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National News
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Airport Screeners Miss Most Fake Bombs in Tests (USA Today) “Security screeners at two of the nation’s busiest airports”—Los Angeles International and Chicago O’Hare—“failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by” USA Today. “… San Francisco International Airport screeners, who work for a private company instead of the [Transportation Security Administration], missed about 20% of the bombs … The report looks only at those three airports.”
[View article]
Topoff 4 Tests Dirty Bomb Response The Top Officials (Topoff) 4 full-scale exercise this week involves more than 15,000 federal, state, territorial, and local participants. In the scenario, terrorists successfully bring radioactive material into the United States. The first of three coordinated radiological dispersal device or dirty bomb attacks occurs in Guam, causing casualties and widespread contamination in a populous area near a power plant. Within hours, similar attacks occur in Portland, OR, and Phoenix. Severe rescue, health, and long-term decontamination concerns require a coordinated response.
[View press release]
Al-Qaeda’s Nuclear Ambitions (Washington Post) Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, “the Energy Department’s director of intelligence, … is convinced that al-Qaeda is trying to acquire a nuclear bomb …” writes Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. “Even as al-Qaeda was preparing to fly its airplane bombs into buildings, the group was also trying to acquire nuclear and biological capabilities.”
[View article]
Critical Infrastructure Control Systems Are at Risk, Says GAO “Critical infrastructure control systems face increasing risks due to cyber threats, system vulnerabilities, and the serious potential impact of attacks,” according to the Government Accountability Office, which adds that “control systems are more vulnerable to cyber attacks than in the past.” Although “multiple private sector entities such as trade associations and standards setting organizations” as well as federal agencies “are working to help secure control systems,” technical and organizational challenges hinder efforts to secure critical infrastructure.
[View summary]
Internet Jihad Aims at U.S. Viewers
(International Herald Tribune)
“A 21-year-old American named Samir Khan who produces his blog from his parents’ home in North Carolina … serves as a kind of Western relay station for the multimedia productions of violent Islamic groups,” reports the International Herald Tribune. Khan “is part of a growing constellation of apparently independent media operators who are broadcasting the message of Al Qaeda and other groups, a message that is increasingly devised, translated and aimed for a Western audience. Terrorism experts at West Point say there are as many as 100 English language sites with Khan’s, which claims 500 regular readers, among the more active.”
[View article]
| Navy Outlines New Humanitarian Mission (Baltimore Sun) “To combat global terrorism, Navy ships will deploy on more missions to bring medical help and construction teams to regions considered vulnerable to anti-American extremism,” reports the Sun. A new “maritime strategy plan for the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard includes a ‘renewed commitment to humanitarian missions,’” such as the deployment of the hospital ship Comfort to Latin America. (See the June 22 newsletter.)
[View article] [View strategy (1.77 MB PDF)]
International News
Bush Warns of World War III (Reuters AlertNet) “President George W. Bush warned on Wednesday [that] a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War III,” reports Reuters. “… Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has resisted Western pressure to toughen his stance over Iran’s nuclear program, made clear on a visit to Tehran that Russia would not accept any military action against Iran.” Russia “is building Iran’s first atomic power plant.” Putin said “he shared international concerns that [Iran’s] nuclear programs ‘should be as transparent as possible.’”
[View article]
Al-Qaeda in Iraq: Crippled?
(Washington Post)
“The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq,” reports the Washington Post. [View article]
Soldiers Call Blackwater Shooting ‘Criminal’; Iraqi Families Sue (Washington Post; New York Times; Washington Times; Time) “Blackwater USA guards shot at Iraqi civilians as they tried to drive away from a Baghdad square on Sept. 16, according to a report compiled by the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene, where they found no evidence that Iraqis had fired weapons,” reports the Washington Post.
