National News

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Terror Database Has Quadrupled in Four Years (Washington Post) “TIDE, for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment … is a storehouse for data about individuals that the intelligence community believes might harm the United States,” reports the Washington Post. “It is the wellspring for watch lists distributed to airlines, law enforcement, border posts and U.S. consulates … Ballooning from fewer than 100,000 files in 2003 to about 435,000, the growing database threatens to overwhelm the people who manage it.… TIDE has also created concerns about secrecy, errors and privacy. The list marks the first time foreigners and U.S. citizens are combined in an intelligence database. The bar for inclusion is low, and once someone is on the list, it is virtually impossible to get off it.… U.S. agencies at home and abroad now send everything they collect to TIDE.… The 80 TIDE analysts get ‘thousands of messages a day,’ [TIDE chief Russ] Travers said, much of the data ‘fragmentary,’ ‘inconsistent’ and ‘sometimes just flat-out wrong.’… The FBI adds data about U.S. suspects with no international ties for a combined daily total of 1,000 to 1,500 new names.… A unit at the screening center [that] responds to complaints … will not remove a name if it is shared by a terrorism suspect.” Only “31 names were removed in 2005.” [View article]

U.S. Consumers’ Names Appear on Watch List (Washington Post) “Private businesses such as rental and mortgage companies and car dealers are checking the names of customers against a list of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers made publicly available by the Treasury Department, sometimes denying services to ordinary people whose names are similar to those on the … Office of Foreign Asset Control’s list of ‘specially designated nationals,’” reports the Washington Post. “… a report by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area” published Tuesday documented “cases in which U.S. customers have had transactions denied or delayed because their names were a partial match with a name on the list, which runs more than 250 pages and includes 3,300 groups and individuals.” Only “a handful … are U.S. citizens. Yet anyone who does business with a person or group on the list risks penalties of up to $10 million and 10 to 30 years in prison.” The Treasury Department “said [it] has [provided] extensive guidance on compliance.” [View article] [View watch list] [View civil rights report] [View Treasury Dept. guidance]

Civil Air Patrol Has Homeland Security Role; Patrol’s Pacific Region Plans Weeklong Exercise (Washington Times; Salem-News [OR]) The Civil Air Patrol (see the Website of the Week) “is participating in a growing number of homeland security missions, conducting aerial reconnaissance of military ships and other offshore activity, protecting sensitive and critical infrastructure from terrorist attacks, and assisting the U.S. Border Patrol,” reports the Washington Times. A weeklong exercise beginning today for the states in the patrol’s “Pacific Region, Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii, Alaska and Nevada, will involve a variety of simulated terrorist incidents in each state and will be used to evaluate the” patrol’s ability to respond to requests for assistance, reports Salem-News. [View Times article] [View Salem-News article]

Legal Immigrants Seek American Citizenship in Surging Numbers (Christian Science Monitor) “Helped by the push of a coalition of 200 organizations … in southern California—including twice-daily pleas from the leading Latino TV station and full-page ads in La Opinion, the leading Spanish-language newspaper—a 150 percent increase in applications has been tallied: 7,334 in January 2006 compared to 18,024 in January 2007,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “Nationwide, the increase is 79 percent, from 53,390 to 95,622, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services.” [View article]

Former National Security Advisor Links Renewable Energy to Homeland Security (ABC-TV, Denver) “The United States should accelerate development of renewable energy sources because of increased risk from terrorist attacks that could cripple the economy, former national security adviser Robert McFarlane said” March 24 “at a renewable energy summit” in Denver, reports the Associated Press. McFarlane “was national security adviser for President Reagan … He said renewable energy provides the best alternative because the number of stable oil-producing countries is dwindling” and that “new renewable energy technologies [like] ethanol from cellulose can be on the market in two years and solar energy could provide a substantial amount of the electricity the world needs.” See also the commentary “Electrifying Transportation for Homeland Security” by Analytic Services senior editor Steve Dunham in the February 2004 Journal of Homeland Security. [View article]

