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National News
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| Natl. Hurricane Center photo of Gustav | Millions Return From Hurricane Gustav Evacuation (New York Times) Residents of New Orleans were permitted to begin returning home Wednesday, “following the evacuation of the city in advance of Hurricane Gustav,” reports the New York Times. “… tens of thousands of homes in New Orleans were still without power … Despite dire predictions, New Orleans was mostly spared by Hurricane Gustav, which knocked out power and downed trees and limbs but otherwise left buildings intact, the sewer system largely functioning and hospital emergency rooms open. The storm did not bring any serious flooding.” “Nearly two million people from Texas to Alabama fled the Gulf Coast on Sunday ahead of Hurricane Gustav,” reports the Times in a separate story. “… For the most part, the evacuation appeared to go smoothly, particularly the official efforts to get the poor, elderly and infirm out of New Orleans, Port Arthur, Tex., and other cities that could be in the storm’s path.”
[View return article] [View evacuation article]
Internet Traffic Begins Bypassing the U.S.
(New York Times)
“Internet traffic passing through the switching equipment of companies based in the United States has proved a distinct advantage for American intelligence agencies,” reports the New York Times. The National Security Agency’s “program with the cooperation of American telecommunications firms … included the interception of foreign Internet communications” and now “those actions and other government policies may be hastening the shift in Canadian and European traffic away from the United States.”
[View article]
National Emergency Over Terrorist Attacks Enters 8th Year President Bush has extended by one year the national emergency he declared on September 14, 2001, in Proclamation 7463, with respect to the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, at the Pentagon, and aboard United Airlines flight 93, “and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.”
[View announcement]
International News
Iran Says Invasion Would Trigger World War III (Tehran [Iran] Times) “Brigadier General Massud Jazayeri said on Saturday that any military invasion of Iran would trigger another world war,” reports the Tehran Times. “‘Any aggression against Iran would be the start of the world war. The exorbitant demands of the U.S. leaders and the global Zionism which have created the current situation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Caucasus are gradually directing the world to the edge of the cliff,’ Jazayeri opined.” President Bush said last year that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War III (see the Oct. 19, 2007, newsletter).
[View article]
‘Task Force Black’ Claims Hundreds of Terrorists Killed in Iraq (London Telegraph) “Hundreds of terrorists have been killed by the” special forces of the British Special Air Service and the U.S. Delta Force “waging a ‘secret war’ against al-Qaeda in Iraq,” reports the Telegraph. “… while the majority of the terrorists were captured, several hundred, who were mainly members of the organisation known as ‘al-Qa’eda in Iraq’ have been killed … The prime targets have been those intent on joining the wave of suicide car bombers that claimed around 3,000 lives a month in Baghdad at the height of the terrorist campaign in 2006.… Task Force Black has nearly broken the back of the terrorist network and reduced bombings in Baghdad from about 150 a month to just two.”
[View article]
Millions Displaced by Floods in India
(New York Times)
“Millions of farmers and their families may be displaced for months after severe floods in northern India wiped out crops and homes, leaving hundreds of villages under several feet of water,” reports the New York Times. “The Kosi River in Bihar, one of India’s poorest and most populous states, jumped its banks this week after a dam burst in bordering Nepal, causing the worst floods in the area in 50 years.… boats were dispatched and trains mobilized to find and move millions who have been left stranded by the rising waters.”
[View article]
Iraq Takes Control of Anbar Province Security From U.S.
(USA Today)
“The U.S. military turned over control of Iraq’s Anbar province, once the country’s most dangerous, to the Iraqi government Monday in a landmark step toward the withdrawal of more American troops,” reports USA Today. “President Bush declared … that al-Qaeda had been defeated in the western desert province, which was on the brink of collapse to the Islamic militant group two years ago.” Anbar’s “local Sunni leaders have complained of being marginalized by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.… The approximately 25,000 U.S. Marines stationed in Anbar will remain for now, but they will run fewer patrols and function largely in a supporting role for Iraqi security forces.”
