International News

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Nuclear Weapons Development Is Getting Harder to Track (Christian Science Monitor) “While international attention is focused on the nuclear challenge posed by North Korea and Iran, the world’s top nuclear watchdog warned [last] week that the situation could be much worse in the future,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “‘Another 20 to 30 states’ could one day ‘have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons in a very short span of time,’ said Mohammed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. In the fine print is a sobering fact: If any nation were bent on secretly pursuing such weapons, there’s no guarantee the IAEA would detect it.” [View article]

Pakistan Increases Nuclear Program Oversight (Washington Times) “Pakistan has adopted a vast system of checks and balances in its military nuclear program to prevent nonproliferation abuses such as the nuclear black market run by top scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, a senior Pakistani military official said” on Monday, reports the Washington Times. “The official … also warned that the proposed U.S.-India nuclear-cooperation pact was a ‘one-sided deal’ that could prove ‘counterproductive for U.S. strategic objectives’ in South Asia if Islamabad was not offered a similar deal.” [View article]

Somalian President Says Country Is Under Influence of Al-Qaeda (Yahoo! News; Washington Post) “Somalia’s interim president”—Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed—“has appealed for international help in dealing with a powerful Islamist movement he accused of operating under the ‘black flag’ of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban,” reports Agence France-Presse. And “the United States accused Eritrea on [October 19] of opening another front against its foe Ethiopia by shipping arms to Somali Islamists who are rivals to a Western-backed interim government,” reports Reuters. “… a U.N. Security Council report in May said [that Eritrea] has sent weapons to the Islamists repeatedly in a bid to frustrate Ethiopia … Ethiopia, in turn, is believed by many to have sent troops across its border to bolster … Yusuf’s interim government against the Islamists’ expansion.” “The six countries that make up the Horn—Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Djibouti—could become the next major front in the war on terrorism,” reports the Associated Press. [View AFP article] [View Reuters article] [View AP article]

43 French Bag Handlers Denied Clearance (Yahoo! News) “Authorities rescinded the security clearance of 43 baggage handlers at France’s main international airport”—Charles de Gaulle—“due to suspicions they were connected with radical organizations,” reports the Associated Press. “… officials had also closed ‘seven Islamist, clandestine and illegal prayer rooms’ at Charles de Gaulle and at Orly, the second Paris airport.” [View article]

State Dept. Poll Says Iraqi Youth Want U.S. to Leave (Yahoo! News) “Majorities of Iraqi youth in Arab regions of the country believe security would improve and violence decrease if the U.S.-led forces left immediately, according to a State Department poll that provides a window into the grim warnings provided to policymakers,” reports the Associated Press. “The survey—unclassified, but marked ‘For Official U.S. Government Use Only’—also finds that Iraqi leaders may face particular difficulty recruiting young Sunni Arabs to join the stumbling security forces. Strong majorities of 15- to 29-year-olds in two Arab Sunni areas—Mosul and Tikrit-Baquba—would oppose joining the Iraqi army or police.” [View article]

Taliban to Launch War in Afghan Cities (Australian) “Taliban fighters are preparing for a campaign of urban warfare, say Afghan and Western intelligence, and have established cells in the cities of Afghanistan from which to launch a campaign of explosions and suicide bombings,” reports the Australian. “While military chiefs have been declaring victory in the south of the country and claim to have killed more than 3000 Taliban over the northern summer, diplomats in Kabul warn that security in Afghan cities is deteriorating fast.” [View article]

At Home With the Taliban (New York Times Magazine) “From 1994 to 2001, the Taliban were a cloistered clique with little interest in global affairs,” wrote Elizabeth Rubin in the New York Times Magazine, reporting on her travels “through Pakistan and particularly the Pashtun lands bordering Afghanistan.” Today the Taliban “are far more sophisticated and outward-looking.… They invoke a nostalgia for the jihad against the Russians and inspire their viewers to rise up again.… It is not at all clear that Afghans want the return of a Taliban government. But even sophisticated Kabulis told [her] that they are fed up with the corruption.” [View article]

Maintaining Order in an Iraqi Village (Washington Post) In Yusufan, Iraq, Sheik Adnan Aidani is trying to keep “order in a land without it, where society is fracturing, crumbling, even disintegrating,” reports the Washington Post. “… Aidani tries to draw on centuries-old traditions honed by Bedouins in the desert, rules built on honor, respect and reciprocity. He relies on the intimacy of a village where every neighbor knows the other. But in the end, the threat of punishment secures respect for Aidani.” [View article]

