Private-Sector News

Former Blackwater President Indicted (Houston Chronicle) “The former president of Blackwater Worldwide [Gary Jackson] was charged April 16 with using straw purchases to stockpile automatic weapons at the security firm and filing false documents to cover up gifts given to the king of Jordan,” reports the Associated Press. “… Jackson, 52, who left the company last year in a management shake-up, was charged along with four of his former colleagues”: “Andrew Howell, 44; former executive vice president Bill Mathews, 44; former procurement vice president Ana Bundy, 45; and former weapons manager Ronald Slezak, 65. The case stems in part from a raid conducted by federal agents at the company’s headquarters in Moyock [NC] in 2008 that seized 22 weapons, including 17 AK-47s” (see the June 27, 2008, newsletter). [View article]

International News

Iran’s Qods Force Operates Around the World (Washington Times) “Iran is increasing its paramilitary Qods force operatives in Venezuela while covertly continuing supplies of weapons and explosives to Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq,” reports the Times, citing the Pentagon’s first report to Congress on Tehran’s military. “The report on Iranian military power provides new details on the group known formally as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps–Qods Force (IRGC-QF), the Islamist shock troops deployed around the world to advance Iranian interests. The unit is aligned with terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, North Africa and Latin America, and the report warns that U.S. forces are likely to battle the Iranian paramilitaries in the future.” [View article] [View report (761KB PDF)]

Hundreds Held in Secret Iraqi Prison (New York Times) “An Iraqi security force under Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s direct command held hundreds of detainees from northern Iraq in an undisclosed prison in Baghdad, torturing dozens of them, until the country’s human rights minister and the United States intervened late last month,” reports the Times. “… Torture and other abuses of prisoners are pervasive in Iraq. The Ministry of Human Rights recorded 505 cases in 2009.” [View article]

Thailand Puts Army Chief in Charge of Security (BBC) “Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has” put “the country’s army chief in charge of security operations … replacing Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… tens of thousands of anti-government protesters remained camped out in central Bangkok” after “efforts by police to arrest their leaders failed.” An earlier “failed crackdown left 23 people dead and more than 800 injured.” [View article]

Al-Qaeda’s Two Top Iraqi Leaders Killed (Yahoo! News) “Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops killed al Qaeda’s top two leaders in Iraq,” reports Reuters. “… al Qaeda’s Iraq leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of its local affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, were found dead in a hole in the ground inside a house after it was surrounded and stormed by troops.” [View article]

Taliban Signals Willingness to Talk Peace (London Times) “The supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has indicated that he and his followers may be willing to hold peace talks with western politicians …” reports the Times. “‘All the mujaheddin seek is to expel the foreigners, these invaders, from our country and then to repair the country’s constitution [other Taliban leaders said]. We are not interested in running the country as long as these things are achieved.’” [View article]

Greek Police Seize Cache of Explosives (Athens, Greece, Kathimerini) “Police have found what appears to be one of Revolutionary Struggle’s main storage facilities after seizing 195 kilograms [about 430 pounds] of a powerful explosive in a garage in eastern Athens,” reports Kathimerini. [View article]

Mexico Drug Cartels Empty Border Towns (Miami Herald) “Hundreds of families are fleeing the cotton-farming towns of the Juarez Valley, a stretch of border 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Ciudad Juarez,” Mexico (across the border from El Paso, TX), reports the Associated Press. “In a new strategy, Mexican drug cartels seeking to minimize interference with their operations are using terror to empty the entire area.” [View article]

Indian Govt. Asks 12 Major Ports to Install Radiation Detectors (New Delhi Times of India) India’s “government has asked all 12 major state-owned ports to install advanced radioactive material detectors to prevent hazardous materials from being shipped into the country,” reports the Press Trust of India. “‘The shipping ministry has issued letters to all major ports to immediately assess the requirement for the number of radioactive material detectors at each major port and get it installed …’ a senior shipping ministry official said.” [View article]

Chinese Quake Toll Exceeds 1,100 (BBC) The death toll from the April 14 earthquake “in China’s Qinghai province has risen to 1,144,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. (See last week’s newsletter.) “Another 417 are still missing in the remote mountainous region and 11,744 have been injured,” according to the BBC, citing the Xinhua News Agency. [View article]

Tornado Leaves a Million Homeless in India (Reuters AlertNet) “Up to one million people in eastern India are living out in the open after a tornado ripped through impoverished villages, flattening tens of thousands of homes,” reports Reuters. [View article]

