CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Friday, June 24, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly After decade-long post-Aryan Nations lull, violent anti-government and white supremacist activity reviving in the Inland Northwest . . . Government Work: Feds more vigilantly rooting out fraud in background checks as more security clearances are sought than ever before . . . Sharper than a serpent's tooth: TSA "VIPR missions" at transit hubs continue attracting media brickbats. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- "After a lull following the demise of the Idaho-based neo-Nazi Aryan Nations in 2000, anti-government and white supremacist groups and individuals may be reviving in the Inland Northwest," The Associated Press' Nicholas K. Geranios recounts. "That's not vandalism; it's domestic terrorism," The Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune chides, in re: property destruction inflicted by self-described anarchists on The Olympian and one of its photographers. Two Muslim prison converts, meanwhile, were busted in an FBI sting yesterday revolving around an alleged terrorist plot to attack a recruit processing station, The Seattle Times' Mike Carter recounts. Feds: An Ethiopia-born Marine Reservist who caused a terror scare near the Pentagon last week was charged Thursday with shooting at four military sites last fall, Politico's Reid J. Epstein updates. Federal inspectors are more vigilantly rooting out fraud in background checks as more security clearances are sought than ever before, The Washington Times' Jim McElhatton relates. Donations to the Council on American-Islamic Relations no longer are tax deductible, it being named among 275,000 tax-exempt organizations purged by the IRS, IPT News notes. All traffic in a several block perimeter around the White House was stopped Wednesday morning while Secret Service agents eyeballed a dubious dump truck, ABC News' Ann Compton reports. Homies: The Mexican government and immigrant rightsers condemn the Border Patrol shooting of a man crossing into the United States, the Los Angeles Times' Richard Marosi reports — while The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe hears the patrol union defending the agent's action. "More and more, [TSA agents are] giving airport-style pat-downs and screenings of unsuspecting passengers at bus terminals, ferries, and even subways," Mother Jones' Jen Phillips writes in yet another media bashing of VIPR missions. Asking ports of departure to screen 100 percent of U.S.-bound containers was probably not the wisest course, Agence France-Presse hears DHS's Janet Napolitano regretting in Rotterdam. A top Virginia official is preparing to sue DHS for info on illegal immigrants his county delivered into ICE's custody that later returned to his streets, FOX News' Judson Berger relates. State and local: "It was foolish enough for Sen. John McCain to link wild fires to illegal immigrants," but in backing him up, the Cochise County Sheriff seems intent merely on a FOX News spot, an Arizona Republic columnist condemns. NASCAR's Bucyrus 200 race in Wisconsin this weekend involves "local, state and national law enforcement who have plans in place for everything from traffic control to terrorist attacks," The Sheboygan Press updates. San Francisco Police chief Greg Suhr seems open to a "Portland-style resolution" of concerns pertaining to its Joint Terrorism Task Force pact with the FBI, the Bay Guardian relates. Virginia is losing $14 million in DHS grants "to purchase equipment, such as radios and surveillance cameras, and for training exercises," The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. No nukes: A GAO report urges DHS and HHS to adopt formal terms for evaluating WMD threats, Global Security Newswire notes. The real significance of Iran's second launch of a Rasad-1 satellite in two years lies in its Safir booster rocket, which serves also as a ballistic missile, United Press International informs. "Japan has become an unlikely laboratory for the United States to study modern warfare after the March nuclear accident created conditions like those faced if a terror group set off a 'dirty' radiological bomb," The Wall Street Journal leads — as The Sydney Daily Telegraph sees a boatload of 800 cars arriving from Japan being tested for radiation by the nuclear watchdog after other Japanese vehicles proved radioactive. Chasing the dime: A key al Qaeda terror financer "invested millions of dollars with a Chicago futures brokerage firm — and now the U.S. government wants to take control of the remaining cash," The Chicago Tribune tells. Yet again, ICE auditors are cracking down on employers of undocumented workers, and "the audits are not going to stop anytime soon," Corporate Counsel alerts biz bosses. From a simple airport scan to high-tech bio detection, "homeland security is big business. Security consultants say it's no surprise that the industry has seen massive growth since [9/11]," FOX News surveys. India's homeland market is expected to double to $16 billion by 2018, "opening up vast opportunities for the private sector," The Economic Times cites experts. Despite pressure to cut Pentagon spending, Boeing Co. bets on robust growth opportunities in cyberprotection, The Wall Street Journal, again, leads. Close air support: With the voting wrapped up as of Wednesday, the American Federation of Government Employees will be representing some 43,000 TSA airport screeners, Federal Times tells. Travelers frustrated with airport security may catch a little relief later