CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Friday, July 29, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly Fort Hood, Mark 2: Muslim-American private who had gone AWOL charged with possession of explosives and plotting to attack Texas Army base . . . Target-in-chief: Illegal alien from Uzbekistan indicted for allegedly threatening President Obama, then obtaining explosives and a machine gun . . . On the other hand: TSA being sued by ex-boxer after barring him from screener work because he has only one hand. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- A Muslim American Army private who had won conscientious objector status and then went AWOL after being charged with possession of child pornography was arrested yesterday near Fort Hood, which he admits planning to attack with explosives he had purchased, a CNN team reports. The Obama administration accused Iran Thursday of facilitating an al Qaeda pipeline that routes cash and recruits across Iranian territory into Pakistan, with Treasury imposing sanctions on six individuals allegedly involved, The Washington Post's Joby Warrick relates. Feds: An undocumented Muslim from Uzbekistan has been indicted for allegedly threatening to assassinate President Obama, then obtaining explosives and a machine gun, FOX News' Edmund DeMarche recounts. "While we have made significant progress [in preparing a response for bioterrorism], the threat is still real, and we still are not adequately prepared," Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., alerts in a Hill op-ed. An FBI course designed to train new recruits in the interrogation of Middle Easterners "depicts Muslims as Seventh Century simpletons," Danger Room's Spencer Ackerman assails. Homies: TSA can't confirm the IDs of thousands to whom the FAA has issued licenses but has located 27 who should not have held them because of terror ties, The New York Times' Matthew L. Wald sees the DHS IG reporting. Thanks to a 2009 imbroglio over a DHS report assessing violent right-wing extremism, the department has only one analyst assigned to that issue, even as experts term the non-Islamist terror threat "significant and growing," Think Progress' Ben Armbruster broods. A bill wending through Congress would give DHS unprecedented power to ignore environmental laws on thousands of square miles of federal lands, Chris Clarke spotlights for Los Angeles' KCET. A former Queens boxer is fighting a TSA decision barring him from screener work because he was born with only one hand, CBS New York notes. State and local: The director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency told Senate homelanders Wednesday that the state's emergency comm has improved since 9/11, thanks in large part to federal funding, The Bangor Daily News notes. A Massachusetts-Rhode Island bridge that linked the hometowns of a couple killed in the 9/11 attacks was dedicated in their memory yesterday, The Boston Globe reports. New Mexico and Washington,the last two states still issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, have both stepped up efforts to ensure license holders actually live in-state, Stateline.com spotlights. New York's A.G. has launched a probe of sports agent Tara Modlin and her 9/11 skating charity after an investigation found that her nonprofit didn't send a dime to terror victims, The New York Post reports. Chasing the dime: The controversial private security contractor formerly known as Blackwater is moving its corporate HQ from North Carolina to the Washington, D.C. area, The Washington Post reports. Despite budget cuts and fiscal austerity measures implemented across advanced economies, visiongain calculates that the value of the global homeland security industry will reach as much as $194.3 billion in 2011, iStockAnalyst relays. "It's war out there, and a cyberweapons industry is exploding to arm the combatants," BusinessWeek, similarly, spotlights. France's Safran has completed a $1 billion purchase of U.S. facial recognition software maker L-1 Identity Solutions, Reuters reports. Taser International, meantime, is "teaming up with crazy-ass Australian electric gun company Metal Storm to produce a bowel-liquefying stun shotgun called — seriously — MAUL," Danger Room relates. Bugs 'n bombs: Warsaw officials are probing a Polish supplier who admitted supplying bomb-making chemicals to the Norway massacre suspect, The Associated Press reports. Violence from animal rights extremists is a growing concern, prompting last week's major Europol conference that discussed, inter alia, worrisome use of IEDs, Dairy Herd Network relates. "Americans are used to drinking from the kitchen tap without fear of harm, even though water utilities might be vulnerable to terrorist attacks," R&D Magazine relays, touting new public water system protection software. A Russian squad will fight off a terror attack on an army motorcade carrying nuclear shells in a joint security drill to be held at a Wyoming training base early next month, The Voice of Russia says. Close air support: Two brothers have been arrested and accused of a violent attack on an American Airlines pilot who had booted one of the men off a flight from Miami, USA Today tells. A woman was arrested at Bob Hope Airport after security turned up a loaded handgun in her carry-on, The Burbank (Calif.) Leader leads — as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution sees two passengers arrested within a 20-minute span at Hartsfield-Jackson International