National News

Hudson River Plane Crash Tests Emergency Response (New York Times) “When US Airways Flight 1549 splashed down in the Hudson” on January 15, it “tested emergency response communications and coordination,” forcing into action “the emergency systems and protocols created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks,” reports the New York Times. “… The early sense that birds had taken out Flight 1549’s engines ran through those first notifications and colored everything,” and “terrorism was quickly ruled out.… A new, integrated radar system shared by the” Federal Aviation Administration and the North American Aerospace Defense Command “gave the officials a ‘common operational picture,’ of the sky,” and “unlike on Sept. 11, controllers never lost track of the plane.” [View article]

Is In-Flight Internet A Terrorist Threat? (InformationWeek) “Could Internet access onboard an airplane facilitate a terrorist attack?” asks columnist Alexander Wolfe in InformationWeek, citing a February 6 New York Times story, which noted that “a flight attendants’ union has even expressed concern that terrorists could use it to plot attacks.” Wolfe points to an answer by Glenn Fleishman in Wi-Fi Net News: “Terrorists (and anyone) can communicate using ad hoc Wi-Fi networks or Bluetooth on planes today above 10,000 feet.… we’re unlikely to see terrorists planning an operation in which the presence of public Internet access was a given.” [View Wolfe commentary] [View Times article] [View Wi-Fi Net commentary]

Army Suspends Germ Research at Fort Detrick (New York Times) “Army officials have suspended most research involving dangerous germs at the biodefense laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., … after discovering that some pathogens stored there were not listed in a laboratory database,” reports the New York Times. “The suspension, which began [Feb. 6] and could last three months, is intended to allow a complete inventory of hazardous bacteria, viruses and toxins stored in refrigerators, freezers and cabinets in the facility, the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.” [View article]

Federal News

Los Alamos Lab Is Missing 67 Computers (Computerworld) New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, “the nation’s leading nuclear weapons lab,” cannot account for “as many as 67” computers, says a memo released by the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration on Wednesday, reports Computerworld. The memo mentions the agency’s “concern over the theft of three computers from the home of an employee” and its frustration at the “lackadaisical response to the theft and the apparent lack of controls aimed at preventing such incidents in the first place.” (See the Oct. 3, 2008, newsletter.) [View article]

U.S. Will Sharply Restrict Renditions, Says Panetta (USA Today) “The Obama administration will sharply restrict ‘extraordinary renditions’ in which the United States sends terror suspects to foreign countries for detention and interrogation, CIA director-nominee Leon Panetta told the Senate” on February 5, reports USA Today. (See last week’s newsletter.) [View article]

Obama Orders Federal Cyber-Security Review (Reuters) “President Barack Obama on Monday ordered an immediate 60-day review of federal cyber security efforts and named Melissa Hathaway, a top U.S. intelligence official, to oversee the effort … for the White House National Security and Homeland Security Councils,” reports Reuters. “The review … will examine what the federal government already is doing to protect vital U.S. computer networks.” [View article]

International News

Pakistan Admits That Mumbai Attacks Were Partly Planned There (BBC) Pakistani Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik “has admitted for the first time that last year’s attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai were partly planned in Pakistan,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… Mr Malik named Hamad Amin, a Karachi resident currently in Pakistani custody as the mastermind behind the attacks.” He “said that a number of suspects from the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group had been held and may be prosecuted.… Delhi has also suggested that what it calls Pakistani ‘state elements’ were involved, something Islamabad has consistently denied.” [View article]

Pakistan Frees A. Q. Khan (New York Times) “A Pakistani court freed history’s most successful nuclear proliferator, Abdul Qadeer Khan, from house arrest on [Feb. 6], lifting the restrictions imposed on him since 2004 when he confessed to running an illicit international network,” reports the New York Times. Khan, in the West considered “a rogue scientist and a pariah who sold technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran, is revered a national hero in Pakistan for his role in transforming the country into a nuclear power.” [View article]

Female Suicide Bomber Kills 28 in Sri Lanka (Reuters AlertNet) “A female Tamil Tiger suicide bomber hiding among people fleeing Sri Lanka’s war blew herself up on Monday, killing at least 28 civilians and soldiers and wounding 90,” reports Reuters. “… The blast happened near Vishvamadu, a town in the north of the Indian Ocean island recently captured by soldiers battling to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.” [View article]

Interpol Issues Alert Over 85 Terrorism Suspects (ABC News) In “an ‘unprecedented global alert,’ the International Criminal Police Organization [on Tuesday] issued its largest-ever most wanted list for 85 terrorist suspects, who are sought by Saudi Arabia for allegedly plotting attacks against the country and for suspected links to al Qaeda,” reports ABC News. [View article]

Wildfires Ravage Australia (Melbourne, Australia, Age) “More than 180 people have perished after devastating bushfires roared across Victoria [state] in Australia’s worst natural disaster,” reports the Age.

