Dual-Benefit Solutions

Security Card to Speed Up Airport Checks (Swissinfo) “A new system aimed at improving security and cutting passenger waiting time at airports is set to be introduced at Zurich airport in December,” reports Swissinfo. “… The system assembles biometric data, including a passenger’s fingerprints and a photograph, as well as a scan of passport information during the check-in procedure at the airport. These elements are then recorded on a special security card that the passenger can present at various checkpoints if required.” [View article]

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What’s New

Terrorists Interested in Unconventional Weapons, CIA Says The Central Intelligence Agency sent its report “Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and Advanced Conventional Munitions” to Congress in November, noting that many terrorist groups and non-state actors around the world are interested in using chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons. An unclassified version of the report, posted on the CIA’s website on 23 November, says that any attacks that might occur would likely be “small-scale, incorporating improvised delivery means and easily produced or obtained chemicals, toxins, or radiological substances.” The report also points to U.S.-imposed sanctions against several Chinese entities in 2003, including the China North Industries Corporation and the China Precision Machinery Import/Export Corporation. [View press release] [View unclassified report summary]

TSA Launches Prototype Biometric ID Card for Transportation Workers On 19 November, the Transportation Security Administration began testing the technology and business processes involved in the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) Program at the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay. The prototype will expand to 34 sites in six states and will last seven months. The TWIC is a tamper-resistant credential that contains biometric information about the holder and renders the card useless to anyone other than the rightful owner. Using these data, each transportation facility can verify the identity of a worker and prevent unauthorized persons from accessing secure areas. [View press release]

Energy Dept. Needs to Accelerate Return of Weapons-Usable Uranium to the U.S., Says GAO The Energy Department has not fulfilled its agreement to return to the United States highly enriched uranium fuel of U.S. origin now in Russia, according to a November Government Accountability Office report to the Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, Committee on Armed Services. The Energy Department said it plans to complete the fuel return program by 2009 and estimates that the program could cost $100 million, but GAO says the timeframe and estimate are not reliable. GAO recommends that the Energy Department consider incentives to foreign research reactors for returning the uranium, such as lowering fees for accepting the uranium from high-income countries, and raising fees for returning low-enriched uranium to the United States to offset disposal costs. [View report]

Course Trains Select Few on Biowarfare Agents Since 1999, nearly 200 students from the military services and other government agencies have attended the four-week, hands-on Field Identification of Biological Warfare Agents course offered by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The course teaches students how to detect biological warfare agents in the battlefield. To ensure that the training stays on the cutting edge, concepts of operations and diagnostic materials, equipment and technology are continually evaluated and transitioned into the field. According to training coordinator Bill Dorman, if a testing agent is not sensitive enough, false negatives can result; if it’s not specific enough, false positives can happen. [View press release]

White House Orders Expansion of Intelligence Programs In an effort to strengthen U.S. Intelligence capabilities, the White House on 23 November released memos ordering a review of efforts already under way at the FBI and CIA and asked the CIA and the departments of Defense, State, and Justice to review covert plans. [View memo to CIA Director] [View memo to Attorney General] [View memo to Secretaries of State and Defense, Attorney General, and CIA Director]

TSA Progress Allowing Airports to Use Private Passenger and Baggage Screeners As of November, TSA had completed or was developing key policies and procedures for the opt-out program, which allows airports to apply to not use federal screeners, according to a Government Accountability Office report to the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Aviation, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. TSA guidelines determine how and when private screening contractors will be evaluated and selected. TSA has developed, or is developing, internal guidance for managing the opt-out program, such as a transition plan to help airports move from federal to private screeners. TSA expects to complete the remaining policies and procedures by mid-2005 and is developing performance measures to assess the screening performance of airports in the program and contractors performing the screening. [View report]

FBI Intelligence Efforts Need More Planning, Justice Dept. Inspector General Finds On 22 November, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine gave the House Judiciary Committee the 2004 “Top Management Challenges in the Department of Justice” report, which includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s handling and sharing of intelligence information. The Inspector General’s audit found that the FBI’s collection of material requiring translation outpaced its translation capabilities and that the FBI did not translate all the foreign-language counterterrorism and counterintelligence material it collected. The Inspector General also found that among the FBI’s main obstacles to effective information sharing was the need to improve its IT systems, enhance its ability to analyze intelligence, overcome security clearance and other security issues concerning the sharing of information with state and local law enforcement agencies, and develop policies and procedures for managing the flow of information. [View report]

