International News

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Britain Foils Plot to Blow Up 12 Airliners (London Times) On Wednesday night, 21 suspects were arrested in Britain for plotting to destroy “12 aircraft in mid-flight between Britain and America using liquid explosive,” reports the London Times. The plan, which was apparently days from fulfillment, “bore all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda plot.” Many flights were canceled, and both Britain and the United States stepped up security measures for airline travel. (See Federal News.) [View article]

Plot Echoes One Planned by 9/11 Mastermind in ’94 (New York Times) “The plot to blow up several airliners over the Atlantic, uncovered by British authorities, bears a striking resemblance to a plot hatched by Al Qaeda operatives 12 years ago to simultaneously blow up airliners over the Pacific,” reports the New York Times. “That plot was hatched in Manila by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was starting his climb to be a top lieutenant to Osama bin Laden, and by Ramzi Yousef, who was the mastermind of the first attempt to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993. It was financed by bin Laden.” [View article]

Britain’s MI5 Diverts Record Amount of Budget to Fight Terrorism (London Times) British “police and MI5 have foiled at least thirteen suspected international terrorist plots in Britain in the past six years,” reports the London Times. “… 87 per cent of the MI5 budget is now spent on counter-terrorism.… The suspected plots this year do not include the police raid in Forest Gate, East London … about twenty ‘major conspiracies’ by Islamic terrorists [are] being monitored by the security services.” [View article]

Russia Condemns U.S. Arms Sanctions (BBC; Novosti) Russia says that U.S. sanctions imposed last week against two of its companies are “an ‘unfriendly act’ aimed at undermining the Russian defence industry,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. Russian companies Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi both denied that their “dealings with Iran breached any international agreements.” The companies allegedly transferred to Iran equipment “that could be used to develop weapons of mass destruction.” Other companies penalized were India’s Balaji Amines Ltd. and Prachi Poly Products Ltd., North Korea’s Korean Mining and Industrial Development Corporation and Korea Pugang Trading Corporation, and Cuba’s Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. “In reality, the sanctions are an attempt to take revenge for the $3 billion in contracts for military-technical cooperation signed by Moscow and Caracas [Venezuela], Russian analysts say,” according to the Russian News and Information Agency Novosti. [View BBC article] [View Novosti article]

Terror Attacks in Russia Decrease (Washington Times) “Russia says terrorist attacks in the first half of 2006 fell 20 percent from the same period last year, thanks to its new anti-terror measures,” reports United Press International. “Deputy Interior Minister Andrei Novikov said 68 terrorist attacks were recorded in the current January to June period, [the Russian News and Information Agency] Novosti reported Thursday.” [View article]

Police Officer Cleared Over London Terror Shooting (Yahoo! News) “The officer who shot one of two brothers arrested during an anti-terrorism raid on an innocent Muslim family’s house in London was cleared of any wrongdoing …” reports Agence France-Presse. “The shooting was an ‘accident’ and no offence was committed, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said … According to the IPCC, the gun went off because of contact on a narrow staircase between the police officer and Mohammed Abdul Kahar.… There was ‘no evidence’ of either intent or recklessness on the part of the officer, and no evidence to support claims that the gun was fired by one of the brothers.” [View article]

Bombs Found on German Trains (Expatica) “Two unexploded suitcase bombs on German trains” were found on July 31 and were “dismantled at stations in Dortmund and Koblenz without injury,” reports Deutsche Presse-Agentur. “They contained timers, petrol and canisters of gas.” [View article]

Egyptian Militant Group Joins Forces With al-Qaeda (CNN) “Al Qaeda has joined forces with the long-quiet Egyptian militant group Al-Jamaa Islamiya, according to a videotaped message from Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant that aired Saturday” on al-Jazeera, reports CNN. “… It was unclear how many members of Al-Jamaa Islamiya would join al Qaeda’s ranks.” [View article]

Britain’s Top Asian Police Officer Says Muslims Face Discrimination (BBC) “Britain’s most senior Asian police officer has warned [that] Muslims are being discriminated against as the result of anti-terror legislation,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “In a speech in Manchester, Metropolitan Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur said many police stop-and-searches were based more on physical appearance than on specific intelligence.” [View article]

