International News

Most Arabs Favor a Nuclear Iran (Washington Times) A majority of “the Arab world … thinks a nuclear-armed Iran would be good for the Middle East,” reports the Times. “… The 2010 Arab Public Opinion Poll found that 57 percent of respondents not only believe that Iran’s nuclear program aims to build a bomb but also view that goal positively—nearly double the 29 percent who thought so in 2009.” However, “most Sunni Arab leaders … fear the regional implications of an Iranian bomb.” View article

Terror-Linked Charities Assist in Pakistani Flood Relief (Washington Times; BBC) “Relief workers in Pakistan say that Islamist charities affiliated with terrorist groups”—particularly Lashkar-e-Taiba—“are competing with international efforts to provide relief to the millions of Pakistanis affected by massive floods,” reports the Times. “… The U.S. designated Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) a foreign terrorist organization in December 2001. Soon after,” it changed its “name to Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which began humanitarian projects to avoid restrictions. LeT coordinates its charitable activities through JuD and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation.” The floods have affected 14 million Pakistanis, reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “At least 1,600 people have died and many more are missing.” View Times article • View BBC article

Afghanistan Aid Workers Murdered by Insurgents (London Telegraph) “Eight aid workers and two Afghans” working for the International Assistance Mission “were gunned down or hit with grenades as they fled” a “planned ambush by militants” on August 5, reports the Telegraph. The sole survivor was an Afghan driver for the charity workers. “The attack has been claimed by both the Taliban and Hizb-i-Islami.” View article

China Mudslides Kill 1,000 But Were Predicted 13 Years Ago (Christian Science Monitor) “Monster monsoon rains may have loosened the mud and rock that buried and killed more than 1,000 people in the northwestern Chinese Province of Gansu” starting on August 7, “but the mudslide in Zhouqu was more than a natural disaster,” reports the Monitor. “… government-run lumber companies cut 313,000 acres of forest from the slopes of Zhouqu county between 1952 and 1990,” and “thirteen years ago two Chinese scientists published a paper warning that following ‘the destruction of the eco-system’ in the district, ‘a rainstorm will carry debris down the gully, destroying farmland, houses, roads, bridges, water facilities, and power systems and causing death and injury.’… Chinese authorities have acquitted themselves well in rescue and relief efforts however, … maintaining a reputation for efficiency earned during the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.” View article

New al-Qaeda Operations Chief Lived 15 Years in U.S. (Washington Times) “A suspected al Qaeda operative who lived for more than 15 years in the U.S.”—Adnan Shukrijumah—“has become chief of the terror network’s global operations, the FBI says,” according to the Associated Press. He took “over a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003.” View article

Lord’s Resistance Army Killed 255 in 18 Months (Toronto Globe and Mail) “One of Africa’s most vicious rebel groups has killed at least 255 people over the past 18 months in a largely unreported campaign of abductions and massacres in Congo and the Central African Republic,” according to the Associated Press, citing a new report by Human Rights Watch. “… The Lord’s Resistance Army began its attacks in Uganda more than 20 years ago and has since been pushed progressively westward. It is now active in the triangle of land that stretches across the border between Congo, Central African Republic and southern Sudan. There the foreign rebel group has been replenishing its ranks by waging a campaign of abductions including scores of children who have been forced to become child soldiers or sex slaves.” View article • View report

African Commission Rebukes Botswana’s Immigration Laws (South Africa Business Day) “In a scathing rebuke of Botswana’s immigration laws, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has found that national security is not a legitimate justification for infringing on the right of access to courts,” reports Business Day. Botswana’s law permits the president “to expel a noncitizen ‘in consequence of information received from any source deemed by the president to be reliable’—with no right to challenge the decision in court and no duty on the president to give reasons for his decision.” View article

Can Iraqis Handle Security? (Washington Times; BBC) “Iraq’s military is ready and able to take over security operations as the United States ends [its] combat role and prepares for a major troop withdrawal, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq”—General Raymond T. Odierno—“said Sunday,” reports the Associated Press. “… Violence has dropped dramatically in Iraq since 2008, but insurgent attacks remain a daily occurrence, especially in Baghdad, preventing the city from regaining a semblance of normalcy seven years after the insurgency broke out. Still, violence has spiked over the past month as the U.S. moves ahead with a major drawdown of its troops to be completed by the end of August, when only 50,000 will remain in the country.” But “Iraq’s top army officer”—Lieutenant General Babaker Zebari—“warned that the Iraqi military might not be ready to take control for another decade,” according to the British Broadcasting Corporation. View AP article • View BBC article

Moving Guantánamo Prisoners Kept Them From Legal Help (Washington Post) “Four of the nation’s most highly valued terrorist prisoners”—“Abu Zubaydah, Abd al-Nashiri, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi”—“were secretly moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2003, years earlier than has been disclosed, then were whisked back into overseas prisons before the Supreme Court could give them access to lawyers, the Associated Press has learned. The transfer allowed the United States to interrogate the detainees in CIA ‘black sites’ for two more years without allowing them to speak with lawyers or human rights observers or to challenge their detention in U.S. courts.” View article

1,300 Muslims Attend Antiterror Camp in Britain (London Guardian) “Al-Hidayah 2010, a three-day event that kicked off on” August 7, was “attended by 1,300 Muslims—mainly young men and women—[and] has been billed as the UK’s first anti-terror camp,” reports the Guardian. “Devotees of Muslim scholar Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri … gathered at the University of Warwick’s campus to be taught practical ways of countering extremist views in their schools, universities and communities.” View article

United Nations News

Swine Flu Pandemic Is Over, Says World Health Organization The World Health Organization on Tuesday declared an end to the H1N1 pandemic but urged continued vigilance, cautioning that pandemics, like the viruses that cause them, are unpredictable, although WHO Director-General Margaret Chan acknowledged that the “virus has largely run its course.” View press release

State and Local News

Secure Communities Now Includes All Border Counties (Los Angeles Times) “Immigration officials now have access to the fingerprints of every inmate booked into jail in all 25 U.S. counties along the Mexican border,” reports the Times. (See the June 25 newsletter.) “… the fingerprinting program, known as Secure Communities, … gives Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, the ability to check the fingerprints of those arrested against a database that will show whether they have ever been deported or otherwise had contact with immigration agents. If the agency determines that the person is in the country illegally, federal agents can institute deportation proceedings.” View article

Photo courtesy of Steve Dunham

Bird art by Arrow

Public-Private Partnership for Public Safety in Illinois (Emergency Management) In Cook and Lake counties, in 2007, “a public-private partnership was formed to facilitate communication in public safety,” writes Deerfield, IL, police commander Rick Weil in Emergency Management. “… the Lake-Cook Regional Critical Incident Partnership” is “composed of public agencies and businesses,” and one of its goals is “emergency preparedness response to critical incidents using an all-hazards approach,” mitigating their impact, “especially for the private sector.” (See the Quote of the Week.) View article

National News

14 Charged With Providing Material Support to al-Shabaab Last week, 14 individuals were charged with terrorism violations for providing money, personnel, and services to the foreign terrorist organization al-Shabaab. Only two were arrested; 10 were charged with leaving the United States to join al-Shabaab. View Justice Dept. press release

Cyber Shockwave Showed Dependence on the Private Sector (Homeland Security Today) The Cyber Shockwave exercise in February (see the Feb. 19 newsletter)—a scenario involving “a massive cyber attack that crippled US infrastructure”—“found that DHS and other federal agencies” would “find themselves dependent on the private sector,” reports Homeland Security Today. “… Any large-scale attack would occur largely on networks that are in private hands, since the private sector owns an estimated 85 percent of all critical infrastructure … Only private sector experts would understand the architecture and capability of those networks, and the nation would rely on them to bring those networks back up quickly if an attack knocked them out.” View article

