CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly Declare that on your 1040: "Are hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly being stolen through tax fraud being funneled to terrorists?" congressman queries . . . The case against progress: Cobb County "should abandon its light-rail proposal because it would become a magnet for terrorist attacks," Georgia Tea Party advises . . . Bring back the Jheri Curl: Another flyer "outraged and humiliated" by TSA pat-down of her Afro for concealed explosives. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- Rep. Rich Nugent, R-Fla., fears that "some of the hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly being stolen through tax fraud might be being funneled to terrorists," The Tampa Tribune's Elaine Silvestrini relates. The Financial Action Task Force, meantime, is moving to more closely link corruption, tax evasion and tax haven issues to its eforts to stop money laundering, Thomson Reuters reports. In notorious tax havens such as Panama, "anonymity sets the stage for arms smuggling, drug running, human trafficking and even terrorism," The Guatemala Times' Tereza Coraggio adds. Feds: Airline trade groups are fighting President Obama's plan to raise fees on airlines and passengers to pay for aviation security and air-traffic control, The Associated Press' David Koenig recounts. There were "murmurings of possible terrorist investigations as the feds were busy raiding seven IHOP restaurants across Ohio and Indiana on Tuesday morning," Network World's Ms. Smith leads. "The Obama administration is assembling bases for counterterrorism drones in the Horn of Africa and Arabian Peninsula as part of a campaign to attack al Qaeda affiliates in Somalia and Yemen," The Washington Post's Craig Whitlock and Greg Miller reveal. Homies: Citing a supportive advocacy group poll, House homelander Peter T. King, R-N.Y., vows to press ahead with hearings focusing on Muslim radicalization in the United States, Homeland Security Today's Mickey McCarter relates. According to a GAO report, it's still unclear how effective TSA's use of Behavioral Detection Officers really are, Mother Jones' Adam Serwer briefs. "If terrorists the TSA misses don't bring down your next flight, the equipment it damages might," Becky Akers blasts in a New York Post op-ed. DHS and Commerce seek comments on the creation of a voluntary program to "reduce the harm that botnets inflict on the nation's computing environment," Bloomberg's Eric Engleman recounts. DHS's Janet Napolitano, meantime, lectured Tuesday at Texas A&M, The Battalion relates. Ivory (Watch) Towers: Professors at Brooklyn College have become the first city employees to publicly condemn New York's Finest's spying on local Muslims, NYPD Confidential recounts. "Columbia University and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might seem to be an odd couple, but for a while last week it looked as if they might be dating," a New York Times commentary leads. Researchers at Michigan State University say they've devised a laser that can detect roadside bombs, United Press International informs. A USCIS initiative has been launched to woo overseas applicants by processing all student visas through one DHS website, The University Daily Kansan recounts. Some 500 principals of municipal schools in Ahmedabad, Pakistan, were summoned to a training workshop to prep for what an email threatened would be "cruel" terror attacks on their schools, Daily News & Analysis notes. State and local: Florida state lawmakers got a rundown Tuesday from law enforcement agencies on security issues surrounding the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, The Miami Herald mentions. Houston residents can now access a website for terror info and "videos that will aid people in identifying indicators of terrorism," the Chronicle recounts. Alabama farmers asked legislators for emergency changes to the state's harsh illegal immigration law because millions of dollars in crops are at risk due to a sudden lack of hands for harvest, The Montgomery Advertiser relays. A year after canceling a scheduled meeting in Arizona because of an immigration law boycott, Arizona's Jan Brewer plans to attend this year's meeting in Mexico of governors of U.S. and Mexican border states, The Arizona Daily Star says. Bugs 'n bombs: The ATF says it was a car bombing that hospitalized a Michigan lawyer and his two sons Tuesday, The Detroit News notes. "If there is one unbreakable rule for the members of the Bay County Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad it's this: 'Treat everything as if it's real,'" The Panama City (Fla.) News Herald leads. "Remember the anthrax incidents? To this day, Elk River officers carry HAZMAT suits and respirators in our squads," that Minnesota town's police chief tells the Star News. Uganda "is alert in anticipation of a biological or chemical terrorism attack," its "counterterrorism squad boss" tells Kampala's New Vision. The Africa Command and the National Nuclear Security Administration last week provided training in stopping WMD materials at borders and ports to officials from seven East African nations, Global Security Newswire relatedly reports. Close air support: A Texas woman speaks to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth of her "outrage and humiliation" when Atlanta screeners insisted on patting down her Afro for concealed explosives. Canada's airport security agency "is launching