Federal News

Govt. Issues National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza (Yahoo! News) “A flu pandemic would cause massive disruptions lasting for months, and cities, states and businesses must make plans now to keep functioning—and not count on a federal rescue, the Bush administration said Wednesday,” reports the Associated Press. “… Bush last fall proposed a $7.1 billion plan to prepare for the next worldwide outbreak of a super-strain of influenza. Wednesday's report updates that plan, an incremental step that basically outlines exactly which government agency is responsible for some 300 tasks, many already under way.” [View article] [View report website]

Fixing FBI’s Terrorist Watch List Will Take Years (Baltimore Sun) “The FBI still has not assembled an accurate terrorist watch list, and it will be ‘some time’ before it does, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III told Congress” Tuesday, reports the Sun. “The watch list operation came under fire last year from the Justice Department’s Inspector General for inaccuracies, and Mueller said it would take years to fix because verifying 200,000 names on a dozen lists is time consuming.” [View article]

State Dept. Country Reports on Terrorism Say Attacks Rose in 2005; Taliban Doesn’t Make List of Terrorist Groups (Washington Post; Christian Science Monitor) Last week the State Department released its Country Reports on Terrorism 2005, using a “a broader statutory definition of terrorism … Because the methodology has changed, there is no baseline for useful comparisons between 2005 and 2004 or with any previous years.” “The number of terrorist attacks worldwide” was “11,111, with strikes in Iraq accounting for 30 percent of the total,” reports the Washington Post. “Although only half of the incidents resulted in loss of life, more than 14,600 noncombatants were killed, a majority of them in Iraq alone and 80 percent in the Near East and South Asia.” Conspicuously “absent from the” list of foreign terrorist organizations “was the Taliban,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “… the non-partisan Council on Foreign Relations … reports that the religious extremist organization has never been listed as a terrorist group by the” United States, Britain, the European Union, Canada, or Australia even though during its six-year rule in Afghanistan, it provided safe haven for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. [View Post article] [View Monitor article] [View State Dept. fact sheet] [View State Dept. special briefing]

Keep FEMA Where It Is and Fix It, Says Chertoff The answer to the shortcomings of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in response to Hurricane Katrina “is to continue to integrate emergency management within the Department of Homeland Security,” Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said on 26 April at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. “… I think the substance is the important thing. And the important substance we’ve done is used the kind of 21st century tools that are available to start rebuilding and enhancing the organization … My recommendation is that we operate within the existing chain of command.” [View transcript]

DHS Arrests 125 Persons in Midwest Operation U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested 106 illegal alien fugitives and 19 immigration status violators throughout the Midwest during a 10-day operation last month as part of an “effort to restore integrity to the nation’s immigration system.” [View press release]

Feds Try to Kill Lawsuit Over AT&T and NSA (Wired) In the “class-action lawsuit regarding the National Security Agency’s eavesdropping on Americans … the government will be asking a federal judge in California to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against AT&T for its alleged complicity in warrantless government surveillance of its customer’s internet and telephone communications,” reports Wired. “The EFF alleges that AT&T gave the government access to a massive phone billing database and helped the NSA spy on its customers’ internet use.… Judges almost invariably agree to such requests.” [View article]

DHS Issues Maritime Infrastructure Recovery Plan The Homeland Security Department on 28 April published the Maritime Infrastructure Recovery Plan; key elements include guidelines for coordinated, national efforts to restore the flow of cargo and passenger vessels in response to a major disruption to the maritime transportation system. It also describes a periodic exercise program to assess the plan’s effectiveness and the maritime industry’s ability to plan for, respond to, and recover from an incident. [View press release]

Are You Ready for Disasters? Throughout May, the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Preparedness Network (PREPnet) will broadcast a series called Are You Ready for Disasters? plus a special Weapons of Mass Destruction Consequence Management Program. The programs air every Wednesday and are available for taping and downloading. [View press release]

Private-Sector Airport Screener Program Shows Progress, Says GAO Progress is being made to allay concerns about the Transportation Security Administration’s Screening Partnership Program, which allows “all commercial airports to apply to use private screeners in lieu of federal screeners,” but “more work remains,” according to a Government Accountability Office report to the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Aviation (Transportation and Infrastructure Committee). [View abstract]

