CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly Good news, bad news: Air travelers may soon be able to keep their shoes on at checkpoints, but liquid restrictions fated for longer half-life . . . Learning curve: Contraband seized at checkpoints has fallen by 90 percent since early post-9/11 days, airport director says . . . Food for fraught: If the post-9/11 CIA acts "like a military organization, shouldn't it have the (relative) transparency and accountability of a military organization?" These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- Air travelers will eventually be able to keep their shoes on to pass through security, but the restrictions on carrying liquids on board are likely to remain in place for some time, Josh Gerstein hears DHS's Janet Napolitano telling a Politico breakfast yesterday. "Amid the gripes and cost to airports, airlines and taxpayers, there are some who profit from the threat of terrorism and the efforts of the TSA," The Street's Joe Mont maintains, fingering "five big winners." Homies: The chaotic 2003 creation of DHS was "well worth the effort," but generated overlaps, shortfalls, confusion and dissatisfaction, Government Executive's Charles S. Clark quotes from a think-tank report. ICE's Secure Communities effort "is raising fears in Vermont, where Mexican farmhands . . . are a staple of the $560 million dairy industry," The Associated Press' Lisa Rathke relates. Ten years on, air travel is more secure, but comes with no guarantees, CNN's Mike M. Ahlers hears TSA head John Pistole propounding yesterday. Feds: If the post-9/11 CIA is "acting like a military organization, shouldn't it have the (relative) transparency and accountability of a military organization?" Danger Room's Spencer Ackerman asks — while Right Side News relays a Heritage Foundation Special Report on "establishing the right type of homeland security for the United States — one that is enduring and efficacious." The Joint Special Operations Command that gathers intel and leads raids on suspect terrorists has grown to 25,000 soldiers, The Washington Post's Dana Priest and William M. Arkin spotlight — as the Post's Greg Jaffe limns the "American era of endless war" since 9/11. 9/11 Now: "For the nation's foreign policy brain trust, [Sept. 11] announced one thing in particular: A new species of power finally had come of age," a Boston Globe op-ed observes. While the attacks "realigned politics in a way not seen since the height of the Cold War, their impact on voters, candidates and elections has waned, The Baltimore Sun assesses — as AP leads: "The country has moved on [but] to the presidents who lead it, Sept. 11 never ends." Were the attacks "a turning point in world history? It is too soon to tell," Joseph S. Nye waffles in a Christian Science Monitor op-ed — while Brian Michael Jenkins runs through "five myths about 9/11" for the Post, and check a CFR Expert Roundup ruminating 10 lessons learned. State and local: Uncle Sam has spent almost $5 million since 9/11 securing Utah's Flaming Gorge Dam, The Salt Lake Tribune spotlights — while a Fort Worth Star-Telegram audit sees Texas passing along DHS dollars to local authorities "without adequately defined goals," and The Palm Beach Post finds "evidence of waste and slipshod accounting" in Florida's homeland spending. A claims court has ordered a Mississippi woman to pay some $350,000 to FEMA for Hurricane Katrina-related fraud, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger relays. Three Massachusetts sheriffs are asking ICE to bring Secure Communities to their counties, just months after Gov. Deval Patrick nixed taking the controversial program statewide, The Boston Globe relates. Know nukes: "By the measure that matters most, U.S. efforts since 9/11 to prevent nuclear terrorism have been a resounding success," a CFR First Take leads. Experts fear advances in laser enrichment of uranium could help rogue states and terrorists amass bomb material, the Times tells. "What about the argument that de-alerting [missiles] can help reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism?" Arms Control Wonk wonders. A leaked U.N. watchdog report cites "increasing" concerns that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons, CNN notes — as RIA Novosti hears Iran's envoy to the United Nations urging international rejection of atomic arms. The 2008 Mumbai attack by Pakistani terrorists almost triggered an Indo-Pak war that might have gone nuclear, The Indian Express quotes an ex-U.S. envoy. Three Swiss men suspected of aiding a nuclear smuggling ring that supplied Libya and Iran should face charges this fall, AP adds. Going postal: San Diego is one of five cities developing a plan for the U.S. Postal Service to deliver antibiotics after a bioterror attack, KSDK 5 News notes — while The Waterloo (Iowa) Courier sees postal employees and local officials practicing bio-attack decontamination. A "suspicious package," featuring an apparent half-stick of dynamite and unidentified "white powder," prompted a hazmat response to an Illinois post office, The Chicago Tribune tells — as FOX News describes a similar to-do at an Illinois air base mail facility. Follow the money: Americans poured $1.5 billion into hundreds of 9/11-related charities, but an AP probes shows many of those nonprofits failing miserably.Treasury last month added three Jemaah Islamiyah activists to its list of specially designated global terrorists, The Long War Journal relates. "It turns out that fighting the financing of transnational threats is an