Tag Archives for homeland security.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem ordered TSA PreCheck suspended due to the government shutdown—but the White House swiftly reversed her decision within hours. Noem’s announcement clashed with White House strategy, and would’ve increased airport staffing needs rather than reducing them. Unfortunately, her suspension of Global Entry – which makes arguably even less sense – remains in force.
The US Department of Homeland Security released a new policy on border searches of electronic devices along with a privacy impact assessment.
Steven Aftergood writes in Slate about the growth in rules dubbed “Sensitive Security Information” as a result of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 — government rules that we have to follow but aren’t allowed to know the details of. “Before the Law stands a doorkeeper” begins Franz Kafka’s famous parable, which tells of a man who seeks “admittance to the Law” but who is denied access by the doorkeeper—something he did not expect. The Law, he thinks, “should surely be accessible at all times and to everyone.” Federal employees can’t be prosecuted for revealing the contents of such information (only fired), but they’ve been threatened with prosecution nonetheless. And the TSA has used federal funding as a carrot and stick to impose secrecy rules on local police departments. “If I hadn’t seen this contract…
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants passengers on planes headed to the U.S. to be on board an hour before flight time. They trot out the usual justification The United States wants to tighten passenger checks to prevent a repeat of the Sept. 11 Even though, of course, this measure wouldn’t have prevented September 11 in the first place. As if we didn’t already have to get to the airport early enough, not only would the push back that time even further but connections would have to be much longer. It would no longer be enough to have an hour between connecting flights if you actually have to be onboard the new plane an hour before takeoff.
Joshua Marshall likes the Kaus piece, too, and decides to look into the origins of the term “homeland defense.” One of the earliest examples comes out of The Heritage Foundation.
Mickey Kaus has an excellent piece in Slate in which he does a very good job explaining the problems with the phrase “homeland security.” I highly recommend it.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
