CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Wednesday, June 8, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly No exit: Despite Gov. Patrick's refusal to endorse it, feds will force Massachusetts to join ICE's controversial Secure Communities effort, DHS says . . . Mama knows best: "Mother Nature is the best bioterrorist," infectious disease expert nominates, in re: Europe's E. coli outbreak . . . Every breath you take: "No matter where you go in New York, there are eyes and ears, with the goal of preventing another 9/11." These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- Despite Gov. Deval Patrick's withdrawal, the feds will force Massachusetts to join DHS's Secure Communities program to detect and deport illegal immigrants, a senior DHSer tells The Boston Globe's Maria Sacchetti and Noah Bierman. Next door, GOP New York State Sen. Greg Ball plans a hearing to probe Gov. Andrew Cuomo's own pullout from ICE's fingerprinting initiative for jailed felons, Politics on the Hudson's Joseph Spector reports. These defections signal "growing discontent from usually reliable Democratic territory over President Obama's immigration policy," The Washington Times' Stephen Dinan analyzes. GWOT status check: U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a conflict launched when many were pre-teens, "seem to be wondering: Must we keep fighting and dying in this country if the terrorist who was the reason we came here is dead?" The Associated Press' Robert Burns spotlights. As it enters its second decade, it looks increasingly likely that the war on terror "is going to trigger disunity among conservatives, libertarians, and right-leaning independents," The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf comments, with some relish — while Salon's Glenn Greenwald espies the outlines of a "bipartisan coalition to oppose" the counterterrorist "National Security State." Homies: Slammed for its 2009 "Rightwing Extremism" report, DHS has stepped back from conducting its own analysis of homegrown extremists, The Washington Post's R. Jeffrey Smith reports. New DHS metrics for reporting federal agency cybersecurity status will focus on automated system monitoring and security controls, Government Computer News' William Jackson relates — while United Press International hears 48 lawmakers asking USCIS to hold off rejecting visa petitions by same sex couples when one partner is not a U.S. citizen. A $1.1 billion cut in DHS funding approved by the House last Thursday could be remedied when the Senate takes up its version of the spending bill, The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal's Brian Tumulty tells. More from the gubernators: New Mexico's governor is renewing a battle to make hers the 49th state to withhold driver's licenses from illegal immigrants, ensuring a heated fight during September's special legislative session, The Santa Fe New Mexican mentions. A new executive order from Florida's governor "clarifies" an earlier directive requiring state agencies and contractors to use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of workers, The Florida Independent informs. Colorado's chief executive inked a bill Friday ensuring that "schools will have quick and reliable communication with first responders," Reuters relays. Follow the money: Hundreds of billions of petro-dollars paid to unfriendly nations directly enhance terrorists' ability "to recruit, organize, train, and deploy fanatics who are bent on doing America harm," T. Boone Pickens protests in The Huffington Post. Coordinated by State, ICE investigators routinely conduct "cross-border financial investigations and money laundering enforcement training for key foreign partner nations," Defense Professionals has a DHSer testifying. Now that Vatican banking practices conform with international money laundering and terror finance norms, Italian prosecutors have unfrozen $33 million in church funds, The Christian Century recounts. Caribbean-based Jamaat-al-Muslimeen received funding from a Canadian charity used by Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi to support terror, The Trinidad & Tobago Express reports — while Azerbaijan's Trend News Agency sees Turkmenistan ready to ink an accord with the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism. Bugs 'n bombs: "Mother Nature is the best bioterrorist," an infectious disease expert tells USA Today, in re: the mysterious E. coli eruption plaguing Europe. "Low-level food contamination is not unknown as a tactic for blackmailers, but the U.K. government's security advisers are concerned such an approach could be scaled up by a terrorist group," Britain's Metro, relatedly, mentions. Health officials on the Kenyan border were alerted this week in response to an outbreak of Ebola virus, a potential bioterror agent, in neighboring Uganda, Agence France-Presse reports. "A startup called Sickweather hopes to tap into the social side of sickness with a social networking service that tracks illnesses within a user's circle of friends, and to forecast outbreaks," Technology Review reviews. Close air support: "If the House writes and passes a bill forcing the privatization of airport security, will the Senate pass it as well and will President Obama sign it?" Associated Content asks, answering "maybe not." TSA expects to mask full-body images on half its 500 screening machines by year's end and to upgrade the rest shortly thereafter, Nextgov notes. Dozens rallied at the Texas State Capitol on Sunday to stop airport pat-downs, Austin's KVUE News notes. A new type of scanner would allow travelers to walk through a tunnel-like device without having to remove coats, belts, shoes or even hand over their carry-ons for separate screening, The Consumerist recounts. "We spend a lot of time criticizing the TSA in our own country, but what about airport security