International News

U.S. Court Orders Libya to Pay $6 Billion to 1989 Terror Victims (Tasmania, Australia, Mercury) U.S. District Court Judge Henry Kennedy “has ordered Libya and six intelligence officials to pay billions of dollars in damages to relatives of Americans killed in the 1989 suitcase bombing of a French airliner over Niger”—to “the estates of seven US victims, 44 immediate family members and the US firm that owned the DC-10 jet,” reports Agence France-Presse. [View article]

Belgian Court Sentences Five for Terrorism (China View) “A court in Brussels has sentenced five members of an Islamic extremist group to up to ten years in prison,” according to Xinhua News Agency, citing reports by Belgian newspapers. “The court ruled on [Jan. 10] that the men were members of a terrorist organization that recruits candidates for suicide attacks in Iraq. It was responsible for sending a Belgian woman to carry out a suicide bombing in Iraq in 2005.” The ringleader got 10 years in prison. “The other suspects were sentenced in absentia.” [View article]

Iraq Wants U.S. Security Help Until 2018 (New York Times) “The Iraqi defense minister”—Abdul Qadir—“said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018,” reports the New York Times. (See the Dec. 8, 2006, newsletter.) [View article]

Al-Qaeda Recruits White Britons (Scotsman) “Hundreds of British non-Muslims have been recruited by al-Qaeda to wage war against the West …” reports the Scotsman. “As many as 1,500 white Britons are believed to have converted to Islam for the purpose of funding, planning and carrying out surprise terror attacks inside the UK, according to one MI5 source. Lord Carlile, the Government’s independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation, said many of the converts had been targeted by radical Muslims while serving prison terms.” [View article]

FBI Wants Instant Access to British Identity Data (London Guardian) “Senior British police officials are talking to the FBI about an international database to hunt for major criminals and terrorists,” reports the Guardian. “The US-initiated programme, ‘Server in the Sky’, would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the ‘war against terror’—the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand—have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy. Biometric measurements, irises or palm prints as well as fingerprints, and other personal information are likely to be exchanged across the network. One section will feature the world’s most wanted suspects. The database could hold details of millions of criminals and suspects.” [View article]

Defense Dept. photo

Mexico’s Law Against Hiring Illegal Immigrants Is Rarely Enforced (Arizona Republic) Mexico “has federal rules specifically barring companies from hiring illegal immigrants,” reports the Arizona Republic. “But Mexico’s law is rarely enforced, partly because Mexico’s tax-evasion problem makes illegal workers harder to detect and partly because illegal immigration is seen as less of a problem” than “in the United States … Mexico has legalized hundreds of undocumented migrants from Central America under an amnesty program launched in December 2006.… But Mexico’s General Population Law also targets employers who hire illegal immigrants.” [View article]

UN Questions New Zealand About Police Antiterror Raids (New Zealand Herald) “United Nations officials have sent a ‘please explain’ letter to the Government asking for information about aspects of last year’s high-profile police raids in the Bay of Plenty,” reports the New Zealand Herald. “The letter is understood to raise specific issues about the surveillance operation that led to raids in Ruatoki, and to ask about people being removed from their cars to be photographed. The UN officials are believed to be interested in the human rights aspects of the raids and particularly New Zealand’s adherence to various international treaties it has signed.” [View article]

U.S. Labels Kurdistan Workers’ Party Affiliate a Terrorist Group (Reuters AlertNet) “The United States said on [Jan. 10] it had designated the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons”—“a group linked to” the Kurdistan Workers’ Party militants—“a terrorist group, subjecting it to U.S. financial sanctions,” reports Reuters. “The U.S. State Department said” the Falcons were “responsible for multiple terrorist attacks in Turkey.” The European Union and Turkey also “classify the [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] as a terrorist organization.” [View article]

Pakistan Loses Control of Militants (New York Times) “Pakistan’s premier military intelligence agency has lost control of some of the networks of Pakistani militants it has nurtured since the 1980s, and is now suffering the violent blowback of that policy …” reports the New York Times. “As the military has moved against them, the militants have turned on their former handlers … Joining with other extremist groups, they have battled Pakistani security forces and helped militants carry out a record number of suicide attacks last year, including some aimed directly at army and intelligence units as well as prominent political figures, possibly even Benazir Bhutto. The growing strength of the militants, many of whom now express support for Al Qaeda’s global jihad, presents a grave threat to Pakistan’s security, as well as NATO efforts to push back the Taliban in Afghanistan.” [View article]

