National News

Air Force photo

U.S. Seeks Death for Six Accused Terrorists; Defense Lawyers Face Restrictions (New York Times; Washington Post) “Military prosecutors will seek the death penalty” for “six Guantánamo detainees who are accused of central roles in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,” reports the New York Times. But the defendants “will be shown all the evidence against them and will be afforded the same rights as American soldiers accused of crimes, the Pentagon said … ‘The accused are, and will remain, innocent unless proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,’ [Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas] General Hartmann [legal adviser to the Defense Department Office of Military Commissions] said,” although “several of the defendants” have been waterboarded. Furthermore, the suspects’ lawyers “are not allowed to meet their clients in private, without video surveillance,” reports the Washington Post. “All their mail and notes must be turned over to the military. Classified information cannot be shared with their clients. They are not entitled to everything the government knows about their clients.” And they are concerned “that the government has violated a federal court order by losing or erasing several years’ worth of digital video recordings that could shed light on the legality of detainee treatment,” according to a second Post story. [View Times article] [View 1st Post article] [View 2nd Post article]

Library of Congress collection

Justice Scalia Defends ‘So-Called Torture’; Justice Dept. Says Waterboarding Is Illegal (Google News) “Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said [Tuesday] that aggressive interrogation could be appropriate to learn where a bomb was hidden shortly before it was set to explode or to discover the plans or whereabouts of a terrorist group,” reports the Associated Press. Scalia, in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., “said practices prohibited by the Constitution in the context of the criminal justice system—including indefinite detention—are readily allowed in other situations, such as when a witness refuses to answer a question in court.” But Steven Bradbury, acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, “says laws and other limits enacted since three terrorism suspects were waterboarded have eliminated the technique from what is now legally allowed.” [View Scalia article] [View Justice Dept. article]

GAO Cites Risk to University Reactors (New York Times) “The risk of a terrorist attack on a nuclear research reactor on a college campus, and the potential consequences, have been underestimated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to” the Government Accountability Office, reports the New York Times. The GAO “complained that the commission had overruled expert contractors who thought differently and misrepresented what the contractors said. Security requirements at the research reactors [have] changed very little since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to the auditors, even though many of the reactors still run on enriched uranium, which terrorists could convert into fuel for an atomic bomb. In contrast, the rules for civilian power plants have become much stricter.” [View article]

Film Recreates Terrorism Tribunal (Miami Herald) “Working from transcripts of the U.S. military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay, [Sig] Libowitz crafted a 30-minute screenplay”—The Response—that “imagines one such tribunal, then follows three military judges into the deliberation room, where they try to answer the key question about Guantánamo: How do you balance civil liberties and national security?” reports the Miami Herald. The film is intended to be an “educational tool to be shown at … law schools, colleges and high schools. But [there are plans] to shop it around to film festivals and seek television distribution.” [View article]

DHS and FBI Warn U.S. Police of Possible Female Suicide Bombers (CNN) “Terrorists increasingly favor using women as suicide bombers to thwart security and draw attention to their causes, a new FBI–Department of Homeland Security assessment concludes,” reports CNN. Though lacking “specific, credible intelligence indicating that terrorist organizations intend to utilize female suicide bombers against targets in the homeland,” the agencies pointed “out that women have been reported as attackers in the Russian breakaway republic of Chechnya and in India, Iraq, Pakistan, the Palestinian territories, Sri Lanka and Turkey.” The warning “was distributed Monday to law enforcement officials throughout the United States.” [View article]

U.S. Will Skip Background Check for Thousands of Immigrants (Washington Post) “Facing a rapidly growing backlog of immigration cases, the Bush administration will grant permanent residency to tens of thousands of legal U.S. immigrants without first completing required background checks against the FBI’s investigative files,” reports the Washington Post. “The change affects a large but unknown number of about 47,000 permanent residency, or green-card, applicants whose cases are otherwise complete but whose FBI checks have been pending for more than six months.” Under new rules, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “will approve otherwise completed cases when the FBI has not performed its checks within 180 days.” [View article]

Lawsuit Seeks Disclosure of Rules for Searching U.S. Travelers’ Electronics (Yahoo! Tech) “In the last few months, travelers have found their cell phones and laptops seized by officials, at least temporarily,” writes “Working Guy” columnist Christopher Null. “In at least one case, an engineer was asked to turn on the PC, enter his password, and allow agents to copy a record of all the web sites he had visited on the machine. The laptop was then taken away from him altogether. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Asian Law Caucus filed a lawsuit last week to demand that the government disclose border search policies regarding electronic devices. At least two dozen incidents have now been logged, 15 of which involved officers searching records of cell phone calls, files on laptops, and even the contents of MP3 players.… Some travelers never receive their equipment back at all.” [View article] [View EFF press release]

