EVENT: The Department of Homeland Security- Year Eight

A few very interesting points from this morning's event on Georgetown's campus.

The event was moderated by NBC's Andrea Mitchell. C-SPAN provided coverage, and a portion is slated to air on MSNBC.

The participants consisted of all three Secretaries of Homeland Security.
Janet Napaolitano
Tom Ridge
Michael Chertoff

Prominent attendees:
Sen. Landrieu
Congressmen King and Price
Congresswoman Harmon
The German Ambassador

Some salient points that were made. Please note that they are paraphrased.

Napolitano:
- Intelligence is not linear, but rather is a cloud of information.
- Currently, intelligence about aviation places it as the most significant ongoing threat. US adversaries prefer passenger jets over cargo jets. Bridges, and trains are secondary.
- Moving forward on the Lisbon Treaty that would permit and establish guidelines for airline passenger information sharing between EU countries and the US is entering its third round of negotiations.
- The biggest concern of DHS is homegrown terrorists.
- DHS has an active presence at US hacker conventions and actively tries to recruit the best.

Chertoff:
- Risk management is not about risk elimination.
- The government evaluates the potential impact before funding and project decisions are made
- Layered defense, with built-in redundancies should help mitigate intel failures.

Ridge:
- Airline security is not yet at the risk managed stage.
- Should we treat everyone as a potential terrorist forever?
- It was easier to go to the moon than to come up with some of the strategies and technologies required for airline security.
- Currently enjoys flying and has been pulled aside for secondary screening on a number of occasions. Finds TSA staff to be delightful.