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International News
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Petraeus Cites Progress in Iraq, Suggests End to Surge (DefenseLink) “Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker reported to the Senate Armed Services Committee the signs of progress they’ve seen in Iraq, as well as the frustrations,” according to the American Forces Press Service. They said “that although the mission in Iraq is challenging, it’s making progress the United States can’t afford to let slip.” Petraeus said “that the U.S. troop surge has shown sufficient progress for him to recommend a plan to begin drawing down the 30,000 surge troops starting next month. That plan … would bring the U.S. force in Iraq to pre-surge levels of about 130,000 by mid-July.” [View article] [View report]
U.S. Confers With Sadr’s Militia (Los Angeles Times) “U.S. diplomats and military officers have been in talks with members of the armed movement loyal to Muqtada Sadr [see the December 1, 2006, newsletter], a sharp reversal of policy and a grudging recognition that the radical Shiite cleric holds a dominant position in much of Baghdad and other parts of Iraq,” reports the Los Angeles Times. “The secret dialogue has been going on since at least early 2006” but has “been complicated by divisions within Sadr’s movement as well as the cleric’s public vow never to meet with Iraq’s occupiers.” [View article]
U.S. Ally Assassinated in Iraq (Washington Times) “The most prominent figure in a revolt of Sunni sheiks against al Qaeda in Iraq was killed [yesterday] in an explosion near his home in Anbar province,” reports the Associated Press. “… Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha was leader of the Anbar Salvation Council, also known as the Anbar Awakening.” [View article]
Bin Laden Releases Videos About 9/11 (London Guardian) “A new video featuring an introduction by Osama bin Laden was released [Tuesday], exactly six years after the September 11 attacks in the” United States, reports the Guardian. “The latest Bin Laden film comes four days after the release of the first video for three years featuring the al-Qaida leader.… Al-Qaida has marked past anniversaries of the September 11 attacks.” [View article]
Zawahiri: ‘Scarier Than bin Laden’ (Washington Post) “The United States’ most formidable nemesis now is not the Saudi terrorist leader” Osama bin Laden “but his nominal deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri,” writes Georgetown University professor Bruce Hoffman in the Washington Post (see the Quote of the Week). “… Under Zawahiri’s leadership, the post-9/11 al-Qaeda has shown itself to be remarkably nimble and adaptive … the movement seems to retain the same grand homicidal ambitions it demonstrated on 9/11.… al-Qaeda is once again capable of planning and executing bold terrorist strikes.” [View commentary]
 | Strategic Survey Says al-Qaeda Is Capable of a Spectacular Strike (London Guardian) “Al-Qaida has revived, extended its influence, and has the capacity to carry out a spectacular strike similar to the September 11 attacks on America … said the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies,” reports the Guardian. “The warning came in the [institute’s] latest annual review of world affairs,” which warns that “Iran could have a nuclear weapon by 2009 or 2010, though this remains the ‘worst-case prediction’”; the United States “suffered a loss of authority as a result of the failure to impose order in Iraq” and “there are serious doubts about the ability of Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister.” [View article] [View survey]
The New Al-Qaeda Central (Washington Post) “Al-Qaeda’s core leadership--dubbed al-Qaeda Central by intelligence analysts--has grown stronger, rebuilding the organizational framework that was badly damaged after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, according to counterterrorism officials in Pakistan, the United States and Europe,” reports the Washington Post. “… Al-Qaeda Central moved quickly to overcome extensive leadership losses by promoting loyalists who had served alongside bin Laden for years. It restarted fundraising, recruiting and training. And it expanded its media arm into perhaps the most effective propaganda machine ever assembled by a terrorist or insurgent network. Today, al-Qaeda operates much the way it did before 2001. The network is governed by a shura, or leadership council, that meets regularly and reports to bin Laden, who continues to approve some major decisions, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official. About 200 people belong to the core group.” [View article]
Liberia’s National Disaster Relief Agency Is Inoperable (AllAfrica) Liberia’s “‘National Disaster Relief Commission is inactive,’ Arthur Tarlue, head of the commission told” the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks. “Tarlue said that since 1990 when Liberia’s war intensified no resources have been allocated for the commission’s operations. ‘We do not even have the skilled manpower to forewarn disaster or coordinate responses for disaster victims, much less a vehicle or a computer to do our reports.’ The absence of a functioning government relief agency came to the forefront again in recent weeks when floods and ocean waves destroyed homes and displaced hundreds of people in and around the capital, Monrovia.” [View article]
