DHS News

The Southwest Border Needs a Comprehensive Approach, Says Napolitano “Southwest border security along with … enforcement of the immigration laws in the interior of the country” and counternarcotics enforcement and streamlined “citizenship processes … are inextricably linked,” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Tuesday in El Paso, TX, addressing the Border Security Conference. “… you cannot segregate the Southwest border from the rest of our nation, nor can we segregate our efforts on the Southwest border from the efforts and the partnership we must have with Mexico.” She also said that “we have a unique opportunity now with Mexico to really break up these [drug] cartels.” [View transcript]

Airline Crews Get Fingerprint IDs (Federal Computer Week) “The Transportation Security Administration has approved standards for a fingerprint identification checking system for airline pilots and crew members” called CrewPass, reports Federal Computer Week. “Eligible crew members and pilots enter a secure area through the exit lane of the security checkpoint after presenting their airline-issued identification and another form of identification to TSA officers. Then TSA employees check those credentials against a cockpit access personnel database.” CrewPass “began operating at three airports last year as a demonstration program.” [View article]

13 More Airports Get Global Entry On August 24, 13 more airports will get Global Entry enrollment centers and kiosks: Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Newark (NJ), San Juan (Puerto Rico), and, in Florida, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Sanford. Using biometric identification, Global Entry streamlines the screening process for trusted travelers. [View press release]

Faster Customs Boat Goes After Smugglers (San Diego Union-Tribune) “U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Monday unveiled a prototype vessel for high-speed pursuits of smugglers ferrying people and drugs from Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean,” reports the Associated Press. “The 43-foot boat is faster, more stable and carries about twice as much fuel as CBP’s current vessels.” It “comes with infrared cameras and sensors that give detailed images as far as the horizon.” [View article]

National News

U.S. Border Corruption Cases Grow (MSNBC) “U.S. law officers who work the border are being charged with criminal corruption in numbers not seen before, as drug and immigrant smugglers use money and sometimes sex to buy protection, and internal investigators crack down,” reports the Associated Press. “… Court records show [that] corrupt officials along the 2,100-mile U.S.-Mexico border have included local police and elected sheriffs, and officers with such U.S. Department of Homeland Security agencies as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection, which includes Border Patrol. Some have even been National Guardsmen temporarily called in to help while the Border Patrol expanded its ranks.” (See the Statistics of the Week.) [View article]

‘Savage Struggle on the Border’ (Homeland Security Today) In five articles collected on one web page, Homeland Security Today examines the “Savage Struggle on the Border”: “The Rise of Islamist Extremism in Latin America,” an “Unholy Trinity” of transnational threats, “Revealing the Threat,” “Honduras: A Beachhead for Narco-Cartels and Islamist Terrorists?” and “Perspective: Murder of Border Patrol Agent Is Test for Mexico, United States.” [View articles]

Right-Wing U.S. Militias Resurgent “Almost a decade after largely disappearing from public view, right-wing militias, ideologically driven tax defiers and sovereign citizens are appearing in large numbers around the country … accompanied by nativist theories about secret Mexican plans to ‘reconquer’ the American Southwest,” reports the Southern Poverty Law Center. “One law enforcement agency has found 50 new militia training groups—one of them made up of present and former police officers and soldiers.” [View article]

Guantánamo Conditions Improved Under Scrutiny, Says Red Cross (Reuters) “The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has won improvements in conditions and treatment of U.S.-held terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay by dogged but confidential scrutiny, its president [Jakob Kellenberger] said Tuesday,” according to Reuters. “… Since January 2002, ICRC officials have visited captured al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters held at the U.S. naval base in southeastern Cuba at the rate of once every six weeks or so.… The ICRC, in … November 2004, accused the U.S. military of using tactics ‘tantamount to torture’ on prisoners at Guantanamo” (see the Dec. 3, 2004, newsletter). [View article]

