CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Monday, Aug. 8, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly Our ball, we're going home: ICE cancels Secure Communities MOAs with 40-some states, saying felon deportation program doesn't need governors' approval to operate . . . Our bad, as always: TSA apologizes to pregnant woman after Denver screeners allegedly confiscate insulin and ice packs . . . Not close enough for government work: TSA not overseeing the badging of airport employees with unescorted access to security sensitive zones. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- After months of protest from Dem governors , the Obama administration is cancelling 40-plus Secure Communities memoranda of agreement , stating in a letter Friday that the felon deportation program does not need states' approval to operate, the Los Angeles Times ' Brian Bennett reports. "Today's announcement confirms ICE's status as a rogue agency," The Huffington Post 's Elise Foley quotes one critic in a survey of immigration activist "outrage." Feds: "Maybe Joe Biden is just charging the Secret Service what he would any renter. [But] this is the man . . . who allegedly referred to the Tea Party legislators as 'terrorists' holding up the government. Biden knows whereof he speaks," Jacob Heilbrunn jabs in The National Interest . Out of 2,300 visa applications from Afghans who have, often at personal peril, aided U.S. forces, the U.S. embassy in Kabul has reviewed only two, of which one was rejected, The New York Times ' Jack Healy relates — while the Los Angeles Times Laura King and David Cloud reports 31 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan when a special ops chopper is downed, the most deadly such incident in a decade of fighting, and The Christian Science Monitor 's Mark Sappenfield sees that tragedy underlining the " danger of Osama bin Laden-style raids." Homies: TSA generally fails effectively to oversee the badging of airport employees with unescorted access to sensitive security areas at airports, Security Management 's Matthew Harwood sees an IG report finding. A CBP investigator is suing Los Angeles County for throwing him into general population (law officers are typically segregated ) when jailing him on a (dropped) drunk driving charge, The L.A. Weekly 's Chris Vogel relates — while The Washington Post 's Susan Svrluga spotlights CBP agents ' varied lot at Dulles airport: "Every day you find something really unusual." Aboard a Coast Guard vessel Friday, DHS's Janet Napolitano swore in as U.S. citizens 10 foreign-born enlisted personnel, The New York Daily News ' Rhema Thompson and Corky Siemaszko report. State and local: Immigration activists and residents continue voicing strong opposition to the possibility of building one of ICE 's largest immigration detention centers in a Broward County suburb , The Miami Herald mentions. Virginia's Prince William County has filed a lawsuit against DHS demanding the release of records related to the status of criminal illegal immigrants it has detained and transferred to ICE since 2008, The Washington Times tells. An NYPD deputy chief testified last week before a federal grand jury probing how terror investigation info leaked out to reporters and targets, The New York Daily News notes. New Mexico's homeland office is urging all residents to remain observant of activity that might be considered suspicious, as part of the " See Something, Say Something " campaign, The Las Cruces Sun News notes. Local officials trained at an Air National Guard base last week "for a potential attack, similar to what happened at Fort Hood, Texas , in which numerous people were killed or injured," Meridian (Miss.)'s WTOK 11 News notes. Bugs 'n bombs: A "metallic box wrapped in tape with a protruding wire" that forced the evacuation of Rome's Colosseum yesterday was destroyed but contained no explosives, News24 notes. An L.A. man was held without bail after police found an improvised explosive device in his vehicle during a traffic stop, the L.A. Times tells — while The Prescott (Ariz.) Daily Courier spots border state gun store owners suing ATF to halt a new requirement that they alert authorities to multiple high-powered rifle purchases made over any five-day span. A north suburban man has pleaded guilty to posing as a doctor to buy a deadly puffer fish neurotoxin , which he intended "to use as a weapon" to kill his wife, The Chicago Tribune tells. The United States backs development of an Ebola virus vaccine , "but specialists said scientists must look into a number of areas in pursuing defenses against the potential bioterrorism agent ," The Lancet relates. Know nukes: Iran's fielding of advanced centrifuges to churn out uranium fuel sharpens concerns it could significantly shorten the time needed to produce nuclear bombs , The Wall Street Journal relates — as Reuters hears Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claiming anew that Tehran has no interest in an atomic bomb and that its nuke program is purely peaceful. "In the next few years Iran will be in position to detonate a nuclear device . . . An Iranian bomb is likely to unleash the most divisive partisan discord in this country since the 1949 debate about who lost China," Ray Takeyh predicts in the Post . "If the Obama administration is serious about assisting Saudi Arabia's nuclear program , they are bound to get clobbered from both the right and the