| Behind the Lines for Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010 — 3 P.M. Bad G-man, no donut: FBI gave "inaccurate info" when claiming a possible terrorism link to justify surveilling an anti-war rally in Pittsburgh, IG rules . . . Valet disservice: Moving parked cars to safeguard Obama speech, Secret Service makes citizen's vehicle disappear for 24 anxious hours . . . Try and try again: 80-year-old Aussie grandmom carries 12-inch screwdriver through Melbourne airport security twice. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- The FBI gave inaccurate info to Congress when it claimed a possible terror link to justify surveiling a Pittsburgh anti-war rally, The Associated Press’ Pete Yost sees a Justice IG report on the bureau’s scrutiny of domestic activist groups charging. E-mail obtained by The Washington Post also detail how FBI counterterrorists did not follow their own civil liberties safeguards in obtaining phone records, John Solomon and Carrie Johnson relate. Feds: Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., fretted yesterday that only another terrorist attack will revive efforts to enact a sustainable legal framework to fight terrorism, the Post’s Peter Finn reports. In a sweeping operation aimed at uncovering “straw buyers” blamed for funneling high-powered guns to Mexican drug cartels, ATF agents have arrested dozens of Arizonans and seized an arsenal of weapons, The Arizona Republic’s J.J. Hensley relates. Texas Gov. Rick Perry yesterday accused DHS’s Janet Napolitano of being “arrogant” and her boss, President Obama, of being indifferent to border security, The Dallas Morning News’ Todd J. Gilman recounts. Homies: After the Secret Service moved a car Saturday afternoon to better safeguard Obama during a D.C. convention center address, the vehicle was lost for 24 anxious hours, Shankar Vendantam reports in, again, the Post. Despite continuing criticism, TSA will be deploying new full-body scanners at eight more airports nationwide, ABC News’ Timothy Fleming leads. (The Electronic Privacy Information Center has posted an online form for travelers to report any problems they have with the use of full-body scanners at airports, The Seattle Times’ Carol Pucci adds.) Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., scolded then-DHS chief Michael Chertoff in 2006 over CBP’s questioning at JFK of “a Muslim scholar whose nonprofits have been linked to financing terrorism,” The New York Post’s Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein contend. State and local: Better addressing homeland security shortfalls “must include giving state and local governments a better seat at the national policymaking table,” a Heritage Backgrounder leads. Boasting two dozen civilian experts, a unique NYPD intel team serves as “ the department’s terrorism reference arm: available on demand to explain Islamic law or Pakistani politics to detectives in the field,” The New York Times spotlights. Audits pinpointing overspending by an ex-chief of Laurel County (Ky.)’s Division of Public Safety have been sent to the FBI and DHS for scrutiny, The Corbin Times-Tribune tells. Is Denver one of the places to watch on the homegrown terrorism radar?” an Examiner contributor asks and answers. “New York State says it doesn’t spy on gas drilling protesters,” Binghamton’s WICZ 40 News leads, in re: the to-do over Pennsylvania’s overzealous terror-alerting contractor. Bid-ness: “Over the past several years, entities closely linked to the private security firm Blackwater have provided intelligence, training and security services to U.S. and foreign governments as well as several multinational corporations,” The Nation leads. General Dynamics has won a $4.7 million TSA contract to “integrate airport screening equipment,” BusinessWeek reports — as MarketWatch relays word that DHS is being sued by the American Small Business League for refusing to release subcontracting data on a Lockheed Martin deal. In a protectionist lurch, the House last week passed two different bills directing Congress and DHS to buy only U.S.-made goods, International Business Times tells. Business opportunities in post-Mumbai-terror-attack India for homeland security companies over the next few years will be worth nearly $1.7 trillion, The Washington Post cites one expert. Bugs ‘n bombs: An FBI sting operation yesterday netted a man of Lebanese descent for allegedly placing what he believed to be explosives near Chicago’s Wrigley Field and talking about poisoning Lake Michigan, the Tribune tells. “A new multimillion-dollar government contract . . . indicates the threat of an anthrax outbreak as a result of bioterrorism remains a major priority for the Obama administration,” United Press International leads — as the Escondido, Calif., North County Times sees Trius Therapeutics winning a $29.5 million Pentagon contract “to find new antibiotics against microbes that may be used in bioterrorism.” For those responsible to combat bioterror, plague is among the highest priorities, Science Blog says. Close air support: As an eco-friendly gesture, travelers reaching Portland, Ore., checkpoints with water bottles are allowed to dump the liquid but can keep the container, The Detroit News surveys. “An 80-year-old grandmother has shown up Melbourne airport’s multimillion-dollar security-screening operation by carrying a 33cm [12 inch] screwdriver onto a plane on two recent flights,” The Herald Sun says. Vehicles with Hezbollah gunmen inside reportedly welcomed an incoming VIP on the Beirut airport tarmac “without a previous permit from the foreign