International News

CIA Veteran Cites bin Laden’s Goals (Newsweek) Osama bin Laden “and his followers hate us because of specific aspects of U.S. foreign policy,” Michael Scheuer, a 20-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, told Newsweek. Scheuer cited “six elements: our unqualified support for Israel; our presence on the Arabian peninsula, which is land they deem holy; our military presence in other Islamic countries; our support of foreign states that oppress Muslims, especially Russia, China and India; our long-term policy of keeping oil prices artificially low to the benefit of Western consumers but the detriment of the Arab people; and our support for Arab tyrannies who will do that.” (See the Quote of the Week.) [View article]

Japan Studies Terrorist Threat (International Analyst Network) “Japanese government and counter-terrorism officials met behind closed doors this week with Dr. Darko Trifunovic, international expert on Islamic terrorism,” reports the International Analyst Network. He compared the threat in Japan to al-Qaeda’s jihad in Bosnia, noted that Osama bin Laden had declared Japan a target, and said that all these elements apply to Japan:

1. Presence of mujahedin
2. Presence of so-called “humanitarian organizations”
3. Presence of state sponsors of terrorism
4. Presence of terrorist organizations
5. Manipulation of religion to terrorist purposes

Taliban Finds Profit in Kidnapping (MSNBC) “Kidnapping for ransom has become a big propaganda business for the Taliban and a seemingly sure road to easy money,” according to the NBC News World Blog. “The money raised from ransoms paid goes toward purchasing weapons and funding the insurgency. Shortly after 23 South Koreans were kidnapped by Taliban militants as they traveled by bus from Kabul to Kandahar on July 19, the South Korean government entered into direct talks with the Taliban.… Germany, France and Italy have all reportedly paid huge sums to the Taliban to secure the release of prisoners.” [View article]

Iraq Passes Three Crucial Laws (New York Times) “Iraq’s parliamentary leaders on Wednesday pushed through three far-reaching measures … the 2008 budget; a law outlining the scope of provincial powers, a crucial aspect of Iraq’s self-definition as a federal state; and an amnesty that would apply to thousands of the detainees held in Iraqi jails,” reports the New York Times. The laws “have the potential to spur reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites and set the country on the road to a more representative government, starting with new provincial elections.” [View article]

Army Buried Study Faulting Iraq Planning (New York Times) The U.S. Army “sought to keep [a] report under lock and key” that contained a “wide-ranging critique of the White House, the Defense Department and other government agencies,” reports the New York Times. The 2005 RAND study “Rebuilding Iraq” detailed “the planning for postwar Iraq” and “identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war.” It was not published because it “ventured too far from issues that directly involve the Army.” [View article]

Captured Documents Show Weakness of al-Qaeda in Iraq (Christian Science Monitor) The U.S. military on Sunday released four pages of a “39-page, typewritten Arabic report by an Al Qaeda chief … to show that Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) is struggling to overcome major setbacks in [Iraq’s] Anbar Province,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. The document “provides further evidence that many of the current members of the mostly Sunni US-backed anti-Al Qaeda militias, known as Sahwa and Concerned Local Citizens (CLCs), were in fact Al Qaeda foot soldiers previously.” [View article]

Muslim Financial Backing of al-Qaeda Wanes (Washington Post) “The violent attacks by al-Qaeda and by the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq have led people and religious groups in the Muslim world to reduce their financial support for Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network and to question its leadership,” reports the Washington Post. [View article]

List Project Helps Iraqis Find Refuge in U.S. (Christian Science Monitor) With pro bono legal help and funding from the Tides Foundation, Kirk Johnson works to help threatened Iraqis get admitted to the United States, reports the Monitor. “Ties to the US or its allies can still be a death sentence in Iraq.… Johnson, his co-workers, and the lawyers help the people on the list assemble their documents. Then they shepherd them through the process that, for fortunate ones, takes a year.” [View article]

