DHS News

DHS Website Is First to Follow Federal Social Media Guides (NextGov) “The Homeland Security Department relaunched its Web site Wednesday and became the first Cabinet-level agency to follow the tech-savvy White House directives on social media,” reports the Associated Press. “… The White House touted the Homeland Security Department’s online presence as a model for other agencies. The department redesigned its own Web site to offer more opportunities for citizens to interact [particularly on the Ready.gov site] and launched a YouTube channel to post online videos.” (See the Website of the Week.) [View article]

E-Verify Can’t Detect ID Theft (Federal Computer Week) “The Homeland Security Department’s E-Verify employment verification system cannot detect identity theft and fraudulent applications, according to testimony” by “Lynden Melmed, former chief counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,” before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s “Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship Subcommittee on July 21,” reports Federal Computer Week. E-Verify “allows employers to check Social Security numbers for their employees and prospective employees to determine whether the numbers are valid and the employees are therefore eligible to work. However, it is not designed to detect borrowed or stolen Social Security numbers.” (See the Quote of the Week.) [View article]

DHS Cites Progress on 9/11 Commission Recommendations The Homeland Security Department on Wednesday issued a report on its progress in meeting the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. DHS said it has achieved 100% screening for all checked and carry-on baggage at “every major U.S. airport”; screens 100% of cargo on 95% of flights originating in U.S. airports; screens 100% of passengers on flights arriving in, departing from, and within the United States; implemented the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative; began a risk-based methodology for homeland security grants; and “established new law enforcement agreements across all levels of government.” [View press release] [View DHS report (125KB PDF)]

DHS to Spend $389 Million on Emergency Communications (InformationWeek) “The Department of Homeland Security has picked four contractors to support national security communications over the next five years in an effort that could see the department spending up to $389 million,” reports InformationWeek. “Under the terms of the contract, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, SAIC and SRA International will provide scientific, engineering and technical support to the National Communications System, an interagency group that’s responsible for some cybersecurity and coordinates national security and emergency preparedness communications.” [View article]

Ready Campaign Offers Social Media Preparedness Tools (Washington Examiner) The Homeland Security Department’s Ready Campaign, in partnership with the Advertising Council, as “an extension of Resolve to be Ready in 2009,” is offering new social media tools to help Americans prepare for emergencies, reports the Examiner. The “Be Prepared” web page (see the Website of the Week) “features an interactive widget that provides” updates on emergencies, “local emergency contact information, an instructional video, emergency kit checklists and guidelines on how to better prepare for an emergency. Users can also access a clickable map to find contact information for state and local government agencies, where they can learn more about specific emergency information in their communities. Additionally, the widget helps users stay up-to-date on the latest Ready activities through Twitter news feeds.” [View article]

TSA Lab Tests Luggage Scanners (CNN) Researchers are “trying to improve current bomb detection technologies and develop new ones at the Transportation Security Laboratory,” reports CNN. They “manufacture improvised explosive devices” to be “detonated inside old airplane fuselages … bombs are also put in luggage and run through screening machines.” The researchers also “run fully packed bags through screening machines to learn what items cause false alarms.” [View article]

Photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman

Other Federal News

Guantánamo Review Delayed 6 Months (Washington Times) “President Obama on Monday extended by six months a task force charged with determining how terrorism suspects should be interrogated, held in custody or handed over to other countries,” reports the Washington Times. “… Six months after Mr. Obama signed the closure order, fewer than 20 of about 245 inmates have been transferred out of the U.S. military base in Cuba.” [View article]

Pentagon Issues Regulations for Private Security Contractors (Government Executive) The Defense Department on July 17 “released an interim final rule”—“effective immediately”—“laying out policy regarding the use of private security contractors in war zones,” reports Government Executive. “… The rule requires combatant commanders to develop detailed guidance for security contractors operating in their geographic area of responsibility. The guidance must address a range of specific issues, from ensuring [that] private security contractors have the proper training and certification to carry weapons to coordinating communication between [private security contractors] and military forces. The rule … is open for comment until Aug. 13.” [View article]