(See the Sept. 21 newsletter.) The soldiers “concluded that there was ‘no enemy activity involved’ and described the shootings as a ‘criminal event.’” “A wounded survivor and relatives of three people killed on Sept. 16 … sued the firm in an American court on” October 11, reports Reuters. The suit “charges that Blackwater and its affiliates violated United States law in committing ‘extrajudicial killings and war crimes.’” But “President Bush said [Wednesday] that private security firms like Blackwater USA provide a ‘valuable service’ to U.S. government personnel abroad,” reports the Washington Times. Yesterday, Time magazine published “America’s Other Army,” a detailed article about Blackwater and other contractors in Iraq.
[View Post article] [View Reuters article] [View Wash. Times article] [View Time article]
Al-Qaeda Battles Pakistani Govt. (Australian) “Al-Qa’ida’s involvement in the huge surge of fighting in Pakistan’s Islamic fundamentalist heartland” appears “linked to a video statement issued by bin Laden last month calling for full-scale war against President Pervez Musharraf to avenge the storming in July of the radical Red Mosque in the Pakistani capital,” reports the Australian. (See the Sept. 21 newsletter.)
[View article]
U.S. Reviews Guantanamo Combatant Hearings
(Google News)
“The U.S. military is reviewing its decision to classify hundreds of Guantanamo Bay inmates as ‘enemy combatants,’ a step that could lead to new hearings for men who have spent years behind bars in indefinite detention,” reports the Associated Press. “Navy Capt. Theodore Fessel Jr., the lead officer at Guantanamo for the Defense Department agency that oversees the panels, said authorities have begun seeking new or previously overlooked evidence that may warrant new hearings … ‘did we take everything into consideration when we did the Combatant Status Review Tribunals?’ Fessel” asked.
[View article]
Cubans Entering U.S. Via Mexico
(International Herald Tribune)
“Cubans are migrating to the United States in the greatest numbers in more than a decade, and for most of them the new way to get north is first to head west—to Mexico—in a convoluted route that avoids the U.S. Coast Guard,” reports the International Herald Tribune. Cubans rely “on Washington’s so-called wet foot/dry foot policy, which gives Cubans the ability to become permanent residents if they can only reach American soil.”
[View article]
Illegal Immigrants Arrested Entering Canada From Vermont (Barre, VT, Times Argus) “The Canada Border Services Agency is processing more than 40 people who tried to enter Canada illegally last week through a border point in Quebec’s Eastern Townships across from Derby Line, Vt.,” reports the Associated Press. Two “were charged with helping illegal immigrants enter the country by avoiding border controls.… most of those picked up … were from Colombia.”
[View article]
New Zealand Cops Nab 17 Under Antiterror Laws
(Australian)
“Heavily armed New Zealand police teams” on Monday used the Terrorism Suppression Act “to arrest 17 Maori sovereignty activists and environmentalists alleged to have engaged in paramilitary-style training and exploded a home-made napalm bomb in the mountainous Bay of Plenty region,” reports the Australian. The “Police Commissioner … ordered the dawn raids after deciding it would be unconscionable to delay any further taking action against those who had attended the camps. The 300-strong police operation is one of the largest undertaken in New Zealand and follows a year-long investigation.”
[View article]
Swedish Documentary Follows Europeans Who Turn to Jihad (International Herald Tribune) A Swedish documentary film, Aching Heart, “provides a glimpse into the world of young European Muslims who dedicate themselves to jihad, or holy war,” reports the Tribune. “… the thinking they express seems to exist in a confused netherworld, where the borders between good and evil have blurred.” But they “have histories that viewers can relate to” and there is “something broken in these [men’s] backgrounds—an abusive father, drugs, divorce—and a longing for a twisted kind of redemption.” [View article]
Japanese Lab Handled Germs Carelessly (Tokyo Asahi Shimbun) The International Patent Organism Depositary in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, “handled hundreds of hazardous pathogens beyond its capabilities, ordered workers to keep the dangers secret, and did not tell part-timers about the potentially lethal risks, The Asahi Shimbun has learned. The violations of inhouse rules and the clandestine practices continued for years.”