• “The towns of Kinglake and Marysville have been wiped out and around the state more people have died than in any previous natural catastrophe—one so lethal that authorities are treating it like a major terrorist attack.” Indeed, Australia implemented “a national terrorist contingency plan.”
• “So many bodies are scattered in fire zones around the state that it could take days to find and retrieve them all.”
• “The Churchill fire was attributed to arson,” and police believe that “the massive Marysville bushfire … may have been deliberately lit.”
• “Premier John Brumby has announced a royal commission into the Victorian bushfires amid suggestions that long-standing strategies for dealing with fire emergencies may have failed with catastrophic consequences.” (See the Quote of the Week.)

U.S. Lacks Accountability for Weapons Supplied to Afghanistan “The Secretary of Defense should establish clear accountability procedures for weapons in the control and custody of the United States,” says the Government Accountability Office, which notes that there are not “complete records for about 87,000 … weapons shipped to Afghanistan.” The “accountability weaknesses” include “illiteracy, corruption, and unclear guidance.” [View GAO summary]

Was Chinese Quake a Man-Made Disaster? (International Herald Tribune) “Nearly nine months after a devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province left 80,000 people dead or missing [see the May 16, 2008, newsletter], a growing number of U.S. and Chinese scientists are suggesting that the calamity was triggered by a four-year-old reservoir built close to the fault line at the center of the earthquake,” reports the International Herald Tribune. “A Columbia University scientist who studied the quake has said that it may have been triggered by the weight of 320 million tons of water in the Zipingpu Reservoir less than a mile from a well-known major fault. His conclusions, presented to the American Geophysical Union in December, coincide with a new finding by Chinese geophysicists that the dam caused significant seismic changes before the earthquake.” [View article]

Mexico Requires Fingerprinting of Mobile Phone Users (Reuters) “Mexico will start a national register of mobile phone users that will include fingerprinting all customers in an effort to catch criminals who use the devices to extort money and negotiate kidnapping ransoms,” reports Reuters. “Under a new law published on Monday and due to be in force in April, mobile phone companies will have a year to build up a database of their clients, complete with fingerprints.” [View article]

Countries Face New UK Visa Rules (BBC) South Africa, “Bolivia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Venezuela … failed a test of the threat posed by their citizens in terms of security, immigration and crime,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. (See the July 11 newsletter.) “Nationals from the five countries will now need to provide fingerprints and pay a fee to obtain a visa before travelling to the” United Kingdom. [View article]

U.S. Army Radio in Afghanistan Helps Tune Out Taliban (Dallas Morning News) The U.S. Army’s Radio Zormat, “broadcast in Pashtu,” should “reach clear across the Zormat area of operations”—“750 square miles,” reports the reports the Dallas Morning News. “… When the Taliban try to go on the air with their radio programming, Radio Zormat pushes into the Taliban frequencies or throws an electronic snowstorm around the insurgents’ broadcasts.” (See the Jan. 30 newsletter.) “U.S. troops have distributed about 1,500 hand-crank radios (batteries and sunlight can also provide power) that can pick up the station. Some radios have been confiscated and burned by the Taliban, but the station is growing in popularity.” [View article]

State and Local News

Maine Man Had ‘Dirty Bomb’ Materials (Bangor [ME] Daily News) “James G. Cummings, who police say was shot to death by his wife two months ago, allegedly had a cache of radioactive materials in his home suitable for building a ‘dirty bomb,’” reports the Daily News. “… Also found was literature on how to build ‘dirty bombs’ and information about cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60, radioactive materials.” An “FBI report also stated there was evidence linking James Cummings to white supremacist groups.” [View article]

Drug Gangs Threaten Tijuana Cops on Radio, Then Kill Them (San Diego Union-Tribune) “Mexican drug gangs are breaking into Tijuana [Mexico] police radio frequencies to issue chilling death threats to cops which they then carry out,” reports Reuters. “… Cartels killed some 530 police in Mexico last year, some of them corrupt officers who were working for rival gangs. Others were killed in shoot-outs or murdered for working against the gangs or refusing to turn a blind eye to drug shipments.” [View article]

Berkeley, CA, Trains Students for Earthquake Response (Government Technology) The city of “Berkeley has teamed up with its well known university, the University of California, Berkeley” campus, “to train students in disaster response and equip them with” supplies, reports Government Technology. “More than 2,000 students at” the university are receiving the training and “basic supplies, like a generator, goggles, fire extinguisher, portable lights and two-way radios.” [View article]