Georgia Man Convicted of Supporting Terrorism (Columbia, SC, State) Ehsanul Islam Sadequee “was convicted Wednesday of aiding terrorist groups by sending videotapes of U.S. landmarks overseas and plotting to support ‘violent jihad,’ after a federal jury rejected his arguments that it was ‘empty talk,’” reports the Associated Press. He “could face up to 60 years in prison … In June, a judge convicted Sadequee’s friend, Syed Haris Ahmed, of one count of conspiracy to provide material to support terrorism in the U.S. and abroad. [See the June 12 newsletter.] Prosecutors said the pair took a series of videos of the Pentagon and the Capitol and that Sadequee later sent them to suspected terrorists overseas.” [View article]

GIS Gets State-Local-Federal Links (Government Computer News) Geographic information systems “applications and the data they deliver are increasingly being linked thanks to informal information-sharing efforts at local and state agencies and more formal, federally funded programs.…” reports Government Computer News. “David Boyd, director of the Command, Control and Interoperability Division at the Homeland Security Department’s Science and Technology Directorate,” says that “the goal is ‘the interoperability of all of the communications mechanisms, whether it is voice, digital or what, so that you can share the information you have to allow emergency managers to make the right kinds of decisions quickly in order to try to save lives and protect property.’ … One of the most visible and farthest reaching state GIS efforts is Virtual Alabama” (see last week’s newsletter). [View article]

Government-Industry Forum Looks at Threats to the Power Grid (Federal Computer Week) “Operators of the nation’s power grid have joined with government regulators and security vendors to create” the Energy Sector Security Consortium (see the Website of the Week) “for sharing information about threats to the U.S. energy infrastructure,” reports Federal Computer Week. What began as an “informal regional industry group in the Pacific Northwest” now is a national organization with “more than 200 members.” [View article]

Disabled People Left Out of Disaster Plans, Says Council The National Council on Disability on Wednesday issued a report, “Effective Emergency Management: Making Improvements for Communities and People with Disabilities,” which identifies a gap in “community preparedness and response to the needs of people with disabilities in all types of disasters.” The report “offers information and advice to assist all levels of government,” gives “examples of effective community efforts with respect to people with disabilities, and evaluates many emergency preparedness, disaster relief, and homeland security program efforts deployed by both public and private sectors.” [View report]

International News

Taliban Rakes in $300 Million a Year (Global Post; London Times) The United States and Afghanistan “estimate [that] the total funding for the Taliban in both Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan is in the area of $300 million a year,” reports the Global Post. “… U.S. and Afghan intelligence estimates [say] that the total funding coming from poppy is about $70 million.” (“The Pentagon has put 50 of Afghanistan’s powerful opium barons on a ‘kill or capture’ list,” reports the London Times.) Other sources of income for the Taliban “range from kidnapping to taking a cut from mining and logging industries to taking a percentage off the top of the multi-billion industry of non-governmental organizations” funded by “the same coalition countries that are fighting against the Taliban,” reports the Post. [View Post article] [View Times article]

Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons Sites Attacked in 2007-2008? (Times of India; London Guardian) “Pakistan’s nuclear facilities have already been attacked at least thrice by its home-grown extremists and terrorists in little reported incidents over the last two years”—“an attack on the nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha on November 1, 2007, an attack on Pakistan’s nuclear airbase at Kamra by a suicide bomber on December 10, 2007, and perhaps most significantly the August 20, 2008 attack when Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers blew up several entry points to one of the armament complexes at the Wah cantonment, considered one of Pakistan’s main nuclear weapons assembly” locations, reports the Times News Network. But a Pakistani “military spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, said … the bases … were used to manufacture conventional weapons … ‘There are military facilities, not nuclear installations,’” according to the London Guardian. [View Times article] [View Guardian article]

Kuwait Blocks Bombing Plot (New York Times) Kuwait “said on Tuesday it had foiled a plan by a six-member al Qaeda–linked network to bomb the Arifjan U.S. Army camp, the state security building, and” the “Shuaiba oil refinery,” reports Reuters. [View article]

Fourth German al-Qaeda Plotter Pleads Guilty (Reuters) “The main defendant in a trial of four Islamic militants accused of planning major bomb attacks on U.S. targets in Germany [see the Feb. 15, 2008, newsletter] confessed to the charges in court on Monday,” reports Reuters. “Fritz Gelowicz, a German convert to Islam, said his group planned attacks in Europe … Other members of the group—German Daniel Schneider, Atilla Selek, a German citizen of Turkish origin, and Adem Yilmaz, a Turkish citizen, have already confessed to police.” [View article]