[View article]
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| Air Force photo | USS Fort McHenry Will Be Africa Partnership Station The USS Fort McHenry, an amphibious dock landing ship, is beginning “a seven-month deployment to the Gulf of Guinea” to “serve as a platform for the Africa Partnership Station Initiative, which aims to work cooperatively with U.S. and international partners in promoting maritime security in Western Africa,” reports American Forces Press Service. The State and Homeland Security departments, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Coast Guard are participating. Training teams visiting “Senegal, Liberia, Ghana, Cameroon, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe … will focus on … maritime domain awareness, leadership, seamanship and navigation, maritime law enforcement, search and rescue, civil engineering and logistics.”
[View press release]
| Secure Freight Initiative Becomes Operational in the United Kingdom, Pakistan, and Honduras Southampton Container Terminals in the United Kingdom and Port Qasim in Pakistan—both managed by DP World (see the Feb. 24, 2006, newsletter)—along with Puerto Cortez in Honduras on October 12 became the first seaports to implement the Secure Freight Initiative, scanning all maritime containers destined for the United States to see whether they contain nuclear or other radiological materials. These ports fulfill the requirements set out in the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006, which establishes a program that couples non-intrusive inspection and radiation detection technology. Data from these systems are provided to U.S. officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center for analysis.
[View press release]
State and Local News
States’ Immigrant Policies Diverge
(Washington Post)
“As the Bush administration and Congress sit gridlocked on an immigration overhaul, states are jumping into the debate as never before,” reports the Washington Post. “In the process, they are creating a national patchwork of incongruous immigration laws that some observers fear will make it far more difficult to enact any comprehensive, federally mandated bill down the line.” (See the Stats of the Week.)
[View article]
California Landlords Cannot Check Renters’ Residency Status
(San Diego Union-Tribune)
“California has become the first state in the nation to prohibit local governments from forcing landlords to check the immigration status of tenants.…” reports Copley News Service. “Under the measure, cities and counties cannot pass laws requiring landlords to collect any information about the residency status of tenants or applicants. The new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, also prohibits landlords from collecting that information independently. The legislation was backed by an unusual alliance of business groups, immigrant rights activists and civil libertarians.”
[View article]
Prince William County, VA, Restricts Services to Illegal Immigrants (Washington Post) “Prince William County supervisors” on Wednesday “voted to move forward with a nationally watched plan to crack down on illegal immigrants by increasing local police enforcement and restricting certain public services,” reports the Washington Post. (See the July 13 newsletter.) The supervisors directed “police to check the immigration status of anyone accused of breaking the law if the officer suspects that person is an illegal immigrant.” Illegal immigrants will be ineligible for “drug counseling, some elderly services, and business licenses.”
[View article]
Dover, NJ, Studies Gumball Threat (Newark, NJ, Star-Ledger) “With the approval of the mayor and the skepticism of the police chief … three aldermen are in the middle of a nine-month inspection of Dover’s coin-operated gumball and candy machines.…” reports the Star-Ledger. “‘One of the problems that we have here with homeland security is that it would be very easy for someone to put poison in one of these coin-operated devices that distribute candy to children,’ [Mayor James] Dodd said.”
[View article]
DHS News
Mexican With TB Crossed U.S. Border 76 Times (Washington Times) “A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the past year, according to Customs and Border Protection interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times. The … agency was warned by health officials on April 16 that the frequent traveler was infected, but it took Homeland Security officials more than six weeks to issue a May 31 alert to warn its own border inspectors” and “a further week to tell its own” Transportation Security Administration.
[View article]
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| Coast Guard illustration | TWIC Enrollment Begins Port workers, longshoremen, truckers, and others at the port of Wilmington, DE, on Monday became the first workers in the nation to enroll in the Homeland Security Department’s Transportation Worker Identification Credential program, which ensures that any person who has unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities and vessels has received a thorough background check and is not a security threat. [View press release] [View Focus on TWIC]
GAO Assesses Transportation Security The Government Accountability Office this week issued reports on aviation security, transportation security, and, one year after passage of the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act, maritime security. The GAO noted progress as well as challenges that remain.
