International News

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Hamas Swears to Carry Out Vengeance Attacks in Israel (Jerusalem Haaretz) Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades have “vowed revenge attacks” after 19 “Palestinians, including 17 members of a single family, were killed by stray Israel Defense Forces artillery shells that hit a house in Beit Hanun, in the northern Gaza Strip,” reports Haaretz. “… About 40 Palestinians were wounded in the incident, most of them women and children.” Hamas “said that a temporary halt in [its terrorist] attacks had come to an end.” [View article]

3,000 Pounds of TNT Seized in Egypt (New York Times; Reuters AlertNet) “Egyptian police on [November 3] found more than 3,000 pounds of explosives buried in two caches in the Sinai desert,” reports the Associated Press. There are “indications that a cache of 2,200 pounds found 20 miles east of Gaza was to be smuggled across the border. A second cache of 882 pounds found east of the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya appeared to be for Egyptian militants. Islamic militants have carried out three major bomb attacks in Sinai tourist resorts since October 2004, killing a total of 124 people.… On Oct. 27, police seized one ton of explosives in the Rissan mountains 20 miles east of Israel.” Then, on Tuesday, Egyptian police reported seizing 550 pounds more “of explosives destined for smuggling into the Palestinian territories,” reports Reuters. [View AP article] [View Reuters article]

Maoists Threaten Security in Rural India (Tokyo Asahi Shimbun) “The Communist Party of India–Maoist” last year “launched attacks on 11 of the nation’s 29 states and metropolitan areas,” reports the Asahi Shimbun. “And the victims were not only security force members but also villagers who had resisted Maoist rule.” The Maoists are “now believed to have between 8,000 and 9,000 armed members.” India’s Ministry of Home Affairs says that the Maoists killed 669 people last year, including security force members. [View article]

Italy Convicts Egyptians Tied to Madrid Bombs (MSNBC) “An Egyptian man”—Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed—“who is one of the chief suspects in the 2004 Madrid [Spain] train bombings was sentenced to 10 years in jail by an Italian court on Monday,” reports the Associated Press. “The court in Milan [Italy] convicted … Ahmed, 35, and a co-defendant, Yahia Ragheh, 23, of subversive association aimed at international terrorism, a charge introduced in Italy after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The younger man was sentenced to five years.” [View article]

Confessed al-Qaeda Operative Sentenced to Life in Prison (Washington Post) Dhiren Barot, “an al-Qaeda operative who planned to blow up the World Bank in Washington and the New York Stock Exchange as well as other landmarks in the United States and Britain was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday” by a London court, reports the Washington Post. Barot, 34, “pleaded guilty.” His plans included “blowing up a subway train as it passed in a tunnel under the Thames River and exploding limousines loaded with gas cylinders near the Savoy, Ritz and other London hotels.… He now faces extradition to the United States, where he has been indicted on terror charges.” [View article]

Bomb Blasts Highlight India’s Other Terror Front (Australian) “Terrorist bombs in Gawahati, the capital of Assam state,” in India “killed at least 15 people and injured more than 50” on Sunday, reports the Australian. “The blasts were believed to be the work of the United Liberation Front of Assam … New Delhi declared a ceasefire with the Assam insurgents in August but called it off a month later when the ULFA demanded the release of jailed leaders. Since then there have been killings, kidnappings and attacks on security forces and installations.” [View article]

Spanish Police Arrest 4 Suspected Islamist Forgers (Reuters AlertNet) “Spanish police have arrested four men suspected of forging documents so that Islamists fighters could travel to Spain from Iraq,” reports Reuters. Officials “confiscated material used for forging documents as well as 21,600 euros in cash and falsified identity documents.” [View article]