UAE Will Test for Bird Flu at All Entry Points (Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Khaleej Times) “All the 19 entry points in the [United Arab Emirates] will have a common system/procedure for the testing of the items entering the country to ensure they are free from avian flu,” reports the Khaleej Times. To ensure that it is effective, the action will be coordinated with all Gulf Cooperation Council countries. [View article]

Bird Flu May Be Spread Indirectly, Mistaken for Typhoid (Reuters; Bloomberg) “The H5N1 bird flu virus may sometimes stick to surfaces or get kicked up in fertilizer dust to infect people, according to [the] World Health Organization,” reports Reuters. Furthermore, “bird flu has been mistaken by doctors for pneumonia, typhoid and at least four other diseases in Southeast Asia, causing treatment delays that might have worsened their patients’ chances of survival,” reports Bloomberg, citing a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. [View Reuters article] [View Bloomberg article] [View Focus on Avian Influenza]

Chertoff Worries That Europe Will Be a ‘Platform for Terrorists’ (BBC) “One of the biggest threats to US security may now come from within Europe, US Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff has told the BBC.” (See the April 6, 2007, newsletter.) “He said militant attacks and plots in Europe over recent years had made the US aware of the ‘real risk that Europe will become a platform for terrorists’. Mr Chertoff said it was likely security checks on travellers from Europe would be increased.” [View article]

National News

Ex-Congressman Charged in Terror Conspiracy (Yahoo! News) Mark Deli Siljander—“a former congressman and delegate to the United Nations”—on Wednesday “was indicted on charges of working for an alleged terrorist fundraising ring that sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan,” reports the Associated Press. He was charged “with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about being hired to lobby senators on behalf of an Islamic charity [the Islamic American Relief Agency] that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.” The indictment “accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying—money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.… The charges are part of a long-running case against the charity.” [View article]

U.S. to Speed Deportation of Criminals in Jail (New York Times) “Federal authorities expect to identify and deport more than 200,000 immigrants this year who are convicted criminals serving time in prisons and jails across the country,” reports the New York Times. Speeding up deportation “is part of a campaign by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to help federal and state prisons reduce the costs of housing immigrants.” [View article]

DHS Defers New Chemical Rules for Farmers (FarmWeek) The Homeland Security Department “has reconsidered and deferred immediate application of new reporting rules for farms storing certain amounts of anhydrous ammonia or propane,” reports FarmWeek. “Previously, farmers had until mid-January to comply with new rules if their farms had 60,000 pounds or more of propane and 10,000 pounds or more of anhydrous ammonia stored on the premises. Farmers who had to comply based on the quantity of chemicals” had to at least “submit an online questionnaire with information about their operation to DHS. However, DHS has not exempted farmers, ranchers, and agricultural end-users from the requirement.” [View article]

State and Local News

New Charges Against Fort Dix Five (Philadelphia Inquirer) “A federal grand jury in Camden [NJ]” on Tuesday “returned a new indictment that contains additional charges against the five men accused of plotting an armed jihadist attack on Fort Dix [NJ],” reports the Inquirer. (See the May 11, 2007, newsletter.) “The superseding indictment includes three new counts—two firearms charges and a count of attempted murder of members of the U.S. military … and alleges [that] the men also scouted McGuire Air Force Base [also in New Jersey] for a possible attack. The suspects—Mohamed Shnewer, a U.S. citizen born in Jordan; Serdar Tatar, a legal U.S. resident born in Turkey; and Cherry Hill [NJ] brothers Shain, Eljvir and Dritan Duka, all illegal immigrants from the former Yugoslavia—have pleaded not guilty.… A sixth man, Agron Abdullahu, a refugee from Kosovo who lived in Atlantic County [NJ], was accused of supplying guns to three of the defendants. He pleaded guilty in October.” [View article]

Judge Orders Eagle Pass, TX, to Surrender Land for Border Fence (MSNBC) “U.S. District Judge Alia Moses Ludlum [has] ordered the city of Eagle Pass, on the border about 100 miles southwest of San Antonio, to ‘surrender’ 233 acres of city-owned land” so that “the federal government … can begin to build a border fence,” reports the Associated Press. “… The government had warned the city, which opposes the fence, it would sue under eminent domain laws to secure access to the property, declaring it is ‘taking’ the property for 180 days.… The Justice Department is expected to file 102 lawsuits against landowners for access to property the Border Patrol and Army Corps of Engineers want to survey to decide where to put border fencing or other barriers.” [View article]

