International News

Did Italy Pay Bribes to the Taliban? (London Times; Reuters) After French soldiers took over Sarobi—“what had seemed a relatively peaceful area” of Afghanistan—last year, ten of them were killed and some of their bodies mutilated, reports the Times. “… in the months before the French soldiers arrived”—when Italian troops were stationed in the area—“the Italian secret service had been paying tens of thousands of dollars to Taleban commanders and local warlords to keep the area quiet … because the French knew nothing of the payments they made a catastrophically incorrect threat assessment.” Yesterday, “Italy’s government denied” the allegations, reports Reuters. [View Times article] [View Reuters article]

Widespread Election Fraud in Afghanistan (Washington Times) “The top U.N. official in Afghanistan [Kai Eide] acknowledged Sunday that there was ‘widespread fraud’ in the August presidential election … on behalf of President Hamid Karzai,” reports the Associated Press. “The tainted vote threatens to discredit the Afghan government and the international strategy for combating the Taliban insurgency.” Afghan “President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday acknowledged fraud in the still-unresolved August presidential election,” reports the Associated Press in another article. [View UN article] [View Karzai article]

British Scientist Planned to Blow Up Oil Refinery (London Daily Mail) “A nuclear scientist [Adlene Hicheur] turned Al Qaeda agent was targeting a Total Oil refinery in a bid to cause an explosion,” reports the Daily Mail. He “also compiled a ‘wish list’ of senior European politicians as ‘assassination targets.’” He is “on remand in Paris after being charged on Monday afternoon with ‘criminal activities related to a terrorist group’.… security sources … have been collecting evidence against him for the past year-and-a-half.” [View article]

Grenade at Concert in Moldova Injures 40 (Reuters) “A grenade exploded at a crowded concert in the main square of the Moldovan capital of Chisinau late Wednesday, hurting at least 40 people,” reports Reuters. “… A criminal investigation was opened on the basis of ‘terrorism with the aim of intimidating the population.’” Terrorism has been rare in “ex-Soviet Moldova, Europe's poorest country wedged between Ukraine and Romania with a population of 4.5 million, [which] is in the grip of political instability since the powerful communists were defeated in a July election.” [View article]

Russia Reports Destroying 42% of Its Chemical Weapons (Global Security Newswire) Russia says it “has destroyed nearly 42 percent of its full depository of chemical warfare materials,” according to Global Security Newswire, citing reports from Interfax. (See the June 5 newsletter.) It plans “to have disposed of all [its] chemical weapons by April 29, 2012, the deadline set by the” Chemical Weapons Convention. [View article]

Local Involvement Needed to Reduce Tsunami Risk (Reuters AlertNet) “There have been major technological advances since the 2004 tsunami smashed into a dozen Asian and African countries, killing almost 230,000 people,” reports Reuters. But “in poorer communities and informal settlements, there is often no access to electricity or telecommunications and infrastructure is poor,” and the warning does not get “all the way to the affected people.” [View article]

Cambodia Passes WMD Nonproliferation Law (Global Security Newswire) The Cambodian National Assembly on Wednesday passed a law banning “the production, recycling, transference and transportation of nuclear, biological, chemical and radioactive armaments,” reports Global Security Newswire. [View article]

Rational Choice Models of Political Violence: The Role of Injustice and Retribution In this new research brief from the Institute for Homeland Security Solutions, Jeremy Bray of Research Triangle Institute International applies rational choice theory to the problem of preventing political violence, placing it within a continuum that ranges from tacit approval of violence to nonviolent explicit support to actual participation in violent acts. [View brief (175KB PDF)]

Private-Sector News

Railroads Must Accept Hazmat Shipments, Says Board (Fort Worth, TX, Star-Telegram) “Railroad companies, after hearing dire warnings for years about the dangers of transporting chlorine and other toxic cargos, are uniting with environmental groups and homeland security experts in trying to lessen the hazards,” reports the Star-Telegram. “… the companies asked federal regulators this year for the right to reject requests to move hazardous materials over long distances and through highly populated areas … Their request was denied, and” Union Pacific “created a tariff requiring the shipper—not the railroad—to be liable in case of any accident, prompting chlorine industry officials to fight the tariff in court and ultimately win a reprieve.… the government is moving forward with new safeguards, such as requiring railroads to route hazardous chemicals around, rather than through, key urban areas,” and “the Surface Transportation Board … said that Union Pacific had an obligation to set rates and provide service and that railroads are obligated to transport hazardous materials when safety regulations are met.” [View article]

