International News

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FARC Bombings in Colombia (CNN; Yahoo! News) Colombian officials said that “a man and a 3-year-old girl were killed Sunday when” the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) “detonated a bomb at a tourist beach in Colombia’s main port city [Buenaventura], where rebels have been blamed for attacks” on June 24 and 25, reports Reuters. “… seven bombs or grenades exploded at a police station and commercial centers, injuring 23 people in the Pacific port city that handles about half of the Andean country’s international shipments.” Earlier in the month, “eleven kidnapped former state lawmakers held hostage for five years were killed after a military attack on the jungle camp where they were being kept” by FARC, according to the Associated Press. Reportedly “11 of the 12 ex-provincial deputies being held were killed in the crossfire after an ‘unidentified military group’ attacked the rebel camp June 18.” [View Reuters article] [View AP article]

Taliban Turn Gunsights on Afghan Police (Christian Science Monitor) “The growing strength of the Afghan National Army, which has inflicted heavy casualties against the Taliban this year with robust NATO support and improved training and equipment, has prompted a resurgent Taliban to target the poorly equipped police officers,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. A “lack of funds has left the police virtually empty-handed in the fight against guerrillas armed with heavy weapons such as mortars and rocket-propelled grenades … The Taliban’s hit-and-run tactics have killed more than 300 police in the last three months.” [View article]

Attack on Iraqi Sheiks Hurts U.S.-Tribal Alliance (Christian Science Monitor) “A suicide bomber’s attack on an upscale Baghdad hotel Monday was a blow struck against the US plan to support and arm Sunni tribes in western Iraq,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. (See the June 22 newsletter.) Twelve people were killed, among them four “Sunni sheikhs”--“senior tribal members linked to an American effort to combat Al Qaeda in Anbar.” The U.S. “approach is facing growing criticism from both Iraqi politicians and military experts. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has complained that the initiative is creating militias outside its control and undermining his plan to strengthen the central government’s control over security forces.” [View article]

Members of Turkish Hizbullah Sentenced to Life (Reuters AlertNet) “Ten members of banned Turkish Islamist organisation Hizbullah were sentenced to life in prison on Monday after a 13-year-long trial for killing 24 people and carrying out bomb attacks during the 1990s,” reports Reuters. The Turkish group Hizbullah “is not believed to be linked to the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.” [View article]

‘Chemical Ali’ Sentenced to Hang for Genocide of Kurds (Washington Post) “Three senior aides to Saddam Hussein were found guilty on Sunday of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Iraqi High Tribunal and sentenced to death by hanging for their roles in the slaughter of as many as 180,000 Kurds in northern Iraq in the late 1980s,” reports the Washington Post. “The most notorious of the defendants, Ali Hassan al-Majeed--a former general known as ‘Chemical Ali’--received five death sentences for ordering the use of deadly mustard gas and nerve agents against the Kurds during the so-called Anfal campaign. Majeed and Hussein were cousins.” [View article]

Tony Blair Pursues Middle East Peace (London Times) Tony Blair stepped down as Britain’s Prime Minister Wednesday (replaced by Gordon Brown) and began “the next phase of his career as an international peace envoy to the Middle East,” reports the London Times. He will represent the European Union, Russia, the United States, and the United Nations in Jerusalem. [View article]

Chinese Regulators Find Widespread Abuses in Food Industry (International Herald Tribune) “After weeks of insisting that food in China is largely safe, regulators said that they had recently closed 180 food plants and that inspectors had uncovered more than 23,000 food safety violations,” reports the International Herald Tribune. “The nationwide crackdown, which began in December, also found that many small food makers were using industrial chemicals, dyes and other illegal ingredients in making a wide range of food products.” [View article]

European Union and U.S. Reach Agreement on Passenger Data (International Herald Tribune) “The European Union and the United States have reached a tentative agreement that is expected to sharply reduce the amount of information about trans-Atlantic air travelers that can be shared with the U.S. authorities but will lengthen the time such information can be retained,” reports the International Herald Tribune. [View article]