outside of the United States?" a Newsweek travel blog leads. Out of town on a rail: "In a glaring security breach, a Port Authority police supervisor allowed a PATH train with a potential bomb aboard to travel from Jersey City to the World Trade Center," The New York Post leads. When a Maryland Transit Administration officer told an avid photographer and railroad enthusiast "that it was illegal to photograph rail operations in Maryland, she was wrong, wrong, wrong," The Baltimore Sun sternly admonishes. A CSX railroad engine en route to a delivery in Massachusetts last week derailed after thieves cut away two 8-foot sections of solid steel track, The Taunton Daily Gazette relates. Terror tech: "No matter where you go in New York, there are eyes and ears, with the goal of preventing another 9/11," WTOP 103.5 FM leads, in re: the Big Apple Joint Terrorism Task Force's human and electronic intel collection capabilities. Analysts and security tech companies say the government has been clumsy in implementing the Safety Act of 2002, an effort to encourage counterterror tech development, the Los Angeles Times spotlights. Despite concern over border security and the billions sunk into related gizmos, the House DHS spending bill proposes cutting perimeter control technology efforts, Aviation Week assesses. The New Zealand inventor of a jet pack now in advanced testing expects early orders to come from U.S. border guardians, while noting that it could also benefit counterterror ops, Britain's Daily Mail mentions. DHS's Science and Technology Directorate says its Virtual USA data warehouse played a key role in April's national-level earthquake exercise, Urgent Communications recounts. Cyberia: "According to Debkafile . . . a group claiming to be al Qaeda declared 11 November 2007 as the first day of a campaign of 'electronic jihad' on the Internet," Public Intelligence leads. Methods used in a cyber-raid on hundreds of Gmail accounts, allegedly by Chinese hackers targeting senior U.S. officials, "resemble those of a 2009 attack that harvested info from 1,295 computers in 103 countries," The Christian Science Monitor recounts. Chinese cyberspies "are trying to gain access to computers belonging to China specialists and defense contractors who circulate in and out of government and talk regularly with those in power," The Wall Street Journal adds. As far back as 2009, ex-White House counterterrorist Richard Clarke warned of the "risks of miscalculation" in cyberconflict, which boosts "the chances that what begins as a battle of computer programs ends in a shooting war," a Forbes columnist recalls. Courts and rights: Following his father before him, a North Carolinian yesterday pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to abetting terrorists, The Charlotte Observer relates. Federal prosecutors and Tahawwur Rana's defense offered closing arguments yesterday in the Chicago terror trial, the Tribune updates. Shares of Chiquita Brands are sinking again after a judge rejected its bid to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Colombians seeking compensation for its alleged payments to a terror-listed paramilitary group, The San Francisco Chronicle recounts. An Ontario judge has ruled that a professor can be extradited to France to face charges relating to a 1980 Paris synagogue bombing, CTV News notes — while The Toronto Sun sees a Moroccan accused of links to terror kingpin Abdellah Ouzghar losing a bid to stop his own deportation from Canada. Over there: In his final plea on Monday, Indonesian Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir denounced his terror trial, the verdict in which is expected to be handed down June 16, as being "stage-managed by false idols," Deutsche Presse Agentur records. A group describing itself as a supporter of worldwide Islamic jihad has praised on an Internet discussion forum two bomb scares in Helsinki this past weekend, YLE News notes. With more evidence emerging about Pakistan's close links with terror groups, the country fits the U.S. standard for state sponsors of terrorism "in more than one way," Mumbai's Daily News & Analysis notes. Blinded by science: "From the flight deck, this is your captain," Denny MacMillon announces in an Onion commentary. "The current weather in Los Angeles is 67 degrees with a slight northwesterly breeze, and in case you're wondering why the plane feels like it's completely out of control, well, there's currently some ****face standing on the roof of his car down near the tarmac shining a laser pointer directly into in my eyes. I literally can't see a goddamn thing. A natural question for you to ask would be, 'What kind of sick individual does this?' On behalf of myself and my first officer whom you can hear screaming in the background, I'm sorry to say these mother****ers do exist. In fact, there were almost 3,000 lasering incidents last year alone — enough that they even warrant their own term: 'laserings.' By the way, in case you're keeping track, that's eight instances per day in which a human being—someone with a conscience who ostensibly knows the difference between right and wrong — drives to an airport, gets out of his car, and entertains himself by shining a ****ing laser pointer directly into a pilot's eyes." Source: CQ Homeland Security --------------------------------- Other CQ Roll Call Products CQ Floor Video CQ.com CQ Weekly CQ Today CQ Amendment Text CQ BillTrack CQ Budget Tracker CQ Energy & Climate CQ HealthBeat CQ Homeland Security CQ Hot Docs CQ House Action Reports CQ LawTrack CQ MoneyLine CQ StateTrack CQ Politics Roll Call See all CQ Roll Call products Rob Margetta, CQ Homeland Security Editor Arwen Bicknell, Behind the Lines Editor Published by CQ Roll Call To sign up for CQ Roll Call's free newsletters, click here. Source: CQ Homeland Security Copyright © 2011 CQ Roll Call. All rights reserved.