Arizona Won’t Prosecute Employers for Hiring Illegal Immigrants Until March (Arizona Republic) “There will be no prosecutions under the employer-sanctions law until after March 1, under an agreement reached in federal court Wednesday, while a federal judge promised to rule on the landmark hiring law by early February,” reports the Arizona Republic. “The agreement buys another month [see the Jan. 4 newsletter] before any employer could be charged with knowingly or intentionally hiring an illegal worker, and buys more time for U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake to weigh the merits of the two-week-old law.” [View article]

Va. Tech Suicide: Did College Ignore New Protocols? (Washington Post) “Despite promises after the April shootings” at Virginia Tech (see the April 20, 2007, newsletter) “that the college would be more responsive to warning signs, despite written protocols requiring that any student who makes ‘any gesture or reference to suicide … must be seen by the psychologist on call,’ no one from Tech’s counseling center contacted Daniel” Kim, a senior who “shot himself … last month”—“after at least one and possibly two students at other colleges had contacted Virginia Tech to say their friend had bought a gun and was talking about killing himself,” writes Post columnist Marc Fisher. [View article]

Los Angeles Security Cameras Neglected (Los Angeles Times) “Three years ago, the Los Angeles Police Department installed surveillance cameras in MacArthur Park, leading to a significant drop in gang activity and drug dealing in an area long considered a hotbed of crime,” reports the Los Angeles Times. But “police officials concede that much of the existing equipment isn’t working and that they don’t have the money to properly maintain it.… The MacArthur Park cameras were purchased for more than $100,000 with money from private businesses as well as from a government grant.” [View article]

Coast Guard photo

DHS News

DHS Issues Final Real ID Regulation The Homeland Security Department on January 11 published a final rule establishing minimum security standards for state-issued drivers’ licenses and identification cards. (See the Quote of the Week.) The rule sets uniform standards and, according to DHS, will reduce state implementation costs by 73%. The first deadline for compliance is December 31, 2009. By then, states must upgrade the security of their license systems to include a check for lawful status of all applicants so as to ensure that illegal aliens cannot obtain Real ID licenses. [View press release]

Other Federal News

GAO Faults Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention The Energy Department established the Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention program in 1994 to engage former Soviet weapons scientists in nonmilitary work and create long-term private-sector jobs for them, notes the Government Accountability Office. But the Energy Department “has overstated accomplishments for the 2 critical measures it uses to assess the IPP program’s progress and performance—the number of scientists receiving DOE support and the number of long-term, private sector jobs created.” Although the department “claims to have engaged over 16,770 scientists in Russia and other countries,” more than half the scientists in projects the GAO analyzed “did not claim to possess any weapons-related experience. Furthermore, officials from 10 Russian and Ukrainian institutes told GAO that the IPP program helps them attract, recruit, and retain younger scientists who might otherwise emigrate to the United States or other western countries and contributes to the continued operation of their facilities. This is contrary to the original intent of the program.” And although the department “asserts that the IPP program helped create 2,790 long-term, private sector jobs for former weapons scientists, the credibility of this number is uncertain.” [View summary]

Private-Sector News

Pilgrim’s Pride ID Fraud Uncovered in Texas (Houston Chronicle) “Three former Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. employees and another man accused of running an identity theft ring to help get jobs for illegal immigrants at two poultry plants have been indicted,” reports the Associated Press. “… Nineteen other former workers at the Mount Pleasant and Pittsburg plants also were indicted. The 24 arrests were part of a nine-month investigation in which agents posed as illegal immigrants seeking work at East Texas plants owned by Pilgrim’s Pride, the nation’s largest chicken producer. Agents believe they infiltrated an alleged ring in which job-seekers would pay hundreds of dollars for fraudulent documents that would get them jobs at Pilgrim’s Pride.” [View article]