Missing Information Hinders Efforts to Forestall a Bird Flu Pandemic “Assessments by U.S. agencies and international organizations have identified widespread risks of the emergence of pandemic influenza and the United States has identified priority countries for assistance, but information gaps limit the capacity for comprehensive comparisons of risk levels by country,” according to the Government Accountability Office. “… The U.S. Homeland Security Council has designated priority countries for assistance, and agencies have further identified several countries as meriting the most extensive efforts, but … based on limited information.” The risk varies with environmental factors and countries’ preparedness. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said that global response to the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus has significantly improved over the past few years, but that the virus remains entrenched in several countries and will continue to spread and that containing and eradicating it will require a long-term financial and political commitment from governments, including modifying or changing high-risk poultry production and marketing practices. To date, 315 people from a dozen countries have been infected with the virus, resulting in 191 deaths. More than 200 million birds have died from either the virus or preventive culling in the current outbreak. [View GAO abstract] [View UN press release] [View Focus on Avian Influenza]

Chinese Military Unit to Ensure Olympic Security (Yahoo! News) “China’s military has established a special unit for next year’s Olympics that is trained to counter threats such as terror attacks,” reports the Associated Press. “… The People’s Liberation Army unit will help police with preventing or [handling] any attack, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The unit will also be responsible for air protection of all arenas and maritime safety of coastal venues.” [View article]

Lockerbie Bomber Allowed Appeal (BBC) Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was “convicted of the Lockerbie bombing [but] has been granted leave to make a second appeal,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. “… al-Megrahi was jailed for the 1988 atrocity in which 270 people died when Pan-Am flight 103 exploded over the Scottish town. The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which has been investigating Megrahi’s case since 2003, recommended the second appeal.” The Libyan was convicted in January 2001 and is in jail in Scotland. “The commission is responsible for looking into possible miscarriages of justice”--including “the ‘reasonableness’ of the court’s verdict; additional evidence; new evidence and ‘other’ evidence.” [View article]

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United Nations News

UN Aids China and Qatar With Nuclear Security The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency has made plans with China and Qatar to help the two countries in developing their nuclear security regimes. The agency will advise the two countries on physical protection measures for nuclear facilities and will help to provide equipment for the prevention and detection of criminal acts involving nuclear and other radioactive material. [View press release]

Health Officials Seek Fourfold Rise in Global TB Funds (Washington Post) “Global health officials [last] Friday called for a quadrupling of spending to combat highly lethal, drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis spreading through Eastern Europe, Africa and parts of Asia,” reports the Washington Post. (See the June 1 newsletter.) “The two-year, $2.15 billion plan, presented by the World Health Organization and the Stop TB Partnership, would pay for advanced drugs, dozens of new laboratories and research. If fully implemented, health officials said, it would prevent 134,000 deaths and improve their ability to diagnose and track the emerging threat.” Medicines “typically can cure it, but many people with the disease fail to complete the full course, allowing strains to emerge that cannot be easily treated. Each year, more than 400,000 people contract multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, which cannot be cured by the cheapest and most widely available medicine. Most die. Even more lethal is extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, known as XDR-TB, which kills almost all of the 27,000 people it infects each year.” [View article]

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National News

White House Distinguished Between Torture and Cruelty in Interrogations (Washington Post) Beginning in 2002, Vice President Dick “Cheney and his allies, according to more than two dozen current and former officials, pioneered a novel distinction between forbidden ‘torture’ and permitted use of ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading’ methods of questioning,” reports the Washington Post. “… Many of the harsh measures he championed, and some of the broadest principles undergirding them, have survived intact but out of public view.” A “new legal framework was designed specifically to avoid a ban on cruelty.” [View article]

28-Mile Virtual Border Fence Rises in Arizona (New York Times) In southern Arizona, “nine nearly 100-foot-tall towers with radar, high-definition cameras and other equipment” are rising along “28 miles of border that the towers will scan,” reports the New York Times. “… hundreds of such towers”--located “in a region with heavy traffic in smuggling”--“could dot the 6,000 miles of the Mexican and Canadian borders. But glitches with the radar and cameras have forced the project to miss its June 13 starting date.” Boeing’s “contract to develop the project” will cost “$67 million.” The towers’ “cameras, set off by radar, are to beam high-quality images of targets miles away to field commanders and agents,” and “the information is to flow over a high-speed wireless network into laptops in dozens of Border Patrol vehicles.” [View article]

