National News

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SITE Says Leak Severed a Link to al-Qaeda’s Secrets (Washington Post) “A small private intelligence company”—the SITE Intelligence Group (see last week’s newsletter)—“that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition” and “gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release,” reports the Washington Post. “Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company’s Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.” SITE’s founder “says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group’s communications network.” Now “U.S. intelligence officials will investigate” the leak, reported the Post in a separate story. [View leak article] [View probe article]

Judge Blocks Crackdown on Illegal Workers (Washington Post) “U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer of San Francisco [on Wednesday] granted a preliminary injunction against the president’s plan to press employers to fire as many as 8.7 million workers with suspect Social Security numbers, starting this fall,” reports the Washington Post. The judge warned of the “potentially ‘staggering’ impact on law-abiding workers and companies.” [View article]

Supreme Court Declines to Hear Masri Case (Washington Post) “The Supreme Court [on Tuesday] declined to hear the case of” Khaled el-Masri, “a German citizen who said he was kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured by the CIA,” reports the Washington Post. (See the Sept. 28 newsletter.) “A federal district court judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit had earlier dismissed the case … agreeing with the government that the case could not go forward without exposing state secrets.” [View article]

Military Commissions Aren’t Producing Convictions (Newsweek) “Military commissions were supposed to ensure easy terror convictions, but that hasn’t been the case,” reports Newsweek. “… In the six years since the military commissions were established by presidential decree, just one detainee has been convicted (Australian David Hicks, last March) and only after a plea deal that guaranteed his freedom by the end of this year; two other cases have been hung up in procedural wrangling.” [View article]

Islamo-Fascism Week: Awareness or Hate? (Inside Higher Ed) “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” (Oct. 22-26) “and a similar campaign from Young America’s Foundation are already setting off campus controversies and debates about tolerance and free speech,” reports Inside Higher Ed. “Organizers—who are planning events at dozens of campuses—say that they are just trying to make students aware of the threats posed by radical Islam to the United States.” But the publicity and speakers are “setting off campus debates over whether the campaign being orchestrated is about informing students or intimidating Muslim students and selected targets of the right.” [View article]

International News

Iraq Wants Blackwater to Pay $136 Million in Compensation; Afghanistan Shuts Two Security Companies (Reuters; Washington Post; Google News; CNN) “The Iraqi government wants U.S. security firm Blackwater to pay $8 million in compensation to each of the families of 17 people killed in a shooting last month,” reports Reuters. In a new incident, “private security guards from an Australian-run firm [Unity Resources Group] opened fire on a white sedan in downtown Baghdad on Tuesday afternoon, killing two Iraqi Christian women who were driving home from work,” reports the Washington Post. “… According to Unity’s chief operating officer, Michael Priddin, the women drove up quickly and ‘failed to stop despite escalation of warnings’ including ‘hand signals and a signal flare.’” The United Nations “called Thursday for rogue security guards in Iraq to face prosecution,” reports Agence France-Presse, and “Afghan authorities this week shut down two private security companies and said more than 10 others—some suspected of murder and robbery—would soon be closed,” reports the Associated Press. [View Reuters article] [View Post article] [View AFP article] [View AP article]

War on Terror Is Fueling al-Qaeda, Says Oxford Research Group (Reuters) “The ‘war on terror’ is failing and instead fuelling an increase in support for extremist Islamist movements,” according to a report published Monday by the Oxford Research Group, reports Reuters. Alternatives to the War on Terror “recommended the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq coupled with intensive diplomatic engagement in the region.” [View article] [View report]

U.S. Tries Rehab for Religious Extremists (Christian Science Monitor) “A counseling program that employs Muslim clerics to rebut extremist views of detainees has steadily reduced their numbers over the past four years in Singapore, suggesting that religious-based rehabilitation may offer an alternative to indefinite detention without trial in the US-led war on terrorism,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “Faced with swelling detention centers, US military commanders in Iraq have begun to take note. In recent months, they have introduced religious-education programs for adults and juveniles that are modeled, in part, on Singapore’s and on a much larger program in Saudi Arabia.” [View article]

Muslims Call for Peace With Christians (Australian) “Muslim scholars from around the globe have called for peace and understanding between Islam and Christianity, saying ‘the very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake,’” reports the Australian. “In an unprecedented letter to Pope Benedict and other Christian leaders, 138 Muslim scholars said finding common ground between the world’s biggest faiths was not simply a matter for polite dialogue between religious leaders.” [View article]