Coast Guard photo

GAO Says Coast Guard’s Deepwater Plan Has Improved The Coast Guard’s “revised Deepwater implementation plans change the balance between new and legacy assets, alter the delivery schedule for some assets, lengthen the overall acquisition schedule by 5 years, and increase the projected program cost from $17 billion to $24 billion,” reports the Government Accountability Office. “The higher cost generally relates to upgrading assets to reflect added homeland security mission requirements.” [View abstract]

HHS Helps Bangladesh and India Plan for a Flu Pandemic The U.S. Health and Human Services Department and the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, last week signed a memorandum of understanding to enhance the ability of South Asia to prepare for and respond to an influenza pandemic. In India, HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness Stewart Simonson met with the Regional Director of the World Health Organization’s South East Regional Office, senior officials in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. He also has carried out negotiations for similar agreements with the Institut Pasteur and the Gorgas Memorial Institute in Panama. [View press release]

NRC Plans for Possible Avian Flu Pandemic The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun planning to address the potential effects of an avian flu pandemic on its operations, focusing on functions that must be maintained in the event of high absenteeism and the regulatory relief or other actions that may be necessary to maintain the safe operation of nuclear power plants facing similar staff shortages. [View press release]

U.S. Contributes $17.56 Million More to UN Refugees Commissioner The United States will contribute an additional $12 million to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the return and reintegration of Sudanese refugees to South Sudan and $5.56 million to protect and assist refugees and internally displaced persons in Darfur. This will bring the total U.S. contributions this year to more than $238 million. [View press release]

Return to the top

National News

Note: More and more news sites require free one-time registration. We wish we could avoid this inconvenience to readers who want to see the full articles. We do not intentionally link to any that require a paid subscription.

Moussaoui Sentenced to Life in Prison (CNN) “A federal jury of nine men and three women decided Wednesday that [Zacarias] Moussaoui should spend the rest of his life in prison for his role in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States,” reports CNN. “He will not be eligible for parole.” [View article]

Strategy for Terror Cases Results in Paradoxes (Baltimore Sun) “The only person prosecuted for the worst terrorist attack in American history, Zacarias Moussaoui, was spared a death sentence … because some jurors concluded that he had little to do with the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,” writes David Savage in the Sun. Meanwhile, “the two key planners of the al-Qaida plot, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, have not been prosecuted, even though they have been in U.S. custody for more than three years. That conundrum results from the Bush administration’s approach to combating terrorism, which leads to public prosecutions of bit players while the main plotters are held for secret questioning.” [View news analysis]

Use of Secret Warrants Rises (BBC) “The number of court-approved warrants allowing the US government to run secret surveillance in the US rose 18% last year, the Justice Department says,” according to the British Broadcasting Corporation. “Some 2,072 applications were made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court” and “the FBI issued about 9,200 ‘national security letters’ seeking information about 3,500 US citizens or legal residents in 2005.” [View article]

TSA Watch List Often Snags Govt. Workers (Wired) “New documents show that the United States’ mistake-prone airline screening system is great at snagging government employees, enlisted military personnel and federal workers with top-secret clearances,” reports Wired, citing “logs from the TSA’s call center from late 2004.” [View article]

Flu Pandemic Could Disrupt Telecom Services and Internet (Government Computer News) An “influenza pandemic outbreak simulation [shows] that telecommunications systems could be overwhelmed, and the Internet could shut down within two to four days of an outbreak,” reports Government Computer News. The “simulation conducted by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. … and the World Economic Forum, found that an outbreak of avian flu would severely challenge the ability of governments and the private sector to manage essential services and communicate crucial information. Because telecommuting will not be a viable option, public and private organizations will need to establish partnerships that would enable them to coordinate a plan for the use of alternative communications channels.” [View article]

New Vaccine Stops H5N1 Bird Flu, Maybe Other Varieties (ABC News) “A bird flu vaccine being developed by San Diego-based Vical Incorporated protects mice and ferrets against the feared H5N1 avian influenza virus, the company said on Tuesday,” reports Reuters. “It may also offer potential as a ‘universal’ flu vaccine because it targets parts of the virus that all flu strains have.” [View article]

Open-Source Intelligence Grows in Importance (Government Computer News) “New forms of intelligence-gathering—including the availability of open-source information on the Internet—are becoming increasingly important for fighting terrorism and may even reduce the need for more traditional collection efforts, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service,” reports PostNewsweek Tech Media. “The report, titled ‘Intelligence Issues for Congress,’ outlines the challenges in intelligence-gathering, analysis and dissemination facing the director of national intelligence and the 15 other federal intelligence agencies in the post-9/11 era, with a large part of the activity focused on counterterrorism.” [View article] [View report]

