Department Of Homeland Security U S

The Alabama Department of Homeland Security has taken down a website it operated that included gay-rights and antiwar organizations in a list of groups that could include terrorists. The website identified different types of terrorists and included a list of groups it suggested could spawn terrorists. The list also included environmentalists, animal rights advocates and abortion opponents.

Workers poured concrete into the largest tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday as federal authorities began an effort to fill subterranean passages that were created to funnel drugs north. Five tunnels in California and two in Arizona will be filled during the next two months to permanently close off pipelines that smugglers in some cases had managed to reuse after border authorities discovered them.

The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday distributed $445 million in infrastructure grants -- a 10% increase from last year -- to be used to strengthen the ability of ports, transit and intercity bus systems to protect against terrorist attacks. California is receiving more than $30 million in port security funding for fiscal year 2007, almost doubling last year's $17-million grant. "This represents a significant boost in funding for California's ports," said Sen.

The Bush administration warned the House on Wednesday that legislation to authorize Homeland Security Department programs would be vetoed if it gave the agency's 170,000 employees greater collective bargaining rights. The White House said eliminating the current personnel system would "diminish the department's ability to respond quickly to security threats." The bill, which approves $39.8 billion for Homeland Security programs in the budget year starting Oct.

Senior Homeland Security officials told a Senate panel Wednesday that they were having a hard time employing enough interpreters and analysts to counter domestic terrorist threats and that they needed to do more to reach out to American Arabs and Muslims. They also warned that some American Muslims were at risk of becoming radicalized and might try to execute homegrown terrorist attacks of the sort carried out on London subways and buses in 2005.

For weeks, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has waged a clandestine charm offensive on behalf of an immigration overhaul. He consulted with supportive lawmakers, listened to adversarial congressmen and slipped into the private offices of wary senators, the only sign of his presence the beefy security men waiting outside. Last week, Chertoff took skeptical members of Congress on a helicopter tour of the southern U.S.

Khadijah Bessuges is confined by metal gates and razor wire. She wears a uniform. She sleeps in an 8-by-15 cell, and stands by her cot four times a day when the guards count heads. She has only two pairs of panties. Her favorite teddy bear was confiscated. But she has her father, Sebastien, who sleeps in the cell with her. Khadijah is 9 years old. She is one of 208 children being held with their parents at the T.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff waived environmental regulations and laws restricting immediate construction of border fencing along southwestern Arizona's Barry M. Goldwater Range. The action was taken to circumvent laws including the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

As part of a new regional approach to combating terror, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced Friday that New York and northern New Jersey would be considered a single area for security planning. Chertoff, who was criticized last year for slashing anti-terrorism funds to New York City, denied that linking two states and 15 counties would mean less money for New York. "There is nothing about this to suggest New York is going to get a grant cut," he said.