National News

Note: More and more news sites require free one-time registration. We wish we could avoid this inconvenience to readers who want to see the full articles. We do not intentionally link to any that require a paid subscription.

Federal Court Rules for ‘Enemy Combatant’ (Washington Post) “A federal appeals court ruled [Monday] that President Bush cannot indefinitely imprison a U.S. resident on suspicion alone, ordering the government either to charge Qatari national Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri with his alleged terrorist crimes in a civilian court or release him,” reports the Washington Post. The decision was “handed down by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit,” but the Bush Administration said “that it will appeal to the full court.… Marri was arrested in the United States and was living here legally on a student visa.” He has been held for more than five years “as a ‘material witness.’” [View article]

Communication Failure Contributed to Va. Tech Massacre (CNN) “Cowed by confusing privacy laws, authorities sometimes fail to raise red flags about potentially dangerous students, and peers keep quiet out of a false sense of duty, a federal report on the Virginia Tech shootings [see the April 20 newsletter] concluded Wednesday,” according to CNN. The report “laid out a number of recommendations, including ensuring that information be maintained on individuals prohibited from owning firearms.” [View article] [View report]

Database Is Tool in Deporting Fugitives (Washington Post) “Federal officials” are adding “hundreds of thousands of names of people with outstanding deportation orders into the FBI-run National Crime Information Center database, which police officers use to search for warrants,” reports the Washington Post. “… Supporters of the effort say that enlisting the help of police officers to identify and remove the roughly 600,000 immigrants who are thought to have outstanding deportation orders is long overdue. But two police associations have lobbied against the inclusion, saying that by acting on the warrants, departments risk alienating recent immigrants, a segment of the community that has historically had an uneasy relationship with law enforcement agencies.… Because many outstanding deportation orders date back several years and in some cases don’t reflect the person’s current immigration status, some law enforcement officials and immigrant advocates say they fear that people could get picked up because of sloppy record keeping.… Since the government began adding immigration warrants to the database in 2002, authorities have identified more than 25,000 fugitives, according to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.” [View article]

Return to the top

International News

Palestinian President Dissolves Government (New York Times) “President Mahmoud Abbas signed decrees [yesterday] dissolving the Palestinian government and declaring a state of emergency across the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” reports Reuters. “… the president will form an emergency government to replace the unity government his Fatah movement formed with Haniyeh of Hamas in March.” [View article]

39 ‘Ghost Detainees’ Named Amnesty International, Cageprisoners, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law, Human Rights Watch, and Reprieve have jointly published “the names and details of 39 people who are believed to have been held in secret US custody and whose current whereabouts remain unknown.” (See last week’s newsletter.) The report, “Off the Record: US Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the ‘War on Terror,’” includes detailed information about four people and claims that “suspects’ relatives, including wives and children as young as seven years old, have been held in secret detention.” [View press release] [Get report]

Europeans Aided U.S. Renditions (MSNBC) “A long-running European inquiry into CIA activities in Europe … said it had proof that the agency had operated secret prisons in Poland and Romania,” reports the Financial Times. Both countries denied it, “but the European Commission said it was ‘very concerned’ by reports of the allegations, since it considers secret detention centres to violate European law.” According to research done for the Council of Europe, “interviews with Polish, Romanian and US security personnel, together with flight data, established that both countries had housed covert CIA detention centres between 2003 and 2005.” [View article]

Bombings Target Iraqi Bridges (Yahoo! News; Miami Herald) “Suspected al-Qaida bombers stepped up attacks on key transportation arteries, striking a bridge north of the capital Monday a day after shutting the superhighway south of Baghdad with a huge explosion,” reports the Associated Press. “Explosives tore at another Iraqi bridge Tuesday,” reports McClatchy News Service. The Tuesday attack “apparently injured no one and, while inflicting significant damage, left open a single *** between the villages of al Qariya al Asriyah and al Rashayed about 35 miles south of Baghdad.” Monday’s bombing “blew apart the bridge that carries traffic over the Diyala River in Baqouba,” according to the AP story. “… motorists and truckers now must use a road that runs through al-Qaida-controlled territory to reach important nearby cities.” The attacks are part of a campaign against the “transportation network linking Baghdad to the rest of the country.… Earlier this month, a bomb heavily damaged the Sarhat Bridge, a key crossing 90 miles north of the capital on a major road connecting Baghdad with Irbil, Sulaimaniya and other Kurdish cities. In March and April, three of Baghdad’s 13 bridges over the Tigris River were bombed.… The most serious attack, an April 12 suicide truck bombing, collapsed the landmark Sarafiyah bridge and sent cars plunging into the brown waters of the Tigris.” [View AP article] [View McClatchy article] [View map of Baghdad bridges]

