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National News
Airline Pilot Sues to Get Off TSA Watch List (Google News) Erich Scherfen, a commercial airline pilot, has “filed a lawsuit against the Homeland Security Department and various other federal agencies” to get his name removed from “a list maintained by the Transportation Security Administration,” reports the Associated Press. “… his employer, Colgan Air Inc., suspended him” because his name was a “positive match” to one on the list. Scherfen “believes his name was placed on a watch list because he converted to Islam in 1994—even though he is a Gulf War combat veteran” and native U.S. citizen. “Both he and his wife said they have no criminal records or ties to terrorists.”
[View article]
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Dams Need Better Security, Says Federal Commission (United Press International) “U.S. dams need better security from terrorist attacks, a report released by the National Research Council says,” reports United Press International. The report assessed “479 dams and dikes managed by the Bureau of Reclamation. It praised the agency for providing significant resources and improvements in security since terrorist attacks of 2001, but noted room for improvement in protecting the structures.”
[View article]
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Commission Says U.S. Is More Vulnerable to EMP Attack (Government Executive) “A new report by the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack warns that a nuclear attack aimed at crippling the nation’s technological backbone could be greater today …” reports Government Executive. “‘The electromagnetic pulse generated by a high-altitude nuclear explosion is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences,’ the commission found.… Such an attack could be launched from a freighter off the coast of the United States, using a short- or medium-range missile loaded with a nuclear warhead.”
[View article] [View report (7MB PDF)]
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| CBP photo by Gerald Nino | U.S. Tracks Citizens’ Border Crossings (Washington Post) “The federal government has been using its system of border checkpoints”—the Border Crossing Information system—“to greatly expand a database on travelers entering the country by collecting information on all U.S. citizens crossing by land, compiling data that will be stored for 15 years and may be used in criminal and intelligence investigations,” reports the Washington Post. “… While international air passenger data has long been captured this way, Customs and Border Protection agents only this year began to log the arrivals of all U.S. citizens across land borders, through which about three-quarters of border entries occur.”
[View article]
CIA Releases Flight 800 Story The Central Intelligence Agency has released an article about the 1996 crash of TWA flight 800 and the subsequent investigation. The midair explosion was initially thought to be a possible act of terrorism caused by a bomb or missile.
[View press release] [View article]
International News
Pakistan’s President Musharraf Resigns
(New York Times)
“Facing imminent impeachment charges, President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation on Monday, after months of belated recognition by American officials that he had become a waning asset in the campaign against terrorism,” reports the New York Times. “The decision removes … one of the United States’ most important—and ultimately unreliable—allies. And it now leaves American officials to deal with a new, elected coalition that has so far proved itself to be unwilling or unable to confront an expanding Taliban insurgency determined to topple the government.”
[View article]
Taliban Claim Responsibility for Pakistan Blasts
(CNN; Washington Post)
The Taliban “claimed responsibility for an explosion at a hospital in northwestern Pakistan … on Tuesday, killing 29 and wounding another 35, the Associated Press of Pakistan said,” according to CNN, and claimed responsibility for other attacks Thursday in which “at least 60 people were killed and 100 injured in coordinated suicide bombings on the country’s largest army munitions factory,” reports the Washington Post.
[View CNN article] [View Post article]
Bombings Shatter Calm in Algeria (BBC) “Two devastating suicide bomb attacks in as many days have raised fresh doubts this week about Algeria’s ability to deal with a re-branded Islamist insurgency,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… The attacks shattered the relative calm that held in Algeria during the first six months of this year.… the bombings resemble recent attacks claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.”
[View article]
U.S. Guns Arm Mexican Drug Cartels
(Los Angeles Times;
New York Times)
“High-powered automatic weapons and ammunition are flowing virtually unchecked from border states into Mexico, fueling a war among drug traffickers, the army and police that has left thousands dead,” reports the Los Angeles Times. (See the Statistics of the Week.) “… More than 90% of guns seized at the border or after raids and shootings in Mexico have been traced to the United States.” Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff “said [that] the United States and Mexico were working on penetrating the smuggling organizations, an effort he called vital to dismantling them,” at a conference in Los Angeles last week “of governors from United States and Mexican border states,” reports the New York Times. The governors “pledged more cooperation among state law enforcement agencies to curb gun trafficking.”