Germany Says al-Qaeda Is Preparing Attacks (Melbourne, Australia, Herald Sun) “German authorities have learnt that al-Qaeda is preparing attacks in Germany,” reports Agence France-Presse, citing Die Welt (a Berlin newspaper). Already, “in September 2007, two German converts to Islam and a Turkish man”—believed to be members of “the Islamic Jihad Union, a group with links to al-Qaeda”—“were arrested in the western Sauerland region on suspicion of planning to blow up US installations in Germany, including the southwestern US military airbase at Ramstein. The men had stockpiled some 700kg of chemicals to use in attacks to coincide with the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.” [View article]

Archbishop Stirs Controversy Over Sharia’s Role in Britain (Christian Science Monitor) “British deliberations on how better to assimilate the country’s Muslim minority have been unsettled by the head of the Church of England [the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams], who said the application of sharia, or Islamic law, in Britain was becoming unavoidable,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “Williams’s remarks have provoked a national outcry and elicited a cool response from the government, which, under Gordon Brown has been trying to reverse the tendency toward Muslim segregation. But among British Muslims, the reaction has been far more mixed. Some, particularly women, say they don’t want any kind of sharia justice in Britain. Others say an informal system of Islamic legal arbitration already functions happily alongside British common law (as do traditional Jewish tribunals).” [View article]

Muslim Students in Britain Win Appeal Over ‘Extremist Literature’ (BBC) “The convictions of five young Muslim men jailed over extremist literature have been quashed by the Appeal Court,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… A jury convicted them in 2007 after hearing [that] the men, of Bradford University and Ilford, London, became obsessed with jihadi websites and literature.” [View article]

French President Wants to End Immigrants’ Isolation (Washington Post) “French President Nicolas Sarkozy on [Feb. 8] unveiled an ambitious plan to revitalize the country’s riot-scarred suburban slums with new housing, education and jobs programs and tougher police enforcement, saying France had to eradicate discrimination and provide better security for all of its citizens.…” reports the Washington Post. “‘We will no longer have young people who are foreigners in their own country,’ he declared.” [View article]

Hezbollah Smuggles Rockets Into Lebanon (Lebanon Daily Star) “Hizbullah has smuggled hundreds, if not thousands, of rockets and anti-tank missiles into South Lebanon without being detected by UN observers,” reports the Daily Star. During “the month-long war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, … Hizbullah hit Israel with nearly 4,000 rockets.” [View article]

Bomb Kills a Hezbollah Leader (BBC) The Lebanese terrorist group “Hezbollah says one of its top leaders, Imad Mughniyeh, has died in a bombing in Damascus, and has blamed Israel for assassinating him,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “Mughniyeh is widely believed to be behind a wave of Western hostage-taking in Lebanon during the 1980s.” [View article]

Dakar Rally Moves to South America (International Herald Tribune) “Argentina and Chile will host the 2009 edition of the Dakar Rally, which was canceled this year because of fears of terrorism in Africa,” reports the Associated Press. (See the Jan. 11 newsletter.) [View article]

NATO Plans Test of Intelligence Sharing The North Atlantic Treaty Organization plans to hold a major field test, Trial Imperial Hammer 08, in Italy in September to demonstrate its ability to share time-critical intelligence to better protect NATO forces and populations from terrorist attacks through better identification and tracking of enemy combatants. [View press release]

United Nations News

UN and Vodafone Team Up to Improve Emergency Communications The United Nations World Food Programme, in a global partnership with the Vodafone Group Foundation and the UN Foundation, aims to increase the effectiveness of information and communications technology response to major emergencies around the world. With a $4.3 million commitment from the Vodafone Group Foundation–United Nations Foundation Technology Partnership and a further $1.8 million contribution from the World Food Programme, the partnership will develop a training program that will be open to the global community of humanitarian relief organizations. [View press release]

State and Local News

New York Police Find That Chlorine Is Easy to Buy (New York Times) New York “undercover police investigators set up a fake company, bought chlorine online without providing identification and then watched as a truck delivered the chemical to a Brooklyn warehouse,” reports the Associated Press. They demonstrated “how easily a terrorist could acquire the ingredients for a deadly chemical strike against the city … ‘few if any barriers stand in [the] way’ [of acquiring] large quantities of chlorine without being detected by law enforcement or intelligence agencies.” [View article]