Immigrants March Throughout America (New York Times) Across the United States, “hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters skipped work, school and shopping on Monday and marched in dozens of cities from coast to coast,” reports the New York Times. “… Originally billed as a nationwide economic boycott under the banner ‘Day Without an Immigrant,’ the day evolved into a sweeping round of protests intended to influence the debate in Congress over granting legal status to all or most of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. The protesters, a mix of illegal immigrants and legal residents and citizens, were mostly Latino, but … large numbers of people of other ethnicities joined or endorsed many of the events.” [View article]

The Rio Grande: The Wrong Place to Stop Terrorists? (Washington Post) “Stopping terrorists from coming across America’s southern border would be an urgent concern—if any were actually coming,” writes columnist Peter Beinart in the Washington Post. “So far, however, there is little evidence they are.” Researchers at the Nixon Center and at Syracuse University’s Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism have separately concluded that none of the foreign terrorists caught in the United States crossed the Mexican border to get here. [View commentary]

Dubai Company Cleared to Buy Military Supplier (Washington Post) “President Bush [on 28 April] approved the takeover by a Dubai company of U.S. plants that make precision-engineered components for the Pentagon,” reports the Washington Post. “… The approval allows Dubai International Capital LLC, which is owned by the Dubai government, to take control of nine plants in the United States, some of which supply the military with parts used in aircraft and tanks. The plants are owned by a British firm, Doncasters Group Ltd., which is being purchased by the Dubai company for $1.2 billion.” [View article]

Face Masks Analyzed as Aid in Flu Pandemic (Washington Post) In the fight against a flu pandemic, “form-fitting molded ‘respirators’ would be better than clothlike surgical masks, and surgical masks would be better than handkerchiefs and scarves,” says a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to the Washington Post. “But how much protection any would provide is largely unknown—as is the question whether they could be safely washed and reused if there were not enough new ones in a pandemic.… Masks are ‘part of a package that includes vaccination if it is available, isolation of patients and quarantining, closing of public meetings and schools, “social distancing” and the washing of hands,’” said physician and epidemiologist John C. Bailar, chairman of “the committee at the Institute of Medicine that examined the question.” [View article]

Return to the top

International News

The West Pushes at UN for Iran to Halt Nuclear Efforts (Reuters) “The United States, Britain and France pressed ahead with a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding that Iran curb its nuclear ambitions and said they would push for targeted sanctions if it does not,” reports Reuters. “But Russia, which has veto power in the council, on Wednesday made clear it would not support any sanctions but indicated it could back an initial resolution if it were modified. The Western draft did not impose punitive measures.” [View article]

Iran Threatens to Strike Israel, Then Backs Off (Jerusalem Haaretz; Yahoo! News) “Israel will be Iran’s first target in response to any ‘evil’ act by the United States, a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said Tuesday,” reports Reuters. But “the Iranian military played down [those] threats” by dismissing the remarks as personal, reported Reuters on Thursday. [View Haaretz article] [View Yahoo! article]

Hamas Will Move Toward Peace if Israel Leaves Occupied Lands (Jerusalem Haaretz) “Hamas could reciprocate moves toward peace if Israel agrees to withdraw from all lands occupied in 1967 and recognizes Palestinian rights, the group’s leader Khaled Meshal said on Wednesday,” reports Haaretz. “Meshal told a packed auditorium at Damascus University, however, that [he] did not think Israel would be likely to make such commitments in the foreseeable future, leaving the Palestinians no option but to continue to resist occupation.” [View article]

Hamas Reportedly Subcontracts Terrorism (Ynet News) “Hamas, concerned about its international image after taking over the Palestinian Authority, has ‘subcontracted’ the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees to commit terror acts in its place, with new Committees terrorists even pledging allegiance to Hamas as part of their induction, according to a … report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at Israel’s Center for Special Studies,” reports Ynet News. “… The Popular Resistance Committees has been responsible for many of the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip at nearby Jewish communities the past few years.” [View article]

Egyptian Man Pleads Guilty to Alien Smuggling An Egyptian man, Ashraf Ahmed Abdallah Bashar, has pleaded guilty to smuggling nearly 100 men from Middle Eastern countries into the United States. Abdallah admitted to leading a human smuggling ring in 2001 and 2002. He met with and housed them in Guatemala City, where he offered to provide illegal entry, arranged land transportation and guides, organized layovers at safe houses in Guatemala and Mexico, and advised them on how to avoid being apprehended. [View press release]

