International News

MI5 Colluded in Foreign Torture of British Suspects? (London Daily Mail) The British government “‘actively encouraged’ the torture of British terror suspects detained in friendly foreign countries,” according to testimony to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights, reports the Daily Mail. Binyam Mohamed “claims he was tortured in Pakistan, Morocco, Afghanistan and Cuba into confessing his part in an al-Qaeda ‘dirty bomb’ plot.” Prime Minister Gordon Brown “insisted Britain ‘played by the book’ when it attempted to extract information from terror suspects held overseas.… The committee was told that both British and Pakistani agents had admitted … that mistreatment of terror suspects routinely took place.” [View article]

Former MI5 Chief Says Britain Exploits Terrorism; Intl. Jurist Commission Says Antiterror Tactics ‘Weaken Law’ (London Times; BBC) “Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5, has accused the Government of exploiting people’s fear of terrorism to restrict civil rights,” reports the London Times. She “retired as Director General of the Security Service in 1996.… Dame Stella said that America was even more to blame and had acted as a recruiting sergeant for extremists, through harsh anti-terror measures that have been accused of breaching human rights law.” A new report by the International Commission of Jurists “appeared to confirm Dame Stella’s view”: “Anti-terror measures worldwide have seriously undermined international human rights law … the International Commission of Jurists said,” according to the British Broadcasting Corporation. The commission “said many states used the public’s fear of terrorism to introduce measures” including “detention without trial, illegal disappearance and torture.” The study “said that the UK and the US have ‘actively undermined’ international law by their actions. It concluded that many measures introduced to fight terrorism were illegal and counter-productive. It called for justice systems to be strengthened and warned that temporary measures should not become permanent.… The panel reviewed counter-terrorism measures in over 40 countries, and heard from government officials, victims of terror attacks, and from people detained on suspicion of terrorism.” [View Times article] [View BBC article]

UK to Shift Antiterror Strategy (BBC) “The UK government is preparing a major shift in its counter-terrorism strategy to combat radicalisation” with a new “policy called Contest 2 due to be launched this Spring,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… Conservative Muslims who teach that Islam is incompatible with Western democracy will be challenged as part of a new approach … Muslim leaders who urge separation will be isolated and publicly rejected … even if their comments [fall] within the law.… Sir Norman Bettison from the Association of Chief Police Officers [said that] police and other officials would use ‘any means available to get the information that is required to prosecute people committing criminal acts.’” [View article]

Terrorism Resurgent in Greece (ABC News) “A new and possibly more dangerous generation of Greek extremists is escalating attacks against police and symbols of capitalism, years after authorities believed they had stamped out domestic terrorism,” reports the Associated Press. “… Although the Wednesday car bomb did not explode and the shooting the day before caused no injuries, they come on the heels of a spate of attacks in the past few months. Nobody has been killed so far but authorities are alarmed that the terror tactics appear to demonstrate a desire to carry out indiscriminate slaughter.” [View article]

Iran Calls for Global Nuclear Disarmament (Jerusalem Haaretz) “Alireza Moaiyeri, Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, addressed the Conference on Disarmament” yesterday and called “for global negotiations aimed at total nuclear disarmament, saying that the elimination of atomic weapons was the only guarantee against their use or threatened use,” reports Reuters. [View article]

Islamic Law Imposed in Parts of Pakistan (International Herald Tribune) “Pakistan agreed Monday to suspend military offensives and impose Islamic law in part of the restive northwest, making a gesture it hopes will help calm the Taliban insurgency while rejecting Washington’s call for tougher measures against militants,” reports the Associated Press. The “peace agreement applies to the Malakand region … where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding.” [View article]

CIA Helped India and Pakistan Share Secrets in Mumbai Probe (Washington Post) “In the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the CIA orchestrated back-channel intelligence exchanges between India and Pakistan, allowing the two former enemies to quietly share highly sensitive evidence while the Americans served as neutral arbiters,” reports the Washington Post. The intelligence “included sophisticated communications intercepts and an array of physical evidence detailing how the gunmen and their supporters planned and executed their three-day killing spree in the Indian port city.” [View article]

