Omss Politics: CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Friday, Sept. 23, 2011 — 3 P.M.

By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly

Editor's note:Because of the congressional recess, Behind the Lines will resume publication Oct. 3.
How not to sell records, probably: "But who are the terrorists? Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists?" crooner Tony Bennett broods in poorly received interview . . . Plush predicament: DHS could save $2.6 million if it could simply settle on one mascot to convey preparedness messages to kids, solon says . . . McBunker: Ozarks mega-mansion designed to be country's largest disaster-resistant home. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage.

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"But who are the terrorists? Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists," ABC News' Brian Canova hears octogenarian crooner Tony Bennett responding to shock jock Howard Stern's question about how terrorists should be handled. "This might not help Tony Bennett's album sales," The Hollywood Gossip's Hilton Hater hazards. "Sigh . . . shut up and sing, Tony," a Hot Air poster prompts. "We'd like to point out that he's 85 years old, and therefore is pretty old, and old people are allowed to say whatever crazy s*** they want," New York Magazine's Dan Amira excuses.

Feds: Does it matter if an American overseas loading Hellfire missiles onto drones targeting terrorists "is a private contractor and not a U.S. service member?" CNN's Suzanne Kelly queries. The CIA "appears to have used Bangkok's former Don Muang International Airport as a secret prison to torture a suspected Muslim terrorist," Richard S. Erlich tenders in Asia Times — while the Los Angeles Times' Alex Rodriguez hears Pakistan angrily rejecting U.S. allegations that it maintains links with the terror network that assaulted the U.S. embassy in Kabul last week. Joint Terrorism Task Force affiliates involved in the 2010 sting plot to blow up D.C. Metro stations will be honored Oct. 4 at the second annual ADL Shield Awards, Tickle The Wire's Allan Lengel alerts.

Homies: Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., says DHS could save $2.6 million over 10 years if its bureaucrats could simply settle on one mascot to convey preparedness messages to kids, The Wall Street Journal takes note — as Janet Napolitano tells The Associated Press' Kimberly Hefling that FEMA's disaster aid well could run dry by early next week. Immigration watchers wonder whether DHS will address flaws identified in ICE's Secure Communities program "or whether the program's soiled reputation means it will have to be canceled outright," U.S. News' Mallie Jane Kim spotlights. Advocates in Tennessee claim Shelbyville Hispanics were purposely coerced by ICE agents during immigration raids, FOX News Latino leads.

State and local: An Urban Institute study of camera surveillance in Baltimore, Chicago and D.C. finds vast differences in results among the three cities, The Examiner examines — while WUSA 9 News hears D.C. cops defending their poorly rated CCTV network, and Government Technology stresses that "surveillance systems should be explained to the community before they're put in place." The Freeport, Ill., fire chief tells the Journal-Standard that most local first-responders should have no problem meeting the upcoming emergency comm "Narrowband Mandate." New Jersey stands as a national model in both preparedness for terrorist attacks and natural disasters and response, The Bergen County Record quotes former Gov. Thomas Kean. Last year, citizens were more likely to be slain in Austin, one of the nation's safest cities, than in El Paso, across the river from one of the hemisphere's most dangerous cities, The San Antonio Express-News notes.

Chasing the dime: Bush-era counterterror czar and current-era cyberterror Cassandra Richard Clarke has been named to the board of Bit9 Inc., "the market leader in adaptive application whitelisting," MarketWatch relays. Robots may soon take on roles in small bizzes and warehouses as mobile security guards, The McClatchy-Tribune News Service forecasts. Miami officials have determined that for the past two years Kent Security Services has paid its workers less than the living wage legally required for city-contracted work, the Herald relates. Qatar plans to train charitable organizations to combat money laundering and terrorism funding, The Peninsula reports — as The Yemen Observer sees cases of money laundering and terror finance on the wane in that country. "Drones can clearly track down terrorists. But they can apparently boost an economy, too," The Washington Post leads, in re: American UAV ops in the Seychelles.

Bugs 'n bombs: A billionaire's 72,000-square-foot mega-mansion rising in the Missouri Ozarks is designed to be one of the country's largest disaster-resistant homes, Webster Grove's KSDK 5 News highlights. The CDC is touting advancements in local and state labs' capacities to identify dangerous biochemical materials, Global Security Newswire notes — while another GSN item sees two New Jersey universities winning $23 million from the NIH to research treatments for exposure to mustard blister agent, a potential terror weapon. Across the Hudson, two companies have launched "a state-of-the-art mail security service that will help keep Wall Street and all of the New York Metro Area business community safe from mail terrorism," Post and Parcel reports. Low levels of radioactivity showed up in rainwater in northern California two weeks after Japan's March nuclear disaster, Agence France-Presse has a DHS study reporting.

