Summary: The Government Accountability Office reports that just 32 miles of the nearly 4,000-mile U.S. border with Canada is adequately secured, according to an assessment by the Border Patrol. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 1, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that a female suicide bomber walking among Shiite pilgrims in northern Baghdad detonated an explosives belt, killing at least 54 people and wounding around 117.

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Summary: At a somber ceremony marking the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned of the need for continued vigilance against terrorists. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 19, 2009, Aubrey Immelman commemorated the 14th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing; at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a truck bomb containing approximately 5,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 600 at the hands of Gulf War veteran and militia movement sympathizer Timothy McVeigh. It was the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil until the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack.

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Summary: Despite a recent upsurge in threats and violence by far-right groups and loners, the Homeland Security Department appears gun-shy about reporting or monitoring the trend too closely. Domestic security and counterterrorism officials say that even though, in light of recent events, a controversial report issued a year ago by Homeland Security about a “resurgence” in far-right radicalization and recruitment appears well informed, if not prescient, the Department has done nothing to re-issue the report or update it. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 17, 2009, Aubrey Immelman featured abstracts of research projects on the personality characteristics and leadership style of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Sarah Palin, conducted at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics under his direction.

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Summary: John Patrick Bedell, who opened fire at the Pentagon entrance and was killed in a shootout with Pentagon police, was fascinated with conspiracy theories, computer programming, libertarian economics, and the science of warfare. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 5, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that top Democrats believed they had struck political gold by depicting Rush Limbaugh as the new face of the Republican Party.

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Summary: The Obama administration will allow Haitians who were in the United States illegally prior to the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake to remain in the country for 18 months under temporary protected status. Some critics oppose temporary protected status because of its potential to turn into a de facto backdoor to amnesty. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 15, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that British foreign secretary David Miliband said the phrase “war on terror” — though capturing the urgency of the situation immediately following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — is ultimately “misleading and mistaken,” because it gives the impression of a unified, transnational enemy, embodied in the figure of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.

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Summary: White House aide John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, says U.S. intelligence agencies did not miss a “smoking gun” that could have prevented the attempt by radical Islamic fundamentalist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 3, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that tensions were mounting between Sunni Arabs and Kurds in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where political violence was increasing ahead of provincial elections.

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Summary: Government officials have declared a public health emergency in connection with the H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak that has killed dozens in Mexico and sickened 20 in the U.S., said the nations director of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano.

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