CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Friday, Sept. 16, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly Rest in pieces: Al Qaeda ops chief in Pakistan killed as intellicrats predict pending demise of the late Osama bin Laden's home base . . . Hair trigger: Cursory reference in Iranian press article prompted crusading solon Sue Myrick to cancel 9/11 anniversary appearances . . . Yet another reason to stay home: "In the airport of the future, security may begin even before you enter the terminal." These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- Al Qaeda's ops chief in Pakistan has been killed, apparently in a CIA drone strike, marking the latest in a series of such Very Important Terrorist assassinations, The Washington Post's Jason Ukman and Peter Finn relate. "Assuming sustained . . . operations against the group," al Qaeda's Pakistan base could be eliminated within two years, CNN's Pam Benson hears a Defense intel chief forecasting this week. "Could an increased emphasis on drone strikes lead to a paucity of intelligence material that is vital in meeting the challenges in the war on terrorism proactively?" United Press International relatedly inquires. Fifth columnists: Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., canceled all 9/11 anniversary appearances Sunday, saying her name had turned up in a "threatening" Iranian newspaper article decrying U.S. "Islamophobia," Salon's Justin Elliott updates. By portraying observant American Muslims as terrorists-in-waiting, biased FBI training materials "play into al Qaeda's hands," ex-counterterrorists tell Danger Room's Spencer Ackerman."What Does the FBI Know about Islam?" The New Yorker's Amy Davidson asks — while WorldNetDaily worriedly relays word that "Muslim-Americans increasingly are replacing veteran counterterrorism agents and analysts." Homies: Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., insisted Thursday that Janet Napolitano "needs to go" for letting terrorists know that flyers under 13 would no longer be patted down, The Hill's Keith Laing recounts. An amendment to the 2012 DHS Authorization Act would mandate an unclassified GAO report on DHS's analytic capabilities, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross approvingly relates in The Atlantic. Partisan bickering continues over feeding more money to FEMA, running short of cash due to the many natural disasters this year, NPR's Mark Memmott mentions. Seven CBP surveillance drones are chiefly used to monitor the borders, but increasingly are seconded to local authorities to help fight fires and survey flood damage, the Los Angeles Times' Brian Bennett spotlights. State and local: Apologizing, the mayor of Paterson, N.J., denies intending to suggest that withholding disaster relief from his city "would lead to a terrorist attack," The Bergen County Record records. Playing to his base as "a tough new challenger joined the race for his job," Sen. Scott P. Brown, R-Mass., urged Gov. Deval Patrick to support Secure Communities, The Boston Herald relates — while The Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette hears a city councilor extolling the disputed ICE program. Steps are under way to bolster security at an historic Arkansas courthouse after a gunman stormed an unsecured entrance, Little Rock's FOX 16 News notes. Lake County (Ohio) will accept a $120,000 Port Security Grant to install 23 cameras and five chlorine analyzers at two water treatment plants, The Willoughby News-Herald notes. Bugs 'n bombs: DHS spent $31 million on a "state-of-the-art" data center to monitor food threats, but critics charge "agencies are not using it to share information," Food Whistleblower relates. "Over the past decade, we learned a lot of hard lessons about what it means to be adequately prepared for diseases, disasters and bioterrorism," a Health Affairs Blog entry summarizes — while Grand Rapids' WZZM 13 News weighs 9/11's impact on hospital safety policies. "American Anthrax" (Times Books) "provides an intriguing and insightful account of a time in which Americans found it difficult to breathe easily," an NPR review reacts — while ABC News hears ex-HHS chief Tommy Thompson warning that it could happen again. Chasing the dime: One key legacy of 9/11, "the federal terrorism coverage backstop, has fulfilled its purpose, and backers of the program are hopeful that it will again be renewed," Business Insurance informs — as Insurance Journal recalls that 9/11 imposed insured risks worth some $32.5 billion in today's dollars. "Gene Codes is one of several Southeast Michigan businesses that . . . grew to fill an all-new government contracting market born from [9/11]," Crain's Detroit Business surveys. Carry-on liquids restrictions imposed in 2006 "may have inconvenienced airline travelers, but they also helped to breathe new life into personal care and beauty products," Dow Jones spotlights. "The Saudis produce, thanks to proceeds from the West's insatiable thirst for petroleum, far more jihadist philanthropy than any other Muslim country," The Weekly Standard states — while, in Politico, Bush-era Treasury Secretary John W. Snow extols the war on terror financing. Close air support: A recent flyer out of Boston Logan complains of being "totally humiliated" by a pre-boarding "chat-down" in a Baltimore Sun look at whether the latest in TSA behavioral detection constitutes "casual conversation or racial profiling." Denver International is one of the first airports to implement TSA's new policy that children