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International News

Iran Seizes 15 British Marines and Sailors (New York Times; CNN) “Fifteen British sailors [and marines] carrying out a routine inspection in the Persian Gulf were captured at gunpoint and taken into custody by Iranian forces on” March 23, reports the New York Times. The British “Defense Ministry said that the sailors had been conducting ‘routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters’ and had just finished an inspection of a merchant vessel ‘when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters.’” (See the Quote of the Week.) “Iran says the 15 UK military personnel detained last week entered its waters six times before they were arrested,” reports CNN. [View Times article] [View CNN article]

North Korea Not a Nuclear Power, Says CIA Chief (Seoul, South Korea, JoongAng Ilbo) “The United States will not recognize North Korea as a nuclear-armed state because Pyongyang’s nuclear test last year was a failure, the chief of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency [Michael Hayden] told South Korean officials in Seoul” on Tuesday, reports the JoongAng Ilbo. [View article]

Arab States Unanimously Approve Saudi Peace Plan (Jerusalem Haaretz) “Arab leaders gathering for a two-day summit in Saudi Arabia unanimously approved Wednesday the Saudi peace initiative originally launched in 2002,” reports Haaretz. “The plan offers Israel recognition and permanent peace with all Arab countries in return for Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Six Day War. It also calls for setting up a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and a just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.” [View article]

Saudi King Calls U.S. Occupation of Iraq ‘Illegal’ (New York Times) “King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told Arab leaders on Wednesday that the American occupation of Iraq was illegal and warned that unless Arab governments settled their differences, foreign powers like the United States would continue to dictate the region’s politics,” reports the New York Times. “The king’s speech, at the opening of the Arab League meeting [in Riyadh], underscored growing differences between Saudi Arabia and the Bush administration as the Saudis take on a greater leadership role in the Middle East, partly at American urging.” [View article]

Elite Terrorist Hunters in Iraq (Washington Post) “U.S. ‘black’ special operations forces in Iraq have conducted as many as 300 ‘takedown’ operations,” writes columnist William M. Arkin in the Washington Post, citing a “report written by retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, an adjunct professor at West Point.” A “group of clandestine special operators … operate semi-independently in pursuit of high value targets.” [View column]

Indonesian and Australian Police Thwart Bomb Plot (Australian) “Australian and Indonesian police say they have foiled a terrorist plot being planned by the al-Qa’ida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiah, seizing more than a tonne of the deadly explosive potassium chloride and arresting seven men,” reports the Australian. “Indonesia’s crack counter-terrorism squad, Detachment 88, also seized a large amount of circuitry similar to that used to carry out suicide bombings, as it scoured the city of Yogyakarta hunting for the emir of JI, Abu Dujana. The haul included 30 sacks of explosives, 50kg of TNT, two jerrycans of liquid chemicals, 193 detonators, and 43 circuits that could be used for suicide bombings.” [View article]

Denmark Charges Four Muslims With Terrorism (Yahoo! News) “Four young Muslims have been charged in Denmark with planning terrorist bombings in Denmark or abroad,” reports Agence France-Presse. “The four men were accused of acquiring chemicals and laboratory instruments to make triacetone triperoxide (TATP) explosives, often used by suicide bombers.… The men were part of a group of nine people arrested in a September 2006 swoop in Odense in central Denmark.” [View article]

Jihadists Control Talibanistan (Time) “The tribal region of Pakistan, a rugged no-man’s-land that forms the country’s border with Afghanistan … is rapidly becoming home base for a new generation of potential terrorists,” reports Time. “Fueled by zealotry and hardened by war, young religious extremists have overrun scores of towns and villages in the border areas, with the intention of imposing their strict interpretation of Islam on a population unable to fight back. Like the Taliban in the late 1990s in Afghanistan, the jihadists are believed to be providing leaders of al-Qaeda with the protection they need to regroup and train new operatives.… And though 49,000 U.S. and NATO troops are stationed just across the border in Afghanistan, they aren’t authorized to operate on the Pakistani side. Remote, tribal and deeply conservative, the border region is less a part of either country than a world unto itself, a lawless frontier so beyond the control of the West and its allies that it has earned a name of its own: Talibanistan.” [View article]