Last Atomic Bomb Speaks to Nuclear Future (New York Times) “As Iraq devolves into chaos, and North Korea strives to join the nuclear nations, the exhortations of ‘The Last Atomic Bomb’ ring with an uncomfortable currency,” writes reviewer Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times. “… the movie”—“an emotional sledgehammer but not a diatribe”—“is an unvarnished emotional plea for nuclear disarmament voiced primarily by Sakue Shimohira, a survivor of Nagasaki.” [View film review]

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National News

Interrogation Is ‘Optional,’ Guantanamo Chief Says (Reuters AlertNet) “Guantanamo prisoners are no longer forced to undergo interrogation, including 14 ‘high-value’ prisoners who include the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, the detention camp commander [Rear Adm. Harry Harris] said,” according to Reuters. Although “President George W. Bush signed a law last month permitting aggressive interrogations,” Harris “told visiting journalists [last] week that interrogations had been optional since midsummer because coercion was ineffective.” [View article]

War Crimes Bring Light Sentences (U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings) “Courts-martial in Iraq and Afghanistan seem to be acquitting individuals with unusual frequency,” writes Gary Solis, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Marines (retired) and former judge advocate, in Proceedings. “In courts that do convict, military juries sometimes appear unwilling to impose sentences commensurate with the crimes of which Soldiers and Marines have been convicted.… The homicide of a captive is a war crime” but “sometimes, no charges at all are made.” [View article (free registration reqd.)]

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DHS News

DHS Ponders Effects of Foot-and-Mouth Outbreak in Cattle (Government Executive) “The Homeland Security Department’s senior adviser for weapons of mass destruction”—Maureen McCarthy—said “that the introduction of foot-and-mouth disease on American soil would have a tremendous effect on the U.S. economy, whether the outbreak is intentional or accidental,” reports Government Executive. “… McCarthy said foot-and-mouth disease could be used by terrorists” but “that there is no existing intelligence indicating such a plot,” adding “that simultaneous breakouts of foot-and-mouth disease in several locations could be a signal of an attack.… The disease is worrisome to health officials because it is highly contagious, sometimes lethal to humans and can spread even in freezing temperatures.” [View article]

DHS Funds Promising Students (Federal Computer Week) Through its Scholars and Fellows Program, “the Homeland Security Department’s Science and Technology Directorate has awarded 103 new scholarships and fellowships to undergraduate and graduate students who are studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” reports Federal Computer Week. “The recipients are involved in courses of study that are crucial to DHS’ mission.” The program “is designed to encourage and aid public service-oriented students who will make up the next generation of scientists and engineers.” [View article]

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Other Federal News

Does Govt. Website Reveal a Nuclear Primer? (New York Times) A federal government website that made “public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war” was shut down by the government on November 2 “after The New York Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control officials” who said that “the documents … constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.” Recently, the website, which had been set up in March, had posted “detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war.… A spokesman for John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, said access to the site had been suspended ‘pending a review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing.’ Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, fearing that the information could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms, had privately protested last week to the American ambassador to the agency.” [View article]

Justice Dept. Disputes Report on Terror Cases (USA Today) “Federal prosecutors rejected 87% of the international terrorism cases brought by the FBI during the first nine months of fiscal year 2006, a Syracuse University analysis concluded,” according to USA Today. “The review, conducted by the university’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), found that the number of rejections has been generally increasing since 2001. Prosecutions fell from 118 defendants in fiscal year 2002, to 19 defendants from Oct. 1, 2005, to June 30, the latest data available. The Justice Department challenged the findings and said the analysis represented an ‘astonishing misunderstanding’ of the inner workings of the federal criminal justice system. ‘This report contains inaccurate figures, relies on a faulty assumption that every referral from an investigative agency should result in a criminal prosecution and ignores the reality of how the war on terrorism is being conducted,’ said Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.” [View article] [View TRAC report]

NRC Web System Tracks Nuclear Material (Federal Computer Week) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is requiring various transactions involving radioactive materials to be reported via “secure, Web-based access to a new National Source Tracking System (NSTS),” reports Federal Computer Week. “States and the NRC will use NSTS to closely track the location and use of various radioactive materials” used in “industries such as oil and gas, construction, food and medicine.” Although “a number of separate systems contain information on companies and individuals who are licensed to use them, no one system covers all licensees.” Reporting to the “NSTS will be mandatory.” [View article]

