International News

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Europe Targets Liquid Explosives and Terrorist Funding Via the Internet (Melbourne, Australia, Herald Sun) “To drive extremists off the internet and cut off potential illegal sources of funding,” the European Union has “launched a bloc-wide anti-terror project aimed at curbing terrorist financing, probing the causes of violent radicalisation and protecting key infrastructure from attacks,” reports Agence France-Presse. Also, “Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain agreed to share research into explosives, [particularly] liquid explosives.” [View article]

North Korea Could Make 7 Nuclear Bombs (Washington Post) “South Korea estimates [that] North Korea has enough plutonium to make as many as seven nuclear bombs,” reports the Associated Press. “The … communist nation is also working to make a small, lightweight nuclear warhead that can be mounted atop a ballistic missile … The North can use its Russian-made bombers to drop the bombs … To be mounted on a missile, the warhead would need to be less than one ton.” [View article]

North African Terror Fight Leads U.S. to Unlikely Alliances (Washington Post) In an Algerian prison sits “a desert bandit”--Amari Saifi--“dubbed the ‘Bin Laden of the Sahara,’ whose capture was secretly orchestrated by U.S. forces after a long chase across some of the most forbidding terrain on Earth,” reports the Washington Post. “… Saifi, 37, a former Algerian army paratrooper, was caught in 2004 after he and a band of rebel fighters kidnapped 32 European tourists in the Algerian Sahara and ransomed them for about $6 million. Since then, the U.S. government has cited his case as a model for terrorist-hunting operations and a justification for expanding U.S. military, diplomatic and intelligence programs in North Africa.… In its search for allies in an unstable region, the U.S. government reached out to Libya--then still officially designated a state sponsor of terrorism--and to other countries it has condemned for abusing human rights.” [View article]

U.S. Tactics Swelling al-Qaeda in Iraq (Reuters AlertNet) Iraqi “Sunnis radicalised by brutal U.S. tactics and disillusioned mainstream insurgents are swelling the ranks of Al Qaeda,” reports Reuters. “… Saleh Mutlaq, whose Iraqi National Dialogue group supports the U.S.-backed political process, said al Qaeda’s growing control of strongholds at the heart of the country’s Sunni insurgency was paving the way for an Islamic fundamentalist state in western, central Iraq and even the capital Baghdad.… ‘American prisons have become the school for suicide bombers and transformed many prisoners into al-Qaeda elements when they were not before,’ Mutlaq said. He said al Qaeda plans to turn its territorial gains into a launching pad for expansion in Iraq and beyond its borders.” [View article]

Secret UK Cabinet Memo Says All Foreign Policy Must Reduce Terror at Home (London Daily Telegraph) “A classified paper written by senior Downing Street officials says that everything Britain does overseas for the next decade must have the ultimate aim of reducing ‘terror activity, especially that in or directed against the UK,’” reports the Daily Telegraph. “The memo, circulated in recent weeks to ministers and security chiefs and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, outlines an extraordinary ‘wish list’ of how the Government would like world troublespots to look in 10 years’ time. It also signals a drive to reduce Britain’s military commitments around the globe.” [View article]

Bomb Plotters Arrested in India (Australian) “Details of a planned al-Qa’ida-linked terrorist operation against India’s computer and call centre heartland in Bangalore have been revealed following the arrest of two Pakistanis after a gun battle in Mysore,” reports the Australian. “Two 24-year-old men fired on police with AK-47 assault rifles before being captured … The men, described as ‘Pakistani terrorists’, were allegedly in collusion with Islamabad’s top spy agency, the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence]. They were carrying plans to blow up the two principal seats of power in Bangalore. Both men were identified as members of the al-Qa’ida and Lashkar-e-Toiba-linked Kashmiri organisation al-Badr. Police say the two were in Mysore to plan a terrorist attack by a team sent from Kashmir by al-Badr.” [View article]

Vietnam Charges Three Americans and Four Others With Terrorism (Miami Herald) “Vietnam will put seven political activists on trial, including two U.S. citizens from Florida, who are charged with terrorism and plotting to undermine the communist government,” reports the Associated Press. “… the People’s Supreme Procuracy in Hanoi … said those charged are connected to the California-based Government of Free Vietnam group.… Vietnam considers the group a terrorist organization.” [View article]

13 Nations Meet to Discuss Nuclear Containment (Yahoo! News) “The world’s five leading nuclear powers and eight other nations kicked off a new program Monday aimed at keeping nuclear weapons beyond the reach of terrorists,” reports the Associated Press. “… the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France … form the core of the new Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. Those five plus” eight others support an initiative that “aims to provide guidelines for keeping track of radioactive materials, ensuring the safety of nuclear facilities, and combating illicit trafficking that could deliver nuclear materials into the hands of terrorists.” [View article] [View statement of principles]

