DHS News

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CIS Plans to Use Photo IDs to Verify Worker Eligibility (Government Computer News) “Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), the federal immigration benefits agency, is assembling resources to progressively roll out a photo verification tool employers can use to verify new hires’ workforce eligibility,” reports Government Computer News. Computer Sciences Corp. will “continue its work on the Verification Information System, which helps CIS match individuals to their immigration status.… Part of CSC’s work will support expansion of CIS’ back-end immigration tools, including the E-Verify system. A rapidly increasing number of companies have begun using E-Verify to ensure their new hires are eligible for employment. E-Verify formerly was known as the Basic Pilot Program. Federal and state agencies also use E-Verify to operate the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, another CIS tool, to verify eligibility for government programs such as housing subsidies.… The crux of the verification tool is a link to the Social Security Administration and to other parts of CIS that have records of employment eligibility. If those initial checks don’t confirm employment eligibility, the employer receives a Tentative Nonconfirmation (TNC) via E-Verify. The prospective worker and the employer must find the reason for the TNC.” [View article]

Other Federal News

U.S. Govt. Watches for 300,000 Terrorists (CNN; Federal Computer Week; Government Executive) A new Government Accountability Office “report says there are now more than three quarters of a million names on the U.S. government’s terrorist ‘watch list,’ raising concerns the list may be becoming too large,” reports CNN. The report “said the Terrorist Screening Center’s watch list contained approximately 755,000 names. But because many potential suspects have multiple names or aliases on the list, investigators are not certain how many distinct individuals are actually represented. Officials at the Terrorist Screening Center told CNN in September that the number of individuals on the list is about 300,000.” Furthermore, “some suspects can pass undetected through screening processes and are not detected until after they have boarded a plane or made it into the country,” reports Government Executive, citing a CongressDaily story on the GAO report. “… Customs and Border Protection has encountered situations where it identified the subject of a watch list record after the individual had been processed at a port of entry and admitted into the United States.” And “data from the Transportation Security Administration also revealed that a number of individuals who were on the government’s so-called ‘no-fly’ list passed undetected through airlines’ passenger screening process and flew on international flights to or from the United States.” The “Federal agencies that partner with the U.S. Terrorist Screening Center” yesterday agreed “on standards for addressing complaints from people whose names appear on the list,” reports Federal Computer Week. “… the agencies [agreed] to appoint a senior official to ensure participation in redressing concerns from individuals who believe they have been wrongly placed on the list [and to] update and correct and secure personal information.” [View CNN article] [View GAO summary] [View Govt. Exec. article] [View FCW article]

GAO Cites Waste in Anthrax Vaccine Cache (Washington Post) “Federal health officials are potentially wasting a stockpile of anthrax vaccine worth more than $100 million,” says a Government Accountability Office report, according to the Washington Post. “… About $12 million of anthrax vaccine in the Strategic National Stockpile has expired. The vaccine had been kept for use in an emergency, even though federal standards prohibit expired vaccines from being administered. Starting in 2008, about $100 million of the stockpiled vaccine would go bad each year.” [View article] [View GAO summary] [View Focus on BioShield]

FBI Working to Bolster Al-Qaeda Cases (Los Angeles Times) “The FBI is quietly reconstructing the cases against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and 14 other accused Al Qaeda leaders being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, spurred in part by U.S. concerns that years of CIA interrogation have yielded evidence that is inadmissible or too controversial to present at their upcoming war crimes tribunals,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “… The Bush administration … for years held the men incommunicado overseas and allowed the CIA to use coercive means to extract information from them that would not be admissible in a U.S. court of law—and might not be allowed in their military commissions … The FBI investigations … have been underway for as long as two years.” [View article]

New Directive Puts HHS in Charge of Biosurveillance Efforts (Federal Computer Week) Homeland Security Presidential Directive 21 “orders the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a national biosurveillance system to detect threats to human health and says the system should rely, where possible, on e-health records,” reports Federal Computer Week. “The directive … covers many aspects of public health and medical preparedness for a naturally occurring or deliberately induced health emergency on a large scale.” [View article] [View Directive 21]