also carrying firearms. Bahrain security forces arrested a British man on suspicion of carrying explosives aboard a plane, but a search of the aircraft failed to find anything threatening, Emirates 24/7 tells. Afghan security forces foiled a plot by insurgents to attack Kabul International after finding a cache of weapons and five army uniforms, Reuters reports. Troubled waters: "Ten years on, and I have to admit that I was only half surprised to find out recently that TWIC was still not functioning as intended," a Port Strategy op-ed writer observes, in re: TSA's secure ID venture. Texas' Harris County is seeking more federal dollars for security at the Port of Houston, KUHF 88.7 FM News reports. The Coast Guard Reserve's Port Security Unit 307 has deployed from New Jersey to join a naval Maritime Expeditionary Squadron safeguarding waterways in the Middle East, Officer.com relays. "Somalia's pirates don't see themselves as pirates. Displaying admirable public relations savvy, they call themselves 'saviors of the sea,'" Scripps Howard News Service notes. Courts and rights: A Boston family vowed to have their day in court despite a New York judge's ruling to drop Massport from the last pending 9/11 wrongful death lawsuit, the Herald relates. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, at a Tuesday presser, stood by having named to a judgeship a Muslim lawyer who'd defended post-9/11 detainees, Politico reports. Having completed a one-year pretrial diversion in lieu of facing felony charges for shining a green laser on a police chopper, a St. Louis man admitted his wrongdoing to reporters, the Post-Dispatch reports. "Within weeks of the Oklahoma City bombing, the Senate voted 91 to 8 to pass the Comprehensive Terrorism Protection Act of 1995, which cut back sharply on state death-row inmates' access to federal courts, The New York Times reminds. Over there: "I know of no country on this planet that provides safe haven for individuals like Anders Behring Breivik," which is not the case with Islamist terrorists, Patrick Dunleavy insists in an IPT News op-ed. (Technically, the perpetrator of the Oslo catastrophe "is not a terrorist, he's a mass murderer," a Guardian op-ed objects.) "Photography's apparent role in terrorism planning" is the focus of anti-terror training sessions to be offered to Brit police forces nationwide, Amateur Photographer reports. The Vast Wasteland: Debuting in November, TLC's"All-American Muslim" is a reality show about the lives of five Muslim families in Dearborn, Mich., Time Magazine heads-ups. Howard Gordon, executive producer of "24" (FOX), "will be looking at terrorism from a different angle in his new series, Showtime's "Homeland," developed from an Israeli format and premiering Oct. 2, USA Today curtain-raises. Watchers of CBS's "Hawaii Five-O" reboot who were also fans of "Happy Town" (ABC) will recognize Lauren German who plays an ex-DHS officer assigned to watch the island cops in the coming season, The Examiner informs. By the end of the AMC series "Breaking Bad," a Huffington Poster posits, "I predict 'Heisenberg' won't just be hunted by the DEA, he'll be popping up on the screens of Homeland Security as a terrorist threat." Kultur Kanyon: The controversy-sparking Nonesuch Records album cover image for Kronos Quartet's recording of Steve Reich's "WTC 9/11" features a graphically enhanced version of Masatomo Kuriya's shot of the second plane approaching the twin towers, NPR spotlights. ("The cover art is, to say the least, unsubtle," the Los Angeles Times blogs.) Horror flick master Tobe Hooper's maiden novel, "Midnight Movie" (Three Rivers) is "a tale of movies, meth, domestic terrorism, and a mysterious STD that makes your junk leak blue goo," Bloody Disgusting alerts. In Alex Kava's new mystery, "Hotwire" (Doubleday), "the possibility of bioterrorism emerges when hundreds of schoolchildren become violently ill at two high schools," The North Platte (Neb.) Bulletin reviews. "Many things have changed in the world in the decade following [9/11], but the mandate for filmmakers tackling the topic is still the same: tell a good story and don't get preachy," The Hollywood Reporter remarks. Going, going, gone: "Showing its impatience with the debt ceiling stalemate in Washington, China today took the extraordinary step of putting the United States of America on eBay," The Borowitz Report reports. "Officials at the online auction site said they believed it was the first time a major Western nation had been listed for sale there 'if you don't count Greece,'" Andy Borowitz writes. "In Beijing, the Chinese Finance Ministry said that it had considered waiting until Aug. 2 to see if the United States would ever pay back its multitrillion-dollar obligations, but ultimately decided to cut its losses. 'We think we'll attract a buyer on eBay,' the Ministry said.'Say what you will about the United States, it's still one of the top fifty countries in the world.' The sales listing for the United States contains some interesting information, such as China's description of the former superpower as being in 'fair to average condition.' The listing also includes the stipulation 'government sold separately,' which the Finance Ministry took great pains to explain: 'We thought that including the government in the sale might turn off potential buyers.'" See, also, in Glossy News: "Republican Senators Order Out for Chinese as Debt Ceiling Talks Continue." 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.