CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Friday, Sept. 9, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly Fruits of victory: Leftover Libyan mustard gas, anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, white phosphorous shells and landmines spark counterterror concern . . . What passes for bipartisanship: "To his credit, President Obama has continued many of the anti-terror policies initiated and effectively executed by former President Bush" . . . Enough already: "We need to leave [Sept. 11] behind. As a nation we have looked back for too long." These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- Fresh concerns have arisen over whether forces loyal to Libya's deposed Muammar el-Qaddafi could still have access to deadly mustard gas, The Washington Post's Simon Denyer reports. Although SA-24 anti-aircraft missiles have reportedly gone astray in Libya, lacking grip stocks they can't be shoulder-fired, lessening the threat, Popular Mechanic's Joe Pappalardo updates. Qaddafi's abandoned warehouses are bursting with 130-mm anti-tank rockets, white phosphorous mortar rounds and tens of thousands of land mines, Time Magazine's Abigail Hauslohner itemizes. 9/11 now: Counterterrorists are probing "specific, credible but unconfirmed" anniversary-linked threats to hit New York and Washington, USA Today's Kevin Johnson recounts. The editors of Popular Mechanics, again, have issued an updated version of "Debunking 9/11 Myths" (Hearst), the Post's Glenn Kessler takes note — and sort through a bulging grab bag of where-are-we-now thumb-suckers packaged by The New York Times as "The Reckoning: America and the World a Decade After 9/11." After all the Sept. 11 commemorations are concluded Sunday, E.J. Dionne Jr. counsels in, again, the Post, "we need to leave the day behind. As a nation we have looked back for too long" — while The Wall Street Journal's Yaroslav Trofimov learns that many Afghans have never even heard of this "9/11" Americans keep invoking. Feds: Defeating al Qaeda's brand of terrorism is "a many-year effort," The Washington Times' Eli Lake hears White House terror czar John Brennan telling PBS' Judy Woodruff — while the Los Angeles Times' John Hoeffel sees four-fifths of Californians polled recognizing an undiminished need to confront terrorism. "To his credit, President Obama has continued many of the anti-terror policies initiated and effectively executed by former President George W. Bush," House homelander Peter T. King, R-N.Y., applauds in The Hill — while Post columnist David Ignatius is irked that lawmakers "remain addicted to petty politics, even when it comes to reforms demanded in the name of Sept. 11 victims." The FBI sat on info linking the 9/11 hijackers to a Saudi family then living in Sarasota, The Miami Herald's Anthony Summers and Dan Christensen reveal — as Newsweek's Philip Shenon shows "how FBI headquarters dropped the ball on the last chance to stop 9/11." Bugs 'n bombs: Thousands of Ground Zero responders and denizens still battle a range of physical and psychological ailments, the L.A. Times surveys — as The Associated Press notes that identifiable remains are still lacking for some 1,100 Twin Towers victims, despite tens of millions spent on forensics. "Our medical and public-health readiness for some of the most serious bioterrorism threats, such as anthrax and smallpox, is improved," Senate homelander Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., assures in, again, The Hill. From bomb-sniffing dogs to pat-downs of fans, security will be tight at 13 NFL games and the U.S. Open tennis tournament on Sunday, AP spotlights. Land of Lincoln & Co.: Cook County will now release illegals jailed for misdemeanors despite ICE's wish they be detained for deportation, The Chicago Tribune tells. "In Illinois, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on 'readiness' since 9/11," largely for terror exercises, Chicago's ABC 7 News notes — while WEBZ 91.5 FM sees emergency managers seeking public input on a crisis response strategy. The Bay State, meantime, "has tapped the gusher of U.S. anti-terror funds, buying topnotch gear — which, in these 10 years of eerie calm, has seen little use," The Boston Globe surveys. More than 400 million DHS dollars have poured into Washington State, which locals say "has helped them prepare for a worst-case scenario and also to handle more common emergencies," The Tacoma News Tribune notes — as The Arizona Republic spots Phoenix "bracing for the possibility of federal security dollars being drastically cut or eliminated in 2012." Chasing the dime: "[O]ne of the most disturbing developments of the post-9/11 world [is] the growth of a national security industrial complex that melds together government and big business and is fueled by an unstoppable flow of money," The Guardian grumbles. Sony Corp. has hired as its new top security exec Philip Reitinger, once director of DHS's National Cyber Security Center, the L.A. Times tells. Other than the airport security challenges the one major difference for airlines from 10 years ago is all the extra fees they've added to base fares, The New York Times notes. TSA has purchased 300 more body scanners, bringing the number of AIT machines at checkpoints to 800, Bloomberg relates. Close air support: "Remember not having to take off your shoes or your belt and carrying a drink through security?" Phoenix's ABC 15 News wonders wistfully. "Thanks to a decade of American ingenuity and innovation," many