TSA Seeks Competitive Bids for Screening Equipment Maintenance On Monday, the Transportation Security Administration announced that it will hold an open, competitive bidding process for its Integrated Logistics Support contract, to be awarded in February. The contractor will maintain most of the screening equipment, including metal detectors, X-ray machines, and explosives trace detectors, at the nation’s 450 commercial airports. “After carefully reviewing the options and weighing the opinions of the experts, TSA concluded that the competitive bidding process provides the right avenue to a contractor that will provide the government the best value,” said Rear Admiral David M. Stone, U.S. Navy (retired), Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for TSA. [View press release]

Customs and Border Protection Launches Traveler Awareness Campaign On 23 November, U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched a traveler awareness campaign to inform the millions of Americans and U.S. residents who will travel abroad this holiday season. The campaign stresses the requirements involving passports, permanent resident cards, customs, and import duties. [View press release] [View program description]

State Dept. Comments on Iran’s Uranium Enrichment Activity State Department spokesman Richard Boucher talked to reporters on Tuesday about Iran’s fully suspending uranium enrichment activity and International Atomic Energy Agency verification, along with other topics. The U.S. view is that Iran has to follow through on its pledges and promises. If Iran breaks those agreements, then the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency will report to the agency’s Board of Governors, and it will consider what further action to take, said Boucher. “Our view is that Iran is very specifically on the hook to carry through with its pledges and its promises now, and as you know, our view has always been that the only way for Iran really to satisfy the concerns about--that many people in the world now share--about Iran’s nuclear intentions is for them to engage in a complete cessation of all enrichment and reprocessing activities and to run any power plants on a closed fuel cycle.” [View press release]

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents Arrest Nine for Fraud in Gaining Employment at Louisiana Refinery Special agents have arrested nine illegal aliens for using fraudulent immigration documents and making false statements to gain employment at Marathon Ashland Petroleum Refinery in Louisiana. The arrests are part of an ongoing criminal investigation of subcontractors operating in the petroleum industry. Critical infrastructures such as petroleum refineries, airports, defense installations, and bio-agricultural industries are a primary law enforcement priority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “This was a targeted law enforcement action based upon extensive information developed over a long period,” said Michael A. Holt, Special Agent-in-Charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New Orleans, adding that when people use “fraudulent documents to get a job, they hide their true identity and history. We need to know exactly who is working on our critical infrastructure programs.” [View press release]

Intl. Atomic Energy Agency Accepts South Korean Safeguards Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors concluded its discussions on implementing safeguards in the Republic of Korea. After considering a report from the agency’s Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, the board “shared the Director General’s view that given the nature of the nuclear activities described in his report, the failure of the Republic of Korea to report these activities in accordance with its safeguards agreements is of serious concern,” said Board Chair Ingrid Hall of Canada. “At the same time, the Board noted that the quantities of nuclear material involved have not been significant, and that to date there is no indication that the undeclared experiments have continued. The Board welcomed the corrective actions taken by the Republic of Korea, and the active cooperation it has provided to the Agency.” [View press release] [View Director General’s report]

Annan Calls for Universal Participation in Chemical Weapons Treaty United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday called on all countries that have not yet done so to ratify or accede to a global treaty against chemical weapons. Expanding membership in the Chemical Weapons Convention is vital for strengthening international security and for promoting the peaceful use of chemistry, he said in a message to the 9th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Convention. (The message was delivered by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva.) “It is a source of encouragement that steady progress has been made in the destruction of declared chemical arsenals,” he said. “Nevertheless, a great deal more remains to be done. I urge the concerned States to meet their obligations under the Convention, and call upon the international community to continue to support these efforts.” [View press release]

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National News

Breaking News! Bush Selects Kerik as New Secretary of Homeland Security (New York Times) “Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, has been selected by President Bush to replace Tom Ridge as secretary of homeland security, a senior administration official and associates of Mr. Kerik’s said today,” according to the New York Times. “Mr. Kerik was offered the job and has accepted, the associates said. The senior administration official said the formal announcement would be made on Friday.” [View article]

Is U.S. Able to Battle Bioterror? (Bradenton [FL] Herald) Experts say the flu shot shortage indicates that the United States is vulnerable to bioweapons, according to the Knight Ridder Tribune News Service. “If terrorists were to strike with deadly biowar agents such as anthrax or plague bacteria, experts fear [that] the nation would be hugely vulnerable, despite the billions of dollars already spent to increase national readiness after the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks and subsequent anthrax-laced letters in 2001.” [View article]