U.S. to Send Thousands More Troops to Afghanistan (Newsweek) The United States plans to deploy “some 17,000 extra troops to Afghanistan,” reports Newsweek. (See the Statistics of the Week.) “… Already postponed from May because the Taliban insurgency has prevented voter-registration across most of the south and east of the country, Afghanistan’s national elections have now been set for early August. This vote’s success is critical to Washington’s strategy in Afghanistan. And it won’t be unless U.S. troops can bring security to the most threatened areas.” [View article]

Qatada Fights Deportation From Britain (CNN; London Guardian; London Times) “The UK’s highest court Wednesday ordered that the man known as Osama bin Laden’s spiritual ambassador to Europe be deported to Jordan, despite claims that he faces torture,” reports CNN. “… Radical cleric Abu Qatada, also known as Omar Othman, has been engaged in a long-running campaign to remain in the UK since he arrived 16 years ago.… The government has claimed that he is a national security risk who fundraised for terrorist groups, including organizations linked to bin Laden; and that he publicly supported the violent activities of those groups.” However, his lawyer “lodged an appeal at the European court of human rights, which could take as long as two years to decide on the matter,” reports the Guardian. That court this week awarded him “compensation of £2,500 after ruling that his detention without trial after the 9/11 attacks was a breach of his human rights,” reports the London Times. [View CNN article] [View Guardian article] [View Times article]

India Plans 20 Counterterrorism Schools The Government of India has decided to set up 20 counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism schools during its 11th Plan. It proposes to locate four schools each in the states of Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Orissa to train state police personnel. [View press release]

Sons of Iraq Transition to Government Employment (DefenseLink) “The transfer of the ‘Sons of Iraq’ civilian security group to Iraqi government control and the transition into new employment and education activities is moving ahead according to plan,” reports the American Forces Press Service. “… The Sons of Iraq—who number about 94,000 in nine provinces across Iraq—arose out of a grassroots movement in 2006 known as Sahwah, or ‘The Awakening,’ that united Iraqis who had grown tired of al-Qaida-inspired violence in their communities.… the Iraqi government and coalition forces are working to find new, long-term jobs for the group’s members. Twenty percent will join the Iraqi police or Iraqi army, and the remainder will be employed in a variety of civil or private-sector jobs.” [View article]

National News

Swarming Terrorist Attacks Could Hit America (New York Times) “Al Qaeda and its affiliates have been using … swarm tactics for several years”—but the recent pattern of “coordinated swarm attacks in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, Yemen and elsewhere … suggests that Americans should brace for a coming swarm,” writes John Arquilla, a special operations program teacher at the Naval Postgraduate School, in the New York Times. Arquilla says that to counter the swarms, “the simplest way is to create many more units able to respond to simultaneous, small-scale attacks and spread them around the country.” [View article]

U.S. Military Offers Renewed Path to Citizenship (New York Times) “The American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become United States citizens in as little as six months,” reports the New York Times. “… the new effort, for the first time since the Vietnam War, will open the armed forces to temporary immigrants if they have lived in the United States for a minimum of two years.” [View article]

State and Local News

Taliban Threats Reach New York Immigrants (New York Times) “Pakistani immigrants from the Swat Valley, where the Taliban have been battling Pakistani security forces since 2007, say some of their families [left behind] are being singled out for threats, kidnapping and even murder by Taliban forces, who view them as potential American collaborators and lucrative sources of ransom,” reports the New York Times. “Some immigrants also say they, too, have been threatened in the United States by the Taliban or its sympathizers, and … say they have been attacked or kidnapped when they have returned home.… 6,000 to 7,000 people from the Swat Valley [are] in the United States, about half of whom live in the New York metropolitan region.” [View article]