Animal Rights Protestors Attack Researchers (San Francisco Chronicle) “This month opponents of scientific research set off an incendiary device at the home of Edythe London to protest her medical research at” the University of California–Los Angeles, writes Chronicle columnist Debra J. Saunders. “In October, the research opponents flooded London’s home. In the preceding two years, activists left bombs, which failed to ignite, outside of the home and under the car of UCLA researchers. Since August, activists have harassed [University of California] Berkeley professors at their homes late at night and even leafleted the soccer game of a researcher’s child.” The extremists “are animal-rights activists who oppose medical research with laboratory animals. Of course, these activists have a right to their opinion. But they do not have a right to terrorize researchers—and their children—because they don’t like the way these scientists are working to cure disease. ‘I think it’s important to call this terrorism,’ said Michael Conn, co-author of [the] book, ‘The Animal Research War,’ and associate director of the Oregon National Primate Research Center. ‘This is not an effort to change laws or persuade people. It’s an effort to frighten and intimidate.’” [View commentary]

Oregon Makes Disaster Provisions for Pets (Portland Oregonian) “Public agencies across Oregon are adding dogs, cats, cattle, horses, sheep, chickens—possibly even snakes and rats—to emergency-management efforts,” reports the Oregonian. “Some plans call for animal refugee camps set up next to Red Cross shelters. The changes will increase costs and the demands on emergency workers, but proponents say rescuing animals is the responsible and ethical thing to do—for people as well as animals.” [View article]

DHS News

GAO Faults Federal Protective Service (Washington Post) “The police force in charge of protecting most federal buildings is understaffed, demoralized and poorly equipped, exposing facilities in the [Washington] D.C. area and elsewhere ‘to a greater risk of crime or terrorist attack,’” according to the Government Accountability Office, reports the Washington Post. The GAO report “blames many of the problems on a 20 percent decline in the workforce of the Federal Protective Service since 2004.” (See the Statistics of the Week.) “The cutbacks have occurred because of budget problems that arose after the agency was absorbed into the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.” [View article] [View GAO summary]

Other Federal News

GAO Cites History of Security Lapses at Los Alamos Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is responsible for designing nuclear weapons, “has experienced a series of high-profile security incidents that have drawn attention to the laboratory’s inability to account for and control classified information and maintain a safe work environment,” reports the Government Accountability Office. The lab “experienced 57 reported security incidents involving the compromise or potential compromise of classified information from October 1, 2002, through June 30, 2007”; 65% “of these reported incidents posed the most serious threat to U.S. national security interests. Of the remaining 20 incidents, 9 involved the confirmed or suspected unauthorized disclosure of secret information, which posed a significant threat to U.S. national security interests. The remaining 11 reported security incidents involved the confirmed or suspected unauthorized disclosure of confidential information.” (See the March 2, June 29, Sep. 14, and Dec. 21, 2007, newsletters.) [View summary]

Govt. Seeks Comment on Biometrics Registry The National Science and Technology Council on February 8 recommended standards to enable government agencies to easily share biometric data and ensure that federal agencies such as the Departments of State, Justice, Defense, and Homeland Security collect and exchange different types of biometric data in specific standardized formats. The standards registry would address the numerous, often contradictory, standards available and specify which standards U.S. government agencies should use. The council’s Subcommittee on Biometrics and Identity Management is requesting public comments on the draft by March 10. [View press release] [View standards]

Dual-Benefit Solutions

San Diego TV and Radio Station Became Center for Wildfire Response (Global Guerillas) KPBS, a small public TV and radio station in San Diego, “used creativity and some Web technologies (Google maps and Twitter) to become the” center of community response to last year’s wildfires, writes Global Guerilla John Robb. He cites a two-part series by blogger Robert Paterson describing KBPS’s “use of technology” and “changes in the station’s culture that allowed [it] to respond effectively.” [View article] [View Paterson blog]