Turkish Bomb ‘Catastrophe’ Foiled (BBC) “Police in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, have prevented a large bomb from exploding …” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “Sniffer dogs detected a van stuffed with explosives in the centre of the city, preventing a ‘possible catastrophe’, [city] Governor Kemal Onal said.” [View article]
South African Court Sentences German for Atomic Crimes (Bloomberg) “A South African court gave a German, Gerhard Wisser, an 18-year suspended jail sentence for his involvement in a nuclear proliferation ring led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan,” reports Bloomberg. “Wisser admitted seven counts of breaking South Africa’s nuclear laws and … agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in further investigations and will pay a fine of $4.6 million.” [View article]
Kyrgyzstan Steps Up Security at Uranium Mines, Citing Terrorist Interest (Novosti) “International terrorist organizations are trying to gain access to uranium mines in Central Asia, the head of the anti-terrorism center for post-Soviet states [Andrei Novikov] said Wednesday,” according to the Russian News and Information Agency. Novikov, who heads the Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorism Center, “told journalists: ‘International terrorist organizations have a huge interest in getting hold of radioactive materials,’” particularly intending to penetrate uranium mines in Central Asia. His center is primarily concerned about “‘the security of uranium-producing enterprises in Kyrgyzstan.’ However, he said, the security services of the Central Asian country had stepped up measures to prevent terrorists from entering sensitive facilities.” [View article]
Canadian Gets 14 Years for Funding Terrorists (Toronto Globe and Mail) “A Canadian immigration consultant [Khalid Awan] convicted of fraud and supporting overseas terrorism was sentenced [Wednesday] to 14 years in prison, years after authorities picked him up in 9/11 sweeps around New York,” reports the Globe and Mail. “… U.S. authorities in the Eastern District of New York used a series of elaborate in-prison stings to establish [that] he supported a terrorist group of … Sikh militants known in India as the Khalistan Commando Force.… A New York jury last year convicted Mr. Awan of lending financial and other forms of support to” members of the group “who had staged deadly attacks against Indian civilians.… Mr. Awan was first arrested in a New York suburb in October, 2001, and held as a material witness to the 9/11 attacks.” [View article]
Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership Tackles Horn of Africa (Newsweek) “Two years ago the United States set up the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership with nine countries in central and western Africa … to generate support and suppress radicalism by both sharing U.S. weapons and tactics with friendly regimes and winning friends through a vast humanitarian program assembled by” the U.S. Agency for International Development, reports Newsweek. “Sometime in the coming months, after a vetting process to find a good partner country, the United States plans to establish a new headquarters in Africa” for its Africa Command (see the February 9 newsletter) to “integrate existing diplomatic, economic and humanitarian programs into a single strategic vision for Africa, bring more attention to long-ignored American intelligence-gathering and energy concerns on the continent, and elevate African interests to the same level of importance as those of Asia and the Middle East.” [View article]
No Terror Charges for Chiquita Execs (MSN) The Justice Department “will not prosecute 10 Chiquita Brands International executives involved in the company’s now-defunct payoff of Colombian terrorists protecting its most profitable banana-growing operation,” reports the Associated Press. (See the March 16 newsletter.) [View article]
Singapore Will Publish Terror Info (China View) Singapore’s National Library Board, [Sinnathamby] Rajaratnam School of International Studies, and Nanyang Technological University have established a “partnership to preserve, archive and make accessible rare print and non-print information on international political violence and terrorism,” reports the Xinhua News Agency. The public will have “access to non-sensitive or desensitized information on political violence and terrorism” via “libraries and digital channels.” [View article]
A Nicaraguan Emergency Warning System: Radio and Church Bells (Reuters AlertNet) “The Nicaraguan coastal village of Krukira” was devastated by Hurricane Felix, which destroyed nearly 300 houses, writes Alex Wynter of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “‘Radio was how we got news of its approach,’ says Aricio Lewis, 30, who heads the village’s first-aid committee.… ‘Eventually the decision was taken to ring the church bell,’ he adds, the time-honoured way of sounding the alarm in Miskito settlements.” [View commentary]
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New this week in the Journal of Homeland Security
In The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor, William Langewiesche describes how we are entering a “world in which many countries have acquired atomic bombs, and some may use them.” Poor countries, he says, “for a host of reasons, are more likely to use their nuclear weapons than the great powers have been … At the extreme is the possibility, entirely real, that one or two nuclear weapons will pass into the hands of the new stateless guerillas, the jihadists, who offer none of the retaliatory targets that have so far underlain the nuclear peace.” Langewiesche, however, gives solid reasons why acquiring a nuclear weapon or the means to manufacture one would be very difficult (though not impossible). Analytic Services senior editor Steve Dunham reviews the book. |