[View LA Times article]
[View NY Times article]
‘IRA Semtex’ Used in Northern Ireland Attack; Intelligence Experts Say Group Hasn’t Disbanded
(London Times)
Irish Republican Army Semtex explosive “was used in a terrorist attack on police officers in Northern Ireland [on August 16], marking a dangerous escalation in the capabilities of so-called ‘dissident’ republican groups intent on reigniting the province’s long and bloody conflict,” reports the London Times. “The IRA army council still remains intact and is unlikely formally to disband,” reports the Times in a separate article, citing Assistant Chief Constable Peter Sheridan of Northern Ireland. “The British and Irish governments [are asking] the Independent Monitoring Commission to report on the existence of the army council by September 1.”
[View Semtex article]
[View Council article]
Typical British Terrorist Impossible to Profile, Says MI5 (London Guardian) “MI5 has concluded that there is no easy way to identify those who become involved in terrorism in Britain, according to a classified internal research document … based on hundreds of case studies,” reports the Guardian. “… it is not possible to draw up a typical profile of the ‘British terrorist’ as most are ‘demographically unremarkable’ and simply reflect the communities in which they live.… They are mostly British nationals, not illegal immigrants and, far from being Islamist fundamentalists, most are religious novices.… The security service also plays down the importance of radical extremist clerics.”
[View article]
Britain Colluded in Unlawfully Detaining Terror Suspect (London Guardian) “British security services colluded in the unlawful detention and facilitated the interrogation of” Binyam Mohamed, “a UK resident detained in Pakistan six years ago, the high court ruled” yesterday, reports the Guardian. “Two judges ordered the foreign secretary to hand over … secret information that could support his case that he was tortured in Pakistan and Morocco before being sent to Guantánamo Bay.” Mohamed “was charged by the US with terror offences in May and could face the death penalty if found guilty by a military tribunal.”
[View article]
12 Years for Man Who Recruited UK’s Youngest Terror Convict
(London Guardian)
Aabid Khan “radicalised young Muslims and spent years creating the biggest computer library of extremist material ever seized by British police,” reports the Guardian. He “was sentenced to 12 years in prison” on Tuesday. Khan “radicalised schoolboy Hammaad Munshi, who on Monday became Britain’s youngest convicted terrorist.” Khan “was found guilty of three counts of possessing articles for a purpose connected with terrorism.… Munshi, now 18, … was found guilty of making a record of information likely to be useful in terrorism and will be sentenced next month.”
[View article]
Saudis Use Cash and Counseling to Fight Terrorism
(Christian Science Monitor)
“About 3,200 former militants have completed” Saudi Arabia’s “ambitious program aimed at persuading them to disavow violent Islamist ideologies,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. (See the Nov. 30, 2007, newsletter.) “… Started in 2004, the program seeks to convince prisoners to abandon what officials call ‘deviant’ or ‘misguided’ beliefs.” The rehabilitation program is voluntary, and “hard-core militants … have mostly declined to participate in the program.”
[View article]
Italy Had Deal With PLO (Israel Insider; Arutz Sheva) “Francesco Cossiga, former president of Italy, confirmed that his country for years [in the 1970s] provided Palestinian terror groups [such as the Palestinian Liberation Organization] with sanctuary and allowed them to set up domestic bases in a secret deal according [to] which the terrorists promised not to target Italian interests,” reports the Israel Insider, citing an interview in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “A former senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official”—“Italian-born Sergio Minervi”—“told IsraelNationalNews on Tuesday that the phenomenon was widespread throughout Europe.”
[View Insider article] [View INN article]
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New this week in the Journal of Homeland Security
In “Local Government Resources Are National Assets in a Disaster,” Ken Parker, City Manager of Port Orange, FL, describes local emergency response practices, shows how informal interstate assistance led to formal Emergency Management Assistance Compacts, and discusses the National Emergency Management Network.
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State and Local News
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| EPA photo |
New York City Plan Would Photograph Every Vehicle Entering the City (New York Times) The New York City “Police Department is working on a plan to track every vehicle that enters Manhattan to strengthen the city’s guard against a potential terror attack,” reports the New York Times. “… The proposal—called Operation Sentinel—relies on integrating layers of technologies, some that are still being perfected. It calls for photographing, and scanning the license plates of, cars and trucks at all bridges and tunnels and using sensors to detect the presence of radioactivity.”