GAO Assesses Defense Counterterror Programs Two sections of the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act “have provided over $1.3 billion in military and nonmilitary aid to 62 countries,” reports the Government Accountability Office. Section 1206 “was established to build the military capacity of foreign countries to conduct counterterrorism and stabilization operations”; Section 1207 transfers Defense Department funds to the State Department “for nonmilitary assistance related to stabilization, reconstruction, and security.” Both programs “have generally been consistent with U.S. strategic priorities.” However, “Section 1207 projects are virtually indistinguishable from those of other foreign aid programs,” whereas “the Section 1206 program is generally distinct from other programs” and addresses “urgent and emergent counterterrorism and stabilization priorities … more quickly than other programs.” But “the Section 1207 program has entailed additional implementation costs and funding delays,” and “the uncertain availability of resources to sustain Section 1206 projects poses risks to achieving long-term impact.” [View GAO summary]

North Korea Has No Nuclear Weapons, Says U.S. (China Daily) “The United States said on Wednesday that it would not accept the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea … as a nuclear-weapon country,” reports the Xinhua News Agency. This contradicted a statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month that North Korea does have nuclear weapons (see the April 9 newsletter). “Pyongyang on Wednesday” voiced “willingness to join ‘the international nuclear disarmament effort.’” [View article]

U.S. Spending in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas Is Short on Planning and Documentation, Says GAO The United States “pledged $750 million between 2007 and 2011 to support development activities” in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas—“a recognized safe haven for al Qaeda leadership and a base for the Taliban,” reports the Government Accountability Office. (See the Feb. 27, 2009 newsletter.) However, planning and documentation of the spending have fallen short, says the GAO. [View GAO summary]

Indonesian Graft Allows Islamist Militancy to Flourish (Yahoo! News) “Corruption in Indonesia is allowing Islamist militants access to weapons and falsified documents, according to a report,” Jihadi Surprise in Aceh, “released by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group” on Tuesday, reports Reuters. “Corrupt police officials helped jihadists acquire weapons, according to the report.” One officer, “a policeman named Mohhamed Sofyan Tsauri, was able to buy weapons” and “arranged shooting practice for militants inside the headquarters of Brimob, Indonesia’s paramilitary police … The report also said Dulmatin, a top bomb-maker with a $10 million bounty on his head and who was killed by police this year, obtained a passport under a fake name from the east Jakarta immigration office. The report said corruption probably helped jailed militants operate from their prison cells.” [View article]

U.S. Navy photo by John Stratton

New in the Journal of Homeland Security In “European Armies in Homeland Security,” John L. Clarke examines the range of domestic tasks to which military forces in many European countries have been assigned and develops some observations as to the trends in these operations and the impacts they may have on the armed forces themselves and their public image. There is reason for concern, he says, that national authorities have come to perhaps rely excessively on military forces to carry out domestic tasks and that the armed forces themselves have become so entwined in these tasks that they may be less able to take on conventional military missions. Coupled with the increased employment of European military forces for peace-support operations, he argues, these trends may result in a significant degradation of combat capability for homeland defense missions.

DHS News

TSA Contractors Performed Government-Only Work, Says Inspector General (Federal Computer Week) “Transportation Security Administration contractors improperly reviewed invoices for work performed by other TSA contractors, and one contractor improperly reviewed its company’s own invoices to TSA,” reports Federal Computer Week, citing a new report by the Homeland Security Department’s Inspector General, who “alleged in the report that TSA contractors inappropriately performed inherently governmental functions with respect to approximately $265 million worth of service contracts” and “found that TSA contracting officers did not follow acquisition guidance, nor did TSA maintain a sufficient number of contracting oversight employees.” [View article] [View report (2MB PDF)]

Other Federal News

Education Dept. Offers All-Hazards Planning Grants for Higher Ed (Emergency Management) “Millions of dollars” are “available to develop and improve campus-based emergency management planning efforts,” reports Emergency Management. “All institutions of higher learning”—“including private universities and community colleges”—“are eligible for the Emergency Management for Higher Education discretionary grants.” Applications “must be based on the emergency management framework of prevention-mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.” The application deadline is May 12. [View article] [View grant application]

United Nations News

Bird Flu Still a Global Threat, Says UN Although concerted international action has successfully eliminated the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus from poultry in nearly all 63 countries infected by the world outbreak in 2006, avian influenza persists in five nations, posing a continuing threat to global animal and human health, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. [View press release]

State and Local News

New York Terrorism Financier Sent to Prison (United Press International) New Yorker Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari “was sentenced” in U.S. District Court “to more than 10 years in prison Monday for helping finance terrorism and conspiring to commit wire fraud,” reports UPI. “… Alishtari had pleaded guilty last September.… in 2006 he facilitated the transfer of $152,500, believing the money would be used in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help train terrorists and buy them equipment such as night vision goggles.… Alishtari also stole more than $18 million from investors in” a loan program that “he proffered as a high-yield investment scheme.” [View article]