Australians Warned of Domestic Terror Risks (Melbourne, Australia, Age) The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation “has warned that terrorists could carry out attacks on hotels and restaurants in Australia,” reports the Age. “The agency’s director-general, Paul O’Sullivan, said the latest Bali bombing was an example of such targeting, and while security agencies and police may have disrupted some attacks, there was no evidence that the threat was abating.” [View article]

Australia Budgets $12 Million to Detect Terror Funding (Melbourne, Australia, Age) The Australian “federal government will spend $12 million boosting a transnational crime prevention centre that tracks down the funding sources for terrorist groups,” reports the Age. “… the funding for the University of Wollongong’s Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention … will allow a major expansion of the research and training facilities.” [View article]

New Zealand’s Tsunami Alert Falls Short (New Zealand Herald) New Zealand’s “Minister for Civil Defence has admitted [that] the official response to [Thursday] morning’s tsunami warning was not up to scratch,” reports the New Zealand Herald. “… A tsunami warning for New Zealand, Fiji and other countries was issued by the US after an [earthquake] measuring 7.8 on the richter scale struck off Tonga at 3.26am … people only heard about the risk from early morning media reports or relatives calling from overseas.” [View article]

Terrorists’ Unmanned Air Force (Defense Tech) There’s an “imminent threat posed by unmanned air vehicles in the hands of terrorists or rogue states,” according to Defense Tech. “Unmanned air vehicles are … small, cheap and you could buy one tomorrow.… Unlike a suicide bomber, a drone can easily penetrate security and threaten otherwise safe areas … or reach crowded public places like [sports] stadiums. Dense crowds would lead to large numbers of casualties from fragmentation bombs, and an attack by multiple UAVs could cause panic and further injuries in the crowd.” Other possibilities are “chemical, biological or ‘dirty bomb’ radioactive payloads.” [View article]

Castro Slams U.S. Terrorism Charge (Yahoo! News) “Cuban President Fidel Castro charged on Monday that the U.S. characterization of his country as a terrorist nation was cynical and shameless as Washington had harbored violence-prone Cuban exiles for decades,” reports Reuters. “The State Department, in its annual terrorism report released last week, once more included Cuba as one of six terrorist nations … Washington accused Cuba of harboring and aiding terrorists from Spain and Colombia, as well as fugitive Black Panthers and Puerto Rican independence militants from the United States.” [View article]

Jordan Jails Pro–al-Qaeda Islamists Over Anti-US plots (Yahoo! News) “Jordan’s state security court sentenced to jail 10 Islamist activists for plotting attacks on Jordanian anti-terrorism officials and US forces in the kingdom,” reports Agence France-Presse. “But seven other members of the group, linked to Al-Qaeda’s fugitive frontman in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were acquitted and allowed to go free … The men were rounded up in July 2005 and accused by the state prosecutor of conspiring to carry out ‘terrorist acts’ against Jordanian anti-terrorism officers and US forces training Iraqi troops in the kingdom.” [View article] [View Focus on al-Zarqawi]

Canada Gives $2 Million to Caribbean and Asian Countries to Combat Terrorism (Canadian Dept. of Finance) Canada will provide more than $2 million over the next five years to enhance the anti-terrorist financing capacities of Caribbean and Asian countries. The goal will be to reinforce anti-terrorist financing bodies, strengthen investigative and prosecutorial authorities, and further support the close partnership with the private sector. [View press release]

Canada Launches Broader Air India Bomb Inquiry (Yahoo! News) “Canada will hold a public judicial inquiry into the attack on Air India Flight 182, which killed 329 people in history’s deadliest bombing of a passenger airliner,” reports Reuters. “The broad-ranging inquiry will examine if security lapses that allowed the 1985 bombing have been fixed, and if police and Canada’s spy agency have resolved problems that critics say led to a bungled criminal investigation and allowed suspects to walk free.” [View article]

Return to the top

State and Local News

Natl. Guard Is Under-Equipped for Hurricanes (Stateline) “The National Guard heads into the 2006 hurricane season with more troops at home than last year but with less equipment to handle emergencies,” reports Stateline. “State-based units are short on critical equipment because guardsmen about to return from overseas assignments such as in Iraq and Afghanistan are handing off their rifles, radios and vehicles to incoming units. State officials say shortages at home of Guard equipment, such as Humvees, mean they must rely on backup assistance from neighboring states.” [View article]

