International News

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Ousting Hussein Was Crucial for Oil Security, Says Greenspan (Washington Post) “Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said in an interview that the removal of Saddam Hussein had been ‘essential’ to secure world oil supplies, a point he emphasized to the White House in private conversations before the 2003 invasion of Iraq,” reports the Washington Post. “Greenspan, who was the country’s top voice on monetary policy at the time Bush decided to go to war in Iraq, has refrained from extensive public comment on it until now, but he made the striking comment in a new memoir” published Monday “that ‘the Iraq War is largely about oil.’ In the interview, he clarified that sentence in his 531-page book, saying that while securing global oil supplies was ‘not the administration’s motive,’ he had presented the White House with the case for why removing Hussein was important for the global economy.” [View article]

Iraq Bans U.S. Security Contractor Blackwater (Washington Post; Government Executive) “The Iraqi government on Monday said it had revoked the license of Blackwater USA, an American security company involved in a shootout in Baghdad that killed at least nine people, raising questions over which nation should regulate tens of thousands of civilian hired guns operating in Iraq,” reports the Washington Post. (See the Quote of the Week and the May 2007 book review of Blackwater: The Rise of The World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army in the Journal of Homeland Security.) “The State Department said Wednesday that a joint U.S.-Iraqi commission will be formed to investigate” the incident, reports the Associated Press. [View Post article] [View AP article]

Bin Laden Calls on Pakistanis to Rebel (New York Daily News; International Herald Tribune) “Osama Bin Laden called on Pakistanis to rise up against President Perez Musharraf in a video released Thursday,” reports the New York Daily News. “In the video, the terror kingpin said Musharraf was an infidel because in July his military stormed an Islamabad mosque where militants were holed up.” In response, “Pakistan’s military vowed Thursday to eliminate terrorism,” reports the Associated Press. [View Daily News article] [View AP article]

Al Qaeda Wants North Africa Cleansed of French and Spanish (Reuters) “Al Qaeda’s second-in-command [Ayman al-Zawahri] urged north Africa’s Muslims in a video tape posted on Thursday to ‘cleanse’ their land of Spaniards and French as a way to restore Muslim rule that once stretched into southern Europe,” reports Reuters. [View article]

Saudi Arabia Plans to Fence Its Border With Iraq (Middle East Online) “Saudi Arabia is to award a contract to build a security fence along its border with Iraq, with construction starting soon, the interior minister [Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz] said on Monday,” reports Middle East Online. Aziz “did not name any company or give details about the plan, which has been in the pipeline for about a year to stop the flow of extremists in either direction of the 900-kilometre (560-mile) border. The fence is meant to halt the infiltration of Saudi militants to join compatriots and other foreign Sunni fighters taking part in the anti-US insurgency in war-torn Iraq. It is also meant to prevent the infiltration of battle-hardened militants to beef up the ranks of suspected Al-Qaeda operatives.” [View article]

Syrian Blast ‘Linked to Chemical Arms’ (Cairo, Egypt, Middle East Times) “Iranian engineers were among those killed in a blast at a secret Syrian military installation two months ago, defense group Jane’s said, claiming the base was being used to develop chemical weapons,” according to Agence France-Presse. “The July 26 explosion in Aleppo, northern Syria, was reported at the time. The official Sana news agency said 15 Syrian military personnel were killed and 50 people were injured, most of them slightly from flying glass. The agency said only that ‘very explosive products’ blew up after fire broke out at the facility, and that the blaze was not an act of sabotage. But in the September 26 edition of Jane’s Defence Weekly, Syrian defense sources were quoted as saying the explosion happened during tests to weaponize a Scud C missile with mustard gas, which is banned under international law.” [View article]