Plan to Test DNA of Some Immigrants Divides France (International Herald Tribune) “An amendment to a sweeping [French] immigration bill proposed the use of genetic testing to verify the bloodlines of would-be immigrants who want to join family members already living in France.… has been vilified for contradicting France’s protective family and privacy laws and for stirring up memories of the ugliest period of modern French history, the collaborationist Vichy government during the Nazi occupation.…” reports the International Herald Tribune. “‘This DNA test exists in 11 countries in Europe—including some Socialist ones, like Great Britain,’ [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy said in a television interview last month. ‘How is it that it doesn’t pose a problem in these countries, but it creates a debate here?’ He also said that the test would be voluntary and would be used only where there were no clear records ‘to prove that children are really your own.…’ The main argument against the amendment is that the notion of family in French law is not based on blood but on recognition of a child as one’s own. DNA testing would set up a double standard—one for the French, another for the immigrant.” [View article]

Five in UK on Trial Over Terrorist Training Camps (Reuters) “Five men charged with terrorist training offences went on trial in London on Wednesday and the high-security court was told [that] a sixth man, their leader … Atilla Ahmet, 43, the so-called emir of the group, [had already] pleaded guilty to three counts of encouraging others to commit murder,” reports Reuters. The five now on trial are “accused of preparing Muslim men for jihad, or holy war, by organising terrorism training disguised as camping or paintballing trips in rural parts of England.” [View article]

Spain Arrests Leaders of Party Linked to ETA (Toronto Globe and Mail) “Spanish police [on Oct. 4] arrested almost all the top members of … the illegal Batasuna party,” which has been “banned for links to” Basque separatist group ETA, reports Reuters. “Police detained 22 leaders … Batasuna’s top leader, Arnaldo Otegi, has been in prison since June for praising ETA, which has killed more than 800 people in four decades of struggle for independence from Spain.” [View article]

London Police Say Menezes Acted Suspiciously Before They Shot Him (BBC) British “police following Jean Charles de Menezes may have suspected he was using counter-surveillance techniques before he was shot dead,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. (See the Nov. 4, 2005, newsletter.) “The Brazilian, wrongly suspected as a suicide bomber, left a bus and then got back on minutes before being killed in a London Tube station on 22 July 2005”—“the day after the failed 21 July 2005 suicide bombings.” Britain’s Metropolitan Police force “denies breaking health and safety laws over the shooting.” [View article]

Philippines and India Sign Antiterror Accord (Times of India) “India and the Philippines pledged on [Oct. 5] to strengthen trade, fight terror and develop renewable energy sources in a slew of agreements signed during a visit by Philippine President Gloria Arroyo,” reports Agence France-Presse. “… the two countries also signed an accord on anti-terror cooperation. ‘It envisages information-sharing, cooperation amongst law enforcing agencies, cooperation in capacity building and in the prevention and suppression of the financing of terrorist acts,’ the ministry’s statement said.” [View article]

Turkey Adds More Buffer Zones Along Iraq Border (Yahoo! News) “More buffer zones designed to prevent Kurdish rebels crossing over the border to and from Iraq have been established in southeastern Turkey …” reports Agence France-Presse. (See the June 8 newsletter.) “The 27 zones set up in the regions of Sirnak, Siirt and Hakkari add to others created in June” and “are to stay in place until December 10.” [View article]

India Develops Tsunami Warning System (Times of India) “India has developed its own tsunami warning system, barely three years after it was caught off guard when the killer sea waves spawned by a massive earthquake wreaked havoc along its southern coastline,” reports the Press Trust of India. “The National Early Warning System for Tsunami and Storm Surges in the Indian Ocean, a project of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, has taken shape at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services” in Hyderabad. Four key sensors called bottom pressure recorders “have already been installed in the Bay of Bengal region and were put to test on September 12 when a massive undersea earthquake hit southern Sumatra.” [View article]

State and Local News

Sleeping Guards at Peach Bottom, PA, Nuclear Plant (Allentown, PA, Morning Call; York [PA] Daily Record) “The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission confirmed [that] ‘multiple security guards were inattentive on multiple occasions’ at the” Peach Bottom nuclear power plant in York County, reports Bloomberg. “… Guards at Peach Bottom were videotaped sleeping in several incidents earlier this year.” But “unanswered by the news reports is why those officers were so exhausted,” according to a Project on Government Oversight statement published in the York Daily Record. The project’s “nuclear power plant investigations have repeatedly found that post-9/11, security contractors including Wackenhut overwork security officers to the point of exhaustion.… as much as six 12-hour days on a regular basis.… current [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] inquiries are now directed at subpoenas to obtain access to the whistleblowers’ computers.” [View Morning Call article] [View Daily Record article]

