Homeland Security

WASHINGTON - President Obama announced yesterday that he is combining White House staffs dealing with international and homeland security, predicting the change will make Americans safer. Obama also is creating a new office intended to communicate more effectively with other countries about US security policy. The Homeland Security Council, created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, will be kept as a venue for discussing issues relating to domestic security, including terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, natural disasters, and pandemic influenza.

CAMBRIDGE - The federal government is planning to release small amounts of dead bacteria in subway stations here and in Somerville beginning this summer to test sensors designed to detect biological agents unleashed in terrorist attacks. But some people voiced skepticism over the initiative during a public meeting Wednesday about the program. The US Department of Homeland Security will release a type of bacteria that, when alive, is commonly found in soil and food and cleaning products, inside the Davis, Harvard Square, and Porter Square stations, DHS...

WILLISTON, Vt. - A small Department of Homeland Security office in Vermont helped disrupt one of the largest cocaine smuggling operations ever broken up by US agents, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said yesterday. In a visit to Williston to tour the National Bulk Cash Smuggling Center's new, expanded offices, John Morton, Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, spoke of the center's role in what became known as Operation Pacific Rim. Agents at the Vermont center help investigate cash seizures across the world that can sometimes lead them into the heart of...

American Science & Engineering posted fourth-quarter earnings of $1.34 million, or 15 cents per share, vs. $9.56 million, or $1.03 per share a year earlier. The Billerica company, which makes X-ray equipment for security inspections, faced "a challenging year," said CEO Anthony Fabiano, including global economic uncertainties and tightening of US spending on homeland security. Its board has OK'd a $35 million stock buyback program.

Republicans controlling the House are sparing the Pentagon, military veterans and most homeland security programs from the budget knife as action begins on a set of spending bills setting the day-to-day budgets for federal agencies. Foreign aid programs would absorb a 5 percent cut in legislation released Tuesday, while the FBI would receive a 2 percent budget hike in a separate measure. At issue is much of the nuts-and-bolts work of Congress, going line by line through the agency budgets funded each year through 12 appropriations bills.

Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern University, has been appointed to a new academic advisory council that will report to the Department of Homeland Security on how universities can contribute to antiterrorism efforts in the United States. The 19-member council - made up of university presidents, chancellors, and other academic leaders - will report to senior members of the Department of Homeland Security, according to the department. "We need more research and training related to security," Aoun said yesterday.

WASHINGTON - Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more-secure driver's licenses in the next six years under ambitious post-9/11 security rules to be unveiled today by federal officials. The Homeland Security Department has spent years crafting the final regulations for the REAL ID Act, a law designed to make it more difficult for terrorists and illegal immigrants to get government-issued identification and for counterfeiters to produce them. The effort once envisioned to take effect this year has been pushed back in the hopes of...

A former top U.S. Department of Homeland Security official convicted of encouraging her Brazilian housekeeper to remain in the United States illegally has been granted a new trial by a judge in Boston who said he erred in his jury instructions. U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock said in a 50-page order released Wednesday his jury instructions in Lorraine Henderson's trial were "inadequate. " Henderson was a regional director of homeland security, customs and border protection responsible for stopping illegal immigrants from entering the...

This is the place where computer software will turn faces into remote controls used to fly helicopters. This is the place where the sensitivity of a hulking MRI machine will be harnessed in a contraption the size of a toothpick. And this is the place where two-story buildings will be tested to see what blast force they can withstand. This is Northeastern University's George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security, a new $12 million building on the school's Burlington campus that still smells of fresh paint.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate approved broad legislation yesterday to give state and local governments new weapons to stop terrorists intent on destruction within U S borders. More than five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the bill still faces considerable hurdles. Differences remain with legislation the House passed in January, and the White House has issued a veto threat over a provision that would give airport screeners limited bargaining rights. The vote was 60-38.

A public meeting is slated for Wednesday in Cambridge where people can speak out about the Department of Homeland Security's plan to release killed bacteria into the air at MBTA stations in Cambridge and Somerville to test newly developed biological sensors. The test this summer will involve release of an "innocuous, food-safe test bacterium" to evaluate the ability of the sensors to detect a biowarfare attack, a statement posted on the MBTA website said. In a draft environmental assessment , Homeland Security...

Republicans controlling the House are sparing the Pentagon, military veterans and most homeland security programs from the budget knife as action begins on a set of spending bills setting the day-to-day budgets for federal agencies. Foreign aid programs would absorb a 5 percent cut in legislation released Tuesday, while the FBI would receive a 2 percent budget hike in a separate measure. At issue is much of the nuts-and-bolts work of Congress, going line by line through the agency budgets funded each year through 12 appropriations bills.

WASHINGTON - The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a US-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden. The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger's underwear, but this time Al Qaeda developed a more refined detonation system, US officials said.

The CIA thwarted an ambitious plot by al-Qaida's affiliate in Yemen to destroy a U.S.-bound airliner using a bomb with a sophisticated new design around the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, U.S. officials said Monday. The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger's underwear, but this time al-Qaida developed a more refined detonation system, U.S. officials said.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was shot to death Wednesday by a shot fired through the window of his Southern California home, authorities said. Los Angeles County sheriff's officials told City News Service that the man was found shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday in his home in Carson and declared dead at the scene. Authorities say it appears the agent's son called 911 but it's unclear whether he saw the shooting. They did not release a motive yet. The agent's name hasn't been released but the Department of Homeland...

After two weeks of disturbing revelations about a tawdry prostitution scandal, the Secret Service and its supporters are circling the wagons to restore the "secret" part of its mission. Retired agents have been instructed to stop talking to reporters. Secret Service agents are dismantling Facebook accounts, hanging up on reporters and notifying headquarters — even calling police — when journalists knock on their doors at home for interviews about the investigation. "What purpose do these revelations, true or exaggerated, serve?

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was shot to death Wednesday by a shot fired through the window of his Southern California home, authorities said. Los Angeles County sheriff's officials told City News Service that the man was found shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday in his home in Carson and declared dead at the scene. Authorities say it appears the agent's son called 911 but it's unclear whether he saw the shooting. They did not release a motive yet. The agent's name hasn't been released but the Department of Homeland Security said he was involved in Homeland...

HIDALGO, Texas — As Congress debates border funding and governors demand more aid to curb illegal immigration and other problems, government records show that taxpayers have spent $90 billion over 10 years to secure the US-Mexican border. The Associated Press tallied the combined costs using White House budgets, reports obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, and congressional transcripts. Among the expenses: ■ Deployment of 1,200 National Guard soldiers for one year: $110 million ■ One rail cargo X-ray screening machine: $1.75...

A former top U.S. Department of Homeland Security official convicted of encouraging her Brazilian housekeeper to remain in the United States illegally has been granted a new trial by a judge in Boston who said he erred in his jury instructions. U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock said in a 50-page order released Wednesday his jury instructions in Lorraine Henderson's trial were "inadequate. " Henderson was a regional director of homeland security, customs and border protection responsible for stopping illegal immigrants from entering the country through Connecticut, Rhode...