CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Tuesday, May 31, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly Sept. 10 budgeting: Viewing the federal deficit as at least as threatening as terrorism, House GOPers seek to cut more than $1 billion from DHS's fiscal 2012 bottom line . . . What's good for America: Osama bin Laden's death likely to continue exerting "a modestly positive and buoyant effect on equity markets" . . . Moral Quandry Dept.: "The question now is whether the death of Mr. bin Laden equals the death of Mr. Hitler." These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- Reflecting Republican appropriators' belief that deficits are at least as grave a security threat as terrorism, the House this week will address a bill cutting more than $1 billion from DHS's fiscal 2012 budget, The Hill's Pete Kasperowicz recounts. In a draft position paper obtained by The Wall Street Journal's Siobhan Gorman, the Chamber of Commerce denounces as "regulatory overreach" a White House cybersecurity plan imposing more rigorous oversight on some firms' cyberpractices — as Government Computer News' William Jackson decries associated legislation's enforcement deficiencies. Homies: Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba poses as severe a peril as al Qaeda, The Times of India's Himanshi Dhawan hears Janet Napolitano pronouncing in New Delhi last week — while WRTV News sees her back in the homeland "attending the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday to get a firsthand look at the implementation of a key department policy at a big event." Three House GOPers are pressing legislation aiming to end potential terrorist abuse of student visas by tightening reporting requirements, The Houston Chronicle's Sarah Tung updates. After DHS spent $230 million on technology to detect smuggled nukes using helium-3, the GAO finds disconnects within Energy spawning a fatal shortage of the rare isotope, The New York Times' Matthew L. Wald writes. Feds: One of 23 American agents sentenced in absentia by an Italian court in the 2003 rendition of an imam from Milan to torture in Egypt is suing State for failure to provide diplomatic immunity, the Los Angeles Times' Ken Dilanian profiles. Most House members from New York, 23 of 28, supported last week's losing bid to deny President Obama more authority to wage war against terror groups not directly tied to al Qaeda or the Taliban, The Ithaca Journal's Brian Tumulty relates. Chief Justice John Roberts has named two federal judges to the secretive special court overseeing surveillance warrants in spy and terror cases, The Associated Press' Nedra Pickler reports. State and local: Putnam County law enforcers stepped up homeland security efforts this past holiday weekend in a statewide Safeguard New York drive, The Journal News notes. "Rebuilding can also mean reinventing," a Christian Science Monitor editorial aphorizes, referencing tornado-devastated Joplin, Mo. — while USA Today sees FEMA's much-tapped Disaster Relief Fund running dry by next spring without additional cash. Toledo's "removal from the eligibility list for urban-security grants does not mean it should relax its vigilance or preparedness," a Blade editorial adjures. Since a wall in Richmond honoring state citizens who died combating terrorism went up in 2007, 233 Virginians have been memorialized, including 27 added this Memorial Day, The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot updates. Starting in January, there will be full-time screening for weapons at the entrance of Maine's State House in Augusta, The Kennebec Journal recounts. Bid-ness: "A decade after the 9/11 terror attacks, homeland security is still a growth business," CNBC News surveys. "Given how markets are responding thus far, Osama bin Laden's death is likely to have a modestly positive and buoyant effect on equity markets," a GlobalSecurity SitRep reassesses. A consulting company founded by ex-DHS chief Michael Chertoff has been tapped to mount a $300,000 review of security at Port Authority tunnels, bridges and airports, The Bergen County (N.J.) Record leads. In deference to U.S. terror paranoia, New Brunswick firms shipping south of the border should minimize barriers by using U.S.-certified shippers, a Canadian expert tells The Fredericton Daily Gleaner. As a spate of terror strikes ruins international tourism in Pakistan, decimating luxury hotels, police raids in Lahore are a last nail in the lodging industry's coffin, The Nation nags — while The Pakistan Daily Times hears the Lahore biz community, in particular, damning the terror attack at Mehran Naval Air Base. Bugs 'n bombs: An explosion at a North Carolina chemical plant Saturday forced the evacuation of all residents within two miles, The Charlotte Observer observes. The feds are negotiating with Emergent BioSolutions for the purchase over five years of 45 million anthrax vaccine doses, Global Security Newswire relays. HHS, meantime, has cut $42 million from the Hospital Preparedness Program for the balance of fiscal 2011, Becker's Hospital Review reports — as CIDRAP News airs recent public health group alerts, in re: cuts to bioterror medical readiness. A U.N. body last week announced the eradication of rinderpest, a cattle contagion considered a potential bioterror agent, only the second such achievement in human history, The Guardian relates. Close air support: Pennsylvania State Police popped a "John Doe" with 12 fake ID cards after he ran from them at Lehigh Valley International, The Allentown Morning Call recounts. A Utah state lawmaker wants to follow Texas