators to address the clearly identified threats from nation-states‚ DHS leadership also needs to challenge the status quo for solutions. The department should look to the president’s Office of Science and Technology Policy to challenge the private sector in developing innovative solutions to close the gap in detecting malware. We should be measuring the mean time for detecting data breaches in hours‚ not hundreds of days. CISA’s Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative is falling short in its ability to produce results. It relies too heavily on large‚ established tech companies instead of agile‚ smaller start-up companies that drive innovation. Additionally‚ the government has other tools available to combat  persistent cyberattacks‚ thanks to Executive Order 13961‚ Governance and Integration of Federal Mission Resilience‚ which delegated authorities from the Executive Office of the President to DHS’ Office of Science Technology Policy. The director of the latter office may exercise the authorities vested in the president by section 706(a) and (c) through (e) of the Communications Act of 1934—which are the war powers of the president as they relate to priority communications. If the threats to our critical infrastructure are so severe‚ the government should be planning for‚ and exercising‚ its capabilities. In the meantime‚ the light is blinking red for our nation’s critical infrastructure. The post DHS Finally Declares Year-Old Cyber Emergency for Aviation appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A murder that happened in the Los Angeles transport system has prompted transport officials to announce a public safety emergency‚ and also use the tragic case to promote plans to install more facial recognition devices in the public spaces under their authority. The Los Angeles press is reporting about this‚ specifying that the initiative came after a 66-year-old woman was stabbed to death in the Metro system. Given this and another four attacks that happened on public transport in April (in a city of nearly 4 million people)‚ Metro officials seem to have decided to treat the highly controversial biometric surveillance as the panacea – including for their failings. Related: How Neglected Rising Crime Levels Are Fueling the Push Towards a Cashless Surveillance State Namely‚ the suspected killer (who is now in custody) was previously banned from the transport system because of violent conduct. However‚ Metro representatives are now saying the only way they could have prevented him from returning to use their service would have been – invasive facial recognition deployed on trains and buses. The deadline for the Metro CEO‚ set by the authority’s board‚ to look into the possibility of deploying facial recognition systems is two months. If the initiative succeeds‚ reports say Los Angeles would join Shanghai‚ Moscow‚ Mumbai in India‚ Bogota in Colombia‚ and cities in Indonesia‚ who all have biometric surveillance of one kind or another in place in public transport. But the largest city in the US‚ New York‚ is for now standing firm in rejecting any possibility of using this technology – at least when the reason‚ or the excuse‚ would be to monitor fare evasion. The use of facial recognition is by no means an uncontroversial subject from local to federal levels of government. The Congress-founded US Commission on Civil Rights in February launched a probe into the technology’s deployment by agencies such as the Department of Justice (DOJ)‚ the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The post LA Metro Eyes Invasive Facial Recognition in Wake of Murder appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The United Nations continues with an attempt to advance the agenda to get what the organization calls its Code of Conduct for Information Integrity on Digital Platforms implemented. This code is based on a previous policy brief that recommends censorship of whatever is deemed to be “disinformation‚ misinformation‚ hate” but that is only the big picture of the policy UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming is staunchly promoting. In early April‚ Fleming gave a talk at Boston University‚ and here the focus was on AI‚ whose usefulness in various censorship ventures makes it seen as a tool that advances “resilience in global communication.” A piece on the Boston University Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases site first asserts that AI had a “major role” in helping spread misinformation and conspiracy theories “in the post-pandemic era‚” while the UN is described as one of the institutions that have been undermined by all this‚ while “working to dispel these narratives.” (The article also – helpfully‚ in terms of understanding where its authors are coming from – cites the World Economic Forum (WEF) as the “authority” which has proclaimed that “the threat from misinformation and disinformation as the most severe short-term threat facing the world today”). You will hardly hear Fleming disagreeing with any of this‚ but the UN’s approach is to “harness” that power to serve its own agendas. The UN official’s talk was about AI can be used to feed the public the desired narratives around issues like vaccines‚ climate change‚ and the “well-being” of women and girls. However‚ she also went long into all the aspects of AI that she perceives as negative‚ throwing pretty much every talking point already well established among the “AI fear-mongering genre” in there: “One of our biggest worries is the ease with which new technologies can help spread misinformation easier and cheaper‚ and that this content can be produced at scale and far more easily personalized and targeted‚” she said. Flemming said that with the pandemic‚ this “skyrocketed” around the issue of vaccines. But she didn’t address why that may be – other than‚ apparently‚ being simply a furious sudden proliferation of “misinformation” for its own sake. Flemming then mentions a number of UN activities‚ basically along the lines of “fact-checking” and “pre-bunking” (like “Verified‚” and #TakeCareBeforeYouShare”). Some might refer to Flemming as one of the “merchants of outrage” but she has this slur reserved for others‚ such as “climate (change) deniers.” And it wasn’t long before X and Elon Musk cropped up. “Since Elon Musk took over X‚ all of the climate deniers are back‚ and (the platform) has become a space for all kinds of climate disinformation. Here is a connection that people in the anti-vaccine sphere are now shifting to the climate change denial sphere‚” Flemming lamented. But‚ the UN official reassured everyone that “she and her team are working to build coalitions and initiatives that leverage AI to promote exciting‚ positive‚ fact-driven global public health communications.” The post UN Official Condemns Health “Misinformation‚” Advocates for “Digital Integrity Code” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Will This Bullet Train Plan Actually Work&;#63;

Joe Biden's New Strategist is... Steven Spielberg

Former All-Women's College Closing on One Week's Notice

Imagine a serene farm sanctuary where the sun casts golden hues over lush green pastures‚ a place where every animal receives a second chance at life. This is the story of Helen‚ a 19-year-old blind cow whose journey from a dairy farm to a sanctuary encapsulates love‚ care‚ and transformation. Unlike many of her counterparts... The post Orphaned blind cow melts hearts grooving to her ‘favorite’ song appeared first on Animal Channel.

Only two weeks after surviving a stabbing attack‚ Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel returned to give his sermon‚ and an impassioned plea to the Australian authorities not to undermine freedom of speech in the…

Has the Biden administration forgotten the injunction to never negotiate with terrorists&;#63; With the White House seeking to placate Hamas while censuring Israel for having the gall to defend itself‚ it…