DHS News

DHS Bottom-Up Review: Not Enough Details? (Government Executive) “The Homeland Security Department’s months-long bottom-up review sent to Congress in early July was intended to align the department’s programs and organizational structure with key mission priorities expressed in February’s Quadrennial Homeland Security Review,” reports Government Executive. (See the Feb. 5 newsletter.) But “‘the review is disappointingly short on the programmatic and organizational details that would be necessary for it to serve as a roadmap for advancing the goals outlined in the [Quadrennial Homeland Security Review],’ Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said.” And “‘it seems to miss the mark,’ [House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie] Thompson said. Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for policy, David Heyman, defended the 70-page review … noting it was the first comprehensive examination and mapping of all the department’s activities.” View article

Inspector General Notes FEMA Improvements (Homeland Security Today) The Federal Emergency Management Agency “unveiled a new mobile Web site” on Monday, reports Homeland Security Today. The site lets users “apply for disaster assistance quickly and easily on mobile devices and smartphones.… FEMA has been doing a lot more to improve the speed and efficiency of its one-stop disaster assistance application system at DisasterAssistance.gov. FEMA has taken steps to stabilize funding for its Disaster Assistance Improvement Plan (DAIP), to cut waste and abuse in the program, and to improve compatibility with other benefits applications systems with its disaster assistance portal, the inspector general (IG) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a report Tuesday. The DHS IG specifically recommended that FEMA integrate its DAIP with states that administer disaster benefits programs and to provide them with an online capability to integrate with DisasterAssistance.gov. FEMA agreed with the recommendation, noting that Florida, for example, integrated its disaster application with DisasterAssistance.gov in June.” View article • View report (1.3MB PDF)

DHS Delayed Freedom of Information Requests to Check Political Sensitivity (Minneapolis Star Tribune) “For at least a year, the Homeland Security Department detoured hundreds of requests for federal records to senior political advisers for highly unusual scrutiny, probing for information about the requesters and delaying disclosures deemed too politically sensitive, according to nearly 1,000 pages of internal e-mails obtained by The Associated Press. The department abandoned the practice after AP investigated.… The Freedom of Information Act, the main tool forcing the government to be more open, is designed to be insulated from political considerations. But in July 2009, Homeland Security introduced a directive requiring a wide range of information to be vetted by political appointees for ‘awareness purposes,’ no matter who requested it.” View article

DHS Reports Progress in Meeting 9/11 Commission Goals The Homeland Security Department says it has advanced its capabilities to protect against and respond to acts of terrorism and other threats. An update on implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission says that DHS has reached “major aviation security milestones” with Secure Flight and cargo screening, deterred terrorism with flexible screening measures, strengthened domestic aviation security, and held “historic international aviation security summits.” View DHS press release • View report (168KB PDF)

CBP photo

Recruitment and Radicalization of School-Aged Youth by International Terrorist Groups This HOMELAND SECURITY STUDIES AND ANALYSIS INSTITUTE report, published in April 2009 in response to a request from the U.S. Department of Education, is now available to the public. It provides some insight into how school-aged youth are recruited, radicalized, and utilized by various international terrorist groups. The study also addresses the role, if any, that is currently being played by schools, educators, and others within the school setting to advance measures or take actions that denounce violence and terrorist groups. View report (1MB PDF)

Other Federal News

‘Top Secret America’ (Washington Post) A three-part Post report looks at “the top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, [that] has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.” The Post “discovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight. After nine years of unprecedented spending and growth, the result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe is so massive that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.” (See the Statistics of the Week.) View article

Court Tells State Dept. to Reconsider Terrorist Label for Iran Opposition Group (Washington Post) “A federal appeals court” has “ordered the State Department to review its decision to label an Iranian opposition group”—“the People’s Mujaheddin Organization of Iran, also known as Mujaheddin-e Khalq”—“as a foreign terrorist organization, strongly suggesting the designation should be revoked,” reports the Post. The court’s “ruling said the group’s due process protections were violated because the State Department did not give it a chance to rebut unclassified information used to justify the designation.” View article • View ruling