Cambridge, MA, Street Cameras Installed but Turned Off (Cambridge Chronicle) “Eight new Homeland Security cameras aimed at Cambridge streets have yet to be switched on after the City Council recently responded to public outcry and ordered the surveillance equipment removed,” reports the Cambridge Chronicle. “… the cameras were scheduled to be turned on at the end of January … Government officials are installing 95 cameras in nine cities and towns in greater Boston at a cost of $4.6 million in federal grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes the cost of developing a wireless network that connects the public safety agencies in the region.” [View article]

DHS News

Air Marshal Service Improving, Says GAO The Federal Air Marshal Service has made progress implementing the Homeland Security Institute’s 2006 recommendations, says the Government Accountability Office. The service “seeks to maximize coverage of flights in 10 targeted high-risk categories, which are based on consideration of threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences.… The institute recommended that [the service] increase randomness or unpredictability in selecting flights and otherwise diversify the coverage of flights within the various risk categories,” and the Federal Air Marshal Service is acting “to implement the Homeland Security Institute’s recommendations.” The service is also addressing workforce issues that have been identified. [View GAO summary]

TSA Can’t Reset PINs on Thousands of TWICs (Federal Computer Week) “The Transportation Security Administration is blaming a power outage last October for permanently damaging equipment used to reset personal identification numbers for thousands of holders of the Transportation Workers Identification Credential,” reports Federal Computer Week. “… Workers who received their TWIC cards before Oct. 21, 2008 who have forgotten their PINs must turn in their card and receive a replacement card.” [View article] [View Focus on TWIC]

ICE Agents Were Pressured to Meet Arrest Quotas (WTOP radio, Washington, DC) “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 24 Hispanics at a convenience store in Baltimore two years ago after their supervisor told them to ‘bring more bodies’ because they were behind their annual quota of 1,000 arrests per team,” reports the Associated Press, citing “the agency’s internal investigation report,” released by “the immigration rights group CASA de Maryland … The report contradicts some sworn declarations made by ICE agents involved in the sweep, prompting the agency’s Acting Assistant Secretary John Torres to ask for an investigation.” [View article]

Napolitano Wants to Battle Illegal Immigration Profits (National Public Radio) Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano plans “enforcement against those who intentionally are going into the illegal labor market and creating a demand for illegal laborers” and to focus “on human traffickers—those who are really exploiting this illegal market to great financial gain,” she told National Public Radio in an interview on Monday, partly in response to a report by the Migration Policy Institute, DHS and Immigration: Taking Stock and Correcting Course (see the Website of the Week). She also wants to “facilitate the applications of citizenship for those who are entitled to become citizens” and said that border fencing has to be part of an overall system (see the Quote of the Week). [View article] [View report (1.1MB PDF)]

Napolitano Orders Topoff Review (New York Times) Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered a review of “a national exercise program, formerly called Topoff for the ‘top officials’ who participate,” reports the New York Times. When she was “governor of Arizona, Ms. Napolitano” complained that the $25 million October 2007 Topoff exercise, in “which she and 23,000 other federal, state and local emergency workers participated in, was too expensive, too long in planning and ‘too removed from a real-world scenario.’” [View article]

Napolitano Orders Departmentwide Efficiency Review (NextGov) Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano “issued a directive on Tuesday that requires agencies to review plans to reduce costs, streamline processes and improve the availability of information in a departmentwide strategy to become more efficient,” reports NextGov. “… she plans to form a steering committee of leaders from the departmental agencies that will consolidate duplicate processes and improve accountability.” [View article]

All TSA Employees Go to Charm School (MSNBC) “To address a variety of problems and improve overall checkpoint security, the [Transportation Security Administration] in October rolled out a new skills training program,” reports MSNBC. “It’s called Engage! (exclamation point included!) and all 50,000 TSA workers are required to attend.… TSA is now encouraging and expecting all employees to go beyond their ‘stick to the manual’ training. The assignment now: to think more critically; to draw on the accumulated skills of co-workers; and to do as much as possible to make passengers feel more comfortable and involved as ‘stakeholders’ in the security process.” [View article]