Petraeus Says Security Crackdown Is Working (USA Today; Washington Post) “When Gen. David Petraeus drives through the streets of Iraq’s capital, he sees ‘astonishing signs of normalcy’ in half, perhaps two-thirds of Baghdad,” reports USA Today. “… Five months after President Bush ordered an increase of 20,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, data suggest that sectarian violence in Baghdad has declined. Other tentative signs of progress have included a rise in Iraqi army enlistments and some quality-of-life improvements such as fewer electricity blackouts in the capital.” However, “overall levels of violence in the country have not decreased, as attacks have shifted away from Baghdad and Anbar, where American forces are concentrated, only to rise in most other provinces, according to” the Pentagon, reports the Washington Post. (See the Quote of the Week and Stats of the Week.) [View USA Today article] [View Post article]

32 Indicted on Terror Charges in Spain (Washington Post) A Spanish “judge indicted 32 people [June 8] on charges of belonging to or collaborating with a militant group working in Spain to recruit fighters for al-Qaida in Iraq,” reports the Associated Press. “Ansar al-Islam members have been trying to muster volunteers among Spain’s Moroccan and Algerian communities since 2004, said Judge Baltasar Garzon.” [View article]

European Antiterror Convention Goes Into Effect (EurActiv) The Council of Europe’s Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism went into effect on June 1, reports EurActiv. “The Convention is the first international treaty to establish as criminal offences several activities which may lead to acts of terrorism, such as incitement, recruitment and training. It also reinforces international co-operation in the prevention of terrorism by modifying existing arrangements for extradition and mutual assistance.… To date, it has been signed by 39 countries, and ratified by seven: Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine.” [View article] [View convention]

Nairobi Hotel Blast Kills Two (CNN) “An explosion went off outside a hotel in downtown Nairobi during morning rush hour Monday, killing two people [and] injuring more than 30,” reports the Associated Press. “… The last major bombing in Nairobi was in 1998, when the U.S. embassies in downtown Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania were simultaneously hit, killing 225 people. An East Africa al Qaeda network was blamed for that bombing.” [View article]

Jemaah Islamiyah Military Leader Abu Dujana Captured (CNN) “One of Southeast Asia’s most wanted terrorists is in police custody” in Indonesia, reports CNN. “Abu Dujana, believed to be the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah’s military unit, was one of seven suspected terrorists detained in central Java.” [View article]

Indonesia: An Islamic Force for Peace and Progress (Christian Science Monitor) “The most populous Islamic country in the world, Indonesia, is emerging as a would-be peacemaker in the troubled Middle East and a moderating counterbalance to jihadist extremism” and “is forging a significant example of how democracy and Islam can successfully coexist,” says John Hughes, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his 1960s research of Indonesia and former Christian Science Monitor editor. “… non-Arab Indonesia has long practiced a more moderate brand of Islam than exists in such Arab lands as Syria and the Islamic theocracy of Iran.… in the past seven years Indonesians have enjoyed democratically elected leadership.” But Indonesia “is challenged by some of its own jihadist extremists. They have mounted acts of terrorism, and some of the leaders have been jailed. But the extremists are a minority, and the government seems to have the situation contained. However, Indonesia’s moderate form of Islam and its successful embrace of democracy make it anathema to the international jihadist movement and therefore a potential target.” Hughes believes that Indonesia’s “relative peace and harmony” and “stability and moderation … may suggest the path to progress for some of the world’s more angry and unstable areas.” [View article]

Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Conference This week in Miami, representatives from nearly 30 countries gathered to discuss how to combat nuclear terrorism in a conference led by the FBI and its Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism Law Enforcement Conference was attended by some 450 public- and private-sector officials from law enforcement, intelligence, border control, nuclear security, and related professions. It is an outgrowth of an agreement signed by Russia and the U.S. last summer to build multinational cooperation on the issue. Countries attending included the United States, Russia, Canada, China, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Morocco, Germany, France, Israel, and Japan. The conference’s primary objective: to build the capabilities of partner nations to investigate, prevent, and respond to sudden strikes by terrorists using nuclear devices or other radioactive materials. [View press release]

Pakistan Joins Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (Washington Examiner) “Pakistan will join … the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism,” which “calls on states to improve accounting, control and physical protection of nuclear material and radioactive substances as well as the security of nuclear facilities,” reports the Associated Press. “… The world’s five leading nuclear powers—the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France—form the core of the” initiative. [View article]

East African Defense Chiefs Mount Anti-Terror War (AllAfrica) “The East African Community member-states have put in place stringent measures to counter the recent suspected upsurge in terrorism,” reports the Kigali, Rwanda, New Times. “Kenya’s Defence Minister, Njenga Karume,” said that he and “his Ugandan and Tanzania counterparts that had resolved ‘to strengthen against terrorism.’ … In addition, a comprehensive Protocol on peace and security that is yet to be formulated, will address conflict management, counter terrorism, peace support operations, disaster management, crisis responses, and small arms and light weapons.” [View article]

Return to the top

United Nations News

Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan to Strengthen Counter-Narcotics Efforts The ministers of public security and counter-narcotics from Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, at a meeting hosted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, agreed to improve border management by building more physical barriers, boosting law enforcement capacity, launching joint counter-narcotic operations, improving communication, and increasing intelligence-sharing about trafficking routes, traffickers, suspicious shipments, and other activities. They will focus on all aspects of the drug economy: stopping the diversion and smuggling of precursor chemicals used to make drugs, locating and destroying drug labs, tackling corruption that facilitates the drug business, and halting the laundering of drug money. [View press release]

New UN Fund Aids Rural African Businesses The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development’s new African Enterprise Challenge Fund is designed to help Africa’s rural poor by providing grants to innovative new businesses. It will offer matching grants of up to $1.5 million each to projects that meet its development goals. [View press release]

Return to the top

DHS News

U.S. Eases Passport Requirement Within Western Hemisphere U.S. citizens traveling to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda who have applied for but not yet received passports can nevertheless temporarily enter and depart from the United States by air with a government-issued photo identification and State Department official proof of application for a passport through September 30. Record-breaking demand has created longer processing times for passport applications. [View press release]

Secure Border Initiative Monthly U.S. Customs and Border Protection publishes a monthly newsletter about the Secure Border Initiative. The May issue has articles about state and local partnerships, Project 28 for lead trainers, the fence lab, and the initiative’s relationship to ports of entry. [View May issue]

DHS Struggles to Create an Effective Acquisition Organization “The structure of DHS’s acquisition function creates ambiguity about who is accountable for acquisition decisions because it depends on a system of dual accountability and collaboration between the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) and the component heads,” according to the Government Accountability Office, noting “DHS’s struggle to provide adequate support for its mission components and resources for departmentwide oversight.” DHS has “reported significant progress” but is having difficulty providing “the appropriate level of oversight and management attention to its contracting for services and major systems.” [View abstract]

Return to the top

Other Federal News

New FBI Guidelines Aim to Curb Abuse (Houston Chronicle) “The FBI is warning its agents to carefully review all personal data collected from Americans in terror investigations to protect their privacy rights and not to expect the evidence to remain secret,” reports the Associated Press. “… draft FBI guidelines made public Wednesday” aim “to correct abuses of so-called national security letters that were revealed in a Justice Department audit three months ago. The letters allow investigators to subpoena records, without court approval, in terrorism and spy cases.… effective immediately, investigators must request specific information—and justify its need—before the demand for data is sent. Moreover, the strictly worded rules require all evidence received from the subpoena to be reviewed before it is uploaded into FBI databases to make sure that only the information specifically requested is used.” [View article]

Employment Eligibility Verification Program Is Vulnerable to Fraud The voluntary Employment Eligibility Verification Program, run by the Homeland Security Department and the Social Security Administration, gives participating employers a means of electronically verifying employees’ work eligibility. Making the program mandatory would increase the number of participating employers from 17,000 to 5.9 million, reports the Government Accountability Office. That would increase the program’s cost by at least $370 million. However, the system “cannot yet fully address identity fraud” and “is vulnerable to employer fraud” and misuse. [View abstract]