Pentagon Funds Research to Treat Ebola and Marburg Viruses (Global Security Newswire) The “Defense Department last week issued a new contract worth as much as $291 million” to AVI BioPharma “for advanced work on two possible medical treatments for the Marburg and Ebola viruses,” reports Global Security Newswire. “No effective therapy exists for the hemorrhagic fevers caused by Ebola virus and Marburg virus,” according to the Mayo Clinic. View article • View Mayo web page

FBI Warning Gets Blogetery.com Shut Down (CNet News) “Blogetery.com, a blogging platform that claimed to service more than 70,000 blogs, was mysteriously booted from the Internet by its Web-hosting company,” writes CNet “Media Maverick” Greg Sandoval. “The site was shut down after FBI agents informed executives of Burst.net, Blogetery’s Web host, late on July 9 that links to al-Qaeda materials were found on Blogetery’s servers.” The materials reportedly included “the names of American citizens targeted for assassination by al-Qaeda. Messages from Osama bin Laden and other leaders of the terrorist organization, as well as bomb-making tips, were also allegedly found on the server.” View article

National News

Fictitious Security Analyst Attracts Invitations and Offers (Washington Times) Robin Sage, “an attractive [but fictitious], flirtatious 25-year-old woman working as a ‘cyber threat analyst’ at the U.S. Navy’s Network Warfare Command,” in “less than a month … amassed nearly 300 social-network connections among security specialists, military personnel and staff at intelligence agencies and defense contractors,” reports the Times. “… Ms. Sage’s connections invited her to speak at a private-sector security conference in Miami, and to review an important technical paper by a NASA researcher. Several invited her to dinner. And there were many invitations to apply for jobs.” But “her profile was a ruse set up by security consultant Thomas Ryan as part of an effort to expose weaknesses in the nation’s defense and intelligence communities.” View article

U.S. Citizen Wehelie Returns After Weeks of Waiting in Egypt (Washington Times) Yahya Wehelie is “back on U.S. soil after FBI scrutiny stranded him in the Middle East for nearly two months on a no-fly list,” reports the Associated Press. He “landed in New York on [July 17] after an ordeal that began when his studies in Yemen aroused the suspicion of U.S. authorities.” Wehelie, a “U.S. citizen of Somali descent, went to Yemen nearly two years ago at his parents’ urging to learn Arabic.” (See the June 18 newsletter.) View article

Two New Documentaries Address Nuclear Threat (Newsweek) “Lucy Walker has made a horror film about the slaughter and wreckage of a nuclear attack,” reports Newsweek. “Countdown to Zero … is a documentary—an awfully persuasive one … another new documentary … Nuclear Tipping Point stars” a “quartet of foreign-policy graybeards” who present “the doomsday hypothetical of what happens in the hours after an American city is destroyed. First, they seem to agree, terrorists would claim that there are more bombs in other cities, and make exorbitant demands. Then civil liberties would collapse, and the social order would go with it.” View article

Deradicalization: A Review of Literature “Deradicalization: A Review of the Literature With Comparison to Findings in the Literatures on Deganging and Deprogramming,” a new research brief from the Institute for Homeland Security Solutions, reviews the literature on deradicalization and evaluates the methodology of deradicalization programs, based on the research identifying individual motivations for entering and exiting terrorist organizations, compared with relevant findings in the literatures on deprogramming of cult members and deganging. View brief (166KB PDF)

Government Security News Seeks Nominations for Homeland Security Awards (Government Security News) Awards will be given in three categories:

• Vendors of information technology security products, services, and solutions
• Vendors of physical security products, services, and solutions
• Agencies and individual public officials responsible for homeland security at the federal, state, and local levels of government

International News

Stuxnet Worm Attacks Computer Control Systems (CNet News) “New malware that has been spreading via USB devices … is programmed to steal data from systems running specific [Siemens] software used in utilities and industrial manufacturing plants,” writes CNet “InSecurity Complex” columnist Elinor Mills. The Stuxnet worm “propagates by exploiting a hole in all versions of Windows in the code that processes shortcut files, ending in ‘.lnk’” and infects “storage devices that are subsequently connected to the infected machine.” It steals “industrial automation layout design and control files specific to control systems … Since control systems are typically not connected to the Internet, USB drives are a logical way to try to infect them.” View article

