National News

Four Guantánamo Soldiers Say ‘Suicides’ Were Really a Cover-Up for Prisoners’ Deaths (Harper’s Magazine) On June 9, 2006, “three prisoners at Guantánamo died suddenly and violently,” reports Harper’s. “… According to the [Naval Criminal Investigative Service], … the three prisoners, who were held in non-adjoining cells,” hanged themselves “almost simultaneously.… Now four members of the Military Intelligence unit … have furnished an account dramatically at odds with” that report and “provide evidence that authorities” staged the hangings as part of a cover-up. [View article]

Abuse of Prisoners Continues, Says Former Air Force Interrogator (New York Times) “Americans can now boast that they no longer ‘torture’ detainees, but they cannot say that detainees are not abused, or even that their treatment meets the minimum standards of humane treatment mandated by the Geneva Conventions, the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (the so-called McCain amendment), United States and international law, or even Mr. Obama’s executive order,” writes Matthew Alexander, a former Air Force officer who headed an interrogation team in Iraq and author of How to Break a Terrorist, in the Times. “… even though in my experience, torture or even harsh but legal treatment never got us useful information.” [View commentary]

Guam Tests WMD Response (Guam Pacific Daily News) A simulated “chemical and radioactive attack on” the U.S. territory of Guam “was acted out” on January 12, reports the Pacific Daily News. “It was part of a 36-hour training exercise organized to test the preparedness of local and federal agencies in the face of a disaster involving weapons of mass destruction.… The exercise was carried out by Guam Homeland Security and the Office of Civil Defense in conjunction with Joint Task Force—Homeland Defense, the Guam National Guard’s 94th Civil Support Team, the Alaska National Guard’s 103rd Civil Support Team, and multiple local and federal response agencies.” [View article]

International News

Obstacles Slow Earthquake Response in Haiti (MSNBC) “The 7.0 magnitude quake which roiled Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, on Jan. 12 killed an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people”—an estimate revised upward from 50,000 last week (see last week’s newsletter)—“and left the poverty-stricken country looking to the world for basic sustenance,” reports MSNBC. Meanwhile, “at least 50 sizable aftershocks have jolted the city.” The European Commission “now estimates 2 million homeless, up from 1.5 million, and says 250,000 are in need of urgent aid.… Violence and looting” that interfered with “water and food distribution” have subsided, and with the harbor reopened and capacity expanded at the damaged airport, a backlog of aid has started moving faster. [View article]

Yemeni Cleric al-Awlaki Linked to Infamous Attacks (Global Post) “Anwar al-Awlaki, mentor to the failed Christmas Day airline bomber, has been linked to some of the most infamous terrorist attacks on American soil,” reports the Global Post. “… The highly educated, American-born Yemeni” cleric “preaches violent uprising against the West and has [also] been linked to” the Fort Hood and September 11 attacks. [View article]

Poor Schooling Slows Antiterror Effort in Pakistan (Washington Post) “With a curriculum that glorifies violence in the name of Islam and ignores basic history, science and math, Pakistan’s public education system has become a major barrier to U.S. efforts to defeat extremist groups …” reports the Washington Post. “Western officials tend to blame Islamic schools, known as madrassas, for [the schools’] role as feeders to militant groups, but Pakistani education experts say the root of the problem is the public schools in a nation in which half of adults cannot sign their own name. The United States is hoping an infusion of cash—part of a $7.5 billion civilian aid package—will begin to change that.” There is, however, “intense institutional pressure to keep the schools exactly the way they are.… ‘If the people get education, the elite would be threatened,’ said Khadim Hussain, coordinator of the Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy and a professor at Islamabad’s Bahria University.” [View article]

Is Yemen the Next Afghanistan? (Christian Science Monitor) Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula “is an offshoot of Al Qaeda that operates in Saudi Arabia and Yemen,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. The group “appears to have no operational ties with the northern rebels or southern secessionists that are challenging Yemen’s central government.” However, Yemen’s “domestic situation”—“government corruption and increasing antigovernment sentiment among large swaths of the Yemeni population”—“complicates any US efforts to defeat” Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. However, “support for militant Islam isn’t as widespread as in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” and “Yemen is an impoverished country with limited infrastructure” but “not as lawless as Afghanistan.” [View article]