International News

Attack on Bhutto Kills 140 in Pakistan (Karachi, Pakistan, Dawn; International Herald Tribune) “Over 125 participants of a procession led by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto upon her return to the country lost their lives on [October 18] after two powerful blasts rocked the slow-moving motorcade,” reports the Dawn. “… At least 100 people were injured.” The attacks resembled the work of “Al Qaeda and their allied Pakistani militants and were the work of two suicide bombers, the provincial governor [Ishrat ul Ebad] said,” according to the International Herald Tribune. “… The governor said the death toll had risen to 140 … Bhutto has blamed the government for turning off streetlights, making it difficult for security guards to spot potential attackers, and has suggested that officials within the government did not act on information she had passed on about planned attacks. But Ebad said that … Bhutto had not taken necessary precautions. The governments of Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates had warned her that suicide bombers intended to attack her cavalcade, he said.” [View Dawn article] [View Tribune article]

U.S. Imposes New Sanctions Against Iran (Washington Post) “The Bush administration announced an unprecedented package of unilateral sanctions against Iran [yesterday], including the long-awaited designations of its Revolutionary Guard Corps as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and of the elite Quds Force as a supporter of terrorism,” according to the Washington Post. It “marks the first time that the United States has tried to isolate or punish another country’s military. It is the broadest set of punitive measures imposed on Tehran since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy, and included a call for other countries and firms to stop doing business with three major Iranian banks.” [View article]

Army General Says Torture at Abu Ghraib Was Worse Than Reported (KGO-TV/DT News, San Francisco) General Antonio Taguba—“the army general who exposed torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq”—says that he has been “ostracized because his 6,000-page report on abuses in the prison was more aggressive and more condemning than his superiors wanted,” reports ABC7News. “… Taguba had pictures, more than a [hundred] photos depicting far worse detainee abuse than the ones that ultimately surfaced.” [View article]

Two Reports Assail U.S. State Dept. Role on Iraq Security (International Herald Tribune; Washington Post; Government Executive) “A pair of new reports have delivered sharply critical judgments about the State Department’s performance in overseeing work done by the private companies that the government relies on increasingly in Iraq and Afghanistan to carry out delicate security work and other missions,” reports the International Herald Tribune. “A State Department review of its own security practices in Iraq assails the department for poor coordination, communication, oversight and accountability involving armed security companies like Blackwater USA.” And “a government audit … says that records documenting the work of DynCorp, the State Department’s largest contractor, are in such disarray that the department cannot say ‘specifically what it received’ for most of the $1.2 billion it has paid the company since 2004 to train the police officers in Iraq.” However, “private security contractors will continue to protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq but will operate under closer supervision by U.S. Embassy officials and with clearer accountability for their actions, according to new rules,” reports the Washington Post. And Richard Griffin, the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, “resigned on Wednesday”—the “first political casualty” of the security contractor scandal, according to Government Executive. [View Tribune article] [View Post article] [View State Dept. review (538 KB PDF)] [View Govt. Exec. article]

116,000 Moved Away From Indonesian Volcano (MSNBC) “Armed police forced tens of thousands of reluctant residents to leave the slopes of one of Indonesia’s deadliest volcanos [on October 19], warning [that] an eruption was imminent,” reports the Associated Press. “The United Nations mobilized hundreds of aid workers and medical supplies to the area” of Mount Kelud. “Authorities ordered 116,000 people living along the fertile slopes to evacuate.” [View article]

Rendition Examines Terrorism, Torture, and Justice (Toronto Globe and Mail; Washington Post) The fictional movie Rendition is “a political film that delivers its timely message with a cinematic punch and no undue speechifying,” writes reviewer Rick Groen in the Globe and Mail. “The title refers to the U.S. practice of ‘rendering’ suspected terrorists to foreign countries where, under the watchful eyes of intelligence agents, they can be tortured with legal impunity.… the film intercuts between the tacit endorsement of torture in the corridors of power and its brutal application in [a] faraway jail.” Daniel Benjamin, former director for counterterrorism policy on the National Security Council staff, detailed “5 Myths About Rendition (and That New Movie)” in the Washington Post. [View Globe and Mail review] [View Post commentary]