9/11 Panel Chairman Says Bush Needs to Push Antiterror Bill (News 8, Austin, TX) “The chairman of the 9/11 panel said passage of new anti-terrorism legislation is all up to President Bush,” reports the Associated Press. Chairman “Tom Kean said it will take presidential pressure to save the intelligence measure, currently bottled-up in the Republican-controlled Congress.” [View article]

Unions Protest DHS Secrecy Pledge (Washington Post) “Leaders of two government unions called on Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to stop requiring all 180,000 department workers to sign nondisclosure agreements that prohibit them from sharing sensitive but unclassified information with the public,” reports the Washington Post. “… The three-page forms ‘cover a virtually unlimited universe of information that is relevant to important matters of public concern and whose disclosure would have no adverse impact upon the national security,’ they wrote Ridge in a Nov. 23 letter released” Monday. [View article]

Customs Employees Cite Poor Leadership as Security Threat (Washington Times) The ability of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “to gather and share intelligence data, conduct the investigations needed to guard the nation’s borders against terrorists and enforce immigration law is being challenged by a growing number of ICE supervisors and agents,” reports the Washington Times. “Both supervisory and rank-and-file personnel, in numerous interviews, said the Department of Homeland Security agency is overwhelmed by low morale, mismanagement and the lack of a clearly defined mission, and said the lack of effective leadership threatens its ability to defend the United States against a new terrorist attack.” [View article]

Pentagon Disputes Red Cross Criticism (USA Today) “Red Cross officials have ‘made their view known’ that the U.S. military’s handling and detention of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amounts to torture, but that view is not shared by the Bush administration, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday,” reports USA Today. “The comments followed a report by The New York Times that the International Committee of the Red Cross had accused the military of using psychological and sometimes physical coercion ‘tantamount to torture’ on prisoners at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo.’” [View article]

Homeland Security Network Advances Even as Intelligence Bill Stalls (InformationWeek) “As the president, members of Congress, and the Pentagon clash over legislation that would create a national intelligence director with the authority to direct intelligence sharing and at least some portion of the intelligence budget, the Homeland Security Department is moving forward with its plans to create a data network accessible to intelligence analysts and law enforcement across federal, state, and local boundaries,” reports InformationWeek. “Homeland Security is moving into the testing and accreditation phase of its Homeland Secure Data Network,” introduced in April. The network, “which could cost up to $350 million to create, will initially connect Homeland Security intelligence personnel with the Defense Department’s Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET) to send and receive information with classified security levels.” [View article]

9/11 Planner Also Gave Order for Madrid Blasts (USA Today) “An unidentified Muslim militant suspected of helping plan the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States also ordered this year’s Madrid train bombings, a Spanish newspaper said Sunday, asserting the closest link yet between the two terrorist attacks,” according to the Associated Press. “The man is believed to be a lieutenant of Mustafa Setmariam, a fugitive with dual Syrian and Spanish nationality who is considered a key figure in the March 11 backpack bombings that targeted the Madrid commuter rail network, the newspaper ABC said, citing information from the FBI.” [View article]

U.S. Army in Japan Offers Pamphlet on Preventing Terrorism (Stars and Stripes) “U.S. Army Japan officials began distributing a pamphlet and informational wallet card [last month] aimed at preventing a terrorist act within the local community,” according to Stars and Stripes. “The brochure, titled ‘Combating Terrorism: Important Things You Should Know and Do,’ is being handed out at the gates to all U.S. Army Japan installations, including Camp Zama and Hardy Barracks. It contains tips for spotting potential terrorist operatives and other warning signs designed to bolster vigilance.” [View article]

White House Wants CIA-Pentagon Study (Kansas City [MO] Star) “The White House has requested that the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon study whether the Defense Department should take over CIA paramilitary operations, as recommended by the Sept. 11 commission,” according to the Associated Press. “Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and then-acting CIA Director John McLaughlin rejected the idea—McLaughlin quite viscerally—when the commission issued its final report this summer. Bush’s request indicates that the administration wants to give the issue closer study.” [View article]

Ads Remind Families: Prepare for Emergency (Charlotte [NC] Observer) “The Homeland Security Department is reminding families to develop a contingency plan in case of a terrorist attack or other emergency with a new wave of public service announcements,” according to the Associated Press. “… They ask individuals to do three things: get an emergency supply kit, make a family emergency plan and stay informed about different types of emergencies that could occur and the appropriate responses.” [View article]

$142 Million in Terrorism-Linked Funds Frozen (Bloomberg) “The U.S. and other nations have frozen assets totaling more than $142 million belonging to individuals and groups that are considered to have links to terrorism,” according to Bloomberg. “… The funds belonged to 393 individuals and organizations, Molly Millerwise, a U.S. Treasury spokeswoman, said [Monday] in Manama, Bahrain. Millerwise declined to name the other nations or provide more details.” [View article]

