Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus DHS State

State of America's Homeland Protection Handle
Release Date: January 27, 2011

Washington, D.C.
George Washington University
(Remarks as Ready)
Good afternoon, and thank you President Knapp for that kind introduction, and for your invitation to get here at George Washington University.
I’ll be talking at many colleges and universities through the 12 months about diverse areas of homeland protection. I’m content to kick items off right here, though, with the address about the overall state of our homeland protection.
So, thanks towards the Homeland Safety Policy Institute. And I would like to especially acknowledge the Institute’s founding director, Frank Cilluffo, that is a fantastic pal of DHS. Frank is certainly one of people that had been "present in the creation" of our homeland protection energy following the 9/11 attacks. And below his leadership, the Homeland Protection Coverage Institute has been at the vanguard of treating homeland security as its personal discipline that demands significant examine.
Because of this Institute, as well as other efforts emerging at schools and universities across the country, homeland protection is taking its location between longer-standing fields – like international affairs and criminal justice – as an region wherever main worldwide problems are now being studied and addressed. For the students and younger specialists here with us nowadays, or watching on the internet, you might be the following wave of homeland protection thinkers, pros, and managers. You'll be able to – and without doubt will – possess a considerable affect on this emerging discipline.
I also desire to consider a moment to note the really existence of your Division of Homeland Protection is due, in large part, for the efforts of Senator Joe Lieberman. Senator Lieberman could not be right here this afternoon. But all of us know about, and have tremendous appreciation for, his tireless, nonpartisan efforts to make our nation far more secure.
Two days in the past, President Obama delivered to Congress along with the American people his annual deal with within the state of our union, a custom that goes as far back again as 1790 together with the namesake of this institution. These days, I’m starting a new custom, an yearly evaluation from the state of our homeland protection. I would like to start by telling two stories that illustrate the breadth and the complexity of our problem, but also the humanity of it too.
Just some weeks ago, I had the honor of investing New Decades in Kabul, Afghanistan, with numerous of your males and ladies serving in our armed forces and our civilian mission there. I met with soldiers on the Torkham Forward Operating Base and was briefed on operations at Torkham Gate, a heavily-trafficked border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is near Jallalabad, not much from the Khyber Pass, and it’s where Afghan and U.S. officials – which includes border protection and customs officers from your Department of Homeland Safety – perform facet by facet to offer protection, whilst enabling legal commerce and travel to acquire via.
The second encounter was really different, and occurred just a little greater than a 12 months back at Ellis Island. I was major a naturalization ceremony – yet another great honor of this career. I examine the oath of allegiance to new People in america from 48 different nations, like a 95-year-old female through the Dominican Republic. Collectively, in that area, were dozens of individuals, with very various backgrounds, who all desired exactly the same factor – to take the rights, and also the responsibilities, of American citizenship.
These two experiences remind us that the hard perform of securing the U.S. homeland stretches in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and other far-off places, each of the way again for the Main streets of our smallest property cities. They remind of us of why that hard work should be done; who we're doing it for; and just how we need to perform ourselves whilst carrying it out. And they remind us that securing the homeland means upholding the very values on which this region was founded, and honoring the millions who handed by means of Ellis Island – and also the ones still coming today – searching for the promise and blessings of The us.
So, what, then, will be the state of homeland protection these days? I can report that our younger division has matured, building around the very good perform of my two predecessors, Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff.
I also can report that our homeland is much more secure that it had been ten many years in the past, and, indeed, much more safe than it was two a long time back.
If these have been ordinary occasions, that might suffice. But they are not ordinary occasions. The varieties of threats we now experience exhibit that our homeland protection can be a shared duty. Only a "whole of nation approach" will provide us to the amount of safety and resilience we demand.
So over the last two decades, our method has acknowledged the Division of Homeland Protection – in fact, the entire Federal government and also the army – can not, alone, supply security. Real security calls for the engagement of our complete culture, with federal government, law enforcement, the personal sector, along with the public all taking part in their respective roles.
From day one particular, the Obama Administration has operated on the premise that security is really a shared duty – that no matter who you are – from students and professors to first responders to everyday citizens – all of us play a part.
Because with the trust we have in Americans to reveal in our collective safety, today I announce the end of your outdated system of color-coded alerts. In its place, we are going to apply a fresh technique which is built on a distinct and simple premise: When a threat develops that might impact you – the public – we'll let you know. We'll offer whichever data we are able to so that you know how to protect yourselves, your people, and your communities.
