CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Tuesday, April 5, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly The Long March continues: Justice announces military tribunals for Sept. 11 plotters; press claims victory for Gotham Mayor Mike Bloomberg . . . The sleepiest terror cell: " I must walk, talk and chew gum like a terrorist, one who is 60-something and of Anglo-Irish extraction," metal-implanted passenger protests . . . Unclear on the concept: Married NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau chief "sexually terrorizing a female cop who rejected his sleazy overtures." These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- Punctuating a year of indecision with yet another a major reversal, the Obama administration now plans to prosecute Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed before a military tribunal and not a civilian court, The New York Times' Charlie Savage reports — and see the unsealed (and dismissed) indictment of the detained Sept. 11 plotters. "Reality bites. Sanity wins. For now," conservative scold Michelle Malkin telegraphs — while NBC New York casts this latest retreat as "a victory for Mayor Mike Bloomberg," who had pegged the security costs of a Manhattan trial at $200 million. Feds: By this shift, President Obama is "also casting off what would have been a political cinder block around his just-announced re-election effort," The New York Daily News' Joshua Greenman analyzes. The Supremes, meantime, yesterday refused to take up three cases examining the balance struck by a federal appeals court in deciding whether Gitmo detainees are being lawfully held or must be released, The Christian Science Monitor's Warren Richey reports. A principal benefit of Washington's Libya intervention is "the indefinite continuation of the U.S. government's anti-terrorist powers that have accompanied its decade-long 'war on terrorism,'" MWC News' Jacob G. Hornberger hammers. Homies: "Janet Napolitano has been lashing out at border critics recently, flatly denying claims that problems along the Southwestern border are 'out of control,'" The San Antonio Express-News' Richard Dunham surveys — and see her Wall Street Journal op-ed with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke: "The Southwest Border Is Open For Business." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., for her part, has complained to the DHS chief about ICE's aggressive tactics in the case of a Jefferson County farmer arrested on immigration charges, The Watertown Daily Times' Marc Heller mentions. Families of Sept. 11 victims much dislike a National 9/11 Memorial and Museum plan to place the unidentified remains of some 1,000 Ground Zero fatalities in the museum's underground portion, The Gothamist's Jen Chung recounts. State and local: "A married NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau chief carried on multiple affairs with female subordinates at a Queens precinct while sexually terrorizing a female cop who rejected his sleazy overtures," The New York Post splashes. The Minnesota state house and surrounding buildings need security upgrades "because there are potential threats lurking around the Capitol complex," The Minneapolis Star Tribune sees a report finding — while The Birmingham (Ala.) News reports state budget cuts leaving only six bailiffs to provide security for 12 judges in the county court building. Honolulu has set aside nearly $45 million to help with security and other expenses related to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting Obama is hosting this fall, the Star-Advertiser advises. Bid-ness: The president of the security firm that lost the contract to monitor a Wilkes-Barre, Pa., CCTV surveillance system blasted the job that city police have done since shouldering that duty, the Times Leader relates. "A down economy forces most businesses to make changes . . . When you're in the security business, however, those changes can be more necessary and immediate," The Oakland (Mich.) Press leads — as The Columbia News Service sees all-pervasive anxiety about pending disasters fueling a boom in survivalist doomsday bunkers. The National Security Agency has joined a probe of the October cyberattack on Nasdaq OMX Group "amid evidence the intrusion by hackers was more severe than first disclosed," Bloomberg relates. A meeting at a Phoenix strip club in 2008 led to the Fiesta Bowl paying a security consultant more than $350,000 the following year, KPHO 5 News notes. Bio-terrible: Along with New York State Police and an urban search and rescue squad, 400 New York Army National Guards participated in a response drill at State Preparedness Training Center, Utica's WKTV 2 News notes — while The East Valley Tribune has a Gilbert, Ariz., high school hosting a mock bioterror training event. Household bleach appears to be an effective, low-cost, and widely available means of decontaminating food prep surfaces tainted with deadly ricin, redOrbit hears an American Chemical Society meeting being told — as Agence France-Presse sees a Massachusetts man pleading guilty to illegal possession of ricin and threatening a prosecutor. Trial of a man charged with threatening to use a harmful biological agent against the United States and U.K. has been pushed back to May, The South African Press Association reports. Close air support: "A man that had been convicted of manslaughter was working at the Las Vegas airport installing and maintaining security cameras . . . And you and I are treated like criminals at the airport," a Reuters poster protests — while Las Vegas Weekly spotlights a $99-per-year service allowing travelers to leave such non-boardable items as shampoo bottles or straight razors behind at their hotels and have them redelivered upon their return to Sin City. "I must walk, talk and chew gum like a terrorist, one who is 60-something and of Anglo-Irish extraction," an