Secret Plea Bargain for bin Laden Aide al-Qosi (Washington Times) “A U.S. military judge”—Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Nancy Paul—“on Monday ordered that a plea agreement capping the sentence of an Osama bin Laden aide”—Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi—“be sealed, shrouding in secrecy the first Guantanamo conviction under President Obama,” reports the Associated Press. “… Al-Qosi, who worked as a cook and driver for al Qaeda, pleaded guilty July 7 to one count each of providing material support for terrorism and conspiracy” (see the July 16 newsletter). View article

Students Spared Deportation (New York Times) “The Obama administration, while deporting a record number of immigrants convicted of crimes, is sparing one group of illegal immigrants from expulsion: students who came to the United States without papers when they were children,” reports the Times. Among the Immigration and Customs Enforcement “agency’s new priorities” is the “focus on capturing immigrant criminals,” and “the vast majority of students who are illegal immigrants have clean criminal records.” View article

DHS News

US-VISIT Exit Test Fell Short of Congressional Intentions, Says GAO Directed by Congress, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration tested the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology on passengers departing the United States (since 2006, US-VISIT has been used for arriving international passengers). The agencies were unable to conduct the test with an airline, as instructed, “because no airline was willing to participate,” reports the Government Accountability Office. Also, some aspects of the test “(e.g., percentage of system downtime or inoperability, costs for requirements analysis) were not reported,” and the testers would suspend “exit screening at departure gates to avoid flight delays.” Furthermore, about 30% “of the requirements were not operationally tested.” DHS needs additional sources of information to make decisions about use of US-VISIT for departing passengers, says the GAO. View GAO summary • View Focus on US-VISIT

Other Federal News

GAO Sees Weaknesses in Federal Facility Security Committees “Facility security committees … are responsible for addressing security issues at federal facilities,” notes the Government Accountability Office. Each committee includes Federal Protective Service, General Services Administration, and tenant agency representatives “and is responsible for addressing security issues at its respective facility and approving the funding and implementation of security countermeasures recommended by” the Federal Protective Service. However, the committees lack “procedures that outline how they should operate or make decisions, or that establish accountability,” and the representatives “generally do not have any security knowledge or experience … these weaknesses continue to result in ad hoc security and increased risk at some federal facilities.” View GAO summary

State Dept. Notes al-Qaeda Setbacks and Plotting In its Country Reports on Terrorism 2009, the U.S. State Department noted that al-Qaeda “suffered several significant setbacks in 2009 due to Pakistani military operations aimed at eliminating militant strongholds, leadership losses, and increased difficulty in raising money, training recruits, and planning attacks outside of the region.” However, al-Qaeda “and its affiliates, particularly” al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, “were actively engaged in operational plotting against the United States,” and the al-Qaeda “core in Pakistan remained the foremost security threat to the U.S. homeland.” View press release

U.S. Marshals Kept 35,000 Images From Full-Body Scans (CBS News) “This week the U.S. Marshals admitted to saving tens of thousands of images recorded at the security checkpoint of … the Orlando, Fla. federal courthouse” using a full-body scanner, reports CBS News. View article

State Dept. Names Harakat-ul Jihad Islami a Terror Group The U.S. State Department on August 6 designated Harakat-ul Jihad Islami a foreign terrorist organization and named its leader, Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, a terrorist, giving U.S. law enforcement additional tools to restrict the flow of resources to Kashmiri and his group. View press release

Private-Sector News

Five Countries Challenge BlackBerry Security (Washington Post) Five countries are “considering BlackBerry bans over security concerns with data routed abroad,” reports the Associated Press. India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have announced, threatened, or considered banning the so-called smartphones. The Emirates and possibly other countries have entered talks with the BlackBerry’s maker, Research in Motion, about mitigating their concerns. View article