Under the new, two-tiered method, DHS will coordinate with other Federal entities to problem formal, comprehensive alerts with regards to details about a particular or credible terrorist risk. These alerts will consist of a distinct statement that there's an "imminent threat" or "elevated menace." The alerts also will present a concise summary of your likely danger, information about actions being taken to make sure general public safety, and suggested methods that men and women and communities can take.
The new system reflects the truth that we must always be on inform and be ready. After we have data about a particular, credible menace, we will concern a formal alert delivering as considerably information as we could. Depending around the nature with the threat, the inform might be minimal to a selected audience, like law enforcement, or even a segment with the private sector, like shopping malls or hotels. Or, the inform may be issued much more broadly for the American individuals, distributed – through a statement from DHS – from the news media and social media channels.
The alerts will likely be particular towards the risk. They could suggest certain actions, or suggest trying to find specific suspicious conduct. And they will have a specified stop date.
Today, we are beginning a 90-day implementation period in which Federal, state and neighborhood govt, law enforcement entities, private and non-profit sector partners, airports, as well as other transport hubs will officially transition to your new program, which flows from evolving apply from the final handful of years. This signifies that the days are numbered for the automated recordings at airports,Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Plus, and announcements about a shade code degree that were, too often, accompanied by little practical information.
As I stated, this new National Terrorism Advisory Method is created around the common-sense belief that we're all in this with each other, and that most of us have a role to play. This technique was developed in that same collaborative spirit. It had been largely the operate of a bipartisan job force that incorporated law enforcement, former Mayors and Governors, and members from the previous administration. Some of them are here today, and I thank them, and inquire for a spherical of applause for his or her excellent operate that led to this new device in our homeland security arsenal.
Continuing to evolve our tactic to defending the homeland remains crucial since the threats we experience right now are actual, they are persistent, and they're evolving rapidly. We know that al Qaeda, and also other groups sharing their terrorist ideology, proceed to focus on us. More and more, this really is carried out via al Qaeda affiliates in spots like Yemen and also the Arabian Peninsula. We are also handling the danger from terrorists who use the Net and social media like Facebook and YouTube to achieve vulnerable men and women and inspire new recruits.
Historically, our domestic counterterrorism efforts have been based within the belief that we confronted the best chance from attacks planned, and carried out, by men and women coming from abroad. But the arrests of an increasing quantity of U.S. people on terror-related fees from the final two decades imply that we must transfer over and above this paradigm. These consist of Najibullah Zazi, a legal long lasting resident arrested in 2009 for plotting to attack the new York City subway method; Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen, who tried to explode a automobile bomb in Instances Square previous year; at the same time as more modern arrests in Portland, Oregon; Dallas, Texas; and here from the Washington area.
Today, we operate beneath the premise that individuals prepared to perform terrorist functions might already be within the country, and could carry out additional functions of terrorist violence with tiny or no warning. We ought to all function to realize a much better comprehending from the behaviors, tactics, and other indicators that may position to terrorist exercise.
At precisely the same time, we encounter the opportunity of advanced attacks ranging from chemical, biological, and nuclear, to attacks in cyberspace. Without a doubt, in only the previous 12 months, we’ve seen the complete spectrum of cyber threats, from denial-of-service attacks and spamming to attacks with spyware.
Finally, we all know that our borders and ports of entry represent potential avenues, not just for terrorist travel, but also for threats inside the sort of smuggling, human trafficking, and transnational crime.
So as I stated previously, our method to confronting these threats has become to build and strengthen partnerships, and to create a shared sense of duty for our protection by doing work with state, nearby and, tribal law enforcement, our global allies, partners from the personal sector, and naturally,Office Ultimate 2007, the American folks.
Despite our title, the Division of Homeland Security doesn't possess sole duty for securing the homeland in the Federal authorities.
Our nation’s armed forces might be thousands of miles from our shores, living in Forwarding Running Bases far from loved ones or the comforts of home, but they’re every bit around the frontlines of our homeland safety. They've aided to significantly degrade al Qaeda’s capabilities to mount key attacks right right here from the Usa and elsewhere throughout the world.
The Director of Countrywide Intelligence, the CIA, and also the entire Intelligence Community, of which DHS is a member, is creating far more and better streams of intelligence than at any time inside the past. The Countrywide Counterterrorism Center has created critical advancements to our federal watchlisting systems and also to the coordination of our counterterrorism efforts.