New British Counterterror Package Includes No-Fly List (London Guardian) “An American-style ‘no-fly’ list to stop terrorism suspects [from] travelling to Britain is to be introduced as part of a package of enhanced security measures in the wake of the attempted Christmas bomb plot,” reports the Guardian. The “overhaul [of] the Home Office’s system of a border watchlist is to be underpinned by an extension of the e-borders programme of pre-flight checks on all passengers travelling to Britain by the end of this year” and by “improvements in intelligence co-ordination in Britain and abroad.” A new MI6–MI5–Government Communications Headquarters “joint investigation and targeting team” will “focus on individual suspects before they reach Britain as well as improving international information-sharing on ‘individuals of concern.’” [View article]

Terrorists Strike in Heart of Afghan Capital (New York Times) “A team of militants launched a spectacular assault at the heart of the Afghan government on Monday, with two men detonating suicide bombs and the rest fighting to the death only 50 yards from the gates of the presidential palace,” reports the New York Times. “… three soldiers and two civilians—including a child—were killed, and at least 71 people were wounded.” [View article]

‘Toronto 18’ Leader Gets Life Sentence for Plotting Terror Attacks (ABC News) “The ringleader”—Zakaria Amara—“of the Toronto 18 terror cell that plotted to detonate truck bombs outside city landmarks and kill maximum victims, was sentenced to life in prison” on January 18, reports ABC News. (See the Oct. 9 newsletter.) [View article]

British Court Permits Compensation to Terror Suspects Held on Revoked Control Orders (London Times) The British High Court on Monday “opened the way for compensation to be paid to terror suspects held on control orders” after “Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary,” revoked “the orders rather than disclose the ‘secret’ evidence” behind them, reports the Times. The High Court’s “Justice Silber … emphasised that the level of compensation [if any] would be low.” [View article]

U.S. and Morocco Train for Nuclear Crisis (Global Security Newswire) “Officials from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration and various Moroccan government agencies last week conducted cooperative nuclear crisis training drills … to prepare for a larger exercise administered through the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism,” reports Global Security Newswire. [View article]

U.S. Disaster Aid to Haiti

U.S. Response to the Haiti Earthquake The White House weblog detailing disaster assistance presents a long list of American efforts. Here is a sampling:

• As of yesterday, there were 20 U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels and 51 helicopters deployed. (The Coast Guard is also calling up 900 reservists for duty.)
• As of Wednesday, approximately 2,000 U.S. military personnel were ashore in Haiti providing humanitarian assistance.
• 6 of 43 international urban search-and-rescue teams, with 511 personnel, are from the United States.
• As of yesterday, the U.S. Government had provided nearly $171 million in humanitarian assistance.

Navy photo by Erin Olberholtzen

NOAA photo

Maritime Admin. photo

Dual-Benefit Solutions

Dual-benefit news archive

Google Maps Help Disaster Relief (Newsweek) Before-and-after satellite photos distributed via Google Maps show “roadways that are now inaccessible and bridges that are uncrossable,” and “this satellite imagery is actually being used in rescue and recovery efforts,” reports Newsweek. Google’s “Lat Long Blog says it ‘received numerous requests from relief organizations and our users to share recent satellite imagery of the country.’ … the vast amount of satellite imagery also represents a huge potential for tracking and understanding urban changes in non-disaster situations.” [View article] [View Google Maps]

United Nations News

UN Authorizes 3,500 More Peacekeepers for Haiti and Offers Employment for Hundreds The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday authorized 1,500 police officers and 2,000 troops to reinforce the 9,000 UN uniformed personnel already in Haiti. Also, the UN Development Programme has employed almost 400 Haitians to give the local economy a boost and swiftly deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid. The cash-for-work programme is being expanded to include another 700 people to remove rubble and bring essential infrastructure, such as electricity, back online. [View UN peacekeepers press release] [View UN employment press release]

Security Council Blacklists al Qaeda’s Yemen Wing (Reuters) “A U.N. Security Council sanctions committee on Tuesday added al Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing”—Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula—“and two of its leaders”—Nasser al-Wahayshi and Qasim al-Raymi—“to a U.N. blacklist, which U.S. envoy Susan Rice said would help efforts to weaken the group,” reports Reuters. “The Security Council committee’s move followed a U.S. Department of [the] Treasury decision to subject the group and its two leaders to U.S. sanctions.” [View article]

DHS News

Cub Scout Gets TSA Scrutiny (New York Times) “No 8-year-old is on a TSA watch list,” asserts the Transportation Security Administration “Myth Busters” web page. “Airlines can and should automatically de-select any 8-year-olds out there that appear to be on a watch list.” But Mikey Hicks, an 8-year-old “New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent traveler … has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he shares the name of a suspicious person,” reports the Times. “… The first time he was patted down, at Newark [NJ] Liberty International Airport, Mikey was 2.… At some point, someone named Michael Hicks made the Department of Homeland Security suspicious, and little Mikey is still paying the price. (His father, also named Michael Hicks, was stopped for the first time” this month.) [View article] [View TSA busted myth]