Two More Security Breaches at Los Alamos Lab (Newsweek) “In late May, a Los Alamos staffer took his lab laptop with him on vacation to Ireland,” reports Newsweek. It contained sensitive government documents. “In Ireland, the laptop was stolen” and “has not been recovered.” And on June 15, “a Los Alamos scientist” sent a highly classified “e-mail over the open Internet … Los Alamos is still reeling from the revelation that, in January, half a dozen board members of the company that manages the lab circulated--over the Internet--an e-mail to each other containing the most highly classified information about the composition of America’s nuclear arsenal.” [View article]

Resilience Enables Survival of Attacks and Disasters (Government Executive) “Since we can’t prevent every disaster or attack, why not shift focus toward surviving them?” asks Zack Phillips in Government Executive. He notes the growing advocacy of resilience--“building systems that can successfully withstand enemy strikes and other disasters without the cascading economic and social consequences that followed Hurricane Katrina and Sept. 11.” He notes comments by Analytic Services’ Ruth David and Randy Beardsworth at a Homeland Security Advisory Council Critical Infrastructure Task Force meeting last year. “The task force believed infrastructure resiliency should replace protection as the goal of all government efforts, [David] said.” [View commentary]

FBI Asks Scuba Instructors to Watch for Suspicious Training (KTRK-TV, Houston) The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has “alerted dive shops around the country to look out for divers seeking advanced training, including diving in murky water and in sewer pipes,” reports the Associated Press. The FBI “said it was not prompted by any threat. The advisory asked instructors to be aware of ‘odd inquiries that are inconsistent with recreational diving.’ That includes advanced navigation techniques, deep diving and the use of underwater vehicles.” [View article]

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DHS News

New HSI Report Abstracts Abstracts of three more Homeland Security Institute reports are now available on the institute’s website: High-Level Architecture of Homeland Security, September 2005 Underlying Reasons for Successful & Unsuccessful Terrorist Attacks Against the U.S. Homeland & Selected U.S. Interests Abroad, September 2005 Amber Mist, June 2005

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Other Federal News

CIA Releases Formerly Classified Historical Documents (Los Angeles Times) “After fighting to keep them secret for more than three decades, the CIA released hundreds of documents Tuesday that catalog some of the most egregious intelligence abuses of the Cold War, including assassination plots against foreign leaders and illegal efforts to spy on Americans,” reports the Los Angeles Times. The Central Intelligence Agency released two collections of previously classified historical documents. The first, almost 700 pages, was compiled in 1973; it is based on employees’ reports of activities possibly inconsistent with the agency’s charter. In 1974, the CIA provided the documents to Congress, and parts of the collection were later released to the public. The second collection, 147 Caesar-Polo-Esau papers (11,000 pages of analysis from 1953 to 1973), studied Soviet and Chinese leadership hierarchies. The documents are available via the CIA’s Freedom of Information Act page. [View LA Times article] [View CIA press release]

State Dept. Upgrades Security of Proof of Passport Application The State Department has strengthened security standards for access to the proof of passport application that some Americans are temporarily using to enter and reenter the United States from points in the Western Hemisphere. (See the June 15 newsletter.) The locator number alone will no longer allow access to the application. Travelers now must go to http://travel.state.gov and provide their last name, date of birth, and the last four digits of their social security number to verify their identity. [View press release]

Katrina Lessons Learned for the EPA Mitigating problems in “addressing Hurricane Katrina could better protect the environment in the future,” according to the Government Accountability Office. The Environmental Protection Agency “did not remove hazardous materials from national wildlife refuges in a timely manner,” and “because states generally have authority over landfill decisions, EPA does not have an effective role in emergency debris disposal decisions that could cause pollution. Finally, lack of clarity in federal debris management plans and protocols precluded the timely and safe disposal of some appliances and electronic waste.” Also, “communications were at times unclear and inconsistent on how to mitigate exposure to some contaminants, particularly asbestos and mold.” [View abstract]

