National News

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Millions of Flu Shots to Be Destroyed (Washington Post) “Millions of doses of flu vaccine will expire at midnight June 30, unsold during this year’s mild flu season and written off as trash,” reports the Associated Press. “Still perfectly good, and possibly useful for a few more years, the vaccine will wind up being destroyed. This annual ritual is supposed to ensure that Americans get the most up-to-date vaccine, but the leftovers—more than 10 million of a record 110 million doses produced—will be destroyed before a new supply is guaranteed.… For years, policymakers have talked about letting doctors keep unused vaccine until new doses are in hand, donating leftover supplies to poor countries, or pushing back the expiration date.… Having no vaccine in the summer deprives travelers of the chance to get a shot before they visit places where flu is in season. It also prevents summer vaccinations for children, who need two doses the first time around.… The June 30 expiration date is set by the federal Food and Drug Administration and has less to do with the vaccine’s shelf life than with the desire to tweak the recipe each year.” [View article]

What Has Homeland Security Cost? In the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Current Issues in Economics and Finance, Bart Hobijn and Erick Sager ask, “What has homeland security cost?” They estimate that from 2001 through 2005, homeland security spending climbed from $56 billion to $99.5 billion. Federal spending (see the Stats of the Week) accounts for $34.2 billion of the roughly $43.6 billion increase, while private-sector spending accounts for the remaining $9.4 billion. The authors indicate that while both the public and private sectors have boosted their security expenditures, the increase has been very modest as a share of the nation’s overall resources: Total spending on homeland security rose from 0.55% of gross domestic product in 2001 to 0.80% in 2005. [View press release] [View report]

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International News

Three Arrested Over London Subway Bombings (BBC) “Three men have been arrested in connection with the suicide bombings in London on 7 July 2005,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… The men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of terrorism.” These “are the first major arrests since the attacks.” [View article]

10,000 British Passports Go to Fraudsters (BBC) “Thousands of people, including two men convicted over terror attacks, obtained passports under false pretences, the [British] Home Office has admitted,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… 10,000 passports were wrongly given in the past year, but [the office] said plans to interview applicants would combat such fraud.… Face-to-face interviews for adults applying for a passport for the first time [will] be gradually introduced [beginning in] May.” [View article]

New Face of Jihad Vows Attacks (Yahoo! News; New York Times) “Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s capture four years ago didn’t shut down al-Qaida or bring the Americans to Osama bin Laden. But if his mega-confession is to be believed, his arrest was a crushing blow to bin Laden’s plans for even more deadly attacks in the wake of 9/11,” reports the Associated Press. “His expertise was never replaced and his absence has contributed to the group’s transition from a fear-inspiring attack force to a hate-filled voice on the Internet, urging others to wage terror against the West.” But “a new militant Islamic organization called Fatah al Islam, whose leader, a fugitive Palestinian named Shakir al-Abssi, has set up operations in a refugee camp [in Lebanon] where he trains fighters and spreads the ideology of Al Qaeda,” reports the New York Times. “… Abssi’s organization is the image of what intelligence officials have warned is the re-emergence of Al Qaeda.” [View AP article] [View Times article]

Israel Prepares for Its Own 9/11 (Washington Times) “Thousands of rescue personnel in cities in the country’s center and south scrambled to a series of simulated terrorist and missile attacks” on Wednesday, reports the Washington Times. “The purpose of the unprecedented two-day exercise … was to test their response to a September 11–like confluence of strikes against Israeli civilian and infrastructure areas.” [View article]

