State and Local News

20 Somali-Americans Disappear From Minneapolis—for Jihad? (Newsweek) “Counterterrorism officials and the FBI … are probing whether al-Shabab or other Somali Islamic groups are actively recruiting in a few cities across the United States,” reports Newsweek. “… as many as 20 Somali-Americans between the ages of 17 and 27 have left their Minneapolis homes in the past 18 months under suspicious circumstances.… one of the missing men, Minnesotan Shirwa Ahmed, blew himself up alongside other suicide bombers in Somalia last October.” Ahmed had spent “time at the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, Minneapolis’s largest mosque.… within weeks [of his suicide bombing] the FBI put the imam of the mosque, Sheik Abdirahman Ahmed, on a no-fly list.… traveling to Somalia to train or fight with [al-Shabab] is illegal” although “Al-Shabab has no history of targeting the U.S.” And there’s been no “evidence that recruiting was underway at any mosque in the city.” [View article]

Texas Border Webcams Fall Short (El Paso Times) “A virtual border surveillance program [that] Gov. Rick Perry has committed millions of taxpayer dollars to fell far short of expectations during the first six months of operation,” reports the El Paso Times. “Border sheriffs, [whom] Perry gave $2 million to line the Texas-Mexico border with hundreds of Web cameras, installed only about a dozen and made just a handful of apprehensions as a result of tips from online viewers.” [View article]

NJ Says 9/11 Rescue Workers Foundation Misspent Donations (Newark, NJ, Star-Ledger) New Jersey “authorities have filed a lawsuit to dissolve a 9/11 charity that was supposed to benefit ailing World Trade Center rescue workers, but instead allegedly spent $75,000 to pay for mortgages, restaurants, dentists and doctors for the organization’s two founders,” reports the Star-Ledger. “… The state revoked the foundation’s nonprofit registration in August.” [View article]

Neo-Nazi With Bombs Arrested in Alabama (Mobile [AL] Register) Thomas Hayward Lewis “has affiliations with neo-Nazi groups,” reports the Register. He was “suspected of spray painting swastikas and racist slogans on a Messianic Jewish house of worship,” but when he was arrested last week, “a search of his house turned up a cache of ‘explosive materials,’ which investigators believe he was ready to use.” [View article]

New this week in the Journal of Homeland Security In “A Model for Engaging the Faith Community in Advance Preparation for Disaster,” Sharon Canclini, Judy Shannon, and Kay Dillard discuss how the Tarrant County, Texas, faith community, by building relationships, providing information, identifying resources, providing training, and facilitating neighborhood networking, is better prepared to effectively engage in coordinated response and to support community needs in times of disaster.

International News

Taliban Uses Radio to Rule Areas of Pakistan (New York Times) “Every night around 8 o’clock, the terrified residents of Swat, … a hundred miles from three of Pakistan’s most important cities, crowd around their radios [knowing] that failure to listen and learn might lead to a lashing—or a beheading,” reports the New York Times. A Taliban leader “on most nights outlines newly proscribed ‘un-Islamic’ activities in Swat, like selling DVDs, watching cable television, singing and dancing, criticizing the Taliban, shaving beards and allowing girls to attend school. He also reveals names of people the Taliban have recently killed for violating their decrees—and those they plan to kill. ‘They control everything through the radio,’ said one Swat resident.” (See the Quote of the Week.) [View article]

Deaths at Gaza School Were Outside (Toronto Globe and Mail) “When mortar shells fired by advancing Israeli forces killed 43 civilians in the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip [see the Jan. 9 newsletter] … a few people were injured from shrapnel landing inside the white-and-blue-walled [United Nations] compound, [but] no one in the compound was killed,” reports the Globe and Mail. “The 43 people who died in the incident were all outside, on the street, where all three mortar shells landed.… While the killing of 43 civilians on the street may itself be grounds for investigation, it falls short of the act of shooting into a schoolyard crowded with refuge-seekers.” [View article]