solons in proposing a law banning TSA searches of air passengers, The Provo Daily Report reports — and check Austin's KXAN News on the crib death of that Lone Star bill. Officials at Salt Lake City International are shocked by how many try to carry guns and other weapons through security, The Deseret News notes. It was actually two TSA security tests, minutes apart, that Twin Cities airport cops didn't know about, The Minneapolis Star Tribune updates. Two Vancouver airport screeners face charges in the smuggling of 32 pounds of ecstasy, the Sun says — as The Province hears Vancouver screeners, again, warning that threatened layoffs imperil security at the Canadian air hub. Papers, please: USCIS will try adding driver's license info to E-Verify, a database vulnerable to fake, stolen or borrowed documents, AP reports — and check an L.A. Times editorial: "You can't rely on E-Verify." South Carolina's governor says DHS has barred state enforcers from using E-Verify to implement a law banning bizzes from hiring the undocumented, The Charleston Post and Courier recounts. The lesson from the Supremes' decision on Arizona's employer-sanctions is that "unless Congress enacts meaningful reform, the nation's immigration policy will be increasingly fragmented and defined by the states," The Arizona Republic editorializes. Arizona lawmakers, meanwhile, rebuffed three bizmen petitioning for shorter waits at the Nogales port of entry, The Nogales International informs. Courts and rights: A Muslim convert charged with threatening the creators of "South Park" has been arrested in Morocco, CNN notes. A Somali couple are behind bars in a federal terror investigation in which they allegedly lied to FBI agents and an immigration court, The San Antonio Express-News notes. Two senators claim Justice has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act "in a twisted way, enabling domestic surveillance activities many members of Congress do not understand," The New York Times tells. Obama says he relishes seeing Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic "tried in court. Why didn't bin Laden merit the same treatment?" a Salon contributor questions. A Danish court yesterday found an ethnic Chechen guilty of attempted terrorism in a hotel bombing last September, Reuters relates. Talking terror: "The question now is whether the death of Mr. bin Laden equals the death of Mr. Hitler," Abdel Monem Said, relatedly, poses for Al Arabiya, suggesting that like the latter, the former's "ghost will continue to haunt us for some time into a very murky future." The United States has been "irradiating only parts of the cancer that al Qaeda represents, while leaving the malignant growth of Saudi Wahabism and Salafism untouched," Mai Yamani diagnoses in The Taipei Times. "The cancer of terrorism is the symptom of society's unresolved problems, a monster born in the swamp of 'no-rights,'" Amir Madani maintains in a Huffington Post second opinion. The Arab Spring, coupled with bin Laden's death, raise "the tantalizing possibility that the West and Islam, which came to the brink of a Holy War in the past decade, might finally be able to build a Holy Peace," Time Magazine's Bruce Feiler forecasts. Over there: The capture of Indonesian terrorist Umar Patekin in January and the death of bin Laden this month "may prove to be two of the final blows to the reeling Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf," Terrorism Monitor mentions — as Austin Public Radio sees the Pakistani Taliban changing strategy after the Osama obliteration. Red-faced over that raid, Pakistani officials increasingly fret that their ranks have been penetrated by Islamists aiding a militant campaign against the state, The Washington Post reports — while AP sights Pakistani Islamists training some 35 miles from the Abbottabad compound. No longer regarded as a threat to national security, ex-Gitmo detainee Mamdouh Habib has regained his passport, The Australian relates. Qaeda Qorner: The American Conservative asks six foreign-policy experts to consider the implications for the War on Terror of bin Laden's leaving the battlefield. Material confiscated in the Abbottabad incursion proves the al Qaeda chief encouraged jihadists to strike targets in Denmark, The Copenhagen Post reports. "War in Yemen would hand al Qaeda's boldest militants greater scope to attack the West and repair the group's morale after the loss of Osama bin Laden," Reuters leads — even as The Daily Telegraph sees al Qaeda fighters taking control of a provincial capital in southern Yemen. On the other hand, bin Laden's death will only hasten the decline of al Qaeda in Jordan, Central Asia Online assesses. He's ba-a-a-ck: "Just weeks after his body was buried at sea, Osama bin Laden burst forth from the ocean depths early this morning, rising to the monstrous height of 500 feet and rapidly making his way down the East Coast of the United States in a rampage expected to leave hundreds of thousands dead and easily eclipse 9/11 as the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history," The Onion reports. "Currently, much of New York City and Washington, including the Empire State Building, the White House, and the Capitol Building, lay in ruins, with overwhelmed rescue crews struggling to assist a country ravaged by the gigantic, irate al Qaeda leader. At press time, bin Laden had reduced most of Charlottesville to rubble as he headed southeast, presumably toward SEAL Team Six headquarters near Virginia Beach." See, subsequently, in The Onion: "Bin Laden Returns To Sea." 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