States Welcome Flu Plan but Say They Need Federal Money (New York Times) “Local health officials said they welcomed the federal government’s latest plan for dealing with a pandemic flu outbreak, but some complained that the Bush administration had failed to provide the money needed to pay for the plan’s long list of recommendations,” reports the New York Times. [View article]

Software Helps Atlanta Deal With Disasters (Atlanta Business Chronicle) “If metro Atlanta faced a biological threat from anthrax or avian flu, local public health officials, under federal guidelines, would have only 48 hours to dispense medicine to every resident,” reports the Atlanta Business Chronicle. “Now they’ll have a little help from a Georgia Tech professor who has created a program that takes the guesswork out of emergency preparedness and response. The software determines exactly where and how to set up emergency clinics and stations to dispense medicine in the most efficient way. It’s being installed at health departments across Georgia, and 35 other states have asked for it.… DeKalb County used the program to prepare for a full-scale anthrax drill last summer.” [View article]

ID Law Stirs Passionate Protest in NH (Washington Post) The New Hampshire “legislature is poised to formally reject” new federal rules on issuing driver’s licenses—rules “aimed at screening out terrorists and illegal immigrants, but [that] have been criticized as a logistical nightmare and the beginning of a national ID card,” reports the Washington Post. The federal “Real ID Act, which was approved last year … requires states to check whether driver’s license applicants are in the country legally, and to require documents showing their birth date, Social Security number and home address. The act also requires that states find a way to verify that the documents are valid. The deadline is May 2008. If states cannot meet the new requirements by then, the bill says, their licenses may not be accepted as identification at airport security screenings, federal buildings and nuclear plants.” [View article]

Florida Professor in Terror Case Gets Longer Sentence (New York Times) “A judge sentenced former professor Sami Al-Arian on Monday to another year and a half in prison before he will be deported in his terrorism conspiracy case, calling him ‘an active leader’ in a Palestinian terror group,” reports the Associated Press. “… Al-Arian signed a plea agreement April 14 in which he admitted providing support to members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a State Department-designated terrorist group responsible for hundreds of deaths in Israel and the Palestinian territories.” [View article]

In California Terror Case, Intent Was the Clincher (Los Angeles Times) In the conviction last week of Hamid Hayat, the prosecution convinced the jury that Hayat “espoused strong anti-American sentiments, supported militant Muslim political parties in Pakistan and had a romantic attachment to the idea of jihad,” reports the Los Angeles Times. Hayat’s intent outweighed the fact that there was “no direct evidence,” “the confession was vague and even contradictory,” and “the statements about attacking American targets came only after heavy prompting from FBI interrogators.” Hayat was found “guilty of one count of providing material support to terrorists and three counts of lying to federal agents. He now faces up to 39 years in prison.” [View article]

Two Missing Vials of Anthrax Found in NJ (Yahoo! News) “Two vials of anthrax reported missing recently were discovered this week mislabeled at a state lab, and officials blame a clerical error,” according to the Associated Press. “Authorities said they lost track of the vials nearly two weeks ago. They were found this week among thousands of samples collected in an investigation of a postal facility where anthrax-tainted letters were handled between 2001 and 2004. Nobody was hurt and no anthrax was released as a result of the error, authorities said.” [View article]

Univ. of Memphis Designated a Homeland Security Center of Excellence (Memphis Business Journal) “The National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security have designated the” University of Memphis a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education through 2009,” reports the Memphis Business Journal. The designation makes the university “one of 75 centers in the nation that produces people with the highest education in information security expertise.” [View article]

Return to the top

Private-Sector News

Has Govt. Mobilized Private Sector for Homeland Security? “In the fifth year since 9/11, federal efforts to enlist the private sector in bolstering homeland security remain largely stillborn,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The council’s new report, Neglected Defense: Mobilizing the Private Sector to Support Homeland Security, finds that the federal government has had a naïve view of what the market is able to do when left largely on its own to protect critical infrastructure. [View report website]

Businesses Expect Pandemic but Are Unprepared (Washington Post) “More than half of U.S. companies think there will be a global flu epidemic in the next two years,” reports the Washington Post. “Two-thirds think it will seriously disrupt their operations as well as foment social unrest. But two-thirds also say they aren’t prepared. One-third of executives surveyed say nobody in their organization has been appointed to plan for a pandemic; another one-quarter couldn’t or wouldn’t answer the question.” [View article]

Return to the top

Education

The Homeland Security Institute lists these education programs as a service to readers who may be interested; it does not endorse them or their courses.