Nuclear Plants Should Phase Out Modems, Says Commission (Wired) “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is asking the operators of America’s 66 nuclear power plants to voluntarily upgrade the on-site monitoring systems that report plant conditions to the government” and replace “telephone dial-up modems with [virtual private network] appliances,” writes Wired “Threat Level” blogger Kevin Poulsen. “… in a crisis all the plants could report data to the NRC’s Maryland headquarters simultaneously, without the hassle of busy signals. In addition, ‘The use of modems inherently introduces cyber security vulnerabilities,’” according to an NRC memo. [View blog] [View memo (116KB PDF)]

Dual-Benefit Solutions

Dual-benefit news archive

Mobile Phone Data Aid Crisis Mapping (Reuters AlertNet) “A new generation of Web sites that allow users to exchange data and information and help create quasi real-time maps through mobile phone technology will be the way forward in crisis mapping, [Patrick] Meier [co-founder of the International Network of Crisis Mappers] said,” reports Reuters. “… This approach will allow a wider variety of actors to join forces in an emergency—such as survivors, donors, aid agencies and local media—to get their information onto maps in real time and distribute them rapidly among crises responders and beneficiaries.” [View article]

DHS News

DHS Websites Are Vulnerable to Hacking, Says Inspector General (Federal Computer Week) “The Homeland Security Department’s most popular Web sites appear to be vulnerable to hackers and could put department data at risk of loss or unauthorized use,” according to Federal Computer Week, citing “a new report from DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner.” [View article] [View report (80PDF)]

DHS Says Einstein Won’t Read Emails (NextGov) “A sophisticated system called Einstein 3 [see the Dec. 12, 2008, newsletter]” being developed “to detect and prevent electronic attacks on federal civilian networks” won’t be used to read the “contents of e-mails or other communications,” says the Homeland Security Department, according to CongressDaily. “Instead, the department wants to have the system determine whether electronic communications entering the networks contain viruses or other attack signatures.” [View article]

TSA Traveler Redress Inquiry Program Has Room for Improvement, Says Inspector General Although the program that gives travelers a chance to dispute their placement on watch lists (see the Feb. 23, 2007, Sep. 14, 2007, and May 16, 2008, newsletters) “has enhanced some redress processes,” its “information technology system does not meet program needs,” according to Homeland Security Department Inspector General Richard Skinner. Furthermore, “it does not always provide meaningful solutions to redress-seekers’ travel difficulties,” “the program does not provide an independent review of redress petitions, but instead submits those petitions for exclusive consideration of offices that are the source of the grievance,” and DHS “components do not share information about redress case results where such sharing would be beneficial to the redress-seeker.” [View report (3.53MB PDF)]

Minors Board Aircraft Without Photo ID (Portland Oregonian) “The Transportation Security Administration requires all air travelers 18 and older to show a boarding pass and government-issued photo ID to enter security screening,” reports the Oregonian. “But minors generally don’t have government-issued IDs. So security officers don’t expect them to have one … The policy allows anyone who looks like a teenager to enter an airport security checkpoint, as long as they have an airline-issued boarding pass. In the case of minors, no one is responsible for making sure that the person using the boarding pass is in fact the person named on the pass.” Minors “still have to go through security screening.” [View article]

DHS Funds $88 Million in Nonintrusive Detection Equipment on Borders The Homeland Security Department is spending $88 million in Recovery Act funds for nonintrusive inspection to scan commercial traffic for contraband by using X-ray and other imaging technologies with fixed and mobile detection capabilities at and between U.S. ports of entry. [View press release]

Other Federal News

TV Announcements Promote Protection Against Swine Flu The Health and Human Services Department and the Ad Council last week launched a series of national television public-service advertisements designed to encourage Americans to take steps to protect themselves from the 2009 H1N1 flu virus. The ads are designed to reach children, parents, pregnant women, and young adults. A second series of ads, aimed at encouraging high-risk populations to get the H1N1 vaccination, will begin in late October. [View press release]