Jakarta Hotel Bomber Killed in Shootout (Australian) “An Indonesian florist” named Ibrohim who was “killed in a central Java shootout [last] weekend was the main architect of the July 17 Jakarta hotel bombings [see the July 24 newsletter], and police claim he was also planning to join a suicide attack on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,” reports the Australian. [View article]

Algerian Terrorist on ‘Most-Wanted’ List Surrenders (Algeria Echorouk) “The so called L.Samir terrorist who had long been wanted by the Algerian security services, and one of the most prominent suicide bombers, surrendered” earlier this month in Batna, Algeria, reports Echorouk. He was allegedly a member of the “‘Al Maout’ ‘death’ battalion.” [View article]

Britain Preps Shopping Malls Against Terrorism (London Telegraph) “The National Counter Terrorism Security Office now holds training days for shopping centres and other vulnerable targets up and down the country,” reports the Telegraph. Three times in four years, “terrorists have targeted the large crowds that gather in these relatively unguarded places,” and “a successful terrorist attack” would probably kill “dozens of innocent people.” [View article]

Typhoon Morakot Strikes Taiwan and China (CNN) “Roads covered with mud, debris and floodwater foiled rescuers trying Wednesday to reach mountain villages in southern Taiwan, the area hardest hit by Typhoon Morakot,” reports CNN. “… by late Wednesday, the government had counted 103 deaths, 61 people missing and 45 injured from the storm, which dumped up to 83 inches of rain on some parts of the island … Most of the missing are from Kaohsiung County,” where “a group of firefighters marched for eight hours to reach remote villages where they delivered food and supplies … After hitting Taiwan, Morakot roared on to mainland China and created chaos there, killing at least six people and displacing 1.4 million.” [View article]

Turkey Gives Iraq Water in Exchange for Crackdown on Kurds (Christian Science Monitor) “Turkey pledged Tuesday to release more water from the Euphrates River to its drought-ravaged neighbor” Iraq, which “has announced plans to crack down on Kurdish rebels on the Turkish border,” reports the Monitor. Turkey’s “separatist Kurdish Workers Party” has carried out “attacks on Turkey from Iraqi soil,” assaulting both “soldiers and civilians.” [View article]

Canadian Think Tank Calls First Nations a Threat to the Oil Industry (Calgary [Alberta] Herald; Digital Journal) A report by the “Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute … identifies five ‘threat groups’—individual saboteurs, ecoterrorists, mainstream environmentalists, First Nations and the Metis people”—“against northern Alberta’s oil and gas industry,” according to the Herald. Among the First Nations (American Indian) people, “there exists the potential for ‘warrior societies’ where aboriginal groups brandish firearms or set up blockades. ‘There is no history of warrior societies operating in northern Alberta, but that does not mean it could not happen,’ the report said.” But “Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations” expressed his disappointment with the report, which assumes “scenarios of First Nations acting as eco-terrorists,” the Digital Journal quoted him as saying; it noted that “the Athabascan Chipewyan have been actively speaking out against the tar sands industry, saying that the industry is the cause of health problems, such as cancer.” [View Herald article] [View Digital Journal article]

U.S. Customs Catches Radioactive Canadians Every Day (Canada.com) Every day, “American border agents are pulling aside people who have undergone nuclear medical procedures such as stress tests and radiation treatments,” reports Canwest News Service. “… the problem is so widespread that many hospitals in Canada now issue special identification cards at no cost to patients … indicating when, how much and what type of isotope was used.… Most treatments will remain detectable for several weeks to several months.” [View article]

England Quits Badminton Tourney Over Terror Threat (London Guardian) “The England team has withdrawn from the World Badminton Championships in India because of ‘a specific terrorist threat’ … by the Muslim extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba,” reports the Press Association. “… Badminton Scotland … said its players will stay.” [View article]

State and Local News

Photo courtesy of Steve Dunham

Navy and National Guard Hold WMD Training in Washington State Naval Station Everett hosted the Washington Army and Air National Guard for a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosive training exercise July 27–August 7. Civilian experts in the fields of hazardous material handling and disposal and emergency management trained 257 Guard members. [View press release]