India Fears That Terrorism May Attract Its Muslims (New York Times) “A small but increasingly deadly cadre of young and often educated Indian Muslims” is “being drawn directly into terrorist operations,” reports the New York Times. “The scale and coordination of the July 11 attacks … suggest that at least one terrorist cell, made up of fewer than a dozen local people and probably directed and financed by militants based in Pakistan, carried out the bombings, which killed 183 people.” [View article]

Four Arrested in U.S. Journalist’s Kidnapping (New York Times) “American marines have captured four Iraqi men suspected of playing a role in the kidnapping of an American journalist, Jill Carroll, in Baghdad,” reports the New York Times. Carroll “was at the time of her abduction a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor.” [View article]

Rice Says Iraq Isn’t Sliding into Civil War (Yahoo! News) Gen. John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command and top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, last week told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Iraq could be moving into civil war [see last week’s newsletter], but “‘it would be, really, erroneous to say that the Iraqis are somehow making a choice for civil war, or, I think, even sliding into civil war,’ Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday on ABC’s ‘This Week,’” reports the Associated Press. [View article]

China Confirms Human Bird Flu Case from 2003 (Washington Post) China’s Health Ministry “confirmed on Tuesday that the country’s first human case of the H5N1 bird flu virus was in November 2003, two years earlier than originally reported,” reports Reuters. “… Eight Chinese researchers published a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine in June saying a 24-year-old man, who was admitted to hospital in November 2003 for respiratory distress and pneumonia and later died, had been infected with H5N1.” Confirmation came “by ‘parallel laboratory tests’ carried out in cooperation with the World Health Organization, Xinhua news agency said in a brief report. The scientists’ findings were one of the clearest indications yet that the virus might have been brewing for much longer in the vast country than what had been reported.” [View article]

Viet Nam Will Post Bird Flu Reports on Web (Viet Nam News) Viet Nam will post reports “on the health of its poultry on the World Health Organisation’s Flunet website,” reports the Viet Nam News. “… The nation has boosted surveillance on bird flu outbreaks in poultry.” [View article]

Bahamas Join Container Security Initiative The Bahamas agreed on August 4 to participate in the Container Security Initiative. This will enable all maritime cargo destined for the United States through Freeport to be prescreened for terrorists and terrorist weapons. [View press release]

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Federal News

Weak Spots Hamper DHS Info Security (Government Computer News) “Despite improvements, the Homeland Security Department continues to display significant information security weaknesses that jeopardize the integrity and privacy of department IT programs, according to a new report released by DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner,” reports Government Computer News. Skinner “released it in a redacted form to prevent disclosure of sensitive information. According to the 77-page management letter, the most significant IT control weaknesses at the agency involve entitywide security, access controls and service continuity.” [View article] [View report]

DHS to Field Additional Data-Mining Tools (Government Computer News) “The Homeland Security Department will deploy additional computerized methods of pinpointing threats in airports in response to the newly uncovered plot to blow up aircraft flying from London to the United States,” reports Government Computer News. DHS did not elaborate “on what kind of advanced targeting tools [it] would begin using in airports. But previously announced research projects in the area include special systems that can detect individuals who display ‘suspicious behavior.’ The term ‘advanced targeting tools’ generally is understood to cover data mining methods that can extract useful patterns from huge heaps of information, such as the data already gathered about terrorists and their methods.” [View article]

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National News

U.S. Is at War With ‘Islamic Fascists,’ Says Bush (Reuters) “President Bush said on Thursday [that] a plot foiled by Britain to blow up flights to the United States was a ‘stark reminder’ that the United States is ‘at war with Islamic fascists,’” reports Reuters. [View article]

11 Egyptian Students Are No-Shows at Montana State U.; 6 Are Caught (Houston Chronicle) “Six of the 11 Egyptian exchange students who failed to show up for their college program are now in custody after three additional students were arrested Thursday,” reports the Associated Press. “… All are being held on administrative immigration violations because they did not report on time to their monthlong program at Montana State University in Bozeman … None of the students is considered a terrorism risk … The other five Egyptians still [were] being sought” as of yesterday. [View article]

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New this week in the Journal of Homeland Security In The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11, author Ron Suskind details the government’s reaction to the September 11 attacks as well as its attempts to link the “Global War on Terror” to Iraq. Suskind’s theme is that U.S. policy has been guided by Vice President Cheney’s 1% doctrine that if there’s a 1% chance of a terrorist act, behave as if it’s a certainty. Analytic Services senior editor Steve Dunham reviews the book.