Dual-Benefit Solutions

Los Angeles Police Test Multilingual Announcement System (Los Angeles Times) The Phraselator “enables officers to translate and broadcast thousands of prerecorded phrases in a multitude of languages,” reports the Los Angeles Times. There are “224 languages spoken in the immigrant-rich city.… The Phraselator doesn’t attempt voice-to-voice translation. Instead, the LAPD’s bilingual officers—32% of the 9,600-member force has some foreign language proficiency—translate and load standard police commands and questions into the device’s computer memory. The translations can be retrieved and broadcast by a simple English-language text or voice word search.” [View article]

Dual-benefit news archive

New Upcoming Events (After four weeks, events are moved to the Upcoming Events page) 3rd Annual CBRN Conference (January 22-24; Tysons Corner, VA) This conference will focus on interagency cooperation, preparedness, and discussion of how intelligence can be shared nationally and internationally, complemented by an in-depth look at advances in technology for detection and personal protection and a consideration of standardization in training to counter chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons. A preconference workshop will cover “Preparing for and Responding to Bioterrorism and Other Public Health Emergencies.” [View conference website] Information Exchange and Interoperability for Homeland Security Conference (January 23-24; Sierra Vista, AZ) The Association of Old Crows, the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, and Fort Huachuca present speakers from the military, CIA, DHS, fusion centers, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in an interactive setting covering best practices from fusion centers, along with discussions and presentations on capability gaps and a session for industry to present what is on the horizon to mitigate these gaps. [View conference website] Infrastructure Security Partnership breakfast (January 24; Washington, DC) Major General Don T. Riley, Director of Civil Works, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will discuss critical infrastructure resilience. For more information, contact Catherine Tehan at ctehan@asce.org. [View event website] (January 30-31; Atlanta) Officials representing local, state, and federal governments, along with representatives of the health information technology industry, will discuss and identify ways that local governments can use IT to better manage their health services and operations. [View conference website] Second National Emergency Management Summit (February 3-5; Washington, DC) This forum on medical preparedness and response to disasters, epidemics, and terrorism will cover more than 50 topics in emergency management. Preconference sessions are “Preparing for a Pandemic” and “Hospital Surge Capacity Update.” [View conference website] (February 11-13; Arlington, VA) Participants will discuss the necessary core capabilities of biometric systems and scan the best practices, solutions, and methodologies to strengthen their potential. Leading biometric systems experts will highlight the key requirements for successful migration, implementation, interoperability, and next-generation networks deployment strategy. Key industry experts will describe the research and development being undertaken to uncover the future of biometric technology, security, and privacy. [View conference website] CBRNE Defence Capabilities Europe 2008 (February 19-21; Brussels, Belgium) Delegates will hear about international cooperation, technological developments and requirements, training, and policy coordination for countering the use of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-explosive weapons use, covering detection, identification, force protection, and decontamination. [View conference website] Homeland Security Innovation Conference (February 20-22; Charleston, SC) This year’s theme is “Current Challenges and Real Time Solutions for Resiliency.” It will also cover the international security perspective and the Safe Port Act and feature a technology showcase. [View conference website] Infrastructure Security Partnership breakfast (February 21; Washington, DC) Dennis R. Schrader, professional engineer and Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Administrator for National Preparedness, will discuss critical infrastructure resilience. For more information, contact Catherine Tehan at ctehan@asce.org. [View event website] (February 24-27; Baltimore) This meeting will bring together decision makers who are shaping the future biodefense research agenda and those who are carrying out research to defend against the growing threat of bioterrorism, recognizing that emerging infectious diseases serve as a paradigm for handling the public threat of bioterrorism. [View conference website] Mass Transit Security Summit 2008 (February 27-28; Alexandria, VA) This summit will bring together policy makers, transit operators, security personnel, and solutions providers to exchange and disseminate best practices and opportunities to improve the security of the nation’s mass transit security systems. [View conference website] (February 27-28; Washington, DC) This conference, sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, will cover critical issues facing the United States in the fight against terrorism and offer an opportunity to engage in dialogue with key government and industry executives. [View conference website] 6th International Bird Flu Summit (March 27-28; Bali, Indonesia) Top leaders and key decision-makers of major companies representing a broad range of industries will meet with distinguished scientists, public health officials, law enforcers, first responders, and other experts to discuss pandemic prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. Attendees will draw on firsthand best practices to create solid business continuity plans. [View conference website] 2nd Annual Global Border Security Conference & Expo (May 21-22; Austin, TX) The conference will discuss cargo, immigration, drugs, and terrorism. [View conference website]