And naturally, the Federal homeland safety enterprise consists of our strong partners on the Division of Justice along with the FBI, whose perform has led to your arrest of over two-dozen Us residents on terrorism-related expenses because 2009.
At the Division of Homeland Security during the last two many years, we've noticed some extraordinary progress and tough work pay off. But that could not have happened without having the devoted, skilled adult males and girls of this fantastic Division, such as the nearly 50,000 Transportation Protection Officers who operate tirelessly, and usually thanklessly, to deter and stop terrorist attacks on passenger planes; the a lot more than 20,000 Border Patrol agents who put their lives within the line to protect our borders; the a lot more than 10,000 officers and investigators who enforce our immigration legal guidelines, and carry to justice people that seek out to visitors medications, arms and folks; the a lot more than 40,Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2010,000 males and girls who serve in the U.s. Coast Guard protecting our maritime borders; or the a huge number of scientists and engineers functioning about the next era of safety technologies; the security guards at government buildings; the trainers of our law enforcement specialists; or the intelligence analysts doing work round the clock to remain ahead of rising threats.
But the homeland security enterprise extends far beyond DHS and also the federal federal government. As I stated, it calls for not only a "whole of authorities," but a "whole of nation" method. In some respects, local law enforcement, neighborhood groups,Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, citizens, as well as the personal sector perform as significantly of a position in homeland safety as the federal government. That is why I prefer to say that "homeland safety begins with hometown protection."
For instance, we all know that communities can play a vital security part once they forge robust partnerships with regional law enforcement. In reality, this really is something of an aged story within our nation’s heritage. People in america have lengthy assisted to safe their hometowns, too as their homeland, from our tradition of civil defense, to far more latest efforts like neighborhood watches and community-oriented policing initiatives.
A review just final year research found that, between 1999 and 2009, more than eighty percent of foiled terrorist plots within the United states had been thwarted because of observations from law enforcement or the general general public.
At DHS, we also perform intently with a numerous array of religious, ethnic, and community organizations and leaders. Members of those communities have, in reality, been critical in thwarting violence. And, like all People in america, they perform extremely good roles in enriching our national daily life.
And so, every day at DHS, we're doing every thing we could to acquire much more info, more equipment, and much more sources from Washington, DC, and to the palms from the guys and ladies around the entrance lines.
That is why we released the countrywide "If You See A thing, Say Something" campaign previous 12 months to raise awareness of possible terrorist ways, and emphasize the importance of reporting suspicious activity to law enforcement. You have little doubt heard this campaign if you have ridden on Metro or Amtrak. And we've got continued to broaden this work across the country in partnership with specialist and collegiate sports activities, buying facilities – much like the Mall of The us – and merchants – like Wal-Mart.
We also see this effort being a partnership between citizens and neighborhood police. For that reason, we’ve labored intently with the Division of Justice to increase the Nationwide Suspicious Exercise Reporting, or SAR, initiative. Currently lively in over two dozen states and metropolitan areas, and shortly for being used by fusion facilities, transit police, and also other teams throughout the region, the SAR initiative produces a typical procedure for law enforcement to identify and report suspicious activity so it can be shared nationally and analyzed for broader tendencies.
I want to pause here to generate a significant level. Each the "If You See A thing, Say Something" and SAR initiatives are designed, and examined, with civil liberties and privacy in brain. Equally are aimed at identifying suspicious behaviors and increasing our shared capacity to guard the country.
Today, we’re also premiering many further sources to better link citizens and communities together with the varieties of knowledge and resources that DHS delivers. I urge you to go to our new "Hometown Security" resource web page on DHS.gov, and to keep connected through the Department’s new Facebook web page at the same time.
To offer you a better sense of how our partnership approach looks, and – to borrow a sports activities metaphor – how we're fielding a bigger, better-trained staff, I’d wish to discuss four areas of focus for us in the coming year.
Counterterrorism
Our most essential duty stays stopping terrorist attacks around the homeland. And also to help this vital mission we have worked very tough to strengthen and build our domestic information-sharing architecture by rising the ability of state and major-area fusion facilities to serve as facilities of analytic excellence.
We have made historic strides in aviation protection - accelerating the deployment of new protection products at our domestic airports, and launching an international initiative that, in October of previous 12 months, produced a first-of-its-kind global agreement by 190 nations to increase aviation safety specifications around the world. Through the coming year, we are going to proceed, and hopefully full, negotiations using the European Union on strengthening info sharing inside the aviation atmosphere, and extend such details sharing to other continents at the same time.
