Omss Politics: CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Wednesday, June 22, 2011 — 3 P.M.

By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly

Ripe for a hostile take-over: "Al Qaeda runs like any other business," Voice of America assesses . . . Snake-skin jack-booted thugs: "TSA clearly intends for these out-of-nowhere swarms [of VIPR officers] to become a routine and accepted part of American life" . . . Artful dodgers: "Houston, you've got a problem. Every airport does, and it goes by a familiar name: TSA theft." These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage.

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America has been made more secure by DHS grants, and no one should "rush to cut off these funds in the false hope of saving money in the short run," Joshua D. Miller maintains in an Emergency Management op-ed. "The trickle-down effect is already being felt locally as Collin County's Homeland Security department prepares for a loss of nearly 17 percent of its funding," The Plano (Texas) Star-Courier's Marthe Stinton relates. The Conference of Mayors has approved a resolution calling for a speedy end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and redirection of the freed-up $126 billion a year to "urgent domestic needs," The New York Times' Michael Cooper mentions.

Money, honey: Thanks to wars and terror concerns, State's budget has doubled since 9/11, NPR's Alan Greenblat accounts. This war on terror amounts to "the American industrial-military complex massively benefiting from the spending while many innocent lives have been lost," The Islamic Republic News Agency happily hears Brit economist Rodney Shakespeare rumbling at a Tehran antiterror event. Enviro-energy "scaremongering has not only cost millions of American jobs, it has forced us to keep sending money to Muslim oil states who use that money for . . . international terrorism," Daniel Greenfield adjures in Right Side News. Stressing the late Osama bin Laden's "knack for business," JulieAnn McKellogg suggests for Voice of America that "al Qaeda runs like any other business."

Feds: According to those who endorse Barack Obama's citizenship bona fides, Anwar al-Awlaki "is a natural-born American citizen and he is fully eligible to serve as president," Canada Free Press' Lawrence Sellin slams. Two House Republican TSA critics call for a probe of the axing of three dozen Honolulu screeners for lax baggage screening, The Hill's Keith Laing relates. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., meantime, took a Senate Judiciary hearing to Wilmington for testimony on counterterror and counter-criminal federal and state info sharing, WGMD 92.7 AM mentions. "The TSA clearly intends for these out-of-nowhere swarms by its officers at community transit centers [and] bus stops to become a routine and accepted part of American life," Tara Servatius condemns in an American Thinker attack on VIPR raids — and see Cynthia Hodges in The Examiner.

State and local: Union Square was "filled with bomb squad rigs, armored personnel carriers, and a bus-sized ambulance" for the three-day urban security conference ending today, CBS San Francisco spotlights. While no Indiana emergicrats "will come out and say communities don't need sirens, they do say that they might not be the most cost-effective warning system," The Kokomo Perspective reports. A $1.7 million DHS grant aims to help staff fire departments afflicted by falling roll call numbers as recruitment fails to keep pace with retirements, The Berkshire (Mass.) Eagle relates. The L.A. County sheriff's office credits ICE's Secure Communities for a drop in the percentage of illegal immigrants in its jails from 24 percent to 16 percent, Stateline relates.

Follow the money: "Pressured by increased scrutiny of terrorist money sources and strikes aimed at its financiers, al Qaeda's core organization in Pakistan has turned to kidnapping for ransom to offset dwindling cash reserves," The Associated Press leads. State last week added a freed Guant?!namo detainee to its list of designated terrorists, IDing the Saudi Arabian as a fundraiser for al-Qaeda-in-the-Arabian-Peninsula, The Miami Herald mentions. "There's a strong link between the failing Yemeni economy and American drone and missile strikes," a Yemeni analyst tells The Christian Science Monitor. Recent House testimony suggests that piracy off the coast of Somalia is possibly funding Al Shabaab jihadists there, The Suna Times tells. "Despite some efforts by Western powers to patrol the Horn of Africa, pirates are still able to access capital, as any successful business must," The Wall Street Journal adds.

Bugs 'n bombs: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is defending his statement that illegal aliens are responsible for some Arizona wildfires, citing congressional testimony and published reports as proof, the Los Angeles Times tells. Massachusetts is one of just four states with an outright ban on fireworks, joining New York, New Jersey and Delaware, The Boston Herald relates, small ground-based fireworks being legalized last year in Rhode Island. Michigan has logged cases in two counties of raw milk-inspired infections by the rare Q fever bacterium, considered a potential bioterror agent, The Examiner examines. The United States is paying British and Swiss mine-clearing groups $1 million to intercept loose anti-aircraft missiles in Libya so they don't fall into the hands of terror groups, The Associated Press reports.

Close air support: "Houston, you've got a problem. Every airport does, and it goes by a familiar name: TSA theft," an Examiner contributor contends. "Tactile children can be hard to manage, especially when it comes to security lines, passport checks and the endless waiting," a child behaviorist observes in a McClatchy-Tribune op-ed. Moscow transport authorities wonder how a woman managed to pass unnoticed through checkpoints and board a flight at Domodedovo Airport, site of a recent terror bombing, RIA Novosti notes — as The Moscow Times sees two Domodedovo screeners busted for (again) stealing from passengers. Australia's pilots welcome a parliamentary call for photo ID checks on all passengers boarding domestic flights, the other ABC News notes.

Railroaded: Some 3,000 high-definition video cameras will be deployed at Chicago rail stations by year's end, twice today's number, the Tribune tells. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, demands "a greater emphasis on rail security," Progressive Railroading reports. The Metropolitan Transit Authority's K-9 Unit is the nation's largest police explosive detection group with 50 dogs and as many sworn officers handlingthem, The Stamford (Conn.) Advocate spotlights. Built at the height of the Cold War, Kiev's metro stations were dug deeply to shelter citizens in case of atomic attack and outfitted with secret bunkers for the political elite, The Kyiv Post spotlights.

Weird Science: "After 9/11, advances in social science took a leading role in developing ways to react, and in many cases prevent, another terrorist attack in the United States, Security Management muses from a federal criminology conference. From surveillance blimps to "nanodrones" the size of bugs, "an explosion in aerial drones is transforming the way America fights and thinks about its wars," The New York Times spotlights. "The push for drone use in skies over the U.S. homeland is moving into high gear. Did George Orwell know what he was talking about, or what?" a Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune commentator remarks. Threatening to block NATO supply lines, some 1,200 Waziristan tribesmen protested Monday against U.S. drone strikes, The Nation notes. A teen scientist recently honored for creating a device that can scan for weapons in shipping containers talks to PBS NewsHour "about his project and why he thinks science is cool."

Cyberia: The Defense agency that launched the Web is building a virtual firing range, an Internet facsimile on which can be tested ways to thwart cyberattacks, Reuters spotlights — while The Washington Times sees the CIA last week "looking into reports that its public website was taken down by a group of Internet hackers calling themselves 'lulzsecurity.'" ("It's never a good thing when you're the CIA and your website has data talking about a hacker," an expert tells CBS News.) Germany's new cyberdefense facility in Bonn is dedicated to defending critical infrastructure, The Register reports. Software widely used in China to run weapons systems, utilities and chemical plants has bugs hackers could exploit to damage public infrastructure, Reuters, again, hears DHS warning. "The best thing you could do for these online braggarts would be to freak out," Danger Room remarks, in re: that Web-posted al Qaeda hit list of prominent Americans.

Courts and rights: "Sadly, the system has used people suffering from mental illness to make terrorism cases. This is the state of law enforcement tactics in our post-9/11, terror-frightened town," NYPD Confidential confides. The E.C.'s own lawyers warn that a joint U.S.-European agreement to store the personal data, including credit card details, of millions of transatlantic air passengers for 15 years is unlawful, The Guardian relates. A New York State woman has been indicted on gun charges in a case that started with a screening of her luggage at Stewart International Airport, The Middletown Times Herald-Record updates.

Over there: A serving brigadier in the Pakistani Army has been detained on suspicion of links with an extremist group, The New York Times tells. Philippine security forces are on alert for possible Islamist attacks after militants were monitored arriving in Manila, Reuters reports. "Though Ghana is considered one of the most peaceful countries in Africa," a recent Islamist bombing in Nigeria "has sent warning signals to the security agencies to be on high alert," GhanaWeb relates. Some 62 terror suspects were taken into custody in the Irish Republic last year, more than 10 percent of the European total, The Journal sees an Interpol report finding.

Be afraid, be very afraid: "Calling it devastating, tragic, complex, heartrending, heartwarming, catastrophic, courageous and shameful, sources confirm that massive wildfires, geopolitical crises, AIDS, human rights violations, deadly shootings, Africa, tourists taken hostage, ethical and moral issues, child labor, and drug wars," The Onion reports. "While the Catholic Church, nuclear weapons, deadly Ebola outbreak, failing U.S. schools, the homeless, North Korea, and the resignation of high-level officials, reports indicate widespread corruption, a major environmental disaster, the crumbling housing market, blizzards, Indonesia's rapidly growing economy, fraud, and the plight of the elderly. Famine, sources later confirmed. 'We are in the midst of an unprecedented crisis,' an extremely high-ranking figure said in an exclusive interview, adding that tensions remain high while patience is running low. 'I'm afraid the worst has yet to come. The aftermath could be even more devastating.'"