‘Leading Edge’ Exercise Practices WMD Interdiction (Seoul, South Korea, Dong-A Ilbo; London Times) “Live drills for marine operations under the Proliferation Security Initiative” were “conducted on the Persian Gulf coast, led by the U.S. on October 30 and 31,” reports the Dong-A Ilbo. “In this training named ‘Leading Edge,’ war vessels and [aircraft] from 25 countries including the U.S., U.K., Italy, France, Australia, and Bahrain participated, and an English oil tanker assumed the role of the target ship with alleged nuclear detonator. Ten other countries including Korea visited and observed the training.” Two days later, Iran held its own “Great Prophet” wargames in which it “test-fired dozen of missiles,” reports the London Times. [View Dong-A Ilbo article] [View Times article]

Britain Becomes a ‘Surveillance Society’ (New Zealand Herald) “Britain is becoming a surveillance society where individuals are filmed hundreds of times a day by [closed-circuit] TV and where companies ‘data mine’ to build up profiles on customers, the Information Commissioner warned …” according to Reuters. “‘It is not just cameras on the street and things like that--it is technology monitoring our movements, our activities,’ [Richard ] Thomas told BBC radio.” [View article]

New Strain of Bird Flu Found in China (Seattle Times; Reuters AlertNet) “A new strain of bird flu that appears to sidestep current vaccines” is “infecting people as well as poultry in Asia, and some researchers fear [that] its evolution may have been steered by the vaccination programs designed to protect poultry from earlier types of the H5N1 flu,” reports the Associated Press. The findings were published in Tuesday’s “issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The new variant”--H5N1 Fujian-like--“has become the primary version of the bird flu in several provinces of China and has spread to Hong Kong, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand.” Yesterday, “China rejected the report … saying there was no evidence of major changes to the virus since 2004,” reports Reuters. “… But the World Health Organisation says its understanding of the virus and how it might be changing is being hampered by the fact China has not shared animal virus samples since 2004.” [View AP article] [View Reuters article]

Islam, Terror, and the Second Nuclear Age (New York Times Magazine) “For nearly 50 years, worries about a nuclear Middle East centered on Israel” because it “was the only atomic power in the region,” but now the Arab League is “worried about Iran,” writes Noah Feldman in the New York Times Magazine. The league is concerned “that the Iranians might actually use nuclear weapons if they get them. A nuclear attack on Israel would engulf the whole region.… Sunnis in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere fear that the Iranians might just use a nuclear bomb against them.… Adding the nuclear ingredient to this volatile mix will certainly produce an arms race. If Iran is going to get the bomb, its neighbors will have no choice but to keep up.… As nuclear technology spreads, terrorists will enjoy increasing odds of getting their hands on nuclear weapons.” And their use of suicide bombing “could be extended to the national level.… the classic restrictions on the killing of women, children and Muslims in jihad have been deeply undermined in the last decade.” But Iranian president Mahmoud “Ahmadinejad surely understands the consequences of using a nuclear bomb, and Shiite Islam, even in its messianic incarnation, still falls short of inviting nuclear retaliation and engendering collective suicide.” [View article]

Airliner Plot May Have Targeted Cities (Washington Post) “A group of alleged terrorists arrested in London in August planned to blow up airliners over U.S. cities to maximize casualties, rather than over the Atlantic Ocean as many intelligence officials originally thought, according to … Mark Mershon, head of the FBI’s New York field office,” reports the Washington Post. [View article]

Suspect With Ties to al-Qaeda Goes Free in Anthrax Case (Washington Post) “U.S. officials remain stymied in their nearly five-year quest to bring charges against” Abdur Rauf, a Pakistani scientist, “who they say admitted serving as a top consultant to al-Qaeda on anthrax,” reports the Washington Post. Rauf “remains free, and Pakistan now says it has no grounds for arrest.… U.S. officials have been unable to rule out al-Qaeda or any other group as a suspect” in the U.S. anthrax attacks of 2001. [View article]

Canada Plans No-Fly List by Early 2007 (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) Canada will soon “institute a no-fly list to bolster aircraft security,” reports CBC News. “The Passenger Protect program will require all passengers to show a government-issued ID to board commercial flights.” The aim is “to have the plan in place for Canadian domestic flights by early 2007, with international flights targeted for later that year.” [View article]

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National News

Border Arrests Down 8% (Orange County [CA] Register) “With arrests at the nation’s borders showing a ‘moderate decline’ of about 8 percent in the last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say fewer people are crossing the border illegally,” reports the Register. “However, few outside the agency agree with that assessment, saying there’s no sea change in the pattern of illegal immigration. Customs and Border Protection officials credit a number of factors for the decline, including an increase in agents in the fiscal year ending in September by 8 percent, from 11,265 to 12,349, the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops starting in June and the use of better technology.” [View article]