ministry, in what was described as ‘an invasion of the airport,’” NaharNet notes. Egyptian authorities, meantime, arrested the Hamas-run General Security Service’s top man at Cairo’s airport, The Ma’an News Agency mentions. Threat Matrices: “Parents tend to worry more about remote dangers (terrorists) than mundane ones (obesity, football),” The New York Times’ Lisa Belkin suggests — while SecurityInfoWatch relays the precautions taken last week after a “9/11-style” terror threat was mailed to an Ohio day care center. “We’re setting the record straight on . . . the idea that terrorists come into this country to have a baby so the child can be raised and trained overseas to return to the United States many years later as a citizen and commit an act of terror,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper leads. “A proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero is slowly being embraced by some Muslims who initially were indifferent about the plan, partly in response to a sense that their faith is under attack,” AP’s David B. Caruso leads. The U.N. and national governments are ill prepared to tackle the rapidly evolving threats to world security, Agence France-Presse sees a joint U.S.-E.U. report warning. “We must redefine what we think of as ‘ecoterrorism,’ as organized crime is increasingly cashing in on the enormous public subsidies on offer for wind and other green energy projects,” The Winnipeg Free Press’ Peter C. Glover propounds. Talking terror: This year’s 9/11 anniversary “saw quiet commentary on the powerful continuities between the 43rd and 44th presidents when it comes to fighting al Qaeda,” ex-CIA chief Michael V. Hayden comments for CNN. “The homeland security debate about privacy versus liberty focuses almost exclusively on how government erodes privacy rights; less emphasized . . . is the role the private sector plays in privacy intrusions,” Homeland Security Watch’s Christopher Bellavita essays. “In the wake of Koran burnings in the United States, damage to U.S. efforts to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of Muslims could be far reaching,” Harvard’s Joseph Nye says in a CFR interview. What promised in 9/11’s wake to be “a full-fledged traditional war against extremist forces” has evolved into “a series of more guerrilla-style counterattacks,” FOX News’ Greg Palkot ponders. “For the past decade or more, since the 1990s demise of the Communist ‘menace’ and its accompanying gravy train, neocons have turned to terror as their new bogeyman,” Richard Silverstein assails in Eurasia Review. Courts and rights: A New Jersey man jailed for making terrorist threats on an Amtrak train has sued the city of La Junta, Colo., claiming a police sergeant lied in his arrest affidavit, The Denver Post reports. A Marine Corps attorney says his vigorous defense of an Australian terrorism suspect tried at Guantanamo Bay delayed his promotion by three years, The Marine Corps Times tells. “There’s a way to honor both the government’s need for secrecy and plaintiffs’ rights to have their allegations heard,” The Boston Globe editorializes, in re: a recent terror torture case and “state secrets privilege.” Over there: As France braces for a feared terror attack, armed units are conducting stop-and-searches at major hubs, and armed guards are shadowing senior politicos, Newsweek notes — as The Daily Mail sees counterterrorists hunting the female suicide bomber who threatened to blow up the Eiffel Tower. Six North African men arrested by U.K. police Friday on suspicion of plotting against the visiting Pope had all been released without charges by Sunday, The Daily Telegraph updates. Saudi King Abdullah met Sunday with White House counterterror and homeland security czar John O. Brennan to “discuss issues of mutual concern,” Arab News briefs — and yesterday he was in Yemen doing the same, AFP, again, adds. Shish-Shabaab: Displaced Somalians face a food shortage after the al Qaeda-inspired al Shabaab banned aid agencies, sparking human rights condemnations, All Headline News notes — while Reuters hears Kenya’s foreign minister accusing the international community of “neglecting” the terror threat emanating from Somalia, and UPI, again, reports that MI5 boss warning that Britain can expect al Shabaab militants to launch an attack there. Poor conditions have led an unknown number of government troops — who “are in many ways on the front line of the war on terror” — to defect to al Shabaab, or simply sell their guns and run, CNN surveys. Ai Chihuahua! And Culiacan: “In the latest incident of drug-related violence to hit the country, all 111 million citizens of Mexico were killed Monday during a shootout between rival drug cartels,” The Onion reports. “According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the violence was sparked by a botched drug deal involving an estimated 20 kilograms of marijuana, a dispute that led low-level members of the Sinaloa cartel to open fire on local dealers in Culiacan. Within seconds, the gunfire had spread to Chihuahua, Michoacan, Yucatan, and, minutes later, the other 27 Mexican states, leaving every person in Mexico dead. ‘Witnesses reported hearing roughly 357 million gunshots, during which time the Mexican populace was caught in the crossfire and killed,’ DEA administrator Michele Leonhart said, adding that a four-gram bag of cocaine was also recovered by agents. The agency has sealed off the 761,606-square-mile crime scene, which is littered with bullet-riddled bodies and assault rifles, and splattered with blood.” |
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