French Parliament Adopts DNA Bill (BBC) “France’s parliament has passed a new bill that introduces tighter curbs on foreigners hoping to join relatives in France—including possible DNA tests,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. (See the Oct. 12 newsletter.) “… The bill has been hugely controversial, prompting thousands of people to take part in street protests across the country last weekend.… The bill’s proposals for DNA testing have already been diluted in response to some of the criticism. Under the modified version passed by parliament, DNA tests will only be used in cases where children are applying to join mothers in France. The tests will be voluntary rather than mandatory and will be paid for by the French government rather than by the migrant.” [View article]

Terrorists Who Say No to Terror (Australian) “Killer jihadis once hell-bent on destruction and mayhem are now campaigning to stop others following in their footsteps,” reports the Australian. “… One of the key Bali bombers, Ali Imron … has joined the growing number of terrorists who have been rehabilitated and who have renounced violence.” Nasir Abas, a former Jemaah Islamiyah top commander, “has spent the past few years helping authorities.” And “Karam Zuhdi, a former leader of the militant group Gama’a al-Islamiyya, is on a mission to deter recruitment for violent jihad.” [View article]

ETA Plans Attack on High-Speed Train Link (Expatica) “The armed separatist group ETA plans to strike a high-speed railway under construction in Spain’s northern Basque region, the Spanish daily ABC reported Monday,” according to Agence France-Presse. “The newspaper cited a document seized from a recently detained ETA member. The railway … will link Bilbao, the Basque region’s financial centre, with its regional capital Vitoria and San Sebastian near the French border.” ETA “has taken aim at major construction projects that are seen as hurting the [environment] in the past as a means of gaining support. The group targeted workers involved in the construction of a nuclear power plant at Lemoiz which was eventually dropped.” And “in recent months there have been repeated acts of sabotage of railway tracks in the Basque region.” [View article]

Timeline of Messages From Osama bin Laden (New York Times) “Audio and video messages from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden since Sept. 11, 2001,” have been compiled by the Associated Press detailing bin Laden’s messages from Dec. 13, 2001, to his most recent on Monday. [View article]

Japan Immigration to Scan Foreigners (Australian) “Tourists entering Japan and most foreign residents returning to the country will be biometrically photographed and fingerprinted under a new law intended to screen out foreign terror suspects,” reports the Australian. “The amended Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, which comes into force on November 20, will give Japan a tougher immigration security regime than any other country except the” United States. [View article]

Castro Says Bush Pushes the World Toward World War III (CNN) “Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro accused U.S. President George W. Bush of pushing the world to the brink of World War III [see last week’s newsletter] and widespread famine in an essay [‘Bush, Hunger and Death’] that appeared in Cuban state media Tuesday,” reports CNN. “‘The danger of a massive world famine is aggravated by Mr. Bush’s recent initiative to transform foods into fuel,’ referring to his support for biofuel projects that convert foodstuffs like corn into fuel. Castro said Bush was simultaneously ‘threatening humanity with World War III, this time with atomic weapons.’” [View article]

State and Local News

Bomb Scare Disrupts Topoff 4 in Portland, OR (Portland Oregonian) “Topoff 4, the gigantic what-if exercise with fictional terrorists detonating a radioactive weapon in downtown Portland [see last week’s newsletter], turned into a real-life bomb scare” on October 18, reports the Oregonian. “Something about a car in [a hotel] parking garage sent bomb-sniffing dogs into a frenzy.… It’s likely, police said afterward, that one—or several—of the [Topoff] participants who train with explosives had inadvertently left residue on or in their car.” Police closed the area, evacuated buildings, and shut down local rail service. “Topoff activities at the hotel—a news briefing and a paper exercise dealing with the aftermath of the mock ‘dirty bomb’”—were canceled. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff “bailed out.” [View article]

