Posts
(Compiler's note: As bad as it was, this unpreparedness for a national emergency goes way beyond a "Katrina like" event. Wake up America!! rca)
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency is rushing to prepare for what may be its first major test since Hurricane Katrina.
The agency has changed markedly since then, with new management, beefed-up procedures and a heightened sense of the nation's vulnerability to catastrophic natural disasters. But lawmakers and department investigators are warning that the agency's ability to marshal its forces quickly still is lagging. ....
A Department of Homeland Security inspector-general report in March assessed nine key areas at FEMA relating to preparedness and found moderate progress in five and very little progress in one: managing resources and training.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who is chairman of the committee that oversees homeland security, credited Mr. Paulison and his staff with turning FEMA around. However, he said in a written statement, "FEMA still has a long way to go...before it will be able to respond quickly and effectively to a real catastrophic disaster." ....
Employees in the agency share that concern, said one longtime FEMA staffer. FEMA, for example, has yet to develop all of the "strike teams" Congress required the agency to build in the wake of Katrina.
FEMA's Mr. Johnson said the agency has deployed three such teams to the region but is still short of the 20 teams it needs across the country. He said FEMA still needs to strengthen its cadre of reservists, a top priority for the agency.
When Mr. Paulison took over FEMA from Michael Brown in Katrina's aftermath in 2005, he moved to install experienced professionals to head FEMA's regional offices and to fill other senior posts. Since 2005, FEMA has doubled in size, to 3,400 employees, with reserve forces numbering 8,000 to 10,000, said Mr. Paulison, a former Miami fire chief. "It sent a message to our employees that we're serious; we're not just bringing in political hacks," he said. Mr. Brown, who was widely blamed for the poor handling of Katrina, had no prior experience in emergency management.
Click here for additional information. --- In July — a full year after Congress’s mandated deadline — the Federal Emergency Management Agency produced a skimpy draft proposal. Most of its required topic specialties — including how to house the poor and the disabled, how to house victims close to their jobs and how to manage large camps for evacuees — were left blank. Instead, the proposal called for handing those plans off to a task force of experts. And, oh yes, that task force has yet to be formed.
Friday, August 29, 2008
DHS Claims Breakthrough in Wireless Broadband Interoperability
by David Silverberg
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials and private sector engineers have succeeded in creating a system that allows first responders to communicate on what is effectively a single network using existing land-mobile radios as well as new broadband devices like personal digital assistants and laptops, significantly advancing interoperability while keeping costs low.
The new system, being piloted in Washington DC, is called the Radio Over Wireless Broadband (ROW-B), and is the result of collaboration by the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the company ISCO International, Elk Grove Village, Ill. ....
Boyd emphasized that the program was designed to use the equipment already existing in most first responder departments without requiring costly new replacements. The guiding principle was “What can we do now with what we have?” he explained.
The system was tested during July and August and connected the District of Columbia’s existing radios with broadband devices using a Bridging Systems Interface. It also used geographic information system (GIS) databases to identify the locations of vehicles, equipment and responders. ....
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials and private sector engineers have succeeded in creating a system that allows first responders to communicate on what is effectively a single network using existing land-mobile radios as well as new broadband devices like personal digital assistants and laptops, significantly advancing interoperability while keeping costs low.
The new system, being piloted in Washington DC, is called the Radio Over Wireless Broadband (ROW-B), and is the result of collaboration by the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the company ISCO International, Elk Grove Village, Ill. ....
Boyd emphasized that the program was designed to use the equipment already existing in most first responder departments without requiring costly new replacements. The guiding principle was “What can we do now with what we have?” he explained.
The system was tested during July and August and connected the District of Columbia’s existing radios with broadband devices using a Bridging Systems Interface. It also used geographic information system (GIS) databases to identify the locations of vehicles, equipment and responders. ....
Muslims in fed terror probe making donations to Obama
(Compiler's note: The American people need to get to the bottom of this BEFORE it is too late.)
By WorldNetDaily
Islamic leaders tied by federal investigators to the radical Muslim Brotherhood in America – including one under active investigation for alleged terror-financing – have recently donated to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign for president, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by WND.
Jamal M. Barzinji earlier this year gave Obama $1,000, a gift that records show has not been returned. Other Democratic candidates, including Rep. Jim Moran, have refunded donations from Barzinji since federal agents raided his Virginia home and offices in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Obama's top Muslim adviser resigned earlier this month over controversy surrounding his ties to an alleged Muslim Brotherhood front connected to Barzinji, who heads a network of Islamic charities and businesses.
Barzinji remains at the center of an active federal investigation into terrorist financing that involves recently convicted terrorist supporter Sami al-Arian. A grand jury is still hearing the widening case in Northern Virginia.
A federal court affidavit alleges "Barzinji is not only closely associated with PIJ (as evidenced by ties to al-Arian, including documents seized in Tampa), but also with Hamas." The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or PIJ, and Hamas are two known terrorist groups outlawed by the U.S
....According to recently declassified FBI documents posted by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Barzinji and another board member of an Islamist think tank in Herndon, Va., were listed among "members and leaders of the IKHWAN."
The Ikhwan is an Arabic reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which follows the credo: "The Quran is our constitution, the prophet is our guide; Death for the glory of Allah is our greatest ambition."
Osama bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and "blind sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman all belong to the Muslim Brotherhood.
U.S. prosecutors recently declassified an internal Ikhwan document outlining a long-term plan to infiltrate U.S. institutions and Islamize America.
....Democratic Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia was forced to return $3,750 in donations from Barzinji in 2002 after the donations were revealed in the press.
Barzinji donated $1,000 to Obama on Feb. 6 of this year – one day after his colleague
Omer Totonji also donated $1,000 to his campaign. Totonji's father, Ahmad Totonji, also is a subject of the federal investigation. His Herndon, Va., home and offices were raided by agents after 9/11.
That same month, Omar Barzinji of Sterling, Va., contributed $500 to Obama's campaign. He works for Islamist publisher Amana Limited, whose offices also were searched after 9/11.
....Also, Dar al-Hijrah trustee Esam Omeish gave $250 to Obama the same month as Barzinji.
Omeish was forced to resign his government-appointed position to the Virginia Commssion of Immigration after a video surfaced showing him advocating violent jihad. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat on Obama's short list for running mate, had named Omeish to the panel. ....
By WorldNetDaily
Islamic leaders tied by federal investigators to the radical Muslim Brotherhood in America – including one under active investigation for alleged terror-financing – have recently donated to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign for president, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by WND.
Jamal M. Barzinji earlier this year gave Obama $1,000, a gift that records show has not been returned. Other Democratic candidates, including Rep. Jim Moran, have refunded donations from Barzinji since federal agents raided his Virginia home and offices in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Obama's top Muslim adviser resigned earlier this month over controversy surrounding his ties to an alleged Muslim Brotherhood front connected to Barzinji, who heads a network of Islamic charities and businesses.
Barzinji remains at the center of an active federal investigation into terrorist financing that involves recently convicted terrorist supporter Sami al-Arian. A grand jury is still hearing the widening case in Northern Virginia.
A federal court affidavit alleges "Barzinji is not only closely associated with PIJ (as evidenced by ties to al-Arian, including documents seized in Tampa), but also with Hamas." The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or PIJ, and Hamas are two known terrorist groups outlawed by the U.S
....According to recently declassified FBI documents posted by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Barzinji and another board member of an Islamist think tank in Herndon, Va., were listed among "members and leaders of the IKHWAN."
The Ikhwan is an Arabic reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which follows the credo: "The Quran is our constitution, the prophet is our guide; Death for the glory of Allah is our greatest ambition."
Osama bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and "blind sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman all belong to the Muslim Brotherhood.
U.S. prosecutors recently declassified an internal Ikhwan document outlining a long-term plan to infiltrate U.S. institutions and Islamize America.
....Democratic Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia was forced to return $3,750 in donations from Barzinji in 2002 after the donations were revealed in the press.
Barzinji donated $1,000 to Obama on Feb. 6 of this year – one day after his colleague
Omer Totonji also donated $1,000 to his campaign. Totonji's father, Ahmad Totonji, also is a subject of the federal investigation. His Herndon, Va., home and offices were raided by agents after 9/11.
That same month, Omar Barzinji of Sterling, Va., contributed $500 to Obama's campaign. He works for Islamist publisher Amana Limited, whose offices also were searched after 9/11.
....Also, Dar al-Hijrah trustee Esam Omeish gave $250 to Obama the same month as Barzinji.
Omeish was forced to resign his government-appointed position to the Virginia Commssion of Immigration after a video surfaced showing him advocating violent jihad. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat on Obama's short list for running mate, had named Omeish to the panel. ....
Pakistan: five women buried alive for honor
By Robert Spencer
Sharia Alert -- we are constantly told in the West that honor killing has nothing to do with Islam, but Muslims somehow seem to keep misunderstanding that.
I've said this before, and I will keep saying it:
A manual of Islamic law certified by Al-Azhar as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2).
In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law. Why does this stipulation appear in a manual of Islamic law if this has nothing to do with Islam?
"Five women buried alive in name of honour," from the PakTribune, August 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):
ISLAMABAD: Three teenage girls along with their two close elderly relatives were shot at before being buried alive in a desert of Balochistan by their tribesmen in the name of honour.
The shocking reports of this horrible incident reaching the capital from different quarters revealed that the girls studying in classes 10 to 12 intended to marry men of their choice through a civil court by defying the centuries-old tribal traditions. When the fuming elders of Umrani tribe came to know about the intentions of these girls to appear before a local court, they picked them up from their homes along with two of their elderly women relatives. The crying girls were pushed into official cars and driven to a deserted area. There they were pushed out of the cars, made to stand in a queue and volleys of shots fired at them.
As the bleeding girls fell on the sand, the tribesmen dragged them into a nearby ditch and levelled it with earth and stones before the girls could breathe their last. As the two shocked elderly women tried to rescue the hapless girls, they too were gunned down and buried in the same manner. ....
Sharia Alert -- we are constantly told in the West that honor killing has nothing to do with Islam, but Muslims somehow seem to keep misunderstanding that.
I've said this before, and I will keep saying it:
A manual of Islamic law certified by Al-Azhar as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2).
In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law. Why does this stipulation appear in a manual of Islamic law if this has nothing to do with Islam?
"Five women buried alive in name of honour," from the PakTribune, August 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):
ISLAMABAD: Three teenage girls along with their two close elderly relatives were shot at before being buried alive in a desert of Balochistan by their tribesmen in the name of honour.
The shocking reports of this horrible incident reaching the capital from different quarters revealed that the girls studying in classes 10 to 12 intended to marry men of their choice through a civil court by defying the centuries-old tribal traditions. When the fuming elders of Umrani tribe came to know about the intentions of these girls to appear before a local court, they picked them up from their homes along with two of their elderly women relatives. The crying girls were pushed into official cars and driven to a deserted area. There they were pushed out of the cars, made to stand in a queue and volleys of shots fired at them.
As the bleeding girls fell on the sand, the tribesmen dragged them into a nearby ditch and levelled it with earth and stones before the girls could breathe their last. As the two shocked elderly women tried to rescue the hapless girls, they too were gunned down and buried in the same manner. ....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