15 Nations Will Work Together to Reduce Cyberwarfare Threat (Washington Post) In an agreement at the United Nations, “a group of nations—including the United States, China and Russia—have for the first time signaled a willingness to engage in reducing the threat of attacks on each others’ computer networks,” reports the Post. “… Others in the group are Britain, France, Germany, Estonia, Belarus, Brazil, India, Israel, Italy, Qatar, South Korea and South Africa.” View article

Two Killed in Attack on Russian Power Station (Reuters) “Two security guards were killed in a suspected ‘terrorist act’ when an explosion struck a hydroelectric power station in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of Russia’s North Caucasus on Wednesday,” reports Reuters. View article

Guantánamo Detainee Sent Back to Algeria Against His Will (Washington Post) “The Obama administration has for the first time sent a detainee”—Aziz Abdul Naji—“at Guantanamo Bay back home against his will,” reports the Post. Naji, “an Algerian who had been held at Guantanamo for more than eight years, had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to remain at the military detention center in Cuba. He argued that he would be tortured or killed in Algeria, either by the government or by terrorist groups that might try to recruit him. In a unanimous decision, the justices declined” on July 16 “to hear Naji’s appeal, and the Defense Department announced Monday that he had been repatriated.” View article

Attacking Iraq Increased the Terrorist Threat to Britain, Says Former MI5 Director (London Guardian) “The former MI5 director general Eliza Manningham-Buller” on Tuesday “[said that the] war against Iraq … significantly increased the terrorist threat to” Britain, reports the Guardian. “The toppling of Saddam allowed Osama bin Laden to gain a stronghold in Iraq and radicalised young Muslims in Britain, she said.… She added that, prior to the Iraq invasion, the prospect of it fuelling terrorism in the UK had been communicated through joint intelligence committee reports. She said she had also spoken to the home secretary about the risk.” Also this week, “a letter she sent to John Gieve,” who was “a permanent secretary at the home office a year before the Iraq invasion, was declassified.” View article • View letter

Canada Seeks Proposals on Counterterrorism and Disaster Relief (Ottawa Citizen) “A new call for proposals by the Centre for Security Science, part of Defence Research and Development Canada, offers $18 million for ideas from industry and others to combat terrorists, criminals, accidents and natural disasters with chemical, biological, radiological-nuclear and explosive … agents and weapons,” reports the Citizen. “… project proposals are sought from industry, academia, non-governmental organizations and government institutions in nine priority areas determined by science and technology experts.” View article

Afghanistan and Pakistan Sign Trade Agreement (Washington Post) “The Obama administration has persuaded Afghanistan and Pakistan to take their first tangible step toward bilateral cooperation—a trade agreement that will facilitate the ground shipment of goods between and through the two countries,” reports the Post. View article

Coast Guard photo by Brianna Dandridge

Funds Pledged to Rebuild Haiti Are Slow to Arrive (Washington Post) “Three months after donors at a U.S.-sponsored conference pledged more than $5.3 billion to rebuild Haiti, only a fraction of the money has been disbursed, and a special reconstruction commission”—the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission—“has barely started to function,” reports the Post. “… Despite ambitious plans to ‘build back better,’ as U.N. and U.S. officials promised, the reconstruction has been hobbled by a lack of coordination and cash and by a virtually incapacitated Haitian government.” View article

United Nations News

UN Assesses Disaster Risk Reduction by Dominican Republic The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and its partners have assessed disaster risk reduction efforts in the Dominican Republic, recommending that the Caribbean nation strengthen building codes as part of its efforts to mitigate the impact of hurricanes and other hazards. This was the first time a country asked the UN to independently assess its own disaster risk reduction efforts. View UN press release

State and Local News

New York Lawyer Gets 10-Year Sentence in Terrorism Case (Reuters) “A New York lawyer”—Lynne Stewart—“was initially sentenced to 28 months for helping her client, blind Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, contact the Islamic Group in Egypt,” reports Reuters. “… But U.S. prosecutors … appealed the first sentence,” and “the appeals court” resentenced her to 10 years. View article

Utah State Employees Distributed List of Illegal Immigrants (Washington Times) “Utah officials said [on July 16] they have identified at least two state workers who apparently accessed confidential documents to create a list of 1,300 purported illegal immigrants that was mailed to law enforcement officials and the news media,” reports the Associated Press. (See last week’s newsletter.) “… the employees work for the Department of Workforce Services, which administers food stamp programs and other public benefits.” (See the Quote of the Week.) View article

