National News

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Illegal Immigration Linked to Identity Theft? (Christian Science Monitor; Denver Post) “The latest roundup of illegal immigrants caught working in the US with fraudulent identifications—the largest single such work-site action ever—raises new questions about a link between illegal immigration and the growing problem of identity theft,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “Federal raids Tuesday at six meat-processing plants owned by Swift & Co. in six states resulted in the arrests of 1,282 people for immigration violation—with 65 also charged with identify theft or other criminal charges.” Officials “began deporting workers” and “confronted an unexpected challenge: what to do about kids left behind,” reports the Denver Post. “The raids left more than 100 children with no parents present.” “For nearly two weeks, Swift & Co. officials fought to block an impending immigration raid they knew was coming,” reported the Post in another article. Swift was using a verifying system called Basic Pilot—“a federal program and database designed to help employers … verify that workers can legally be employed,” reports the Post in a separate article. But Basic Pilot “can’t identify illegal immigrants who steal people’ identities to secure U.S. jobs.” [View Monitor article] [View Post article about Swift] [View Post article about kids] [View Post article about Basic Pilot]

Judge Upholds Military Commissions Law (MSNBC) U.S. District Judge James Robertson “upheld the Bush administration’s new terrorism law Wednesday, agreeing that Guantanamo Bay detainees do not have the right to challenge their imprisonment in U.S. courts,” reports the Associated Press. The ruling “is the first to address the new Military Commissions Act and is a legal victory for the Bush administration at a time when it has been fending off criticism of the law from Democrats and libertarians.” [View article]

First Responders Are Gaining Interoperable Communications (Government Computer News) “More than two-thirds of emergency response agencies in the United States use some degree of interoperable communications, allowing them to speak directly with other agencies,” reports Government Computer News, citing “a new report from the Homeland Security Department’s Safecom Program.” [View article]

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International News

Iraqi President Rejects Iraq Study Group Report (Reuters AlertNet) Iraq’s president on Dec. 10 “rejected a long-anticipated list of recommendations by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to change U.S. policy in the region,” reports Reuters. “‘I think the Baker-Hamilton report is unfair and unjust,’ Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, told a news conference … ‘It contains very dangerous articles that undermine the sovereignty of Iraq and its constitution,’ he said. The report by the Iraq Study Group … urged more centralised control of Iraq’s vast oil wealth and embedding thousands more U.S. advisers in Iraq’s security forces.” [View article]

Iraqis Propose to Take Over Security in Baghdad (International Herald Tribune) “The Iraqi government has presented the Bush administration with a new plan that calls for Iraqi troops to assume the primary responsibility for security in Baghdad early next year while U.S. troops would be shifted to the periphery of the capital,” reports the International Herald Tribune. “… The plan has seriously alarmed Sunni politicians, who said that they could not imagine that the Americans would turn security over to a government they see as deeply sectarian.” [View article]

Black-Market Weapon Prices Surge in Iraq Chaos (New York Times) “Rising prices [of weapons] have encouraged an insidious form of Iraqi corruption—the migration of army and police weapons from Iraqi state armories to black-market sales,” reports the New York Times. Smugglers are also selling “a lot of police cars … Tracing American-issued weapons back to Iraqi units that sell them is especially difficult because the United States did not register serial numbers for almost all of the 370,000 small arms purchased for Iraqi security forces.” [View article]

Al-Zarqawi Said Shiites Are Worse Than Americans or Saddam Hussein (International Herald Tribune) “The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, saw Iraq’s Shiite Muslims as more dangerous than U.S. forces and more evil than dictator Saddam Hussein, according to an interview published on the Internet [last] Friday posthumously,” reports the Associated Press. “… al-Zarqawi reveals his fury about the attacks of Iraq’s Shiite Muslim militiamen on the country’s Sunni Muslim community. Yet it was al-Zarqawi, a Sunni from Jordan, who fomented Shiite-Sunni strife as the best way to scuttle the U.S. plans to rebuild Iraq as a democratic state after Saddam’s overthrow.” [View article] [View Focus on al-Zarqawi]