[View article]
Israeli Court Says Palestinian Authority Must Pay U.S. Family $116 Million
(CNN)
“An Israeli court has ruled [that] the family of an American couple”—Yaron and Efrat Unger—“killed in a terror attack [in 1996] can collect $116 million in damages from the Palestinian Authority,” reports CNN. “The ruling could set a precedent for a number of suits that have been filed against the Palestinian Authority in American courts. The court in Jerusalem ruled [that] the Israeli government can legally implement a 2004 U.S. court ruling that found the Palestinian Authority liable. However, the ruling does not explain how the plaintiffs would collect the money.” The family of the victims “argued that the Palestinian Authority bore ultimate responsibility for the attack because the Hamas attackers were controlled and assisted by elements within the Palestinian Authority. The case ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court, where in 2004 the justices ordered the Palestinian Authority and the [Palestine Liberation Organization] to pay the family.”
[View article]
Al-Qaeda’s Siddiqui Indicted for Attempting to Kill Her Captors
(ABC News)
“Aafia Siddiqui … was indicted by federal authorities in New York [Tuesday] for allegedly attempting to kill the FBI agents, US soldiers, interpreters and others who attempted to interview her following her July capture in Afghanistan,” reports ABC News. (See the August 8 newsletter.) She allegedly possessed “detailed handwritten notes on ‘dirty bombs,’ terrorist recruiting, New York targets, and the relative casualty rates for various weapons of mass destruction” and “about a liter of cyanide.” Siddiqui had earlier “been linked to an ‘ill conceived’ and perhaps amateurish plot to ‘kill all living US presidents’ [according to federal sources].” Some in the Intelligence Community “have characterized her as mentally unbalanced and operationally insignificant.”
[View article]
Israel Says Hezbollah Is Active in Canada (Jerusalem Haaretz) “Terror cells have recently been seen observing El Al crew members in Toronto, apparently in preparation for a terror attack targeting airline personnel,” reports Haaretz. “… the Shin Bet security service has ordered El Al procedures altered.… U.S. television stations … reported in mid-June that a Hezbollah cell had been caught collecting information on Israeli targets in Canada, including the Israeli Embassy in Ottawa.”
[View article]
SITE and IntelCenter Track Terrorists Online (Spiegel [Germany]) “The companies SITE [see the Oct. 5, 2007, Website of the Week] and IntelCenter [see the Website of the Week] have penetrated even deeper into the terror Web than most intelligence agencies,” reports Spiegel. SITE IntelGroup founder Josh Devon and IntelCenter founder Ben Venzke “spend their days analyzing traces that al-Qaida and affiliated organizations leave behind, especially on the Internet.… The two companies exert tremendous influence, worldwide and around the clock. News agencies, intelligence services and law enforcement organizations from the entire Western world are among Devon’s and Venzke’s clients.” Their translations “land on the desks of intelligence analysts in the United States and Europe.”
[View article]
Iraqi Cybersecurity Team Lacks Computers (USA Today) “Iraq’s government … computers make a prime target for global terror networks that have added hacking to their arsenal,” reports USA Today. “… Computer usage in Iraq has mushroomed since the U.S. invasion in 2003.” But “Maj. Ahmed Khathem, the head of Iraq’s newly formed cybercrimes division, sits in a borrowed office, at a borrowed desk, working on a laptop borrowed from one of his subordinates.”
[View article]
Irish Republican Army No Threat in Northern Ireland (International Herald Tribune) “The Irish Republican Army is fading away in Northern Ireland and poses no security threat to the British territory, [the Independent Monitoring Commission] concluded,” according to the Associated Press. “… The governments of Britain and Ireland … appealed to Protestant leaders to respond by deepening their cooperation with Catholics in the province’s 16-month-old partnership government. It has failed to meet for the past three months amid rising tensions and warnings that the coalition could unravel.”
[View article]
State and Local News
Protesters Outside Republican Convention Charged With Terrorism Conspiracy (Los Angeles Times) On Wednesday, Ramsey County, MN, “prosecutors charged eight people with conspiring to cause a riot as part of a terrorist act,” reports the Los Angeles Times. The “suspects are leading members of the [Republican National Convention] Welcoming Committee, a self-described anarchist coalition. For at least two years, the group mapped out violent methods to disrupt the convention and prevent delegates from entering the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul … The group allegedly had considered barricading bridges, spraying delegates with urine and possibly kidnapping delegates.”
[View article]
Corps Rushes to Make Emergency Repairs of Gustav Damage
(New Orleans Times-Picayune)
“The Army Corps of Engineers is rushing to make emergency repairs before the next hurricane threatens the area,” hurrying to fix “damage caused by Hurricane Gustav to floodwalls, gates and levees that are part of the New Orleans area hurricane flood reduction system,” reports the Times-Picayune.