Law Enforcement Agencies Lack Directives to Assist Foreign Nations in Identifying, Disrupting, and Prosecuting Terrorists “Following the 9/11 attacks, the President issued a series of strategies that provided broad direction for overseas law enforcement efforts to assist foreign nations to identify, disrupt, and prosecute terrorists,” according to the Government Accountability Office. “However, these strategies did not articulate which [agencies] should implement the guidance … or how they should do so.” The GAO cited “lack of clear roles and responsibilities,” a lack of “guidance on using resources,” and failure to conduct “comprehensive needs assessments.” [View abstract]

Feds Push Interoperable Communications (Government Computer News) “The lack of interoperable radio systems contributed to confusion and mismanagement after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, the attack on the World Trade Center and the Gulf Coast’s devastation during the 2005 hurricane season,” reports Government Computer News. Now “the federal government is pushing cross-agency standards for law enforcement and first-responder radio communications on two tracks: the Integrated Wireless Network and Project 25.” [View article]

National Intelligence Chief Orders Joint Duty Program (Federal Computer Week) “Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has kicked off a new program that makes interagency tours mandatory for senior intelligence officers,” reports Federal Computer Week. “… The program is similar in scope to joint duty in the military,” where officers “are required to complete joint assignments if they want to advance to the more senior service ranks.… all intelligence employees to be promoted above General Schedule 15 must now complete a 12-month tour in another intelligence agency.… The new program is part of McConnell’s 100-Day Plan, which seeks to implement requirements in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.” [View article]

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State and Local News

New Hampshire Rejects Real ID (Concord [NH] Monitor) “New Hampshire joined five other states [Wednesday] in rejecting the federal Real ID Act as tantamount to requiring a national ID card,” reports the Associated Press. “… South Carolina, Montana, Washington, Oklahoma and Maine also have rejected the federal act. New Hampshire’s law calls the act ‘repugnant’ to the state and federal constitutions. The law prohibits the state from complying with the act, which sets standards for state-issued driver’s licenses.” [View article]

Accidental FEMA Radio Alert Scares Illinois Listeners (Chicago Sun-Times) The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “Tuesday morning test of its new satellite-based emergency alert system” interrupted “rush-hour broadcasts” listened to by “hundreds of thousands of” people, reports the Sun-Times. “Beginning at 7:30 a.m., broadcasts across the state were interrupted briefly by countdowns, emergency tones and silence when a test of new FEMA emergency warning equipment accidentally went on the airwaves.” [View article]

Texans Fear Border Fence’s Effect on Trade, Environment, and Levees (Dallas Morning News) “Elected officials and civic leaders along the 900-mile Texas-Mexico border are fuming over what they consider a patronizing and devious planning process to build 153 miles of security fence in the state,” reports the Dallas Morning News. “And they worry about the impact the fence will have on the environment; the flow of trade and relationship with Mexico; and the system of levees that control flooding in the Rio Grande Valley. In Hidalgo County, the plan calls for fencing atop the flood-control levees that are already in ‘serious need of repair,’ said Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas III.” [View article]

Laredo, TX, Proposes Alternative to Border Fence (Dallas Morning News) “Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas … believes Laredo has a more workable solution in the Rio Vega project, a riverfront beautification plan that city officials have pitched numerous times in Washington as an alternative to a physical fence,” reports the Dallas Morning News. “The city bought up land upstream from the international bridge, cleaned out the overgrowth of carrizo, or cane, that hid a warren of smuggling trails, and created a park connected by new roads that the Border Patrol and local police can use. Laredo will also widen part of the river near the bridge to make it more useable by residents of both sides of the border for swimming or hiking. ‘The more people we bring down to the river for legitimate commercial and recreational purposes, the less smugglers will use it,’ Mr. Salinas said.” [View article]

CDC Probes Texas A&M Bioweapons Infections (Dallas Morning News) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “are investigating two cases from last year in which Texas A&M researchers were infected with biological weapons agents--including the university’s failure to report the exposures when they happened,” reports the Dallas Morning News. “… three researchers tested positive for exposure to the weapons agent Q fever in April 2006, two months after another researcher fell ill following contact with the agent Brucella.” [View article]