National News
Judge Invalidates Key Patriot Act Provisions (Washington Post) U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York “struck down controversial portions of the USA Patriot Act in a ruling that declared them unconstitutional [on September 6], ordering the FBI to stop its wide use of a warrantless tactic for obtaining e-mail and telephone data from private companies for counterterrorism investigations,” reports the Washington Post. Marrero “said the FBI’s use of secret ‘national security letters’ to demand such data violates the First Amendment and constitutional provisions on the separation of powers, because the FBI can impose indefinite gag orders on the companies and the courts have little opportunity to review the letters.” [View article]
Warrantless Eavesdropping Did Not Help Catch German Plotters, Says Intelligence Director (Newsweek) “Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is withdrawing an assertion he made to Congress this week that a recently passed electronic-surveillance law helped U.S. authorities foil a major terror plot in Germany,” reports Newsweek. “The temporary measure, signed into law by President Bush on Aug. 5 gave the U.S. intelligence community broad new powers to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications overseas without seeking warrants from the surveillance court.” [View article]
Six Years After 9/11: Are We Safer Today? (Washington Post) “Following a series of ambitious reforms carried out by dedicated officials, how is it possible that the threat remains so dire?” ask Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, former chairman and vice chairman of the 9/11 commission, in the Washington Post. Despite some “progress at home … U.S. foreign policy has not stemmed the rising tide of extremism in the Muslim world.… We have not been persuasive in enlisting the energy and sympathy of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims against the extremist threat”--and “the most dangerous threat of all” is “a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists.… We must use … foreign aid, educational assistance and vigorous public diplomacy that emphasizes scholarship, libraries and exchange programs--to shape a Middle East and a Muslim world that are less hostile to our interests and values. America’s long-term security relies on being viewed not as a threat but as a source of opportunity and hope.” [View commentary]
Lackawanna Six: Truly the Enemy Within? (Washington Post) “The group of suspected terrorists now known as the Lackawanna Six, a handful of Arab American 20-somethings who went to an al-Qaeda camp” and were arrested in “September 2002 gave shape to American fears of post-9/11 homegrown terrorism,” writes Dina Temple-Raston in the Washington Post. She “spent three years researching the case--interviewing family members and law enforcement officials and seeing public and internal legal documents--” and learned “how young Muslims reared in the United States can be swept up in the undertow of international jihad” and “just how clumsy preemptive justice has become in the age of sacred terror”: they “were arrested within days of the first anniversary of 9/11” and prosecutors “exaggerated the danger the young men posed, ramping up public fear to make the case against them more potent.… the men all eventually pleaded guilty” and “received sentences ranging from seven to nine years for providing material support to al-Qaeda. The case never went to trial.” [View article]
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United Nations News
Central African Congress Addresses Security The illicit arms trade, violence in individual Central African countries, and other pressing concerns were among the issues addressed at the 26th ministerial meeting of the United Nations Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa. At the meeting last week in Yaoundé, Cameroon, participants, whose prime objective is to promote peace and security in the subregion, discussed the situation in Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [View press release]
Afghan Suicide Attackers Are Often Duped or Coerced A detailed United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan study of suicide attackers there has found that people, children included, are being coerced or duped into carrying out such attacks. The study presents data and analysis and includes interviews with more than two dozen failed or alleged suicide attackers. [View press release] [View report]
UN Helps Protect Against Nuclear Terrorism at Beijing Olympics The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency is providing expertise to support security against the threat of nuclear terrorism at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. [View press release]
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DHS News
Swift Meat Plant Workers Sue DHS Over Raids (Dallas Morning News) Eight “workers at Swift & Co. plants”--all of them legal residents, five of them U.S. citizens--“have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, charging that their rights were violated during massive nationwide raids last December and seeking an end to such actions,” reports the Dallas Morning News. “The suit, filed in federal court in Amarillo [TX] by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, seeks to prevent federal immigration agents from conducting mass detentions of all workers.” [View article]