GSA Centralizes Emergency Response Resources (Government Executive) “The General Services Administration announced Tuesday that it has consolidated its emergency resources in a new Office of Emergency Response and Recovery,” reports Government Executive. “… The new office will provide a central location from which GSA can support first responders, emergency workers and recovery teams … The agency’s old Office of Emergency Management will be dissolved and its responsibilities reassigned to the new unit. Those duties include developing agencywide disaster readiness plans, implementing them and integrating emergency historic preservation requirements into response and recovery plans.” [View article]

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State and Local News

Texas Deploys Virtual Border Patrol (CNN) “Texas has started broadcasting live images of the U.S. border on the Internet in a security program that asks the public to report signs of illegal immigration or drug crimes,” reports the Associated Press. “A test Web site went live [November 2] at texasborderwatch.com with views from eight cameras and ways for viewers to e-mail reports of suspicious activity.… Some civil rights groups have criticized the ‘virtual border watch,’ saying it will instill fear in border communities and could lead to fraudulent crime reports and racial profiling.… Information e-mailed by viewers goes to the state’s operations center and local law enforcement in that area.… the project will eventually grow to include at least 70 cameras throughout South Texas, some with zoom lens and thermal capacity.” [View article]

Economic Impact Felt as Immigrants Leave Hazleton, PA (Los Angeles Times) Since the Illegal Immigration Relief Act was passed on July 15 in Hazelton, PA (see last week’s newsletter), “as many as 5,000 Latinos may have left” the city, and “shopkeepers there say their business has dropped by 20% to 50% and two businesses have shut down,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “… Hazelton has become the test case for a new sort of immigration overhaul: the local crackdown. The [law] would impose penalties on landlords or employers who allow undocumented immigrants to live or work in the city. More than 30 cities and towns … have considered or passed ordinances based on Hazleton’s. Most are waiting to see whether the law withstands court challenges by civil rights groups, which argue that local governments have no right to regulate immigration. A U.S. district judge last week granted a temporary restraining order to stop enforcement of the Hazleton law, which was to have taken effect Nov. 1.” [View article]

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Dual-Benefit Solutions

Agencies Face New, 3-D Era of Geospatial Information (Government Computer News) “Agencies at all levels of government, many of which have long relied on two-dimensional geospatial platforms, now have the opportunity to exploit” Virtual Earth 3D, “an immersive mapping interface to manage and visualize information,” reports Government Computer News. Virtual Earth 3D “is an upgrade of the online map and data service that compiles photographic images of cities and terrain to generate texturized, photorealisitc 3-D models with engineering-level accuracy. The new online geospatial visualization tool is accurate to within a few meters” and “increases the value of geospatial information for use by federal civilian, military and intelligence agencies, partly by providing photorealistic renderings of buildings and other urban sites.” Virtual Earth could be used “to assemble knowledge about all infrastructure, institutions and government assets that might come into play in a terrorist incident. First-responder commanders” might “analyze the lines of sight of a terrorist group holed up in a skyscraper, for example, and coordinate their deployment of response units and medical support.… homeland security agencies seeking to prepare for biological or chemical incidents could use [it] to help calculate the dispersion of plumes of airborne toxic materials.” [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. 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] Executive MS in Crisis and Emergency Management (January; University of Nevada, Las Vegas) The university is offering an Executive Master of Science Degree in Crisis and Emergency Management beginning in January 2007. Graduates will be equipped with the knowledge and ability to apply important competencies for addressing natural, intentional, and technical disasters. The degree program lasts about 18 months, requires successful completion of 12 three-credit courses, and offers a combined in-class and distance-learning environment. [View course website]