Muslim Veils Prompt Bans Across Europe (Washington Times) “Long and short, sober black and brightly hued, the Muslim veil is drawing growing criticism in much of Europe,” reports the Washington Times. “It has been chased from public schools in France and Belgium, and its strictest, face-concealing variation, the niqab, has been outlawed in a smattering of European towns. Even in multicultural Britain, the niqab has sparked ferocious debate after the suspension of a Muslim teaching assistant and remarks by top government officials that the niqab encourages an unsettling social rift.” [View article]

(MSNBC) An MSNBC web page examines “Europe’s Growing Challenge with Islam” and presents a collection of stories about Islam in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. [View report]

Canadian Judge Strikes Down Part of Anti-terrorism Act (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) Canadian “Justice Douglas Rutherford of Ontario Superior Court [has] ruled that a section of the Anti-terrorism Act that defines ‘terrorism’ violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” reports CBC News. “The ruling does not mean that Mohammad Momin Khawaja, the first person charged under the act, will be freed. Khawaja has been in custody since he was arrested … on March 29, 2004 in connection with seven criminal charges related to allegations he took part in and helped an extremist organization in Britain.… Rutherford decided to sever a section in the law that defines ideological, religious or political motivations for criminal acts. The rest of the law remains in place.… The case against Khawaja can still proceed to trial.” [View article]

German Embassies Alert for Retaliation Over Skull Desecration Report (CNN) “Germany warned its embassies to tighten security measures on Thursday amid concerns that photos appearing to show soldiers desecrating a human skull in Afghanistan could harm its army’s image abroad,” reports Reuters. “Germany’s Foreign Ministry alerted its missions in the Afghan capital Kabul and across the Middle East after top-selling daily Bild published pictures portraying servicemen in macabre and sometimes obscene poses with the skull.” [View article]

France Sends al-Qaeda Plotter to Prison (CNN) “A French court on Thursday convicted a Moroccan man on terror charges for his role in a thwarted bomb plot on the Indian Ocean island of La Reunion in 2003,” reports the Associated Press. “Karim Mehdi, 37, received a nine-year prison sentence in Paris criminal court, and was ordered barred from France afterward. He had also been suspected of ties to two men involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, and to al-Qaida.” [View article]

Israel and U.S. to Expand Civil Air Defense Cooperation (Jerusalem Haaretz) “Israel and the United States will expand cooperation in securing passenger planes and airports from terror threats, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz and U.S. Transportation Security Administration” officials agreed on Wednesday, reports Haaretz. “Talks between the two sides focused on closer cooperation in three central areas: on-board electro-optic systems, a code system for positively identifying the pilot flying a given airplane, and airport defense systems operating against the threat of missile fire.” [View article]

U.S. Contributes $10 Million to Other Countries for Flu Vaccine Production In response to a World Health Organization report about increasing the global supply of influenza vaccines, the United States is contributing $10 million to help other countries develop and manufacture flu vaccines to prepare for an influenza pandemic. The report, Global Pandemic Influenza Action Plan to Increase Vaccine Supply, released on Monday, specifies requirements for the funding of vaccine production in the long and short terms. According to WHO, the world’s total production capacity of flu vaccine is 350 million doses annually in a global population of 6.7 billion people. [View press release] [View WHO report]

New this week in the Journal of Homeland Security In Cobra II, Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor, drawing on inside sources, U.S. intelligence, and interviews with top field commanders, tell “the inside story of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.” Analytic Services Senior Editor Steve Dunham reviews the book.

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National News

MSNBC Report: ‘Inside Gitmo’ (MSNBC) “Former leaders of the Defense Department’s Criminal Investigation Task Force said they repeatedly warned senior Pentagon officials beginning in early 2002 that the harsh interrogation techniques used” at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba “by a separate intelligence team would not produce reliable information, could constitute war crimes, and would embarrass the nation when they became public knowledge …” reports MSNBC. “‘Interviews and interrogations are not about making someone talk. They are about making them want to,’” said “Col. Brittain P. Mallow, the commander of the task force from 2002 to 2005.… the law enforcement agents said” that “frustrated intelligence interrogators were trying whatever they thought might work.” The second part of the special report explores whether the so-called “20th hijacker”—Mohammed al-Qahtani—of the 9/11 attack can stand trial, because his “aggressive interrogation at Guantanamo may prevent his prosecution.” [View part 1] [View part 2]