[View article]
Gustav Pet Evacuations a Success, but Many Pets Left Behind
(National Geographic;
USA Today)
“Thousands of pets accompanied the estimated two million people who fled … Hurricane Gustav,” reports National Geographic News. “… About 160 climate-controlled vehicles operated around the clock in New Orleans to whisk pets and their owners out of harm’s way. At least a half dozen emergency shelters throughout the state quickly filled with pets of all shapes and sizes” as “pet owners were issued wristbands and pet collars that had matching identification numbers.” Still, large numbers of pets “were left tied in backyards, locked in houses or wandering the sidewalks,” reports USA Today. Animal rescuers gave “food and water to left-behind animals,” picked up wandering ones, and took to “safe havens those whose owners” had called about them.
[View Natl. Geographic article]
[View USA Today article]
Gustav Holdouts Have Lessons Worth Learning (Christian Science Monitor) “The night after Gustav came ashore, small squads of storm holdouts and National Guardsmen played an elaborate game of curfew cat-and-mouse,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “But they finally gave up as everyone ended up at the Maple Leaf lounge for a late-night gab session.… front porch story-swapping among storm survivors plays a critical role in how Americans respond to the next looming megastorm. Now, US emergency officials are trying to listen in, increasingly keen to understand a basic, but crucial, concept of storm planning: A good evacuation, like a good story, is all in the details.”
[View article]
Chemical Quarantine Closes Two Missouri Emergency Rooms
(WREX-13-TV, Rockford, IL)
Two “Missouri hospital emergency rooms”—at St. Anthony’s Medical Center and SSM DePaul Health Center—“shut down under quarantine due to a weekend chemical accident at an Illinois storage and mixing plant” at Ro-Corp. in East St. Louis, reports the Associated Press. “Both [emergency rooms] were shut down after victims of the chemical spill”—likely “highly toxic” nitroaniline—“sought treatment there.” Both emergency rooms reopened Sunday.
[View article]
400 Juárez, Mexico, Police Fail Trustworthiness Test (Dallas Morning News) “At least 400 municipal police will be fired in” the border city of “Juárez because they failed honesty tests,” reports the Dallas Morning News. Many admitted “‘having been bribed or having been linked to organized crime during this analysis,’ the mayor said.… Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, is at the [center] of a bloody turf war between drug trafficking groups seeking to secure prime routes for smuggling cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines to the U.S.”
[View article]
Virginia Tech Installs 201 Message Boards (Richmond [VA] Times-Dispatch) “Virginia Tech has installed electronic message boards throughout campus, following a recommendation from a university committee looking at safety after the April 16, 2007, shootings,” reports the Associated Press. The boards—165 of them in classrooms—“will normally display the date and time. In case of an emergency, the boards will display campus alerts.… the university is working to sync the boards with other systems that notify the campus of emergencies via text message, e-mail, phone and online messaging.”
[View article]
DHS News
ICE Accused of Tracking Immigrants at Head Start
(Houston Chronicle)
“Immigration enforcement officials are now targeting migrant and seasonal Head Start centers in some states as part of efforts to track down illegal immigrants, the executive director [and president] of the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association [Yvette Sanchez] says …” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “‘Since early 2007, many of our programs started to notice that Border Patrol of Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles were parked outside their centers, and some were following buses picking up children,’ she said.… Jason Ciliberti, supervisory Border Patrol agent in Washington, D.C., said it’s not the agency’s policy to stake out Head Start centers.” In May, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus gave ICE officials “a list of dates and places regarding ICE activities near migrant and seasonal Head Start programs in Florida, Tennessee, Georgia and New Mexico.… Migrant and seasonal Head Start programs operate in 39 states and serve more than 30,000 migrants and 3,000 [preschool] children of seasonal farm workers.”
[View article]
Federal Government Prepared Massively for Gustav
(New York Times)
“The Coast Guard, Defense Department, National Guard and [Federal Emergency Management Agency] all [had] far more personnel, equipment and emergency supplies in the region than they did three years ago before the hurricane,” reports the New York Times. FEMA “had 18 search-and-rescue teams ready to go, … 240 truckloads of water and packaged meals and 400 more truckloads of blankets, cots and tarps.” It also “activated its new family locator service, a call-in system that helps separated family members find one another. And it was providing shelter space for cats and dogs owned by families evacuating from the region.” The Defense Department coordinated “the airlift of more than 1,000 patients from Gulf Coast hospitals and nursing homes. The Coast Guard had about 500 extra personnel assigned to the response, … ready to operate 31 helicopters brought to the region, and two squads with small rescue boats, among other equipment.”