Chertoff Begins Blogging (National Journal) “The Department of Homeland Security this week became the latest Cabinet-level entity in the Bush administration to start a blog,” reports National Journal’s Beltway Blogroll. “It is called Leadership Journal.” [View article] [View blog]
U.S. Fire Administration Issues Incident Management Team All-Hazard Position Taskbooks The U.S. Fire Administration, in cooperation with the Incident Management System Division/National Incident Management System Integration Center and the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, is making available position task books for All-Hazard Incident Management Team members and others who may serve in those roles. The task books are based on Incident Command System position competencies. Each position task book lists the competencies and behaviors for the specific position in a format that allows a trainee to be evaluated against those competencies and behaviors. [View press release]
DHS Wants to Strengthen Private Aircraft Security A new rule would require operators of private aircraft to provide the following information no less than 60 minutes before departure from or to a foreign place: advance notice of arrival, complete passenger and crew manifest data, and aircraft information to foster aircraft identification, tracking, and communication. [View press release]
DHS IT Human Capital Plan Doesn’t Go Far Enough, Says GAO The Homeland Security Department’s information technology “human capital plan is largely consistent with federal guidance and associated best practices,” says the Government Accountability Office; “however, it does not fully address [15] important practices.” Until its plan addresses them, DHS will “be at risk of not having sufficient people with the right knowledge, skills, and abilities.” [View summary]
Local Officials Remain in Charge During Disasters, Says New National Response Plan (Government Executive) “State officials will step in and help local communities if they are overwhelmed during a disaster … But local officials remain in charge of the response before, during and after disasters,” according to the revised National Response Plan, reports the Associated Press. The new plan “tries to clarify who’s in charge during emergencies.” [View article]
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Other Federal News
Justice Dept. Finds Its Terrorist Database Still Flawed (Government Computer News) “The interagency Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains the nation’s electronic records about various types of dangerous individuals, has failed to redress the technology flaws that have choked its systems with inaccurate, outdated and duplicate information as well as creating hazardous watch list gaps,” according to a “scathing report from Justice’s Inspector General,” reports Government Computer News. [View article]
Los Alamos Lab Can’t Fully Account for Plutonium (Government Executive) “A stockpile of plutonium and other nuclear weapons materials stored at Los Alamos National Laboratory hasn’t been fully accounted for in 13 years or more,” an “audit by the Energy Department’s inspector general, Gregory Friedman, found,” reports Government Executive. The “lab’s workers have done regular, partial inventories of the material, which the government considers to be at high risk of theft.” [View article]
U.S. Passport Services Are Back to Standard Processing Time The State Department has restored passport service to the standard six- to eight-week processing time for routine passport applications, and no more than three weeks for expedited service. [View press release]
Federal Leadership Roles in a Flu Pandemic Are Unclear, Says GAO The federal government has established an online information clearinghouse, developed planning guidance and checklists, awarded grants to accelerate development and production of new technologies for influenza vaccines, and assisted state and local government pandemic planning efforts, notes the Government Accountability Office. “However, federal government leadership roles and responsibilities for preparing for and responding to a pandemic” require clarification. “Most of these leadership roles and responsibilities have not been tested under pandemic scenarios, leaving it unclear how they will work.” [View summary]
World Trade Center Responders Need Better Health Screening and Monitoring, Says GAO In July, the Government Accountability Office recommended that the Secretary of Health and Human Services act to ensure that health screening and monitoring services be available to all people who responded to the World Trade Center attack, regardless of who their employer was or where they reside. As of early September, the department had not responded. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (the administrator of the department’s health program for responders to the World Trade Center disaster) has considered expanding the program to include monitoring (that is, follow-up physical and mental health examinations) but has not done so. [View summary]
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State and Local News
Hamid Hayat Sentenced to 24 Years for Terrorism Hamid Hayat of Lodi, CA, was sentenced on Monday to 24 years’ imprisonment in connection with terrorism charges related to his 2003-2004 attendance at a jihadi training camp in Pakistan and his 2005 return to the United States with the intent to wage violent jihad. (See the April 28, 2006, newsletter.) [View press release]