Israeli Health Ministry Blames Police for Emergency Drill Failure (Jerusalem Haaretz) “Senior Health Ministry officials believe [that] police are responsible for the failure of last Wednesday’s emergency exercise, involving evacuation and treatment of ‘victims’ of mass terror attacks at hospitals … ” reports Haaretz. (See last week’s newsletter.) “The exercise, which was planned for months by police, the Health Ministry and the Magen David Adom emergency medical service, involved the participation of four hospitals. Its main objective was to allow the hospitals to practice admitting and treating a large number of ostensible victims arriving at the same time after two separate terror attacks in the Netanya area.… The exercise also included evacuation by helicopter of seriously wounded victims from smaller hospitals to larger ones … Senior Health Ministry officials said, however, that due to an unjustified delay caused by the police, the hospitals received fewer patients, and at slower rate, than planned”—hurting “the primary purpose of the exercise.” [View article]

Northern Ireland Rivals Reach Agreement (New York Times) “The leaders of Northern Ireland’s dominant political and religious parties, Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams and the Protestant leader Rev. Ian Paisley, … agreed to form a joint administration for the province on May 8,” reports the New York Times. “… While the province’s leaders failed to meet a March 26 deadline set by Britain and Ireland to restore local government, the fact that the two men named a date themselves—and sat together to say so—was” praised by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. [View article]

British Govt. Splits Home Office (BBC) Britain’s “Home Office will be split into two separate departments for security and for justice in the next six weeks,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “The Department for Constitutional Affairs will take control of probation, prisons and prevention of re-offending and be renamed the Ministry of Justice. The slimmed down Home Office will then be left to concentrate on dealing with terrorism, security and immigration.” [View article]

Australian Hicks Pleads Guilty in Guantanamo (New York Times) “In the first conviction of a Guantánamo detainee before a military commission, an Australian [David Hicks] who was trained by Al Qaeda pleaded guilty … Monday to providing material support to a terrorist organization,” reports the New York Times. (See the March 9 newsletter.) [View article]

Europe Marks 50 Years Since Rome Treaty, Looks to Transborder Challenges In its Berlin Declaration issued Monday, the European Union said that Europe is “facing major challenges which do not stop at national borders.” It mentions terrorism, organized crime, illegal immigration, climate change, energy policy, and the fight against poverty. In terms of international relations it says that “the European Union will continue to promote democracy, stability and prosperity beyond its borders.” [View article] [View declaration]

European Union Wants Better Public and Private Critical Infrastructure Protection (EurActiv) The European Commission wants better public- and private-sector cooperation to protect critical infrastructure, such as nuclear power plants and vital transport and information networks, from terrorist attacks, reports EurActiv. The European security research conference on Monday “also showed broad support for the establishment of a European Security Research and Innovation Forum,” comprising some 50 to 70 “public- and private-sector experts … to undertake overall strategic thinking.… Security research is now an integral part and an independent thematic research area in … an EU research framework programme—some €1.4 billion has been earmarked under this heading for the period 2007-2013.” [View article]

Privacy Experts Criticize EU-U.S. Passenger Data Sharing (EurActiv) “In a hearing organised by the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on” Monday, Members of Parliament, “data-protection officers and privacy experts criticised the terms of the first two agreements which the Commission dealt out with the US and expressed concern on a follow-up agreement, which the Commission is currently negotiating in camera with the US side,” reports EurActiv. [View article] [View hearing transcript]

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United Nations News

U.N. Unanimously Approves Iran Sanctions The United Nations Security Council acted unanimously on March 24 to tighten sanctions on Iran, imposing a ban on arms sales and expanding the freeze on assets, in response to the country’s uranium-enrichment activities, which Tehran says are for peaceful purposes but which other countries contend are driven by military ambitions. [View press release]