Five Injured in Ohio School Shooting (New York Times; Cleveland Plain Dealer) “A 14-year-old student shot and injured two students and two teachers at a downtown Cleveland high school on Wednesday before fatally shooting himself,” reports the New York Times. “None of the victims’ injuries were considered life-threatening. The gunman was identified as Asa H. Coon, a freshman at the school, SuccessTech Academy.” Coon had a “record of violence” and “talked about suicide,” reports the Plain Dealer. “… he confided to friends that he was going to shoot up the school.” [View Times article] [View Plain Dealer article]

‘Columbine’-Style Threat Thwarted in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia Inquirer) “A possible ‘Columbine-type’ attack by a non-student was thwarted” at Plymouth Township Whitemarsh High School, reports the Inquirer. “A 14-year-old home-schooled male student was taken into custody after a 9mm assault rifle, air guns, hand grenades, explosive powder, a bomb-making book, videos of the Columbine shooting, and disturbing notebooks were found at the student’s home … Police received a complaint that the student was planning an attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh.” [View article]

Hazleton, PA, Needs Immigrants, Says Local Report (Allentown, PA, Morning Call) Hazleton’s “highly publicized campaign of targeting illegal immigrants threatens to drive away business and industry and damage prospects for economic revitalization, a new report … by polling firm Zogby International” asserts, according to the Associated Press. The report “challenges the mayor’s claim that illegal immigrants are responsible for overburdened police, schools and hospitals. It concludes that Hazleton should embrace immigration as a ‘solution to an aging and declining population.’ Zogby was hired by a civic group, the Greater Hazleton Area Civic Partnership, to identify economic and demographic trends and how they will affect future development in the city.” [View article]

Low Birthweights Linked to 9/11 (BBC) “An increase in low birthweight babies born in and around New York in the months after 9/11 has been blamed on stress caused by the attacks,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “The journal Human Reproduction reported a two-thirds increase in the risk of giving birth to a slightly underweight baby in the week after 9/11. The University of California at Berkeley researchers found it was higher even months later.” [View article]

Virginia Tech Emergency Test Misses 700 Subscribers (Roanoke [VA] Times) “More than 700 subscribers say they did not receive messages during a test Wednesday of Virginia Tech’s new emergency alert system,” reports the Times. [View article]

St. Louis Deploys Surveillance Cameras (Government Computer News) “The St. Louis police department is installing wireless surveillance cameras to keep a watchful eye out for criminal activity, much as other big cities such as New York and Chicago have,” reports Government Computer News. “But for now, St. Louis is using a smaller-scale network than the thousands of cameras other big cities have installed. St. Louis is using only eight cameras in a 10-block by 10-block area downtown.” [View article]

DHS News

Govt. Computer News Honors Coast Guard (Government Computer News) The Coast Guard received a Government Computer News 2007 Agency Award for verifying the identity of migrants via the Homeland Security Department’s U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program. “The Coast Guard collects fingerprints and photographs from each migrant using handheld scanners that can withstand adverse weather conditions and the constant movement of the ship. The data is sent to US-VISIT via e-mail, where it is compared with all of the records in the US-VISIT database. The results are returned within two minutes.” [View article] [View Focus on US-VISIT]

Draft National Response Framework Public Comment Period Extended to October 22 The Homeland Security Department has extended the public comment period on the draft National Response Framework. (See the Sept. 28 Website of the Week and Quote of the Week.) [View press release]

Other Federal News

Treasury Dept. Designates Three Terrorist Financiers The Treasury Department on Tuesday specially designated three persons in Saudi Arabia as “global terrorists”: Abdul Rahim Al-Talhi, Muhammad Àbdallah Salih Sughayr, and Fahd Muhammad Àbd Al-Àziz Al-Khashiban, who supported the Abu Sayyaf Group—terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda and responsible for bombings, kidnappings, and other terrorism in Southeast Asia. Any U.S. assets the three have are frozen, and U.S. “persons” are prohibited from doing business with them. [View press release]

Law Enforcement Agencies Lack Directives to Assist Foreign Nations “Three U.S. national strategies, developed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, directed U.S. law enforcement agencies … to intensify their efforts to help foreign nations identify, disrupt, and prosecute terrorists,” notes the Government Accountability Office. Although the agencies have increased their efforts, they “have not been given clear guidance, they lacked clearly defined roles and responsibilities,” and they may even “have compromised several joint operations.” [View summary]

Justice Dept. Will Lead Fight Against Exports to Terrorist Organizations The Justice Department and several partner agencies yesterday launched a national initiative that will harness the counterproliferation assets of U.S. law enforcement, licensing, and intelligence agencies to combat the growing national security threat posed by illegal exports of restricted U.S. military and dual-use technology to foreign nations and terrorist organizations. [View press release]