Japanese Officials Issue Warning on Flu Drug (New York Times; Tokyo Asahi Shimbun) “Japanese health authorities warned [on Wednesday] that the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu should not be given to teenagers, after reports that some children who took the drug exhibited bizarre behavior,” reports the New York Times. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare issued the warning “after two 12-year-old boys taking the drug jumped from the second floors of their homes within the past two months.” Some “children taking Tamiflu have jumped from balconies or rushed headlong into the street. In at least a few cases the children were killed. However, the authorities in both the United States and Japan have said that it is unclear if the behavior is caused by the drug, by the flu itself or by another cause.… The American label for the drug already contains a precaution referring to … ‘self-injury and delirium’ among users of Tamiflu.” Furthermore, “nine new cases of teenagers acting abnormally after taking Tamiflu were revealed Wednesday, bringing the total number of accidents involving juveniles and the anti-flu drug to 15 since fiscal 2004,” reports the Asahi Shimbun. “In addition, seven cases of adults behaving bizarrely after taking Tamiflu were reported, and three of them died.” [View Times article] [View Asahi article]

Saudi Arabia Routinely Frees Detainees (Washington Post) “Scores of Guantanamo detainees” have been released from the U.S. prison there in Cuba into “the custody of Saudi Arabia”—only to be “promptly freed” by that country, reports the Washington Post. These detainees “have been quietly repatriated in the past three years amid growing pressure from their home countries and international human rights advocates.” And “lawyers who have represented detainees [say that] U.S. decisions undermine the government’s own claims about the threat posed by many of the prison camp’s residents, some of whom are approaching their fifth year of detention without formal charges or trials.” [View article]

New Zealand Will Help U.S. Combat Nuclear Smuggling (Malaysia Sun) “New Zealand will work with the US to combat nuclear smuggling as part of an international project against weapons of mass destruction, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced Thursday,” reports Xinhua News Agency. “‘New Zealand’s funding of more than $490,000 will be helping the US Department of Energy to train officials and provide better detection equipment on the Ukrainian border with Russia. This assistance will help the Ukraine battle those who might be trying to smuggle nuclear and radioactive material,’ said Clark … New Zealand’s contribution will be part of the G8 Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction.” [View article]

12 Bombers Planned Attacks on Ships in Morocco (Reuters AlertNet) “At least 12 would-be suicide bombers planned to blow up foreign ships at” the port of “Casablanca … and other Moroccan landmarks,” reports Reuters. “… six of the suspected bombers were still on the run, but others were arrested after their presumed leader blew himself up on March 11 to stop police taking him alive.” [View article]

Canada Is Ill-Equipped to Monitor Inbound Sea Containers (Toronto Globe and Mail) “A new report” from Canada’s Senate security and defence committee “warns that sea containers are an ‘obvious alternative’ for terrorists looking to strike North American targets and it says Canadian ports are ill-equipped to monitor them,” reports the Canadian Press. The report “says some foreign ports are wisely developing comprehensive systems for scanning sea containers but no such system appears to be in the works for Canada, through which 4.1 million sea containers pass each year, with almost a third of them ending up in the United States.” [View article] [View report]

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United Nations News

UN Meeting Focuses on Long-Term Development for Iraq Nearly 100 delegations from member states, humanitarian agencies, and regional organizations gathered at UN headquarters in New York on March 16 to discuss the International Compact With Iraq, which aims to consolidate peace and pursue political, economic, and social development over the next five years in the violence-torn country. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it “a tool for unlocking Iraq’s own potential” in public-sector resource management, institution building and human development, and in achieving a more holistic approach to energy management. [View press release]

Portable Device Could Revolutionize Bird Flu Detection A $1,000 mobile testing device no bigger than a small portable television could revolutionize the fight against bird flu and many other livestock diseases by saving vital time in identifying the source of outbreaks and so increase the chances of containing the spread. “Mobile testers can be used by anyone, with the most basic training,” said John Crowther of the Joint UN Food and Agriculture Organization. [View press release]