Converts to Islam Move Up in Cells (Washington Post) “Religious converts are playing an increasingly influential role in Islamic militant networks, having transformed themselves in recent years from curiosities to key players in terrorist cells in Europe, according to counterterrorism officials and analysts,” reports the Washington Post. “… Religious converts are sometimes more prone to radicalization because of their zeal to prove their newfound faith, analysts said. They are also less likely to attract police scrutiny in Europe, where investigators often rely on outdated demographic profiles in terrorism cases.… In Germany, government officials estimated that 4,000 people converted to Islam last year, compared with an annual average of 300 in the late 1990s. Less than 1 percent of Germany’s 3.3 million Muslims are converts.… The trend is not limited to Europe. In Florida, U.S. citizen and convert Jose Padilla was convicted last month on conspiracy charges for participating in an al-Qaeda support cell.” (See the August 17 newsletter.) “In March, David M. Hicks, an Australian convert, became the first prisoner at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be convicted on terrorism charges.” (See the March 30 newsletter.) [View article]

British-Born Muslim Guilty of Terror Charges (London Telegraph) “Mohammed Atif Siddique, 21, from Alva, Clackmannanshire [Scotland], provided training material on bomb making and threatened to become a suicide bomber,” reports the London Telegraph. “A jury at the High Court in Glasgow took more than eight hours to convict him of possessing and distributing a range of terrorist material via websites and providing instructional material about guns and explosives over the internet.” [View article]

Canadian Universities Resist U.S. Data Grab (Toronto Globe and Mail) “Some [Canadian] provinces have passed legislation designed to protect private information from sweeping powers outlined in the U.S. Patriot Act, which compels American companies to turn over virtually any information that the U.S. government requests,” reports the Canadian Press. Canadian “universities have had to spend money switching to computer servers strictly on Canadian soil, and have changed their relationships with online tools that detect plagiarism or help with research. They have also prevented professors from carrying laptops containing student information across the border.” [View article]

Spain Tries New Approach to Counter Illegal Immigration (Malaysia Sun) Conventional wisdom says that “illegal immigration can best be stemmed by promoting legal immigration and development in poorer regions” and “Spain is trying to pass from word to deed, reforming its immigration policy in a way that has won praise from experts,” reports the Indo-Asian News Service. Spain’s plan is “to strengthen local entrepreneurial structures and to qualify Africans for the Spanish labour market. About 1,000 people are to be trained annually in nine countries.” Spain “has signed agreements with several [African] countries, pledging financial aid, training and legal emigration in exchange for cooperation against illegal emigration and readmitting illegals” and “has opened, or plans to open, embassies, other diplomatic representations or cooperation offices in more than 10 [African] countries.” [View article]

EU Names New Low-Profile Counterterror Chief (Reuters AlertNet) “The European Union named Belgian technocrat Gilles de Kerchove its new counter-terrorism coordinator on Wednesday in a move to make the politically sensitive role less high profile,” reports Reuters. “The post was created with fanfare as an urgent response to the Madrid train bombings of March 2004, when radical Islamists killed 191 people. International rights groups have criticised what they see as the EU’s shortcomings in protecting human rights while fighting terrorism. The first holder of the post, Dutch liberal politician Gijs de Vries, stepped down in March. Diplomats said his powers had proved limited given resistance from some national security chiefs who resented him crossing their turf.” [View article]

Disease Ravages Chinese Pig Population (Washington Post) “Chinese officials have been tracking a mysterious illness in pigs since summer 2006, when more than 2 million pigs fell ill and 400,000 of them died,” reports the Washington Post. This year China confirmed “that blue ear pig disease was the cause.” China is moving to stop the epidemic “by quarantining and slaughtering the affected pigs.” (See the Stats of the Week.) The “reproductive and respiratory illness … is highly fatal in pigs but … so far does not seem to pose danger to humans.” [View article]

Ashdod, Israel, Becomes 54th CSI Port Ashdod is the 54th operational port (see the March 30 newsletter) in the Container Security Initiative, which screens high-risk shipments before they depart for the United States. [View press release] [View Focus on CSI]