Return to the top

Private-Sector News

JP Morgan Chase Plans Skyscraper Near Ground Zero (New York Times) “After months of sharp bargaining and threats to relocate, JPMorgan Chase” will “build a skyscraper near ground zero and move its investment banking headquarters from Midtown,” reports the New York Times. The “city and the state ultimately agreed to provide the bank with tax breaks, discounted electric power and rent subsidies worth about $100 million.” [View article]

Glaxo Will Donate Bird Flu Shots (Reuters AlertNet) GlaxoSmithKline—“Europe’s biggest drugmaker”—will “donate 50 million doses of its ‘pre-pandemic’ bird flu vaccine for humans to a global stockpile for distribution in the world’s poorest countries,” reports Reuters. It will “deliver the vaccine—enough for 25 million people—to the World Health Organisation” over three years. [View article]

New Module Expands Emergency Alerts (Government Computer News) “IWSAlerts, AtHoc’s Web-based alert management system, now supports the Common Alerting Protocol, allowing emergency responders to send EAS [Emergency Alert System] messages over the Internet to broadcasters,” reports Government Computer News. “… all EAS participants must support CAP to ensure [that] alerts can be transmitted rapidly and efficiently to the public in a variety of formats—including text, audio and video—via broadcast, cable, satellite and other communications networks.… The AtHoc IWSAlerts EAS Activation Module includes components that enable CAP-compliance for emergency management agencies and participating broadcasters … Using IWSAlerts, emergency managers can trigger alerts to a broad range of IP-based communications channels such as desktop computers, mobile phone text messaging and short message services, telephony, sirens, public address systems and paging systems.” [View article]

Three Small Companies Get EPA Contracts for Emergency Cleanup The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $190 million in emergency cleanup contracts to Guardian Environmental Services of Bear, DE; WRS Infrastructure & Environment of Bristol, PA; and Kemron Environmental Services of Vienna, VA. They will provide rapid response and support capability for environmental emergencies ranging from natural disasters to acts of terrorism. [View press release]

Return to the top

Dual-Benefit Solutions

Rice Engineered to Carry Cholera Vaccine (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) “A team of Japanese researchers has developed a type of rice that can carry a vaccine for cholera, a step that could one day ease delivery of vaccines in developing countries,” reports the Associated Press. “While it’s only the latest of several plants being tested as potential means of producing vaccines, the development is potentially important in medically underserved countries that lack refrigeration to store regular vaccines. But the work is preliminary, having been tested only in mice.” [View article]

Dual-benefit news archive

Return to the top

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. Executive Seminar on Chemical Security (June 18-19, July 16-17, August 6-7, September 13-14; Towson, MD) Participants will gain an increased understanding of the chemical industry, the key players, the various facilities, safety processes, hazards, and the supply chain. The seminar will also provide valuable information on protecting the chemical industry from terrorist threats and tactics and chemical facility anti-terrorism standards under the new DHS rules. [View course website] C-TPAT Enrollment Seminar (June 27-29; Mexico City) U.S. Customs and Border Protection will hold a Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism Enrollment Seminar at the Camino Real Hotel. [View seminar website] Executive Seminar on Integrated Transportation Security (July 19-20, August 20-21, September 24-25; Towson, MD) Utilizing real-world issues in an educational setting will assist participants in understanding the intricacies of security in the transportation industry and providing real solutions to complex issues. This seminar is designed for corporate leaders who are charged with making or evaluating transportation security decisions. It will demonstrate how improved security processes can create value across all the business functions throughout an entire value chain. [View course website] Executive Seminar on Medical Preparedness for Disasters (July 9-10, August 15-16, September 6-7; Towson, MD) The seminar will teach aspects of deliberate and crisis action medical planning to help organizations enhance their preparedness, response, and recovery posture against the full spectrum of threats. This workshop is taught by experienced medical planners. It will assist in creating or improving organic medical planning to help ensure preparedness for disasters. [View course website] Combating Bioterrorism/Pandemics: Implementing Policies for Biosecurity (July 23-25; Cambridge, MA) The course will address impediments to organizational change, the U.S. postal anthrax outbreaks, rethinking the public health approach, the smallpox immunization program, expanding the law enforcement approach, biological weapons and national security, the case of the Ebola virus, the new focus on vaccine development, swine flu, SARS, and avian flu. [View course website] Physical Security for Facilities (July 24-25; Millington, TN) This course teaches risk management techniques, how to identify and implement cost-effective security solutions, basic defense measures, how to develop countermeasures, and how to create a security plan. [View course website] Radiological Emergency Planning: Terrorism, Security, and Communication (August 7-10; Boston) The course will examine the latest principles and regulatory requirements for responding to a radiological emergency and the newest roles and rules from federal and state agencies regarding emergency preparedness for terrorist activities, the new federal framework for homeland security, terrorist incidents involving radioactive materials, lessons learned in communicating with the media and public, and updates on emergency preparedness issues for nuclear utilities. [View course website]