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International News

Aid Workers Given Terror Attack Advice (DeHavilland) “The first guidebook to help aid workers deal with chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) attacks in the developing world has been published by [a] British medical relief agency, Merlin,” reports DeHavilland news service. “This source book will be an essential planning, preparation and training tool,” said the agency’s health director, Linda Doull. The guidebook, Extreme Emergencies, “also explains how to cope with accidental manmade disasters and gives details of emergency planning, hazards that might be involved in CBRN incidents and how to treat them,” reports DeHavilland. [View article]

Time to Get Tough on Terrorism, UN Warned (London Telegraph) “After decades of argument over whether one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, a group of international ‘wise men’ [were expected] this week [to] tell the United Nations to outlaw all terror attacks on civilians or risk losing its moral authority. In a report [that was] to be unveiled on Thursday, seen in part by The Telegraph, a panel appointed to reform the UN said it must send ‘an unequivocal message that terrorism is never an acceptable tactic, even for the most defensible of causes’.” [View article]

Australia May Have ‘Innocently’ Exported WMD (Australian) “Australia might have ‘innocently’ exported nuclear technology to parties with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs, Defence Minister Robert Hill said” Tuesday, according to the Australian. “… He described the goods as ‘nuclear-area technologies that can have legitimate non-threatening value, but at the same time can be used within a nuclear weapons program’.” [View article]

Southeast Asian Nations Seek India’s Help for Antiterror Training (India’s New Kerala) The 10 nations in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations “on Tuesday unanimously sought India’s help for training their forces in” anti-terrorism operations, according to Asian News International. “… India and the ASEAN have pledged to ‘develop joint training programmes and use regional organizations for technical and assistance to effectively fight terrorism and other transnational crimes.…’” [View article]

UK Prevented 9/11-Style Terrorist Attack (Channel NewsAsia) “Britain foiled an Al-Qaeda plot to fly planes into Heathrow Airport and London’s giant Canary Wharf skyscrapers, a British television news channel said, quoting an unnamed ‘senior authoritative source,’” according to Agence France-Presse. “Al-Qaeda intended to train suicide pilots to crash planes into the London landmarks just as it had convinced others to fly into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in the United States on September 11, 2001, ITV News said.” [View article]

Britain Plans Tough New Antiterror Laws (New Zealand Herald) “Britain is considering new tough anti-terrorism laws to prevent an al Qaeda attack including plans to target suspects even if they have not committed an offence, Home Secretary David Blunkett" said on 22 November, reports the New Zealand Herald. “The proposals would see the creation of special anti-terror courts which would sit without juries, allowing information obtained from phone taps to be used as evidence in trials, and civil orders against people suspected of planning terrorism.” [View article]

Rules Eased for U.S.-Bound Canadian Trucks (Toronto Star) “American officials have scuttled plans to fingerprint and photograph as many as 15,000 Canadian-based transport truck drivers every time they cross the border into the United States,” according to the Toronto Star. “Drivers who are permanent Canadian residents—but not citizens—will only be required to undergo the controversial measures once every six months, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security document.” [View article]

FBI Says Internal Auditors Can Be Vital to Stopping Terror Financing (Channel NewsAsia) “Internal auditors can play a critical role in identifying and stopping terrorism financing,” reports Channel NewsAsia. “An FBI anti-terrorism expert told a conference [in Singapore] that this is because all transaction records will have to pass through their eyes for inspection. And this puts them in the best possible position to spot suspicious activities.” [View article]

Russia and Venezuela to Fight WMD and Terrorism (Russian News & Information Agency Novosti) “‘Russia and Venezuela will boost the development of multilateral approaches to the achievement of practical results in the spheres of disarmament and non-proliferation,’ reads the joint statement issued by Russian and Venezuelan Presidents Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez following the [26 November] talks in the Kremlin,” according to Novosti. [View article]

EU Big Three to Hold Iran to Nuclear Deal (Expatica) “The European Union’s so-called big three--Britain, France and Germany--will ‘hold Iran to account’ over a deal struck on Iran’s nuclear programme, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in London on Monday,” reports Deutsche Presse-Agentur (the German Press Agency). “Blair said he hoped the deal on halting Iran’s uranium enrichment program would assist in … reducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction.” [View article]

Plane Shortage Forces Cutback in Canadian Antiterror Mission (London, Ontario, Free Press) “A shortage of planes has forced the Canadian military to cut an anti-terrorism air surveillance mission down to two months,” reports the Free Press. “Two Aurora maritime patrol aircraft and their crews of 65 will pull out of Operation SIRIUS, the air force’s contribution to the war on terrorism, by Christmas. They deployed only” in October. [View article]