Congressional Oversight of DHS Has Multiplied (Christian Science Monitor) One recommendation of the 9/11 Commission—“streamlining congressional oversight—never got off the ground” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “… 108 congressional committees and subcommittees now claim oversight of the” Homeland Security Department—“up 20 from the 9/11 commission’s count of 88 in 2004—a system it then dubbed ‘dysfunctional.’” [View article]

International News

Two Jakarta Hotels Bombed (BBC; Time; Melbourne, Australia, Age) “At least nine people have been killed, including two suspected suicide bombers, in two blasts at luxury hotels in the Indonesian capital Jakarta” on July 17, reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “One explosion hit the Ritz-Carlton, ripping off its facade, and the other the JW Marriott. As many as 50 people were hurt.” “Just hours after the hotel explosions, police located and defused an undetonated bomb in a room on the 18th floor of the Marriott, where the bombers had stayed for two nights,” reports Time. “… one bag carrying the July 17 bomb materials had set off a metal detector but … security guards let it through after the owner said it was just a laptop computer.” “All of the Marriott’s four vapour detectors, used to look for explosives, were out of order,” reports the Age. “So were four at the adjoining Ritz-Carlton.” [View BBC article] [View Time article] [View Age article]

Sole Surviving Mumbai Gunman Pleads Guilty (Madras, India, Hindu) “Ajmal Kasab”—“the lone surviving gunman in the [November 2008] Mumbai attack”—“on Wednesday said he was ready to be hanged and wants no mercy from the court after” his “unexpected confession … on Monday,” reports the Press Trust of India. “… Judge Tahilyani said the court had taken all precautions to ensure that the confession made was voluntary and without external influence.” [View article]

Hampshire, England, Ends Stop-and-Search (London Telegraph) The Hampshire “police force suspended stop and search procedures under the Terrorism Act after figures showed it had completed more than 3,400 but arrested no-one connected with terrorist activity.…” reports the Telegraph. “Similar-sized forces, including Thames Valley and Surrey, also used the powers a total of thousands of times with no arrests for terrorism recorded.” [View article]

New York Man Charged With Assisting al-Qaeda (New York Times) An American, Bryant Neal Vinas, “who traveled to Pakistan and trained in a Qaeda camp there last year has been charged with taking part in a rocket attack against a United States base in Afghanistan,” reports the New York Times. “… Vinas, who was arrested in Peshawar, Pakistan, last November, was also charged with assisting Al Qaeda by providing ‘expert advice and assistance’ that was ‘derived from specialized knowledge of the New York transit system and the Long Island Rail Road, communications equipment and personnel,’ according to” court papers, which “did not mention a specific New York City plot.” [View article]

FARC Leader Brought to U.S. for Trial (Fox News) On July 16, “U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents put [Gerardo Aguilar] Ramirez in shackles, marched him aboard an aircraft … in Bogota [Colombia] and took him to the U.S. to stand trial for his crimes” as “one of the top 10 leaders of the hyper-violent FARC,” reports Fox News. Ramirez “has well-earned credentials as a drug-dealing terrorist with a penchant for trading in hostages.… he was arrested on July 2, 2008 during a dramatic hostage rescue operation” (see the July 11, 2008, newsletter). [View article]

Pentagon Seeks to Overhaul Prisons in Afghanistan (New York Times) “A sweeping United States military review calls for overhauling the troubled American-run prison” in Afghanistan “as well as the entire Afghan jail and judicial systems, a reaction to worries that abuses and militant recruiting within the prisons are helping to strengthen the Taliban,” reports the New York Times. The report by Marine Major General Douglas M. Stone “has not been made public but is circulating among senior American officials.” [View article]