Alaskan Couple Plead Guilty to Creating Terrorism Hit List (Anchorage [AK] Daily News) “A King Salmon weatherman and his British-born, stay-at-home wife”—Paul Gene and Nadia Piroska Maria Rockwood—“on Wednesday became the first people to face a domestic terrorism case in Alaska when they were charged [with]—and pleaded guilty—to lying to the FBI about … an assassination list containing the names of about 15 people in the Lower 48 [states] they deemed enemies of Islam,” reports the Daily News. View article

Port of Tampa, FL, Uses Hazmat Push Teams (Emergency Management) After a hurricane, “hazardous materials commodity experts” often are delayed reentering their facilities to assess damage and repair leaks, reports Emergency Management. Tampa “Fire Rescue has implemented a new strategy, involving ‘push teams,’” to speed up leak control and “bringing the fuel supply” back online. “The new plan is accomplished by housing and integrating port facility personnel at the same shelter as the city’s debris removal push team that’s assigned to access the port. These push teams would be summoned when the hurricane forecast calls for a Category 2 or greater storm. As soon as the all clear is given, a public-private convoy will leave the shelter and make its way to the port. The convoy consists of Tampa Fire Rescue hazardous material technicians; Department of Public Works’ front-end bulldozers; the U.S. Coast Guard; Tampa Port Authority; Tampa Bay Port Heavy Weather Advisory Group; Tampa Electric Co. and representatives of the various hazardous material facilities located in the port. This cross-discipline task force approach provides added safety for all participants involved in the port re-entry.” View article