Intellipedia Promoters Receive Homeland Security Medal CIA officers Don Burke and Sean Dennehy on September 23 received the Homeland Security Medal sponsored by the Partnership for Public Service for their dedication to promoting and expanding information sharing in the Intelligence Community via Intellipedia (see the Sep. 4 newsletter). [View press release]

United Nations News

UN Repeats Call for Hospital Protection On the annual International Day for Disaster Reduction (Oct. 14), Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon again urged governments to take practical steps to make hospitals safe from natural hazards (see the Feb. 1, 2008, newsletter). “They must be designed, built and maintained so they can better protect health workers and patients alike when disaster hits,” he said, noting that the cost of making hospitals safe from disasters is relatively small. [View press release]

New Upcoming Events (Events are listed for four weeks; after that, they are still on the Upcoming Events page) Higher Education & International Service Conference (November 12-13; Washington, DC) Partners of the Americas, the Brookings Initiative on International Volunteering and Service, and the Building Bridges Coalition Campus Engagement Group will convene colleges and universities, volunteer organizations, policymakers, students, and international community leaders to understand, assess, and influence national policies related to service, study abroad and service learning, citizen diplomacy, and more. [View event website] Dangerous Goods Advisory Council Annual Conference & Hazardous Materials Transportation Exposition (November 18-20; San Antonio) The 31st annual conference brings together specialists, regulators, and those who want to learn in the hazmat and dangerous goods transportation field. Speakers will discuss domestic and international transportation issues, with a special focus on India and China. [View event website] (December 8-10; Washington, DC) The theme of this year’s Customs and Border Protection Trade Symposium is “A Decade of Progress Through Partnership.” It will examine work done in partnership with other agencies, the trade community, and other governments to improve trade facilitation and compliance, import safety, and security. It will also look back over the past decade to review the progress made in key areas. It is open to members of the international trade and transportation community and other interested parties. [View event website] (December 8-11; Singapore) The symposium and conference are an operations-technical forum that aims to foster the interaction of scientists, engineers, physicians, military planners, and other professionals from the governmental, academic, and industrial sectors to share the latest knowledge and experiences with regard to defense against unconventional threats. [View event website] 2010 Biometrics Conference (Jan. 20-21; Arlington, VA) The theme is “Matches to Mission,” addressing the challenge of “finding the needle”—those who might harm Americans and the nation—in the national haystack of data and agencies. New, rapidly emerging biometric and forensic technologies are moving toward interoperability, but bureaucratic stovepipes and walls remain. This conference will foster discussion focused on exploring steps toward creating a holistic architecture to accommodate the use of biometrics, today and in the future, to support an expanding variety of federal, state and local, international, and private-sector missions. [View event website] CBRN Defense (February 8-10; Washington, DC) Next year’s chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense conference will deliver an overview of the requirements, technologies, and programs necessary for mission managers and commanders to counter these threats. [View event website] Homeland Defense and Security Education Summit (February 24-25; Washington, DC) Next year’s theme is “Homeland Security in Transition.” It will focus on validating homeland security and defense education and will discuss the most pertinent issues relevant to security professionals, the return on investment in homeland security and defense education, and current and relevant research. [View event website] (May 23-26; Vancouver, British Columbia) The conference will be organized in four main streams: Information Sharing and Data/Text Mining Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Responses Terrorism Informatics Computational Criminology [View conference website]

Calls for Papers Homeland Defense and Security Education Summit (February 24-25; Washington, DC) This year’s theme is “Homeland Security in Transition.” It will focus on validating homeland security and defense education and will discuss the most pertinent issues relevant to security professionals, the return on investment in homeland security and defense education, and current and relevant research. The conference welcomes proposals for presentations, workshops, and classes. [View call for papers] IEEE International Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control (April 11-13; Chicago) The 2010 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control welcomes papers on, among other topics, emergency mitigation, emergency planning, and emergency response. The deadline for submitting papers is October 30. [View call for papers] Intelligent Transportation Society of America (May 3-5; Houston) The theme of the 20th Annual Meeting & Exposition is “Connecting Communities through Smart Transportation Solutions.” Among other topics, papers are welcome on emergency evacuation and on border and homeland security. The submission deadline is December 1. [View call for papers] (May 23-26; Vancouver, British Columbia) The conference will be organized in four main streams: Information Sharing and Data/Text Mining Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Responses Terrorism Informatics Computational Criminology Papers must be submitted by January 29. [View call for papers]