Border Patrol Wants More Arizona Checkpoints (Phoenix Arizona Republic) “The Border Patrol wants to build three permanent, state-of-the-art checkpoints in Arizona, just miles north of the international frontier near Tubac, Ajo and Huachuca City,” reports the Arizona Republic. “The agency wants to plug what it considers to be a gaping hole in its long-held strategy of layered defense. Because there are no permanent checkpoints in the eastern half of the state, the Tucson Sector lacks defenses that exist elsewhere on the 1,950-mile U.S.-Mexican border.” [View article]

Chicago Police Will See Inside Buses Via Security Cameras (Chicago Tribune) “Chicago police in patrol cars soon will be able to peer inside nearby city buses by electronically tapping into onboard video cameras,” reports the Chicago Tribune. “… Live views from inside buses eventually will be available to the city’s public safety dispatchers.” The Chicago Transit Authority “is outfitting buses with radio equipment that transmits short distances so that video signals can be picked up by Wi-Fi hot spots and nearby police cars.… 75 CTA rail stations are [also] equipped as Wi-Fi hot spots and more hot spots are planned.” [View article]

Lynx photo

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Private-Sector News

Guest-Worker Company Reflects National Program (Washington Post) “If a quarry needs a migrant worker who can haul 50-pound loads of rock out of a mine, or a big landscaper wants to hire a man who’ll mow grass from sunup to sundown for $8 an hour without overstaying his visa, Jeffrey West scrolls through his computer, clicks the mouse and fills the order,” reports the Washington Post. “West … began LLS [Latin Labor Solutions] International eight years ago, and its history is, in part, the story of the modern U.S. guest-worker program. Once small and obscure, it has grown in size and attracted controversy.… The existing program admits about 158,000 guest workers each year.” Charging a $160 fee, “West will do all the visa paperwork, arrange an interview with the U.S. Consulate and connect a laborer with an employer under the guest-worker program referred to by its legislative designation as H-2B, which allows about 121,000 migrants to work up to 10 months in seasonal industries. Many Mexicans also apply for H-2A, which admits 37,000 foreigners to tend U.S. farms and fields.” Almost “95 percent of the migrants West moves north are veteran guest workers whom U.S. employers request by name. The company has six offices throughout the country, most near poor villages.” [View article]

European Airport Security Equipment Market Booms (Budapest [Hungary] Business Journal) “The continued threat of terrorism is set to drive growth across the entire European airport security equipment market, especially given recent European Union legislation, which aims to impose standard security requirements across all member states,” reports the Budapest Business Journal. “Europe has immense market potential: estimates for the period 2006-2010 indicate 20 new airports will be built and 36 existing ones will need to be upgraded.” [View article]

GVI Security and Samsung Launch School Video Security Initiative GVI Security Solutions, Inc., in partnership with Samsung Electronics, is launching the School Video Security Initiative, designed to provide a selected suite of closed-circuit television video security solutions configured for the educational institutional environment in response to the growing need to provide rapid security response and help protect students, teachers, staff, and facilities from the ongoing threat of violence. [View press release]

Intelligent PDF Speeds Access to Data (Government Computer News) “According to P***t Associates, the New Jersey–based provider of infrastructure management software, its new intelligent-infrastructure PDF, or iiPDF, product should help significantly cut the time required to get information to first responders and other field personnel,” reports Government Computer News. The “iiPDF gives field personnel tailored access through a Web portal to data in a P***t IRM repository. A user logging in can select from any number of pre-designed iiPDF templates. The selected template goes out to an Oracle or SQL Server repository, and it constructs a PDF file in real time from the database. The results are then delivered to the Web client.… It speeds delivery of information from data repositories, and it eliminates the need for training of field personnel.” [View article]

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Dual-Benefit Solutions

CDC Infection Tracking System Now Available to All U.S. Hospitals A secure, web-based reporting network that lets facilities track infections associated with health care is now available to all health care facilities in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network provides multiple options for data analysis and more flexibility for sharing information both within and outside a facility--including the general public, if the facility so chooses. The network already has more than 600 participants in 45 states. [View press release]

