Homeland Security

A dream had carried the boys so far from home, some 5,000 miles across the ocean to a cramped and dingy apartment in Philadelphia: a hope that ice hockey could change their lives. Ivan Pravilov could fulfill that dream, they were told. He could take them from the daily grind of post-communist Ukraine to the gleaming ice of the NHL. He'd done it before. He'd done if for Andrei Zyuzin, who went on to play for six NHL teams. He'd done it for Konstantin Kalmikov, a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996.

REMEMBER when immigration officials sent out flight-school visa approval notices for two of the 9/11 hijackers - six months after they committed their suicide attacks on America? President Bush was outraged, four federal immigration officials were reassigned and Washington vowed that such embarrassing bureaucratic snafus would never happen again. It has, in fact, happened again. On Jan. 15, immigration officials sent a notice to Eugueni Kniazev of Brooklyn, N.Y. The letter informs Kniazev, an immigrant from Siberia, that he is "deemed to be a lawful permanent resident of the United States.

The Democrat-controlled Congress and President Bush haven't agreed on much this year, but the new homeland security legislation is a shining exception. Signed into law by Bush Friday, this measure finally implements many recommendations made by the independent 9/11 commission. That report came out three years ago, and too many of its wise suggestions have been ignored in Washington. The new law addresses one of the biggest drawbacks of recent homeland security spending: sparsely populated states with few terrorist targets have received a disproportionately large share of the federal pie. This measure will cut in half the amount of guaranteed grants given to states without regard to their risk of attack.

VICE President Dick Cheney recently charged that a vote for John Kerry was an invitation to a terrorist attack. Tough rhetoric notwithstanding, it is actually the president's homeland security policies that leave this nation unacceptably vulnerable to such an attack. Consider Pennsylvania: The state is home to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, two of the most potent symbols of our democracy. That and other factors make large areas of the state a potential terror target. Despite this, in 2004, Pennsylvania received just $5.90 per capita in federal counterterrorism funding, placing it 45th among all the states.

RUDY WAS THERE within minutes. No sooner had American Airlines flight 587 dropped from the sky than the mayor of New York arrived with the first responders. The accident occurred in Queens, but so strong and bright is Rudy's star that I wouldn't have been surprised (or disappointed) if I saw him at a tragedy outside of New York's city limits. It doesn't look like this crash was the work of terrorists, but Rudy's presence was nevertheless reassuring. He's a realist, he's honest, and if somebody's butt needs to be kicked in the name of justice, you know he'll put the hammer down.

THE OFFICE of homeland defense has accomplished very little so far, and Americans are beginning to wonder if Tom Ridge, its director, is holding an empty title. A little perspective and a little patience are in order. The parts of the government that organized our response in Afghanistan have had more than 50 years of experience in working together through the National Security Council. Their bureaucracies have collaborated through several wars and scores of lesser military operations, covert actions and attendant diplomatic endeavors.

A $20 million federally funded homeland security headquarters for Philadelphia and the region is headed for South Philadelphia, city officials said Wednesday as they sought City Council approval to lease the old Army Quartermaster Corps complex off Oregon Avenue. The proposed Delaware Valley Intelligence Center would house the Philadelphia Police Department's criminal intelligence and homeland security units, with between 40 and 50 officers, said Everett Gillison, Philadelphia's deputy mayor for public safety.

A $20 million, federally funded homeland security headquarters for Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley is headed for South Philadelphia, city officials said Wednesday as they sought City Council approval to lease the old U.S. Army's Quartermaster Corps complex off Oregon Avenue. The proposed Delaware Valley Intelligence Center would house Philadelphia Police Department's criminal intelligence and homeland security units, with between 40 and 50 officers, said Everett Gillison, Philadelphia's deputy mayor for public safety.

President Bush (right) signed legislation yesterday creating a new Department of Homeland Security and launching the largest government reorganization since 1947. About 170,000 workers in 22 agencies will move into the new department to foster better communication among agencies in an effort to prevent future terrorist attacks on American soil. Key dates in the White House transition plan released yesterday: JAN. 24: Establishment of office of the secretary of the new Department of Homeland Security.