Student Creates Web Site for Fake Boarding Passes (Seattle Times; Washington Post) “Christopher Soghoian, 24, a doctoral student at Indiana University,” created “a Web site that prints fake boarding passes,” reports the Associated Press. It’s been “pointed out before that savvy computer users could modify an airline Web page to print fake boarding passes, but Soghoian took it a step further and automated it.… terrorists on the no-fly list could use a fake boarding pass to avoid the no-fly list because IDs are only checked when the passenger passes through [Transportation Security Administration] screening.” A person “could use a fake boarding pass with an ID that matches and get through the screening. They’d then need a real boarding pass--presumably bought under a fake name--to get on the plane.… the fake boarding pass couldn’t get anyone onto a flight--as long as the airline’s computers were working--because the bar code wouldn’t match the other information on the pass.” “FBI agents visited” Soghoian’s “home in Bloomington, Ind., [last] Friday and returned on Saturday to cart off his computers and other equipment,” reports the Washington Post. “… Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) … said [Tuesday] that the TSA was contradicting itself by saying fake boarding passes were not a problem but the pass-generator was.… ‘If the public is not in jeopardy, then this young man should not be in jeopardy.’” [View Times article] [View Post article]

U.S. Antiterror Law Violates Intl. Law, Says UN Expert (Fox News) “The United States’ new anti-terrorism law contains a number of provisions that fail to meet obligations the U.S. has under international law, with some appearing to contradict the right to a fair trial …” reports the Associated Press. “Martin Scheinin, the United Nations’ expert on protecting human rights in combatting terrorism,” takes issue with “‘the power of the president to declare anyone, including U.S. citizens, without charge as an “unlawful enemy combatant”--a term unknown in international humanitarian law.’” Scheinin also “deplored the denial of the habeas corpus rights of foreigners.” [View article]

U.S. Muslims Reluctant to Donate to Islamic Charities (New York Times) “Fearful that donations to an Islamic charity could bring unwanted attention from federal agents looking into potential ties to terrorism, many Muslim Americans have become reluctant to donate to Islamic causes, including charities,” reports the New York Times. “… Much of the fear comes from federal actions that many Muslim Americans view as unnecessarily invasive. The Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Treasury Department has shuttered five major Muslim charities in the United States since 2001, seizing millions of dollars in assets, yet not a single officer or organization has been convicted of anything connected to terrorism. Muslim charities operating overseas have been directly linked to terrorist operations, but if such evidence exists in the United States it has remained secret.” [View article]

Latino Citizens Caught Up in Raids Seeking Illegal Immigrants (Los Angeles Times) “Five Latino U.S. citizens … say they were detained and harassed by agents carrying out raids targeting illegal immigrants in south Georgia,” reports the Los Angeles Times. The Southern Poverty Law Center has “sued the federal government” on their behalf, saying “that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents used ‘Gestapo-like’ tactics as they fanned across three Georgia counties in September, breaking into homes and stopping people in their cars ‘because they looked “Mexican.”’ The class-action suit seeks … compensatory damages” and “a court order preventing the agency from conducting similar raids across the country.” [View article]

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DHS News

Electronic Tracking for Truck Cargo Expanded (Government Executive) “The Homeland Security Department is expanding its use of an automated system to track cargo being transported in the United States by the trucking industry,” reports National Journal’s Technology Daily. “Beginning in January, the trucking industry will have to submit electronic cargo manifests to Customs and Border Protection for trucks entering the United States through all ports of entry in the states of Washington and Arizona, and select ports in North Dakota … The information will be submitted through the automated commercial environment, or ACE, which CBP touts as its next-generation technology to track and process truck cargo.” [View article]

TSA Strengthens Air Cargo Security The Transportation Security Administration has mandated new security measures for all air cargo transported on passenger aircraft to ensure that no freight is exempt from the layered security regime and the potential for random screening, to increase the amount of cargo being screened, to establish screening requirements for indirect air carriers, to impose new security screening measures on certain shipment types that are higher risk, and to strengthen the industry-managed Known Shipper Program. [View press release]

TSA Convenes Transit Policing and Security Peer Advisory Group On October 25, the Transportation Security Administration convened the inaugural meeting of the Transit Policing and Security Peer Advisory Group. The group comprises 13 transit police chiefs and security directors. It met by teleconference, discussed a one-year business plan to enhance transit security, and scheduled its first in-person meeting to coincide with the Transit Security Roundtable in Newark, NJ, in mid-December. [View press release]