Admitted 9/11 Planner Binalshibh Wants U.S. Trial (Washington Post) “Ramzi Binalshibh, an admitted al-Qaeda planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, tried four times to join the terrorist hijackers who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001 and has acknowledged his goal of killing as many Americans as possible,” reports the Washington Post. “Now the Yemeni man is seeking the help of the U.S. court system to address his complaint that he has been wrongfully imprisoned and treated unfairly by the U.S. government. He filed a legal challenge in federal court in Washington on Oct. 10, asserting his rights to contest his detention [at Guantanamo] and requesting that a court-appointed lawyer represent him free of charge.” [View article]

Illegal Immigrants Include Surge of Children (Washington Post) “A new and fast-growing stream of illegal immigration to the United States [is] those under 18 who are sneaking into the country without their parents,” reports the Washington Post. “… the phenomenon is growing and includes girls traveling alone and even toddlers being carried by older siblings or entrusted to smugglers.… Last fiscal year, the Border Patrol apprehended 115,000 unaccompanied minors, up from 98,000 in 2001. Almost 7,800 children landed in the federally funded system of shelters” in the fiscal year ending “Sept. 30, 2005—25 percent of them girls, 20 percent under 15.” [View article]

Bush Signs Border Fence Bill (Yahoo! News) “President Bush signed a bill Thursday authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border,” reports the Associated Press. The “fence project [covers] one-third of the 2,100-mile border. Its cost is not known, although a homeland security spending measure the president signed earlier this month makes a $1.2 billion down payment on the project.” [View article]

Rise in Bribery Tests Integrity of U.S. Border (Los Angeles Times) “Bribery of federal and local officials by Mexican smugglers is rising sharply, and with it the fear that a culture of corruption is taking hold along the 2,000-mile border from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “At least 200 public employees have been charged with helping to move narcotics or illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexican border since 2004, at least double the illicit activity documented in prior years, a Times examination of public records has found. Thousands more are under investigation. Criminal charges have been brought against Border Patrol agents, local police, a county sheriff, motor vehicle clerks, an FBI supervisor, immigration examiners, prison guards, school district officials and uniformed personnel of every branch of the U.S. military.” [View article]

Radical Islam Finds U.S. to Be ‘Sterile Ground’ (Christian Science Monitor) “‘Home-grown’ terror cells remain a concern of US law officers … But the suspects’ unsophisticated planning and tiny numbers have led some security analysts to conclude that America, for all its imperfections, is not fertile ground for producing jihadist terrorists,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “… the face of young Muslim-Americans today—educated, motivated, and integrated into society—and their voices help explain how the nation’s history of inclusion has helped to defuse sparks of Islamist extremism.” [View article]

Wisconsin Man Charged in Stadium Threat (New York Times) “A 20-year-old grocery store clerk”—Jake J. Brahm—“who authorities say amused himself by posting prank Internet warnings of terrorist attacks against [National Football League] stadiums was arrested [on October 20] on federal charges that could bring five years behind bars,” reports the Associated Press. “… Brahm was accused of writing that radioactive ‘dirty bombs’ would be detonated [last] weekend at seven football stadiums. He admitted posting the same threat about 40 times on various Web sites between September and [October 18], authorities said.… Brahm was charged with making a terrorist threat over the Internet, which carries a maximum five-year prison sentence and $250,000 fine.” [View article]

Workers Find Human Remains on New York 9/11 Site (Reuters AlertNet) “Human remains thought to be from victims of the Sept. 11 attacks have been discovered by utility workers removing rubble from manholes where the World Trade Center once stood,” reports Reuters. “… the chief medical examiner … will run DNA tests in hopes of matching the parts with existing profiles gathered since the attacks.… More than five years later, 1,150 of the 2,749 victims of the New York attack have … not been identified or recovered. Families of victims have called repeatedly for a thorough search of the grounds.… The manholes had been covered by a temporary road paved soon after the attacks to allow cranes in to remove debris.” [View article]

Court Told It Lacks Power in Detainee Cases (Washington Post) The Bush “administration has formally notified the U.S. District Court” in Washington, DC, “that it no longer has jurisdiction to consider hundreds of habeas corpus petitions filed by inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba,” reports the Washington Post. The Justice Department said that the new Military Commissions Act “provides that ‘no court, justice, or judge’ can consider those petitions or other actions related to treatment or imprisonment filed by anyone designated as an enemy combatant, now or in the future. Beyond those already imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere, the law applies to all non-U.S. citizens, including permanent U.S. residents. The new law already has been challenged as unconstitutional by lawyers representing the petitioners. The issue of detainee rights is likely to reach the Supreme Court for a third time.” [View article]

Drug Raid Yields Los Alamos Documents (Yahoo! News) “Authorities in northern New Mexico have stumbled onto what appears to be classified information from Los Alamos National Laboratory while arresting a man suspected of domestic violence and dealing methamphetamine from his mobile home,” reports the Associated Press. FBI agents traced the secret documents to a contract employee at the nuclear weapons lab. [View article]