[View article]
License Plate Readers Come to Washington, DC
(Washington Post)
“Authorities plan to install about 200 automated license plate readers on police vehicles and alongside roads in the Washington area to thwart potential terrorist attacks, dramatically expanding the use of a high-tech tool previously aimed at parking scofflaws and car thieves,” reports the Washington Post. “Top homeland security officials from Maryland, Virginia and the District [of Columbia] agreed last week to spend $4.5 million on the new system … The funds will come from a $59.8 million federal homeland security grant” that “also will be used to outfit police with radiation detectors, improve hazmat and bomb squads and provide equipment to hospitals.” Cameras will be installed “on about 160 police vehicles and at 40 fixed sites, such as airports or highway entrances.”
[View article]
Floridians Complacent About Hurricanes
(New York Times)
“Florida’s faltering economy and a recent scarcity of major storms have led to what emergency management officials now describe as a dangerous level of complacency,” reports the New York Times. “More than two months into hurricane season … Floridians on both coasts are less prepared to withstand a major storm than at any other time in years.”
[View article]
Cameras to Monitor Narragansett Bay (Providence [RI] Journal) “A camera and radar system to track and view ships and boaters all the way from the Atlantic to Providence Harbor will soon be in place, making Rhode Island’s coastal waterways perhaps the most closely scrutinized in the nation,” reports the Journal. “… four cameras and a limited radar system to be deployed in upper Narragansett Bay” would be linked “to an existing system run by the Department of Environmental Management that watches southern Narragansett Bay, creating a Bay-wide visual network.”
[View article]
Border Fence Turns Into Dam (Tucson Arizona Daily Star) “A 5.2-mile border fence recently constructed along Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument’s southern border in southwestern Arizona became a dam in a recent flash flood,” reports the Daily Star. “… the 15-foot-high wire mesh fence halted the natural flow of floodwater during a July 12 storm that dumped 1 to 2 inches of rain in 90 minutes around the border towns of Lukeville, Ariz., and Sonoyta, Sonora.
Debris piled up against the fence, including in drainage gates designed to prevent flooding, and the 6-foot deep fence foundation stopped subsurface water flow.”
[View article]
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| DHS photo | ‘Virtual Fence’ Work Halted in Arizona (Tucson Arizona Daily Star) “Work on ‘virtual fences’ planned for Arizona’s stretch of the U.S.-Mexican border has been brought to a halt,” reports the Daily Star. “The Interior Department has not granted the Homeland Security Department permission to use the land for constructing the surveillance towers that form the backbone of the virtual fences … Without authorization to use the land, no work could begin, which prompted agency officials to instruct the lead contractor on the project, Boeing Co., to suspend activities until further notice.”
[View article]
NY 9/11 Insurance Settles 6 Claims Out of 9,400 (Government Executive) “The World Trade Center Captive Insurance Co.”—“established by Congress to help New York City and its contractors handle claims arising from cleanup after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks”—“has settled just six claims out of nearly 9,400 filed by workers who say they are suffering health problems as a result of their jobs,” reports Government Executive.
[View article]
DHS News
Six Illegal Immigrants Volunteer for Deportation (Tucson Arizona Daily Star) “Just six illegal immigrants volunteered to leave the United States in the first week of a pilot program inviting nearly a half-million people to self-deport,” according to the Associated Press. (See the Aug. 8 newsletter.) “… The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program is aimed at more than 450,000 illegal immigrants who have received but ignored court orders to leave the country and who also have no criminal records. It is available in just five cities: Phoenix, Chicago, San Diego, Santa Ana, Calif., and Charlotte, N.C.”
[View article]
TSA Inspector Damages Aircraft
(ABC News) “Pilots around the country expressed outrage and concern [on Wednesday] about the safety of their planes following an incident where a [Transportation Security Administration] inspector, conducting a spot security check, used sensitive instrument probes as a handhold to climb onto parked aircraft at Chicago’s O’Hare airport.… the incident led to the grounding of nine American Eagle planes, causing a ripple effect that delayed 40 flights throughout the day.” In reply, the TSA said that it “is reviewing the inspection results and depending on the conclusion, could take action with the airline, up to and including levying of civil penalties” for leaving the planes unattended. “… it is not TSA’s intent to cause delays or potential damage to aircraft as a result of our inspections.”