Other Federal News

New CDC Swine Flu Guidance for Schools The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have updated the federal guidelines for state and local public health and school officials with a range of options for responding to 2009 H1N1 influenza in schools, depending on how severe the flu may be in their communities. The guidance says that officials should balance the risk of flu in their communities with the disruption that school dismissals will cause in education and the wider community. [View announcement]

DHS Gives Immigration Records to National Archives (New York Times) Immigration files “on some 53 million people” will be “turned over by the Department of Homeland Security to the National Archives and Records Administration, beginning in 2010,” reports the New York Times. “The material, accounting for what officials describe as the largest addition of individual immigration records in the archives’ history, will be indexed and made available to anyone.” [View article]

United Nations News

UN Looks to Technology to Reduce Disaster Damage in Asia and the Pacific Finding better uses for information and communication technology to prepare for and deal with natural disasters in Asia and the Pacific was the focus of a UN meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday, part of the three-day International Conference on Building a Local Government Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction. [View press release]

UN and Lebanese Army Hold Disaster Response Exercise The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon on Monday and Tuesday held a large-scale disaster response exercise with the Lebanese Armed Forces, responding to a fictitious earthquake in the south of the country. [View press release]

Private-Sector News

Indian IT Sector Prepares for Swine Flu Pandemic (Times of India; Voice of America) “The steady rise in the cases of flu has made Business India take preventive steps, though not many are talking about widespread shutdown in the face of a pandemic,” reports the Times of India. “There are doctors visiting offices, restrictions on travel, event cancellations, office advice of flu precautions and stay-home advisories to workers returning from flu-hit areas as companies look to keep the virus from impacting their businesses. Companies are also checking their disaster recovery and business continuity plans, just in case things go out of” hand. Also, “the Indian government is closing schools, colleges and movie theaters in Mumbai in an effort to contain the spread of the H1N1 swine flu virus,” reports Voice of America. However, “media and public attention has focused on swine flu to the extent that it has acquired more than a tinge of hysteria,” says the Times in an editorial. [View Times article] [View Voice article] [View Times editorial]

Dual-Benefit Solutions

Soldiers Learn Anti-Terrorism Evasive Driving An Anti-Terrorism Evasive Driving “course offered via the Joint Multinational Training Command’s Combined Arms Training Center” is offered to “Soldiers tasked with driving and providing personal security to VIPs—generals, congressmen, diplomats, and dignitaries—throughout Europe and Northern Africa,” according to an article on the U.S. Army website. “… Not only do the Soldiers undergo rigorous safety exercises, like driving an out-of-control, fishtailing car on icy terrain and rollover drills at a Mercedes dealership, but they also learn methods for evading terrorist attacks on their convoys.” [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. Tank Car Training: Safety and Incident Response (August 17–September 4; 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] Railroad Emergency Response Haz-Mat Awareness (August 18, Everett, WA; August 27, Melvern, KS; September 14, Flagstaff, AZ; September 19, Ash Fork, AZ; September 23, Wickenburg, AZ) This class will familiarize first responders with railroad communication, safety, paperwork, and equipment. [View class website] Professional Analytic Tools and Writing Workshop (September 14-18; Reston, VA) This workshop introduces students to the principles of structured analytic tools and techniques and introduces the basic concepts of professional analytic writing. It can be taken in its entirety or separately in two components: Analytic Tools (3 days) and Analytic Writing (2 days). [View course website] Incident Management: A Practical Approach (September 15; Arlington, VA) This overview of incident command and management systems is designed for those working in the private and public sectors. It covers the principles of incident preparedness, response, and recovery, for both natural disasters and man-made events. This workshop uses group interaction and hands-on, scenario-based mechanisms for practical, comprehensive learning and organizational sharing. [View class 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] 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] All-Hazards Regional Evacuation Plans (October 20; Arlington, VA) Using proven planning methodologies, this interactive workshop will provide guidance on how consensus can be developed around a regional vision and provide creative and innovative solutions in support of the region’s goals and priorities for an evacuation plan. [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] Rail Tank Car Responder Training (November 4-5; Oakland, CA) A half-day class sponsored by Dow Chemical teaches responders the basics of rail tank car anatomy and leak mitigation. [View class website]

