New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Terrorist Financing & Drug Trafficking Strategy
My Masters Project focuses around the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (NY/NJ HIDTA). Narco-terrorism has become a significant issue for the safety and security of the United States. Terrorist financing also plays a significant role in the war on terror. I chose to create a three part strategy for the NY/NJ HIDTA that will combat both narcoterrorism and terrorist financing. Each chapter describes another detailed plan of how the NY/NJ HIDTA, as well as particular agencies within, combat these issues in attempt to keep our nation secure. My Masters Project was carefully constructed with a strong focus on terrorist financing. The top priority of terrorist organizations is to cripple the American economy. This paper will illustrate the significance of “following the money will eventually deteriorate terrorist organizations at their core. Narco-Terrorism & Terrorist Financing 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my parents, John and Marie O‟Mara. They showed me how hard work and determination can make your dreams come true. I would not be where I am today without their love and support. Not only did they proofread my papers throughout these past two years, they provided encouragement when it was really needed. My sisters, Jennifer and Meghan have also been a tremendous support system throughout this journey. I would like to thank them for proofreading my papers and providing me with an outside perspective. I would also like to thank my fiance, Steve. Not only did he look over my work and fix the grammatical errors, he was my rock. He was always there to support me and give me that extra push to keep on working. He believed in me and the work I was capable of even when I doubted myself. I am eternally grateful. I would like to thank my grandmother, “Mama”, for teaching me that education is a valuable gift. She saw potential in me when I had doubts. I wish she could be here to experience this achievement with me but I know that I have made her proud. There are three people I must thank that were a tremendous part in the execution of my Master‟s Project. Detective Ray Bravo, his knowledge of Homeland Security mixed with his personal experiences enabled me to fully comprehend the lessons that were taught throughout this program. I would like to thank him for sitting patiently with me while I asked him hundreds of Narco-Terrorism & Terrorist Financing 4 questions. I learned so much from his stories and valuable insight. Detective John Petrocelli was always there to read over my papers and provide me with the advice and guidance that I needed to move forward. His friendship and support were invaluable to me. Investigator Robyn Arias, who is my colleague and my friend. I would like to thank her for staying after work with me to help me on my homework assignments. She was always there to provide support and inspiration when I felt like giving up. Most importantly, I would like to thank Dr. Ryan. His enthusiasm for academia resonates throughout the Pace community. He has been an inspiration and a support system throughout this journey. His hard work and dedication to this Master‟s program is shown throughout my Master‟s Project as well as my fellow peers‟. It is truly an honor to be able to graduate in the first cohort. Thank you Dr. Ryan we couldn‟t have done this without you. Narco-Terrorism & Terrorist Financing 5 Table of
Potholes and Detours in the Road to Critical Infrastructure Protection Policy
IntroductionOne can frame the policies of the current national strategy for critical infrastructure protection using a number of colorful analogs, but transportation seems the most fitting because transportation is one of the sectors identified by the National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets, published by the White House in 2003. 1 Beneath the title of this article is the reality that we have a long way to go to protect critical infrastructure assets ? across all sectors ? at even modest levels of security. Indeed, if a 1,000-mile journey begins with a single step along a well-defined road, then the national strategy road is badly in need of repairs.This paper exposes only a handful of the many myths, fallacies, and roadblocks preventing the nation from protecting its second-most important assets: the water, power, energy, telecommunications, information, and transportation systems that make up critical infrastructure (CI). 2 We claim that the first step in this 1,000-mile journey is to fix the potholes and eliminate the detours promoted by the current strategy for protection of the country's CI. To do so, we must understand how the national strategy fails to address reality. We couch these realities in metaphorical terms ? as potholes and detours on the road to protecting the nation's critical infrastructures. The term 'pothole' is used to identify problems and barriers to making progress, and the term 'detour' is used to expose wrong-headed myths, distractions, and bumps in the road to better infrastructure security.This paper argues against a purely federalist approach to critical infrastructure protection and instead advocates that the federal government take greater responsibility (and control) over state and local decisions; it argues that the first step in this transformation is to set standards, beginning with concise and clear definitions of vulnerability and risk. We then turn to the arguments preventing action ? specifically that government is helpless to correct security problems in critical infrastructure because most infrastructures are owned and operated by the private sector. Finally, we make four concrete recommendations on how to improve critical infrastructure protection through re-thinking and re-aligning current policies.Think Globally, Act LocallyThe national strategy is based on the idea that the federal government should set goals and policies, while the states should assume primary responsibility for homeland security, because incidents happen at the local level. Specifically, the National Strategy defines the relationship between federal and state/local governments as follows:In addition to securing federally owned and operated infrastructures and assets, the role of the federal lead departments and agencies is to assist state and local governments and private-sector partners in their efforts to:* Organize and conduct protection and continuity of government and operations planning, and elevate awareness and understanding of threats and vulnerabilities to their critical facilities, systems, and functions;* Identify and promote effective sector-specific protection practices and methodologies; and* Expand voluntary security-related information sharing among private entities within the sector, as well as between government and private entities. 3Basically, the federal government is primed to assist state and local governments, but the state/local governments are responsible for implementation of 'protection practices, and methodologies.' This strategy has a number of deficiencies as pointed out by the first pothole.Pothole 1: CIP (Critical Infrastructure Protection) is a local problem and therefore the federal government should provide guidance and funding, but state and local jurisdictions must become the first line of defense against attacks on critical infrastructure assets. …
Thirty-three yes or no questions about mappings, measures, and metrics
Most problems in the ensuing list are of fairly recent origin. None of them seem easy and some are likely to be very difficult. The formulation of each problem is such that it can be answered by one word only: either yes or no. (Strictly speaking, it is conceivable that within the same question, the answer sometimes depends on the dimension.) We offer no conjectures or guesses. In many cases, the particular question is just a chosen concise representative from a whole group of related open problems. Whenever known, we shall point out the original source of a question. Otherwise, the question is either a folk question, a modification of a folk question, or suggested by one or both of the authors. We apologize in advance for all omissions and misquotes. Practically all the problems require some background definitions; many concepts that are being used have only recently been introduced, and are perhaps not so widely known. Typically, the question is stated first, and the relevant definitions and references are given right afterwords. To keep this essay brief, we give little or no motivation here. For this purpose, we kindly invite the reader to consult the literature as referred to in the text. This list of questions was born at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in August 1996. The choices we made were necessarily partial but still somewhat arbitrary. There certainly are many more problems around these topics that we deem equally worthy.