effective way of disrupting the activities of the terrorist enemy," The Voice of America avows — and check a CFR Issue Brief delineating the "global regime" for countering terror finance. The feds have "settled a multimillion-dollar tax fraud case with an Islamic bank linked to terrorism financing networks. You just haven't heard about it," Main Justice leads — as The New York Post sees Libya's Muammar el-Qaddafi stashing $1.1 billion in two Gotham-based banks. Ports in a storm: The FBI is investigating the Union Fire Company's purchase of a jet-powered rescue boat with DHS dollars, The Bucks County (Pa.) Courier Times learns. "The seaport industry is asking that the U.S. Congress and administration make port security a top funding priority . . . rather than considering it for funding cuts," Port Strategy spotlights. "A full understanding and awareness of what goes on in the maritime environment . . . is critical in reducing the threat of terrorism," Marine Log maintains. Unmanned Surface Vessels and Unmanned Underwater Vehicles "could be built cheaply to easily penetrate port defenses," Security Management alerts. Close air support: Contraband seized from passengers has fallen by 90 percent since the rocky early days, Austin Straubel International's director tells The Green Bay (Wis.) Press Gazette — as The Torrance (Calif.) Daily Breeze spotlights LAX's "constantly evolving" security measures. Several passenger balloons caused security angst Labor Day by coming down on Air Force Academy grounds, The Colorado Springs Gazette relates. Euro-officials are charting a sharp increase in pilots being dazzled by pranksters' laser pointers, The Kyiv Post reports. As demand grows for more explosives-detection dogs, TSA "is studying ways to develop the perfect pooch for the job," USA Today tells. Terror tech: "New work in forensics, biodefense and cybersecurity blossomed after [9/11], but increased regulations have also stymied international collaboration," Scientific American surveys. The 9/11 Commission recommendation of a nationwide broadband network for emergency responders "continues to languish," CBS News follows up. Worried Mexicans seek radio-frequency tracking products, including scientifically dubious chip implants, as abductions there soar, The Washington Post spotlights. Post-9/11, "data cloaking" of potential U.S. terror targets has proven wildly uneven, AP, yet again, reports. While facial recognition software is more pervasive, the technology still struggles to ID people outside controlled settings, The Wall Street Journal updates. Cyberia: A massive new release of WikiLeaks cables reinvigorates calls for "decisive cyber-action against what some have described as a terrorist organization," FOX News notes. "An unprecedented act of cyberterror involving North Korea [was] the first publicly reported case of computer sabotage by one nation against a financial institution in another country," the Post reports. "Cyber War is confounding lawyers because attacks via the Internet can do enormous damage, and are sometimes carried out by civilians. How do you deal with that?" The Strategy Page studies — and see "Cyberwar: A Whole New Quagmire" in The FM Blog. "This is clearly cyberterrorism," a Lone Star official tells The Galveston County Daily News after the Anonymous group hacked into the email accounts of more than two dozen Texas law enforcers. Courts and rights: "Nine out of 10 major terrorism cases tried in U.S. federal courts over the past decade have been successful. But they may not tell the whole story," yet another AP retrospective opens. In the second of a three-part series scrutinizing the "legal War on Terror" since Sept. 11, The Atlantic looks at how each of the three branches has responded to the era's legal challenges. Justice has increasingly attempted to criminalize protected speech "by prosecuting numerous individuals (Muslims, needless to say) for disseminating political views the government dislikes," Salon slashes. Over there: Pakistani terror groups could strike unilaterally at the United States or collaborate with one another on an attack, a CPA Contingency Planning Memo counsels. The U.K.'s cash-strapped West Midlands Police are secretly having to hire private security staff to bolster a stretched counterterror unit, The Sunday Mercury reveals. After the 9/11 attacks, countries across Africa passed new anti-terror bills, but "some leaders use loosely worded laws to harass their opponents," AP, finally, surveys. The Right Profile: "DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announced today that TSA, the Border Patrol and all levels of U.S. law enforcement would be engaging in an all-out nationwide racial profiling binge on Sunday, Sept. 11," The Onion reports. "'If you have curly hair, a beard of any kind, or so much as a hint of a foreign accent, get ready, because you will definitely be interrogated,' said Napolitano, cautioning those with surnames longer than five syllables or containing Z's not to even look at a plane that day... 'My advice to anyone with even the slightest amount of melanin in their skin is just to stay inside and wait it out, because we're going to be handing out pat-downs and full-on detentions like there's no tomorrow.' Saying the success of the racial profiling spree would rely largely on public vigilance, Napolitano called on Americans to take note of anyone who looked different from themselves and either report such persons to authorities or 'just take them down yourself.'" 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