| Behind the Lines for Monday, Sept. 20, 2010 — 3 P.M. Truly international terrorism: As General Assembly looms, NYPD counterterrorists warn U.N. its HQ is "dangerously exposed to potential terrorist attacks" . . . If I can make it here: DHS's Napolitano views Drudge Report's unflattering "Big Sis" moniker as a sign that "I've made it" . . . Cultural terrorism: LAPD pondering motives of man who rammed Warner Brothers' security gates with trunk full of liquid explosives. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- “As the U.N. hosts scores of world leaders at its annual General Assembly this month, [the NYPD] has repeatedly warned that the U.N. complex on Manhattan’s East side is dangerously exposed to potential terrorist attacks,” FOX News’ George Russell reports. Critics who say the United States has overreacted to the 9/11 attacks by building “an overly expensive and complex anti-terrorism apparatus” are dead wrong, Janet Napolitano tells The Christian Science Monitor’s Dave Cook. Napolitano Complex: The DHS chief also informed reporters attending Friday’s regular Monitor breakfast that “homegrown” terrorism is a “growing phenomenon” more difficult to thwart than larger, more complex foreign operations, Bloomberg’s Jeff Bliss adds. Napolitano further “left little doubt that Texas Gov. Rick Perry — rebuffed repeatedly in his demands for more National Guard along the border — can forget about getting more troops,” The Dallas Morning News’ Todd J. Gillman recounts. Finally, USA Today’s David Jackson relates, the ex-Arizona governor views the “Big Sis” moniker with which The Drudge Report has saddled her as a sign that “I’ve made it.” Feds: An ex-Los Alamos National Lab scientist and his wife are charged with trying to sell nuclear weapons secrets to a person they believed was a Venezuelan government official, Reuters hears Justice announcing. A U.S. appeals court will likely overturn a lower court ruling releasing a high-profile Guantanamo detainee because Justice can’t prove suspicions he would renew al Qaeda links, The Washington Post’s Spencer S. Hsu reports. The mother of a Maryland man shot and wounded by Capitol Police early Friday, prompting street closures during the start of the morning rush, tells WUSA 9 News’ Surae Chinn her son was seeking “suicide by cop.” Keystone Kwagmire: “The former Special Forces colonel who has headed Pennsylvania’s Office of Homeland Security for four years and who now finds himself at the center of a firestorm over an anti-terrorism contract is missing in action,” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette updates — and check out The Stir for snarky commentary. Gov. Ed Rendell should fire his homeland security director for . . . egregious errors of judgment that have embarrassed the state,” The Altoona Mirror demands. A Pennsylvania Senate hearing later this month will look into the Israeli company at the eye of the storm, The York Dispatch relays — while The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quotes a company exec terming critics, including Gov. Rendell, “regrettably misinformed.” State and local: “The people of Thomson want the terrorists. They are not afraid,” NBC Chicago leads in a report on an Illinois town’s hopes against hope that its idle prison might yet house Guantanamo detainees. A Cookeville, Tenn., physician is among 28 responders across the state recognized by the Office of Homeland Security, the Herald-Citizen relates — while The Yuma Sun sees an Arizona state legislator being tapped to sit on the powerful Joint Legislative Committee on Homeland Security. Alabama law enforcement agencies, meantime, joined together last week in a multi-jurisdictional homeland security exercise, forming a convoy that traveled to Montgomery with emergency response equipment, The Cullman Times relays. The Indianapolis P.D.’s Criminal Intelligence unit has been shifted under the umbrella of the city’s Division of Homeland Security, WISH 8 News notes. Bugs ‘n bombs: Police are pondering the motives of a man who drove his car through the Warner Brothers’ studio security gates with a trunkful of liquid explosives, Los Angeles’ ABC 7 News reports. A New Jersey man was handed four years supervised probation for lying about his credentials to work as an explosives expert at Fort Dix, The Newark Star-Ledger relates. Police remain puzzled by an Evanston park blast that blew the head off of a 21-year-old man, prompting evacuation of area residents and closure of a nearby school, The Chicago Sun-Times tells. Lansing (Mich.)’s Emergent BioSolutions is expected to create 70 jobs with a $51 million HHS contract to make an anthrax vaccine, WLNS 6 News notes. “Since 9/11, the now-turned-parasitic U.S. bioterror defense industry, always sucking on taxpayer dollars, has worked hard to convince that [ricin] is a horrible threat in the hands of terrorists. It’s not,” a SitRep essay assails. It’s a gas, gas, gas: “It is impractical to relocate all gas transmission lines away from residential developments. But much can be done to reduce the annual toll of a dozen or more lives lost to pipeline exploions in this country,” The Boston Globe editorializes — while FOX News sees the Obama administration’s call for tighter federal oversight of oil and gas pipelines “raising alarms about the safety of the nation’s aging infrastructure.” A main gas pipeline in Yemen was twice threatened by terrorist