International News

Israel Invades Gaza Strip (BBC; Jerusalem Haaretz) Reacting to “rocket attacks on southern Israel” after a ceasefire with Hamas expired on December 22, Israel began air strikes in the Gaza Strip, which lies “along the Mediterranean coast between Israel and Egypt,” on December 27 and invaded the strip on Sunday, reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. Hamas has been “branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the” European Union, but it won “legislative elections in the [Israeli-]occupied territories in 2006.” On Wednesday, Israel began halting military operations for three hours a day to permit humanitarian aid to reach the population in the strip, but civilian casualties have been unexpectedly heavy, and “at least 30 people” were “killed in an Israeli airstrike on a United Nations–run school.” (The Israel Defense Forces claim that “militants fired mortars at troops from inside the school,” according to Haaretz.) Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, encouraged by France and the United States, has called for “a truce followed by talks with Israel and the Palestinians,” according to the BBC. Meanwhile, rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel continued, with 25 rockets fired “into Israel’s southern communities” on Wednesday, reports Haaretz. [View BBC Gaza crisis page] [View Haaretz school article] [View Haaretz rockets article]

Three Rockets From Lebanon Hit Israel (BBC) “At least three rockets have been fired into northern Israel from Lebanon,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “Israel replied with artillery, but called the attack an ‘isolated event.’” [View article]

Bagram: Afghanistan’s Guantánamo (Time; Chicago Tribune) “Even if Guantánamo closes, the controversial U.S. practice of jailing suspected al-Qaeda militants and other terrorists indefinitely won’t end, because such detentions continue on an even greater scale at the U.S. military base at Bagram, Afghanistan”—“an estimated 670 [detainees] are locked up,” reports Time. (See the Oct. 6, 2006; March 7, 2008; May 16, 2008; and May 23, 2008; newsletters.) U.S. District Judge John D. Bates on Wednesday sought “to compare four terror suspects being held” there “to others detained at Guantanamo Bay to decide if all have the right to sue for their freedom.” [View Time article] [View AP article]

Iraq Takes Over Security in Baghdad’s Green Zone (DefenseLink) “The United States formally transferred the Republican Palace back to the Iraqi government” on January 1, when the new “status of forces agreement between the United States and Iraq took effect,” reports the American Forces Press Service. “The agreement replaces the United Nations mandate under which the coalition went into Iraq and has conducted operations there since. Under the agreement, Iraqi forces are now in the lead with U.S. forces in a supporting role or in overwatch.” [View article]

European Union Allows Warrantless Searches of Home Computers (London Times) “Police across the EU have been given the green light to expand the implementation of a rarely used power involving warrantless intrusive surveillance of private property,” reports the London Times. The “material gathered in this way includes the content of all e-mails, web-browsing habits and instant messaging.” [View article]

Four British Animal Rights Activists Convicted of Fear Campaign (Yahoo! News) “Four animal rights activists were found guilty on [Dec. 23] of blackmailing companies that supplied Huntingdon Life Sciences in a ‘relentless’ campaign that included hoax parcel bombs and criminal damage,” reports Agence France-Presse. “… the six-year campaign … was designed to shutdown the animal research laboratory based in Cambridge [England].” [View article]

Migrants to Italy More Than Double (London Guardian) “The number of migrants reaching Italy’s southern coastline after a perilous crossing from Africa has … soared to 33,000—13,000 more than in the whole of 2007,” reports the Guardian. “… Up to 500 more, many of them asylum seekers from countries such as Somalia, are known or feared to have died before reaching Italian shores.” [View article]

India Gives Mumbai Attack Evidence to Pakistan (Reuters) “India presented a dossier of material to Pakistan this week which it said showed that Pakistani militants carried out the November attacks in Mumbai that killed 179 people,” reports Reuters. (See the Dec. 5 newsletter.) [View article]

Pakistani and Afghan Leaders Plan Joint Counterterrorism (Washington Post) “Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, whose government has been accused by India of supporting a major terrorist attack there, vowed Tuesday to work closely with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to combat terrorism, saying it had become a menace to all countries in the region,” reports the Washington Post. “… the two countries’ foreign ministers signed a declaration that said they would develop a ‘joint comprehensive strategy for combating terrorism’ and would ‘closely cooperate’ with each other and the international community to ‘completely eliminate the menaces of militancy, extremism and terrorism from the region.’” [View article]