[View article]
[View TSA response]
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| Coast Guard photo |
100% Seaborne Container Screening Remains Elusive “To develop and implement international supply chain security standards,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection “has taken a lead role in working with foreign customs administrations and the World Customs Organization,” notes the Government Accountability Office. “… The Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007” requires that 100% “of U.S.-bound container cargo be scanned at foreign seaports—using a nonintrusive inspection process involving equipment such as X-rays and radiation detection equipment.” But U.S. Customs and Border Protection “and some foreign partners have stated that unless additional resources are made available, [the goal of] 100 percent scanning could not be met.”
[View GAO summary]
GAO Evaluates Testing of TSA Airport Screeners The Government Accountability Office has published its report evaluating the results of covert testing of Transportation Security Administration passenger screeners at airports (see last week’s newsletter).
[View GAO summary]
Fire Department Preparedness for Extreme Weather Emergencies and Natural Disasters This new report from the U.S. Fire Administration examines the impact of extreme weather and natural disasters on the fire service and the types of service calls most likely to arise as a result of these disasters. It also addresses equipment and planning needed in order to be prepared, safety, mutual aid, shift management, resource identification, logistics, and other issues, along with fire department case studies.
[View press release] [View report (367KB PDF)]
1,110 Sign Up for Global Entry (Federal Computer Week) “About 1,100 people have enrolled in the Homeland Security Department’s Global Entry trusted-traveler program since it began at three airports in June,” reports Federal Computer Week. (See the June 13 newsletter.)
[View article]
Wildfire Preparedness Guidelines The U.S. Fire Administration encourages people who live in woodland settings to prepare for fires, and it offers guidance on wildfire preparation and safety.
[View press release]
CPB Opens Great Lakes Air and Marine Branch U.S. Customs and Border Protection this month opened the last of five facilities that make up the Northern Border Air Wing: the Great Lakes Air and Marine Branch at Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Detroit. [View press release]
Other Federal News
Energy Dept. Cybersecurity Falls Short (Government Executive) “The Energy Department’s inspector general on Thursday released an audit of the department’s certification and accreditation procedures for national security information systems that revealed a number of potentially serious weaknesses,” reports Government Executive. “Auditors concluded that the problems were similar to those that led to the theft of classified information at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2006.” (See the Feb. 15 newsletter.) The Energy Department is responsible for the nation’s nuclear power and nuclear weapons.
[View article]
Govt. Seeks Dismissal of Cyber-Spying Suit Against AT&T (Wired) “The government is asking a federal appeals court to put a long hold on deciding the fate of a case charging AT&T with helping the government spy on Americans’ internet usage, in order to give it time to try to dismiss the case in lower court with powers newly granted to it by Congress,” reports Wired. “… The government has argued that its programs are so secret that even showing evidence secretly to a federal court judge would endanger national security.”
[View article]
FBI Admits Error But Stands by Anthrax Probe
(CNN)
“FBI officials … are offering more evidence to support their assertion that government scientist Bruce Ivins was responsible for the anthrax-laced mailings that killed five people in 2001,” reports CNN. The FBI “examined more than 1,000 anthrax samples and interviewed all of the approximately 100 people who had had access to the flask that reportedly held the deadly strain implicated in the killings.” The mistake was that FBI officials “received an anthrax sample from Ivins in an early stage of the investigation but said they destroyed it because it failed to meet the requirements of a subpoena.”
[View article]
CDC-TV Offers Online Videos The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have launched CDC-TV, a series of online videos that will cover health, safety, and preparedness topics. [View press release]
All U.S. Schools Receive NOAA Public Alert Radios Federal agencies are distributing more than 182,000 Public Alert Radios to preschools, Head Start programs, nonpublic schools, and post-secondary schools, supplying every school in the nation. All 97,000 K-12 public schools across the country already received the radios, which sound an alarm to alert school personnel about hazardous weather and other emergencies, even when other means of communication are disabled. The radios are distributed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with funding from the Homeland Security Department and assistance from the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services.