DHS Offers Streamlined SAFETY Act Application (Federal Computer Week) “The Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies (Safety) Act of 2002 … provides for a statutory ‘government contractor defense’ for technologies that are certified by” the Department of Homeland Security “after a higher level of examination,” reports Federal Computer Week. “… DHS has issued a streamlined application kit that clarifies the information that companies must provide before DHS reviews a particular technology.” See Wendy Howe’s 2004 article “Getting Anti-Terrorism Technologies Out for Homeland Use--That’s Why It’s Called the SAFETY Act” in the Journal of Homeland Security. [View FCW article] [View Howe article] [View SAFETY Act website]

Council on Foreign Relations Issues ‘Report Card’ on DHS (Government Computer News) “According to a new report card published by the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Washington, D.C., the Homeland Security Department is winning good grades for nuclear plant security and air defense, but earns poor grades for port security, chemical plant security and public relations,” reports Government Computer News. “The assessment was put together by Stephen E. Flynn, senior fellow for national security studies at the council. It is the council’s first homeland security report card.” [View article] [View report card]

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Other Federal News

Govt. Lacks Cybersecurity Research Agenda, Says GAO (Government Executive) “A Government Accountability Office report … said a federal cybersecurity research agenda has not been developed despite earlier recommendations,” reports National Journal’s Technology Daily. “It said the White House Office of Management and Budget has not asked agencies to provide all required information on federally funded research projects, so those trying to do oversight and coordination do not have the necessary information.” [View article] [View GAO abstract]

State Dept Unveils Plans for PASS Card (Government Computer News) The State Department has “issued a Request for Information that describes its plans for the” Passport Card--“the radio frequency identification device-equipped border crossing card that [it] plans to deploy as part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative,” reports Government Computer News. The request will explain “the credential and its use in detail, as well as inquiring about the possible costs of equipment needed to produce and field the Passport Cards.” [View article]

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State and Local News

Federal Judge Blocks Pennsylvania City’s Immigrant Crackdown (Yahoo! News) “A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the city of Hazleton from enforcing a pair of ordinances targeting illegal immigrants, just hours before the measures were to go into effect,” reports the Associated Press. “The measures, approved by City Council last month, would have imposed fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and denied business permits to companies that give them jobs. They also would have required tenants to register with City Hall and pay for a rental permit.… Hazleton’s crackdown, which was announced in June, has spurred other towns to pass similar laws. Municipal officials view the Hazleton lawsuit and a similar one in Riverside, N.J., as test cases.” [View article]

New York City Expands Search for 9/11 Remains (CNN) “The renewed search for human remains around the World Trade Center site is so massive, the city plans to hire several additional forensics experts more than five years after the 9/11 attacks,” reports the Associated Press. “Up to 10 forensic anthropologists will join the effort to find remains of September 11 victims, a project that could stretch well into next year.” [View article]

New York Harbor Drill Focuses on Ferry Attack (Staten Island [NY] Advance) New York “City emergency agencies” on Wednesday tested “a coordinated response to a terrorist explosion on the” Staten Island ferry, reports the Advance. In the exercise, “eight people aboard were dead, and hundreds had been wounded by a bomb blast. Police and rescue agencies deployed helicopters and boats, while the ferryboat Andrew J. Barberi came out to rescue the survivors. The exercise was made more real by dozens of other passengers who were instructed to get in the way to add to the chaos.” [View article]

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Dual-Benefit Solutions

Critical Mention Gives Instant Access to Suspicious TV Broadcasts (Government Computer News) “The FBI now has access to an online service that its employees can use to screen TV broadcasts and provide alerts when specified words are used, either on English-language networks or networks broadcasting in Arabic,” reports Government Computer News. “Critical Mention Inc. of New York City provides the service, which it is furnishing to multiple users at the bureau.” Critical Mention’s “existing customers include many Fortune 500 companies.” [View article]

Dual-benefit news archive

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Private-Sector News

Retailers’ Role in Disaster Planning (Government Executive) In the Top Officials 2, 3, and 4 “simulations in 2003, 2005 and 2006, the private sector has become increasingly involved …” reports Government Executive. “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is working with businesses and” the Department of Homeland Security “to create a formal structure in which government leaders and large private sector entities can work together on disaster preparedness and response … DHS does not require state homeland security directors to talk to energy companies, telecommunication companies or other critical infrastructure owners and private sector groups before submitting annual homeland security strategies--plans designed to assess vulnerabilities and response capabilities.… The Washington-based Business Executives for National Security began working on the problem three years ago. The result is the widely lauded Business Force [see the Website of the Week], a partnership in which companies pledge trucks, warehouses and other resources before a disaster, based on needs pre-identified by state officials.” [View article]

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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.

Upcoming Events

November 21-23, Helsinki, Finland: Information Society Technologies 2006

December 3-6; Baltimore: Society for Risk Analysis

February 6-7; Washington, DC: Homeland Security: The Ripple Effect

June 5-8, 2007; Trogir, Croatia: The 14th TIEMS (International Emergency Management Society) International Conference

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Calls for Papers

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