Public Comment Sought on Reactor Resistance to Aircraft Impact The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment on a proposed rule to enhance the safety and security of future nuclear power plants. The proposal would require applicants for new reactors to assess the level of built-in protection a particular design has to avoid or mitigate the effects of a large commercial aircraft impact, reducing the need for human intervention to protect public health and safety. [View press release]

HHS Awards Contracts for New Medical Countermeasures The Health and Human Services Department has awarded contracts totaling $55.3 million to four companies for the advanced development of anthrax antitoxins, therapeutics, and antibiotics for use against plague and tularemia. The new Biological Advanced Research and Development Authority and the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases provided funding. [View press release]

Govt. Computer News Honors Maritime Law Mapping (Government Computer News) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration received a Government Computer News 2007 Agency Award for the Digital Coast Legislative Atlas, “a Web-based application that combines geospatial tools and legislative data,” giving “users a single location to view legislation, supporting statutes and geographic details of the coastal area involved.” [View article]

United Nations News

UN Honors Disaster Prevention Experts Professor Yoshiaki Kawata, who educates both the government and the public on practical skills for disaster risk reduction, and Tony Gibbs, an engineer from Grenada and Barbados focusing on building safety, are recipients of this year’s United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Reduction. [View press release]

Experts Lay Foundation for Global Cybersecurity Roadmap Sixty experts from governments, the private sector, academia, research institutions, and regional and international organizations at the first gathering of the High-Level Experts Group for the International Telecommunication Union’s Global Cybersecurity Agenda agreed to jointly take action to combat the constantly evolving and increasingly sophisticated challenges posed by cybercrime. [View press release]

UN Warns That Tropical Viruses Are Moving to Temperate Zones Animal diseases are advancing globally, and countries will have to invest more in surveillance and control measures, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which cited West Nile virus, Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever, and other plagues that have crossed from tropical to temperate zones. Globalization, the movement of people and goods, tourism, urbanization, and probably also climate change are favoring the spread of animal viruses around the planet, the agency said. [View press release]

Dual-Benefit Solutions

The Struggle to Defeat Roadside Bombs (Washington Post) This four-part series “describes the effort by the U.S. military to combat the improvised explosive devices used by insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2002 until now,” killing or maiming thousands of soldiers as well as civilians. [View article] [View Focus on IEDs]

Dual-benefit news archive

Please submit events and educational programs by noon Wednesdays for consideration as items in that week’s newsletter.

New Upcoming Events (After four weeks, new events will be moved to the Upcoming Events page) Homeland Security: Coordinating Emergency Response With the International Community (October 22-23; Atlanta) This conference will address the care and protection of foreign nationals in Georgia during a man-made or natural disaster. Participants will become familiar with existing federal, state, and local emergency response plans and procedures; help identify any shortfalls that may exist in those procedures; and recommend potential solutions. [View conference website] Homeland Security and Canada-U.S. Border Trade: Implications for Public Policy and Business Strategy (October 25-26; Windsor, Ontario) The conference will address American and Canadian perspectives regarding homeland security as it relates to Canada-U.S. border trade, review existing efforts to keep the border closed to terrorists and open for trade, and seek to identify economically and politically feasible public policy and private-sector strategies to achieve a viable and sustainable balance between homeland security and economic security for both nations. [View conference website] (November 1-3; Atlantic City, NJ) The conference offers over 40 sessions divided into clearly defined tracks for the emergency medical services administrator, physician, educator, and all basic and advanced life-support providers. The faculty comprises physicians, nurses, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and other health and safety professionals. [View conference website] U.S. Customs and Border Protection Trade Symposium 2007 (November 14-15; Washington, DC) This year’s symposium will focus on trade priorities and policies to help ensure compliance, enhance security, and promote continued CBP-trade partnerships. This collaboration enables CBP to incorporate feedback from the private sector into key initiatives, lessening the impact of new programs and ensuring that CBP and the trade advance toward a common goal. The symposium will cover topics such as cargo security, trade issues, the Automated Commercial Environment–International Trade Data System, post-incident business resumption, and global issues. [View conference website] ACE Exchange VIII (November 27-29; San Francisco) Learn how the Automated Commercial Environment—the commercial trade processing system developed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection—has helped companies comply with a new regulatory mandate and given thousands of importers, brokers, and truck carriers an advantage over their competitors. New ACE functionality just released benefits cartmen, lightermen, facility operators, foreign trade zone operators, sureties, software vendors, and service providers. Many regulatory and technical changes under way will affect the business of importing goods into the United States. The ACE Exchange also offers private appointments with Customs and Border Protection for ACE account assistance, reports training, or other ACE issues. [View conference website]