National News

U.S. Weathers ‘Cyber Storm’ in Exercise (Google News) “Dozens of detailed, mock disasters [confronted] officials rapid-fire in the U.S. government’s biggest-ever ‘Cyber Storm’ war game, according to hundreds of pages of heavily censored files obtained by The Associated Press. The Homeland Security Department ran the exercise [last year] to test the nation’s hacker defenses, with help from the State Department, Pentagon, Justice Department, CIA, National Security Agency and others.… The $3 million, invitation-only war game simulated what the U.S. described as plausible attacks over five days in February 2006 against the technology industry, transportation lines and energy utilities by anti-globalization hackers.… Companies and governments worked successfully in some cases. But key players didn’t understand the role of the premier U.S. organization responsible for fending off major cyber attacks, called the National Cyber Response Coordination Group, and it didn’t have enough technical experts.” Cyber Storm 2 is scheduled for March. [View article]

Natl. Guard not Ready for a Major Attack (Houston Chronicle) “The U.S. military isn’t ready for a catastrophic attack on the country, and National Guard forces don’t have the equipment or training they need for the job, according to” the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, reports the Associated Press. “… The commission’s 400-page report concludes that the nation ‘does not have sufficient trained, ready forces available’ to respond to a chemical, biological or nuclear weapons incident, ‘an appalling gap that places the nation and its citizens at greater risk.’” [View article] [View report]

U.S. Issues Standards for Suspicious-Activity Reporting (Federal Computer Week) The “Director of National Intelligence has released for the first time a set of standards for how state, local and federal law enforcement officials should share information on suspicious activity with potential links to terrorism,” reports Federal Computer Week. “The Common Terrorism Information Sharing Standards place state and local intelligence fusion centers at the center of how information on perceived terrorist threats or tips flows among all departments and agencies that use terrorism or homeland security information.… The standards for suspicious activity reporting … are based on National Information Exchange Model standards and are effective immediately.” [View article]

Flight Instructor Gets $5 Million for Catching Moussaoui (CNN) “A Minnesota flight instructor”—Clarence “Clancy” Prevost—“who notified his bosses of student Zacarias Moussaoui’s suspicious behavior received a $5 million reward [on Jan. 24] from the State Department, two government officials told CNN.… Moussaoui is the only person charged and convicted in connection with the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.” [View article]

Bush Order Expands Network Monitoring (Washington Post) “President Bush signed a directive [last] month that expands the intelligence community’s role in monitoring Internet traffic to protect against a rising number of attacks on federal agencies’ computer systems,” reports the Washington Post. The classified directive “authorizes the intelligence agencies, in particular the National Security Agency, to monitor the computer networks of all federal agencies—including ones they have not previously monitored. Until now, the government’s efforts to protect itself from cyber-attacks—which run the gamut from hackers to organized crime to foreign governments trying to steal sensitive data—have been piecemeal.” Now a task force headed by the Director of National Intelligence “will coordinate efforts to identify the source of cyber-attacks against government computer systems.… the Department of Homeland Security will work to protect the systems and the Pentagon will devise strategies for counterattacks against the intruders.” [View article]

Teen Hijacker Targets Louisiana Arena (Los Angeles Independent) Nashville, TN, Airport Police on January 22, apprehended a juvenile passenger for a probation violation. He was in possession of handcuffs, yarn, and duct tape (none of the items were prohibited). He planned to hijack a plane and fly it into the Cajundome in Lafayette, LA, the FBI told the Independent. But “the teen’s plan had nothing to do with the Hannah Montana concert” scheduled in the Cajundome for that night. [View article] [View TSA press release]

International News

U.S. Wants Broad Powers in Iraq (International Herald Tribune) “With its international mandate in Iraq set to expire, the Bush administration will insist that the government in Baghdad give the United States broad authority to conduct combat operations and hold battlefield detainees, as well as guarantee American troops and civilian contractors immunity from Iraqi law,” reports the International Herald Tribune. [View article]

Urgent Manhunt Across Europe for Terror Plotters (ABC News) A “manhunt that began in Spain for suspected terror cell members has now extended to France and other European Union countries,” reports ABC News. Spain says “that there are three cell members they are urgently searching for and that the missing members could be suicidal terrorists with a mission to attack somewhere outside of Spain.” [View article]

British Police Smash People-Smuggling Network (London Guardian) Scotland Yard claims “to have disrupted one of the biggest gangs smuggling illegal immigrants into Britain,” reports the Guardian. “Officers raided” 13 addresses after tracking “the gang for over a year as they smuggled into the UK people whose journey began in the Chinese province of Fujian.” [View article]

Madrid, Spain, Train Bombs Suspect Held (CNN) “Moroccan police have arrested a prime suspect in the Madrid train bombings of 2004 but he is unlikely to be extradited to Spain,” reports CNN. The suspect, Abdelilah Hriz, a native Moroccan, “is likely to be tried in Morocco, because there is no extradition agreement between the two countries.” [View article]