State and Local News

Isolated Canadian Islanders Worried by Tighter U.S. Border (Christian Science Monitor) “For 10 months of the year,” Canadian residents of Campobello Island must drive through Maine to reach other parts of their country, and “as the United States tightens its borders,” islanders “are particularly concerned about US plans to require all persons driving into the US from Canada to have a passport as of Dec. 31, 2007, rather than just a photo ID, as has been the case for decades,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. To access the rest of Canada, the residents have to cross a bridge into Lubec, Maine, and drive one hour to get to New Brunswick. Of concern is the $77 (US) expense and the bridge delays that “can run two or three hours at the Calais–St. Stephen crossing.” [View article]

Louisiana Gets Special FEMA Help With Disaster Plans (Government Executive) “Louisiana is getting a larger share of federal resources than other areas as the” Federal Emergency Management Agency “tries to improve disaster planning in the state,” reports Government Executive. “… Homeland Security Department and FEMA officials said they want state and local agencies to have the greatest presence when disasters strike.” [View article]

Focus of Bird Flu Testing Shifts to California (USA Today) California biologists “are part of a vast network trying to learn if a deadly bird-flu virus plaguing Asia has arrived in the USA,” reports USA Today. The biologists are taking “swab samples [that] will be flash-frozen in vials, stored at minus-70 degrees and shipped” to “labs in 36 states to be tested for the H5N1 virus, which has killed 138 people in nine Asian countries along with untold numbers of poultry since 2003.” [View article]

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Dual-Benefit Solutions

Washington, DC, Installs Security Cameras (Washington Times) Washington, DC, police are “installing surveillance cameras in four high-crime neighborhoods, nearly 30 days after officials declared a citywide crime emergency,” reports the Washington Times. “… They will operate 24 hours a day, but will only be reviewed by police when a crime is committed.… about two dozen cameras will be deployed by the end of this month and 23 more cameras in September … The crime emergency … will be extended indefinitely.” [View article]

Dual-benefit news archive

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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.

Terrorism: Threats, Training, Tactics and Technology (October 4-6, Albuquerque, NM) Nationally renowned experts will discuss terrorism, emerging threats, training, tactics, and technology issues. Participants will have the opportunity to explore some of the challenges and gain a comprehensive understanding of issues related to terrorism. [View conference website] Hospital Management of Chemical, Biological, Radiological/Nuclear and Explosive Incidents (August 14-18; Aberdeen, MD) This course, hosted by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense and the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, provides civilian healthcare professionals with state-of-the art instruction in planning for and managing multi-casualty incidents resulting from CBRNE terrorist attacks. For more information, visit the course website or call (410) 436-2230 or (410) 436-3393. [View course website] Mirror Image (September 17-22; Moyock, NC) Mirror Image is an intensive, one-week classroom and field training program, designed to realistically simulate terrorist recruiting, training techniques, and operational tactics. Participants will receive insight into the mindset and rationale of the terrorist through hands-on experience with the methods and means they use, plus education about the ideologies that motivate them and cultural dimensions that influence their decision making. [View course website]

Upcoming Events

August 21-25; Baltimore: Raising the Bar for Security

September 6-8; Atlanta: Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness Conference & Expo

September 12-13; Long Beach, CA: Prevention First Biennial Symposium

September 13-14; Brussels, Belgium: Air & Port Security Expo Europe

September 19-20; New York: U.S. Maritime Security Expo

September 19-21; Baltimore: Biometric Consortium Conference

October 2-5; Colorado Springs, CO: Homeland Defense Symposium

October 26; London: Global Security Challenge

October 25-27; New York: Environmental Sampling and Detection for Bio-Threat Agents

December 3-6; Baltimore: Society for Risk Analysis