UN Urges Support for New Palestinian Government (Scotsman) The international community has an obligation to support the new Palestinian National Unity Government without preconditions and to lift the aid restrictions imposed on it, according to participants in the United Nations International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace, held in Rome last week. And while in Palestine on Sunday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon “toured a Palestinian refugee camp and spoke of the ‘very sad and tragic’ results of the controversial security wall erected by Israel,” reports the Scotsman. “He also praised the ‘resilience’ of the Palestinian people and the ‘unwavering commitment’ to independence of the president, Mahmoud Abbas.… Such cordial remarks were not extended to the prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, or to other Hamas party officials.” [View UN press release] [View Scotsman article]

Indonesia and UN Reach New Agreement on Bird Flu Vaccine Indonesia will immediately resume supplying the United Nations World Health Organization with viruses from its bird flu outbreak, a vital tool in tracking possible mutations into a deadly human pandemic and producing vaccines, while the agency will seek to ensure access for developing countries to any such commercially developed vaccines. Indonesia, which has suffered more human bird flu fatalities, 63 out of 81 cases, than any other country, had been concerned that developing countries have supplied H5N1 virus to WHO Collaborating Centres for analysis and preparation for vaccine production, but that the resulting vaccines produced by commercial companies are likely to be unavailable to developing countries such as Indonesia. (See the Feb. 23 newsletter.) [View press release]

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DHS News

600,000 Fugitives Unaccounted For (Lawrence [KS] Journal-World) “Teams assigned to make sure [that] foreigners ordered out of the United States actually leave are grappling with a backlog of more than 600,000 cases and can’t accurately account for the fugitives’ whereabouts,” according to “the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general,” reports the Associated Press. “Even though more than $204 million was allocated for 52 fugitive operations teams since 2003, a backlog of 623,292 cases existed as of August of 2006, the report said. The number of illegal immigrants in the United States has been estimated at between 11.5 million and 12 million. About 5.4 percent of them are believed to be ‘fugitive aliens,’ those who have failed to leave the country after being ordered out.” [View article] [View DHS report]

TSA Boosts Checks of Airport Workers (USA Today) “The Transportation Security Administration is stepping up screening of airport workers nationwide amid growing concern that nearly 1 million employees can get into airplanes or other restricted areas without going through security,” reports USA Today. “Teams of screeners, air marshals and inspectors will go from airport to airport, spending several days at a time searching workers and checking airplane cabins.” [View article]

TechSolutions Program Will Support Emergency Responders The Homeland Security Department’s Science and Technology directorate has established a program, TechSolutions, to support first responders by accelerating delivery of emerging technologies. First responders are encouraged to submit ideas that would aid the first responder community by increasing efficiency and on-the-job safety at www.dhs.gov/techsolutions. [View press release]

DHS Awards 10 Contracts for Nuclear Detection Research The Homeland Security Department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office has announced ten contract awards totaling $8.8 million for exploratory research in advanced nuclear detection technology. The grants go to nine companies: Alliant Techsystems, Canberra, EIC Labs, General Electric Global Research Center (two awards), Physical Optics, Radiation Monitoring Devices, Rapiscan Systems, Science Applications International, and Westinghouse Electric Company. [View press release]

DHS Awards First Responder Grants The Homeland Security Department has announced $34.6 million in equipment and training grants to first responders across the nation as a part of the 2006 Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program, which funds personal protective equipment; thermal imaging, night vision, and video surveillance tools; chemical and biological detection tools; information technology and risk management tools; and interoperable communications equipment. In addition, more than $492.3 million will be awarded this year to fire departments and nonaffiliated emergency management organizations under the Assistance to Firefighters Grant program. [View equipment press release] [View assistance press release]

Israel Ports Co. photo

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Other Federal News

FBI Defends Use of National Security Letters (USA Today) “Controversial ‘national security letters’ that allow FBI agents to obtain an individual’s telephone, Internet and credit records without a court order are vital ‘building blocks’ of anti-terrorism investigations, FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday,” according to USA Today. “If the FBI had the letters in 2001, ‘we could have traced Khalid Al-Midhar (a 9/11 hijacker who spent time before the attacks in California) to the rest of the hijackers,’ Mueller said.… A March 9 Justice Department inspector general report showed [that] the FBI has issued tens of thousands” of National Security Letters “since 2002, [including] many that violated laws and FBI guidelines.” (See last week’s newsletter.) [View article]