Fences and Barriers Cut Illegal Border Crossings in New Mexico (Santa Fe New Mexican) “To stem the flow of illegal immigration, a low-tech effort appears to be paying off in” Columbus, NM, report the McClatchy Newspapers. “Border Patrol apprehensions of both narcotics and illegal immigrants on this part of the border are down sharply for 2007, and local law enforcement officials and residents say new vehicle barriers and border fences are responsible.… Taking the low-tech approach, the Border Patrol this year erected three miles of fencing around Columbus … The 15-foot-high metal fence extends west of town about 2.7 miles and east of town by three-tenths of a mile. To the west of Columbus, a waist-high, concrete-filled metal vehicle barrier extends well beyond the new fencing.” [View article]

Environmental Laws Waived to Press Work on Border Fence (New York Times) Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff “waived several environmental laws [on Monday] to continue building a border fence through a national conservation area in Arizona,” reports the New York Times. “Citing ‘unacceptable risks to our nation’s security’ if the fence along the border with Mexico was further delayed, Mr. Chertoff invoked waiver authority granted him under a 2005 bill that mandated construction of the fence. He ordered work to continue on 6.9 miles of fence along the border through the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in Cochise County.” [View article]

Latino Immigrants Stand Their Ground in Prince William County, Virginia (Washington Post) “Latino immigrants and lawyers in Prince William County are trying to calm community panic and spread accurate information, urging people to stay and defend their rights in the aftermath of new county measures aimed at keeping out illegal immigrants,” reports the Washington Post. (See last week’s newsletter.) “Radio stations and hotlines are fielding calls from immigrants asking whether it is safe to drive cars or visit public parks. Lawyers are advising parents to make emergency plans for their children and assets in case they are detained on suspicion of being in the country illegally. Volunteers are organizing meetings, and one woman, a U.S. citizen from El Salvador, has decided to launch a write-in candidacy for the Board of County Supervisors.” [View article]

Las Vegas Leads in Surveillance (Washington Post) “Like nowhere else in the United States, Las Vegas has embraced the twin trends of data mining and high-tech surveillance, with arguably more cameras per square foot than any airport or sports arena in the country. Even the city’s cabs and monorail have cameras,” reports the Washington Post. “As the U.S. government ramps up its efforts to forestall terrorist attacks, some privacy advocates view the city as a harbinger of things to come. In secret rooms in casinos across Las Vegas, surveillance specialists are busy analyzing information about players and employees. Relying on thousands of cameras in nearly every cranny of the casinos, they evaluate suspicious behavior. They ping names against databases that share information with other casinos, sometimes using facial-recognition software to validate a match.” [View article]

National News

U.S. Lacks Enough Labs to Test Possible Dirty Bomb Victims (Houston Chronicle) “The U.S. has a shortage of laboratories to test the thousands of people who might be exposed to radiation if a ‘dirty bomb’ detonated in a major city, according to a congressional report released” yesterday, reports the Associated Press. “If a dirty bomb goes off in a major downtown area and potentially exposes 100,000 people to radioactive materials, it could take four years to complete the necessary testing, according to the report prepared for the House Committee on Science and Technology.” [View article]

Mistrial Declared in Muslim Charity Case (Washington Post) “The trial against what was once the nation’s largest Islamic charity ended in a mistrial Monday as federal prosecutors in Dallas were unable to gain a conviction on charges that the group’s leaders had funneled millions of dollars to Mideast terrorists,” reports the Washington Post. (See the Feb. 17, 2006, newsletter.) “The jurors in the high-profile case acquitted Mohammad el-Mezain, the former chairman of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, on virtually all the charges brought against him and deadlocked on the other charges that had been lodged against four other former leaders of the charity.… the Bush administration … had frozen the group’s finances three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and indicted its officials three years later on charges that they provided funds in support of Hamas, a militant Palestinian group that the United States considers a terrorist organization.” [View article]