Radical Islamists Easily Enter Kenya (New York Times) “A thin, dusty line is about the only thing separating Kenya, one of the Western world’s closest allies in Africa, from the Shabab, a radical Islamist militia that has taken over much of southern Somalia, beheading detractors, stoning adulterers and threatening to kill any Americans or Europeans who get in their way,” reports the New York Times. “… The Shabab has already penetrated refugee camps inside Kenya … Last Wednesday, in one of its boldest cross-border moves yet, a squad of uniformed, heavily armed Shabab fighters stormed into a Kenyan school in a remote town, rounding up all the children and telling them to quit their classes and join the jihad.… on Saturday it happened again: Somali gunmen, widely believed to be with the Shabab, stormed the offices of an aid organization and kidnapped three aid workers from a Kenyan border town before melting back into Somalia.” [View article]

British Terror Threat Level Reduced (BBC) “The UK terror threat level has been lowered from ‘severe’ to ‘substantial,’” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… The level was raised in 2007, meaning a terrorist attack was ‘highly likely’. The downgrading means there is a ‘strong possibility’ of an attack.” [View article]

Swine Flu Infects 100,000 Britons in One Week (BBC) “The number of new cases of swine flu in the past week has reached an estimated 100,000 and is mainly affecting the under 14s,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… The figure for England is double the total of the previous week and comes as the Department of Health prepares to launch the National Flu Service.” However, the death toll in Britain for swine flu “stands at 31.” [View article]

Philippines Suspends Actions Against Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Australia Network News) The Philippine government has suspended “military operations against the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front.… after nearly a year of fighting and many casualties,” reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “… the Government hopes to resume stalled peace talks with the rebel group,” which, according to the U.S. State Department, has “perpetrated bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings aimed at government forces and in some cases the general civilian population.” [View article] [View State Dept. report]

State and Local News

GAO Reports on Rebuilding After Katrina “In the immediate aftermath of the 2005 hurricanes, Louisiana and Mississippi lacked sufficient capacity to suddenly administer and manage [Community Development Block Grant] programs of such unprecedented size” to restore housing, reports the Government Accountability Office. In addition, “federal agencies provided more than $209 million for disaster case management services to help thousands of households cope with the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but breaks in federal funding adversely affected services to some hurricane victims,” according to another GAO report. The Health and Human Services Department’s Primary Care Access and Stabilization Grant “to Louisiana to help restore primary care services to the low-income population” helped, but “it is too early to know whether” the health care organizations’ efforts are sustainable, reports the GAO in another report. Also, “barriers to mental health services for children persist in greater New Orleans, although federal grants are helping to address them,” reports the GAO in a fourth report. [View GAO block grant summary] [View GAO case management summary] [View GAO sustainability summary] [View GAO mental health summary]

National News

Looking for Anomalies: A Poor Path to Maritime Domain Awareness? (U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings) “The national and Navy plans to achieve [maritime domain awareness] are predicated on the assumption that automated systems can identify terrorists, pirates, or other illicit actors such as smugglers by passively detecting ‘anomalous’ or unusual behavior, an assumption unsupported by any review of the events of the recent past,” writes Lieutenant Mark Munson, U.S. Navy, in the July issue of Proceedings. “In the post–Cold War maritime environment, terrorism and other illicit activities have instead been conducted by those who conform to accepted norms of maritime activity precisely by not doing anything that can be described as uncommon or unexpected.” [View article]

Private-Sector News

Twitter: Good Enough for Government Work? (Government Computer News) “From the Air Force to the White House, 375 agencies or offices use the” Twitter messaging “service, along with 91 U.S. senators, congressmen and [Capitol] Hill staffers,” writes Government Computer News “Cybereye” columnist William Jackson. But recent “hacks, along with misuse of Twitter accounts that could compromise users, also highlight the danger of adopting new technologies as business tools before they are ready to be folded into the enterprise.… Not only has Twitter itself become a target, the site has become a vector for phishing attacks and links to Web sites containing malware.” [View commentary]