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DHS News

DHS Agrees That 100% Container Inspection Is Impractical To “physically inspect every single container that comes into the country … would be to destroy the ports,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the American Association of Port Authorities on March 20. (See the Quote of the Week.) “We have to, in fact, use a risk-managed approach and a layered approach and a cost-beneficial approach to triage and select those elements of the container supply chain that we should take a close look at while letting the vast majority of flow go unimpeded.” However, he pointed out that the Container Security Initiative covers 85% “of container traffic bound for the United States” and that “we are now scanning more than 90 percent of the cargo for radiation, and we’re going to reach 98 percent at our major seaports by the end of this year, and almost 100 percent for all ports of entry, sea and land, by the end of 2008.” In an article published in the Journal of Homeland Security this month, Scott Dedic, Chairman of the International Cargo Security Council, said that 100% cargo container inspections would break the back of global commerce. [View transcript] [View Focus on CSI]

DHS Seeks Landowners’ Help With SBInet Customs and Border Protection says that community and landowner support is essential for the agency to use the appropriate land to deploy Secure Border Initiative Network resources; 40 Border Patrol agents from around the nation attended a two-day SBInet Community Outreach Workshop to develop a strategy targeting border communities and landowners. [View press release]

Inspector General Says DHS Food Safety IT Is Lacking (Government Computer News) “Federal programs to protect the food supply from terrorist attacks are spread across several Homeland Security Department agencies that have failed to coordinate their IT [information technology] activities, according to the Homeland Security inspector general,” reports Government Computer News. His report, “The Department of Homeland Security’s Role in Food Defense and Critical Infrastructure Protection, described how several presidential directives on food safety planning had failed to blend various technology projects. DHS food safety projects fall under the control of more than 20 agency programs.” [View article]

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Other Federal News

FBI Violations May Number 3,000, Inspector General Says (Washington Post) “The FBI may have violated the law or government policies as many as 3,000 times since 2003 as agents secretly collected the telephone, bank and credit card records of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals residing here,” reports the Washington Post. (See last week’s newsletter.) “Inspector General Glenn A. Fine” told the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday “that according to the FBI’s own estimate, as many as 600 of these violations could be ‘cases of serious misconduct.’” [View article]

FBI Issues New Rules for Getting Phone Records (Washington Post) “New rules from the FBI general counsel’s office tell agents they are to limit emergency requests for phone records to the most dire situations, in which the loss of life or bodily harm is believed to be imminent,” reports the Washington Post. “They are to document carefully the circumstances surrounding the request.… Under past procedures, agents sent ‘exigent circumstances letters’ to phone companies, seeking toll records by asserting there was an emergency. Then they were expected to issue a grand jury subpoena or a ‘national security letter,’ which legally authorized the collection after the fact. Agents often did not follow up with that paperwork.” [View article]

U.S. Authorities Hold Tougher Line on Hiring Illegal Immigrants (Christian Science Monitor) There’s “a growing crackdown on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. And “the federal government is playing hardball with tactics reminiscent of the war on drugs: undercover agents, hidden recording equipment, and seizures of property connected with the crime.… The result: a rising tide of criminal convictions.” [View article]

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State and Local News

Colorado Emergency System Combines Geographic and Weather Data (Federal Computer Week) “Colorado is deploying a Web service that allows emergency management workers to view weather data overlaid on geographic information,” reports Federal Computer Week. “The state is implementing WeatherBug’s GIS Data Services in its Emergency Operations Center and will also work to integrate the capability into a Web-based common operational picture viewer.” [View article]

FEMA Funds Hazard Mitigation Plan for Port of New Orleans A $49,155 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will help Louisiana and the Port of New Orleans Board of Commissioners develop a hazard mitigation plan to ensure that port facilities are better protected against future storms or other disasters. [View press release]

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Private-Sector News

U.S. Flu Pandemic Could Cause Recession (CNN) “A severe flu pandemic ‘would almost certainly lead to a major economic recession,’” according to “Pandemic Flu and the Potential for U.S. Economic Recession,” a new report from the Trust for America’s Health, reports CNN. A pandemic could kill more than 2 million people, keep 88 million people away from work, and cost the U.S. economy $683 billion. “‘The U.S. is not prepared to face an economic shock of this magnitude,’ said Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health.” (See the Website of the Week.) [View article] [View report]

