| Behind the Lines for Friday, Oct. 1, 2010 — 3 P.M. Make it so, No. 1: "Airport brass will now review procedures so that next time someone walks in with an assault rifle, folks will know what to do," San Jose securicrat says . . . Bad protocol: Chicago CBP apologizes for quizzing India's arriving Civil Aviation Minister after his name and birthdate ring watchlist bell . . . Oh, really: War on terrorism could become a lucrative business for both companies and mercenaries, Qatar's emir warns. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- After two heavily armed, black-clad Laurence Livermore Lab security guards strolled into San Jose’s airport unquestioned last weekend to meet an arrival, “airport brass will now review procedures so that next time someone walks in with an assault rifle, folks will know what to do,” the Mercury News’ Patty Fisher reports. DHS has apologized to Indian Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who was questioned by Chicago airport CBP agents Monday after his name and birthdate rang a watchlist bell, The Press Trust of India relates. Feds: Congress acted on a host of homeland security bills this week as lawmakers scrambled to adjourn for up to six weeks to hit the hustings, Homeland Security Today’s Mickey McCarter leads. The Senate staged a hearing Wednesday on Scotland’s “compassionate release” of the cancer-stricken convicted Lockerbie bomber, The Wall Street Journal’s Paul Sonne spotlights — while The New York Times’ Benjamin Weiser sees a federal prosecutor’s court submission claiming that after setting his car bomb, the would-be Times Square bomber returned home to Connecticut and contacted the Taliban via computer, and The Associated Press’ Asif Shahzad sees a Pakistani official detained for “purportedly playing an important role” in that plot. Homies: Fed up with complaints about the Federal Protective Service, the Senate homeland panel unanimously approved legislation Wednesday to strengthen the DHS agency charged with protecting 9,000 federal buildings, The Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe recounts. Two Senate homeland overseers have introduced an Aviation Security Innovation and Reform Act designed to, inter alia, boost TSA training as well as threat info sharing, WGMD 92.7 FM News notes. Devonia Smith accuses DHS’s Janet Napolitano in The Examiner of “rambling” and “contradicting herself” when asked on FOX News if the United States is included in a now-questioned Euro-terror alert. Port Angeles (Wash.)’s Fraternal Order of Eagles has agreed to sell its landmark lodge to DHS for $1.7 million, The Peninsula Daily News notes. As goes Ohio, so goes S.F.: Ohio Homeland Security has been green-lighted for a $2 million camera integration project linking security cameras across the state to a central site, Columbus’ WBNS 10 News notes. Ohio’s counterterrorism nerve center, meantime, has quadrupled in size, “a move officials said should help sniff out potential acts of terrorism before they occur,” The Columbus Dispatch details. Bay Area human rightsers decry a San Francisco P.D. decision to hire 40 new Terrorist Liaison Officers, Golden Gate [X]press informs. New York’s 4th Judicial District wants Fulton County supervisors to increase security for judges and other court officers working at the County Office Building, The Gloversville Leader-Herald relates. A new federal lawsuit has been filed against IBM, the original contractor for the Chicago P.D.’s disastrous Project Shield counterterror initiative, the Sun-Times says. Chasing the dime: “Qatar’s Emir has voiced concerns that the war on terrorism could become a lucrative business for both companies and mercenaries,” Gulf News leads. “Big-ticket items are where the money is, irrespective of what is effective in undermining threats,” Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., writes in a Huffington Post op-ed arguing that defense industry priorities stymie winning strategies against Afghanistan’s Taliban. Shell Oil paid the state-owned Iranian oil company at least $1.5 billion for crude oil this summer, “increasing its business with Tehran as the international community implemented some of the toughest sanctions yet,” The Guardian spotlights. “What’s the chance that your organization could be hit with a disaster that would bring down the business for an extended period?” The Formtek Blog asks and answers — while Offshore sees the founders of Rubicon Response Ltd. establishing Altor Risk Group, “specializing in risk control, emergency response, crisis management, and business continuity.” Bugs ‘n bombs: Lefty documentarian Michael Moore’ “latest fatuousness [is] a mindless contention, in support of a proposed mosque near Ground Zero, that fast food kills more people than died there from terrorism,” The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle editorially eviscerates. “Four K-State Veterinary Medicine students spent the summer equipping themselves with the skills needed to . . . defend against agro-terrorism,” The Kansas State Collegian profiles. Searches of vehicles crossing into Mexico are yielding few weapons in what CBP concedes is a frustrating effort to slow the flow of guns to violent cartels, USA Today tells. The National Nuclear Security Administration says detection equipment is now operational at Spain’s Port of Valencia to detect illicit shipments of radioactive materials, United Press International informs. Close air support: Travelers with a preferred or elite flight designation will be able to get through Jacksonville’s airport security faster starting today, the Business Journal relates. Airport security officials honored a K9 officer serving with the Jasper County (Mo.) Sheriff’s Department