Homeland Security

Homeland security may not be a laughing matter, but ABC's new "Homeland Security USA" has a certain fitful risibility -- like when border agents capture a cache of sinister plastic toys, or discover that one of the items seized as "confiscated food" and initially identified as "a prohibited meat item of unknown origin" turns out to be barbecued bat from Thailand. Eeeuuww. While the series -- an upscale "Cops" with an international air -- oozes with praise for the "thousands of dedicated men and women" whose job it is to keep saboteurs from...

RICHMOND, Va. — A civil liberties group filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of an ex-Marine who was detained in a psychiatric facility after posting anti-government messages on Facebook, using the case to criticize a program that looks for veterans who may have become extremists. Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute filed suit in Richmond over the weeklong detention last August of Brandon J. Raub, a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Attorneys for Raub claimed his...

Tom Diaz is a former senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center and the author of "The Last Gun: How Changes in the Gun Industry Are Killing Americans and What It Will Take to Stop It. " The next time you play airport security theater — remove shoes, display laptop, toss water bottle — think of the children at Sandy Hook Elementary School . Think of the moviegoers in Aurora , Colo., the citizens in Tucson peaceably assembled...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Federal prosecutors say more charges are expected against three Charlottesville residents charged with selling the fake IDs to thousands of college students across the country. U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy said Thursday that authorities seized more than $2 million in a May 6 raid, including $1.3 million in a safe and funds in four bank accounts. Authorities initially estimated the amount of cash confiscated from a $1.3-million Charlottesville home at $50,000.

Millicent D. West, former director of D.C. homeland security, admitted in federal court Friday to her role in diverting $100,000 intended for youth programs to pay for a 2009 inaugural ball. West, who pleaded guilty to lying on tax-related documents about how the money was spent, resigned her high-powered post in January 2012 amid the federal probe into the D.C. Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp. She headed the nonprofit, which doles out city funds for youth programs, before serving as homeland security director.

Kanika Powell suspected something when the man knocked on her door claiming to be an FBI agent. He held a badge up to her peephole but walked away when Powell refused to open up without seeing a photo ID. Five days later, there was another knock at the door of her Laurel area apartment. This time a different man, who said he was delivering a package. When Powell again refused to open the door, he also left -- no package, no note where it could be claimed. Five hours later, Powell was...

Regarding the Aug. 20 front-page article "Citizens' U.S. Border Crossings Tracked": The broad authority given to the Department of Homeland Security to monitor the comings and goings of U.S. citizens is evidence of the Bush administration's ongoing exploitation of the threat of terrorism to encroach on constitutional rights. There is legitimate outrage over such policies, but there should be equal outrage about other DHS policies that violate civil liberties and human rights in the name of national security.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's nominee to lead the city's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency was unanimously approved Tuesday by a D.C. Council committee, despite her lack of experience in the field. The nomination still has to be approved by the full council. Millicent D. Williams, who has a degree in business with a concentration in commercial banking, previously worked as president of the D.C. Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp. and executive director of Serve D.C.-- experience different from that of her predecessors.

President Bush yesterday tapped veteran prosecutor Kenneth L. Wainstein to serve as his White House homeland security adviser as he moved to name another key counterterrorism official and defuse criticism that he has left important positions unfilled. Bush also named Michael E. Leiter to be director of the National Counterterrorism Center, the principal intelligence organization for analyzing terrorist threats and conducting operational planning for counterterrorism efforts. Leiter, previously the center's deputy...

WASHINGTON -- New Mexico national security initiatives in Los Alamos, Albuquerque and Socorro will receive $43 million in federal funding. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall say the money was contained in the 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations bill that was signed into law Wednesday. The funding includes $23 million for New Mexico Tech's National Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center in Socorro. Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories will receive $20 million for...

WASHINGTON — A Republican-controlled House panel moved Thursday to protect the Department of Homeland Security from the big cuts facing other domestic agencies under the party's budget slashing plan. The move came as the Appropriations Committee leadership privately circulated plans to drastically reduce spending for labor, education and health programs, foreign and housing aid, the Environmental Protection Agency and transportation. The Pentagon would be spared and a program that provides food...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has reportedly taken action against the Japanese Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, shutting down a major source of liquidity for the Internet's unregulated shadow currency. Timothy Lee writes that the federal action against Bitcoin is unsurprising: In the wake of the Gawker story two years ago, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) described Bitcoin as an "online form of money laundering" and called for the authorities to shutter the...

WASHINGTON — With no broader budget deal in sight, a key House panel responsible for implementing sweeping cuts to agency budgets moved Wednesday to exempt veterans and largely protect spending on border safety and other homeland security programs in the coming year. The strategy by the pragmatic House Appropriations Committee is to begin advancing a handful of its 12 yearly spending bills even as Republicans controlling the House and President Barack Obama are at an impasse over how much...

WASHINGTON — Citing problems exposed by the Boston Marathon bombings, senators weighing amendments to a sweeping immigration bill agreed Tuesday to boost security provisions around student visas. The Senate Judiciary Committee agreed by voice vote to an amendment by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa meant to ensure that border patrol agents at U.S. ports of entry have access to information on the status of student visas. The committee action follows recent revelations...

Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis III said Thursday that his department was unaware that the Russian security service sent a query to the FBI about one of two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombing long before the attack. When asked whether he would have given the suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a second look had he known, Davis told a congressional committee: "We would certainly look at the information. We would certainly talk to the individual. " Davis, testifying at...

Dozens of federal agents and local and state police officers are tracing the steps of the Tsarnaev brothers in the weeks and months before the Boston Marathon bombing , but they have not been able to connect them to a foreign terrorist organization, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials. The House Committee on Homeland Security will hold a hearing Thursday on the deadly bombings, which killed three and injured...

The Department of Homeland Security needs to address "gaps and weaknesses" in its mammoth effort to restructure the federal government to prevent a terrorist attack, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. The department , created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is the third-largest agency in the federal government, with more than 200,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $50 billion. The report is to be released Wednesday at a hearing before the Senate Committee...

Federal investigators are trying to determine whether two women who left a McLean house that reportedly is owned by Saudi Arabia were being held there in "domestic servitude," a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said. Agents from Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement received information about possible human trafficking at a home in the 6000 block of Orris Street, officials said. The women, who are Philippine nationals, left the home with federal authorities early...