Indian-Israeli Terrorism Panel Meets (India’s New Kerala) “India and Israel Monday started three days of deliberations [in New Delhi] on steps to enhance cooperation bilaterally and internationally in the fight against terrorism,” reports the Indo-Asian News Service. “Officials and experts from the two countries, which see themselves as victims of terrorism, are meeting under the aegis of the Joint Working Group on Terrorism set up to promote cooperation in the fight against the global menace.” [View article]

Blix Urges Caution Over Iraqi ‘Chemical Weapons Lab’ (Scotsman) “Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix [on 25 November] said he would be ‘surprised’ if a chemical laboratory found in Iraq was capable of creating weapons,” reports the Press Association. “… Since the war, Dr Blix has repeatedly criticised the case made for military intervention by the US and Britain, based on the supposition that Saddam Hussein possessed illegal weapons of mass destruction.” [View article]

Australia Urges Vigilance for Bioterrorism Despite Low Risk (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) “Australia’s farmers are being warned to be more vigilant about the threat of bioterrorism in the food chain,” reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Over the past 12 months, a Federal Government project has been investigating the issue with food producers, manufacturers, transporters and retailers. Alan Edwards from the Department of Agriculture says there’s only a low risk to food supplies, but the consequences would be serious.” [View article]

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State and Local News

LA Port Considered Greater Security Risk Than Airport (NBC 4, Los Angeles) “Though Los Angeles International Airport has received far more Homeland Security funding, counterterrorism experts worry that the Southland’s twin ports represent a greater threat, it was reported [last] Friday,” according to NBC 4. “… Combined, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handle about 45 percent of the nation’s containerized cargo, with about 12,000 containers arriving every day. Out of that total, about 6 percent, or 720, of the standardized shipping containers are flagged for X-ray scans, and about 43 are inspected by hand, according to” the Los Angeles Times. “A veteran counterterrorism agent who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity was blunt about what Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has called ‘the soft underbelly’ of U.S. security: ‘If I was al-Qaida and I was looking for a hit, that is exactly where I would look,’ the agent told the newspaper.” [View article]

Health Officials Take Part in California Emergency Drill (Redlands [CA] Daily Facts) “San Bernardino County public health officials and other emergency responders participated in a statewide drill [on 16 November] involving a simulated bioterrorism attack in California,” reports the Redlands Daily Facts. “California Emergency Medical Services Authority led the drill in conjunction with the California Department of Health Services to test the state’s ability to respond to [a] massive release of botulism into food sources.” [View article]

UCLA Developing More Efficient Bioterror-Handling System (UCLA Daily Bruin) Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles “are developing more efficient systems to manage” outbreaks of pathogens similar to the anthrax attacks of 2001, as a result of which “30,000 people were placed on antibiotics and 200,000 laboratory tests were performed,” reports the Daily Bruin. “Research of biological pathogens used for purposes of bioterrorism has gained more interest as well as funding in the past few years, researchers said. Quicker methods of biological pathogen detection in patients and the environment, alarm systems for air testing, rapid storage of data in databases, therapeutic treatments and vaccine development are among other advances being made in the field of bioterrorism research.” [View article]

Connecticut: Mall Security Guards Get Antiterror Training (NBC 30 News, Connecticut) Security guards at a mall near Hartford are “being taught blast patterns and behavior profiles, how a bomb is packaged and how a bomber is recruited,” reports NBC 30 News. “This suburban security force, known more for dispersing loitering teens than for fighting terrorism, is receiving the type of training that just a few years ago was reserved for the Israeli police and the U.S. military.” [View article]

DC Council Hearing Focuses on Rail Security (WJLA-TV, Washington, DC) “The Department of Homeland Security and CSX Transportation officials [were scheduled to] testify before the D.C. Council [on 22 November] about rail security in the District,” reports the Associated Press. “Council member Kathy Patterson tells The Washington Post she plans to question whether CSX has been shipping toxic chemicals through the city since the Bush administration lowered the threat level from orange to yellow. Patterson says it’s an ‘opportunity’ for the Bush administration and the railroad to put on the public record what steps they’re taking to assure ‘safety and security for D.C. residents.’” [View article]