Close air support: Hundreds of screeners faced a Wednesday deadline to supply info for background checks under a TSA requirement that they have national security clearances, The Newark Star-Ledger relates. "It is a tragic absurdity that you can buy scanner-obscuring underwear to try to avoid the TSA's violations of privacy," The Guardian grouses. A checkpoint breach at McCarran International briefly backed up security lines, The Las Vegas Review-Journal recounts — as BBC News sees more than 1,800 passengers and 500 staff evacuated from Manchester Airport's Terminal 1 in a suspicious bag incident. Northern Ireland's Belfast International, meantime, "is spending almost [$16 million] a year on aviation security as concerns grow that the levels of checks faced by passengers are excessive," The Belfast Telegraph tells.

A-bridged: "Terrorists have won again — and the victims are Williamsburg cyclists, some biking advocates say," The Brooklyn Paper leads, in re: DHS-driven plans to install cement barriers at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge. A Kentucky state solon has asked Norfolk Southern Corp. to open the K&I Bridge in Louisville to public traffic, but the "thoroughbred of transportation" has lingering security concerns, the Courier-Journal recounts. Coming just days after the 9/11 attacks, the deaths of eight commuters in the South Padre Island bridge collapse was initially interpreted as terrorism, The Houston Chronicle recollects on the disaster's tenth anniversary.

Over there: Two people jailed in Mexico's Veracruz state and charged with terrorism over a series of alarmist tweets were freed Wednesday and all charges dropped, the Los Angeles Times tells. British border officials missed six separate opportunities to prevent a banned Palestinian activist, Sheikh Raed Salah, from entering the U.K. in June, The Guardian sees an official inquiry learning. During a hearing with the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee earlier this week, A.G. Eric Holder defended the sharing of terror-related data between the United States and EU, BBC News notes.

Courts and rights: Attorneys for two terror-charged Iraqis in Kentucky have asked the court to order the disclosure of evidence obtained through the secret FISA court and deny Justice's bid to deny it to the defense, The Bowling Green Daily News notes. Even as U.S.-led forces draw down in Afghanistan, the Pentagon plans to boost the capacity of its main detention facility from 3,500 to 5,500 beds, The Washington Post reports. War on terror captives "are no longer smearing their cells with feces in a stomach-wrenching power struggle with guards" at Guantanamo's ultra-secure Camp 5, The Miami Herald mentions.

Boox & Komix: If circulation at the detention center library is an indicator, Gitmo's jailhouse readers these days are devouring Captain America comics, Westerns, religious books and video games, the Herald also relates — while AP hears Algeria's culture minister saying 400 books are banned from an international book fair there. Classified docs show a Swedish prosecutor believing that three terror suspects arrested Sept. 10 had planned to kill Muhammad-caricaturing cartoonist Lars Vilks, The Daily Telegraph tells. Marvel Comics' "Ultimate X-Men #1" winds up with longtime mutant Katherine "Kitty" Pryde "narrating that this is the start of how she becomes the most hated terrorist in the world," Ology previews. Earlier this year, Loyola history prof and comic book fiend Cord Scott began studying the portrayal of terrorism in comic books, focusing primarily on post-9/11 depictions, The Phoenix spotlights.

Screening Room: Before watching the blockbuster bio-thriller "Contagion" (Warner Bros.), "catch up with the spotty history of disease cinema," The Atlantic advises. "Homeland," a new Showtime drama debuting Oct. 2, is modeled on "Prisoners of War," an Israeli series about two soldiers who return to their families after 17 years in a Syrian prison, Charlotte's Lake Norman Magazine spotlights. TNT, meantime, is developing "Tom Clancy's Homeland Security," a procedural drama pitting "a select team of domestic intelligence operatives against all enemies," Variety relates. "Are you an aspiring filmmaker who wants to produce a spy thriller? Well, you're in luck because the CIA has a pile of script ideas lying around," Danger Room passes along. On the still photography front, September 11 Memorial official shutterbug Joe Woolhead "has spent almost every day for the past seven years documenting the slow pace of construction at Ground Zero," The New York Observer profiles.

Shock and Awww Shucks: "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's highly anticipated annual address to the U.N. General Assembly ended in tragedy yesterday when an onstage pyrotechnics mishap left the Iranian president with third-degree burns covering 40 percent of his body," The Onion reports. "Soon after ascending the podium amidst flashing lights and the blaring strains of AC/DC's 'Hell's Bells,' the 54-year-old leader was seen protectively cradling his head as a massive fountain of brightly colored sparks exploded directly into his face. 'We tried to warn him that our venue was not suited to this kind of display, but he was insistent,' U.N. facilities manager Gary Shepard said. 'And the pyrotechnicians were supposed to hold off on the larger fireworks until Mr. Ahmadinejad got to his big finish about Israel.' Assembled dignitaries agreed they had not witnessed such a grave disaster since 1997, when Kofi Annan's aerial rigging snapped and sent the secretary-general careening into the delegation from Bulgaria, killing eight."