CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Thursday, June 9, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly One if by land: Terrorists plotting to kill Americans are more likely to take routes other than the Mexico border, "if they're not here already" . . . You can run: Small orbital "CubeSats" can be quickly and cheaply launched to find and track terror suspects . . . Achtung: Thanks to CBP stickling, "it was more like arriving at Guantanamo Bay" when 2,000 elderly British cruise passengers briefly docked in Los Angeles. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- Analysts and officials generally agree that terrorists plotting to kill Americans are more likely to use routes other than across the Mexico border to enter the country, "if they're not here already," The Arizona Daily Star's Brady McCombs and Tim Steller lead — as Governing's Ryan Holeywell assesses the much-debated prevalence of border violence, and hard-charging Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu assures The Arizona Daily Star's Tim Steller that the "porous Mexican border is the gravest national security threat facing America." Up-gunning: Having fielded rocket-propelled grenades, Mexican cartels are now deploying Mad Max-styled "narco tanks" plated in inch-thick steel, air-conditioned and sized to hold 20 armed combatants, The New York Daily News' Larry McShane spotlights. The shots fired at a Mexican military helicopter recently forced from the air can be linked to the ATF's Fast and Furious gun sting op, CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson asserts. "The U.S. military is developing a new technology to find and track terror suspects — small satellites, known as CubeSats, which can be quickly and inexpensively built and launched," Discovery News' Irene Klotz leads. Feds: Defending a bid to extend his tenure by two years, FBI chief Robert Mueller told Senate overseers yesterday that the Osama bin Laden intel haul underlines al Qaeda's unwavering anti-American intentions, The Associated Press' Pete Yost relates. In the Chicago terror case now being weighed by jurors, the chief witness, "a former drug trafficker turned terrorist, opened a window on the law enforcement agencies charged with protecting this country from people like him," The New York Times' Ginger Thompson spotlights. Republican chairmen of the House Transportation and Infrastructure and Homeland Security committees seem to be locked in a TSA jurisdiction turf war, The Hill's Keith Laing relates — while Homeland Security Today's Mickey McCarter limns new GOP initiatives to block collective bargaining rights for TSA screeners. State and local: Hundreds of NYPD officers will begin training next month for the security cordon around the World Trade Center site on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Newsday notes (and check Slate on "world terrorist target No. 1," i.e., the Ground Zero Freedom Tower). With that commemoration looming, "West Virginia officials, too, are calling on emergency personnel to stay proactive in attempts to thwart future acts of terrorism," Charleston's Metro News leads. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., hit the Fredonia Fire Department this week to announce two workshops for local firefighters eying FEMA fire grants, The Dunkirk Observer observes. A Louisiana woman accused of stealing more than $20,000 from the Governor's Office of Homeland Security has pleaded guilty to felony theft, The Baton Rouge Advocate relates. Ivory (Watch) Towers: For a New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service pilot program, county agents serve as field trainers delivering food safety and security training to county and local clients, The High Plains Journal relates. The Citadel, the military college in Charleston, S.C., will begin offering a new graduate certificate in homeland security this fall, The Associated Press reports. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., meantime, wants the FBI to enroll its agents in Utica College's "state of the art" cybertraining center, WKTV 2 News notes. Research by the University of Sydney's U.S. Studies Centre "shows the majority of Americans and Australians suffering war on terror fatigue and questioning the cost in blood and treasure," ABC News notes. Britain's Home Secretary tells The Daily Telegraph that universities are "complacent" about Islamist terror, and that it is too easy for Muslim extremists to form groups on campuses "without anyone knowing." Bioterrible: At Dodge City Community College recently, an Ag Department official discussed food terrorism and the Kansas plan for Foreign Animal Disease Emergencies, The High Plains Journal, again, reports. An online database run by the Virginia Wildlife Center "is important in the fight against bioterrorism because it could help identify a problem if terrorists were to try and poison a source of water," Heritage Media mentions. The Euro-food poisoning outbreak is "a warning: E. coli is a potentially deadly pathogen that can spread rapidly and widely, whether in the hands of terrorists or Mother Nature," a FOX News medical commentator concludes. In their fight against introduction of the Vietnamese catfish, U.S. catfish farmers "even claimed that Vietnamese fish puts the United States at risk of 'bioterrorism,'" a LewRockwell.com contributor carps. Close air support: Three days after a security alert prompted the evacuation of Will Rogers World Airport, causing many missed flights, officials insisted they had good reason to think a baggage claim package might be dangerous, The Oklahoman follows up. "The best argument for