Other Federal News

FBI Broke Law for Years in Phone Record Searches (Washington Post) “The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions,” according to “e-mails obtained by The Washington Post.… FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni said in an interview Monday that the FBI technically violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act … The searches involved only records of calls and not the content of the calls.… FBI officials said they are confident that the safeguards enacted in 2007 have ended the problems.” [View article]

Classified Information Overhaul (Washington Post) “An executive order issued by President Obama last month” states “that ‘no information may remain classified indefinitely,’” according to a Post editorial. “… a National Declassification Center … will be established at the National Archives that would allow staff from relevant agencies to review documents set for public release under one roof. The new center would have until Dec. 31, 2013, to eliminate a backlog of 400 million records that go as far back as World War II.… After 25 years, documents are automatically declassified unless they reveal sensitive information.… In most cases, the material would have to be made public not more than 50 years from the date of origin.” [View editorial] [View executive order]

GAO Chief Calls for Unified National Security Budget (Washington Post) Gene Dodaro, Director of the Government Accountability Office “and acting U.S. comptroller general,” said in a speech at National Defense University “that the U.S. government establish a central national security budget and then set aside money by responsibilities, breaking with the current arrangement of letting departments and agencies decide how best to arrange their budgets,” reports the Post. His recommendation “reflects the findings of a December 2008 report by the Project on National Security Reform.” [View article]

Pentagon Report on Fort Hood Details Failures (New York Times) “A Pentagon review released [Jan. 15] portrayed a systemic breakdown within the military that permitted an Army psychiatrist, now charged with killing 13 people, to advance through the ranks despite concerns from his superiors about his behavior,” reports the New York Times. “The review” of the November 5 Fort Hood, Texas, shootings “concluded that the Department of Defense was poorly prepared to defend itself from internal threats well beyond the single case of the military doctor accused of the killings, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.” [View article]

Flood Insurance Program Needs Better Management, Says GAO “Oversight weaknesses” in the National Flood Insurance Program limited the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “ability to identify and address financial transaction control breakdowns resulting from the 2005 hurricanes,” reports the Government Accountability Office, and “FEMA’s initiatives to improve specific internal control weaknesses and the overall [program] control environment … have done little to address many of the [program’s] financial data deficiencies.” [View GAO summary]

State and Local News

New York U.S. Attorney Merges Drug and Terrorism Units (New York Times) “The United States attorney in Manhattan is merging the two units in his office that prosecute terrorism and international narcotics cases, saying that he wants to focus more on extremist Islamic groups whose members he believes are increasingly turning to the drug trade to finance their activities,” reports the Times. [View article]

Private-Sector News

IBM Is Patenting Airport Security Profiling Technology (InformationWeek) “A dozen little-known IBM patent applications lay out a sophisticated computer-analysis-based approach to airport security,” writes columnist Alexander Wolfe in InformationWeek. The technology could “apply profiling of passengers, based on attributes such as age and type of clothing worn. One of the patents” uses “analysis of furtive glances.” The objective “is to alert officials to potential terminal and tarmac threats using a network of video, motion, chemical, and biometric sensors arrayed throughout the airport.” [View article]