France Trains for Mumbai-Style Attacks (Reuters) “French security forces staged an exercise on [Dec. 22] to test how they would respond to a series of coordinated attacks in several major cities, an exercise based on [November’s] militant attacks in Mumbai,” reports Reuters. “In a simulation coordinated by the Interior Ministry, the emergency services went through a scenario of seven attacks, all of which took place within 45 minutes of each other.” [View article]

CIA Tracking 4,000 Terror Suspects in Britain (Melbourne, Australia, Age) The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency “has begun an unprecedented intelligence-gathering operation in Britain to help MI5 monitor 4000 terrorist suspects,” reports the Age. “More than four out of 10 CIA operations to prevent attacks on US soil are now conducted against targets in Britain.” [View article]

Zimbabwean Boy Scout Trainers Accused of Terrorism (SW Radio Africa) The owners of the Kudu Creek “boy-scout camp outside Harare have this week become the latest group of Zimbabweans to face terrorism charges, joining more than 40 activists who have been abducted or arrested on similar charges in recent weeks,” reports SW Radio Africa. Three men were arrested, released, and rearrested and face “banditry, terrorism and insurgency charges for supposedly training bandits to topple Robert Mugabe”—part of “the legal game being fought by the state to build a case against” the Zimbabwe Movement for Democratic Change. [View article]

United Arab Emirates Bans Many Guest Workers’ Families (Washington, DC, Middle East Times) “Some foreign workers holding low-paid jobs in the United Arab Emirates will be banned from bringing over their families to the Gulf state under new visa regulations …” according to Agence France-Presse, citing a report by the National newspaper. “57 occupations … are considered to earn too little to sustain residency fees for their families … More than 25,000 illegal immigrants have been arrested in the oil-rich Gulf state since November 2007” and foreigners make up 86% “of the UAE’s population of 6.4 million, with hundreds of thousands in low-paid jobs.” [View article]

Rare Suicide Bombing in Iran Kills 4 (New York Times) “Employing a tactic not seen in Iran before, a suicide bomber affiliated with a Sunni militant group [Jundallah] killed four people and wounded 12 in an attack early Monday in Saravan, a southeastern city, the official [Islamic Republic News Agency] reported,” according to the New York Times. [View article]

4th Bombing of Canadian Gas Pipeline (Toronto Globe and Mail) Royal Canadian Mounted Police “are investigating a fourth attack on EnCana facilities in northeastern British Columbia,” reports the Globe and Mail. (See the Oct. 24 newsletter.) The anti-terrorist squad is involved “because industrial infrastructure was targeted.” [View article]

Holland Has 200-Year Plan to Prevent Disastrous Flooding (Wired) The Netherlands has plans to extend its coastline 3 to 4 km and raise flood barriers over the next 200 years to prevent a catastrophic flood, reports Wired. “More than half of the Netherlands sits below sea level,” and “a megastorm … could inundate Rotterdam and surrounding cities within 24 hours, flooding thousands of square miles, paralyzing the nation’s economy, and devastating an area inhabited by more than 2 million people.” Although such a flood is likely only once in 10,000 years, 65% of the Dutch gross domestic product is at risk. “That’s nearly $450 billion a year.” [View article]

National News

Cyber Strategy Inquiry Reveals Flaws (InformationWeek) “The United States is unprepared for a major hostile attack against vital computer networks, government and industry officials said [Dec. 18] after participating in a two-day ‘cyberwar’ simulation,” reports Reuters. Cyber Strategy Inquiry (see the Dec. 19 newsletter) “revealed flaws in leadership, planning, communications and other issues.” [View article]

Levee Repairs Lagging Nationwide (USA Today) “Communities nationwide have repaired fewer than half of the 122 levees identified by the government almost two years ago as too poorly maintained to be reliable in major floods,” reports USA Today, citing data from the Army Corps of Engineers. “… State and local governments were given a year to fix levees cited by the corps for ‘unacceptable’ maintenance deficiencies in a February 2007 review that was part of a post–Hurricane Katrina crackdown. Only 45 have had necessary repairs.” [View article]

State and Local News

Five Convicted of Fort Dix Conspiracy (Newark, NJ, Star-Ledger) “Five Muslim immigrants from South Jersey were convicted [Dec. 22] of plotting to kill American soldiers” at Fort Dix, NJ, reports the Star-Ledger. (See the May 11, 2007, newsletter.) “… The jurors, however, acquitted the men of an additional charge of attempted murder. Four of the five men were also convicted of related weapons counts.” [View article]