Return to the top

New Upcoming Events (After four weeks, new events will be moved to the Upcoming Events page) Physical Infrastructure Technologies in Homeland Security (June 20; Washington, DC) A conference for buyers and sellers, evaluating and implementing technologies and techniques for sustainability and integration, with a special emphasis on IT convergence, surveillance and inspection. [View conference website] Managing Today’s Threats to Homeland Security (June 27; Washington, DC) This conference is designed to give attendees a quick snapshot of how government and industry are addressing the threat of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive weapons, from policy decisions all the way to recent research and technology development. [View conference website] Creating and Using Multi-Hazards Knowledge and Strategies (June 28; Washington, DC) This workshop of the National Academies’ Disasters Roundtable will feature presentations by experts from the hazards research, policy, and practitioner communities, including both public- and private-sector representatives, and will include audience discussion. [View conference website] 5th Annual TICs and TIMs Symposium (July 23-25; Richmond, VA) The symposium will emphasize changing requirements and the progress in developing strategies to deal with incidents involving toxic industrial chemicals and materials, tools (including surveillance tools) for the decision maker facing an incident, modeling software, equipment for detection and protection, decontamination, and medical response. [View conference website] Continuity of Operations and Telework Training Conference (August 15; Arlington, VA) The conference is about best practices, lessons learned, and current thinking in the development of agency mission continuity plans. Telework is an essential element of federal agencies’ COOP planning. [View conference website] EPA Region 7 Local Emergency Planning Committee–Tribal Emergency Response Committee 2007 Conference (August 16-19; Kansas City, MO) The host committees are the community focal point for information about hazardous materials, emergency planning, and environmental risks. To assist them in conducting their jobs safely and more effectively, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in conjunction with private industry and tribal, state, and local governments in the region, have developed this conference to present the latest developments for protection of local communities. [View conference website (762k PDF)] Homeland Security Research • Innovation • Transition Conference and Showcase (August 21-24; Monterey, CA) This event, sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, will illustrate how researchers and research groups can form teams and best interface with the Homeland Security Department’s three directorates and six divisions. Presentations will provide divisionally aligned examples and outlines of successful research, innovation, and transition from the lab to the field. [View press release] Fire Rescue International 2007 (August 23-25; Atlanta) This conference of the International Association of Fire Chiefs features more than 60 education sessions plus exhibits. [View conference website] Gulf Coast Terrorism Prevention Conference (September 17-21; Sarasota, FL) This second annual conference, sponsored by Security Solutions International and the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office, will cover The Middle-East mindset and cultural orientation, setting up intelligence departments, protecting schools and colleges, operational response to mass-casualty incidents, and the risk of terror. [View conference website] 2007 ESRI Homeland Security GIS Summit (November 5-7; Denver) The Homeland Security GIS Summit will discuss how geographic information systems can be applied for critical infrastructure protection planning—a data fusion and analysis solution and for prevention, protection, response, and recovery measures in an emergency operations center. [View conference website]

Return to the top

Calls for Papers 2007 ESRI Homeland Security GIS Summit (November 5-7; Denver) The Homeland Security GIS Summit invites papers on GIS integration for crisis management, mobile GIS, critical infrastructure, and GIS activity for data fusion. Abstract submission deadline is August 15. [View call for papers]

Return to the top