New Upcoming Events (Events are listed for four weeks; after that, they are still on the Upcoming Events page) State Border Coordination Workshop (January 25-26; Gettysburg, PA) The workshop will cover communications and interoperability, transportation, mass care, and credentialing during a regional catastrophic evacuation of the public. [View event website] 2010 Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams Symposium (January 25-27; Hamburg, Germany) The symposium provides a discussion forum for FIRST member teams to share information about vulnerabilities, incidents, tools, and all other issues that affect the operation of computer incident response and security teams. A full day of plenary sessions for informal discussions and presentations on topics of interest to the FIRST membership is followed by a day of interactive hands-on classes taught by leading security experts in small groups of FIRST team members. [View event website] Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness Conference and Exposition (February 2-4; Philadelphia) This conference presented by the International Association of Emergency Managers will bring together leaders and decision makers in a unique forum with responders, business and industry, academia, and local, tribal, state, and federal stakeholders to collaboratively address critical incident technology and preparedness needs, protocols, and solutions. [View event website] Military Operations Research Society Meeting on Interagency Perspectives, Issues and Analysis (February 9-10; online) The conference will examine how analysis can improve coordinated national security planning and execution among federal and state governments and nongovernment organizations. [View event website] International Disaster Management Conference (February 18-21; Orlando, FL) The conference “has been designed to meet the educational needs of all persons and agencies involved with emergency preparedness, response, and disaster recovery.” This year’s theme is “Prepare Freedom’s Lifelines …” [View event website] Hazmat Event 2010 (February 23-24; Birmingham, England) The conference draws on knowledge and experience from a range of hazmat professionals, industry leaders, and the National Chemical Emergency Centre’s own emergency responders. Attendees can express their views and question fellow hazmat professionals and hear case studies of major real-life events. [View event website] This conference affords insight into land, air, and maritime border security issues, with a special focus on the use of border management technologies. [View event website] National Emergency Management Summit (March 3-5; Washington, DC) This forum on medical preparedness and response to disasters, epidemics, and terrorism will cover H1N1 experience in the United States and beyond, pandemic planning and readiness, hospital surge, supply chain management, patient evacuations, tsunami warning systems, health 2.0 tools, coordinating communitywide response, crisis standards of care, and more. [View event website] National Severe Weather Workshop (March 4-6; Norman, OK) Emergency managers, weather enthusiasts, teachers, students, meteorologists, broadcasters, and vendors in weather data and information will gather, present, and discuss topics related to the theme of “A Decade of Sharing Information About Weather Emergencies, Communications, and Response.” [View event website] National Hurricane Conference (March 29–April 2; Orlando, FL) The purpose of the conference is to improve hurricane preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation in order to save lives and property in the United States and the tropical islands of the Caribbean and Pacific. It also is a national forum for federal, state, and local officials to exchange ideas and recommend new policies to improve emergency management. [View event website] Partners in Emergency Preparedness (April 6-7; Tacoma, WA) This regional conference hosts nearly 700 people representing business, schools, government, nonprofits, emergency management, and volunteer organizations, with expertise in earthquake research, contingency planning, school preparedness, technology, news media, and public health. Speakers and exhibitors cover topics such as business continuity planning, school safety, public health preparedness, homeland security, and public information. [View event website] Qualified personnel from government, military, law enforcement, intelligence, and private-sector organizations from the UK and overseas will have a focused and comprehensive information program of conference streams, technology workshops, and an exhibition of products from over 250 solution providers at this event in Britain. [View event website] Search and Rescue 2010 (April 21-22; Aberdeen, Scotland) The conference will cover human factors, increased use of unmanned vehicles for surveillance and detection, simulator training, and the increased emphasis on rescue as technology makes searches easier. [View event website] (April 28-29; Phoenix) This conference on international border security will offer technology, workshops, and speaker presentations on critical issues, plus free certified training for law enforcement professionals. [View event website] (June 13-18; Miami) The theme of this year’s Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams is “Past the Faded Perimeter: Threat & Incident Response.” It will bring together computer security incident response teams from over 200 corporations, government bodies, universities, and other institutions across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. It will cover topics such as advanced techniques in security incident prevention, detection, and response; the latest advances in computer and network security tools; and shared views, experiences, and resolutions in computer security incident response. [View event website] (June 28–July 1; Aspen, CO) This forum, sponsored by the Aspen Institute and Government Security News, will bring together government decision makers, industry leaders, think tank and academic policy experts, and journalists to discuss and debate key homeland security issues of the day, including aviation security, maritime security, border security, mass transit security, critical infrastructure and soft target protection, emergency preparedness, intelligence, and counterterrorism strategy. [View event website]

Calls for Papers (Calls for papers are listed for four weeks; after that, they are still on the Calls for Papers page) Advanced Video and Signal Based Surveillance (August 29–September 1) This conference of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society welcomes contributions on sensors and data fusion; processing, detection, and recognition; analytics, behavior, and biometrics; interaction and description; applications; and systems, performances, and ethical issues. The deadline for submitting papers is March 26. [View call for papers (224KB PDF)] Uncertainty in Fire Standards and What to Do About It (June 16, 2011; Anaheim, CA) The symposium will cover how testing laboratories, enforcement authorities, manufacturers, and practicing engineers incorporate uncertainty into their use of results from fire safety tests and calculations, along with the legal, technical, and ethical implications for these different approaches, and provide overviews of some of the latest technical guidance. Abstracts are due by July 16, 2010. [View call for papers]