Toxic Sludge Spills in Tennessee (New York Times) “A holding pond” containing toxic coal ash “failed last [month], flooding 300 acres in East Tennessee,” reports the New York Times. “… the holding pond, at the” Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant, contained arsenic, lead, chromium, barium, and manganese. “A week after the spill, the authority issued a joint statement with the [Environmental Protection Agency] and other agencies recommending that direct contact with the ash be avoided and that pets and children should be kept away from affected areas.… Elevated levels of lead and thallium and what the Environmental Protection Agency called ‘very high’ levels of arsenic have been found in water samples taken near the site of the spill.… three houses were left uninhabitable and 36 more residential properties had sustained damage.” Most of the “more than 1,300 similar dumps across the United States” are “unregulated and unmonitored,” reports the New York Times in a separate article. [View spill article] [View regulation article]

Massive Security for Presidential Inauguration (Washington Post) “Thousands of extra police, agents and troops [will] handle crowds as President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in”—“not just for the ceremony and parade Jan. 20 but also for at least 70 concerts, balls and other events,” reports the Washington Post. “… the welcome celebration featuring Obama on Jan. 18 at the Lincoln Memorial … could draw 500,000 people.” As many as 2 million could be on the National Mall—and “it would take too long to funnel them through checkpoints. Instead, Park Police are relying on a massive security force, including 1,300 unarmed National Guard soldiers.” Also, the “Secret Service and regional transportation officials unveiled a plan [Wednesday] to ban personal vehicles from all Potomac River bridge crossings from Virginia into the District [of Columbia] and from interstates 395 and 66 inside the Capital Beltway on Inauguration Day.” [View security article] [View road-closing article]

4 Bombs Prompt Evacuation of Downtown Aspen, CO (Washington Post) “A former resident of [Aspen] who had been bitter over its transformation into a playground for the rich left four gift-wrapped bombs downtown in a bank-robbery attempt, turning New Year’s Eve celebrations into a mass evacuation,” reports the Associated Press. The bombs “came with notes warning of ‘mass death.’ The man”—James Chester Blanning—“suspected of placing them in two banks and in an alleyway on [Jan. 31] shot and killed himself a short time later.” [View article]

More Groups Were Under Maryland’s Surveillance as ‘Terrorists’ (Washington Post) “The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that troopers monitored—and labeled as terrorists—activists devoted to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing bike lanes,” reports the Washington Post. (See the Oct. 10 newsletter.) Among those targeted for surveillance: “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals … Angry consumers fighting a 72 percent electricity rate … The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq war, [and] was designated a white supremacist group” and Amnesty International—one of its “possible ‘crimes’ in the file” was “civil rights.” The “police did not close some files until late 2007.” [View article]

40,000 Told to Evacuate in Flood-Stricken Washington State (Seattle Times) “Floodwaters continued gushing from rivers throughout Western Washington [yesterday], swamping major highways and scores of local roads, inundating homes, businesses and entire neighborhoods,” reports the Seattle Times. On Wednesday, “tens of thousands of area residents were urged to evacuate.” [View article]

Project Impact’s Benefits Live On (Government Technology) “Project Impact, a short-lived federal initiative that worked to create disaster-resistant communities, showed that teamwork by different government levels and the private and nonprofit sectors can do amazing things when they’re working in close partnership,” reports Government Technology. Begun in 1997 and discontinued in 2001, it still saved lives in Manhattan, KS, during a 2008 tornado and “is alive and well in Miami-Dade, Fla.” Tulsa, OK, “has dramatically reduced … flood frequency and severity.” Project Impact aimed “to devolve hazard-mitigation responsibility and authority down to the lowest possible level. If money changed hands from the feds to the locals, it was only seed money for growing a process that would not end when the money ran out.” [View article]

New Missouri Law Pushes E-Verify, Punishes Sanctuary Cities (Columbia Missourian) Beginning January 1, Missouri’s “public employers—including state and local governments—must use the E-Verify database that searches records from the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security to determine whether someone can work,” reports the Associated Press. “Private businesses [that] have a government contract worth more than $5,000, receive state loans or tax breaks, or have been caught hiring an illegal immigrant” also must use E-Verify. The new “immigration law also blocks state grants from going to any Missouri city that adopts ‘sanctuary’ policies and refuses to cooperate with immigration authorities.” [View article]

Home Firecracker Factory Attracts FBI Attention (Albany [NY] Times Union) Three young men who had been “making large homemade firecrackers,” were arrested December 5 “in a federal anti-terrorism task force raid of several homes in Watervliet and Troy [NY],” reports the Times Union. Although “there are no terrorism allegations and no proof the suspects … intended to harm anyone, destroy property or attack the government” the FBI “obtained information from a cooperating witness that [the] individuals were looking to sell bombs.” [View article]