Seven Bangladesh Bombers Get Life Sentence (Australian) “A Bangladeshi court [has] jailed seven Islamic militants for life for carrying out blasts as part of nationwide bomb attacks that shock the country in 2005,” reports the Australian. “Five of the seven militants from the banned Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were present when the verdict was handed down … The other two are on the run and were tried in absentia. ‘They were found guilty of carrying out five bomb blasts at Chapainawabganj town on August 17, 2005 …’ police inspector Mahbub Siddiqui said. Authorities said the JMB was behind 400 almost simultaneous blasts in all but one of the country’s 64 districts.” [View article]

Russia Says Terrorist Attack Is Imminent (RIA Novosti) “A counter-terrorist operation has been launched in parts of [Russia’s] Republic of Ingushetia due to the threat of an imminent large-scale terrorist attack, Russia’s Federal Security Service” said on January 25, reports the Russian News and Information Agency Novosti. The Security Service “said it had received information indicating that ‘terrorists had been preparing a series of attacks on administrative buildings, police and citizens in public places on the territory of Ingushetia.’” [View article]

Gadhafi Son Linked to Iraq Attack (Google News) “A devastating explosion in northern Iraq was spearheaded by foreign fighters under the sponsorship of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of the Libyan leader,” reports the Associated Press. “… the Anbar Awakening Council had alerted the U.S. military to the possible arrival in the northern city of Mosul of [Gadhafi’s] Seifaddin Regiment, made up of about 150 foreign and Iraqi fighters, as long as three months ago.… At least 34 people were killed and 224 wounded when the blast tore through surrounding houses in the Zanjili neighborhood, a poverty-ridden district on the west bank of the Tigris River.” [View article]

Terrorists Plotted to Kidnap and Behead British Soldier (London Guardian) “Parviz Khan, 37, an unemployed teaching assistant from Birmingham,” England, headed a plot “to lure a British Muslim soldier to his death and behead him,” reports the Guardian. Khan, “who wanted to post a film of the atrocity on the internet to ‘cause panic and fear within the armed forces and the wider public’” and “has already pleaded guilty … was ‘enraged by the idea that Muslim soldiers were in the British army.’” [View article]

2006 Airliner Plot Mastermind Is Missing (London Guardian) Rashid Rauf, a British citizen and alleged mastermind of the 2006 plot “to bring down 10 airliners in mid-Atlantic,” reportedly has “escaped from Pakistani custody,” reports the Guardian. But “Rauf may still be in custody” at a secret detention center, and “the Pakistanis are simply not interested in handing him over to the British,” said his lawyer. [View article]

Scottish Nationalists Jailed for Poison Plot (London Guardian) “Two men”—Wayne Cook and Steven Robinson—“who sent poisoned vodka bottles through the [mail] as part of a campaign for Scottish independence were each jailed for six years” on January 24, reports the Guardian. They “threatened to kill English people ‘at random and with no discrimination or compunction’ and to poison England’s water supply.” [View article]

Fear of Attack on Chemical Plant Drives Indians Out of Gajraula (Madras, India, Hindu) “A large number of people have been leaving Gajraula in Uttar Pradesh for ‘safer’ places after … the report of a possible terrorist strike on the Jubilant Organosys [chemical factory] appeared in a newspaper” and “triggered panic in the town,” reports the Press Trust of India. [View article]

Radio Qur’an Aids in Algeria’s Fight Against Terrorism (U.S. European Command Magharebia) “Algerian authorities have enlisted the aid of a radio station to broadcast religious messages condemning” violent practices, reports Magharebia. “Islamic scholars from Algeria and Gulf countries have [spoken] on Radio Qur’an to undermine the doctrinal bases used by al-Qaeda to justify its suicide operations in North Africa.” [View article]

South Africa’s Dept. of Home Affairs: ‘A Red-Tape Nightmare’ (Johannesburg, South Africa, Mail and Guardian) “South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs” is a “bureaucratic nightmare of a government department that has long been a byword for incompetence and corruption,” reports the Mail and Guardian. “In a country where almost nothing can be processed without an identity book, slips of the pen can prevent citizens from receiving benefit payments, applying for jobs, opening bank accounts, travelling abroad and starting up businesses.” [View article]

Al-Qaeda Threatens Britain Again (London Times) “Al-Qaeda has threatened a wave of suicide bombings in Britain unless all troops are withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan and Islamist prisoners are freed from Belmarsh jail by the end of March,” reports the London Times. “The statement” on “a recognised jihadi website” also threatened to assassinate Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. “The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi internet activity, said it was not possible to verify the authenticity of the statement.” Scotland Yard “refused to say whether” the “threat had any credibility.” [View article]

Hamas and Egypt Reduce Gaza Tension (Christian Science Monitor) “The militant Palestinian group Hamas, which controls the territory, [on Sunday] encouraged Gazans to go home after hundreds of thousands had streamed across the Egyptian border in the past five days,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “At the same time, Egypt tightened security in the border town of Rafah and began repairing the barriers, breached by Hamas, that separate it from the impoverished coastal strip of 1.5 million Palestinians.” (See last week’s newsletter.) [View article]