Upcoming Events

New Events (After four weeks, new events will be moved to the list below, in chronological order) Preventing a Terrorist Attack: A Pro-Active Approach (November 11; Newark, NJ) The symposium will educate the public about counter-terrorist prevention strategies already in place and response resources and will look at realistic scenarios run in the hospital environment. [View conference website] Catastrophe Management Conference (November 14-15; Bedford, MA) “When Catastrophe Strikes: Preparing for the Inevitable” is the theme of this conference. Major diverse catastrophes dictate a rapid, flexible management response similar to complex military operations that require enduring situation awareness; expert, collaborative command and control; and interoperable communications that will survive. This conference brings together representatives from federal, state, and local governments, along with the military, academia, and industry, to address these issues in terms of requirements, capabilities, and integrated solution approaches. [View conference website] Public Meetings on Nuclear Power Plant Security (November 15, Rockville, MD; November 29, Las Vegas, NV) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold public meetings to receive public comment on a proposed rule on nuclear power reactor physical security requirements. The agency will present aspects of the proposed rule, such as training and qualification of security guards, access authorization, and “safety/security interface,” followed by public comments. Classified and Safeguards Information will not be discussed. [View announcement] Security and Intelligence at Home (December 6-7, 2006; College Park, MD) An in-depth look at what’s driving innovation in domestic security and intelligence and how these innovations can be shared and enhanced. Panel sessions moderated by experts will discuss state, local, and private-sector partnerships; the intelligence role of citizen volunteers; challenges facing state, local, and tribal entities; barriers to information sharing; globalization and its impact on domestic security; and the private sector and 21st-century intelligence. [View conference website] (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] 2007 Railway Security Forum & Expo (January 22-23; Arlington, VA) The forum will address best practices, passenger screening, fusion centers, security standardization, tunnel operations, container security, tracking and tracing technology, hazmat security, and more. The expo will feature security technology providers. [View conference website] Maritime & Port Security 2007 (January 22-23; Arlington, VA) The conference, held in conjunction with the Railway Security Forum & Expo, will look at the SAFE Port Act, new international requirements, and other issues. It will feature presentations by industry professionals with practical experience in today’s maritime and port security environment. [View conference website] Cyber Security Challenges and Solutions (January 30; Washington, DC) This forum sponsored by the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection is an opportunity for experts from different constituencies to develop a mutual understanding of vulnerabilities across sectors and to increase awareness of risks. Participants will discuss current cyber-security vulnerabilities, threats, and challenges, see demonstrated approaches and solutions to real-world process control systems and economic security challenges facing our country, and hear about future I3P research initiatives. [View conference website] Homeland Security Innovation Conference (February 21–23; Charleston, SC) This third annual conference showcases the Charleston area as a model community for public-private partnerships, technological advances, and business opportunities for homeland security and business continuity planning. A pre-conference day of behind-the-scenes VIP tours is followed by two days of expert presentations, political leaders’ reports, product exhibits, and networking opportunities. For more information: Jill Galmarini, (843) 805-3015 or jgalmarini@charlestonchamber.org. [View conference website] Sayres Response 2 Terrorism (April 11-12; San Pedro, CA) An intensive conference, featuring an international roster of distinguished counter-terrorism professionals with special focus on the asymmetric maritime threat. For conference reservations, logistics and more information: Linda Grimes, (310) 732-0010, or Linda.Grimes@sayresandassociates.com. [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

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Calls for Papers

New Calls for Papers Cascading Infrastructure Failures: Avoidance and Response (May 16, 2007; Washington, DC) The Spring Research Symposium, sponsored by the Institute for Infrastructure and Information Assurance, welcomes papers on “Facility/System Real-World Cascading Failure Case Studies,” “Multiple-Hazards and Vulnerable Intersections,” “Infrastructure Interdependency Assessment and Modeling,” and “Cascading Failure Solutions.” The deadline for submitting abstracts is December 8. [View conference website]

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