Study Looks at 2005 Chlorine Accident (American Journal of Emergency Medicine) A 2005 derailment in Graniteville, SC, that “released 42 to 60 tons of chlorine gas in the middle of a small town” and killed nine people provides a chance to study the “presentation, treatment, and hospital course of persons exposed to chlorine gas, a common toxicant and potential terrorist agent,” according to a new report in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. [View article]

New this week in the Journal of Homeland Security In “The Next Border Enterprise,” PT Wright and Chris Wiesinger say that no amount of technology will, by itself, solve border security and visitor management problems. Instead, we have to change our thinking about the role of technology in the border security environment, seeing it as means to enable a solution approach rather than as the solution itself. Their article identifies a cycle of three traditional approaches and describes how changing our perspective on people and process matters will better enable information solutions to create an effective border security management environment based on intelligence, risk, and trust.

DHS News

Homeland Security USA TV Series Begins (Washington Post) “The debut episode of ABC’s ‘Homeland Security USA,’” which aired Tuesday, “provides a unique and informative look at the work of homeland security employees,” writes Post “Federal Eye” columnist Ed O’Keefe, but “very little distinguishes it from similar reality programs about law enforcement … The show also leaves several questions unanswered, and may suggest to viewers that some of the department’s rank and file are too eager for action.” The first episode focused on “Customs and Border Protection officers at the San Ysidro, Calif. U.S.-Mexico border crossing and the Blaine, Wash. U.S.-Canada border post. It also profiled Transportation Security Administration officers at Los Angeles International Airport, BORSTAR officers patrolling near Tucson, Ariz. and the International Mail Center in Carson, Calif.” [View article]

Fraud Detection for Immigrants Needs Improvement, Says GAO “Lack of verification of the evidence submitted with petitions” for lawful permanent residency “is one of the major vulnerabilities identified in” Benefit Fraud and Compliance Assessments, reports the Government Accountability Office. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Fraud Detection and National Security Office “found that individuals claiming to be married were not, employers did not exist, and aliens did not have the education or skills they claimed.… Verifying all petitioner-submitted evidence is impossible. Procedures that require verifying certain evidence under certain circumstances would help adjudicators better detect fraud” and reduce “the risk that ineligible individuals will obtain” lawful permanent residency. [View GAO summary]

TSA Exports Airport Security to St. Lucia The Transportation Security Administration will work with the St. Lucian Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation to enhance aviation security initiatives, including plans to conduct assessments, develop aviation security programs, and share best practices. The Caribbean nation is the first to participate in TSA’s Aviation Security Sustainable International Standards Teams program. [View press release]

Other Federal News

How Did Melamine Get Into the U.S. Food Supply? (Slate) The U.S. “government made three major mistakes” that allowed melamine to get into “baby formula sold here in the United States,” writes James E. McWilliams in Slate. The first: “arbitrary adjustment of allowable levels of a contaminant.” The second: using “the risk of acute poisoning as a reference for setting contaminant standards.” The third: the Food and Drug Administration’s “tendency to regulate finished products at the expense of raw materials.” [View article]

Task Force on New Americans Issues Report Last month, the Task Force on New Americans, guided by two themes that define America’s immigration experience—“diversity within unity” and “citizenship is an identity”—issued its report to the president, offering ten recommendations to strengthen immigrant integration efforts and calling for a coordinated Americanization movement involving all sectors of society. [View task force website] [View report (930KB PDF)]

Energy Dept. Identifies Security Problems (Government Executive) “Auditors in the Energy Department’s inspector general office identified six major management challenges that threaten operations unless department leaders can successfully address the deficiencies in the coming months and years”: “contract administration, cybersecurity, energy supply management, environmental cleanup, nuclear security and nuclear stockpile stewardship,” reports Government Executive. “… In its 2008 financial report issued in November, department officials identified nine leadership challenges that largely mirror the [Inspector General’s] concerns.” [View article] [View report (276KB PDF)]

FBI Plans Hiring Blitz (Reuters) “The FBI said on Monday it had launched one of the largest hiring blitzes in its 100-year history involving 2,100 professional staff vacancies and 850 special agents aimed at filling its most critical vacancies,” reports Reuters. The agency “has more than 12,800 agents and about 18,400 other employees.” [View article]