[View aviation summary] [View transportation summary] [View maritime summary]
Better Controls Would Help Guide Decisions About Removing Aliens, Says GAO U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “has not taken steps to ensure that written guidance designed to promote the appropriate exercise of discretion during alien apprehension and removal is comprehensive and up to date,” according to the Government Accountability Office. Its “officers are at risk of taking actions that do not support operational objectives and making removal decisions that do not reflect the most recent legal developments.”
[View summary]
DHS Reliance on Contractors Creates Risk, Says GAO The Homeland Security Department’s reliance on contractors for “professional and management support services”—$1.2 billion worth in 2005—creates a “risk that government decisions may be influenced by, rather than independent from, contractor judgments,” according to the Government Accountability Office.
[View summary]
New FEMA System Coordinates Nationwide Disaster Response (Federal Computer Week) The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “new Emergency Management Information Management System” will be “a single repository for disaster information,” reports Federal Computer Week. “It will give emergency response leaders a wide-angle view of what is happening during a national crisis” and is “based on commercial software.”
[View article]
Other Federal News
IT Standards Cited as Key to Meeting Intelligence-Sharing Goals
(Government Executive)
“The 500 Day Plan for Integration and Collaboration, released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence last week, will require intelligence agencies to develop standardized systems that enable collaboration and information sharing and modernize business practices,” reports Government Executive. “The 500 Day Plan builds on the 100 Day Plan, unveiled in April, which encouraged federal intelligence agencies to integrate people, processes and technologies. Both plans are extensions of the October 2005 National Intelligence Strategy.”
[View article] [View plan]
United Nations News
Security Council Members Elected for 2008 The General Assembly on Tuesday elected Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Libya, and Viet Nam to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms starting January 1. The newly elected countries will replace Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar, and Slovakia.
[View press release]
Private-Sector News
Verizon Turned Over Data Without Court Orders
(Washington Post)
“Verizon Communications, the nation’s second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers’ telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005,” reports the Washington Post. “The company said it does not determine the requests’ legality or necessity because to do so would slow efforts to save lives in criminal investigations.… Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called. Verizon does not keep data on this.”
[View article]
U.S. Program Helps Iraqi Businesses (Washington Post) The Iraqi Business and Industrial Zone “is an initiative intended to give Iraqi companies better access to U.S. contracts, establish security to let Iraqi companies develop, and train individual Iraqis in skills such as carpentry, plumbing and electrical work,” writes Army Captain Jim Golby, on duty in Iraq, in the Washington Post. The zone “consists of a contracting office, two Iraqi industrial plants—one for producing concrete and the other for crushing rock into gravel—alongside a shipping and receiving yard and a skills training area. It also has the potential to save the U.S. government a significant amount of money by using cheaper Iraqi labor for many jobs usually performed by other contracted foreign nationals.… For once, Iraqis see hope and money, and they want both desperately.” On Tuesday, Captain Golby discussed his article in an online Post chat.
[View article] [View transcript]
Dual-Benefit Solutions
Reform Institute Report Promotes Homeland Security Technologies From the Storefront to the Front Lines: The Private Sector and Homeland Security Investment examines new technologies on the market that are finding innovative uses in homeland security. The report explores the impact of innovations in emergency response, port security, transportation, and interoperability and offers a blueprint for public-private partnerships. [View press release] [View report (2.73 MB PDF)]
| Dual-benefit news archive |
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Please submit events and educational programs by noon Wednesdays for consideration as items in that week’s newsletter.
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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]
(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]
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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]
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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]
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Calls for Papers
2008 IEEE International Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security (May 12-13; Waltham, MA) This conference of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is seeking technical papers that focus on next-generation technologies capable of deployment within 3 to 5 years, emphasizing applied research and addressing hard problems where breakthroughs are needed. Abstracts are due by November 10.
[View call for papers]
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