Zimbabwe Cholera Deaths Top 3,000 (AllAfrica) The death toll from Zimbabwe’s worst cholera epidemic has climbed to over 3,000, from a total of about 2,700 last week, reports the United Nations World Health Organization. Last week, the number of dead went up 20% (see last week’s newsletter). The outbreak first hit the besieged southern African country about six months ago. There were 57 deaths on Tuesday and 102 on Monday, and the World Health Organization recorded 1,579 new cases of the disease on Tuesday. [View press release]

U.S. Dealers Arming Mexican Drug Cartels (MSNBC) “Mexican and U.S. officials estimate [that] the cartels [see the Jan. 16 newsletter] get 95 percent of their guns from the United States” and “a small number of corrupt American weapons dealers are making the gun running possible,” reports the Associated Press. “… more than 7,700 guns sold in America were traced to Mexico last year, up from 3,300 the year before and about 2,100 in 2006.” [View article]

Blackwater Loses Iraq Contract, Denied License (International Herald Tribune) “Blackwater Worldwide, the security firm whose guards killed 17 civilians on a crowded Baghdad street in 2007 [see the Nov. 16, 2007, newsletter], will not have its security license renewed by the U.S. government, … but it is likely that it will remain at least until spring,” reports the Herald Tribune. “… The Iraqi government has sought in the past to expel Blackwater,” which “had been operating without an Iraqi government license” and was recently denied one. [View article]

24 Canadian Farms Quarantined, 60,000 Turkeys Killed to Stop Bird Flu (Abbotsford [British Columbia] News) Twenty-four British Columbia farms were quarantined “after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) confirmed the presence of avian influenza on” E&H Farms in Abbotsford, reports the Abbotsford News. The agency issued “an order to slaughter all 60,000 turkeys” on that farm. “Tests so far indicate a low pathogenic outbreak of the disease. ‘Low path’ viruses typically only lead to a drop in egg production, whereas high path outbreaks kill birds. It was a high path virus in 2004 that resulted in the slaughter of 17 million poultry in the Fraser Valley” (also in British Columbia). [View article]

EU Takes Iranian Mujahideen Group Off Terror List (Reuters; Yahoo! News) “European states agreed on Monday to remove exiled Iranian opposition group the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) from an EU list of banned terrorist groups … ‘for procedural reasons,’” reports Reuters. “… It remains banned in the United States.” This “is the first time an organization has been ‘de-listed’ by the EU,” reports the Associated Press. [View Reuters article] [View AP article]

Israel Claims Major Attack Thwarted in Europe (Jerusalem Haaretz) “A massive terror attack against an Israeli target in Europe has been thwarted in recent weeks,” reports Haaretz, citing Israeli Channel 2. “The attack, linked to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, was foiled thanks to intelligence sharing between Israel and an undisclosed European country.” [View article]

National News

Two Ex–Guantánamo Detainees Resurface in al-Qaeda (New York Times; Washington Post) “A former Guantánamo Bay detainee [has emerged] as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch,” reports the New York Times. Said Ali al-Shihri “is suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen’s capital, Sana, in September. He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with Al Qaeda in Yemen.” Another former prisoner of Guantánamo Bay has resurfaced as an al-Qaeda terrorist in the past week, reports the Associated Press. “More than 100 Saudis have been repatriated from the U.S. military’s prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Saudi Arabia,” and “a total of 218 men, including former Guantanamo detainees, have gone through the reintegration program … Nine were later arrested again.” “European diplomats said Monday that they are willing to help the Obama administration empty the prison at Guantanamo Bay, but stopped short of making specific promises to give inmates new homes in Europe,” reports the Washington Post. “… their countries are divided over how to proceed, or even whether they should help at all.” [View Times article] [View AP article] [View Post article]

Judge Refuses to Delay Detainee’s Trial (MSNBC) “A military judge at Guantanamo”—Army Colonel James Pohl—yesterday “rejected a White House request to suspend a hearing for a USS Cole bombing suspect,” reports NBC News. “… The administration asked last week for a 120-day suspension in proceedings against some 20 detainees as it considers whether to continue trying alleged terrorists in the military commissions, revamp them or try suspects in other courts.” [View article]