bombs last week, The Saba News Agency says — while Oil and Gas Insight suggests that the attacks cloud Yemen’s liquid natural gas prospects. The weekend before last, additionally, a gas pipeline in Russia’s fractious Caucasus region was damaged in a terrorist attempt to blow up an armored vehicle, Itar-Tass tells. Close air support: British bad boy-comic actor Russell Brand was busted at LAX after getting into a scuffle with paparazzi in the screening queue, Us Magazine mentions. “Lambert Airport has been awarded more than $42 million for a new baggage screening system that will include new technology aimed at detecting and disrupting threats of terrorism,” St. Louis’s FOX 2 News leads — while Eyewitness News proclaims: “The future of airport security finally made its way to Memphis International Airport,” by which it means full-body scanning. For the second time in a month, laser beams were reportedly pointed at airplanes over Rhode Island, CW56 News notes. The Canadian government has quietly tightened air security rules to make it absolutely clear that airlines must check a passenger’s “entire face” before they board a plane, The Toronto Globe and Mail recounts. Coming and going: DHS is developing forensic cameras that could serve as “black boxes” for mass transit with memory chips hardy enough to withstand bombings, fires or floods, National Defense notes. Chicago Police shot and killed an armed man at a South Side elevated Red Line station, temporarily disrupting service early Saturday morning, the Tribune tells. Puerto Rican officials are issuing millions of new birth certificates after a rash of ID thefts, some involving documents stolen from school children and later sold to illegal immigrants in the United States, Reuters reports. As part of a larger anti-gang initiative, an ICE-led task force has arrested 12 Mexican nationals with ties to a violent street gang in California, The Washington Times spotlights. Courts and rights: A New York court last week acquitted a Saudi bizman of terror-funding charges while ruling on a case filed against him by 9/11 victims, Arab News notes — while Bloomberg sees two men accused of providing money and computer assistance to al Qaeda pleading not guilty to three new criminal counts last week. Dole Food Co. says a Los Angeles judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing it of paying off terror-listed far-right Colombian militias that killed thousands, The Associated Press relates. The only person convicted in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people off of Ireland was found guilty in Canada on Saturday of perjury during the trial, The Winnipeg Free Press reports. Over there: Two unidentified motor scooter gunmen fired on tourists visiting a 16th century mosque in New Delhi, sparking panic and inciting concern two weeks before the Commonwealth Games open in India, All Headline News notes — although The Times of India says police discount any terrorist angle. “Britain is facing a wave of terrorist attacks on two fronts from a new generation of al Qaeda extremists and Irish Republican militants who could strike on the mainland,” The Daily Telegraph hears the MI5 domestic spy chief warning — as Bloomberg sees a visiting Pope Benedict keeping to his U.K. tour schedule after six purportedly threatening contract street cleaners were arrested by counterterror cops. Dutch police at Amsterdam’s airport yesterday arrested a British citizen of Somali origin suspected of terror links, Al Jazeera relates. Qaeda Qorner: “Anti-mosque protests in New York and threats to defile the Koran are playing into the hands of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden who thrives on Islamophobia,” Pakistan’s Dawn assesses at length. Yemen-based jihadi cheerleader Anwar al-Awlaki “may not have the vaulting ambitions of Osama bin Laden to cause massive carnage; but unlike the reclusive al Qaeda leader, he is a clear and present danger,” The Daily Telegraph, again, spotlights. France urged citizens to leave the uranium mining region in Niger, saying al Qaeda’s North African franchise had kidnapped seven foreigners there, The New York Times briefs — while Reuters sees a dozen North African al Qaedaites killed Saturday in fighting with Mauritanian armed forces. (“So how dangerous is this growing group?” Newsweek asks and answers.) An al-Qaeda-tied Taliban commander was killed Friday while plotting to attack a polling station in a northeastern province of Afghanistan, The Long War Journal relates. Thine rod and thine gat, they comfort me: “A new translation of the Bible released this week directly mentions the Second Amendment on eight occasions, and includes a version of Psalm 23 that begins, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,’” The Onion reports. “ Positive early feedback praised the new edition for its clean design, readability, and beautiful rendering of proverbs that condemn the foolish ban on semiautomatic weapons for personal use. "For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you," Deuteronomy 23:14 reads. "Your camp shall be holy, and if that means exercising your constitutional right to purchase a firearm, then that’s your own damn business." The leatherbound book also comes with a handsomely crafted carrying case and a fully loaded, nickel-plated Glock 17 8mm.” |
CQ Behind the Lines
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment