Homeland Security: Inside & Out

This week: Homeland Security Watch, confirmed terrorist, homeland security grants, homeland security in todays community colleges, and a true life story of a man held for ransom for a year

Tuesday, February 26, 7 p.m. CST (KAMU 90.9 FM, College Station)

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1. News Media, Take One

Jonah Czerwinski is a managing consultant for IBM global business services, and a senior fellow with IBM's global leadership initiative, which was previously known as the center for the study of the presidency. He is here to discuss his piece he wrote for Homeland Security Watch, which discusses small vessel security.

2. Inside the Beltway

Jim Carafano is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He is a leading expert in the defense affairs, military operations and strategy, and homeland security. He  is here to talk about terrorism and the confirmed terrorist since 9/11.

3. News Media, Take Two

Rob Margetta from the Congressional Quarterly is here to talk about how homeland security grants are being redefined by the current congress.

4. Outside the Beltway

Pat Gerity is the vp of sponsored programs research support and continuing medical education at the University of Pittsburgh. Barbara Barnes is the vp of sponsored programs research support and continuing education at the University of Pittsburgh. And Doug Feil is the executive director of environmental health and safety and security programs at Kirkwood community college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They are all here to discuss homeland security in community colleges.

5. Spotlight

Thomas Hargrove is from the IFDC international venter for soil fertility, working to improve crops in developing countries. His story was the inspiration for the movie "Proof of Life," with Meg Ryan and Russel Crow. He is also the author of "Long March to Freedom: the true story of a Colombian kidnapping." He is here to tell his story about being a prisoner of narco-terrorists in the Andes Mountains.

6. Perspectives

Jonah Czerwinski, from IBM global business services, joins us again to answer the question, "If you had five minutes with the presidential candidates, what would you tell them?"

7. HLS at Home

Dr. Bill Munn is currently the president of the National Emergency Number Association, the organization dedicated to the development, implementation and management of emergency number services. He is here to discuss his course Emergency Management and Homeland Security, that he teaches in the graduate Certificate in Homeland Security program at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service.

This week: Funding and the National Response Framework, the future of FEMA, the CIA and HSPD23, smallpox and biologic pandemics, and the FEMA 'news conference' controversy

Tuesday, February 19, 7 p.m. CST (KAMU 90.9 FM, College Station)

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1. News Media, Take One

Rob Margetta from the Congressional Quarterly talks about his recent article, "Debate Over Grant Funding is Over, and Congress Has Won," which discusses the politics behind the National Response Framework.

2. Inside the Beltway

Jane Bullock and George Haddow, are the co-authors of the textbooks "Introduction to Emergency Management," and "Introduction to Homeland Security." They are here to discuss the future of FEMA.

3. News Media, Take Two

Washington Post reporter Ellen Nakashima discusses her recent article about the CIA and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23, which expands the intelligence community’s role in monitoring Internet traffic to  protect against a rising number of attacks on federal agencies’ computer  systems.

4. Outside the Beltway

D.A. Henderson is the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies. He is here to discuss the challenges of the world wide campaign to eradicate smallpox and the concerns about biologic pandemics in the future.

5. Spotlight

Pat Philbin was the public affairs office for FEMA during the California wildfires of 2007. He is now with PIER System Inc. He is here to talk about his last week as the public affairs officer of FEMA, when he returned from a briefing and realized that no reporters were present at the "Briefing for Reporters" his staff had organized. With the FEMA director speaking on camera, and reporters listening by phone, he had to make a snap decision.

6. Perspectives

Jody Westby is CEO of Global Cyber Risk and an adjunct distinguished fellow at Carnegie Mellon CyLab.  She answers the question, "If you had five minutes with the presidential candidates, what would you tell them?"

7. HLS at Home

Willis Marti is the chief information security officer (CISO) for Texas A&M and teaches the Computer Security for Managers course in the graduate Certificate in Homeland Security program at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service.

This week: Protection against cyberattacks, an NPR series, HSPD 23, report about Mexico and a new book on nuclear terrorism

Tuesday, February 12, 7 p.m. CST (KAMU 90.9 FM, College Station)

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1. News Media, Take One

Siobhan Gorman, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, discusses President Bush's plan to improve protection against cyberattacks.

2. Inside the Beltway

Pam Fessler is a correspondent for National Public Radio. She will discuss an upcoming NPR series on the status of homeland security in the United States, five years after the establishment of DHS.

3. News Media, Take Two

Wall Street Journal reporter Siobhan Gorman returns to discuss Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23, which expands the intelligence community’s role in monitoring Internet traffic to  protect against a rising number of attacks on federal agencies’ computer  systems.

4. Outside the Beltway

Fred Burton from Stratfor will talk about attempts by the Mexican military to crack down on drug cartels, and how that violence is spilling over the border with the United States.

5. Spotlight

Michael Levi from the Council of Foreign Relations, author of  "On Nuclear Terrorism," explains what is easy and what is hard about delivering a nuclear device to a U.S. city.

6. Perspectives

Rich Cooper is a D.C. consultant and a former DHS official who worked with small businesses in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  He answers the question, "If you had five minutes with the presidential candidates, what would you tell them?"

7. HLS at Home

Greg Miller is scholar at the University of Oklahoma and a Fellow with the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M University. He talks about the online course, Terrorism in Today's World, he offers through the Bush School of Government and Public Policy at Texas A&M.

This week: The challenges of communication during an emergency, plus a security specialist from MIT and an aviation expert from the European Union

Tuesday, Feb. 5, 7 p.m. CST (KAMU 90.9 FM, College Station)

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1. Inside and Outside the Beltway

This week, we are going to the Department of Homeland Security's 2008 Science & Technology Stakeholders Conference West in Los Angeles.  And we will join a panel focused on communications in an emergency.

We will talk first about concepts and concepts of communications between emergency responders, government leaders and the general public. Are there some lessons we should have learned by now?  Have we learned them?

Then we will look at specific incidents, like the subway bombing in London and the wildfires in California. What should we expect from our elected officials? And how are they doing?

Finally we will look at some potential scenarios for the future, and ask what should public communicators do now to prepare for the moment of crisis when it comes?

Our guests are:

• LaDonna Harvey, a reporter and radio host with KOGO 600 am in San Diego, CA, where she has covered many sate and local crises, to include multiple wildfires.
• Allison Barrie, a counterterrorism expert presently serving on an independent counterterror commission preparing a report to be delivered to all of the corridors of power within the British government. She is also a commentator on FOX News, working from London.

2. Perspectives

Dr. Cindy Williams, a senior researcher in the security studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, answers the question, "If you had five minutes with the presidential candidates, what would you tell them?"

3. Homeland Security at Home

John Wilson works for the European Commission in Brussels. For the last three years he has worked on aviation security, part of the EU’s policy on domestic security. He is now a visiting fellow at the Bush School of Government & Public Policy, working on transport security.