DHS Earth Aids Infrastructure Protection (Federal Computer Week) “The Homeland Security Department has developed DHS Earth, a geospatial mapping and visualization application, to share data [to] related infrastructure protection and improve situational awareness,” reports Federal Computer Week. “… DHS Earth was built using a Google Earth application. The program is part of DHS’ suite of geospatial visualization and analysis tools named the Integrated Common Analytical Viewer,” which is “managed by DHS’ Office of Infrastructure Protection.” [View article]

Health and Wellness Guide for the Volunteer Fire and Emergency Services The U.S. Fire Administration, working with the National Volunteer Fire Council, has issued this revised guide with updated information on health and wellness, trends, and programs. It addresses fitness, including aerobic exercise, flexibility, strength training, diet, smoking cessation, and other areas. [View press release]

Other Federal News

Intellipedia’s Informal Status Slows Growth (Government Computer News) “The U.S. intelligence agencies’ internal wiki Intellipedia has gotten glowing press reports and accolades, as well as input from thousands of analysts. However, the wiki still struggles to make a permanent home in the spy agencies,” reports Government Computer News. “… About all those who would have joined and shared their knowledge on the social networking site have already done so. If the intelligence agencies want to get further gains from the site, they need to incorporate it into their own formal decision making process, [Chris Rasmussen, a social-software knowledge manager and trainer at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency] contended.” [View article]

Stimulus Package Drops E-Verify Requirement, Restores Justice Dept. Responder Grants (NextGov; Government Technology) “Senate and House conferees removed a controversial provision from the economic stimulus package that would have required companies to verify the immigration status of their workers,” reports CongressDaily. “… In a separate move, conferees kept in the final bill a Senate provision that would restrict the ability of companies receiving federal bailout funds from hiring highly skilled foreign workers.” The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 also “restores $4 billion in U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) grants for law enforcement that had been cut during the previous administration,” reports Government Technology. [View NextGov article] [View Govt. Technology article]

New Reactor Designs Must Consider Large Aircraft Impact The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a final rule that requires applicants for new power reactors to assess the ability of their reactor designs to avoid or mitigate the effects of a large commercial aircraft impact. [View press release]

Private-Sector News

Employers Indicted for Visa Fraud (ComputerWorld) “Federal agents” have “arrested 11 people in six states in a crackdown on H-1B visa fraud,” reports ComputerWorld. “… in some cases, H-1B workers were paid the prevailing wages of low-cost regions and not necessarily the higher salaries paid in the locations where they worked. By doing this, the companies were ‘displacing qualified American workers and violating prevailing wage laws,’ said federal authorities … Vision Systems Group Inc.,” with offices in New Jersey and Iowa, “was cited in a 10-count indictment.” [View article]

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] Regional Workshops on Standards of Care During a Mass Casualty Event (March 12, Irvine, CA; April 14, Orlando, FL; April 27, New York; May 8, Chicago) Hosted by the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Catastrophic Events, the workshops will illuminate the progress and successes of efforts under way to establish local, state, and regional standards-of-care protocols. They are also intended to help to improve regional efforts by facilitating a dialog and coordination between neighboring jurisdictions. [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 6-8; McLean, VA) The theme of this year’s conference is “Security 360—Emerging Threats, Practical Solutions.” It will address terrorism, cybercrime, counterintelligence, information security, operations security, security awareness, economic espionage, insider threats, and information assurance. [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 3rd annual conference with more than 80 exhibitors will showcase the latest technology, products, and services with border security applications, and more than 80 “world-class experts” will discuss the latest trends and challenges in border security. More details, the latest agenda, and a list of exhibitors are on the website. Exhibiting and sponsorship opportunities are available. [View event website] (June 21-24; Toronto) This conference brings together experts, practitioners, certifying bodies, and service and product suppliers in emergency management, business continuity, and other disaster management disciplines. [View event website]

Calls for Papers Contingency Planning & Management East 2009 (October 28-30; Orlando, FL) This training conference on business continuity, security, and emergency management is seeking faculty members. Desired topics include standards, private- and public-sector collaboration, physical and IT security, risk, loss prevention, evacuation, and recovery. The deadline for submissions is April 30. [View call for papers]