[View article]
FEMA Employed Email and Web Alerts for Gustav (Government Computer News) “With Hurricane Gustav set to make landfall somewhere along the Gulf Coast,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency last week used “digital subscription management services to let residents in six states know what the government [was] doing to prepare for the storm and how they [could] apply for relief,” reports Government Computer News. FEMA “also created a page on the agency’s Web site to keep residents informed about the status of the storm and the government’s preparations.”
[View article]
National Fire Academy Offers College Internships The National Fire Academy is beginning a college internship program for those interested in a career in the fire and emergency services. Students will work at the U.S. Fire Administration in Emmitsburg, MD.
[View press release]
September Is National Preparedness Month This year the focus of National Preparedness Month is to encourage citizens to take important preparedness steps: get a kit, make a plan, be informed, and get involved. [View press release]
Other Federal News
EPA Proposes Fort Detrick Site for Superfund Cleanup The Environmental Protection Agency proposes adding the Fort Detrick Area B Ground Water Site in Frederick, MD, to the Superfund National Priorities List. Area B is part of an active Army Medical Command installation. It was used as a disposal area for chemical, biological, and radiological material from the 1940s until 1970. Trichloroethene and tetrachloroethene entered the ground water, contaminating residential drinking water wells. Superfund is a federal program to clean up uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.
[View press release]
FCC Activates Reporting System for Gustav (Government Computer News) “As Hurricane Gustav approached the Gulf Coast over the Labor Day weekend, the Federal Communications Commission activated its new Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) for the second time to let communications companies provide sensitive information online to government response planners,” reports Government Computer News. “DIRS is a voluntary Web-based system for operators of large communications networks to report the conditions of their infrastructure to FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.… It was first activated Aug. 22 in response to Tropical Storm Fay.”
[View article]
Almost Half a Million Passport Cards Ordered (Federal Computer Week) “To date, 480,000 people have submitted advance-order applications for the” new U.S. Passport Cards “produced by the State Department … in cooperation with the Homeland Security Department,” reports Federal Computer Week. “… 382,000 cards have been issued” since distribution began in July.
[View article] [View State Dept. Passport Card page]
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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.
Advanced Critical Thinking Skills (September 30–October 2; Reston, VA) Students learn how to use critical thinking skills in their work by framing their line of argument, developing hypotheses, visualizing data, and writing their final product with clarity and persuasiveness.
[View course website]
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]
Strategic Counterterrorism Issues and Practices (October 28-30; Reston, VA) Students learn about the state of current theories and research on key counterterrorism issues in a highly interactive workshop; engage in comparative analysis of terrorist groups with different agendas, structures, geographical presence, and capabilities; and practice framing strategic counterterrorism issues and applying analytical tools to the problems.
[View course website]
Analytic Tools and Techniques (November 4-6; Reston, VA) By applying the analytic tools and techniques taught in this workshop, students can add more rigor and structure to their analysis and gain hands-on knowledge of a set of basic thinking tools that will reduce time spent in coordination and significantly increase the persuasiveness of their final product.
[View course website]
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New Upcoming Events
(After four weeks, events are moved to the Upcoming Events page)
Stop Human Trafficking Symposium (September 9; Washington, DC) U.S. Customs and Border Protection, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is sponsoring this symposium to discuss existing and emerging methods for combating human trafficking.
[View event website]
(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]
| Fuel Safety & Disaster Management (September 26-27; Luxembourg) The International Emergency Management Society is sponsoring this conference for company responders; field supervisors; on-scene commanders; local authorities; emergency and rescue services; environmental and wildlife organizations; those involved in inland transportation and storage of oil; retail managers; regulatory bodies; health, safety, and environment managers; and specialized response material companies. It will focus on safety and disaster management in downstream oil activities.
[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]
Dealing With Disasters—Any Improvement? (October 28-29; Zagreb, Croatia) This conference of the International Emergency Management Society will discuss emergency services and planning in regional activities; civil crisis; and human influence on nature—risk, crisis, and solution.
[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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