United Nations News

UN Aids Flood Victims in Africa and South America The number of people displaced by flooding in southern Africa has nearly doubled from 70,000 to more than 120,000, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. UN agencies and their partners are assisting flood victims in Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Emergency supplies, including shelter and non-food items, had already been positioned in flood-prone areas. The UN World Food Programme is delivering food via helicopter to a resettlement center in Mozambique that houses 13,000 people and has provided three boats to assist in rescue and evacuation operations. The agency is also providing food to 7,000 families in Bolivia, where heavy rains since November have caused severe flooding. [View press release]

Global Campaign to Protect Hospitals From Disasters With hundreds of hospitals and heath facilities destroyed or damaged every year by disasters, the United Nations has launched a global campaign to ensure that millions of people are not left without the care they need in an emergency. To protect health facilities from such hazards, the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery last week launched the “Hospitals Safe From Disasters” campaign. [View press release]

DHS News

ICEPIC Immigration Database Draws on Nine Federal Sources (USA Today) “A massive new database program that culls information from more than nine federal sources will help law enforcement agents link possible terrorists or other suspected criminals with associates whose records are in the system,” reports USA Today. The “ICE Pattern Analysis and Information Collection System [is] dubbed ‘ICEPIC.’ It will collect information from databases that track foreign students, visitors and immigrants as well as criminals and suspected terrorists. Among the databases is the government’s terrorist watch list. More than 15,000 people have appealed to have their names taken off that list, saying it contains incomplete or inaccurate information.” [View article]

DHS Increases Real ID Funding, Extends Grant Deadline The Homeland Security Department is making an additional $48.5 million available to assist states with Real ID implementation. The new grant application deadline is March 7. [View press release]

Success Examining High-Risk Cargo Overseas Is Hard to Measure Customs and Border Protection’s Container Security Initiative “aims to identify and examine high-risk U.S.-bound cargo at foreign seaports,” notes the Government Accountability Office. But “weaknesses in CBP’s data collection and performance measures potentially limit the information available on overall CSI effectiveness.” [View summary] [View Focus on CSI]

National Flood Insurance Program Lacks Data on Causes of Damage “The claims data collected by” the National Flood Insurance Program do not always “include information on whether wind contributed to total damages or the extent of wind damage as determined by the” insurer, according to the Government Accountability Office. “The lack of this data also limits the usefulness of FEMA’s quality assurance reinspection program to reevaluate the accuracy of payments,” and FEMA officials do “not have the authority to collect wind damage claims data from insurers.” Without this information, the National Flood Insurance Program “cannot always determine … the accuracy of the claims paid for losses caused by flooding.” [View summary]

TSA Starts Airport-Security Blog (CNN) “The federal government wants to hear—or at least read—your gripes at the ‘Evolution of Security’ blog the Transportation Security Administration introduced Wednesday,” reports the Associated Press. But “the blog, at http://www.tsa.gov/blog, is getting a rather ‘blah’ response from aviation analysts and passengers advocates who say it will do little to improve process or perception.… In the blog’s initial post, TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said the goal is to provide a forum for the agency to explain why travelers must go through certain steps at checkpoints since interaction at airports is often harried and halted, resulting in ‘feedback and venting … circulating among passengers with no real opportunity for us to learn from you or vice versa.’” [View article]

Radicalization: An Overview and Annotated Bibliography of Open-Source Literature This December 2006 Homeland Security Institute report for the Homeland Security Department has been approved for public release and is now available on the institute’s website. [View report]

Secure Border Initiative January Newsletter Customs and Border Protection’s latest SBInet newsletter has an article about the Boeing supply contract and SBInet officials touring facilities. [View newsletter]

Private-Sector News

Florida Company Removes Jihadi Website (Tampa [Florida] Tribune) “A Tampa Web-hosting company [Noc4Hosts] has taken down a Web site used by al-Qaida for communicating in secret and hiding files from investigators,” reports the Tampa Tribune. “… The Web site [included] a graphic interface program that is of special interest to those who monitor jihadi activity. Known as ‘Mujahideen Secrets 2,’ it allows for encryption of messages and files.” [View article]

Dual-Benefit Solutions

Japan Will Use Cell Phone Technology for Earthquake Response (Tokyo Asahi Shimbun) “The Tokyo metropolitan government said it will spend 1 billion yen to create Japan’s first emergency information integration system using mobile phone technology,” reports Asahi Shimbun. “Under the planned system, to be put into operation by the end of fiscal 2010, firefighters and municipal government officials in charge of disaster countermeasures will carry special mobile phones containing software that can send pictures and damage assessments from stricken areas … The images and information will reach the disaster countermeasures headquarters within seconds and be displayed on a screen 16 meters wide and 3 meters high.” [View article]

Chinese Satellite Will Monitor Disasters (China View) “China will expand the use of its Cbers-2B satellite to gather more information on land, forests and farmland to help itself and more countries to deal with natural disasters,” reports the Xinhua News Agency. “… The high-definition Earth-observing satellite with a designed lifespan of two years, was first designed to gather resources data and send images to China, Brazil and other countries, for use in agricultural production, environmental protection, city planning and land resources.” It was launched September 19 and became fully operational January 24. [View article]

Dual-benefit news archive