GAO Cites Flaws in Transportation ID Program (Government Executive) “A Transportation Security Administration program for issuing port workers secure, biometric-based identification cards is susceptible to more cost overruns and delays,” concludes a report by the Government Accountability Office, according to National Journal’s Technology Daily. The GAO “report finds flaws in TSA’s test program for implementing the transportation worker identification credential program. TSA is developing the so-called TWIC program to meet a congressional mandate that all workers with access to sensitive port and vessel areas undergo background checks and carry such IDs.” [View article] [View GAO abstract]

National Intelligence Agency Creates Giant Data-Sorting System (Government Executive) The Office of the Director of National Intelligence “is building a computerized system”—called Tangram—“to search very large stores of information for patterns of activity that look like terrorist planning,” reports the National Journal. Tangram “is being tested, in part, with government intelligence that may contain information on U.S. citizens and other people inside the country. It encompasses existing profiling and detection systems, including those that create ‘suspicion scores’ for suspected terrorists by analyzing very large databases of government intelligence, as well as records of individuals’ private communications, financial transactions, and other everyday activities.… Tim Edgar, the deputy civil-liberties protection officer for the national intelligence director, said that Tangram ‘is a research-and-development program. We have been assured that it’s not deployed for operational use.’” [View article]

Strategic Study on Bioterrorism Last week the Center for Strategic and International Studies published its Strategic Study on Bioterrorism to increase awareness of the threat of bioterror and to identify means by which countries can prevent and respond to such threats. It addressed bio-threat and response scenarios, risk assessment, modern diagnostic techniques and methods to strengthen capabilities for early detection, surveillance and response to natural and bioterror disease outbreaks, the technical issues to be solved, and political, social, and psychological aspects of bioterrorism. [View website]

Technology Is Not the Obstacle to Fighting Pandemic Flu, Say Govt. Health Experts (Government Health IT) “Lack of technology is not the problem when it comes to planning for an influenza pandemic or other serious disease outbreak, speakers at a geographic information systems (GIS) conference said this week,” reports Government Health IT. “Instead, they cited a failure to plan across organizational boundaries and anticipate what resources will be necessary when disease suddenly strikes.” [View article]

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DHS News

Chertoff Promises Better Information Sharing With Police The Homeland Security Department is “creating a national network of intelligence fusion centers to support state and local decision-makers, chiefs of police, and state and local intelligence officials,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the International Association of the Chiefs of Police at the annual conference in Boston last week. “… new information systems” will “facilitate collaboration and sharing of classified and unclassified information” and allow real-time collaboration among state, local, and federal law enforcement, including secure “transmission of classified information … We are going to expedite the classified, secret level clearance process” and more quickly grant top secret and sensitive compartment information clearances for those who require it. DHS will “be assigning experienced intelligence personnel from the federal intelligence community, as well as subject matter experts into” the new “fusion centers” and will “invite police departments to be sending their intelligence analysts and maybe their operators into our intelligence center and into our operations center.” [View speech transcript]

Users Tripped Up by Revamped DHS Web Site (Government Computer News) “The Homeland Security Department debuted a new Web site this week [see the Website of the Week], and discarded most of its old Web addresses, to mixed reactions by users,” reports Government Computer News. “While the new Web site is being praised for its slick appearance, complaints are flowing about the elimination of many former DHS Web pages.… Hundreds of former DHS page links are now invalid.… The department is addressing the concerns and creating automatic links to the most popular pages”; “automatic links will be created for the addresses requested most frequently.” [View article]

DHS Awards Contracts to Shield Airliners From Missiles (Government Executive) “The Homeland Security Department has launched an 18-month program to evaluate technologies for protecting commercial aircraft against shoulder-fired missiles,” reports the National Journal’s Technology Daily. “The department has awarded $7.4 million in contracts to L-3 Communications AVISYS, Northrop Grumman Space Technology and Raytheon Company to evaluate and demonstrate emerging technology for defeating man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADS.” [View article]

GAO Urges Better Collaboration Among Four DHS Ops Centers (Federal Computer Week) “The Government Accountability Office has told the Homeland Security Department to broaden collaboration among its four round-the-clock operations centers,” reports Federal Computer Week. “The four centers bring together staff from multiple agencies involved with homeland security. Customs and Border Protection runs two of the centers, the Transportation Security Administration runs one and DHS’ Office of Operations Coordination runs the other.… Multiple agencies contribute employees to the centers, but they do not have joint strategies for defining agencies’ roles, assessing staffing needs and collaborating on their work, according to the report. The problems are apparent at a more technical level, too. According to GAO, employees working at the centers have not learned basic standards and procedures for using the Homeland Security Information Network, DHS’ primary information-sharing system.” [View article] [View GAO abstract]