New Upcoming Events (Events are listed for four weeks; after that, they are still on the Upcoming Events page) (July 26-28; Dearborn, MI) This is a forum for leaders from across the U.S. and Canadian border agencies to discuss the future of air, ground, and waterways border security and management, including the unique needs and demands from Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Customs and Border Protection officials, biometrics and identity management, advanced remote surveillance technologies, interagency collaboration, and fiscal year 2011 DHS priorities. View event website Governor’s Campus Preparedness Conference (August 3; Richmond, VA) The conference’s goal is to empower students, faculty, and administrators with the tools and knowledge of proven techniques in order to promote a culture of preparedness on the campuses of Virginia’s colleges and universities, addressing the need for a high level of readiness for all potential hazards, including hurricanes, tornadoes, pandemic flu, and terrorism. View event website Natural Disaster Youth Summit (August 23-27; Bursa, Turkey) In this project, students learn the importance of human lives and how to cope with natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, landslides, tsunamis, and droughts by communicating and collaborating with global friends. Students will acquire the knowledge of systems of disasters and skills to reduce future disasters. This year’s theme is “Disaster Reduction and Climate Change.” View event website Social Media 4 Responders (September 13-14; Charlotte, NC) Practitioners from the fire service, law enforcement, public health, and crisis and disaster response will present how and why their agencies and others are going directly to their communities using the Internet. They will walk participants through the latest developments in high-tech Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs to help participants’ organizations communicate with their target audiences. View event website California Emergency Services Assn. Conference and Training (September 14-17; Monterey, CA) This year’s theme is “Emergency Management—The Next Generation.” The gathering includes representatives from government agencies, utilities, academic institutions, and businesses of all types, nonprofits and faith agencies, as well as media, funders, and elected officials—leaders and practitioners in preparedness, response, recovery, mitigation, and protection in California. People with diverse expertise and interest in law, fire, public information, care and shelter, animal care, finance, logistics, public works, utilities, public policy, medical, public health, and volunteers are all welcome. View event website Homeland Security for Networked Industries (September 20-21; Washington, DC) This conference draws together network security professionals with a common purpose of protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure networks, focusing on telecommunications, utilities, and transportation. Keynote sessions will focus on major weaknesses and opportunities for improved security and spending in the area of network security. Breakout sessions will address all areas of network security, including information technology investment, government- and industry-specific solutions, policy, and the latest technology trends. View event website Homeland Security Symposium and Exhibition (September 28-29; Arlington, VA) This year’s theme is “America’s Homeland Leaders Talk Risk.” Among the symposium sessions: International Terrorism—The Threat from Abroad; Domestic Terrorism—The Threat at Home; The Wrath and Consequences of “Mother Nature”; Border Security; Cyber Threats and Enhancing Security of the IT Infrastructure; Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience; and a media panel on Covering Risks and Disasters. View event website (October 11-12; Sydney, Australia) This year’s program is based on “Building Solutions for a Global Community.” It offers sponsors showcasing their products and solutions, 10 hours of peer-to-peer networking, and over 20 hours of dedicated education focused on business continuity, emergency management, business resiliency, risk management, pandemic planning, natural disasters, emergency response, and emergency health. View event website Water Contamination Emergencies International Conference (October 11-13; Mülheim-an-der-Ruhr, Germany) The conference will deal with four principal themes: monitoring, understanding, acting, and lessons learned, with particular emphasis on prevention and how water companies prepare a strategy, and on unusual or unpredictable emergency situations. View event website Virginia Hazardous Materials Conference and Expo (October 18-22; Hampton, VA) This year’s theme is “Moving Forward With Renewed Commitment.” Workshops will cover topics such as unified command, ethanol and hazmat operations, radiological and nuclear awareness, homemade explosive production signatures recognition, and hands-on training with the Safety Train (see “Safety Train Takes Hazmat Training to a New Level,” by Amy Clymer and Heather Rose, in the Journal of Homeland Security, March 2010). View event website Intl. Assn. of Emergency Managers Conference & Emex (October 29–November 4; San Antonio) The conference provides a forum for current trends and topics, offers information about the latest tools and technology in emergency management and homeland security, and advances the association’s committee work. Sessions encourage stakeholders at all levels of government and in the private sector, public health, and related professions to exchange ideas on collaborating to protect lives and property from disaster. View event website CBRNe Convergence (November 2-5; Orlando, FL) With the theme of “growing closer, staying distinct: merging civilian and military response” to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and improvised explosive device threats, the symposium will bring together over 30 experts from 12 countries in a streamed conference and accompanying exhibition, plus a pre-conference workshop and a dynamic demonstration of U.S. military and civil capabilities. View event website Counter Terrorism Conference and Exhibition (November 10-11; London) This event offers a chance to take part in dynamic discussions and debates on transnational terrorism, internal and external threats, airport security, cyber-terrorism, financing terrorism, and securing major international events. A new networking forum offers interaction with distinguished professionals and decision makers from across the international counterterrorism community. View event website 4th National Bio-Threat Conference (December 7-9; New Orleans) This conference will provide a forum for dialogue among government, industry, academia, and first responders to address critical issues in environmental sampling and bio-detection as well as special focus sessions on biosurveillance and microbial forensics. View event website International Symposium on Development of CBRN Defence Capabilities (November 30–December 1; Berlin) The symposium will present the German comprehensive and overarching approach to developing chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense capabilities, along with those of other European and non-European countries. It will highlight the multinational environment in which German military forces are operating and in which the development of these defense capabilities is embedded, with special attention to NATO and the European Union; it will also reflect on the development of civil CBRN defense capabilities. The entire spectrum from threat assessment through policy and concepts and finally to industrial solutions will be demonstrated. 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) Virginia Hazardous Materials Conference and Expo (October 18-22; Hampton, VA) This year’s theme is “Moving Forward With Renewed Commitment.” The conference is soliciting proposals for presentations. View call for papers 2011 International Conference on Security Science and Technology (January 21-23; Chongqing, China) Among the topics of interest: authentication and authorization, biometrics, critical infrastructure protection, interoperability and standardization, and vulnerability and threat analysis. The submission deadline is September 10. View call for papers IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence for Security and Defence Applications (April 11-15, 2011; Paris) The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is soliciting papers on these security topics for this symposium: surveillance; suspect behavior profiling; automated handling of dangerous situations or people; stationary or mobile object detection, recognition, and classification; air, maritime, and land security; and network security, biometrics security, and authentication technologies. The submission deadline is October 31. View call for papers NDRExpo & Conference (May 2-5, 2011; New Orleans) The conference is soliciting papers on a variety of topics involving emergency response, continuity, recovery, and mitigation. A complete list is available on the conference website. The deadline for submitting papers is July 30. View call for papers