We will develop on these efforts by leading an international effort to strengthen the security with the global supply chain, which brings products and commodities to our shores, and throughout our borders. This contains an initiative referred to as Task World-wide Protect that we've launched with all the Entire world Customs Business, or WCO, and 60 other nations to prevent the theft or diversion of precursor chemical compounds which can be employed by terrorists to generate improvised explosive products. Additionally, it includes a brand new initiative with the Global Civil Aviation Organization, the WCO, as well as other worldwide partners, to determine and shield one of the most vital components of our offer chain from assault or disruption, including crucial transportation hubs. Collectively with other Federal departments and agencies, we’re looking for to bolster the resiliency with the worldwide provide chain to ensure if a terrorist assault or all-natural catastrophe does arise, the supply chain can recover quickly, and any disruption could be minimized.
As Tom Ridge liked to say when he was Secretary, the physical borders of the United states of america must be the final line of defense, not the primary. Our target, quite just, is to make certain the safety of all vacationers and cargo because they journey throughout the planet.
Border Security and Immigration
A 2nd significant set of initiatives requires border security and immigration enforcement. On these two fronts, this Department has, during the last two many years, been the two relentless and effective.
2010 was a historic 12 months when it comes to securing and managing our borders and enforcing our immigration legal guidelines. You will find now more resources around the southwest border – with regards to personnel, technological innovation, and infrastructure – than in the past just before in American history. And we keep on to find out progress on every single metric. The numbers which are meant to go up have gone up, along with the numbers which can be meant to go down have gone down.
The amount of illegal crossings – the best indicator of illegal visitors – is now at less than 50 percent its all-time higher. Concurrently, from the past two decades, we've got seized much more contraband throughout the board – illegal bulk money, weapons, and medicines – than we've witnessed in recent years.
But we will not quit there. Our priority continues to get the elimination of criminal aliens who pose a danger to public safety and nationwide protection.
Because of your committed function of our ICE personnel, in the past fiscal yr far more illegal aliens with criminal information ended up deported in the U.S. than ever before just before, a 70 percent boost from two a long time ago. An arrangement called Secure Communities, which utilizes biometrics to establish and remove criminal aliens in state prisons and neighborhood jails, has expanded from 14 jurisdictions in 2008 to greater than a thousand by the conclude of this month. It's going to be in each and every jail and prison by 2013.
I acknowledge, as well, that illegal immigration is driven largely from the need for illegal labor. As our economy grows, that need may possibly increase also. That is certainly why we’re doing work to create E-Verify all that it might be to assist corporations make sure a legal workforce. We ought to instill a culture of compliance amongst employers. And we’ll proceed to conduct audits to ensure all organizations are following the law.
We are also focused on bettering and strengthening the legal immigration method, like formalizing a policy that expedites citizenship for non-citizens serving our country in the army abroad. And we keep on to grant citizenship to file numbers of army support members.
DHS may also develop an automated vetting capability for immigration profit processing that may permit us to immediately handle countrywide protection dangers. We are going to roll out the E-Verify "Self Verify," that will allow potential staff to examine their employment authorization position. And, we'll begin transitioning from a paper-based method to a brand new customer-focused, centralized, electronic scenario management system for immigration positive aspects.
Cybersecurity, Science, and Technology
While immigration and border enforcement have been longstanding problems to our security, we also experience new and emerging ones.
Over the past two a long time, we’ve increased our capability to battle cyber crimes and cyber terrorism, opening a fresh 24/7 check out and warning center, and testing our country's first national-level cyber incident response strategy, even though rising our secure of cyber authorities by some 500 percent.
We entered right into a historic agreement with the Division of Defense and Nationwide Safety Agency to detail the division of labor amongst our organizations. We now have also labored intently together with the private sector to safeguard our nation's critical infrastructure, such as new funding for port security and communication programs, at the same time as new standards for building and securing Federal facilities.
This year, we are going to total the deployment of your Einstein 2 danger detection system across the Federal area, and we are going to proceed to create, and begin deployment, of Einstein three, which will offer DHS with all the capability to automatically detect and disrupt malicious cyber activity. And we are going to operate through our Science and Technological innovation directorate, our dozen academic "Centers of Excellence," and our a lot of partners in the Federal govt, on technological developments. As an example, to produce the safe and efficient airport checkpoints of tomorrow; layout the supplies that can make our infrastructure more resilient to an attack or all-natural catastrophe; and devise the screening and detection capabilities which will preserve us forward of threats from nuclear and radiological components.