Airport Security Planning Course (8-9 May, Baltimore; 22-23 May, Sacramento, CA) Ohio University Community and Professional Programs in cooperation with Robinson Aviation is sponsoring an intensive Airport Security Planning Course, designed for general aviation airport security personnel, tenants, operators, planners, and managers. It meets all federal guidelines for general aviation airports. Participants will gain an understanding of airport security requirements, rules, and regulations and learn how to form an airport security plan, conduct airport security audits, and coordinate the security plan with the crisis and contingency plan and prepare capital budgets for security. They will visit a regional airport to conduct an onsite security audit and will receive a composite report of the audit findings. For more information, call (740) 593-1764 or visit www.ohiou.edu/gasecurity/. [View course website]

Protecting Tourism Against Terror (17-18 May; Nassau, Bahamas) The course will include case studies, a tabletop drill, videos, and experts’ presentations. It will cover background on the suicide terror threat, an overview of groups that use suicide terror, the modus operandi of different groups, terror cell organization and stages of a suicide attack, recruitment of bombers, predicting a suicide terror attack, recognizing a suicide bomber, the elements of a security plan, countermeasures, safety considerations, working with law enforcement, and planning the defense of a hotel and an attack on a hotel. [View course website]

Upcoming Events

May

4th Annual Homeland Security Contracting Opportunities Conference (11-12 May; Washington, DC) To bridge the gap between the government’s needs and the private sector’s ability to deliver goods and services, the Bureau of National Affairs presents this conference. Topics include “Top Priorities for DHS and the Private Sector,” “Homeland Security Spending Outlook,” regional requirements, “Small Business Contracting Opportunities,” and “Roles and Requirements of U.S. Armed Forces.” [View conference website]

June

2006 Techno Security Conference (4-7 June; Myrtle Beach, SC) The conference will bring together private industry, government and law enforcement decision makers, and technical enthusiasts in the fields of information and network security, digital forensics, incident response, operational and physical security, auditing, and cyber-crime. Eight simultaneous tracks will feature interactive high-intensity training sessions, hands-on labs, and opportunities for professional certification and networking. Topics will include homeland security; wireless security; web hacking; contingency planning; vulnerability assessments; incident response; computer, personal digital assistant, and enterprise forensics; password recovery and disk-wiping tools; intrusion prevention; Internet investigation techniques; street smarts for investigators; biometrics; and steganography. [View conference website]

Homeland Port Security Conference (7 June; New York) This conference sponsored by the U.S. Naval Institute will feature senior U.S. Navy and Coast Guard officers, as well as civilian, political, and business leaders, thrust into real-time simulations of simultaneous terrorist attacks against key maritime assets in the United States, requiring panelists to identify critical issues and challenges:

• Lessons learned: How do agencies disseminate unclassified information?
• Communication logistics during emergencies: Is everyone on the same page?
• Command and control: Who’s in charge in a layered-response scenario?
• Secure shipping: How do we monitor and secure the supply chain?
• Terrorist attacks on commerce and energy: What are the financial implications?

Terrorism Research Symposium (12-13 June; Denver) Law enforcement officials who deal with terrorism in their states, cities, and communities will learn what works to prevent and respond to terrorism. The conference is hosted by the National Institute of Justice’s International Center. Panelists will discuss research findings about common issues and invite state and local officials to describe their challenges and experiences in interactive, dynamic sessions. [View conference website]

Explosives Detection Conference (12-16 June; Miami) This conference, sponsored by the Combating Terrorism Technology Support Office Technical Support Working Group, focuses on large vehicle bomb detection, short-range detection, canines, and suicide bomber detection. Attendance is by invitation only. To request an invitation, register on the website. There is no fee for the conference. For further information, email detection_conference@bah.com. The registration deadline is 5 June. [View conference website; enter code TSW73414]

July

4th TICS and TIMs Symposium (11-13 July; Richmond, VA) Scentczar’s symposium will provide an overview of perceived threats, equipment requirements, and tools for identifying, defending against, and remediating incidents involving toxic industrial chemicals and toxic industrial materials. [View conference website]

INFORMS Military Applications Society (24-26 July; Mystic, CT) The Military Applications Society, a technical arm of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, will hold a conference with the theme “Homeland Security for the 21st Century.” [Register online]

September

December

Return to the top

Calls for Papers