Dual-benefit news archive

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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. Graduate Certificate in Biohazardous Threat Agents & Emerging Infectious Diseases (Fall; Washington, DC) This new online program at Georgetown University will focus on the science behind the agents and diseases in question--specifically, the microbiology of CDC Category A through C biothreat agents (that is, smallpox, plague, anthrax, tularemia, and Ebola) and the history of bioterrorism and the need for biosurveillance, as well as their implications in homeland security. The application deadlines are August 1 for the fall semester and November 1 for spring. [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] Executive Seminar on Chemical Security (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] 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] Mirror Image (July 22-27; Moyock, NC) Mirror Image is an intensive classroom and field training program, designed to realistically simulate terrorist recruiting, training techniques, and operational tactics. Participants will receive insight into the mindset and rationale of terrorists through hands-on experience with the methods and means they use, plus education about the ideologies that motivate them and cultural dimensions that influence their decision making. [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]

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New Upcoming Events (After four weeks, new events will be moved to the Upcoming Events page) 4th Annual Iowa Governor’s Homeland Security Conference (July 16-18; Des Moines, IA) Participants will learn about the National Incident Management System, ethanol production and hazards, facility assessments, and special needs planning. Exhibitors will display state-of-the-art equipment, training, and services with hands-on demonstrations. Discounted early registration is available through June 29. [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] Continental Divide Disaster Behavioral Health Conference (August 6-7; Colorado Springs, CO) This interactive conference is designed to assist emergency management planners, public health officials, medical personnel, and behavioral health specialists in improving care provided to those affected by catastrophes. The major speakers are leading experts in the disaster behavioral health field. The conference addresses disaster planning, response, and recovery issues. [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] Interagency Coordination Between Federal, State, and Local Agencies (August 15-16; Orem, UT) This conference sponsored by the Homeland Security and Defense Education Consortium will discuss the needs of firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and other first responders; those involved in direct instruction of emergency services personnel; those who command operators or who plan operations; and state managers, course developers, etc. [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 doing 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)] Beyond SBIR Phase II Conference and Exhibition (August 21-23; Arlington, VA) This Small Business Innovation Research conference, sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association, offers prearranged technology matchmaking meetings for prime contractors, government technology and acquisition managers, the investment community, manufacturing firms, and SBIR firms with Phase II technologies to discuss commercialization opportunities and partnerships. Registration is by invitation only. [View conference website] 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] Institute for Counter-Terrorism 7th International Conference (September 8-11; Herzliya, Israel) The conference will feature panel discussions and workshops dealing with definitions, the terrorism-media-public opinion connection, and specific modus operandi, such as suicide terrorism and non-conventional terrorism, as well as lectures on terrorism. [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 Joint Chemical Biological Decontamination and Protection Conference and Exhibition (October 22-24; Virginia Beach, VA) This conference, sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association, will focus on creative acquisition to combat existing and emerging world threats through state-of-the-art decontamination and protection. [View conference website] U.S. Coast Guard 2007 Innovation Expo (October 28–November 2; New Orleans) The Coast Guard and industry will display innovative solutions as well as present and discuss the many challenges faced in maritime homeland security. Participants will see and discuss emerging Coast Guard innovations, meet Coast Guard and industry innovators who are making a difference, and discuss opportunities to meet homeland security, search & rescue, law enforcement, environmental protection, and other mission requirements. [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] Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness (November 6-8; San Francisco) The conference will address pandemic preparedness and response, securing our borders, lessons learned in preparedness for and response to natural disasters, food chain safety and security, information and intelligence sharing, weapons of mass destruction, special operations, federal resources for state and local emergency responders, cyber-security tools and resources, response and recovery, incident commander software, personal protective equipment, transportation security, communications interoperability, the Safety Act, simulation and training, school security, the Defense Department’s role in supporting homeland security, and critical infrastructure protection. [View conference website] AAAS Annual Meeting (February 14-18, 2008; Boston) The theme of next year’s annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science is “Science and Technology from a Global Perspective,” emphasizing the power of science, technology, and education to assist less-developed segments of the world society, to improve partnerships among already developed countries, and to spur knowledge-driven transformations across a host of fields. [View conference website]

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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]

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