Coast Guard Offers Hazmat CD for First Responders The Coast Guard is offering a free CD with comprehensive chemical information to fire and safety service personnel responding to hazardous materials incidents. Users can search a database by a substance’s color, odor, and physical appearance and use the data to plan for a safe and effective response. Chemicals are rated according to health risk, flammability, and reactivity, among other factors, using data from several sources. Contact Alan Schneider at (202) 372-1421 or by email at alan.l.schneider@.uscg.mil. [View press release]

All but Three Visa Waiver Program Countries Meet e-Passport Deadline Of the 27 Visa Waiver Program countries, 24 met yesterday’s deadline for issuing passports that contain a contactless chip with the passport holder’s biographic information and a biometric identifier, such as a digital photograph of the holder. The United States is working with the other three (Andorra, Brunei, and Liechtenstein) to help them meet the requirements as soon as possible. [View press release]

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Other Federal News

NRC Seeks Public Comment on Reactor Security Rule The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment on a proposed rule amending its security regulations related to the physical protection of nuclear power reactors. This proposed rulemaking also includes a limited number of new security requirements for certain facilities that manufacture uranium fuel. Comments must be received within 75 days. [View press release]

Defense Dept. Pandemic Flu Preparations Should Go Further, Says GAO “An influenza pandemic would be of global and national significance and could affect large numbers of Department of Defense … personnel, seriously challenging” the department’s readiness, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday. The report examined the department’s “pandemic influenza preparedness efforts” and the agency’s “planning for its workforce”—actions the department has taken to prepare and challenges it faces going forward. [View GAO abstract]

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State and Local News

Washington Metro Tests Emergency Track Vehicle The Washington (DC) Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is testing the MEC-4, a four-person, battery-operated electric cart to gauge its practicality and reliability in responding to emergencies in the Metrorail system. Metro Transit Police and area first responders will use it to get to an emergency scene in the Metrorail system and safely transport people who are unable to walk out of the area. The MEC-4 runs on rail tracks up to 10 mph and can carry four people and equipment. [View press release]

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Dual-Benefit Solutions

‘Strong Angel’ Tests Public-Private Disaster Relief (Government Computer News) “The Strong Angel series is a volunteer demonstration disaster response laboratory that brings together medical, humanitarian, military and technology experts from the public and private sectors, civilian and military agencies and domestic and international organizations,” reports Government Computer News. “The goal is to solve problems in global disaster response by field-testing and demonstrating technologies to facilitate humanitarian relief. It also could help develop enduring social networks that responders can call on in an emergency.” [View article]

Dual-benefit news archive

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Private-Sector News

FedEx Kinko’s to Help FEMA Get Word Out in Emergencies (Federal Computer Week) “When disaster strikes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has no time to post a solicitation for fliers and evacuation maps, so the agency has selected a new on-demand printing program offered by the Government Printing Office,” reports Federal Computer Week. “Through the program, called GPOExpress, employees can either go to a local FedEx Kinko’s branch or submit requests online for small print jobs” and use “GPOExpress to distribute communications during response and recovery efforts.” [View article]

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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. New education listings are posted for four weeks.

U.S. National Security Policy Issues (December 12-13; Washington, DC) This Brookings Institution course examines the key national security challenges confronting the United States, what the trends are and where scarce resources will go, whether homeland security will stay in the spotlight, whether trade and export controls will be tightened, and other tough and controversial issues. The course features honest and open dialogue and a wide array of notable guest speakers. [View course website]

Upcoming Events

New Events (After four weeks, new events will be moved to the list below, in chronological order) (December 12; Cincinnati) The first Joint Critical Infrastructure Protection Conference is dedicated to terrorism as it relates to the agriculture and food sector. The conference will provide information and insights for executive officers, operations managers, and security managers in the public and private sectors and will enhance law enforcement officials’ ability to safeguard critical infrastructure. The conference aims to create security partners and partnerships. [View conference website]

November 21-23, Helsinki, Finland: Information Society Technologies 2006

December 3-6; Baltimore: Society for Risk Analysis

February 6-7; Washington, DC: Homeland Security: The Ripple Effect

February 20-21, 2007; Oklahoma City: IV Intl. Congress for Victims of Terrorism

June 5-8, 2007; Trogir, Croatia: The 14th TIEMS (International Emergency Management Society) International Conference

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