Handheld Biodetectors Get Safety Act Coverage (Medical News Today) Universal Detection Technology handheld biodetection kits have received Homeland Security Department approval under the Safety Act. The detectors are used by first responders and private industry throughout the country to screen for the presence of biothreat agents, says the company. [View press release]

U.S. Buys HCV Mobile Cargo Screeners (United Press International) “The U.S. government has contracted Smiths Detection to deliver its mobile threat detection cargo screening technology”—“HCV Mobile inspection vehicles”—“for use at container shipping facilities,” reports UPI. [View article]

Dual-Benefit Solutions

New Drug Shields Against Radiation (Australian) “A medication that can protect people exposed to normally lethal doses of radiation from a nuclear or a ‘dirty’ bomb has been developed,” reports the Australian, citing a story in the Tel Aviv Hebrew newspaper Yediot Achronot. “… In tests involving” monkeys exposed to Chernobyl levels of radiation, almost all “the group given anti-radiation shots … survived and had no side effects. A test on humans not exposed to radiation showed none suffered side effects from the medication.… The medication has important implications in the treatment of cancer, the report said, since it permits use of more powerful radiation.” [View article]

Dual-benefit news archive

Education The Homeland Security studies and analysis 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. Training Tours: General Awareness for Non-Responders and Hazmat Tech Training (July 30-31; Ludington, MI) Two free training tracks cover rail hazmats. The tech training includes locomotives and tank cars, toxic inhalation hazmats and flammable gases, capping kits, tank trucks, and leaks approach, investigation, and mitigation. [View class website] Tank Car Training: Safety and Incident Response (August 3–September 4; Johnson City, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, TN) Two 4-hour classes each day combine classroom and hands-on training in safety when working around tracks and rail equipment and responding to incidents involving hazardous materials transported by rail tank car. Each Friday there is an exercise with the local hazmat response teams. All emergency responders are invited to these free classes presented by DuPont, Transcaer, and Norfolk Southern. [View class website] Medical Management of Chemical and Biological Casualties (August 23-28; 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] Field Management of Chemical and Biological Casualties (September 20-24; 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] Photo courtesy of Norfolk Southern Norfolk Southern Whistle-Stop Tour (Hazmat Training) (September 22-26; Buffalo, NY; Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo, OH; Charleston, WV) The tour brings emergency preparedness training to response organizations and educates communities near major rail routes about rail equipment, chemical transportation, and the importance of planning for potential hazardous material transportation emergencies. State and local emergency planning committees, emergency responders and government officials can participate in free hands-on drills and training sessions. [View class website] Transcaer Hazmat Training for Firefighters and Police (October 2-3; Fort Worth, TX) Free parallel classes for firefighters and police will cover topics such as self-protection, accident investigation, and fire and foam. Continuing education credits are available. [View class website] Transcaer Chlorine Response Training (October 28; Memphis, TN) Sponsored by the Chlorine Institute, Union Pacific Railroad, and Transcaer, this will be a free full-day training session for first responders and others seeking information on response to chemical emergencies with specific emphasis on chlorine. The activities will combine classroom training with hands-on segments. [View class website] CARVER Methodology: Target Analysis and Vulnerability Assessment (December 7-9; Arlington, VA) Participants in this workshop will conduct an actual vulnerability assessment at a government or private-sector facility with active cooperation from local law enforcement, using the criticality, accessibility, recuperability, vulnerability, effect, and recognizability methodology. [View course website]

New Upcoming Events (Events are listed for four weeks; after that, they are still on the Upcoming Events page) International Swine Flu Conference (August 19-21; Washington, DC) Top leaders and key decision makers of major companies representing a broad range of industries will meet with distinguished scientists, public health officials, law enforcers, first responders, and other experts to discuss pandemic prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. [View event website] (September 21-24; Anaheim, CA) This year’s theme is “Security Never Sleeps.” The conference will offer innovations, information, and connections. It will present next-generation security technologies and services, along with opportunities to talk directly to the experts, gain new insights and hone skills through the education program, connect with colleagues from around the globe, share new ideas, and build professional networks. [View event website]