Less Smoke, More Sprains in 911 Calls to DC Firefighters (Washington Post) In “a typical shift these days for the crew of Engine 25 in the city’s Congress Heights area,” in 24 hours “they responded to calls about stomach aches and other maladies, a car wreck and a shooting. But not a single blaze,” reports the Washington Post. “… Thanks to better building codes and education efforts, the number of fires across the country has plummeted in the past two decades. At the same time, the number of medical calls has risen sharply, a reflection of an aging population. And in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, there is a heightened emphasis, especially in Washington, on dealing with biological and chemical hazards.” [View article]

Tank Trucks Seen as Terrorist Weapons in Georgia (Decatur [GA] Daily) “Recent events in the United States and abroad … have anti-terrorism officials suggesting we pay attention to vehicles capable of driving not just commerce, but also tragedy,” reports the Decatur Daily. “At least seven of the 19 hijackers who implemented the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had U.S. commercial driver licenses with endorsements permitting them to operate tank trucks filled with hazardous materials. Officials fear that what was apparently a Plan B on Sept. 11 could become Plan A in a future attack.” [View article]

Tracking Tested to Protect Food in Idaho (Washington Post) “Federal policy is meeting Western reality on the rangelands of Idaho, where wide-open spaces, technological glitches and bitter cold all are potential obstacles to plans to track livestock and protect the food supply from disease and bioterrorism,” reports the Associated Press. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture is trying to create a national network that would track, within 48 hours, every contact an infected animal has had in its life.” [View article]

Terrorism Dollars Are Fewer for Indiana Counties (Tri-State [IL-IN-KY] Media) “There will be less counter-terrorism money available for Indiana counties next year, and that means local officials should carefully consider how to spend the dollars that will be given out in 2005,” reports Warricknews. “That was the message of John Jones of the Indiana State Emergency Management Agency when he spoke to a gathering of southwestern Indiana mayors at the Paradise Pavilion [in Boonville, IN] on Nov. 18.” [View article]

Fighting Terror on the Minneapolis Homefront (Grand Forks [ND] Herald) “The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in Minneapolis has started publicizing monthly counterterrorism tips, designed to get community assistance in the war on terrorism,” according to the Grand Forks Herald. “… The task force is offering tips about suspicious behavior so local residents can help watch the thousands of miles of border the agency covers between the three states.” [View article]

New York City Agencies OK Protocol to Probe Bioterrorism (Buffalo [NY] News) New York City’s “police and health departments and the FBI have agreed on rules for investigations of suspected biological warfare that will define the roles played by the agencies’ and the sharing of confidential medical information,” according to the Associated Press. On 21 November, the “New York Times reported the agencies have developed what they call the ‘protocol.’ In it, law enforcement officials will have the lead in investigating terrorist crimes, but the investigations must be conducted jointly with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene since doctors would be the first to identify biological warfare.” [View article]

<Pennsylvania Still Holding Bioterror Funding (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) “Pennsylvania ranked last in the nation this year in distributing federal bioterrorism grants to the hospitals and public health agencies on the front line in the defense against a biological attack,” according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “A survey by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers revealed [that] the Pennsylvania Department of Health was holding onto a third—about $16.5 million—of its $49.6 million bioterrorism preparedness allocation on Aug. 31.” [View article]

Homeland Security Grant Pays for Citizen Training in Raleigh, NC (WRAL-TV, Raleigh) “Ham radio operators and Neighborhood Watch groups have a new calling--Homeland Security is establishing a citizen force,” reports WRAL-TV. “In Raleigh, training began Friday for the Citizen Corps, which are financed in the area by a $35,000 grant to the Raleigh Fire Department. The groups are trained by CERT, which stands for Community Emergency Response Team. In the citizen force, regular people such as substitute teachers, software engineers and computer consultants learn how to help emergency workers at the scene of a disaster, storm or terrorist act.” [View article]

Study Details WV Hazmat Threat (Huntington, WV, Herald-Dispatch) “A commodities flow survey released [last] month by the Cabell/Wayne [counties, WV] Local Emergency Planning Committee outlines hazardous materials traveling the nation’s railroads and examines the risk analysis of a spill or other incident occurring along counties’ major highways,” reports the Herald-Dispatch. “… Committee Chairwoman Shirley Lawson believes the transportation industry operates as safely as it can, but she knows accidents still happen. Lawson worries a chemical leak in the Ohio River could place the most strain on the region’s response. She said Huntington’s first responders only have two boats that immediately could respond and that any chemical leak could harm local water supplies. ‘We could respond, but we wouldn’t have the necessary equipment to deal with the problem,’ she said. ‘We would have to wait on the Coast Guard.’” [View article]