Peanut Processor Knowingly Sold Tainted Products (Washington Post) The Peanut Corporation of America plant in Georgia “linked to a salmonella outbreak that has killed eight people and sickened 500 more across the country knowingly shipped out contaminated peanut butter 12 times in the past two years,” reports the Washington Post, citing the Food and Drug Administration. The company “found salmonella in internal tests a dozen times in 2007 and 2008 but sold the products anyway.” [View article]

New Standard Lets Alarm Companies Transmit to 911 (Government Technology) The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials has approved “an American National Standard that enables alarm companies to transmit alerts to 911 centers automatically,” reports Government Technology. “Alarm companies typically place a phone call to 911 centers when an alarm sounds, but the new standard would send them automatically.” The “standard could eliminate 32 million calls nationally from the alarm companies,” reducing the processing time for alerts and enabling emergency services to reach the scene two to three minutes faster. [View article]

DHS News

Obama Administration Keeps Some DHS Officials for Transition (Washington Post) “The Obama administration has asked nearly two dozen Bush administration officials in the Department of Homeland Security to stay in their jobs until successors can be named,” reports the Washington Post. Retained temporarily are “Deputy Secretary Paul A. Schneider” and “U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner W. Ralph Basham.” But “in some parts of DHS, senior jobs are vacant. On Wednesday, 11 top officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency left their jobs.” [View article]

Napolitano Issues Six More Action Directives Continuing the work begun on her first day as Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano issued action directives for reports to her on northern border strategy, cyber-security, FEMA state and local integration, national planning, first responder health surge capacity, and Hurricane Katrina. [View border and cyber press release] [View FEMA and planning press release] [View surge and Katrina press release]

Other Federal News

NSA Spied on Journalists and Others, Claims Whistleblower (Wired) National Security Agency “whistleblower Russell Tice was … on Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC program” January 21 and 22 claiming “that the National Security Agency spied on individual U.S. journalists, entire U.S. news agencies as well as ‘tens of thousands’ of other Americans,” writes Wired “Threat Level” blogger Kim Zetter. “Tice said … that the NSA had vacuumed in all domestic communications of Americans, including, faxes, phone calls and network traffic” and “that the spy agency also combined information from phone wiretaps with data that was mined from credit card and other financial records.… In most cases, the person would have no discernible link to terrorist organizations that would justify the initial data mining or their inclusion in the database.” [View article]

Air Sovereignty Alert Missions Need Air Force Attention, Says GAO “The Air Force has not implemented the 140 actions it identified to establish” air sovereignty alert (“ground operations that take place before fighter aircraft take off” on a homeland defense mission) as an ongoing and indefinite mission, according to the Government Accountability Office. “The Air Force has instead been focused on other priorities, such as overseas military operations.” [View GAO summary]

Military Wants Better Biometrics at U.S. Bases (Government Executive) “The use of biometrics—ranging from simple fingerprints to more advanced retinal and facial scans—has thrived in Iraq,” reports the Associated Press. “… But in Colorado, military bases just 20 miles or so apart have different identification requirements and access procedures for personnel or contractors trying to get onto the property. The gaps raise security concerns and worries of another attempted massacre scheme, like the one foiled at Fort Dix in New Jersey in 2007.” [View article]

Dual-Benefit Solutions

Flood-Tolerant Rice Boosts Food Security in Asia (CNN) “Two-thirds of the diet of subsistence farmers in India and Bangladesh is made up entirely of rice,” reports CNN. And “as sea levels rise and world weather patterns worsen, flooding has become a major cause of rice crop loss. Scientists estimate [that] 4 million tons of rice are lost every year because of flooding. That’s enough rice to feed 30 million people.… Normal rice dies after three days of complete flooding. Researchers” now have generated “rice that could withstand being submerged in water for 17 days.” It’s been tested for three years “in Bangladesh and India. The subsequent rice harvests were a resounding success.” [View article]