Lawmakers blistered the Bush administration yesterday for "a severe attitude problem" in its dealings with Congress, threatening to withhold money because of Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge's refusal to testify on Capitol Hill. At a hearing, White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels was taken to task by House Appropriations Committee members. "You and several others in the administration, in my view, have a severe attitude problem," said Wisconsin Rep. David Obey, the top Democrat on the committee.

WASHINGTON - The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, U.S. officials said Monday. The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger's underwear, but this time al-Qaeda developed a more refined detonation system, U.S. officials said.

A former FBI agent from Bucks County is Pennsylvania's new homeland security chief, Gov. Corbett's office said Tuesday. Thomas Minton III, 52, of Pipersville, spent 22 years with the FBI and specialized in investigations of national-security issues and terrorism. A Delaware County native, he is a graduate of Lycoming College and holds master's degrees from St. Joseph's and Princeton Universities. - Associated Press

I want government to leave me alone. I'm sick of it. Whatever happened to personal freedom? Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Government should just go away. Except for the garbage men. I love throwing stuff away. I want that to continue. I pay $11 a month for it, and that doesn't cover all the costs, so I want government to pay for the rest. Forget recyclables. I don't remember the Founding Fathers saying anything about recycling. Once the trash gets picked up, government should leave me the hell alone.

NEWARK, N.J. - Security officials at Newark Liberty International Airport were reviewing an incident in which a traveler breached a checkpoint and caused the evacuation of one of the airport's terminals. The breach occurred Thursday afternoon. The Transportation Security Administration told the Bergen Record that a 64-year-old British man walked past a distracted TSA agent at an exit area in Terminal B. The terminal was evacuated for about an hour. The TSA said the agent had been removed from screening duties pending a review of the incident.

Devon Crawford was happy to run into some of his old coworkers Monday, but he wished they were meeting a few miles away along the Delaware River, amid the grit and refinery flares. "It's unfortunate that we have to see each other like we're seeing each other," he told them. The occasion was a congressional hearing in Aston Township, Delaware County, on the closing of oil refineries in nearby Trainer and Marcus Hook and an impending shutdown in South Philadelphia. Crawford, the father of boys 10 and 14 who worked as a pump operator at ConocoPhillips in Trainer, is among the hundreds who have lost their jobs.

A SUSPICIOUS white, powdery substance delivered in the mail yesterday to the office of U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., in a Center City skyscraper - sparking a homeland security and hazmat scare - turned out to be cornstarch, police said. An intern opened a letter containing the powder in Toomey's office, on the 17th floor of 8 Penn Center, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman. Department of Homeland Security, fire and hazmat officials were on the scene at 17th Street and JFK Boulevard to investigate about 3 p.m. About an hour later, they determined that the substance was harmless, Little said.

Paul J. Hetznecker is a criminal defense/civil rights lawyer who is representing several Occupy Philadelphia activists The spontaneous, peaceful Occupy movement has challenged us to closely examine the emergent corporate state and the corresponding demise of our democracy. Equally important is the spotlight the movement has put on the heart and soul of our democracy: the right to speak freely, to assemble in protest, and to express shared ideas through a collective, public voice.

A MAN WHOSE NAME is practically synonymous with "business as usual. " A political insider and deal-maker whose real talents take place behind closed doors, when he's not making sure his friends and allies get a cut. A guy who once found himself in the middle of some morally hard-to-defend activity, and looked the other way. The next president of Penn State - now that Graham Spanier has resigned - can't be another deal-maker. He or she needs to be, pardon my language, a total ass-kicker, someone who will cast the money changers out of this former temple of college football.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho - In a gray office building across from the scenic Snake River, analysts from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sift through the latest threat information on double-paneled, flat-screen computer monitors. They are not searching for rogue missile launches or terrorist plots, as analysts do in secure government rooms elsewhere in the United States. Their job at the Idaho National Laboratory is to find and stop what experts warn is a growing risk to America: a cyber-attack that could disable water systems, chemical plants, or parts of the electrical grid.