The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
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Washington DC, Elon Musk’s attempt to streamline the federal workforce got a bust from some new allies —not from the courts or watchdog groups, but from Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretaries and agency heads who are asserting their authority over staffing decisions.
Continue reading Cabinet Secretaries Take Lead on Elon Musk’s Federal Workforce Overhaul
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New Milford NJ, a Bergen County, New Jersey, man admitted distributing and possessing images of child sexual abuse, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today.
Continue reading New Milford Man Admits Distribution and Possession of Child Pornography
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Ridgewood NJ, Eight men have been charged for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to steal luxury cars in New Jersey including Ridgewood, Paramus and Tenafly, New York, and elsewhere, and transport them across state lines, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today.
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Ridgewood NJ, according to Homeland Security on March 9, authorities apprehended a self-identified Hizballah affiliate and undocumented Lebanese migrant near the southern U.S. border, where he reportedly admitted his intent to construct an explosive upon reaching New York.
Continue reading Hizballah Terrorist Caught at Border Intended to Make a Bomb, Head to New York
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Newark NJ, Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced that four defendants were arrested and charged after they tried to flee from law enforcement in a stolen vehicle in Newark, resulting in several collisions as well as injuries to three officers and one of the suspects.
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Ridgewood NJ, so far we have not heard about this from any of our local school districts , including Ridgewood but its something to keep an eye on . The New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Cell (NJCCIC) continues to observe efforts by cyber threat actors to compromise email accounts in the education sector in order to launch phishing campaigns with the intent to steal sensitive information, compromise account credentials, or conduct subsequent cyber operations against others in the education sector.
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Linden NJ, The largest gasoline pipeline in America Colonial Pipeline is returning to service, according to the company that runs it, after a cyberattack choked fuel supplies across the eastern U.S. Shortages are likely to continue for some time however, as supplies got more sparse overnight with stations as far north as New Jersey affected.
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Carlstadt NJ, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella announced the arrest of MATTHEW W. MORAN (DOB: 10/22/1971; single; employed as an iron worker) of 539 Jefferson Street, Carlstadt, NJ on charges of Possession Of Prohibited Weapons and Devices, specifically Silencers. The arrest is the result of an investigation conducted by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office under the direction of Chief Robert Anzilotti and Homeland Security Investigations under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jason J. Molina.
Continue reading Bergen Man Charged in International Arms-trafficking Investigation
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Ridgewood NJ, The Transportation Security Administration announced today that it has begun verbally advising travelers who present non-compliant licenses of the upcoming REAL ID requirement and enforcement date. Beginning October 1, 2020, each traveler must present a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, state-issued enhanced driver’s license, or another acceptable form of identification, to fly within the United States. Individuals who are unable to verify their identity will not be permitted to enter the TSA checkpoint and will not be allowed to fly.
Continue reading TSA begins verbal advisements of REAL ID requirements
October 23,2017
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(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released two new productions of documents (45 pages and 680 pages) from the Department of Homeland Security revealing that hundreds of counties across the U.S. denied Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) detainer requests for criminal illegal aliens in the first quarter of fiscal year 2017. The retainer requests, containing specific information about scores of criminal charges against released aliens, were not included in the Declined Detainer Outcome Reports (DDOR) the Trump administration suspended in early April after only three weeks of publication.
Judicial Watch forced the release of the Homeland Security documents as a result of a court order in a May 26, 2017, FOIA lawsuit filed after Homeland Security failed to respond to an April 13, 2017 FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:17-cv-01008)). Judicial Watch seeks:
All complaints received by ICE concerning the [Declined Detainer Outcome Report]
All records concerning the suspension of the weekly publication of the [Declined Detainer Outcome Report]
All records identifying the reporting methodologies used to create the [Declined Detainer Outcome Report]
Judicial Watch released several spreadsheets compiling statistics on the nature of criminal activities illegal aliens had committed during the first four months of 2017; a nationwide list of jails that failed to cooperate with the ICE detainer program; and the top 50 jurisdictions that failed to cooperative with the ICE detainer program.
Leading the pack of counties denying detainers between July 2015 were Ventura County, CA (188); Miami-Dade, FL (93); Denver, CO (74); Clark, NV (68); and Los Angeles, CA (57).
Nationwide, A total of 284 detainers involving serious offenses were declined during the first two months of fiscal year 2017, including, in part, various forms of assault (16); drug-and-alcohol-related charges (39); weapons charges and crimes against persons and property (18).