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National News

Legal Circumstances Aid Expansion of Eavesdropping Powers (Government Computer News) “A combination of technological and legal circumstances [is] preserving and even expanding the Justice Department’s eavesdropping powers despite a recent court ruling that undercuts the government’s wiretapping authority granted by the Patriot Act,” reports Government Computer News. (See last week’s newsletter.) “… but four other federal laws also grant secret-eavesdropping powers to the FBI and the Justice Department.” Authority to use National Security Letters is granted by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the National Security Act, and the Right to Financial Privacy Act. “The FBI is working to build an automated system to track its National Security Letter wiretap cases in a bid to eliminate cumbersome and error-prone manual entry of data about the eavesdropping projects.” [View article]

Warrantless Wiretaps No Longer Used, Says McConnell (New York Times) “The National Security Agency has not conducted wiretapping without warrants on the telephones of any Americans since at least February,” Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence, “told Congress on Tuesday,” according to the New York Times. McConnell “told the House Judiciary Committee that since he took office that month, the government has conducted electronic surveillance only after seeking court-approved warrants.” [View article]

Getting Smart IDs to First Responders (Government Computer News) “A group of smart-card technology companies have formed a consortium” (Tiers of Trust; see the Website of the Week) “to put affordable smart identification cards into the hands of first responders at the state and local levels,” reports Government Computer News. “The companies will provide hardware, software and services free or at steep discounts to cut the cost of deploying interoperable cards by as much as 75 percent.… The program is open to first-responder organizations such as law enforcement, fire, hazmat, rescue and public health agencies in the United States and its territories, in addition to private-sector utilities, communications and transportation companies that operate critical infrastructure. Organizations should register for the program at www.TiersofTrust.com by Dec. 31. Priority will be given to the first 500 organizations to register.” [View article]

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United Nations News

UN Calls on Countries to Better Safeguard Nuclear Materials On Monday, Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called on all countries to ratify an international agreement strengthening the protection of nuclear materials. “Out of 128 States Parties, only 11 so far have accepted the amendment” to the International Convention on the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. The Amendment on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material seeks to strengthen safeguards to prevent nuclear and radioactive materials from falling into terrorists’ hands. [View press release] [View transcript]

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DHS News

DHS Releases National Preparedness Guidelines The Homeland Security Department last week published the National Preparedness Guidelines, which “establish a vision for national preparedness and provide a systematic approach for prioritizing preparedness efforts across the Nation,” and the Target Capabilities List, “which describes the collective national capabilities required to prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from terrorist attacks, major disasters and other emergencies.” [View press release] [View Guidelines (560 KB PDF)]

Chertoff vs. New York Times on Leadership and Bureaucracy In a September 13 editorial, the New York Times criticized the Homeland Security Department for “claiming the coordinator’s role” in national emergencies for the Secretary of Homeland Security rather than designating the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who is subordinate to the secretary. It also said that the new national response framework “threatens to compound bureaucratic inertia by creating 15 regional disaster areas with separate operational and strategic plans.” But “the Secretary of Homeland Security has the legal authority to coordinate federal domestic emergency response,” said Chertoff, and “What we are doing is creating 15 different nationwide plans to deal with 15 very different types of disaster scenarios.” [View Times editorial] [View Chertoff blog]

FEMA Tests a New Alert System (Federal Computer Week) “The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Sandia National Laboratories … began small-scale implementations of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) in several Gulf Coast states in August … and other small-scale implementations [are] planned for next year,” reports Federal Computer Week. The emergency alert system “now operates through a cascade arrangement, in which messages are sent to a single, primary point. Then local authorities pick up those messages and retransmit them. Other authorities then pick up the messages, transmit them and so on. By contrast, IPAWS messages can be broadcast to all recipients simultaneously. IPAWS enables officials to send messages to various Internet-connected devices, including personal digital assistants [and] cell phones.” [View article]

