CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Friday, Aug. 5, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly Not all that: New info mined from Osama bin Laden's lair suggests U.S. "has been vastly overstating al Qaeda's power for a full decade" . . . I have here in my hand a list: U.S. security firm says it has more than 1 million people and groups on anti-terror database it wants to market . . . Rolling Dutchman: NJ Transit bus found idling at terminal for five hours with its driver dead inside points to serious security issues. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- "New information discovered in Osama bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan suggests that the United States has been vastly overstating al Qaeda's power for a full decade," John Mueller essays in Foreign Affairs. Speaking at a Las Vegas hacker conference, former CIA counterterrorist Cofer Black drew parallels between the terror threat that emerged before 9/11 and the emerging cyberthreat now, Reuters' Tabassum Zakaria reports. Homies: President Obama's new counterterrorism strategy "may signal that monitoring of social networks will broaden beyond what DHS already does," CNET News' Declan McCullagh comments. Even before the July 22 terror attacks in Norway, DHS was hyping fears about terrorism coming from average Americans," Alex Newman alleges in the Bircherite New American. "DHS has ludicrously denied that a video it released . . . contains 'racial overtones,' despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of people depicted as terrorists in the clip are white middle-class Americans," Info Wars' Paul Joseph Watson scoffs. Feds: "Details have emerged of a major turf war" between the CIA and State over whether "CIA drone attacks in Pakistan might at times be causing more harm than good," The Bureau of Investigative Journalism's Chris Woods reports. A special team of 15 FBI experts arrives in India today to learn "counterterrorism tactics in investigating diabolic terror attacks from the Mumbai police," The Hindustan Times' Debasish Panigrahi curtain-raises. A federal judge this week rejected arguments that the CIA should be held in contempt for destroying videotapes allegedly showing the torture of terror detainees during interrogations, CNN's Kiran Khalid recounts. State and local: Justice's challenge to a new Alabama law "is likely to lead to years of courtroom wrangling and help define the roles of federal and state governments in dealing with illegal immigrants," The Wall Street Journal surveys. For months, rights groups have asked Justice to join their court fight against Georgia's tough new immigration statute, The Atlanta Journal Constitution leads. Alabama's Jefferson County seeks FEMA financing to build community storm shelters, The Birmingham News relates — while The Clovis (N.M.) News Journal spots the Curry County Commission voting to explore an automated security system at the county courthouse. Arizona A.G. Tom Horne cautions donors wishing to fund border fence construction to contribute solely to the state's official website, The East Valley Tribune tells. Chasing the dime: The prime mover behind that fence fund, meanwhile, "is telling would-be donors they may be able to get a tax deduction out of the whole thing," but don't count on it, Capitol Media Services mentions. Wilmington's Regulatory DataCorp says it has more than a million people and groups on an anti-terror database it wants to market to government and private-sector clients worldwide, United Press International informs. In a bid to germinate new jobs, DHS has announced that it will help more immigrant entrepreneurs qualify for permanent residency, The New York Daily News notes. A bipartisan bill would bar the exploitation of articles of incorporation for purposes of terrorism and money laundering, Global Financial Strategy relates. The threat of attacks by al Qaeda-linked operatives in Mali has cost the West African state $110 million in lost tourism receipts and 8,000 jobs, Reuters reports. Bugs 'n bombs: "Repeated and constant cyberattacks against the United States have turned the country's assessment of national security threats on its head," CNN leads. As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, researchers are perfecting technology that tracks responders so they can rescue others more safely, The Associated Press reports. St. Mary Medical Center joined this week with 14 medical agencies in a bioterror drill, The Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram tells — while BioPrepWatch cites a Texas A&M study that "points to evidence that the threat of bioterrorism development in some countries is very real." A "particularly alarming" feature of the Oslo terrorist's manifesto "is his belief that anthrax is 'one of the most effective weapons' and an instrument to help him achieve his goal," an IDSA Comment comments. Close air support: The TSA director at Glacier Park International Airport asked a popular local band "to put together a peppier version of the rather dry TSA video now shown to passengers at the checkpoint," MSNBC spotlights. A college science project with a "suspicious appearance" prompted evacuation of an Omaha terminal, KETV 7 News notes — while the Virginian-Pilot sees police citing a Richmond man for carrying a loaded handgun into Norfolk International. "Skeptics of the current TSA system, which treats every passenger like a potential terrorist, have been divided over the wisdom of using Israel's psychological screening [here]," Reason surveys. On track: An NJ Transit bus found idling at NYC's Port Authority terminal for nearly five hours with its driver dead inside points to serious security issues, The Bergen County Record reports, reasonably enough. Rising from the destruction inflicted in the 9/11 attack, the Gotham transportation authority's new, $1.4 billion Fulton Street Transit Center has reached a milestone with the opening of an entrance, RailwayAge Magazine mentions. A closer look at Chicago's $10 million investment in 50 full-time police officers to patrol the rail and bus system "reveals a less significant outlay," the Tribune tells.A pretrial investigation into charges pertaining to last April's Minsk subway station bombing has been completed, Belarus News quotes a deputy prosecutor. Here come de judge: An AWOL soldier accused of planning to blow up a Texas restaurant frequented by Fort Hood troops could face more charges, AP hears a U.S. magistrate stating yesterday. A Bay State judge has rejected a bid to dismiss some allegations against a Massachusetts man accused of providing support to al Qaeda, The Quincy Patriot Ledger relays. The prosecution case against arms trafficker Viktor Bout, charged with agreeing to arm Colombian terrorists, is strong enough to bring him to trial, Courthouse News Service hears a federal judge ruling. A Georgia jurist, meantime, has reinstated bond for a defendant in a Sovereign Citizen case, accused of waging "paper terrorism," after he spent two weeks in jail for courtroom disruptions, The Rockdale Citizen says. An Australian magistrate has frozen assets from a book penned by ex-Gitmo inmate David Hicks about his incarceration, The Voice of America mentions. Over there: A Saudi court opened trial this week of the "al Qaeda Lady," the first woman there accused of involvement in jihadi activities, Agence France-Presse reports. A senior al Qaeda leader rumored to have been killed in a Predator strike has popped up on a propaganda tape eulogizing Osama bin Laden, The Long War Journal relates. Muammar el-Qaddafi's heir says he is forging an (obviously not so) secret alliance with radical Islamists among the Libyan rebels to drive out more liberal-minded confederates, The New York Times tells. A U.K. security study ranks Colombia as the tenth most vulnerable nation to terrorism, Colombia Reports reports. Thanks to a renewed IRA threat, relatedly, Britain is now at greater risk from terrorist attacks than any other Western nation, The Belfast Telegraph tells. Kulture Kanyon: South African DJ Ngizwenkosi Mchunu, who hosts a Zulu music radio program, is suing Durban's King Shaka International, whose security officers seized his traditional cattle hide shield because it allegedly "carried foot-and-mouth disease," The Johannesburg Times tells. With the Oslo massacre, "the world stood in shock as Norway fell victim to precisely the kind of extremist violence" Swedish novelist Stieg Larsson, author of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" (Vintage), had warned of, Mother Jones muses. A novel about Islam's place in America, Ann Waldman's "The Submission" (Farrar, Straus), "doesn't rely on the real yet receding threat of terrorism . . . or hyperbole about how the United States is on the verge of persecuting Muslim Americans," The New York Press reviews — as MDD Newswire touts Harry Deshpande's "The Homegrown" (CreateSpace), about a Danish-born Muslim driven to violence against his homeland. "One of the most deadly imaginable terrorist attacks was set forth in the 1975 Thomas Harris novel 'Black Sunday,' which was later made into a frightening movie of the same name," The Tampa Tribune rates. Screen Tests: Could Kathryn Bigelow's "Kill Bin Laden" (Sony), a fact-based drama about America's hunt for the terrorist icon, now slated to open on Oct. 12 of next year, "affect the 2012 presidential election?" the Los Angeles Times asks. "By depicting assimilated, modernized Muslims, Bollywood — without even trying — deromanticizes and thereby disarms fanatical Islam," a Reason contributor contends in "Bollywood vs. Jihad" — and check The Washington Times on reaction to Rakesh Ranjan Kumar's "Dear Friend Hitler" (Amrapali Media Vision), a Bollywood flick inspired by letters Mahatma Gandhi sent to the Nazi dictator and "an inept travesty that has been called a real-life 'Springtime for Hitler.'" Uproar over a Tennessee mosque construction project continues to draw national attention as PBS prepares to focus on Rutherford County's Islamic community for a Sept. 11 doc "Muslims in America," The Murfreesboro Daily News Journal notes. Urgent federal advisory: "In a hastily called press conference broadcast live on all major television networks this morning, Food and Drug Administration commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg implored every citizen of the United States to induce vomiting immediately," The Onion reports. "'Please, everybody, there's no time to explain. Just gag yourselves, drink ipecac, do whatever is necessary to puke everything out right now — all of it,' Hamburg said moments before jamming her index and middle fingers deep into her throat and violently disgorging the contents of her stomach all over the lectern. 'Do it now! Now, now, now!' As of press time, the FDA released a statement saying that everyone should have vomited by now and informing those who hadn't that it was 'too late.'" See, also, in The Onion: "Bachmann Says Unexplained Blackouts From Which She Wakes Up Covered In Blood Won't Affect Ability To Lead." 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