Many Homelands Equal Global Homeland Security Spending (Homeland Security Today) “Like the hazards and threats it addresses, homeland security is an inherently global phenomenon tied to a global economy,” reports Homeland Security Today. “… although the United States is the largest market for homeland security spending in the world, a very significant and increasing share is being generated outside the country.… India, China, the Middle East, Africa and South America are the most rapidly growing markets.” View article

Dual-Benefit Solutions

Dual-benefit news archive

Canary Software Can Detect Hazardous Water Supply Contaminants The Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department have collaborated in developing Canary water quality software that enhances a water system’s ability to detect intentional or unintentional contamination. It can help detect a wide variety of chemical and biological contaminants, including pesticides, metals, and pathogens. Once contamination is detected quickly, a water utility can issue a “Do not drink” order to prevent customers from ingesting the water. View press release

New Upcoming Events (Events are listed for four weeks; after that, they are still on the Upcoming Events page) Avoiding a Nuclear Catastrophe (August 18-19; Maxwell Air Force Base, AL) The conference is sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, U.S. Air Force Counterproliferation Center, Air Force Research Institute, Air University, and Headquarters Air Force Strategic Security Directorate. It provides a forum for government, military, academic, and industry leaders to discuss current and future issues concerning weapons of mass destruction. The focus of this year’s conference is on the global nuclear landscape, including the Nuclear Posture Review, Nuclear Security Summit, New START treaty, and Nonproliferation Treaty Conference. 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 San Diego Regional Security Conference (September 14-15) This conference will focus on command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; cybersecurity; robots; secure communications; and sensors. topics will include information assurance and the relationship to cybersecurity; identity management; data integrity; intrusion detection and prevention; security testing and audit technologies; ensuring and fusing secure data at the level of command, control, communications, and computers; cyber-secure robotics; and promoting global security. 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 Biometric Consortium Conference (September 21-23; Tampa, FL) The conference focuses on biometric technologies for defense, homeland security, identity management, border crossing, and electronic commerce, with presentations, seminars, and panel discussions featuring internationally recognized experts in biometric technologies, system and application developers, information technology business strategists, and government and commercial officers. 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 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 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 Modeling for Public Health Action: From Epidemiology to Operations (December 9-10; Atlanta) This conference will promote the exchange of information and ideas about modeling uses to shape public health action. It is intended for public health practitioners and policy makers in state and local health departments; state and local health policy makers; scientists and modelers working at the Centers for Disease Control and their federal partners in public health; academic researchers; nongovernment organizations; and international practitioners, modelers, and policy makers. The conference will discuss effective and practical modeling applications to public health; provide sessions, training, and networking opportunities; address issues and opportunities in public health modeling; and foster interest in applying analytical tools for public health policy and operational decision making. View event website 5th Annual Border Security Expo (February 15-16; Phoenix) The largest conference and exhibition in the United States on border security will cover political, regulatory, operational, and tactical issues; the new state immigration laws; drug cartels; kidnapping and ransom; gangs of the Southwest; border violence; money laundering; guns going over the border; and new border security technology. In addition, there will be some closed-door sessions for law enforcement. Over 100 exhibitors will present the latest technology, products, and services. 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) Modeling for Public Health Action: From Epidemiology to Operations (December 9-10; Atlanta) The Centers for Disease Control Preparedness Modeling Unit invites abstracts for 20-minute conference presentations that illustrate the application of modeling to plan, implement, or evaluate public health action. Preference will be given to presentations that (1) illustrate the use of modeling to guide public health policy, program development, economic, or resource allocation decisions or (2) describe user-friendly model interfaces that permit non-modelers to use the models effectively. The perspectives of policy and decision makers, as well as those of model developers and analysts, are welcome. International modelers are encouraged to participate. The abstract submission deadline is September 15. 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 ASIS International Asia-Pacific Conference (December 5-7, 2011; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) Abstracts on all security-related topics are welcome. Particular topics of interest include supply chain security, maritime piracy, and terrorism. The deadline for submitting presentations is April 22, 2011. View call for papers