Campus Security Measures Growing (Stateline) “The April 16 shooting on the Blacksburg, Va., [Virginia Tech] campus, where a disturbed college senior killed 32 students and professors before turning the gun on himself [see the April 20 newsletter], is spurring a new look at how colleges handle students with mental health problems, guns on campus and especially campus security,” reports Stateline. “Emergency text-messaging systems are turning de rigueur on campuses. Unarmed campus police officers are pushing for the right to carry guns. Universities are increasing mental health services and setting up teams to spot troubled students earlier. Many schools already have tightened security. This year, freshmen orientations across the country have included sessions on safety, and several colleges have held drills simulating a shooter on campus. Some, including Virginia Tech, have installed locks inside the doors of classrooms.” [View article]
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Private-Sector News
Florida Flight School Says It Didn’t Train 9/11 Hijackers (Miami Herald) 9/11 hijacker Waleed al Shehri did not attend “Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, the school said,” although “news reports soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks” said he did, according to the Miami Herald. “But the school said … that a 1997 graduate of the school of the same name was found to be ‘alive and well and working as a professional pilot with Saudi Arabian Airlines.’ … ‘None of the 9/11 hijackers was ever a student of Embry-Riddle, nor did our university ever provide flight training to any of them,’” a school spokesman said. [View article]
ISE Releases Framework for Sharing Data on Terrorism (Government Computer News) “The Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment has issued Version 1.0 of the Enterprise Architecture Framework for the ISE, providing guidance for agencies working with anti-terrorism information,” reports Government Computer News. “… The framework provides guidance to information-sharing partners, including federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The document identifies interfaces and standards necessary for sharing information.” [View article]
TSA Issues List of Qualified Screening Products (Government Computer News) The “Transportation Security Administration has released its first list of” qualified products “for airport screening programs,” reports Government Computer News. “… Two solutions--Bioscrypt’s V-Station and Cogent Systems’ ID-Gate-- … combine keypads with fingerprint and smart-card scanners. Two fingerprint sensors from Lumidigm also won approval.” [View article]
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| Please submit events and educational programs by noon Wednesdays for consideration as items in that week’s newsletter. |
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Education
The Homeland Security Institute lists these education programs as a service to readers who may be interested; it does not endorse them or their courses. New education listings are posted for four weeks.
Transit System Security Courses (November 2007–September 2008; various locations) The Federal Transit Administration’s training schedule for 2007-2008 offers courses and seminars at locations around the country, covering Transit System Security, Effectively Managing Transit Emergencies, Transit Explosives Incident Management, Transit System Security Design Review, and Transit Response to Bus and Rail Hijackings. [View course website] |
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New Upcoming Events
(After four weeks, new events will be moved to the Upcoming Events page)
Realizing IPv6: Unleash the Benefits of the Next Generation (September 19-20; Reston, VA) This educational and interactive conference sponsored by the Digital Government Institute will explore the business case and return on investment and how to successfully transition to Internet Protocol version 6. It will identify and break down real operational issues and explore the solutions powered by the next-generation Internet. Government experts and industry leaders will discuss what it means to have true network-centric organization. [View conference website]
Recovering From Disaster (October 17; Washington, DC) This public workshop is organized by the National Research Council–National Academies’ Disasters Roundtable and will feature presentations by experts from the hazards research, policy, and practitioner communities on key topics related to disaster recovery; it will include audience discussion. [View conference website] |
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Calls for Papers
ER One Institute Emergency Preparedness Conference (March 3-4; Washington, DC) The title of next year’s meeting is “Hospitals on the Frontline. Emergency Preparedness: Today’s Questions and Tomorrow’s Answers.” Topics for abstracts and posters are Information Management, System Recovery and Business Continuity, Behavioral Health Injuries Following Mass-Casualty Events, and Challenges and Innovations in Hospital Response to Mass-Casualty Events. Abstracts must be submitted via email to eroneconference@eroneinstitute.org. For more information, contact Lisa Rizzolo at (202) 877-7453 or Lisa.Rizzolo@medstar.net. The deadline for submissions is October 30. [View conference website]
TIEMS 2008 (June 17-19; Prague, Czech Republic) The theme of the International Emergency Management Society’s 2008 conference is “Global Cooperation in Emergency Management.” The deadline for submitting the title and abstract is November 9. [View call for papers] |
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