RFID Delays DHS Pass Card (Government Computer News) “The Homeland Security Department’s proposed People Access Security Services cards, or Pass cards, are intended to serve as a low-cost alternative to passports to meet the requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative,” reports Government Computer News. “… the Pass cards are to have Generation 2 Radio Frequency Identification tags,” which “were applied to identification documents for the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology run by DHS. [Homeland Security Secretary Michael] Chertoff declared those tests a failure in February 2007.” Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, told Washington Technology that DHS was unlikely to meet next summer’s implementation deadline for the Pass card. [View article]

DHS Awards More Grants for Nuclear Detection in the Southeast The Homeland Security Department last week awarded $3.7 million in funds and non-monetary support to Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia to deploy radiation detection systems at Interstate Highway weigh stations throughout the Southeast to detect and interdict illicit nuclear and radiological materials. [View press release]

DHS Adopts 11 Standards for Emergency Responders The Homeland Security Department has adopted 11 National Fire Protection Association standards for emergency responders. DHS previously adopted 14 of the association’s standards, which remain in use. [View press release]

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Other Federal News

Defense Dept. and DHS Fail Audits (MSNBC) “Ten years after Congress ordered federal agencies to have outside auditors review their books, neither the Defense Department nor the newer Department of Homeland Security has met even basic accounting requirements, leaving them vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. An Associated Press review shows that … The entire Homeland Security Department, with a $35 billion budget this fiscal year, passed its first audit in 2003 with strong stipulations but has failed every one since. And the Defense Department, with a $460 billion budget this fiscal year, has never even come close to passing.” The audits were conducted by the Government Accountability Office. [View article]

Energy Dept. Says Radiation Sensor Project Is Plagued by Mismanagement (Government Executive) “After $30 million in taxpayer spending, work on a government project developing high-tech sensors to detect radiation at ports or border crossings is mired in mismanagement with no clear way forward,” an “audit by the Energy Department’s inspector general” said on Monday, according to the Associated Press. “No work has been done on [the project] since August 2006, after the money ran out.” And a Government Accountability Office report this week expressed doubts about the efficacy of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office’s testing of radiation detectors. (See the March 16 newsletter.) [View article] [View GAO report]

Nuclear Commission Publishes Reactor Security Report The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has made available to the public an unclassified version of an annual report to Congress outlining the previous year’s security inspection program. The report covers the security inspection program, including force-on-force exercises for commercial power reactors and certain fuel cycle facilities for calendar year 2006. [View press release] [View report]

Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding Meets Insurance Industry Leaders Donald Powell, the president’s top official for Gulf Coast rebuilding, on Wednesday briefed executives of the nation’s leading property insurers about progress on the Gulf Coast. Representatives of nine major national property insurance companies participated in the meeting held in Washington, DC. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave a briefing on the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force’s Risk and Reliability Report and the task force’s risk assessment model, which characterizes current and future annual flood risk in the area. [View press release]

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State and Local News

Problems Plague ‘Virtual Fence’ (Phoenix Arizona Republic) “Because of a continuing software glitch, the first high-tech ‘virtual fence’ at the nation’s borders remains unused, three months after its scheduled debut,” reports the Associated Press. “Nine 98-foot towers laden with radar, sensors and sophisticated cameras have been built across 28 miles close to the Arizona-Mexico border near Sasabe, southwest of Tucson, in an area heavily trafficked by illegal immigrant and drug smugglers. The towers, each a few miles apart, are intended to deter or detect border-crossers and potential terrorists and to enhance the ability of Border Patrol agents to catch them.” [View article]

Utah Health Workers Test Pandemic Response (Salt Lake Tribune) “Utah’s public health system” this week tested “its ability to respond to a pandemic influenza outbreak during a three-day, statewide exercise that began Tuesday,” reports the Salt Lake Tribune. “The Statewide Public Health Emergency Response Exercise, or SPHERE, [included] participants from federal, state, local and tribal governments, the health care industry, the military, volunteer groups and the community.” [View article]