New Upcoming Events (Events are listed for four weeks; after that, they are still on the Upcoming Events page) Homeland Security Management Institute National Conference (August 25; Rochester, NY) National and local experts will discuss the processes involved in emergency management and how special needs issues should be integrated. They will speak on initiatives in emergency management; current programs involving emergency operations that are gaining footholds at the state level; Americans With Disabilities Act compliance issues for the Internet, buildings, and emergency shelters; and technological advances for people with special needs. The registration deadline is August 18. [View course website] Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals National Conference (August 30–September 2; San Diego) This year’s theme is “Environmental Health, Safety, Security—Steering a Course for Sustainability.” Besides professional speakers and insider tours, the conference will offer an educational emergency response scenario involving bomb, chlorine spill, and sarin dispersion incidents at the USS Midway. [View event website] (September 2-3; Reston, VA) This learning and networking event offers an opportunity to gather with peers across disciplines and responsibilities to study and share lessons learned and to honor heroes who risk their own lives using the helicopter to save lives. [View event website] Homeland Security Symposium & Exhibition (September 9-10; Arlington, VA) This year’s theme is “Building a Resilient & Sustainable Homeland—Public & Private Sector Partners Serving America.” The symposium will assemble leaders from the new Administration (DHS, the Pentagon, and other executive branch members), state and local governments, and the private sector, along with leading opinion leaders and experts, to address pressing issues facing today’s homeland. [View event website] Protecting America Against Permanent Continental Shutdown From Electromagnetic Pulse (September 8-10; Niagara Falls, NY) The conference will bring in “the most knowledgeable minds in the world about EMP” (electromagnetic pulse). Scheduled speakers include congressional leaders, Defense Department experts, and other experts on EMP. The conference offers better understanding of EMP’s impact and features proactive, hands-on ideas to protect infrastructure. [View event website] Virginia Hazardous Materials Conference (October 19-23; Hampton, VA) This year’s theme is “HazMat Synergy: Working Smarter During Tough Times”—hazardous materials incidents are not slowed by the faltering economy, and emergency services are stressed during tough economic times, dealing with budget shortfalls. Workshop content can be applied to the annual training hours required of hazardous materials response personnel. Individual scholarships are available. [View event website] (October 20-21; Long Beach, CA) The theme of the 8th Annual Maritime Security Expo is “Weathering the Perfect Storm: Faltering Economies, Piracy, Climate Change and Maritime Security Regulations.” The expo is co-sited with the All Hazards Forum and Expo. [View event website] All Hazards Forum and Expo (October 20-21; Long Beach, CA) The forum and expo will focus on earthquakes, floods, fires, tsunamis, mudslides, and other natural disasters common to the Pacific coast. They will address emergency planning and preparedness, response and recovery, public safety communications, information sharing and intelligence, critical infrastructure protection, law enforcement, and health and medical readiness. The event is co-sited with the Maritime Security Expo. [View event website] (October 22-23) This conference will focus on how to fight unlawful acts (such as piracy) without penalizing the economy. It will identify the operational priorities for progress and investment that will help in developing maritime and port economies. [View event website] (October 22-25; Houston) Hotzone will train and equip local, state, and federal responders for safe, coordinated, and efficient response to releases of hazardous materials that threaten public health and the environment. The target audience is local fire, police, emergency management personnel, emergency medical services, health care providers, and state and federal response personnel who participate directly in the incident command system or in its immediate support at the scene of a hazmat response or terrorist event in Federal Region 6, but it is open for anyone to attend. [View event website] Conference & Exhibition (October 28-30; The Hague, Netherlands) The annual CBRNe Convergence conference and exhibition brings together chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives professionals from around the world to discuss and learn best practices. [View event website] EPA Emergency Preparedness and Prevention & Hazmat Spills Conference (November 15-18; Baltimore) This conference sponsored by Environmental Protection Agency Region III offers training programs, off-site tours, workshops, general sessions, lectures, and an exhibit hall. [View event website]