GAO and DHS Disagree on Need for Privacy Study (Federal Computer Week) “The Homeland Security Department and the Government Accountability Office disagree on whether a privacy impact assessment is needed for an emerging DHS data-mining program,” reports Federal Computer Week. (See the March 9 newsletter.) “The program in question is called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement. ADVISE is intended to help DHS analysts sift through large amounts of information and identify patterns or relationships that could indicate potential threats … DHS has added security controls to the system, but it hasn’t yet assessed the potential for the program to misidentify individuals or wrongfully link people to terrorism, GAO said in its report to the House Appropriations Committee.” [View article] [View GAO report]

Defense and Intelligence Teams Work on Certification and Accreditation (Federal Computer Week) “The Pentagon and the intelligence community have launched implementation teams to carry out certification and accreditation process reforms,” reports Federal Computer Week. “… four of the seven areas covered by the new certification and accreditation rules:

• Reciprocal acceptance of certification and accreditation decisions made by different agencies
• Establishment of the same ‘protection levels’ for handling classified data across the Pentagon, intelligence community and civilian [agencies]
• Adoption of like criteria for certification and accreditation across the Pentagon and the intelligence community
• Establishment of a single architecture for certification and accreditation.”

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State and Local News

N.Y. Police Spied Widely Before G.O.P. Convention (New York Times) “For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews,” reports the New York Times. “… undercover New York police officers attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or fellow activists … Other investigators mined Internet sites and chat rooms.… the police identified a handful of groups and individuals who expressed interest in creating havoc during the convention, as well as some who used Web sites to urge or predict violence.” But “in hundreds of reports stamped ‘N.Y.P.D. Secret,’ the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law … Before monitoring political activity, the police must have ‘some indication of unlawful activity on the part of the individual or organization to be investigated,’” U.S. District Court Judge Charles Haight Jr. ruled last month. [View article]

New York Boosts Police Patrols of Commuter Trains (Metro Magazine; New York Times) New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority will “redeploy MTA police and use federal, state and local law enforcement to help patrol trains and platforms” on its regional commuter rail system, reports Metro Magazine. The effort will “focus on police visibility” and will work with “50 explosive-trained K-9 teams,” along with “Transportation Security Administration marshals,” state police, and “county and municipal police departments.” The MTA is also seeking “designs for digital security cameras that could be installed” on its subway trains, reports the New York Times. [View Metro article] [View Times article]

Washington State Will Test Enhanced Driver’s License An enhanced driver’s license will provide Washington residents who voluntarily apply and qualify with a document that is acceptable for use at U.S. land and sea ports. It will be slightly more expensive than a standard Washington license and will require proof of citizenship, identity, and residence and will contain security features similar to a U.S. passport’s. This pilot program is one possible compliance alternative for the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which, as early as January 2008, will require U.S. citizens returning from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, or Bermuda to present a valid U.S. passport or another document approved by the Homeland Security Department. [View press release]

Connecticut and Virginia Get Reverse 911 Calling (Federal Computer Week) “Cities, towns and counties in Connecticut and Virginia will be able to send recorded messages to thousands of people in the event of an emergency using Reverse 911 technology,” reports Federal Computer Week. The states signed contracts with the company this week. The Connecticut contract “lets government entities purchase the notification system through state homeland security funding or standard budgetary funds.” The Virginia contract “establishes pre-negotiated pricing for agencies seeking to purchase the product. In addition, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management plans to deploy the Reverse 911 system as a statewide notification solution and to mobilize emergency response teams.” [View article]

Police Blow Up Suitcases at Two Miami Churches (Miami Herald) Miami “police had to blow up two suitcases Wednesday within an hour of each other at two houses of worship,” reports the Miami Herald. There was nothing explosive in the luggage, but “the bomb squad wants to know who is placing suspicious packages outside Miami churches. And why.” [View article]

New Orleans Designates 17 Recovery Zones (New Orleans Times-Picayune) New Orleans yesterday “announced the first 17 targeted recovery zones that will spur redevelopment and accelerate” recovery, reports the Times-Picayune. “The zones will be built around public assets in key business corridors in an effort to generate further private investment from developers.” [View article]