broadening the private screener program is that contractors are now subject to much stricter oversight than they were before 9/11," the Los Angeles Times editorializes. "Airline passengers in the United States could be handed a shortcut through security checks under a government plan to give favorable treatment to low-risk travelers," The Guardian spotlights. Flyers at Albany International Airport could see some changes in the way security checkpoints operate in coming months, the Times Union alerts. Ten Scottish airports face a shutdown if 160 screeners follow through on threats to strike over pay demands, The Dundee Courier recounts. Ports in a storm: Thanks to CBP stickling, when 2,000 elderly British cruise ship passengers briefly docked in L.A. "it was more like arriving at Guantanamo Bay," The Daily Telegraph leads. A Long Island ferry has become the nation's first with a DHS grant funding explosive detection canine teams, The Port Jefferson Patch reports. The Port of Guam now boasts six MiniRAE Photoionization Detectors and six ToxiRAE monitors, The Pacific Daily News takes note. Seafarers captured by Somali pirates increasingly face beatings, use as human shields and other forms of torture, The Financial Times learns from a new report — as Reuters hears the U.N. maritime agency saying that Indian Ocean buccaneers can now attack ships year-round. The aircraft carrier from which Osama bin Laden's body was buried at sea briefly docked in Hawaii, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser relays. Courts and rights: An ex-Newark airport security supervisor has won 30 months in prison for taking kickbacks from a co-worker who regularly stole money from flyers at checkpoints, the Star-Ledger relates. Lawyers for a formerly terror-implicated Oregon ex-Muslim charity official got a long-awaited chance in open court yesterday to grill federal investigators in his money-laundering and tax-evasion case, The Medford Mail Tribune curtain-raised. The case of a former University of Ottawa professor committed for extradition to France to face terrorism charges will likely end up in appeal before Canada's Supreme Court, Metro News notes. Over there: Bin Laden's deputy praises the slain al Qaeda chief in a taped eulogy, saying he "terrified America" when alive and will continue to do so in death, USA Today updates — and check The Washington Post analysis. Czech authorities have released a Pakistani national held on an international warrant for suspected murder and terrorism after Islamabad failed to apply for his extradition, The Dawn records.Senior Indian officials have cleared a hurdle for a long-awaited electronic database aimed at tracking and preventing terrorist activity, Voice of America mentions. The Chinese and U.S. governments have agreed to cooperate on anti-terrorism efforts, even though the two countries face very different problems, GlobalPost spotlights. Britain's updated strategy for tackling terrorism stresses more focus on preventing extremism at community levels, BBC News notes. Over here: Protesters demand that a Florida mosque whose imam was charged last month with financially supporting the Pakistani Taliban be shut down, Miami's WPLG 10 News notes. Forest Hills synagogues and Jewish schools want DHS money to secure their facilities, but a Kew Gardens rabbi thinks none of them should get a dime, The Queens (N.Y.) Campaigner recounts. The Secure Community Network, meantime, has launched an online portal to security train staff at Jewish institutions, The Jewish Telegraph Agency relates. The further 9/11 recedes into the past, "the worse things seem to get between Muslim Americans and other Americans," an attorney and author tells The Denver Post. "More than a few experts believe fears of a large-scale jihadist offensive by Muslims living in the United States are overstated," The Hindu leads, referencing the Chicago terror trial. Holy Wars: "The United States must consider expanding its primary focus in the war on terror from the jihadists to include the mullahs and scholars who incite hatred, violence and dehumanization of others," Tawfik Hamid comments for Newsmax. A new generation of British Islamic militants is being radicalized in back streets, The Daily Telegraph hears counterterrorists warning. U.S.-born terror-inciting imam Anwar al Awlaki "has become one of the greatest enemies of British intelligence organizations in the fight against terrorists being groomed online," The Daily Telegraph profiles. Turkish P.M. Recep Erdogan "represents the triumphant Janus-faced approach to the fundamentalist global Islamic revival," an American Thinker contributor condemns. Far Beyond Thunderdome: "While the ever-rising price of oil is hurting the pockets of families and businesses alike, there is one group that welcomes the inevitable economic meltdown," News Biscuit notes. "For while many Britons fearfully look to the time when going on the dole will become more cost effective than filling the car for the journey to work, the impending fuel apocalypse can't come soon enough for the nation's Mad Max wannabes. 'Bring it on,' declared 'Mad' Nigel Morrison, president of the NFARWS (Near-Future Apocalyptic Road Warriors Society). 'The sooner we can start racing up and down the M6, battling it out over dwindling supplies of petrol, the better. With my brother-in-law's old motorbike gear I really look the business, especially with the natty feather Mohican I've made,' the 42-year-old regional sales manager revealed, 'and I've already booked in the garage to have a nitrous oxide injector fitted to my Honda Accord.'" 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.