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Private-Sector News

Wisconsin Partners for Homeland Security (Milwaukee Business Journal) “A group called the Southeast Wisconsin Homeland Security Partnership has formed with the goal of fostering cooperation between the public and private sectors in the event of a disaster,” reports the Milwaukee Business Journal. “The focus of the partnership is to prepare southeastern Wisconsin business and government entities for homeland security challenges and major disasters.” [View article]

DHS Offers Training for Soft Targets (Jacksonville, FL, Business Journal) “The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is offering free training to local facilities considered ‘soft targets’ for terrorism,” according to the Jacksonville Business Journal. “Soft targets are defined as those that are easy to attack.… The courses will include training for stadiums and arenas, places of worship, malls and shopping centers, hotels, office buildings and schools.” [View article]

Thyroid Treatment Can Trigger Radiation Detectors (EurekAlert!) Medical procedures such as iodine therapy, a popular thyroid treatment, can result in patients’ triggering radiation detectors for up to three months after treatment, according to a study presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. The amount of radiation a patient receives in a typical nuclear medicine imaging procedure is comparable to that received from an x-ray and poses no danger to the public. “The nuclear medicine community has been aware that patients set off detectors, but now we expect it to become a more common occurrence with the increasing number of extremely sensitive portable Homeland Security radiation detectors deployed among security personnel,” said the study’s author, Lionel Zuckier, M.D., a radiology professor at the New Jersey Medical School–University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and director of nuclear medicine and positron emission tomography at University Hospital in Newark, NJ. [View press release]

Tight Visa Rules Hurt U.S. Business (CNN) “Tightened border security has tripped up business plans in ways that threaten to hurt U.S. companies, and that problem has only been getting worse three years after Sept. 11, companies and immigration lawyers said,” according to Reuters. “For example, a high-profile China Business Summit organized by Dow Jones & Co. and Harvard University for this week was abruptly canceled because key people from China were not able to obtain visas in time.” [View article]

Company Tackles Terror Threats to Tourism (Deutsche Welle [German Radio]) “Germany’s biggest tourism company wants to show it cares more about terrorism concerns than others. But TUI’s plan to introduce a risk certificate isn’t getting a lot of support,” reports Deutsche Welle. “… A TUI spokesman said the plan will allow the company to see how well it prepares customers travelling to high-risk areas and how it responds when a crisis occurs.” [View article]

South African Train Security Now Company’s Responsibility (AllAfrica) “Cash-strapped Metrorail looks set to spend millions of rands on train security after a Constitutional Court judgment on [26 November] held that the safety of commuters was its responsibility, and not the police’s,” reports AllAfrica. “A full bench of eight judges found that Metrorail and the South African Rail Commuter Corporation, the state-owned custodian of rail commuter assets, had ‘an obligation to ensure that reasonable measures are taken to provide for security of rail commuters’.” [View article]

Univ. of Texas Info Security Center to Address Cybersecurity Concerns (Austin, TX, Business Journal) “The University of Texas has established a new security center to address the growing cybersecurity problems across the country,” reports the Austin Business Journal. “The Center for Information Assurance and Security’s goal is to conduct research that will lead to innovative cybersecurity solutions and address the national need to produce more trained professionals in the field.” [View article]

Brown Intl. Control Center Protects President (CBS News) Brown International’s “Joint-Based Expeditionary Connectivity Center … merges military and civilian radar systems conveniently onto one screen, helping determine quickly whether an approaching aircraft is a friend or foe,” reports the Associated Press. On the evening of 11 September 2001, Brown’s engineers “got a frantic call” from the Air Force, which wanted the invention and dispatched an airplane to Alabama to pick one up. There are at least two systems. One “travels to major events—particularly those involving the president—and another” is in the Washington, DC, area. [View article]

U.S. Buys British Bomb Detector (Business Weekly) “Screening, imaging and detection pioneer TeraView has signed a breakthrough deal with the US Government” and “could see its explosives detection technology fitted as standard in every US airport” by 2010, reports Business Weekly. “The company is trying to develop an ultra-sensitive version of the system capable of detecting explosives from ranges measured in tens of metres.” [View article]

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Upcoming Events

National Cargo Security Council Fall Seminar: Radio Frequency Identification (5–7 December; Long Beach, CA) The seminar will include eight sessions on real-world, real-time solutions leveraging RFID and other automatic identification and data collection technologies, such as sensors, biometrics, and satellite tracking systems. The comprehensive program features 22 world-renowned experts from international manufacturers and shippers, leading consultancies and universities, government and law enforcement agencies, as well as RFID software and hardware providers. [View conference website]