of the security holes of 2001 have been patched, FOX News follows up. Though it was in Venice, Fla., that two 9/11 hijackers trained, local flight schools tell Fort Myer's WBBH 2 News they've taken the steps to avoid a rerun. Since 9/11, more than $500 million has bolstered security at LAX, the L.A. Times, once again, relates — as The Asbury Park (N.J.) Press profiles Newark airport screeners "driven by the spirit of 9/11." For now, TSA's Known Traveler program "will impact a very small number of flyers, but it has the potential to mean big changes in the security process in the long run," CNN spotlights. Coming and going: "Sweeping changes that have affected virtually every mode of transportation in the United States began almost immediately after hijacked airliners slammed into [their targets]," The Baltimore Sun surveys. The L.A. County Sheriff has heightened patrols and monitoring services on Metro Rail in deference to the anniversary, KCET News notes — as ABC 7 News sees Amtrak motivating a similar security surge in Denver. In yet another sign that people smugglers seek to end-run U.S. border control, Mexico has discovered a new tunnel, this one dug into a border storm drain, FOX News Latino relates. Courts and rights: A federal grand jury yesterday indicted an Arizona CBP agent for feeding sensitive docs to unauthorized individuals, AP recounts. A Somalian accused of aiding al Qaeda appeared in Manhattan federal court Thursday in his first appearance since being secretly arraigned in July, Reuters reports. Another Somali man detained more than two years on terror charges will be released to his family's home under strict conditions while awaiting sentencing, The Minneapolis Star Tribune relays. Lawyers for a Massachusetts defendant charged with abetting al Qaeda are asking a judge to lift an order that bars the defense from disclosing evidence, The Boston Globe relates. Over there: "The killing of bin Laden has not gotten the accolades that it deserves," the Post hears an ex-Saudi foreign intel chief chiding. An al Qaeda affiliate has claimed a briefcase bombing that killed at least 11 at New Delhi's High Court, Reuters reports. More than two dozen Hezbollah operatives are setting up a base in Cuba to plot revenge for a 2008 U.S. assassination, IPT News hears an Italian newspaper reporting. A terror suspect banned from London says that once anti-terror laws are watered down, he wants to resume plotting upon returning to the capital, The Evening Standard advises. Kultur Kanyon: Bay Area artist Michele Pred's latest show, "Confiscated," features "more than 1,500 pounds of items that had been confiscated by TSA officials at SFO security checkpoints," S.F. Weekly curtain-raises. For its part, the New York State Museum has the world's largest collection of Ground Zero artifacts, The Albany Times Union tells — while NY1 spotlights the NYU Art Therapy department's exhibition of 9/11-related patient pieces. "Tragedy may be a powerful impetus for great art — but Sept. 11, it's sad to say, resulted in a lot more bad songs than good ones," TheWrap regrets. The second entry in Salon's series of slide shows about pop culture after 9/11, meantime, covers three years, 2002-04 — while FOX Sports recalls St. Louis play caller Jack Buck's "patriotic poem the night baseball resumed after 9/11." Ground Zero for the Arts: The "CSI: NY" season premiere, coming to CBS on Sept. 23., "will mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks by in large part flashing back to that tragic day," TVLine tells. "What's worse than getting shouted at by 9/11 conspiracy theorists? Getting shouted at by them in the form of a comic book," Danger Room leads. "In the years since 9/11, we've seen everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Don DeLillo try to make sense of the senseless in one way or another," Slate suggests, spotlighting "the four brilliant 9/11 films that get overlooked" — while a Guardian critic charts "the rise and fall of the 9/11 movie," and McClatchy Newspapers mentions that "America has yet to experience a Sept. 11-related critical and box-office hit along the lines of "The Deer Hunter." No one remembers 9/11 like The New Yorker, The Christian Science Monitor maintains — as Al Jazeera asks "Who's winning the 9/11 propaganda war?" The Good Old Days: "As media coverage of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 ramps up this week, citizens across the United States collectively realized they would rather think about the terrorist attacks of 2001 than about anything else that has transpired in the subsequent decade," The Onion reports. "'The events of Sept. 11 were unspeakably tragic, but really, when you think about it, things have only grown more horrible and unbearable since then,' said Phyllis Bennett of San Jose, who considered 9/11 a notably less unpleasant topic than the Iraq War, the worldwide financial meltdown, Hurricane Katrina, the nation's debt burden, the deaths of 6,200 U.S. troops, China's rise into a global superpower, the housing market, relentless partisan bickering, millions of job losses, the war in Afghanistan, nuclear proliferation, unchecked climate change, declining household income, swine flu or the 9/11 Truth movement. While stating they felt 'kind of terrible' about it, Americans expressed a longing to return to those 'better days' of shared national agony in September 2001, when everybody truly believed things couldn't get any worse." 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