[View press release]
Private-Sector News
Personal Data Are Vulnerable in Disasters (Christian Science Monitor) “The opportunities for identity thieves are magnified in a disaster situation, when highly sensitive personal documents, computers, cellphones and PDAs are left behind in a rush to vacate a home or office in the face of a disaster,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “… Even in less threatening events, families who do not guard against digital failures are negatively affected.” The Monitor offers steps to protect data from loss or theft.
[View article]
Dual-Benefit Solutions
1918 Flu Epidemic Discoveries Help with Bird Flu Research
(Yahoo! News;
MSNBC)
“Nearly a century after history’s most lethal flu faded away, survivors’ bloodstreams still carry super-potent protection against the 1918 virus, demonstrating the remarkable durability of the human immune system,” reports the Associated Press. “Scientists tested the blood of 32 people aged 92 to 102 who were exposed to the 1918 pandemic flu and found antibodies that still roam the body looking to strangle the old flu strain. Researchers manipulated those antibodies into a vaccine and found that it kept alive all the mice they had injected with the killer flu, according to a study published online [August 17] in the journal Nature.” Another discovery was that “bacterial pneumonia may have killed most people during the 1918 flu pandemic, and antibiotics may be as crucial as flu drugs to fight any new pandemic, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday,” according to Reuters. “Samples of lung tissue taken from soldiers who died in the pandemic, the worst of the 20th century, showed evidence of damage both by the flu virus and by pneumonia-causing bacteria. Such so-called co-infections also cause many influenza-related deaths today.”
[View AP article]
[View Reuters article]
| Dual-benefit news archive |
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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.
Building Dynamics: Proactive Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Response for High-Value Targets (October 6-10; Little Rock, AR) Designed and taught by emergency responders, for emergency responders, this in-depth
program offers practical working knowledge and hands-on experience in chemical, biological, and radiological vulnerability
assessment, real-time monitoring, and response for high-value targets indoors. Central to the course
is training in building dynamics: how air and airborne chemical, biological, and radiological agents move through buildings.
[View course website]
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New Upcoming Events
(After four weeks, events are moved to the Upcoming Events page)
(September 23-25; Tampa, FL) The conference and technology expo focus on biometric technologies for homeland security, identity management, border crossing, electronic commerce, and other applications. The conference consists of presentations, seminars, and panel discussions with internationally recognized experts in biometric technologies, system and application developers, information technology business strategists, and government and commercial officers.
[View event website]
Making the World Safer From Disasters: The U.S. Role (October 2; Washington, DC) The Disasters Roundtable of the National Research Council–National Academies is organizing this public workshop, which will feature presentations by experts from the hazards research, policy, and practitioner communities on issues related to U.S. efforts to help reduce disaster losses globally.
[View event website]
Biosecurity Conference (October 27-29; Amman, Jordan) The theme of this international forum on biosecurity is “Confronting Biological Threats: Biosecurity, Biological Weapons Nonproliferation, and Regional Cooperative Mechanisms.” The event brings together academic experts and practitioners from governments, intergovernmental organizations, academic institutions, civil society, and the private sector.
[View event website]
Detection Technologies 2008 (November 13-14; Phoenix) Timed to follow NanoKAP 2008 (Nov. 12), which will discuss finding uses for nanotechnology to detect toxins and pathogens, this conference will discuss new developments in identification of microorganisms and chemicals.
[View event website]
Chemical and Biological Defense Physical Science and Technology Conference (November 17-21; New Orleans) This conference will showcase basic and early applied research relevant to chemical and biological defense for warfighters. It will identify emerging trends and requirements in chemical and biological research and create an opportunity for cross-pollination and collaboration between the traditional chemical and biological scientific disciplines to achieve convergence in the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and the cognitive sciences.
[View event website]
Maritime Security Expo (November 18-19; Long Beach, CA) The theme of this year’s conference is “Maritime Security 2025: Preserving Global Trade.” It will feature seminars, exhibits, and regional meetings.
[View event website]
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Calls for Papers
The American Water Works Association 2009 Water Security Congress is soliciting papers on security & emergency response, physical & cyber security, and contamination warning systems. Abstracts are due by October 1.
[View event website]
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