under 13 no longer must remove their shoes at checkpoints, CBS Denver reports. A House panel has voted to require TSA, within 90 days of enactment, to install technology on scanners that will blur images of passengers' bodies, The Hill relates. "In the airport of the future, security may begin even before you enter the terminal," The South Florida Sun-Sentinel surveys Ports in a storm: "Seaports can be as much a terrorist target as airports, yet they pose an unwieldy problem when it comes to security," The South Florida Sun-Sentinel surveys. The Port of Los Angeles, nonetheless, has spent more than $230 million in security upgrades over the last decade, half funded by TSA, the rest from port revenues, KCET News recounts. Within a week of the 9/11 attacks, the Port of Corpus Christi's security force doubled and the Nueces County Sheriff began patrolling the waters, the Caller-Times recollects — as The New Haven Independent recalls the Port of Bridgeport making its summer marine police unit a year-round effort, and the Port of Stockton's top cop tells the Record: "The impact on our day-to-day activities has been huge." Courts and rights: A federal judge in Boston has delayed trial for an alleged would-be terrorist until Oct. 3, the Globe relates — as The Associated Press sees a Somali terror suspect interrogated on a U.S. warship making his first court appearance. A Washington State man held for allegedly trying to force two Marines off Interstate 5 could be tied to one of two men arrested in June for plotting to bomb a recruiting station, Seattle's KING 5 News quotes prosecutors. An illegal immigrant from Mexico will plead guilty in a Mississippi courtroom to membership in a group that allegedly created and distributed fake ID documents, The Hattiesburg American relays. Over there: The general running the U.S. Africa Command worries that three terrorist groups active there are sharing training and otherwise collaborating to attack U.S. interests, AP reports — as CNN sees State designating an Indian jihadi group as a terrorist organization. A U.K. student held for seven days after downloading an al Qaeda training manual for academic research has received almost $34,000 in compensation and an apology, The Guardian relates. In this year's annual E.U. opinion survey 73 percent of respondents support President Obama's efforts to fight terrorism, The Christian Science Monitor mentions. Kultur Kanyon: Nashville star Alan Jackson's treacly "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" was just "one of many country songs that came out in the months after 9/11, giving voice to the tragedy," The Tennessean surveys. "Hollywood's response to the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent war on terrorism couldn't be more different" from the film industry's epic World War II output, The Washington Times commemorates. "It's in art and pop culture's peripheral vision that the disaster comes into clearest focus," a Chicago Tribune critic contends — and see the third installment of Matt Zoller Seitz's Salon slide show evoking the complex pop cultural response to "the day that changed everything." Playwright Deborah Brevoort's "The Women of Lockerbie" tells the true story of Scottish women who collected 11,000 items of clothing from the wreckage of the Pan Am 103 bombing, washed them and returned them to the victims' families, Montana's Beartooth NBC mentions. Book Nook: "Broadway has yet to produce a significant play directly about Sept. 11 and no novel dealing with the attacks has been a top bestseller or come to redefine a changed collective psyche," Reuters rounds up. Looking back over the decade, even the best of books inspired by the 9/11 attacks "can't seem to do more than circle around a void," a Salon essayist judges, arguing that "fiction can't make those 3,000 violent deaths more significant than any others." The plot of Tom Clancy's latest thriller, "Against All Enemies" (Putnam), meantime, "is frightening: Islamic terrorists use Mexican cartel drug-smuggling tunnels to bring surface-to-air missiles into our country," The Associated Baptist Press previews. "I Found the Meaning of Jihad," a new Indonesian graphic novel, tells the true life story of former al Qaeda-linked militant Nasir Abas and how he turned from radical jihad, The Jakarta Post reports. Sleeps like a baby: "The publication of Dick Cheney's memoir, 'In My Time' (Threshold), has revealed the former vice president enjoys a fulfilling life unaffected by any sense of guilt or regret and there's absolutely nothing any of us can do about it," The Onion reports. "'This unique look at an otherwise intensely private man's inner thoughts shows us he couldn't be prouder of his life's work and will never feel one single moment of anguish over his actions no matter how desperately we want him to," book critic James L. Warner writes of the 576-page memoir's disclosure that Cheney would spend his retirement never second-guessing his advocacy of a disastrous war, the torture of detainees, illegal wiretapping, or tax cuts that created devastating budget deficits and crippled the U.S. economy. 'Nothing we do will ever change the fact that this man sleeps very soundly at night and, in fact, looks back fondly upon a long, rewarding career. You almost have to admire that.' The book also reveals that none of the former vice president's five heart attacks has caused him even the slightest amount of pain." See also, an Onion Infographic on the new memoir. 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