Hospital Management of Chemical, Biological, Radiological/Nuclear, and Explosive Incidents (6-10 December; Aberdeen Proving Ground Edgewood Area, MD) This course is designed to equip military and civilian hospital-based medical and management professionals with skills, knowledge and information resources to carry out the full spectrum of health care facility responsibilities required by a chemical, biological, radiological/nuclear, explosive, or mass-casualty event. Classroom and practical application instruction focuses on diagnosis, treatment, and incident management in response to mass-casualty events of all types, including incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. The course provides healthcare professionals with management skills necessary to deal with the medical, physical, economic, and other challenges posed by such incidents. [View course website]

Homeland Security Standards Meeting (13-14 December; Gaithersburg, MD) The Homeland Security Standards Panel (HSSP) of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) will hold its third plenary meeting, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) campus. The meeting will bring together the homeland security standards community to review the progress of the Panel, security standards initiatives underway, and identify areas of work to be explored further. Topics to be covered during the interactive sessions include emergency preparedness, the ANSI-DHS homeland security standards database project, international security initiatives, and a session on "security standards making a difference." [View conference website]

U.S. Special Operations Command Chemical, Biological, Radiological & Nuclear Conference & Exhibition (14-16 December; Washington, DC) Industry, academia, other governmental agencies, and individuals are encouraged to attend this three-day conference in order to help the command meet the future threat head on and continuously develop and improve its material and non-material chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear concepts in the global war against terrorism. You can register by completing the registration form and faxing it to (703) 522-1885 or mailing it to NDIA, Event #5630, 2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22201, or online. [View conference website]

Transportation Research Board’s 84th Annual Meeting (9–13 January; Washington, DC) This meeting will cover all transportation modes and offer sessions of interest to policymakers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions. Session topics include security strategies for processing passengers, air toxins, and hazmat transportation safety. The conference brochure is available online, as is registration. [View conference website]

Security and Facilitation of Trade: The Way Forward (12-14 January; Washington, DC) The event will include discussions between senior Customs and Border Protection managers and representatives of the international trade and transportation community. Panels will include a Department of Homeland Security/Border and Transportation Security Executive roundtable, Trade Act of 2002 implementation, Bioterrorism Act of 2002, the Container Security Initiative, and the Automated Commercial Environment. Reporters interested in covering the event must contact the Office of Public Affairs, Media Services, at (202) 344-1780. For the latest information on the Symposium, visit the CBP website. [View conference website]

Customs and Border Protection Annual Trade Symposium (12-14 January; Washington, DC) The event will include discussions between senior CBP managers and representatives of the international trade and transportation community. Panels for the symposium will include a Department of Homeland Security/Border and Transportation Security Executive roundtable, Trade Act of 2002 implementation, the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, the Container Security Initiative, and the Automated Commercial Environment. [View conference website]

National Conference on Environmental Sampling for Bio-Threat Agents (27-28 January; Baltimore, MD) The Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and Technical Support Working Group organized the conference to create a forum for dialogue among government, industry, academia, and first responders to address critical issues in environmental sampling. The conference consists of two days of presentations, discussions, and exhibits to identify gaps and define next steps for environmental sampling. Conference attendees will have the opportunity to address pertinent issues in environmental sampling with government, industry, academia, and first responders and participate in sessions and discuss solutions to sampling challenges. [View conference website]

Aviation Security Summit & Expo (9–11 February 2005; San Diego) This conference will have senior vice presidents, vice presidents, directors, deputy directors, managers and coordinators in the area of airport security analyzing the new operational and regulatory dynamics of airport security. [View conference website]

Defending America SpaceComm 2005 Symposium (8-10 February; Colorado Springs, CO) This event serves top government, industry and military professionals in the fields of communications, electronics, intelligence, information systems, space systems, and C4ISR capabilities for the defense of America. The 3-day agenda will focus on Decision Superiority as it relates to ballistic missile defense, homeland security/defense, and space systems. It offers an outstanding opportunity to continue the partnering efforts between industry and government in improving decision-making support to the warfighter. North American Aerospace Defense Command, US Northern Command, Air Force Space Command, Space & Missile Defense Command, and the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association are sponsoring the event. [View article]

1st Interpol Global Conference: Preventing Bioterrorism (28 February and 1 March 2005; Lyon, France) Interpol, with support from the Sloan Foundation, presents the 1st Global Conference to strengthen law enforcement preparedness and develop effective police training. Senior police officers, including chiefs of police, heads of NCB, and those involved in counterterrorism, as well as relevant national and international governmental and nongovernmental agencies, academics, and scientists should attend. There will be simultaneous interpretations in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic. [View conference website]

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