On TV, a More Nuanced Portrayal of Torture (Christian Science Monitor) The “Parents Television Council found that the number of torture scenes on prime-time network television had jumped from 77 in the four years before 9/11 to 649 in the four years after,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. David Danzig of Human Rights First “started the Primetime Torture Project to educate TV executives and writers about the impact their shows can have on audiences, including young soldiers—who, military officials told Danzig, were being influenced by Jack Bauer’s rogue interrogation style.… Since peaking in 2003, there are now fewer torture scenes on TV. More programs are showing how torture can backfire or fail. Last season, even ‘24’ toned it down, with fewer scenes of violent interrogation—while those it did air portrayed abusive techniques as the province of ‘bad guys.’” [View article]

United Nations News

Pandemic Flu Vaccine Should Be Ready by 2010 (MSNBC) “People in the developed world could have access to an effective vaccine against pandemic flu within the next three years—if a worldwide outbreak actually strikes—the World Health Organization said Tuesday,” according to the Associated Press. “The U.N. health agency said recent progress means the global production capacity will rise to 4.5 billion courses of treatment by 2010. But that would still leave some 2 billion people in poorer countries without access to a vaccine.” [View article]

Dual-Benefit Solutions

Govt. Maps Will Go to Agencies Worldwide Electronically (Government Computer News) “The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is creating a new data distribution system that will allow users worldwide to receive and accurately print maps via a $1.7 million contract with Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems and Global Services for … demand-based geospatial intelligence,” reports the Government Computer News. The agency wants “to furnish federal agencies with the most recent geospatial intelligence data on demand in formats users can handle. [It] now produces hard-copy maps on large-format, five-color offset lithographic presses.… But hard-copy distribution is costly and time-consuming.” [View article]

Dual-benefit news archive

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New Upcoming Events (After four weeks, new events will be moved to the Upcoming Events page) 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] (December 3-5; London) The conference focuses on key challenges facing the security industry: homeland security and resilience; security of maritime, aviation, and transport networks; border management and security; counterterror intelligence and emergency response; infrastructure security; and technological development and implementation. [View conference website] National Congress on Secure Communities (December 17-18; Washington, DC) The second annual congress—cohosted by the Community Institute for Preparedness, Response and Recovery; the Corporate Crisis Response Officers Association; the National Council on Readiness and Preparedness; and other partners of the ReadyCommunities Partnership—brings together federal, state, and local officials, first responders, members of the media, business leaders, nonprofit organizations, academic experts, and 5-Pilot community leaders who will help develop simple, effective pilot demonstrations that leverage the assets of the private and community sectors to augment the local public-sector preparedness and response plan during the first 72 hours of crisis. [View conference website] 2008 Homeland Security S&T Stakeholders Conference–West (January 14-17; Los Angeles) The theme of the 2008 conference, presented by the National Defense Industrial Association, is “Putting First Responders First.” Its purpose is to inform first responders, state and local governments, industry, and academia of the direction, emphasis, and scope of the research investments by the Homeland Security Department’s Science & Technology Directorate and describe the business opportunities for private-sector organizations and universities. [View conference website] Border and Maritime Security Conference (February 26-27; Washington, DC) The conference will bring together subject matter experts from the government and industry to discuss what’s next and the Secure Border Initiative, the Temporary Worker Program, US-VISIT, SBINet, the Container Security Initiative, and the Maritime Transportation Security Act. Attendees can learn how the executive and legislative branches propose to address border and maritime security, what technologies might be available to support the government’s efforts, the integration of disparate security systems, the detection of nuclear materials, upcoming legislation, and federal initiatives. [View conference website] National Hospital Emergency Preparedness Conference (March 3-4; Washington, DC) The ER One Institute’s 5th annual conference, “Hospitals on the Frontline: Emergency Preparedness—Today’s Questions and Tomorrow’s Answers,” will provide information on the new Joint Commission standards, the new NIOSH requirements, how the federal funding stream works, the role of the corporate office in the midst of a crisis, and how to handle staff behavioral health support. CME, ANCC Contact hours and ACEH credits are offered. For more information, call Lisa Rizzolo at (202) 877-7453. [View conference website]

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]