[ RadSafe ] Re: More about Falkenrath (was New Your City Council meets on detectors)

[Steven Dapra]

Jan. 30

         Still more about Richard Falkenrath.  The biography is routine 
stuff, but see after it for something about Civitas Group and its interest 
in "sensor technology."

         "Civitas Group llc, a homeland security strategy and investment 
services firm founded by former National Security Advisor Samuel R. Berger 
and Republican strategist Charles R. Black, Jr., today announced the 
addition of Richard A. Falkenrath, a former advisor to President George W. 
Bush and an expert on national security, homeland security and 
counterterrorism. Dr. Falkenrath was one of the architects of the 
Department of Homeland Security and the principal author of the National 
Strategy for Homeland Security. Falkenrath's association with Civitas adds 
to the firm's impressive list of authorities in a wide-range of security, 
policy and financial areas. Falkenrath will focus on strategy and 
implementation issues for a range of clients in the homeland security and 
national security fields.

"The firm is run by Managing Partner Robert H. Swindell, former Managing 
Director and head of U.S. Technology Banking at Lehman Brothers.

"Dr. Falkenrath served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy 
Homeland Security Advisor until May 2004, when he left the White House. 
Prior to that, he was Special Assistant to the President and Senior 
Director for Policy and Plans within the Office of Homeland Security, as 
well as Director for Proliferation Strategy on the National Security 
Council staff. Before entering government, he was an Assistant Professor of 
Public Policy at Harvard University from 1998-2003 and Executive Director 
of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs from 1995-1998.

"Falkenrath joins a team that already includes top leaders in the homeland 
security and national security fields. The Civitas advisory board is 
chaired by former Senator Warren B. Rudman (R-NH), who led the U.S. 
Commission on National Security for the 21st Century, and includes: Joe M. 
Allbaugh, former FEMA Director under President Bush; Kurt Campbell, 
Director of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic 
and International Studies; Jim B. Francis, Chairman of the Texas Public 
Safety Commission; and Gen. Kenneth A. Minihan, former Director of the 
National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency and a 
Principal in the Paladin Capital Group's Homeland Security Fund."

(end of biography)

Link to biography is
http://www.advfn.com/news_Richard-A-Falkenrath-Joins-Civitas-Group_9570307.html

More about the Civitas Group can be found at http://www.civitasgroup.com/.

         Click on the "Research" link to go to a list of Civitas 
reports.  One of the reports is a 30 page (PDF) report on the present and 
future of "sensor technology."  The report has a detailed analysis of 
sensor technology, and even offers market analysis comments.  Appendix I 
lists a number of Federal agencies that play a "key role" in funding sensor 
technology, and in guiding its development, including guiding "standards 
setting."

The last section of the Civitas report "identifies several major investment 
opportunities within this market." --- that is, the market of sensor 
technology.

Speaking of standards, in that Village Voice article Falkenrath was quoted 
as saying, "There are no consistent standards for the type of detectors 
used,  . . . .  Our mutual goal is to prevent false alarms . . . by making 
sure we know where these detectors are located, and that they conform to 
standards of quality and reliability."

         The VV link is
<http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0803,thompson,78873,2.html?c=1>.

         Falkenrath was not a co-author of the above-noted report, and I 
don't know when he went to work for Civitas.  In his position at NYPD he is 
certainly in a position to have some significant influence over standards 
of quality and reliability of the detectors the City Council so wants to 
regulate.

Steven Dapra
sjd at swcp.com