Resilience and Response
Through the tough work of FEMA, our Countrywide Safety and Applications directorate, and other folks across DHS, doing work with our several federal, state, neighborhood, and personal sector partners, we have elevated our preparedness for disasters of all kinds, and strengthened the resilience of our most vulnerable vital infrastructure.
As the President declared in his State of your Union, the so-called "D Block" of communications spectrum will likely be set aside for public basic safety, so we are going to operate with initial responders on the standards and requirements for interoperability of important communications gear in the course of periods of crisis.
We will continue to boost and expand the disaster workout routines so critical to catastrophe response. This year, FEMA will lead the biggest exercising actually of its sort, testing our capability to respond to a major earthquake along the brand new Madrid fault line that runs with the midsection of your country.
To augment our international offer chain safety hard work, we will perform together with the non-public sector and worldwide partners to expand and integrate "trusted traveler" and "trusted shipper" programs that facilitate legitimate travel and trade even though enhancing security.
We'll start the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Requirements Personnel Surety System, requiring high-risk chemical services to vet people with access against the Terrorist Screening Database.
And we'll increase the Transportation Employee Identification Credential, or TWIC, plan to make sure that only approved maritime staff can access safe locations of regulated vessels.
Recruitment
Let me say some thing immediately to the pupils within the place, simply because aspect of why I wished to give this speech – this first annual State of Homeland Safety speech – right here at George Washington was since I would like to produce a particular appeal to you personally.
I know you're not aged ample to remember, but I wager you’ve noticed images with the iconic posters of Uncle Sam, with his index finger pointed out, using the caption that read, "I Want You." People recruitment posters encouraged a era of People in america to enlist within the U.S. Army.
Now,Office 2010 Professional Plus Key, I've constantly had deep respect for your military. As Governor of Arizona I used to be Commander-in-Chief with the Arizona National Guard. The Coast Guard is in the Department of Homeland Security, and I have had the honor not just of browsing troops in areas like Afghanistan, Europe, and also the Persian Gulf, but additionally conversing to wounded warriors at Walter Reed Hospital. My Department today employs above 48,000 veterans, and via partnerships using the Division of Defense, and organizations such as the American Legion, we’ll be more than fifty,000 through the stop of up coming 12 months.
So, it's with the finest respect that I say it is time for a new recruitment poster. Nowadays, DHS would like you. We want a new era of People in america to affix the combat in opposition to the new generation of threats to our homeland.
DHS delivers thrilling careers in areas spanning law enforcement, intelligence, and counterterrorism, like intelligence analysts, coverage professionals, and worldwide affairs professionals who assist negotiate world-wide agreements; Top secret Service agents and investigators who are protecting our leaders, thwarting terror plots, fighting transnational crime, and breaking up human trafficking rings. We offer several opportunities for internships, and our a variety of fellowship and scholarship applications attract top students from prime academic plans across the region.
All of those positions – all of them – feature the chance not simply to complete great work within this fascinating discipline, but to serve your nation too.
I am typically asked what I lose rest about as homeland protection secretary. Typical perception would say that in an open culture with eight,000 miles of land borders, and 95,000 miles of coastline, a terrorist could get by means of, or even a homegrown one particular could be successful. A novel weapon might be deployed. A local community could possibly be briefly overcome. I’m involved about all of these things.
But I would like People in the usa to know what I don't drop rest above. I don't worry in regards to the core values which have guided our country for more than two centuries – the same values the new citizens I naturalize are looking for to uphold: independence, tough function, shared duty.
Even if our enemies had been to do well in pulling off an assault around the homeland, they'll never ever do well in undermining individuals enduring values.
In Afghanistan, there is a plaque that hangs within the residence from the American Ambassador. On it's a quote from President Woodrow Wilson that reads: "Let us set for ourselves a regular so higher that it's going to be considered a glory to dwell up to it ...and then let us live as much as it...and add a fresh laurel to the crown of The us."
So, allow us set a typical that high for homeland safety. Allow us try for more partnerships; a larger group; and an even greater willingness from our citizens to share obligation for our collective safety. And let us then meet that common, and add a new laurel for the crown of America.
Thank you.

This web page was final reviewed/modified on January 27, 2011.