The Declined Detainer Outcome Reports highlighted state and local governments that did not comply with ICE’s detainer program (also known as sanctuary cities). According to one new ICE email, the DDOR was meant to easily understood:
So an American citizen sitting at home can open the report, see the total number of detainers issued in a week, detainers issued to jurisdictions that don’t cooperate, the confirmed declined detainer list, and the list of all jurisdictions that don’t honor detainers. A snapshot, in essence.
In an April 6, 2017, email from Acting Director of Homeland Security, Thomas Homan, to Homeland Security staff in response to complaints about errors in the DDOR from U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) office, Homan said:
Certainly but NYC is extremely uncooperative. We will provide the information and work with OPLA and OGC staff to engage. They removed our officers from Rikers Island and will not honor detainers. I met with them personally last year in an effort to gain more cooperation. We will review asap.
In at least one instance, local law enforcement actions went beyond a simple lack of cooperation with ICE to turn over detained illegal aliens to outright obstruction of ICE’s efforts to pick up illegal immigrants in local custody. For example, according to a March 21, 2017, ICE email: “Hennepin County Adult Detention Center released an alien out the front door of the jail as an ICE officer was waiting in their sally port to take him into custody.”
“These new documents confirm that sanctuary policies are dangerous and help the worst of worst criminal element,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The complaints of sanctuary politicians aside, the Trump administration must catalogue the continued threat to the public safety caused by lawless sanctuary policies.”
In April, Judicial Watch obtained 204 illegal alien Detainer Requests denied to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by the Travis County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office. The illegal aliens protected by the Sheriff’s Office were charged or convicted of 31 acts of violence, 14 thefts or burglaries, and three acts or threats of terrorism. Forty-four of the denied requests were for inmates originally detained by Homeland Security and temporarily transferred to Travis County (home to the state capital in Austin) for disposition of state or local charges.
According to CNN, the Trump Administration suspended publication of the Declined Detainer Outcome Reports on April 11, 2017, after only three weeks and three total reports due to “complaints.” The Hill further reported that according to ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez, the Declined Detainer Outcome Reports were halted in order to “analyze and refine [the organization’s] reporting methodologies.”
The Declined Detainer Outcome Reports highlighted state and local governments, often referred to as sanctuary cities, that did not comply with ICE’s detainer program:
ICE places detainers on aliens who have been arrested on local criminal charges and for whom ICE possesses probable cause to believe that they are removable from the United States, so that ICE can take custody of the alien when he or she is released from local custody. When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders, it undermines ICE’s ability to protect public safety and carry out its mission.
Ridgewood NJ, according to the NJ office of Homeland Security the terrorist attack in London on June 3 highlights the continuing threat from “low-tech,” unsophisticated weapons such as vehicles and knives. Although there are no specific threats to New Jersey, these types of attacks require little preparation and could be conducted with little or no warning. Last week’s attack in London follows vehicle rammings at Westminster Bridge in London in May; in Stockholm, Sweden, in April; at a Christmas market in Berlin in December; on the campus of Ohio State University in November; and at a Bastille Day celebration in Nice, France, last July. ISIS and al-Qa’ida have encouraged their followers to attack where they are, with whatever weapons they can acquire. Last week, a pro-ISIS message encouraged its readers to kill civilians, with a caption reading, “Run them over by vehicles,” and showing an image with a truck, a knife, and a handgun (see photo).
The scenario for the attack on London Bridge and at Borough Market was similar to those of the attacks at Westminster Bridge and Ohio State University. In each case, the attackers drove a vehicle into pedestrians, then got out of the vehicle and began stabbing people. These multi-phase attacks extend the incident, thus increasing the number of casualties and amplifying the terror effect.
May 31,2017
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Ridgewood NJ, from the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security ,the bombing at an arena in Manchester, England, after an Ariana Grande concert on May 22 illustrates the need for security measures and vigilance by the public at the conclusion of a major event. Often at a concert or a sporting event, security measures such as checkpoints and bag checks are in place at the beginning, when ticketholders are entering the venue. After the event, however, there are fewer security measures, and since the event is over, security personnel and the general public may have a tendency to let down their guard. At the arena in Manchester, the attacker was able to inflict multiple casualties by detonating his explosives as spectators were exiting the arena, taking advantage of the fact that there are typically larger concentrations of people in confined spaces as spectators are leaving an event than when they are arriving (photo shows a crowd exiting on a stairway in Manchester).