TSA Project in Missouri Assesses Highway Security (Metro Magazine) A just-completed 12-month Corporate Security Review in Missouri by the Transportation Security Administration “will help the agency assess and improve the security status of the nation’s highway and motor carrier systems,” reports Metro Magazine. The review gathered “information on security practices, [identified] threats and vulnerabilities, and [promoted] awareness among motor carriers.… Representatives from more than 2,000 carriers were interviewed.” [View article]

Photo courtesy of Steve Dunham

Some 9/11 Families Settle Lawsuit (MSNBC) “The families of 14 victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks reached a settlement Monday that avoids the prospect of a painful trial that would have forced them to revisit the horrors of Sept. 11, 2001,” reports the Associated Press. “The cases that were resolved represent only part of the lawsuits scheduled to go to trial on behalf of the people who opted out of the Sept. 11 victims compensation fund. The trial for the other families is scheduled to begin next Monday.… Those who accepted money from the fund had to agree not to sue the airlines, security companies, p*** manufacturers and airport owners. Those who didn’t accept payment maintained their right to sue.” [View article]

Iran’s President Barred From Ground Zero (New York Times) Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asked to “be permitted to visit ground zero when he attends the opening of the United Nations General Assembly next week,” reports the New York Times. His request “to lay a wreath at the former site of the World Trade Center” was rejected because of construction at the site and concerns about security. [View article]

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Private-Sector News

Chiquita Fined for Colombia Payments (Los Angeles Times) “A federal judge on Monday accepted a plea deal that includes a $25-million fine from Chiquita Brands International Inc. over ‘protection’ payments it made to a Colombian paramilitary group designated a terrorist organization by the” United States, reports the Los Angeles Times. (See last week’s newsletter.) “In the agreement, the Cincinnati-based banana company admitted paying the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia [or AUC] $1.7 million from 1997 to 2004.… The plea agreement … includes a five-year probation period.” Chiquita’s “fine is ‘the largest criminal penalty ever imposed under the global terrorism sanctions regulations,’ said [a] Justice Department spokesman.” [View article]

Telecoms Move to Ban Lawsuits Over Giving Data to Govt. (Newsweek) “The nation’s biggest telecommunications companies, working closely with the White House, have mounted a secretive lobbying campaign to get Congress to quickly approve a measure wiping out all private lawsuits against them for assisting the U.S. intelligence community’s warrantless surveillance programs,” reports Newsweek. [View article]

Local Businesses Must Understand Federal Procurement (Federal Computer Week) “The biggest problem with post-Hurricane Katrina emergency procurements is that few local companies understand how federal procurement works, Tina Burnette, acquisitions director at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has said,” according to Federal Computer Week. “… She said federal acquisitions laws are so complicated that large companies sometimes hire consultants to teach acquisitions employees how … they work. Adding to the confusion, a number of new acquisitions regulations were introduced for” emergencies after the hurricane, “and one stipulates that disaster relief funds be used to hire local companies.” [View article]

IBM Gets TSA IT Contract The Transportation Security Administration has awarded its information technology and software services contract to IBM Global Business Services. The five-year contract has an initial award amount of $98.5 million and brings all the TSA’s software application development under IBM’s management. [View press release]

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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. (October 21-26, 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]

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New Upcoming Events (After four weeks, new events will be moved to the Upcoming Events page) 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] Homeland Security and Canada-U.S. Border Trade: Implications for Public Policy and Business Strategy (October 25-26; Windsor, Ontario) The conference will address American and Canadian perspectives regarding homeland security as it relates to Canada-U.S. border trade, review existing efforts to keep the border closed to terrorists and open for trade, and seek to identify economically and politically feasible public policy and private-sector strategies to achieve a viable and sustainable balance between homeland security and economic security for both nations. [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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