CQ Behind the Lines

From CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Monday, April 25, 2011 — 3 P.M. By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly Christian Spring Uprising: Koran-burning Florida pastor pledges to bring anti-Islam protest back to Michigan mosque despite judge's stay-away order . . . Garbageology: Michigan senator wants $500 fee on incoming Canadian landfill to recoup CBP costs for terror-sifting the trash . . . This week's unexpected worry: "Glanders, like anthrax, has the potential for being a bioterrorism agent because humans are susceptible to the disease." These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage. --------------------------------- Koran-burning Florida pastor Terry Jones promises to return and protest this week at Dearborn's Islamic Center of America despite a Michigan judge's order that he avoid North America's largest mosque for three years, The Detroit Free Press' Niraj Warikoo reports — as The Salt Lake Tribune' Kristen Moulton sees Utah Presbyterians distributing free Korans as a tribute to Easter ecumenalism. Several hundred Muslims protested at the state Capitol in Nashville last week against a bill supporters say would help stop terror plots but opponents believe singles out Muslims who adhere to Islamic law, The Tennessean's Chas Sisk recounts. Solon Circus: House homelander Peter T. King, R-N.Y., wants Justice to explain Patrick Poole's Pajamas Media report that the department aborted a probe of the Council On American-Islamic Relations' suspected terror ties, TPMMuckraker's Jillian Rayfield relates — while the Los Angeles Times' Lee Romney hears Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., demanding a probe into ICE officials' denials that localities can opt out of Secure Communities. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., wants a fee of $500 per truckload of Canadian trash crossing the border, in part to recompense CBP screening of incoming landfill shipments, The Detroit Free Press' Todd Spangler relates. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, finally, presses a bill to designate seven top Mexican cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations," ostensibly affording U.S. law enforcers weightier weapons against them, The Texas Tribune's Julian Aguilar relates. Feds: President Obama's plan to close Guantanamo "was undermined by political miscalculations, confusion and mounting congressional opposition," Peter Finn and Anne E. Kornblut rehearse in a lengthy Washington Post post-mortem — while a New York Times team dissects a trove of more than 700 classified military documents providing new and detailed accounts of Gitmo detainees. Janet Napolitano acknowledged last week that the terror threat can't be ignored, an evolution for a DHS chief "who refused even to utter the word in her early testimony on Capitol Hill," Judith Miller applauds for FOX News — and check Napolitano's Q&A with Real Clear Politics' Candy Crowley. DHS and the Department of Education are reaching out to millions in central states to win their involvement in Thursday's earthquake prep drill, The Hill's Jordy Yager recounts. State and local: In the belated budget pact funding the balance of fiscal 2011, state and local emergency agencies were hit hard, losing more than $786 million in DHS first responder grantage, Emergency Management mentions. The mayor of Portland, Ore., proposes letting city police rejoin the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force but with strict conditions to safeguard civil rights, KATU 2 News notes. Franklin County commissioners have created a $75,000-per-year "homeland security public health consultant" post to be filled by an emergency preparedness official as of May 1, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch records. Labor protesters evacuated "the Wisconsin Capitol weeks ago, but at least one fixture of the winter protests remains: heightened security," The Green Bay Press-Gazette relays. Littleton, Colo., authorities couldn't help but see similarities between a recent mall fire, including an unexploded pipe bomb and propane tanks, and the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, CBS News notes. Bio-terrible: The Westchester County, N.Y., Department of Health hosted its first Food Defense workshop last week, counseling restaurant managers on defending their dishes against agroterrorists, The Pleasantville Patch updates. "Terrorism experts see agroterrorism, defined as the intentional contamination of the food supply with a goal of terrorizing the population and causing harm, as an increasing operational risk," Forbes, relatedly, tutors. Had a recent bioterror readiness drill been a real emergency, "Milford in general would be fine," The Connecticut Post quotes a confident public health nurse. The Pineville, La., Veterans Affairs Medical Center endured the bioterrorsim fantods last week until authorities determined that a "white powdery substance" in a mailed envelope was not toxic, The Town Talk tells. WMD Watch: "In these anxious times . . . use of highly effective, inexpensive vaccine can allay horse owners' fears of bioterrorism," The Thoroughbred Times counsels — as another service piece in that rather morbid trade journal observes that "glanders, like anthrax, has the potential for being a bioterrorism agent because humans are susceptible to the disease." Recently released documents show that al Qaeda has made "greater advances" in bioterrorism than was previously realized and may now possess the technical competence to "manufacture an explosive device beyond a mere dirty bomb," FrontPage Magazine menaces. "What nuclear activities is Syria carrying out at sites it has prohibited