The attacker was also able to avoid detection by security personnel by detonating his explosives outside the arena, rather than attempting to smuggle them in through a checkpoint. The explosion occurred on a walkway connecting the arena to the Victoria train station. Extending the security perimeter, by measures such as placing bollards to impede vehicles and adding surveillance cameras looking outward from the venue, could potentially reduce the threat. However, as at airports, no matter how far outward security measures are pushed, eventually there comes a point where security stops—and that seam becomes a vulnerability. Accordingly, an attack such as the one in Manchester could potentially occur in the United States, including New Jersey.
file photo Dana Glazer
Best Practices’ considered for state and local election officials
In an already topsy-turvy presidential campaign, the recent breaches of Democratic Party computer networks have fueled fears about potential foreign meddling and raised questions about how secure the electronic systems that record and tally votes across the country are from sophisticated hackers.
For years, computer security experts have warned that electronic voting is vulnerable to hacking that could alter vote tallies and theoretically swing an election. The intrusions that compromised the Democratic National Committee and the House Democrats’ fundraising campaigns’ systems — both of which cybersecurity experts have blamed on groups linked to Russian intelligence agencies — have only heightened those concerns.
Even a minor breach could wreak havoc by undermining the public’s faith in the integrity of the balloting, particularly in a campaign as contentious as this year’s presidential race.
“We cannot function without the leadership that is elected via the democratic process, and attacks on our election system could undermine all of the confidence that voters have in the legitimacy of our leadership,” said J. Alex Halderman, a computer science professor at the University of Michigan who has studied security in electronic and internet voting.
With the stakes running high, the Obama administration has said it is attuned to the threat and is looking at ways to mitigate it.
– See more at: https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/recent-breaches-raise-fears-voting-system-hacks#sthash.3VxahQHi.dpuf
by PATRICK HOWLEY2 Jun 20165,196
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Hillary Clinton posted and shared the names of concealed U.S. intelligence officials on her unprotected email system.
Federal records reveal that Clinton swapped these highly classified names on an email account that was vulnerable to attack and was breached repeatedly by Russia-linked hacker attempts. These new revelations — reminiscent of the Valerie Plame scandal during George W. Bush’s tenure — could give FBI investigators the evidence they need to make a case that Clinton violated the Espionage Act by mishandling national defense information through “gross negligence.”
Numerous names cited in Clinton’s emails have been redacted in State Department email releases with the classification code “B3 CIA PERS/ORG,” a highly specialized classification that means the information, if released, would violate the Central Intelligence Act of 1949.
The State Department produced a document to Judicial Watch in April 2014 that identifies different types of “(b)(3)” redactions, including “CIA PERS/ORG,” which it defines as information “Specifically exempted from disclosure by statute … Central Intelligence Act of 1949.”
By Julian Hattem – 11/15/15 11:36 AM EST
The head of the House Homeland Security Committee warned on Sunday that “gaping holes” within U.S. defenses make the nation vulnerable to attacks similar to Friday’s violence in Paris.
“There are a lot of holes — gaping holes,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“We have hundreds of Americans that have traveled” to Iraq and Syria, he added. “Many of them have come back as well. I think that’s a direct threat.”
McCaul has previously warned that the flow of Europeans and — to a lesser extent — Americans into the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) poses a threat to those countries when people return home.
In addition, McCaul has warned that an influx of Syrian refugees fleeing the ongoing chaos provides a perfect opportunity for Islamic extremists to slip into the U.S. or another country undetected.
“This causes a great concern on the part of policymakers, because we don’t want to be complicit with a program that could bring potential terrorists into the United States,” McCaul said.
One of the men involved in Friday’s attack across Paris, which killed 129 people, was reported to have slipped into the country by disguising himself as a Syrian refugee.
Though the Obama administration has insisted that that revelation does not affect its plans to allow thousands more migrants into the U.S., the news will surely be used by opponents of the policy.
On Capitol Hill, top intelligence and law enforcement officials have testified that “gaps” in intelligence about the refugees leave them with some worries.
McCaul on Sunday said that he had spoken with officials at the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, who “they tell me this cannot be properly done.”
“We don’t have the databases to vet them.”
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/260213-house-chairman-gaping-holes-on-refugees