this year with the launch of a trusted traveler pilot program, Reuters cites from TSA testimony. With the Texas Legislature mulling criminalizing TSA "groping," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, "says he's sympathetic — but skeptical about the state's authority to interfere with federal agents," The Dallas Morning News mentions. "We have seen the checkpoint of the future, and we are not impressed," The New American flatly refuses. Coming and going: Senators and experts agreed at a Wednesday hearing that railways are unlikely to ever be as secure as airports, The Hill follows up. The FBI seeks public help IDing a "suspicious" character surveilled in a restricted area along Charlotte's light rail line, FOX 8 News notes. Puget Sound marine police were trained this week on Coast Guard-provided radiation-detectors, The Kitsap (Wash.) Sun says. "Do you still worry about terrorism and security in Port Jefferson?" The Port Jefferson (N.Y.) Patch queries readers. India's Intelligence Bureau warns "of a new terror plot — to turn ships into deadly bombs, but no lessons appear to have been learnt from the Mumbai attacks," CNN-IBN leads. Courts and rights: Federal prosecutors have provided the so-called "underwear bomber" with new discovery, including photos of his burned genitals, The Detroit News notes —as The Eugene Register-Guard sees an Oregon terror suspect's attorneys seeking FBI surveillance records of their client as part of his due-process rights. A Toledo woman who attempted with her husband to fund Hezbollah has been handed three-plus years behind bars, the Blade relates. A Long Island man charged with running an illegal money-transfer biz wants separate trials regarding two alleged customers because one is the failed Times Square bomber, The New York Post notes. Security officials probing a terror plot in Norway seek testimony in New York from three American al Qaeda recruits turned federal witnesses, AP reports. Over there: A Danish court upheld the guilty verdict of a Somalian who attacked a Mohammed-caricaturizing cartoonist with an ax, AFP recounts. Canadian counterterrorists are edgy as the 9/11 decennial looms in the wake of Osama bin Laden's demise, the RCMP's security chief tells Postmedia News. An 8-year-old Pakistani girl was forced to don a suicide vest to attack security forces, Reuters reports — as MSNBC sees 40 Yemeni al Qaeda militants battling their way out of prison in the latest manifestation of the political crisis' emboldening effect. As to which, a dissident Yemeni general claims the opposition, in power, will be a more diligent anti-terror partner than the embattled president, The New York Times tells. U.S.-born jihadist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki likely played an important support role in the 9/11 attacks, The Washington Times quotes from a new book. Book Nook: "I salute Graham for still having an active libido, but sex scenes aren't what you want from a former U.S. senator in a book about terrorism," a St. Petersburg Times review of Bob Graham's thriller "Keys to the Kingdom" (Vanguard) rebukes. "A well-written novel, 'Heroic Measures' [Pantheon] by Jill Ciment effectively combines three plot elements: a real estate transaction, a sick dog and terrorism in New York," The Jewish Chronicle chronicles. L.L. Reaper's "Black Widow and the Sandman" (Hourglass) "begins with children in Cuba suffering an agonizing death [from] a toxin released by a terrorist organization hell bent on genocide," The American Chronicle recounts. "The book world plans a low-key remembrance of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks," with most of the pertinent works being reissues and updates of older works, AP surveys. Kultur Kanyon: "One man's 'Klinghoffer' might be another's 'Inglorious Basterds,' Quentin Tarantino's revenge fantasy against Nazis, or Steven Spielberg's 'Munich,' another opus on terrorism," The St. Louis Jewish Light philosophizes. Whether crimes against property constitute acts of terrorism "is one of two nagging questions running through Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman's thoughtful documentary, 'If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front' [Lucky Hat]," The New York Times reviews. Anton Corbijn, director of 2010's international assassin thriller "The American" (Focus Features), "treads close to territory" with the adaptation of John Le Carre's novel about terrorism, "A Most Wanted Man" (Scribner), Hollywood.com comments. Stop the presses, we want to get off: "Still struggling to cope in the aftermath of an F3 tornado that ripped through town last week, citizens expressed gratitude to this newspaper for its meritorious in-depth coverage of the tragedy, lauding the publication's ability to deliver aggressive reporting while remaining sensitive to the victims' humanity," The Onion, fiercely campaigning for a Pulitzer Prize, reports. "Though the tornado claimed 46 lives and caused more than $40 million in property damage, many in this devastated community told reporters they could take solace in the fact that such a responsible news organization was on site to contribute hard-hitting yet pointed commentary that skillfully captured every nuance of the storm's ruinous toll. 'I've lost everything — my home, my job, everything,' said former bank teller Amber Devoe. 'But The Onion's unwavering commitment to first-rate journalism has given me the courage to continue on.'" See, too, in The Onion: "Reporter Spends Month Undercover In Mass Grave." 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.