a full review after learning a passenger says he was allowed to board a plane in Vancouver with live ammunition in his luggage," CTV News relates. A major security breach at Sydney Airport, the second in five months, caused lengthy delays for angry Qantas passengers, Sky News says. Norwegian officials insist that Oslo airport security operated properly in screening baggage belonging to South Africa's top diplomat earlier this month, CNN notes. Out of town on a rail: The Georgia Tea Party is arguing that Cobb County "should abandon its light-rail proposal because if the light-rail line were to be completed, it would become a magnet for terrorist attacks," Mother Jones scoffs. Extension of the D.C. Metro to Woodbridge, Va., may raise security issues related to whether the subway train can actually enter Fort Belvoir, a Greater Greater Washington poster posits. Constructing a half-mile rail line alongside the shipping terminals at Washington's Port of Everett would safeguard faster recovery from disasters affecting Seattle, Tacoma or Olympia, IFW hears DHS attesting. Courts and rights: A federal judge has sentenced an ex-lead transportation security officer at Newark International to three years probation and six months home confinement for stealing up to $30,000 from travelers, the Star-Ledger relates. Another judge has ordered a former TSA officer to face a Connecticut court on charges of allegedly allowing the smuggling of oxycodone through Palm Beach International, The Palm Beach Post reports. An FBI informant testified in a New Bern courtroom yesterday that the man who confessed to heading up a North Carolina terrorist cell routinely spoke about waging a holy war, WRAL-TV News updates. Over there: In an ultimatum, Washington warns that the United States will act unilaterally if Pakistan does not cut ties with a leading Taliban group, The Washington Post reports. "Al Qaeda's top operatives may be dead and its core weakened, but the organization is finding strength in its African affiliates," The Foundry spotlights. "It can now be revealed that Australia's largest terrorist network involved a group of men from Sydney as well as Melbourne," The Australian Broadcast Corporation airs. "Although the very idea of a war on terrorism had unnerved some officials" in Russia's government, it "remains one of Vladimir Putin's key political narratives," Time Magazine spotlights. In an apparent terror attack, a car bomb killed three in Turkey's capital Tuesday, The Financial Times tells. Over here: "Want to see the price of terrorism? Go look at the grant money flowing to Muslim organizations and their climbing political influence after each attack," Daniel Greenfield growls in Eurasia Review. The developer of the planned Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero tells AP that his "biggest mistake" on the project was not involving the families of 9/11 victims from the jump. Nearly all Muslim American institutions have faced the suspicion that they are a breeding ground for terrorists to some degree since 9/11, "but none more so than Dar Al-Hijrah," a North Virginia mosque, the Post spotlights. The rapid rise of a homegrown Islamist movement there sparks fears of Germany becoming the next European focal point of Islamist terrorism, FrontPage Magazine mentions. "There is little oversight on so-called terrorism experts who provide training to law enforcement and first responders," an expert poster on Danger Room prods, in re: anti-Muslim hysteria. Holy Wars: "How much impact on national security policy development do Islamophobia's promoters really have and which forces can one strengthen to counter and marginalize them?" Mohamed Elibiary asks and answers in Muslim Matters — while Robert Spencer regrets in FrontPage Magazine that the FBI is under fire simply for teaching the truth about Muslims, and Danger Room, again, posts video of a hardline FBI trainer telling law enforcers that the struggle against al Qaeda is a "waste," compared to the threat presented by Islam itself. "The most important fight today is against fanaticism and extremism in all religions and ideologies, against prejudices that will bring us back to the darkness of the Middle Ages," a U.N. official counters in The International Herald Tribune. "If you are looking for good news, take a look at what most of the world's major Muslim countries have done since 9/11," Michael O'Hanlon and Omer Taspinar sunnily suggest in a USA Today op-ed. "Big Brother" for real: "While the crossing of the border between Mexico and the United States by illegal aliens and drug smugglers gets a lot of news and political attention, few people actually know very much about how this is actually done," a Frumious Bandersnatch for a new TV reality show called "Sneaking into America" opens. "Ten contestants for each series will be selected randomly from applicants. There would be three series of 'sneaks' into America, each of will have four episodes, for a total of 12 one-hour shows. The first episode of each 'Sneak' series is titled 'staging for illegal entry,' the second being 'crossing the line,' the third being 'the overland journey of death' and the final episode 'arriving in the promised land.' The last scene in each series will be the winner starting his or her new job in the United States. Contestants who are captured, killed, die or give up will be eliminated from the contest for the winning prize." 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