| Behind the Lines for Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010 — 3 P.M. Seal of approval: Al Qaeda now hailing Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, charged in the Fort Hood massacre, as a "trailblazer" in how to attack America . . . Happy anniversary: A year after ICE pledged to improve facilities, services and treatment of non-criminal illegals "many of the promised changes have yet to appear" . . . Maple Leaf ambassador to Sharon Angle: In fact, no 9/11 plotters entered the United States through Canada. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- Al Qaeda now hails Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, charged in the Fort Hood shooting, as a “trailblazer” in attacking the United States, though some analysts view the praise as highlighting the group’s organizational weakness, The Christian Science Monitor’s Patrik Jonsson spotlights. After winning control of the House, “conservatives in Congress should investigate the missed signals, the warnings unheeded in this worst case of domestic terrorism since 9/11,” Townhall’s Ken Blackwell contends, relatedly. An expert civilian task force will review military mental health screening to establish “predictive indicators relating to pending violence,” Danger Room’s Katie Drummond learns. Feds: A recently reported DHS memo warning of Mexican cartel hit teams operating across the U.S. border reflected circumstances that never came to pass, My FOX Phoenix’s Rick D’Amico updates — but see additional insight from Homeland Security Today’s Anthony L. Kimery. A Justice filing in a Tennessee court affirms that Islam is a religion and that construction of a disputed mosque in Murfreesboro cannot be impeded, The Tennessean’s Brian Haas reports. New info on CIA drone strikes contradicts the popular image of highly accurate, intel-rich targeting that effectively disrupts al Qaeda’s plots, Inter Press Service’s Gareth Porter contends. U.S. intel is querying itself about an American conspirator involved in the 2008 Mumbai assault to identify a breakdown in info sharing, Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff informs. Homies: During her first tour of Coast Guard Academy yesterday, DHS’s Janet Napolitano pledged to continue fleet “recapitalization,” The Norwich Bulletin’s James Mosher mentions. Napolitano, now heard intoning a security PSA throughout D.C. Metro stations, “is a federal employee. What was she doing admonishing passengers on a local subway?” The Weekly Standard’s Matthew Continetti complains. A year after a harsh internal report concluded that ICE should improve its facilities and services and better treat non-criminal illegal immigrants, “many of the promised changes have yet to appear,” The New Mexico Independent’s Elise Foley updates — while The Washington Independent details a GAO report blaming DHS and Boeing alike for the SBInet initiative’s decline and fall. State and local: This year’s race for Georgia attorney general — the first since World War II without an incumbent seeking re-election — may hinge less on state law enforcement and more on federal issues like immigration policy, The Athens Banner-Herald relays. Some 300 Kansas National Guardsmen are preparing to deploy again to the Middle East to transport equipment and supplies out of Iraq as part of the U.S. military’s wind-down, The Topeka Capital-Journal recounts. During a 60-day public comment period starting in January, community members may submit views to CBP regarding closure of Vermont’s much-debated Morses Line port of entry, The St. Albans Messenger mentions. Ivory (Watch) Towers: Marian University is launching a new Institute for Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness “to enhance the security posture and readiness of local Wisconsin communities,” The Fond du Lac Reporter leads. A report naming the top 50 most dangerous colleges and universities has caused a major stir in the campus security community, Security Director News notes. Specialists at Tel Aviv University “are challenging what we know about stress, and their study has implications for helping clinicians better treat victims of terrorism,” U.S. News relays. Indiana academic researchers, meantime, have implemented a statistical approach allowing computers to better detect bacterial contamination in food samples, Homeland Security News Wire relates — as The Burlington Free Press sees a University of Vermont faculty member contending that the U.S. power grid isn’t as vulnerable to terrorist sabotage as some fear. Bugs ‘n bombs: U.C. Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium last weekend helped host the fourth annual iteration of what is termed the nation’s largest tactical homeland security exercise, The Daily Californian recounts. NIST researchers contribute to the design of safer building evacuations by releasing large, numerical data sets that track the movement of people on stairs during high-rise evacuationdrills,” HSNW also notes. So as to stockpile the first specialized treatment for smallpox bioterror attacks, SIGA Technologies has won an HHS order for 1.7 million courses of a new antiviral medication, CIDRAP News notes. In last week’s National Security Strategy a biological, chemical, radiological or nuclear attack on England was categorized as only a “Tier 2 threat,” along with organized crime, BioPrepWatch reports. Close air support: A busted TSA screener at Newark’s troubled air hub stole up to $700 every working day, furtively grabbing hundred dollar bills from carry-ons belonging to women flying home to India, the Star-Ledger relates — as The New London (Conn.) Day sees three general aviators who flew their