U.S. to Check Cargo for Radiation in 6 Foreign Ports (Los Angeles Times) “U.S.-bound cargo at six overseas ports will be screened for nuclear and radiological material in an expanded effort to prevent terrorist bombs from entering American waters,” reports the Associated Press. The Homeland Security Department will “scan all containers bound for the United States in the ports of Qasim, Pakistan; Puerto Cortes, Honduras; and Southampton, England,” and some containers “at Port Salaleh in Oman, the Port of Singapore, and the Gamman Terminal at Port Busan in Korea … the examinations [should] begin early next year at all six ports. When fully operational, the program will screen about 8 percent of the 11 million cargo containers that reach U.S. shores each year.” [View article]

U.S. Blacklists 5 ‘Terrorists’ (Yahoo! News; Newsweek) “The US Treasury blacklisted five men, including a Kurdish militant living in Oslo [Norway] known as Mullah Krekar and a Moroccan-born Swede, for aiding terrorism by Al-Qaeda and other groups,” reports Agence France-Presse. “The move froze any assets the five men may have in US jurisdiction, and barred Americans from conducting any transactions with them. Oslo-based Mullah Krekar, also known as Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, whom the Treasury said was aged either 43 or 50, was the target of an aborted ‘rendition’ plot by the CIA three years ago.” In their Newsweek “Terror Watch” column, Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball profile Mullah Krekar. [View AFP article] [View Newsweek article]

Iran Expands Uranium Enrichment Program (Yahoo! News) “Iran has begun installing 3,000 centrifuges in an expansion of its uranium enrichment program that brings the Islamic nation significantly closer to large-scale production of nuclear fuel,” reports the Associated Press. “… Iran said earlier this year that it intends to … expand the program to 54,000 centrifuges.” [View article]

Taliban Wants No Part of Tribal Peace Talks (Scotsman) “The Taliban on Monday backed away from comments they might join tribal councils aimed at ending growing violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” reports Reuters. “Senior spokesman Sayed Tayeb Agha said the rebels would never join such talks as long as foreign soldiers remained in Afghanistan.” [View article]

Taliban Targets Afghan Teachers (Washington Post) The murder of two teachers on Dec. 9 “brought to 20 the number of teachers killed in Taliban attacks this year,” reports the Associated Press. And “198 schools have been burned down … up from about 150 last year.” The Taliban’s new system—“Teachers receive a warning, then a beating, and if they continue to teach must be killed”—is codified in a “new list of 30 rules, decided on during a high Taliban meeting in September or October … Rule No. 24 forbids anyone to work as a teacher ‘under the current puppet regime, because this strengthens the system of the infidels.’ One rule later, No. 25, says teachers who ignore Taliban warnings will be killed.” [View article]

Children as Victims of Terrorism (Australian; YubaNet; Islam Denounces Terrorism; Washington Post) “Unidentified gunmen killed three sons of a Palestinian intelligence chief loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza [Monday] after shooting at a car dropping the children at school,” reports Reuters. “Children are the predominant victims of war and/or terrorism,” wrote Nepali journalist Kamala Sarup in an article on YubaNet. Children are “the most innocent victims of terrorism,” wrote Harun Yahya on the Islam Denounces Terrorism website (see the Website of the Week). “With his lips quivering and voice breaking, a tearful [Afghan] President Hamid Karzai on Sunday lamented that Afghan children are being killed by NATO and U.S. bombs and by terrorists from Pakistan—a portrait of helplessness in the face of spiraling chaos,” reports the Associated Press. “In a heartfelt speech that brought audience members to tears, Karzai said the cruelty imposed on his people ‘is too much.’” [View Reuters article] [View Sarup article] [View Yahya article] [View AP article]

Gunmen Seize Haiti Schoolchildren (BBC) “A dozen schoolchildren in Haiti have been abducted by gunmen who hijacked a school bus and a car on Wednesday in broad daylight,” according to the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… One group of children was travelling to school on the private bus when the men stopped it, forced their way aboard and diverted it … Another gang stopped a car carrying four children and two adults, and fled with the car and the children. Kidnappings for ransom have become the top security threat in the country.… it was not known exactly how many children were missing.… About 10 children have been reported abducted since November, including two who were killed by their captors.” [View article]