Arizona Shuttle Bus Operators Raided in Human-Smuggling Investigation (Arizona Republic) “Federal immigration agents descended on shuttle-bus operators in Phoenix and Tucson on [April 15] as part of a human-smuggling investigation,” reports the Republic. “… Mexican authorities also participated in the operation, executing warrants … in Sonora, Mexico. Authorities believe [that] immigrants were smuggled into Nogales then moved to Tucson and Phoenix where they were dropped off in public areas and taken to drophouses.” [View article]

New Upcoming Events (Events are listed for four weeks; after that, they are still on the Upcoming Events page) NRC file photo Public Meeting on Nuclear Power Plant Force-on-Force Inspections (April 29; Rockville, MD) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is holding a public meeting to discuss with the public, the nuclear power industry, and other interested stakeholders proposed enhancements to the agency’s force-on-force inspection program. These inspections, which test a nuclear power plant’s ability to defend against adversaries, are conducted at each plant every three years. Tabletop drills and other assessments precede three days of mock commando-style attacks against the facility. The commission is seeking public input, and the staff will take questions. [View announcement] (May 3-4; Gujarat, India) This conference is designed to strengthen industrial emergency management by bringing major stakeholders—“technology solutions, experts, practitioners, service,” offices of emergency management, and product suppliers—together at one place. It will cover continuity of industrial operations, address management of mitigational measures for complex emerging 21st-century industrial threats and hazards, and offer an opportunity to understand the intricacies of a unified and coordinated national approach to industrial incident management. [View event website] Louisiana Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness Workshop (May 3-6; Lake Charles, LA) This event, sponsored by the Louisiana Emergency Preparedness Association and the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, will focus on emergency management and hazmat training. [View event website (263KB PDF)] (May 5-7; Rockford, IL) The conference will address important changes in emergency management case studies, hazmat response, tactical interoperability communication plans, behavior-based safety, lessons learned in H1N1, forensic investigations and scene preservation, grant-writing basics, and facility emergency planning and response. It will culminate in a tabletop drill based on the 2007 I-39 tanker rollover and offer “Hazwoper” refresher training. [View event brochure (1.9MB PDF)] National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (May 11-13; Lake Buena Vista, FL) The conference brings together 49 national members, 55 state and territory organizations, several hundred local organizations, emergency management partners and representatives from around the country, and private-sector partners. [View event website] Florida Governor’s Hurricane Conference (May 23-28; Ft. Lauderdale, FL) This year’s theme is “Resiliency Through Preparedness—Protecting Our Population.” It will feature training sessions in communication & public information, emergency management, emergency services, health & human services, logistics & resource support, policy & planning, and recovery & mitigation, along with exhibits. [View event website] Airport Employee Credentialing and Access Control Conference (June 7-8; Portland, OR) The conference will provide an opportunity for key players from government and the aviation industry to dialogue face to face, with interactive and informational sessions focused on the key issues related to biometric-based credentialing and access control systems. [View event website] (June 17-18; Arlington, VA) This conference will explore the latest research and development and commercialization efforts in the cutting-edge fields of biodefense technologies, including threat detection and identification, technological challenges, the role of nanotechnology and biochips, and bioinformatics. [View event website] Rebuilding Sustainable Communities with the Elderly and Disabled People After Disasters (July 12-15; Boston) This conference, hosted by the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts–Boston, will seek to contribute to, and recommend, future policy formulation and implementation processes by local, regional, and national governments as well as multilateral agencies and grassroots organizations with a focus on the long-term, sustainable community recovery and rebuilding needs of the elderly and disabled. [View event website] (July 27-28; Singapore) This conference will bring together regional and international seaport security personnel from port authorities, operators, and government law enforcement agencies, along with top industry executives for dedicated port security discourse. It will offer access and knowledge on the developments and technologies used for seaport security and insights on the ongoing projects and plans for port security programs in Asia. [View event website] Radiological Emergency Planning: Terrorism, Security, and Communication (August 16-20; Boston) This conference will examine the latest requirements for responding to a radiological emergency and respond to changes under way from both government and industry, as emergency planners and emergency response team members face a host of new challenges in an era of unprecedented public scrutiny. [View event website] (August 24-28; Chicago) Fire-Rescue International offers executive education and brings together chief officers from across the United States and around the world to exchange ideas, learn from experts, and see the latest equipment, products, and services for emergency responders. At this year’s conference it will launch the Battalion Chief program. [View event website] Asia-Oceania Resilience Conference (October 5-6; Singapore) This conference will bring together, for the first time in Asia, security, emergency management, crisis management, business continuity management, risk management, disaster recovery, and disaster relief professionals from 29 countries eager to learn about products and services that support all aspects of corporate and community resilience. [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) ASIS Intl. Middle East Security Conference (February 20-22, 2011; Manama, Bahrain) The conference will cover the entire spectrum of security topics from hotel security, loss prevention, and maritime piracy to terrorism, executive protection, intellectual property rights, and more. The submission deadline is June 11. [View call for papers]