| Behind the Lines for Thursday, Sept. 30, 2010 — 3 P.M. Mr. Big: Not just a spiritual mentor, Anwar al-Alwaki played a "major role" in directing the Christmas Day underwear bombing bid and in other terror plots . . . Spider to the fly: FBI takes Illinois imam with "reputed ties to Hamas" on tour of its National Counterterrorism Center . . . Cold War: "There's a new front in the global war on terror: ice cream for suspected terrorists." These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- No mere spiritual mentor, a U.S.-born Islamist cleric targeted by a CIA kill-or-capture order played a “major role” in directing the Christmas Day attempted airliner bombing and in other terror plots, senior intellicrats tell The Washington Times’ Bill Gertz — and check a Christian Science Monitor editorial: “Can the United States assassinate an American citizen living in Yemen?” Military intel’s suppression of Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer’s memoir “will re-energize the critical questions regarding the official story about what the Clinton administration knew before [9/11], and why they failed to take effective action,” The Washington Times, again, editorializes — and see Stephen Aftergood in Secrecy News: “Behind the Censorship of Operation Dark Heart.” Feds: “The heads of veteran counterterrorists have been spinning” over reports that an Illinois imam with “reputed ties to Hamas” was given a tour of sensitive U.S. counterterrorism facilities by the FBI, Homeland Security Today’s Anthony L. Kimery recounts. The House yesterday finally approved billions of dollars for medical treatment of Ground Zero survivors, The New York Times’ Raymond Hernandez relates. Federal prosecutors plan to give Osama bin Laden a starring role in the terrorism trial of the first Guantanamo detainee to be tried in civilian courts, The Associated Press’ Larry Neumeister leads. A whistleblower trial involving an Arab American FBI agent “has cast a spotlight on the bureau’s difficult transition from a crime-fighting agency into a counterterrorism and intelligence force,” The Washington Post’s Spencer Hsu surveys. Napolitano Complex: DHS’s Janet Napolitano this week urged 190 nations to improve aviation security with body scanners and other innovations to keep plastic and powdered explosives off airplanes, USA Today’s Thomas Frank recounts — or, as Prison Planet calmly covers it: “Big Sis Tries To Force Body Scanners On Other Countries Amidst Backlash.” Napolitano also met friction from the International Civil Aviation Organization chief over when to lift the ban on carry-on liquids, AP’s Rob Gillies adds. In a letter to Napolitano, the National Press Photographers Association urges her to deep-six a TSA ad campaign seemingly equating shutterbugs and terrorists, Poynter Online’s Mallary Jean Tenore relates. State and local: As some European cities ramp up security amid new al Qaeda terror threats, Gotham officials tell NBC New York there are no new terror warnings for the city. Santa Clara County (Calif.) Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to “opt out” of ICE’s Secure Communities jailed felon deportation effort, San Francisco’s ABC 7 News notes — as TBD.com reports the Arlington County (Va.) Board voting to do the same just hours later. The Chichasha (Okla.) Express News, meantime, sees Grady County Commissioners briefed on an “upcoming table top disaster exercise approved by Homeland Security.” Pennsylvania’s Office of Homeland Security “at times sounded more like a branch of the Keystone Kops” during a state hearing on its contract with a much-derided terror intel firm, The Harrisburg Patriot-News assesses. Ivory (Watch) Towers: The Texas State Board of Education last week approved a nonbinding resolution urging textbook publishers to limit what they print about Islam, The Austin American-Statesman relates. A New Jersey law requiring monthly “school security drills” starting in November, makes “lockdown procedures as routine to children as fire safety exercises and other aspects of school life,” The Parsippany Daily Record records. Two stabbings at local colleges “underline the uneasy reality that even secluded campuses are susceptible to violence from outsiders and can reasonably do only so much to prevent it,” The Boston Globe leads. USC’s National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events has won a $15.3 million DHS grant, The Beverly Hills Courier relays. Bugs ‘n bombs: “One day, the summer of 2010 may be remembered as ‘The Summer of Stuxnet’—the moment when we discovered the power of Geek Terror, and how the digital world could . . . destroy infrastructure and even kill people,” Business Insider leads. The Senate’s food safety bill, among other goals, aims to “coordinate with DHS to decrease any perceived risks of terrorism impacting the U.S. food supply,” a Huffington Post contributor explains. The designer of a coil-gun — a battery-powered, high-voltage projectile slinger — says the energy stored in its capacitors is 78 times the lethal load for human beings, Popular Science relates. Denver airport and the FAA fret that a planned $7.5 million public shooting range nearby could endanger low-flying planes with errant bullets, The Denver Post reports. Close air support: Cargo containing land mines, destined for an El Al flight from Canada to Israel, caused a security scare at Toronto’s air hub before it was determined the shipment was for U.N. forces, Agence France-Presse reports — as The Bermuda Sun sees a security breach delaying two U.S.-bound flights’ departure from L.F. Wade International Airport. A U.S.-bound Polish plane was forced back to Warsaw airport shortly following takeoff when a rowdy passenger scuffled with the crew, gadling relates — while Canada’s AM 1150 News sees Kelowna (B.C.) airport security officials on the defensive after a drunken teen stumbled onto the runway. Central Wisconsin Airport’s checkpoint is being expanded to accommodate new security equipment due by Jan. 1, The Wausau Daily Herald relates. Coming and going: More than 1,000 cops, including police commandos, quick reaction teams and a bomb disposal squad, will safeguard two New Delhi subway stations during the terror-threatened Commonwealth Games, The Times of India informs — while CBS New York offers a look at “what could be the future of subway security — a new intercom system.” ICE’s Office of Homeland Security Investigation has rounded up 12 suspects in a south Florida boat theft ring, Fort Myer’s WINK News notes. DHS, meanwhile, is moving to close a little-used Montana border post that was in the midst of an $8.5 million stimulus-funded makeover when Canada announced it was shuttering its side of the crossing, The Helena Independent-Record reports. Courts and rights: A D.C. judge has ordered Iran to pay $92 million to victims of the 1983 Beirut Marine barracks suicide bombing, Lebanon’s Daily Star belatedly relates. “There’s a new front in the global war on terror: ice cream for suspected terrorists,” The Atlantic Wire leads in re: frozen treat rationing at Guantanamo — as The Daily Caller quips: “What’s next at Gitmo, off-brand mints on the pillows?” See, as well, in The New York Review of Books: “What To Do About Guantanamo?” The first of three Canadian men accused in connection with an alleged homegrown terrorist plot was granted bail Tuesday, The Montreal Gazette leads. Over there: Gallic skeptics question whether France’s heightened terror alert “is simply a device to divert attention from a rolling wave of scandals and protests,” Time Magazine mentions — while The New York Times sees most Europeans downplaying U.S. reports of a significant new al-Qaeda-in-Pakistan threat. How al-Qaeda-in-Iraq has managed to transition from “a near spent force to a reinvigorated threat to Iraq’s democracy in a little more than two months is a puzzle,” the Times also spotlights. Saudi Arabia’s interior minister says his country had foiled 230 planned terror attacks in recent years, with only 10 actually being carried out, AFP reports. Over here: For much of the 19th century, American Catholics were the unassimilated, sometimes violent “religious other,” two New York Review of Books contributors write, referencing the Ground Zero mosque furor — and check The History News Network on the same Catholic-Muslim meme. The imam behind that controversial Muslim center, meantime, says it is meant to prevent a similar attack, Reuters relates. “Americans are conflicted over Islam as the FBI investigates a growing list of anti-Islamic incidents. Still, Muslims and their mosques are being welcomed in some communities,” The Christian Science Monitor surveys. A GOP House candidate in North Carolina defends a new campaign ad linking all Muslims to terrorism, The Hill relates — while Salon sees an ex-Marine who killed two unarmed Iraqi prisoners in 2004 and expounds anti-Islamic rhetoric having “a real shot” at being elected to Congress. Holy Wars: La Meca, a popular Spanish disco, has agreed to change its name and architecture after Islamists threatened “a great war between Spain and the people of Islam,” Hudson New York notes. A look at the “outside experts” who crafted “Shariah: The Threat to America,” a recent think-tank report, “reveals a controversial track record, to say the least,” The Minnesota Independent retorts. “A growing number of terrorism experts think military operations and domestic surveillance or security measures are not enough” to combat terrorism; needed is more focus on “deradicalization,” The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review spotlights. “From the rise of Islam in 633 AD to the present, the latent Western hostility to Muslims has kept smoldering. This dogmatism must change . . . or the rising powers of the new world will be tempted to dismantle the West militarily,” Nairobi’s Daily Nation forebodes. Bugging out: “In 2007, in a remote area of Amish Country, Amed Ben Gauly opened a research lab where he developed a species of bed bugs more resilient than current strains of bed bugs,” The Spoof explains. “With the consent and blessing of Osama bin Laden, the pests were hidden in wooden heater mantels crafted in Pennsylvania, which were sent to China for installation of heating coils and in turn shipped to New Jersey to be peddled on QVC. A two-day ‘on air’ sale resulted in 28,000 being sold all over the United States with some to Canada, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. The original intent was to invade the United States with bed bugs capable of reproducing at an alarming rate, and eventually bringing the retail industry to a standstill. At this point, the scheme is right on schedule: Many retailers are closing and more will on the eve of the most productive selling time of the year. Says Amed: ‘We will eliminate the infidels, one little bite at a time.’” See also, in Glossy News: “CDC Warns of New Fall Flu Strain Related to Elephants.” |
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