Afghan Poppies to Get Herbicide Spray (Washington Post) “Afghan poppies” will “be sprayed with herbicide to combat an opium trade that produced a record heroin haul this year, a measure likely to anger farmers and scare Afghans unfamiliar with weed killers,” reports the Associated Press. “John Walters, the director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Afghanistan could turn into a narco-state unless ‘giant steps’ are made toward eliminating poppy cultivation.… Opium production in Afghanistan this year rose 49 percent to 6,700 tons—enough to make about 670 tons of heroin. That’s more than 90 percent of the world’s supply and more than the world’s addicts consume in a year.” [View article]

Philippines Freezes Accounts of Intl. Islamic Relief (Manila Times) The Philippines “appellate court on Monday issued a freeze order on the bank accounts of the International Islamic Relief Organization”—suspected “to be a funding conduit for groups linked to al-Qaeda,” reports the Manila Times. [View article]

China and Pakistan Hold Joint Antiterror Exercises (London Times) “Troops from the People’s Liberation Army of China” began 10 days of “joint anti-terrorism exercises with the Pakistani Army” this week, reports the London Times. “It is the first time that the two Asian neighbours have embarked on such exercises,” which are taking “place in northwestern Pakistan.” [View article]

Islamists Terrorize Algeria (Washington Post) The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat—“a militant Islamist group linked to al Qaeda”—has “claimed responsibility for the weekend bombing of a bus carrying foreign oil workers near Algiers, and warned of further attacks,” reports Reuters. “… Sunday’s attack” was “the first on Westerners in the North African country in many years.” [View article]

Saudis Might Back Sunnis if U.S. Leaves Iraq (New York Times; Washington Post) Saudi Arabia “might provide financial backing to Iraqi Sunnis in any war against Iraq’s Shiites if the United States pulls its troops out of Iraq,” reports the New York Times. “… The Saudi warning reflects fears among America’s Sunni Arab allies about Iran’s rising influence in Iraq, coupled with Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.” King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia warned last “Saturday that all of the Middle East is threatened by escalating conflicts around the region, from spiraling sectarian violence in Iraq to rising tensions in Lebanon to fighting among Palestinians.…” according to the Associated Press. “‘It is like a keg of gunpowder waiting for a spark to explode.’” [View Times article] [View Post article]

Jordan, Iraq to Coordinate Intelligence (Yahoo! News) “Jordan and Iraq signed an agreement Wednesday to coordinate intelligence on al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, a show of cooperation between two countries whose relations have been marked at times by suspicion,” reports the Associated Press. “The deal came a week after the U.S. Iraq Study Group called for Iraq’s neighbors to take a more active role in stemming the violence ripping the country apart.” [View article]

Maoist Arms Dump Found Near Hyderabad, India (Times of India; Wikipedia) “Andhra Pradesh Police on Tuesday unearthed a huge arms and ammunition dump of Maoists near Hyderabad,” India, reports the Times of India. “… A police team recovered 3,000 gelatin sticks, 16 claymore mines, two hand grenades and about 75 cartridges of different weapons.” In the past, several Maoist party “members have been arrested by the Indian Government under the Prevention of Terrorism Act,” according to Wikipedia. [View Times article] [View Wikipedia article]

UK ‘Plot’ Terror Charge Dropped (BBC) “A Pakistani judge has ruled there is not enough evidence to try a key suspect in an alleged [London] airline bomb plot on terrorism charges,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. The judge “has moved the case of Rashid Rauf, a Briton, from an anti-terrorism court to a regular court, where he faces lesser charges such as forgery. Pakistan [had] presented Mr Rauf as one of the ringleaders behind the alleged plan to blow up flights out of London.” [View article]

Taliban Mini-State on Pakistan Border (Australian) “Pakistan’s appeasement of Islamic tribal militants in remote areas bordering Afghanistan has created a virtual Taliban mini-state where insurgents operating against the NATO-led forces are free to recruit, train and equip themselves,” reports the Australian, citing a new report by the International Crisis Group. The “report lends weight to accounts that Pakistan’s army in the tribal areas has effectively retreated to barracks, ceding control to the militants.” [View article] [View report]

Britain Reviews ‘Dirty Bomb’ Plan (London Times) British “emergency services have been told to review their contingency plans for a dirty bomb attack after criticism of the Alexander Litvinenko investigation,” reports the London Times. “Police chiefs say that officers were not adequately informed of the risks of polonium-210, the substance used to kill the former KGB spy.” [View article]