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Private-Sector News

‘Terror-Free’ Investing Gains Ground in U.S. (Reuters; Christian Science Monitor) “Catching the wave of rising U.S. focus on energy independence, a new website has set out to tell U.S. motorists where they can fill up without having to worry that the proceeds will ‘finance terrorism by importing oil from the Middle East,’” reports Reuters. The www.terrorfreeoil.org website “identifies oil companies deemed to use home-grown oil supplies from the United States and Canada rather than the Middle East.” Also, “most Americans like the idea of deploying investment dollars to assist in the war on terror,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “… a growing number of” government officials “are promoting divestment from companies dealing with countries that the US considers state sponsors of terror.… The push for terror-free investing has gained intensity over the past year” because “of a successful grass-roots campaign to encourage divestment from Sudan.” [View Reuters article] [View Monitor article]

Govt. Faces Quandary in Anthrax Vaccine Supply (Washington Post) “Emergent BioSolutions … makes the only federally licensed anthrax vaccine,” and “federal health officials want 75 million doses for the stockpile, but they want those doses to be made using a newer generation of vaccine technology that requires just a few shots to produce immunity,” reports the Washington Post. “Emergent’s vaccine … requires up to six doses,” so “the government [is] without a major supplier for the stockpile.” The Project BioShield contract between the Department of Health and Human Services and supplier Vaxgen was canceled last year, but Emergent’s vaccine did not qualify for the contract. Emergent “also has to overcome lingering questions about the safety of its vaccine.” [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.

Upcoming Events

New Events (After four weeks, new events will be moved to the Upcoming Events page) (April 2-4; Falls Church, VA) The conference of national security managers and professionals will address state-of-the-art strategies for guarding against new threats: terrorism, cybercrime, counterintelligence, information security, operations security, security awareness, economic espionage, insider threats, and automated information system security. [View conference website] C-TPAT Supply Chain Security Training Seminar (April 3-6; New Orleans) This Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism seminar focuses on supply chain security in a post-9/11 environment. There is no registration fee, but space is limited. [View conference website] (April 4-5; New York) The two-day expo features exhibits and sessions free of charge to all law enforcement personnel. It is being presented by the premier national and regional law enforcement and tactical associations. The conference segment features world-renowned keynote speakers. The expo features the nation’s most recognized law enforcement industry companies. [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] Physical Security Inspections & Audits (April 12-13; Arlington, VA) This conference for federal, state, and local security officers, government building and facilities managers, and companies with critical infrastructure to be protected provides attendees with a roadmap for conducting physical security system inspections and interpreting the results. [View conference website] Fourth World Congress on Chemical, Biological and Radiological Terrorism (April 14-20; Dubrovnik, Croatia) Industry, government, research, and academic professionals in science, medicine, and policy, along with first responders and hazmat specialists, industry leaders, and specialists in computer risk modeling and planning, training and local community interface and communications, will consider WMD nonproliferation; commercial infrastructure security; hazard and consequence management and communications; chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive terrorism; and more. [View conference website] Medical Aspects of Disaster Management Conference (April 18-19; Arlington, VA) The conference will bring together experts in the field of medical planning and consequence management to help federal, state, local, and private stakeholders become better informed and ultimately help shape their organization’s role in the medical consequence management mission through a thorough discussion of recent events and what responders and medical experts learned from their experiences in the field. [View conference website] Freedom and Security: Europe Without Borders (April 18-20; Serock, Poland) “European security as a horizontal issue” is the main theme of this conference, to consider as a whole the individual concepts that make up security, such as the physical protection of national borders, information security of the European economy, and crisis management. [View conference website] Biological Sampling and Detection Symposiums (April 30–May 2; Richmond, VA) A mix of first responder, homeland and military defense, and system developers, set in an informal atmosphere that promotes wide information exchange, broad community contacts, and multi-dimensional views of common problems. [View conference website] (May 21-22; Luxemburg) With the support of the European Commission, the Forum for Public Safety Communication Europe has been established to facilitate consensus building in public safety communication and information management systems. [View forum 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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