Cyberkey Solutions Charged in Homeland Security Scam (InvestmentNews) “Utah-based Cyberkey Solutions Inc. and its chief executive have been charged with … making $1.5 million from the offering of unregistered shares and for hyping false information of a lucrative deal with the Department of Homeland Security,” reports InvestmentNews. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint Tuesday, “and its chief executive, James E. Plant, … was arrested last week by the Federal Bureau of [Investigation] on charges of securities fraud charges and aiding and abetting securities fraud.” [View article]

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Dual-Benefit Solutions

Defense Department Licenses Three-Way Emergency Technology (Government Computer News) “The Defense Department is making available for licensing a technology for coordinating three-way calls between a cell phone user, a 911 dispatcher and emergency personnel,” reports Government Computer News. “When a cell phone user calls 911, the wireless network provides the user’s automatic location identification information to both locate the user and to find the phone number of local emergency responders. The system then sets up a three-way call. For further information contact: Joan Gilsdorf, patent attorney, joan.gilsdorf@smdc.army.mil, (256) 955-3213; Susan D. McRae, Office of Research and Technology Applications, susan.mcrae@smdc.army.mil, (256) 955-1501.” [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.

Mirror Image (April 22-27; Moyock, NC) Mirror Image is an intensive 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] Public Policy and Nuclear Threats (July 9-27; La Jolla, CA) This course provided by the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation offers an in-depth examination of U.S. nuclear policy and strategy supported by an understanding of the science and engineering involved. The faculty includes experts in nuclear science and policy from the University of California system, the broader academic world, and Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories. The registration deadline is April 16. [View course website] Public Policy and Biological Threats (July 22–August 4; La Jolla, CA) This multi-disciplinary training program provided by the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation fosters a dynamic, collaborative, learning environment for junior faculty, Ph.D., and professional-school students in the University of California system, as well as private industry professionals, to analyze policy responses to the threat of bioterrorism. The program includes an annual two-week “biological threats boot camp.” The registration deadline is April 15. [View course website]

Upcoming Events

New Events (After four weeks, new events will be moved to the Upcoming Events page) (March 27-29; Singapore) This is an opportunity for companies and research institutions to showcase their latest equipment and systems that have been specifically designed and developed to meet the needs of counter-terrorism, special forces, and government security agencies worldwide, and it is an intellectual platform for the world’s experts in security, intelligence, and defense. [View conference website] Defense Industrial Base Critical Infrastructure Program Conference & Exhibition (April 10-12; Miami) At this conference, attendees will hear from senior federal, state, local, private-sector, and defense industry leaders on key critical infrastructure issues and challenges. Exploring public- and private-sector concepts of resiliency from the perspective of intentional redundancy and business continuity planning will advance the national critical infrastructure protection goal and position the public and private sectors to mitigate the effects of deliberate efforts to destroy, incapacitate, or exploit critical infrastructure capabilities. For more information, call Christy Goehner at (703) 247-2586. [View conference website] DHS Science and Technology Stakeholders Conference (May 21-24; Washington, DC) The Homeland Security Department’s Science & Technology Directorate will be the key participant in this conference, presented by the National Defense Industrial Association to inform the private sector, academia, and government at all levels of the direction, emphasis, and scope of the directorate’s research investments. [View conference website] Naval Institute Homeland Port Security Conference (May 22; Baltimore) “Sum of All Fears” is the theme of this year’s conference. In the face of terrorist threats and smaller, more lethal weapons of mass destruction, how do we keep our ports secure? [View conference website]

New Calls for Papers Society for Risk Analysis (Dec. 9-12; San Antonio) The Society’s 2007 annual meeting will focus on the theme “Risk 007: Agents of Analysis.” The deadline for online submission of abstracts and proposals for symposia is May 21. [View conference website]

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