Dual-benefit news archive

Education The Homeland Security Institute lists these education programs as a service to readers who may be interested; it does not endorse them or their courses. New education listings are posted for four weeks. Situational Awareness and Crisis Communication Workshop (March 6-7; Washington, DC) This workshop teaches what to consider during times of crisis and provides guidance for a seamless approach to an integrated, coordinated response in a disaster or other large-scale emergency. It focuses on information required to achieve and sustain risk-based target levels of capability and create an accurate picture of what is occurring and how to best respond, including an effective approach to understanding the emergency, communicating with the appropriate parties, responding effectively, and knowing what to do to avert the next situation. [View conference website] Hospital Security Preparedness Course (March 31–April 3; June 2-5; Washington, DC) The ER One Institute at Washington Hospital Center is holding a course for hospital protective services and law enforcement. The goal is to achieve competency in handling all hazards to hospital security, from routine situations to mass-casualty incidents and terrorist attacks against the facility. Students will experience comprehensive hands-on training, live drills, and classroom instruction from faculty with extensive security and counterterrorism experience. Contact Lisa Rizzolo at (202) 364-5180, ext 115. [View conference website] Homeland Security Intelligence Workshop (March 27-28; Arlington, VA) This workshop explores the emerging requirements for conducting homeland security intelligence activities, focusing on practical implementation. [View course website] Hospital Disaster Life Support Course (March 12-13; May 14-15; Washington, DC) The ER One Institute at the Washington Hospital Center Hospital Disaster Life Support Course teaches hospital disaster management response principles for physicians, critical care and emergency nurses, physician extenders, paramedics, hospital administrators, protective services, and emergency preparedness staff. The course combines classroom discussion of all-hazards response issues with hands-on exercise simulation for conventional, chemical, and biological mass-casualty incidents. For those who have already taken the course, ER One has a Hospital Disaster Life Support II update course. Contact Rick Tappan at (202) 877-4468. [View conference website] Awareness of Command and Control Decision Making at Multiple Alarm Incidents Self Study (Online; continuing) This is the precourse assignment for the resident course Awareness of Command and Control Decision Making at Multiple Alarm Incidents; however, anyone interested can enroll in this course offered by the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Academy. [View course website]

New Upcoming Events (After four weeks, events are moved to the Upcoming Events page) Public Health Preparedness Summit (February 19-22; Atlanta) This third annual conference for public health and emergency preparedness professionals offers workshops, interactive sessions, and roundtable discussions. [View conference website] CBRNE for Defense (February 25-27; Arlington, VA) This course, presented by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement, covers enhancing threat reduction and response capabilities against chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-explosive weapons. A Defense Tech Focus Day will precede the conference. [View conference website] Winter 2008 Biometrics Summit (February 25-28; Miami) This event, presented by the Advanced Learning Institute, will cover key biometric objectives and proven methods, processes, and approaches in industry, government, telecommunications, border control, law enforcement, healthcare, airports and seaports, and motor vehicle departments. Representatives of the Port of Seattle, the Transportation Security Administration, William Beaumont Hospital, the U.S. General Services Administration, the Illinois Office of the Secretary of State, IBG, and Lockheed Martin Transportation & Security Solutions will be there. [View conference website] National Disaster Medical System Training Summit (March 15-19; Nashville, TN) This conference promotes interaction among federal, state, local, and tribal governments, the private sector, nonprofit organizations, and academia to enhance the knowledge, skills, and abilities of those involved in the management or delivery of public health and medical care during disasters. Expert faculty will discuss clinical care, public health, and disaster response. [View conference website] (March 5-6; San Antonio) The conference will bring together senior leaders from government and world-renowned experts representing a wide range of disciplines to provide perspectives and generate discussion about issues affecting the information security of organizations and businesses and help participants develop approaches to deal with this accelerating, alarming, and costly threat. [View conference website] National Emergency Management Association Midyear Conference (March 9-13; Washington, DC) The conference will cover the Emergency Management Accreditation Program, Emergency Management Assistance Compacts, climate change and emergency management, and more. [View conference website] (March 16-18; Nashville, TN) Held in conjunction with the 2008 National Disaster Medical System Training Summit, the Disaster Response & Recovery Exposition gives local, state, and federal public health and emergency preparedness practitioners and policy makers an opportunity to discover the latest equipment, technologies, and services. [View conference website] 2nd Annual Homeland Defense and Security Education Summit (March 18-19; Adelphi, MD) This year’s theme is “Innovation in Education and Training”; the summit will focus on innovation in program development, technology, research, and academics. It will be an opportunity for educators and trainers to exchange and compare best practices, improve leadership and workforce development, and network with colleagues from more than 150 learning institutions nationwide. The summit is hosted by the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security, the North American Aerospace Defense Command–U.S. Northern Command Homeland Security and Defense Education Consortium, the DHS Office of the Chief Learning Officer, and the University of Maryland University College. [View conference website] Terrorism: Training, Threats, Tactics and Technology (April 1-3; Albuquerque, NM) At this conference, sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories’ Security Systems and Technology Center and by the Terrorism Research Center, participants will explore some of the challenges and gain a comprehensive understanding of issues related to terrorism. [View conference website] Disaster Risk Management in an Age of Climate Change (April 3; Washington, DC) This public workshop, organized by the National Research Council–National Academies’ Disasters Roundtable, will feature presentations by experts from the hazards, policy, and practitioner communities on key topics related to disaster risk management in the context of climate change, along with audience discussion. [View conference website]