for his willingness to help with safety issues at the Joplin Regional Airport, The Joplin Globe relates. To enhance air travel security, the Australian government has introduced legislation laying down tougher penalties for aviation-related crimes, Channel Six News notes — as Bernama sees Malaysia’s Transport Ministry ordering an immediate security crackdown at all cargo complexes, Free Commercial Zones and airport terminals. Highway to hell: In their second dragnet of the week, TSA agents and local cops pulled truckers off I-20 yesterday, searching them at a weigh station, “to catch and deter terrorists and criminals, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recounts. CBP agents are “irradiating American truck drivers at internal checkpoints with mobile scanners that shoot dangerous X-rays through both vehicles and passengers,” Prison Planet relatedly alleges. Chicago police, again, want to install 200 cameras along 1,200 miles of interstate highways to snap photos of license plates of potential drug traffickers, gun runners and money launders driving up from Mexico, SecurityInfoWatch relates. Courts and rights: Lawyers representing four men on trial for an alleged plot to bomb Bronx synagogues rested their case yesterday after presenting only two witnesses, Bloomberg relates — while the Times spotlights 13 grueling days of testimony by the prosecution’s star witness, an FBI informant. A Chicago man arrested last month for allegedly planning to travel to Somalia to wage jihad was indicted yesterday, the Sun-Times tells. Federal prosecutors want a California judge to drop charges against an Afghan man whose brother-in-law was Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, the Los Angeles Times relates. Election of a supposedly fanatically gun-grabbing President Obama served as a “catalyst” for an Oregon father and son to plant a bomb and plan a bank robbery, The Oregonian hears prosecutors alleging at the start of their trial. Over there: Citing lack of evidence, a Spanish court has released a U.S. citizen of Algerian origin detained on suspicion of financing al Qaeda’s North African arm, Expatica explains — as UPI sees that group yesterday releasing a short video of seven French workers abducted in Niger last month. “It’s right there in the team handbook for the Delhi Commonwealth Games — don’t wear your Canadian team uniform anywhere outside an official venue,” The Toronto Star takes note. Games securicrats, meantime, “have deployed langur monkeys at venues to scare off common Indian bonnet monkeys, which have been known to attack humans,” TVNZ adds. Kulture Kanyon: “News that Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris has changed her identity and gone into hiding in the wake of death threats and a fatwa from al Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki continues to generate outrage,” IPT News updates. “Ther’s nothing pretty about depicting the murders of famous political figures, but Brazilian artist Gil Vicente is attempting to find the art in assassination,” The Atlantic Wire spotlights. Timothy Green Beckley’s shocking expose, “Curse of the Men in Black: Return of the UFO Terrorists” (Global Communications) is “a welcome and timely addition to the lore on the subject” of alien abductions, UFO Digest judges. After a year at the drawing boards, an Indonesian group has launched a 130-page graphic novel aimed at young men seen as potential targets for Islamist radicalization, The Jakarta Globe reports. The Pentagon having banned PX sales of “Medal of Honor” (Electronic Arts) — a brand-new video game that lets a player pretend to be a Taliban fighter “shooting” U.S. troops — “the publisher is ready to go on the offensive,” CNBC says. Screening Room: “Movies and TV shows overflow with handy tips for keeping it together when everything falls apart,” and one thing they prove is that after nuclear or viral attack, “the real problem won’t be smoldering ruins — it’s the hell that is other people. And zombies,” Wired Magazine details. The Newt Gingrich doc “America At Risk” (Citizens United) “clearly reveals the dangers that radical Islam still presents to American security and safety,” an Illinois Review leads. Warner Bros. has green-lighted an epic disaster flick, “Expulsion,” the spec script for which has “an act of terror destroying the Earth, leaving a handful of human survivors to escape to a planet beyond our solar system,” io9 informs. “Following the violent abduction of an ex-NSA cyberterrorism expert in the middle of downtown Waikiki, Five-0 must race to prevent a breach of national security,” Fused Film summarizes, in re: the second episode of CBS’s “Hawaii Five-0” revival. Friendly Fire: “A nuclear explosion rocked Tehran this morning, and sources in the Iranian capital blame a failed missile test for the destruction,” The Spoof spoofs. “At 5:00 a.m. CDT, an explosion and mushroom cloud were reported over the city. Speculation was rife that Israel or the United States launched a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the rogue nation over its refusal to abandon its nuclear ambitions. But the latest reports out of the Iranian capital indicate the explosion was the results a failed missile test by the Iranian military. Anonymous sources said the Iranians were testing their latest suicide nuclear ballistic missile. It has been reported that the martyrs attached to the side of the missile caused it to veer off course and decimate the capital. Eyewitness reported hearing someone screaming ‘Allah Akbar’ seconds before the explosion.” See, also, in The Onion: “Spy Drone Struggling To Assimilate Back Into Civilian Life.” |
CQ Behind the Lines
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