CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly Before it hits the fan: Under proposed DHS rule, anyone buying large amounts of explosive ammonium nitrate fertilizer would have to register in advance . . . Food for thought: Administration moving toward easing anti-terror restrictions hampering delivery of urgently needed famine aid in Somalia . . . Seaworld security: "U.S. Navy is teaching dolphins to track and catch terrorists threatening the nation's ships and harbors." These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- To forestall potential bombmakers, DHS yesterday proposed that anyone buying large amounts of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, including engineers seeking to use it as an explosive, would be required to register in advance, NBC's Pete Williams notes. "The most common denominator" between 1995's Oklahoma City bombing and last month's deadly Oslo blast "was the use of a large improvised explosive device based upon ammonium nitrate," Chemical Facility Security News' P.J. Coyle points out. Feds: The Obama administration is moving toward easing anti-terrorism restrictions in Somalia that have hampered delivery of urgently needed aid to famine-stricken areas, The Washington Post's Mary Beth Sheridan reports. "In an age when the biggest cases can often hinge on the smallest pieces of evidence . . . the FBI's Regional Computer Forensics Laboratories are fast becoming crucial law enforcement tools," The Associated Press' Lynn DeBruin spotlights. The FBI has named a longtime agent and counterterrorism expert to head its Portland bureau, The Oregonian profiles. Homies: A man who jumped the White House fence yesterday "was apprehended by uniformed Secret Service officers who approached him with guns drawn," CNN's John King recounts. A story about a DHS video that began at radio host Alex Jones' website and was then covered by FOX News "is just the latest example of how FOX has been moving increasingly toward pushing the conspiratorial views of Jones," Media Matters mentions. Despite industry rumblings, the Dec. 31 target date for 100 percent security screening of all airborne U.S.-bound cargo "is a guideline — not a mandate," a TSA spokesman tells Air Cargo World Magazine. State and local: Mississippi's top politicians are often accompanied by bodyguards at a cost of thousands of dollars, "but there have been few — if any — credible threats against them in the past four years," documents obtained by The Jackson Clarion-Ledger show. Consequent to Norway's youth camp massacre, the Secure Community Network, funded by the Jewish Federations of North America, plans a conference call today between Jewish summer camp officials and a top DHS official, The Jewish Telegraph Agency informs. Indianapolis has inked a 25-year lease at a former shopping mall to house the Regional Emergency Operations Center and Regional Department of Homeland Security offices, the Star says. Bugs 'n bombs: "CBP's Office of Field Operations is tasked primarily with an anti-terrorism mission," but its Nogales port of entry screeners recently managed to intercept psyillids that cause the disastrous "citrus greening disease," The Tucson Citizen relays. Fourteen Hidalgo County (Texas) Health Department employees laid off by budget cuts filled bioterror and early warning disease surveillance positions, The McAllen Monitor mentions. The BioSense program, created by the CDC after 9/11, is remaking itself to provide a cloud-based collaboration platform for federal, state and local health officials, Government Computer News notes. Investigators from DHS are looking into the discovery of "suspicious materials" — initially reported to be dynamite — at Minnesota's Fort Snelling complex, Minneapolis's KARE 11 News notes. Cold, dead hands: A violent crime task force is making inroads investigating firearms trafficking networks linking some of North America's biggest cities through Vermont, The Boston Globe relays — while the Los Angeles Times sees a $10,000 reward on offer to anyone productively fingering those involved in the theft of assault rifles from Fort Irwin. "Gun-ownership advocates are filing lawsuits in courts across the United States, hoping to get rulings that people have a constitutional right not only to keep firearms in their homes, but to carry them in public," The Wall Street Journal leads. Follow the money: "Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil is an al Qaeda money man who moves money and recruits across the Middle East and on to Pakistan," Forbe's leads in a report on new Treasury terror sanctions. To thwart the circulation of Fake Indian Currency Notes, New Delhi urges the Financial Action Task Force to include printing and distribution of counterfeit currency as an act terror financing, Daily News & Analysis notes — while The Financial Express sees the United States "keen on sharing information with India to combat terrorist financing." Today's Zaman, meantime, rips the FATF for adding Turkey to a list of nation's with deficient terror finance controls, while giving a pass to E.U. countries "that have continuously allowed the Kurdistan Workers' Party . . . to function and raise funds" — while El Universal discusses "a set of factors that pose a high risk of money laundering in Venezuela." Close air support: "An allegedly sticky-fingered screener . . . is being investigated after $100 went missing from a 16-year-old honor student's gym bag" at JFK airport, The New York Post reports. In a pilot project, Boston Logan is posting a second officer to the TSA check-in desk "to ask simple