International Atomic Energy Agency investigators from searching?" The New Republic ruminates. Don't take the A Train: A Burlington Northern Santa Fe train leaking hydrochloric acid prompted the mandatory evacuation of 255 Colorado homes last week, Denver's 9News notes. Amtrak plans to use the railfan community to bolster the passenger railroad's own security, Railway Age Magazine spotlights. "Hoping to keep terrorists and others offguard," TSA mounted a VIPR operation late last week at the West Palm Beach Tri-Rail station, WPTV 5 News notes. "Officials agree that New York is safer than it's ever been, but even with good intelligence, terrorists still have the opportunity to attack open targets, such as the subways," am New York notes, in analyzing new terror alert protocols. There are "still some subway platforms here in New York where I can't find a garbage can . . . as they've been removed for fear of bombs being inserted into them," a Core77 poster protests. Close air support: Arrogant complaining about airport security is one indicator TSA officers consider when looking for possible criminals and terrorists, CNN notes. An American Airlines flight was terrorized when someone found an "unidentifiable substance" that turned out to be talcum powder, Raleigh's NBC 17 News notes. Reacting to a screener's notorious frisking of a small child, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is pushing a law requiring TSA to seek parental consent before doing enhanced pat-downs on tots, The Washington Post reports — as The Daily Mail hears DHS's Napolitano assuring MSNBC that the laying on of hands at New Orleans' airport wasn't improper. An Egyptian national who sneaked into a secure area of a provincial German airport Thursday triggered a terror alert, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports. Courts and rights: A former used-car dealer from Queens wasn't coerced into confessing that he conspired to arm Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, The New York Post hears a judge ruling. A federal grand jury has indicted a Twin Cities man for an alleged conspiracy to arm American Al Shabaab volunteers in Somalia with assault weapons, Minnesota Public Radio reports. The San Antonio lawyer for a Somali man accused of smuggling suspected terrorists into the United States argued last week that his client only sought a better life, the Express-News notes. Military prosecutors last week brought rare capital charges against a Guantanamo detainee accused of planning the 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole, the Post reports. Italy, meanwhile, has deported to Tunisia an ex-Gitmo detainee who was convicted of terrorism-related charges, The Long War Journal relates. Over there: The head of Pakistan's army rejects U.S. suggestions that Islamabad is not doing enough in the war on terrorism, Voice of America mentions. Despite rising Pakistani opposition to U.S. drone strikes, an American missile killed 23 people in North Waziristan on Friday, Agence France-Presse reports — as The Christian Science Monitor sees armed drone strikes being mounted against government forces in Libya. The U.S. military has handed over an alleged jihadist captured in Afghanistan to Germany, where he is likely to face terror charges, DPA, again, reports — while The New York Times sees a suspected senior leader of the terrorist group the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan also nabbed in Afghanistan. "Of all the countries in the world that one would expect to be a target of terrorist attacks, Belarus surely ranks near the bottom of the list," a New Republic essayist leads. Qaeda Qorner: "On Sept. 11, 2001, the core of al Qaeda was concentrated in a single city: Karachi, Pakistan," the Post sees WikiLeaks docs showing. "Al Qaeda will be closely watching next month's talks on peace talks with the Taliban in Turkey," where an Afghan breakthrough "could pave the way for al Qaeda to reorganize its cadre and march to its ultimate war theater — the Middle East," Asia Times assesses. "The pristine spirit of the Arab Spring does represent an existential threat to al Qaeda's extremist ideology. But al Qaeda's leaders also know that this is a strategic moment," Juan C. Zarate comments in The New York Times. "Yemenis of all stripes are joining in opposition to President Saleh, which could be al Qaeda's ultimate undoing," GlobalPost counterposits — though an Al Arabiya contributor contends that "hopes of al Qaeda's demise are proving premature." Promise kept, problem solved: "After two years of false starts and protracted legal wrangling, President Barack Obama signed an executive order authorizing the transfer of all 172 Guantanamo detainees to the next chief executive of the United States of America," The Onion reports. "'The president's bold decision to move these enemy combatants to the subsequent administration should finally quiet critics who have accused him of inaction and impotence concerning this issue,' White House press secretary Jay Carney said after noting that Obama had — in favor of the more politically pragmatic alternative — passed on several opportunities to relocate the inmates to correctional facilities in the continental United States as a first step toward affording the prisoners due process of law. 'This will not be an easy process by any means, but all of the detainees should be transferred by 2012, or 2016 at the very latest.' With the Guantanamo issue finally resolved, President Obama has reportedly already begun efforts to address another of his 2008 campaign promises by calling for the removal of the Bush-era tax cuts from the current political dialogue." 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.