False Automated Alert Rattles Indiana (Washington Post) “A computer glitch” on February 5 “sent phone calls and e-mails falsely telling Indiana crime victims that offenders were being released from prison,” reports the Associated Press. “… more than 330 erroneous phone calls and about 11,000 e-mails … informed victims that people who committed crimes against them would be released” that day. [View article]

Private-Sector News

Brijot Software Improves Millimeter-Wave Imaging With improved millimeter-wave imaging (see the Nov. 14 newsletter), Brijot Application Software makes detecting objects concealed under clothing more efficient and effective. It displays a smoother processed image, which, with improved screen resolution, well defines the objects being detected. Coupled with faster imaging frame rates, it notably improves image processing, display, and detection. It uses an open architecture that makes implementation, future enhancement development, and integration with other systems easier. [View press release]

Solace Enables Faster Homeland Security Network Messaging Solace Systems’ content routers are the first hardware appliance to support the Emergency Data Exchange Language Distribution Element (EDXL-DE) specification, the standard for data sharing within and across U.S. emergency information systems. The EDXL-DE network will support secure communications between intelligence services, other government agencies, first responders, and frontline emergency services personnel. [View press release]

Dual-Benefit Solutions

Kentucky Uses Earthquake Plan to Cope With Ice Storm (Lexington [KY] Herald-Leader) Kentucky’s “worst natural disaster in years”—“a brutal winter storm” on January 27—“left a record 769,000 without electricity, killed 30 people and sent thousands to shelters,” reports the Associated Press. Brigadier General “John Heltzel, the head of Kentucky’s Division of Emergency Management,” used “statewide earthquake training held last March as a rescue blueprint for the ice storm, and credits that preparation with saving lives … Still, Heltzel says the state needs to upgrade some of its tools for dealing with statewide disasters. County emergency operation centers throughout the state should have satellite communication, a generator and a store room stocked with ready-to-eat meals, he said. The state also needs a statewide shelter plan, Heltzel said. And, the state’s emergency operations center—first-rate technology in the 1970s—could use some upgrades.” [View article]

Dual-benefit news archive

New Upcoming Events (After four weeks, events are moved to the Upcoming Events page) Homeland Security S&T Stakeholders Conference West (February 23-26; Bellevue, WA) This year’s theme is “First Responders Frontiers: Enabling First Responders Today and Tomorrow.” The conference is presented by the National Defense Industrial Association, with subject matter support provided by the Homeland Security Department’s Science & Technology Directorate. The conference will inform first responders, state and local governments, industry, and academia of the direction, emphasis, scope, and status of the S&T Directorate’s research investments and describe the business opportunities for private-sector organizations and universities in the United States and around the world. [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] Asymmetrical Warfare Symposium III (March 24; Ft. Myers, VA) This symposium, co-hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute and CACI International, will discuss “The Offensive and Defensive Aspects of ‘Soft Power,’” “Cyber Security/Cyber Warfare in the Asymmetric Environment of the 21st Century,” and “Integrating and Balancing Soft and Kinetic Power—Delivering ‘Smart Power.’” [View event website] (April 13-17; Orlando, FL) This conference will cover technologies for defense, industrial, and commercial applications; sensing and systems; and sensor and data analysis. [View event website] Fire-Rescue Med 2009 (May 2-6; Las Vegas) This conference gives fire-based emergency medical services leaders a chance to gain the tools they need to make a difference in their departments, to connect with key leaders to expand their EMS network, and to see firsthand the latest products and services to help them cut costs and increase efficiency. [View event website] (May 5-8; Baltimore) This symposium integrates recent developments in risk assessment, fundamental research, and innovative engineering applications for both conventional and emerging contaminants and offers a broad perspective on environmental biotechnology worldwide. [View event website] Biometrics and Forensics in a Time of Uncertainty (May 12-14; San Diego) The conference will discuss and capture biometrics and forensics concepts, doctrines, and operational and research & development requirements from Army and Defense Department Centers of Excellence to inform Army Training and Doctrine Command’s collaborative combat developments and the Defense Department’s joint capabilities-based assessments. [View event website] (May 12-15; Tampa, FL) The conference will offer user presentations, demos, panel discussions, and hands-on training. Presentations are planned on secure messaging, information assurance, secure networks, and identity management. [View event website] (May 13-14; Phoenix) This year’s theme is “Balancing Trade With Security: The Future of Border Security.” The conference will focus on strategies and tools for border management, including surveillance technologies, identification management, biometrics, biohazard detection, and intelligence sharing, along with extensive coverage of law enforcement’s role in border security at all levels. [View event website]