Anchorage Daily News contributor with metal implants gripes in an op-ed rehearsing recent checkpoint woes. Railroaded: The AirTrain, which bridges passengers between the NYC subway terminus and JFK airport, has a police officer assigned for security maybe only 40 times a year, far below the recommended frequency, The Bergen County (N.J.) Record records. If the MTA is going to ban food on Gotham's subway, New York Magazine quips, it should also bar 9/11 Truth proselytizers, because "it's not fair that you've caught us in the one place we're not capable of escaping. Of course, that is your strategy." TSA has awarded Portland's transit agency a $1.2 million grant to complete installation of closed-circuit security cameras at the last 10 MAX commuter stations lacking the technology, The Oregonian reports. In China's second city, "police have seized more than 7,000 banned items, such as gas and chemical goods, this year at 520 checkpoints at subway stations," The Shanghai Daily relates. Theaters of war: "With Predator drones overhead and agents on the ground, Washington is slowly taking control of Mexico's war on drugs," Ted Galen Carpenter complains in The National Interest. Al Qaeda operatives are in Brazil planning attacks, raising money and recruiting followers, Reuters quotes Veja news magazine, renewing concerns about Brazil serving as an Islamist hideout. Created by Pakistan to wage proxy war against India, the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group has moved its jihad onto the global stage and could match al Qaeda in strength and organization, The Associated Press' Kathy Gannon spotlights. President Obama "is presiding over the end of American dominance in the Middle East. Across the region, U.S. power is receding — and radical Islam is filling the void," Jeffrey T. Kuhner condemns in The Washington Times. "In every Arab country where the old regime falls, its place will be taken sooner or later by a radical Islamic regime. At the moment, there is no alternative," Alexander Bligh similarly assesses in Haaretz. Talking terror: Soft targets are now a priority for terrorists determined to inflict damage in the United States, one of the FBI's top counterterrorists tells National Defense Magazine's Stew Magnuson. "Implicitly we are told to see danger in the eyes and backpacks of people with beards and head scarves, to identify threat in those who give up drinking or observe terrorism trials," Jeanne Theoharis jabs in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Solitarily confined WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning's actions "have not cost anyone their life, but someone whose actions have triggered a killing spree of mayhem and murder" is Koran-burning Florida pastor Terry Jones, Pakistan's PKKH News Service asserts — while Politico's Glenn Thrush hears military lawyer Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., mulling "the possibility, however unlikely, of limiting some kinds of free speech . . . that help America's enemies." Is eco-terrorism as bad as Islamist terrorism? Russell W. Dickson ruminates for The Nolan Chart. Courts and rights: "Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism," The Charlotte Observer quotes a federal prosecutor seeking the maximum for the minter of the Liberty Dollar. Struggling to find examples of Islamic law threatening the American way of life, anti-Sharia activists have resorted to falsely focusing on an obscure Florida civil lawsuit called Mansour vs. Islamic Education Center of Tampa, Salon explicates. "Killing the worst man left in the world may seem excusable to some . . . but we have scruples about the death penalty. Is it lawful to kill [Muammar el-]Qaddafi?" a Daily Beast contributor questions. Over there: A total of 5,080 people have been convicted of terrorism crimes in Saudi Arabia, where al Qaeda launched a campaign in 2003 to overthrow the Western-allied monarchy, Reuters reports. France, which draws about 80 percent of its energy from atomic power, wants threats from airplane crashes and terrorists excluded from safety checks planned on European reactors following the Fukushima nuclear accident, Bloomberg relates. The Bali bombing suspect arrested in Pakistan last week would be an information goldmine on terrorism networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia, The News International notes. Qaddafi goes all medieval and stuff: "Despite rumors that he is actually 'not that bad of a guy' by some loyal citizens, Libya's Muammar Qaddafi is quoted as saying he wants to 'be feared like Saddam, Hitler, or George Bush,'" Spooftimes spoofs. "Even with his reign coming to an end, he feels that it is still possible to 'gain back the hearts and minds of the people . . . through an iron-fisted campaign of fear, torture, and bad-ass poses.' While preparations are being made to burn select oil fields, reports say that Qaddafi will be on location to strike a pose and 'look like a bad-ass dictator.' An adviser for the dictator, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that he [i.e., Qaddafi] is only doing this 'because he is tired of being mistaken for that guy from 'Machete' [i.e., Danny Trejo].'" Check, also in Spooftimes: "Obama Vows To Prevent Qaddafi From Killing His Citizens By Killing His Citizens." Source: CQ Homeland Security --------------------------------- Other CQ Roll Call Products CQ Floor Video CQ.com CQ Weekly CQ Today CQ Amendment Text CQ BillTrack CQ Budget Tracker CQ Energy & Climate CQ HealthBeat CQ Homeland Security CQ Hot Docs CQ House Action Reports CQ LawTrack CQ MoneyLine CQ StateTrack CQ Politics Roll Call See all CQ Roll Call products Rob Margetta, CQ Homeland Security Editor Arwen Bicknell, Behind the Lines Editor Published by CQ Roll Call To sign up for CQ Roll Call's free newsletters, click here. Source: CQ Homeland Security Copyright © 2011 CQ Roll Call. All rights reserved.