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. Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources Data Webinar (February 17; online) This seminar by Rick Driggers, Director of the DHS Infrastructure Information Collection Division, will discuss the effective use and visualization of critical infrastructure and key resources data. Participants will learn how timely and accurate data impact planning, preparedness, response, and recovery; what training and technical assistance are available; and how the division’s capabilities can enhance infrastructure protection partnerships. [View event website] Field Management of Chemical and Biological Casualties (February 23-27, April 6-10, June 8-12; Aberdeen, MD) This course is conducted by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense. It is designed for Medical Service Corps officers and noncommissioned officers in medical or chemical specialties. It comprises classroom, laboratory, and field training. [View course website] Medical Management of Chemical and Biological Casualties (March 15-20; May 3-8; Aberdeen, MD, and Ft. Detrick, MD) This course is conducted by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense. It is designed for Medical Corps and Nurse Corps officers and physician assistants, Medical Service Corps officers, and other selected medical professionals. It comprises classroom, laboratory, and field training. [View course 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] (April 4-8; Dallas) This summit, sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, permits coordination, collaboration and interaction among the leaders and members of response partner organizations. [View event website] Fire and Emergency Services Higher Education Conference (May 30–June 1; Emmitsburg, MD) Representatives from fire-related degree programs, state and local fire service training agencies, and national fire service organizations attend the conference. Participation is by invitation only. Those active or interested in fire service professional development may apply. [View event website] Disaster Assistance Response Training (June 14-19; Bartlesville, OK) This year’s theme, “Kingdoms in Conflict,” will address working in regions of war, political turmoil, and significant refugee populations. Course topics will include trauma counseling, land mine awareness, evangelism, worldviews and religions, antiterrorism and hostage survival, intercultural communication, missions preparation, and understanding Islam. [View event website]

New Upcoming Events (After four weeks, events are moved to the Upcoming Events page) 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; Vienna, VA) 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 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] Natl. Emergency Management Assn. Midyear Conference (March 6-11; Alexandria, VA) Conferees will hear from those who are shaping the future of homeland security and emergency management, strengthen relationships with partner organizations, and share NEMA’s views on all-hazards emergency preparedness with leaders in Washington. [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] GovSec and U.S. Law (March 11-12; Washington, DC) Civilian and military security professionals from the federal government, along with law enforcement and first responders from the federal, state, and local levels, will gain insight into the latest tools and tactics for ensuring the safety and security of our nation and its people. GovSec and U.S. Law provide a comprehensive approach to securing our country; preparing for and responding to all hazards, threats and disasters; and ensuring public safety. [View event website] Homeland Defense and Security Education Summit (March 12-13; Washington, DC) The theme for this year’s summit is “Creating the Professional Homeland Defender.” The summit is hosted by the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security, the Homeland Security and Defense Education Consortium Association, the DHS Office of the Chief Learning Officer, and the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University. The focus this year is shifting toward academic content, with discussion of the most pertinent issues that homeland defense and security professionals need to be knowledgeable of, how academic practitioners have developed courses to convey this knowledge, and current and relevant research. Educators and trainers will exchange and compare best practices, improve leadership and workforce development, and network with colleagues from more than 150 learning institutions nationwide. [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] (April 5-7; Dallas) This exposition is an opportunity for local, state, and federal public health and emergency preparedness practitioners and policy makers to discover the latest equipment, technologies, and services. [View event website] (April 7-9; Santa Fe, NM) The Decision Applications Division and the Center for Nonlinear Studies of Los Alamos National Laboratory present the 4th annual symposium on the theory and application of risk analysis to homeland security and defense. This event brings together theoreticians, computer modelers, analysts, domain experts, and decision makers from academia, industry, government, and the national laboratories to share knowledge and ideas on the nation’s highest-priority security threats. [View event website] The American Water Works Association Water Security Congress attracts water industry professionals who are looking for the most current information on water security and how to address new and emerging challenges faced by the industry. [View event website] Disaster Management Integration (August 11-13; Sacramento, CA) 2009 West Coast Disaster Management Integration will bring together disaster management professionals from across the country for a hands-on training event with the inaugural theme of “Fires, Floods and Earthquakes: Turning Strategy Into Action.” The Event Showcase will feature leading manufacturers and suppliers. [View event website]

Calls for Papers 12th Annual Force Health Protection Conference (August 14-21; Albuquerque, NM) The conference is seeking presenters on topics related to new technology and scientific advances to protect the health and well-being of soldiers, their families, and the military community. The deadline for submitting abstracts is March 27. [View event website]