left. As foreboding as Iran may be, Saudi Arabia worries Americans no less," a Washington Times op-ed objects. New U.S. radiation sensors, meantime, have formally entered service at Bangladesh's Port of Chittagong , notes Global Security Newswire . Close air support: TSA managers at LAX are undergoing mandatory sensitivity training after a transgender employee alleged she was ordered to dress like a man, pat down male passengers and use the men's restroom, The Los Angeles Daily News relays — while KMGH 7 News hears TSA apologizing to a pregnant woman one day after she said her insulin and ice packs were confiscated by Denver International screeners. "Out of an abundance of caution," a plane arriving at Philadelphia International from Scotland was towed to a remote area Friday and fruitlessly searched by the police bomb squad , the Inquirer informs. Checkpoint officers at the Knoxville airport seized a loaded gun from an air traveler's purse, the News Sentinel notes. Thanks to obscuring software, "the new TSA scan at Detroit Metro Airport won't show you naked," the Free Press promises. A Mexican military helicopter landed Saturday afternoon at Laredo International by mistake, a CBP mouthpiece confirms to The Houston Chronicle . Courts and rights: An attorney helping defend the Nigerian " underwear bomber " sought Friday to have the trial moved out of Michigan and statements thrown out that the defendant made to the feds while in the hospital , The Detroit News notes — while The Associated Press hears prosecutors predicting a three-week trial , starting Oct. 4. A lawyer for one of two Iraqi refugees indicted in Kentucky on terror charges says he should only be prosecuted in an Iraqi court or by a military tribunal , The Louisville Courier-Journal recounts. All three South Florida men , two of them imams, charged with financially abetting the Pakistani Taliban will remain in custody until trial after a judge denied bail last week for the youngest of them, NBC Miami mentions. Gray Bar Hotel: A former fry cook from Decatur who plotted to destroy the U.S. District Courthouse in Springfield nearly two years ago began serving his 28-year prison sentence this week, The Bloomington Pantagraph reports. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will once again consider whether the 22-year prison sentence imposed on would-be millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam by a Washington State federal judge was adequate, The Seattle Times tells. The alleged ringleader behind the notorious detainee abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq was released Saturday from a military prison after serving six-plus years of a 10-year sentence, USA Today tells. Over there: Convicted Canadian Gitmo detainee and former child-soldier Omar Khadr has hired two Toronto lawyers known for their work in national security and constitutional law, The Toronto Star updates. Two men accused of links to terrorism by the Canadian government plotted to blow up an airplane in the skies between Montreal and France, The Toronto Globe and Mail sees a French-language paper reporting from a 2004 document . The Somalia-based Al Shabaab claims to have killed "American trainers" in a raid on an African peacekeepers base, IPT News notes — while BBC News sees the Islamist insurgents withdrawing completely from the capital, Mogadishu . There is scant evidence supporting Beijing's claims that Chinese Muslims have returned home from Taliban training camps to carry out recent terrorist attacks , AP reports. Qaeda Qorner: A Brit and an Italian kidnapped in May in northern Nigeria have appeared for the first time in a video sent to Agence France-Presse in which they say their abductors are from al Qaeda . Muammar el-Qaddafi's embattled Libyan regime has distanced itself from his son's broadcast plans to recruit al Qaedaites to oppose the rebels , The New York Times tells. Al Qaeda fighters have fled western Mali following a bloody military offensive to dislodge them from the area, security sources tell Reuters — while Magharebia sees that same franchise, al-Qaeda-in-the-Islamic-Maghreb , pushing anew to spread their violent ideology among residents of the Sahel , and AP quotes France's top terror judge saying this North African wing has shown no ability to strike in Europe or elsewhere beyond its zone of operations. Bottle or glass: "As much of the world watches helplessly while drought-stricken Somalia deals with the ongoing effects of dehydration and malnutrition , one American company is taking charity to a new level," CAP News notes. "Officials for the Coors Brewing Company say the Coors Light Party Train is en route to East Africa with much needed supplies, cases of cold beverages , and a whole lot of fun. 'We hear they're very, very thirsty over there. And hot. Two things we know a little something about,' said CEO Peter Swinburn . 'So we've decided to send some relief to a whole new demographic . Why? Because we can.' As word spreads about the unique relief operation , Somali residents are flocking from rural areas to the war-ravaged capital of Mogadishu to await the arrival of the train that many hope will bring an end to the worst drought the area has seen in 60 years. Government officials say they're optimistic that Coors can do what the United Nations has so far been unable to." 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. 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