questions, looking for signs of anything out of the ordinary," WCVB 5 News notes. "Come fall, getting through airport security will be faster and less intrusive for many Florida passengers," The Palm Beach Post promises. "The latest distraction in the airport security circus came to town with the launch of a three week trial of a G-rated full body scanner at Sydney's international terminal," Crikey cracks. Coming and going: Because DHS did not ensure that Amtrak would steer grant funds to its most vulnerable nodes, "some rail stations and the traveling public may be at a greater risk to a potential terrorist attack," NBC Los Angeles hears a IG report rebuking. "This certainly gives me a sense of security," The Gothamist gags, in re: a "massive refrigerator" abandoned on the West 4th Street subway platform and not removed for several days. "Metro police officers and other agency security forces" are stepping up security and crime enforcement on St. Louis's MetroLink light rail network, the Post-Dispatch reports. An Indian state's Anti-Terrorism Squad is looking for a man spotted six hours before the recent Mumbai terror blasts asking about "Metro rail" routes, The Times of India informs. Terror tech: According to an internal FBI document, the bureau has intense interest in evaluating each new tech gadget development for its surveillance possibilities and challenges, Threat Level relates. "The U.S. Navy is teaching dolphins to track and catch terrorists threatening the nation's ships and harbors," a video report from Orlando's WESH 2 News details. "Claims in Pakistan that American drone attacks have killed thousands of civilians are undermined by research suggesting that in the seven years since 2004, 80 percent of the fatalities have been militants," The Economist informs. "There's just one major problem with drones — they're too damn loud," Danger Room remarks, referencing the intel community's "Great Horned Owl Program" designed "to hush them up." Drone technology is becoming increasingly affordable and accessible, NPR notes, citing CBP experiments "with drones the size of small birds for monitoring the border." Cyberia: A demo at this week's Black Hat conference remotely hacked a car alarm, unlocked the doors and started the vehicle, an exploit that could "just as easily knock out power grids and water supplies," Network World notes. "Is the U.S. government, including the CIA and Pentagon, an open target for a crippling cyberattack?" WorldNetDaily worries. Federal cybersecurity experts warn that the Stuxnet virus could become more menacing more than a year after it surfaced in an attack believed to be targeted against Iran's nuclear program, Reuters reports. "Congress should demand answers to questions like: What is the role of cyberwar in U.S. military strategy? Would the United States consider a pre-emptive cyberattack on another nation? If so, under what circumstances?" cyber-alarmist Richard A. Clarke counsels in a Boston Globe op-ed. "When you look at what is actually happening in [federal] cybersecurity, there is more position jockeying than there is real progress," Terry Zink's Cyber Security Blog broods. Courts and rights: A Pennsylvania man accused of attacking two FBI agents has told a judge he plans to plead guilty to soliciting terrorist attacks on an extremist website, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette relates. "The silence is deafening from the U.S. attorney's office on whether federal charges are being considered against Little Rock recruiter shooter, Abdulhakim Muhammad, The Arkansas News Bureau leads. After much debate, Pakistan has declined Indonesia's request to hand over Umar Patek, the prime suspect in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing, for extradition to the United States, The International News informs — while Agence France-Presse sees the Canadian government seeking Supreme Court approval to extradite Abdullah Khadr, suspected of supplying arms to al Qaeda, to the United States. Over there: The Oslo mass murderer has presented a long list of "unrealistic" demands to his lawyer, including that his mental condition be investigated by Japanese specialists, The Daily Telegraph tells. Canada's spy agency flatly denies practicing a controversial anti-terrorism tactic, known as "disruption," for which it got a firm knuckle-rapping from a federal watchdog, The Toronto Star tells. Not so surprisingly, perhaps, a founding member of the 1970s terrorist cell, the Baader-Meinhoff Group, was likely working for East Germany's Stasi, The Guardian reports. Urban Areas Security Grant candidate: "A zombie-preparedness study, commissioned by Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, indicates that the city could easily succumb to a devastating zombie attack," The Onion reports. "Insufficient emergency management personnel training and poorly conceived undead-defense measures have left the city at great risk for all-out destruction at the hands of the living dead," the Zombie Preparedness Institute finds. 'When it comes to defending ourselves against an army of reanimated human corpses, the officials in charge have fallen asleep at the wheel,' a somber institute spokesman charges. Government-conducted zombie-attack scenarios described on the State Department's website indicate that a successful, citywide zombie takeover would take 10 days, but according to ZPI statistician Dr. Milton Cornelius, the government's models fail to incorporate such factors as the zombies' rudimentary reasoning skills and basic tool use." 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