personal aircraft into Groton airport sparking an intense security scramble by wandering too close to a Black Hawk helicopter. The to-do continues over an ExpressJet pilot’s refusal last week to go through the new “advanced imaging” security device at Memphis International, The Atlantic updates — and see The Pipe for the pilot’s own account. Four years after Congress directed the FAA and TSA to put pilot’s photos on biometric-ready ID cards, nothing has been done, The Associated Press reports — while WTHR 13 News sees a Kokomo man busted at Indianapolis’ airport trying to use another man’s name and driver’s license to board. Coming and going: A terror attack on a subway system using bio-agents is an ongoing concern for DHS, which has been studying airflow throughout tunnels in both Boston and Washington, CIO Magazine spotlights. The pending “Toronto Rocket” subway trains will feature, inter alia, “enhanced safety and security components,” Progressive Railroading reports. Canada’s ambassador, meantime, has written Nevada GOP Senate hopeful Sharon Angle disputing her calling the U.S.-Canada border “the most porous border we have” and assuring that no 9/11 attackers entered the United States through Canada, Politerati reports — as Xinhua sees China’s Guangzhou megalopolis planning to run subway, ferry, train and long-distance bus passengers through security checks, “all for the sake of a safer Asian Games.” Courts and rights: A Virginia man pleaded guilty yesterday to terrorist abetting and making threats against the writers of Comedy Central’s “South Park” cartoon show, Agence France-Presse reports. The prosecution of the Fort Hood trigger man “may never reveal his motives — or touch the possibility of a larger terror conspiracy,” The Christian Science Monitor muses. A woman who committed eco-terror arson at Michigan State University and other acts of violent protest has asked a federal appeals court to throw out her long prison sentence, The Detroit Free Press relays. Monday’s convictions of four would-be Bronx synagogue bombers “vindicated the post-9/11 strategy of using an informant to identify individuals deemed likely to engage in terrorism and encourage them up to the point of arrest,” Bloomberg leads. Over there: Venezuela has said it will not agree to extradition of an alleged top militant of the Basque ETA separatist-terrorist group even as Spain moves toward an official request, the Monitor, yet again, mentions. Pakistan’s army urgently needs to tamp down the Taliban there, and a settlement with Afghanistan’s Taliban “would help — especially if it resulted in more effective control of the Afghan side of the border,” a New York Times op-ed urges. Germany’s inflamed public debate about Islam, integration and terrorism “risks serious overheating as politicians compete to make ever tougher statements criticizing Muslims immigrants they accuse of refusing to fit in here,” Reuters reports. Over here: Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade’s assertion that “Not all Muslims are terrorists, all terrorists are Muslim” is both inaccurate and prejudiced, Salon snaps. “From the people who helped bring you the Ground Zero mosque controversy come new allegations of Muslim ‘infiltration’ linked to an organization hired to certify Campbell’s soup,” ABC News spotlights. By referring to FBI searches of people in Chicago and Minneapolis who are suspected to be terror supporters as“fishing expeditions” that trample the rights of the innocent, Muslim rights groups are “relying on reflexive rhetoric that events have shown to be almost wrong,” IPT News insists. The RevolutionMuslim.com website serves as a sort of “gateway drug” for young, disaffected Muslims experimenting with the idea of violent jihad, NPR posits. Holy Wars: “Studies and practical experience have shown that the majority of terrorists are normal people . . . Most terrorists come from stable, middle-class or privileged families,” Global Brief corrects. “One of the lessons of Oman is that one of the best and most cost-effective ways to tame extremism is to promote education for all,” a New York Times columnist, perhaps contradictorily, comments. Eleven wannabe terrorists who made a pilgrimage from Germany to Afghanistan in 2009 “were laid low by diarrhea, moaned about the food, griped about their training, were forced to buy their own weapons and admitted to pining for friends and family,” Der Spiegel informs. “Islam is indeed a totalitarian ideology engaged in an effort of worldwide conquest much like Nazism [save] that Nazism was based on racial affiliation while Islam is based on religious affiliation,” The Canadian Free Press propounds. This just in, from The Onion: “ARLINGTON, Va. — Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted losing $192 million in defense funds Tuesday when he unwittingly purchased a large number of bogus BGM-109 Tomahawk missiles from a disreputable arms dealer known only as ‘Steve.’ ‘When I got the crate open at the office, it turned out the “missiles” were nothing more than old sewer pipes filled with newspapers and capped with construction cones, all painted to look legit,’ Gates said of the transaction that was set up through an undersecretary whose brother-in-law knew a guy looking to unload some long-range strategic weapons. ‘I probably should have known when he tried to sell me a bunch of sunglasses, too.’ Gates confirmed that troops in Afghanistan are scheduled to receive the counterfeit missiles next week.” Read also, in The Onion: “U.S. Government Opens Special 5,000-Acre Area Where Americans Can Go Blow Off Steam.” |
CQ Behind the Lines
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment