CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Tuesday, May 17, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly Courts of last resort: Supremes again decline to judge terror renditions, while International Criminal Court seeks warrant for Qaddafi's arrest . . . Terrorist fire sale: To compensate victims, the Unabomber's personal belongings are being auctioned online this week . . . No harm, no foul: Every year, dozens are arrested at Austin's airport trying to board with a prohibited weapon, but not one case has gone to trial. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- The Supremes have again refused to review the limits of liability involving the secret detention of a suspected terrorist "renditioned" to more torture-friendly lands, CNN's Bill Mears mentions — while The Washington Post's Greg Sargent cites info from CIA chief Leon Panetta undercutting the claim that torture was key to Osama bin Laden's killing. The International Criminal Court in The Hague, meantime, yesterday sought arrest warrants for Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya and family members for crimes against humanity, The New York Times' Marlise Simons relates. Feds: "Some have said [immigration] reform must wait until we meet benchmarks for border security. Yet, we have met and exceeded these benchmarks," Janet Napolitano argues in an op-ed distributed by McClatchy Newspapers.House homeland honcho Peter T. King, R-N.Y., vows "he'll do anything to stop Republicans from cutting the budget from $2.2 billion to $1 billion for DHS," WCBS 880 News' Rich Lamb relates. "It's good to see that asserting something is necessary in the war on terrorism no longer means that Republican legislators are going to lend their automatic support to it," The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf blogs. On ICE: Some states are turning against a mandatory ICE program central to administration immigration policy, The Wall Street Journal's Miriam Jordan surveys. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn "has decided that it is a great idea to release violent, hardcore criminals among the citizens of his own state," Warner Todd Huston scorns for Chicago Now, in re: Illinois' withdrawal from Secure Communities. Since Lexington, Ky., signed onto the jailhouse fingerprint program, 75.6 percent of 41 deportees were convicted of a minor crime or no crime at all, the Herald-Leader's Valarie Honeycutt Spears and Linda J. Johnson relate. "Suggesting that illegal immigrants are not committing more crimes than the general population," fewer than 7 percent of those booked into San Diego County jails were identified as undocumented, The North County Times' Edward Sifuentes recounts. State and local: Although the police chief denies it, the mayor of Slaton, Texas, confirms that DHS agents descended Friday to seize cop computers as part of a broader probe, The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal relates. New Jersey DMV officials "can tell you all about why they're introducing a new digital driver's license with enhanced security features. But what's changed? Well, that's a secret," The Camden Courier-Post leads. Relying largely on DHS grantage, the Roswell (Ga.) City Council is placing an order for a hovercraft to patrol the Chattahoochee River, the Patch reports. County officials are rethinking emergency mass communications after residents complained about the 64,000 telephone calls concerning a missing child that rang throughout Cobb County last Wednesday, The Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal mentions. Bugs 'n bombs: As part of the multi-state Vigilant Guard exercise, thousands of Wisconsin responders "are engaged in massive training drills positing scenarios from cyberattacks to earthquakes," The Appleton Post Crescent recounts. Speaking of which, DHS officials are returning to St. Louis for a May 16-19 disaster exercise involving states straddling the New Madrid fault, KMOV 4 News notes. Hackers who breach and harm critical infrastructure systems would face a mandatory minimum three-year prison sentence if the White House gets its way, Threat Level relates. The DoD has embarked on a multimillion-dollar effort to protect troops from bioterrorism "focused on containing potential outbreaks in areas where pathogens are known to exist," National Defense notes. Bid-ness: To compensate victims, the first of 51 lots of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's personal belongings will be auctioned online tomorrow on Uncle Sam's version of eBay, using "the technology he railed against," the Post reports. More than 200 resort and hotel security officers converged on the Golden Nugget last week to discuss crime, disasters and terrorism, Vegas Inc. informs. "In a perfect example of a big media company looking to capitalize on current events," The Walt Disney Company has trademarked the term "Seal Team 6," Mediabistro mentions — while The New York Times spots Erik Prince, controversial founder of Blackwater Worldwide, being hired to assemble a force of foreign mercenaries in the United Arab Emirates. Close air support: Remote air strips in rural Michigan offer "perfect landing for brazen drug smugglers who can cross the Great Lakes from Canada in minutes," The Associated Press spotlights — and see The Edmonton Sun on the Calgary airport's suspected role as a hub for such covert flights south. Speaking of smuggling, Thai authorities intercepted "multiple baby leopards, panthers, a black bear and two macaque monkeys" being snuck through Bangkok's airport, The Atlantic Wire relates. Sixty families with autistic children practiced braving airport security and boarding a plane at Logan Airport last weekend, The Boston Globe recounts. Ports in a storm: A Port of Long Beach terminal was evacuated Friday after cargo handlers discovered a message on a container suggesting a bomb was inside, the Los Angeles Times tells — and recall The Journal of Commerce's recent account of the proposal by a New York travel agent, now detained at Guantanamo, "to smuggle explosives in ocean containers carrying clothing shipments." Port of Palm Beach officials, meantime, term their security the best in Florida, with advanced ID cards demanded at each checkpoint to allow employees and truck drivers on-site, WPTV 5 News notes. Ways and means: Foiled domestic terror plotters over the past decade "have come from many different ethnic groups. We know of no cases where ethnic profiling helped stop a terrorist plot," John S. Hollywood and Kevin J. Strom comment for CNN. "Now is the time to . . . forge a new approach to addressing the terrorism threat — one that does not compromise democratic freedoms and the rule of law in a quest to keep citizens safe," Letta Tayler counsels in GlobalPost. "De-radicalizing prospective young terrorists means changing the websites they read, the local leaders they follow, even the music they listen to," Joseph Grenny adjures in a BusinessWeek op-ed. Tracking terrorist messaging systems was a critical U.S. intel mission years before an al Qaeda courier led Navy SEALs to Osama bin Laden's hideout, The Washington Times' Rowan Scarborough reports. After Osama: "I don't mourn the loss of any terrorist's life. What I do mourn is what we lose when by official policy or official neglect we confuse or encourage those who fight this war for us to forget that best sense of ourselves," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., essays against torture in The Washington Post. "My generation's response to bin Laden's death troubles me — for its opportunism, for its self-centeredness and, most of all, for its [celebrating a death, however deserved]," Craig Fehrman, a self-described "millennial," writes in the L.A. Times. "The bin Laden raid has boosted critics, who say the Afghanistan war should involve smaller forces and a greater reliance on targeted strikes," The Christian Science Monitor's Anna Mulrine relates. "Islamic extremism was intellectually in full bloom long before bin Laden arrived in Afghanistan to aid the mujahedeen against the Red Army," and won't wink out with his demise, Reuel Marc Gerecht advances in The Weekly Standard. "For 10 years, Osama bin Laden filled a gap left by the Soviet Union. Who will be the baddie now?" The Guardian's Adam Curtis questions. Courts and rights: As jury selection began Monday for a Chicago terror trial, defense lawyers acknowledged that bias against Muslims poses a challenge, the Tribune tells. Every year, dozens of people are arrested at Austin's airport for trying to bring a prohibited weapon through security, but not one case has gone to trial, KXAN Austin News notes. Federal prosecutors dropped drug-related charges against 27 local head shop operators, admitting they lacked evidence to prove some were sending profits overseas for terror activities, NBC Miami mentions. A South Florida imam accused of funneling money to Pakistan's Taliban has hired "a lawyer who is one of the nation's most experienced in handling high-profile terrorism cases," the Sun-Sentinel spotlights — as The L.A. Weekly sees a related defendant appearing in a West Coast court yesterday. Over there: "America's overseas footprint keeps expanding, and nobody has been willing to explain to the public that the global war on terror isn't a free lunch," The Bend (Ore.) Bulletin broods. Thousands of Irish people hoping to attend President Obama's May 23 address in Dublin "will have to endure airport-style body scans," The Independent informs. "Water cannon, riot police and more arrests of dissident Republicans and extreme Islamists are all expected" as Ireland braces for not just Obama but Queen Elizabeth II, too, IrishCentral.com adds — and see The Guardian on yesterday's London bomb threat. Australian victims of overseas acts of terrorism will not necessarily be entitled to retrospective payments of compensation, The Sydney Morning Herald learns. Credit where credit is due: "At a press conference Monday, al Qaeda spokesman Abu Musab al-Madani stated that last week's missile attack on a terrorist hideout in Pakistan's North Waziristan region bore all the hallmarks of the U.S. military," The Onion reports. "'While the investigation is still ongoing, we can say that the timing of the strike, the sophistication of the explosive device, and the fact that it came from a Predator drone are all consistent with previous confirmed attacks by American forces,' said al-Madani, who noted that the terrorist organization had also received an anonymous tip alleging that the U.S. military was in the advanced stages of plotting one of its regular weekly attacks on al Qaeda soil. 'Additionally, the United States has already taken credit for the assault in the American media, though they have significantly underreported the number of civilian casualties.' Al-Madani went on to state that the nonexistent gunfire and ground combat that al Qaeda had recently encountered were a distinctive hallmark of the Pakistani military." 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