British Govt. Drops ‘War on Terror’ Terminology (London Observer) British “cabinet ministers have been told by the Foreign Office to drop the phrase ‘war on terror’ and other terms seen as liable to anger British Muslims and increase tensions more broadly in the Islamic world,” reports the London Observer. “… Many senior British politicians and counter-terrorism specialists have always been uneasy with the term.” [View article]

Chinese Airports to Scan for Liquid Explosives (London Guardian) “China will introduce special machines at its 147 civil airports to spot liquid explosives … to protect travellers during the 2008 Olympics from terror attacks,” reports Reuters. The machines “will be installed gradually nationwide … China banned passengers from taking almost all liquids on flights in hand baggage following a crash in May 2002.” [View article]

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United Nations News

UN Guidelines Limit Liquids Carried Aboard Airliners The International Civil Aviation Organization has issued new interim security control guidelines for screening potentially dangerous items in hand luggage, including liquid, gels, and aerosols that may be used in improvised explosive devices on board an aircraft. Passengers would be limited to one transparent resealable 1-liter plastic bag with a capacity no greater than 100 milliliters. [View press release]

Member States Need More Cooperation and Info Sharing United Nations Member States should improve their cooperation and share much more information if they want to enhance security at major international events and gatherings, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Dec. 7 in New York, addressing a conference organized by the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, which has an International Permanent Observatory on Security Measures During Major Events to help nations exchange ideas and learn about best practices on security. [View press release]

UN Holds Asia-Pacific Communications Workshop The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the UN International Telecommunication Union began a disaster communications workshop in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday, to focus on improving rapid response in emergencies. [View press release]

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DHS News

DHS and Petroleum Industry Combat Cyberthreats (Government Computer News) “The Homeland Security Department has teamed with 13 organizations on a 12-month project to secure the process control systems of the nation’s oil and gas industries against cybersecurity threats,” reports Government Computer News. “A cyberattack on the control and data systems of electric power plants, or oil and gas refineries and pipelines—two of 17 pieces of the nation’s critical infrastructure—could potentially bring the country to a halt. The problem is compounded because private companies control 85 percent to 90 percent of the country’s critical infrastructure—leaving the government few avenues to ensure that IT systems are secure.” [View article]

DHS Publishes SBI Details (Government Computer News) The Homeland Security Department “has issued newly detailed plans containing cost estimates, performance metrics and project descriptions that the oversight agencies seek” concerning the Secure Border Initiative, “under intensive scrutiny by Congress and executive-branch auditors,” reports Government Computer News. “… plans obtained last week contain cost estimates in the $7 billion-to-$8 billion range for activities through 2011 … more important, the documents detail how SBINet planners arrived at those estimates. DHS officials came under fire this fall for awarding the main systems integration contract for the program to Boeing Co. before they had completed their budget and technical plans. Some critics said DHS had, in effect, handed Boeing a blank check.” [View article]

Chertoff: Traveler Screening Program Wasn’t a Secret (Government Executive) “Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says it should not surprise people that for years his department has searched for terrorists among tens of millions of airline passengers, cross-checking travelers’ personal data against terrorist watch lists and analyzing them for potential terrorist activity,” reports National Journal. But besides “crunching data, [the Automated Targeting System] tags every international traveler with a ‘risk assessment,’ which security officers use when deciding whether to interrogate passengers or to keep them from flying. Once generated, those assessments may stay locked in ATS for as long as 40 years, and it is unlikely that passengers could ever know precisely what their risk rating is and how it was calculated. This [was] news to just about every major privacy and civil-liberties watchdog in the country.… a search of the Federal Register since 1995 for the exact phrase ‘Automated Targeting System’ yielded only one notice mentioning airline passengers—the November notice.… The legal mechanism for notifying the public that a government system is using personal information is a Privacy Act notice, usually through the Federal Register, said David Sobel, senior counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a watchdog group. Until November 2, there was no such notice for ATS, Sobel said. ‘Any use of that system prior to that time is illegal.’” [View article]

Problems Plague Coast Guard Deepwater Project (New York Times) “Four years after the Coast Guard began an effort to replace nearly its entire fleet of ships, planes and helicopters, the modernization program heralded as a model of government innovation is foundering,” reports the New York Times. Conversion of older patrol boats and construction of new ships have run into major problems, delaying the project and inflating the cost. Both Democrats and Republicans complained that “the Coast Guard withheld from Congress warnings raised more than two years ago by its chief engineer about structural design flaws in its new National Security Cutter,” the New York Times reported in a separate story. [View Dec. 8 article] [View Dec. 14 article] [View Focus on Deepwater]

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Other Federal News

Pandemic Influenza Planning and Preparation Best Practices Model The U.S. Fire Administration offers this draft interim guidance to all service agencies, including fire, police, emergency medical services, public works, 911 call centers, and emergency management. The best practices are designed to promote the development of community-specific guidelines and operational protocols to meet the challenge of a pandemic outbreak while not affecting normal daily response activities. [View press release] [View planning model]

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Private-Sector News

London Terror Fears Stoke Demand for Security Equipment (Yahoo! News) “As the home of Britain’s three tallest buildings and international banks such as HSBC, the Canary Wharf commercial district in London is likely to feature high on any would-be terrorist’s list of targets,” reports Agence France-Presse. “But like businesses, stadiums and railway stations worldwide, it has enlisted the latest technology to protect itself, creating a boom among manufacturers more accustomed to supplying airports. This month, Canary Wharf started using a system which can detect objects concealed under clothing, including materials used by suicide bombers … It is designed to protect 80,000 people who work at the 14 million square foot … complex, as well as the thousands more who flock to its shopping malls, bars and restaurants each week.” [View article]

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State and Local News

NJ Teacher Sickened After Finding Powder (Yahoo! News) A Willingboro “grade school teacher was sickened and her class quarantined after she had a reaction to a white powder in an envelope” yesterday, reports the Associated Press. “The other 425 students at Garfield East Elementary School were evacuated and taken to a nearby school … The teacher, whose name was not released, was taken to Virtua Memorial Hospital … Her condition was not immediately available … Authorities did not immediately know what the substance was or who sent it.” [View article]

Antiterror ‘Smart Fence’ Planned for NJ Turnpike (Trenton [NJ] Times) “New Jersey will guard against a potential terrorist attack on chemical-filled freight trains by building a 10-foot fence and installing sensors and closed circuit monitors along a 2.6-mile stretch of the Turnpike between Linden and Newark,” reports Newhouse News Service. “The 90-ton tanker cars that are often stopped on the rails just off the northbound side of the New Jersey Turnpike represent a terror threat homeland security officials have worried about since bombings in recent years on commuter rails in Spain, England and India.… An estimated $6 million will be spent by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to erect the so-called privacy fence to shield the tankers from public view.” [View article] [View Focus on Railway Security]

Phoenix Air Travelers Get Less Intrusive Scan (USA Today) “Starting this week at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, passengers selected for additional security screening … can submit to a pat-down search (common practice since 9/11), or spend 20 seconds getting scanned by an X-ray device designed to reveal weapons metal detectors can’t spot,” according to an editorial in USA Today. “The device—known as a ‘backscatter’ machine—uses low-intensity radiation to peer through clothing for contraband such as plastic explosives, knives or guns. In the process, it reveals love handles, beer bellies and other, more sensitive, body areas. It is yet another of the indignities that have made flying unpleasant in the age of terrorism. Privacy groups call it intolerable. But a closer look suggests that the technology has been toned down enough that it represents a reasonable compromise between safety and privacy, one that many fliers will find preferable to being touched by screeners.… software has been added to virtually eliminate images of body parts and medical devices, showing only what amounts to a chalk outline.” [View editorial]

Successful Test of Texas Border Watch Website (Government Computer News) “Texas’ month-long experiment with border surveillance Web cameras is being touted as a success …” reports Government Computer News. (See the Nov. 10 newsletter.) “The Texas Border Watch Test Site operated for a month, closing on Dec. 3. During the experiment, live video feeds from border surveillance cameras in Texas were made available on a Web site. Subscribers registered to view the footage and report suspicious activity. During the month, 221,562 subscribers visited the Web site and viewed footage 27 million times, generating more than 13,000 emails.” [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.

Mirror Image (January 14-19; 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

January 22-23; Arlington, VA: 2007 Railway Security Forum & Expo

January 22-23; Arlington, VA: Maritime & Port Security 2007

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

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