Georgia’s secretary of state: DHS tried to breach our firewall

Georgia’s secretary of state has claimed the Department of Homeland Security tried to breach his office’s firewall and has issued a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson asking for an explanation.

Brian Kemp issued a letter to Johnson on Thursday after the state’s third-party cybersecurity provider detected an IP address from the agency’s Southwest D.C. office trying to penetrate the state’s firewall. According to the letter, the attempt was unsuccessful.  

Why Is The DHS Preparing To Take Control Of The US Election?

What do you do when you’re the dictatorial leader of an oppressive government regime looking to maintain power while simultaneously preserving the facade of free and open elections?  Well, if you’re the Obama administration then you look for avenues to nationalize state-run election infrastructure.

But you can’t just seize control of infrastructure that has been successfully run at the state level for a couple hundred years…that kind of stuff only happens in Venezuela and we’re better than that.  No, you need a catalyst for this kind of blatant power grab.  “Coincidentally”, a catalyst just like the FBI’s warning a couple of days ago about “foreign hackers [read Putin] penetrating state election systems.”  Then, once you’ve defined the super villain, all you need is a couple of political cronies to go on a fear mongering tour to whip the electorate into a frenzy.  And wouldn’t you know it…Harry Reid recently did just that by sending a letter to the FBI voicing his “concerns” that the “Russian government” may be looking to tamper with the upcoming presidential election.  Per the New York Times, Harry Reid’s letter to the FBI included the following:

Can Hackers Break into U.S. Voting Machines?

Recent attacks on American computer systems have raised concerns that electronic voting machines could be future targets.

Emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) recently appeared on the WikiLeaks website. The emails showed that Democratic Party leaders failed to be neutral during the party’s presidential nomination process. They worked against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who battled former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the nomination. She was officially nominated last month.

US, Germany announce new intel sharing deal

The U.S. and Germany have agreed on a new accord aimed at increasing information sharing to help thwart potential terrorist attacks, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson has announced.

Agents nab Pakistanis with terrorist connections crossing U.S. border

When the U.S. Border Patrol nabbed two Pakistani men with ties to terrorism at the U.S.-Mexico border in September, it marked just the latest instance of illegal immigrants from so-called “special interest countries” using the southern border as a point of entry into the country.

Muhammad Azeem and Mukhtar Ahmad, both in their 20s and from Gujrat, were caught Sept. 20 by agents south of San Diego and just over the international border from Tijuana. When agents checked their identities through databases, they got hits on both of them: Mr. Ahmad popped up as an associate of a known or suspected terrorist, while Mr. Azeem’s information had been shared by a foreign government for intelligence purposes.

Jeh Johnson: ‘Time Will Tell’ Whether US Comes Under Chinese Cyberattack

Addressing an audience in Washington at The Atlantic and Aspen Institute’s Washington Ideas Forum, Johnson said he recently met with senior Chinese officials to discuss pulling back cyber-intrusions and cybercrime, but “time will tell whether or not the Chinese live up to” those discussions.

Obama administration admitted 1,519 foreigners with terrorist ties into the U.S.

Judicial Watch reports that the Obama administration has granted asylum or residency to 1,519 foreigners with terrorist ties. This information comes from an annual report to Congress by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

More than half of the terror supporters granted asylum or residency by Team Obama provided material support to terrorist organizations, according to the USCIS report. Other received military-type training from a terrorist organization (nine fall into this category), voluntarily provided medical care to members of a terrorist group, or solicited funds or recruited individuals for membership in a terrorist organization.

New border deal: Canada customs agents could work in U.S., vice versa

Is the North American Union still underway one step at a time? Only time will tell. Some also say the border crisis in America is also related.

 

Canadian customs agents could soon work in the U.S. and carry firearms, and the U.S. border guards could do the same in Canada, as a result of a new border agreement between Canada and the U.S.

Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson have signed a customs pre-clearance agreement for rail, land and sea travel that was years in the making.

Extremists urge attacks on shopping malls in US, UK, Canada

As predicted long, long ago (see also HERE and HERE). Wherever there are women, children and elderly… They will go after schools, malls, hospitals and any other target that hits the hardest in the American mind. The sleeper cells are here and they’re waiting for the green light.

 

Johannesburg: A video purported to be by Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked rebels urges Muslims to attack shopping malls in the US, Canada, Britain and other Western countries.

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The masked narrator of the 76-minute video warns of more attacks in Kenya and calls on other Muslims to attack shopping malls, specifically mentioning the Mall of America in Minnesota, the West Edmonton Mall in Canada, and the Westfield Mall in Stratford, England.

Homeland Security Report Confirms Diseases Spreading at Border Facilities

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General released a memo on Thursday confirming the problem of communicable diseases that are being spread throughout detention centers.

The OIG outlined a two-week report from the beginning of the month on the detention of Unaccompanied Alien Children. According to DHS IG John Roth’s memo to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, the IG office continues to make unannounced site visits to numerous detention centers along the southern border where Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are temporarily sheltering UACs.

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DHS Anticipated 60,000 Illegal Child Border Crossers in January

ASPEN, Colo.—DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson confirmed Thursday that the Obama administration in January anticipated a surge of some 60,000 illegal children crossing the Southwest Border.

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“It was apparent to me then that the Rio Grand valley sector of the Southwest border needed to be an area of particular concern,” Johnson said during remarks at the Aspen Security Forum.

“In January, in our budget process, we estimated that we were going to have 60,000 unaccompanied kids coming in,” he said, noting that resources for the influx were “ramped up.”

The border crisis grew worse during the period between March, April, and May when “unprecedented levels” of children crossed the border, he said. The surge peaked with thousands of illegals reaching the U.S. border in early June.

Texas-Mexico Border: Level 4 Alert Declared by Homeland Security This Week

The Texas-Mexico border is being overrun by a surge of young illegal immigrants who are traveling alone.  So much so, that Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, earlier this week, declared a “level-four condition of readiness” along the Rio-Grande Valley area of South Texas. Unaccompanied minors have outstripped the resources of federal agencies responsible for managing border security and immigration.

Last weekend, according to a New York Times article by Julia Preston, the Department of Health and Human Services opened a new shelter at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.  The facility will house up to 1.000 minors. Transfers of minors to the facility will be handled by both land and air.

U.S. has lost track of tens of thousands of foreign students who came study to then took jobs

The federal government has lost track of tens of thousands of foreign students who came to the U.S. to study and then took jobs, often in violation of the terms of their visas, according to a new internal audit.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t even consistently collect information or have the tools to monitor all of the foreign students who take part in the optional practical training (OPT) program, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report released late Friday.

“The problems with OPT are extensive and serious. The report not only calls into question the department’s oversight of the program, but also whether such lack of oversight is a serious national security risk,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who released the report, said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

Administration eases restrictions on asylum seekers with loose terror ties

The Obama administration has unilaterally eased restrictions on asylum seekers with loose or incidental ties to terror and insurgent groups, in a move one senator called “deeply alarming.”

The change, approved by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Secretary of State John Kerry, was announced Wednesday in the Federal Register. It would allow some individuals who provided “limited material support” to terror groups to be considered for entry into the U.S.

What You Need to Know About the New Head of Homeland Security

The U.S. Senate confirmed a new Secretary of Homeland Security on Monday. Winning confirmation by an overwhelming vote of 78 to 16, Jeh Johnson is now the fourth person to lead the sprawling domestic security agency since its inception in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

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Although he has been an obscure figure thus far to both the general public and the law enforcement community, the American Civil Liberties Union has been voicing concerns about his human rights record.