Homeland Security Leader

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff honored the department's 218,000 employees during its fourth annual awards ceremony on November 20, 2008 to recognize the many accomplishments of its men and women.

Valuable intelligence on thousands of suspected terrorists risks being lost because of backlogs at a little-known US federal government database that processes DNA samples gathered in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The unfinished work at the database – part of a classified intelligence partnership of military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies – has been referred to in public documents but has not been openly discussed by US government officials.

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When armed men attacked South Africa’s most closely guarded nuclear facility a year ago, they penetrated the detection systems at the perimeter, cut through an electrified fence and broke into the emergency control center, shooting one worker there in the chest before escaping.

The Pelindaba facility holds hundreds of pounds of weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium. Although the attackers last November did not steal any of it, the assault highlights what a new report describes as the increasingly global challenge of keeping nuclear materials from falling into the hands of terrorists.

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General Douglas O’Dell, Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding, told experts gathered for a rental housing roundtable discussion that their ideas were key in helping restore, rebuild and build affordable rental housing for the residents of Louisiana on Tuesday, November 18, 2008.

Secretary Chertoff discussed aviation security measures at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. on November 17, 2008.

Secretary Chertoff and Irish Minister for Transportation Noel Dempsey spoke on the aviation preclearance agreement on November 17, 2008 in Washington, D.C.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is working to strengthen General Aviation (GA) security to further minimize the vulnerability of GA aircraft flights being used to deliver illicit materials, transport dangerous individuals or employ aircraft as a weapon.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced additional measures to strengthen private aircraft security by requiring more detailed information about arriving and departing private aircraft and persons onboard, within a timeframe necessary for the department to assess the risks that certain flights may pose to national security. The Advance Information on Private Aircraft Arriving and Departing the United States final rule expands on existing regulations and is part of a comprehensive effort to strengthen general aviation security.