United Nations News

UN Lacks Resources for Additional Peacekeeping Operations Any United Nations peacekeeping operation beyond the current 16 would likely be “large and complex” and therefore problematic, according to the Government Accountability Office, because the UN is already short of resources to maintain its current peacekeeping tasks. [View GAO summary]

U.S. Grants Expanded Nuclear Inspection Rights to IAEA An Additional Protocol to the nuclear safeguards agreement between the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency and the United States that boosts access to nuclear information and sites has now entered into force, making the United States the last of the five nuclear-weapon states party to a global nonproliferation pact to fulfill this obligation. [View press release] [View Focus on the IAEA]

Private-Sector News

Washington-Area Business Leaders Get Terror Briefing (Washington Business Journal) “Security officials briefed more than 300 business leaders Thursday morning on how to operate during inauguration weekend and what they can do to prevent and react to terrorism threats,” reports the Washington Business Journal. The Greater Washington Board of Trade and the D.C. Chamber of Commerce hosted the event. [View article]

Dual-Benefit Solutions

Redhorse: A Soft Side of the Air Force (Small Wars Journal) The Air Force can make big contributions in the war on terror, says Major John Bellflower in his article “The Soft Side of Airpower” in Small Wars Journal. “In remote areas of the world, particularly Africa, air transport may be the only means of contact to the outside world,” he writes. “The Air Force’s Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers (REDHORSE) could be airlifted into these locations” to rebuild or construct airfields to open an air supply route. The “airstrips, in turn, would act as conduits for supplying the region with food and healthcare. Construction units could also serve dual purposes in meeting economic and health interests”—drilling water wells and erecting needed facilities. With other Air Force construction units and local labor, REDHORSE could build “clinics, schools, police stations, community centers …” and “repair existing facilities” to provide electricity, water, and “other needed life support systems.” [View article (118KB PDF)]

Dual-benefit news archive

New Upcoming Events (After four weeks, events are moved to the Upcoming Events page) Small Vessel Security Summit (January 10; Houston) The Homeland Security Department and Eighth Coast Guard District will host this summit to focus the Gulf Coast region’s maritime stakeholders on a range of discussions and concerns involving small vessel security risk in the Gulf Coast maritime domain. [View event website] (January 27-28; Arlington, VA) With the Association of American Railroads, the American Public Transportation Association, the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, and the Railway Supply Institute, Railway Age presents this forum to address topics such as state compacts, passenger and baggage screening, fusion centers, tunnel operations, tracking and tracing technology, resilience, and “not in my backyard” activism. [View event website] (January 27-28; Arlington, VA) MarineLog’s Maritime & Port Security 2009 Conference & Expo will examine the “scan every box” container security requirement, the terrorism threat to ports and shipping, piracy off the Horn of Africa, new technologies, and more. [View event website] CBRN Conference (February 4-6; Coral Gables, FL) This conference will explore the integration of explosives into a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear response plan; agency interoperability; effective emergency communications; and incident management. It will also examine the policies and procedures for preparedness in natural disasters and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats at special events. [View event website] (February 9-11; ) This event sponsored by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement will provide a forum to discuss solutions for privacy and identity management, applications of biometric capabilities in theater, requirements and technologies for biometric interoperability, and the future of biometrics programs. [View event website] Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office Advance Planning Briefing for Industry (February 17; Washington, DC) This briefing forecasts the requirements for potential projects that will be funded in the coming fiscal year. [View event website] (February 18-20; San Diego) This year’s theme is “The Changing Face of Preparedness: Building and Sustaining Public Health Capacity for Disaster Response.” [View event website] (March 2-9; Miami) This conference will present biometric objectives and proven methods, processes, and approaches for achieving results from biometric initiatives. Presentations will cover biometric applications and best practices in government, telecommunications, border control, law enforcement, healthcare, and more. [View event website] (March 4-5; Warsaw, Poland) This conference will examine the latest policies and procedures from international border security agencies, nations, and border police and discuss how new technologies and initiatives are helping to improve security at all levels. [View event website] (March 9-11; Charlotte, NC) The symposium will comprise hard-hitting, factual presentations about the personal protective equipment that most firefighters use regularly. It will cover design, performance, testing & certification, and much more. [View event website] (March 24-28; Baltimore) This event showcases an overview of the emergency medical services industry: people, products, and ideas, along with cutting-edge topics, practices, and procedures and a chance to evaluate current equipment and discover the many new products being launched. [View event website] Supply Chain Security Seminar (April 1-3; New Orleans) This Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism seminar, open to certified members only, will focus on the need to manage risk in the global supply chain by strengthening the Customs-trade cooperative partnership. [View event website]