C A N Y O U I D E N T I F
Y T H E S E P H O T O S A B O V E ?
H I N T S B E L O W .
Terrorism
in the U.S.A. ("What me worry?") and globally by BOTNET?
Dems, GOP agree to
telecom deal
Bill would
quash 40 civil lawsuits challenging legality of wiretapping
DAY
By Pamela Hess
Published on 6/20/2008
Washington - Big Telecom is being let off the hook.
House and Senate leaders have agreed to vote on a new surveillance bill
that effectively shields from civil lawsuits telecommunications
companies that helped the government to wiretap American phone and
computer lines without court permission after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks.
That warrantless wiretapping went on for almost six years. The New York
Times revealed in late 2005 that the administration was conducting
surveillance without the knowledge of the secret court set up 30 years
ago to oversee just such activity. The Bush administration brought the
so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program under the court in January
2007.
The bill does other things, too, to strengthen the protection of
American civil liberties. It would require the government to get a
court order before eavesdropping on Americans who are overseas, rather
than just getting the permission of the attorney general to target an
American abroad. It expressly prohibits reverse targeting, that is,
eavesdropping on a foreigner abroad in an attempt to hear calls or read
e-mails to a particular American.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said the bill “balances
the needs of our intelligence community with Americans' civil liberties
and provides critical new oversight and accountability requirements.”
The White House threatened to veto any bill that did not shield the
companies, which tapped lines at the behest of the president but
without permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Some 40 lawsuits have been filed against the companies by people and
groups who think the government illegally eavesdropped.
The compromise bill would have a federal district court review
certifications from the attorney general saying the telecommunications
companies received presidential orders telling them wiretaps were
needed to detect or prevent a terrorist attack. If the paperwork were
in order, the judge would dismiss the lawsuit automatically.
Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the second-ranking Republican, predicted
all the cases would go away.
Not all Democrats were falling in line with the compromise. Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sens. Patrick Leahy of
Vermont, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin said
they opposed immunity. Feingold called the bill a “capitulation.”
Several privacy and civil rights organizations said Thursday they
opposed the bill.
Spectrum
Auction Raises $19.6 Billion
NYTIMES
Article Tools Sponsored By
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 18, 2008
Filed at 4:57 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bidding has closed on a record-setting government
airwaves auction, with the total amount pledged reaching nearly $19.6
billion. But enthusiasm in the result was tempered by doubts concerning
the future of a proposed emergency communications network.
The total was the most bid since the Federal Communications Commission
began using auctions in 1994 to decide who should be granted rights to
use the publicly owned airwaves.
About one-sixth of the spectrum at auction was dedicated to the
creation of an emergency communications network for first responders.
But the so-called D block did not attract the minimum bid required by
FCC auction rules.
Commander Warns of
al-Qaida Threat to US
New London DAY
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
Posted on Mar 6, 10:19 PM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al-Qaida terrorists may be plotting more urgently to
attack the United States to maintain their credibility and ability to
recruit followers, the U.S. military commander in charge of domestic
defense said Thursday.
Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, chief of the U.S. Northern Command, told
reporters he has not seen any direct threats tied to the U.S.
presidential elections. But he said it would be imprudent to think that
such threats are not there.
"We need only to look at Spain and see that they're certainly willing
to try to do something that is significant that could affect an
election process," Renuart said. "I think it would be imprudent of us
to let down our guard believing that if there's no credible threat that
you know of today, there won't be something tomorrow."
While he said that U.S. authorities have thwarted attacks on a number
of occasions, he said terrorist cells may be working harder than ever
to plot high-impact events. He did not point to any specific
intelligence that authorities have received but said the "chatter" they
are hearing "gives me no reason to believe they're going to slow down"
in their efforts to target the U.S.
"If an organization like that is to maintain credibility and continue
to grow more of its extremists, it has to show tangible results,"
Renuart said. "So I think there may be a certain sense of urgency among
that organization to have an effect. So it would tell me that they're
trying harder."
Of the more than a dozen daily events that Northern Command responds to
- ranging from natural disasters to threats - two or three may have the
potential to be terrorist incidents, he said.
The chatter, which included public audio and video tapes released on
the Internet by al-Qaida leaders, suggests that they are looking for a
way to have a big impact again, he said. Pressed for details, he said
the chatter was more common but "whether that's louder or more ominous,
I'm not sure I'm ready to draw that conclusion."
He did, however, repeat his assertion - which he first made last July -
that he believes there are al-Qaida cells or sympathizers within the
United States.
President Bush, in a speech, also said the United States remained under
threat from terrorists. Marking the fifth anniversary of the creation
of the Homeland Security Department, Bush said that in the aftermath of
the Sept. 11 attacks "it was hard to imagine that we would reach this
milestone without another attack on our homeland."
Yet he said, "On this anniversary, we must also remember that the
danger to our country has not passed. Since the attacks of 9/11, the
terrorists have tried to strike our homeland again and again. We've
disrupted numerous planned attacks - including a plot to fly an
airplane into the tallest building on the West Coast and another to
blow up passenger jets headed for America across the Atlantic Ocean."
Bush said the lesson is clear: "The enemy remains active, deadly in its
intent - and in the face of this danger, the United States must never
let down its guard."
Mukasey Visits Guantanamo
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 27, 2008
Filed at 1:42 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Michael Mukasey met briefly
Wednesday with government prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as the
U.S. prepares its case against six al-Qaida suspects accused of being
responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
The attorney general was expected to spend only about six hours at the
Naval station during his previously unannounced first trip there, said
Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr.
Mukasey ''is meeting with military personnel and other officials
involved in the military commissions proceedings,'' Carr said. He said
Justice Department prosecutors ''have been involved in the
investigation since the high value detainees were moved to Guantanamo
Bay.''
Mukasey was to return to Washington by Wednesday afternoon.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, 15 so-called ''high-value
detainees'' were held at length by the CIA in secret overseas prisons
before being handed over to the military. Six of them, including
alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are facing the death
penalty in a military trial that officials say could still be months,
if not years, away.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule in a few months on whether
Guantanamo detainees can challenge their confinement in civilian
courts. In 2006, the court ruled that a previous legal process for the
detainees was unconstitutional, prompting Congress and the Bush
administration months later to resurrect the tribunals in an altered
form under the Military Commissions Act.
Critics of the untested military commissions system say the
high-profile trial will expose its flaws.
Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal adviser to the military
commissions, said earlier this month that the trial for the six
Guantanamo detainees is at least 120 days away, ''and probably well
beyond that.''
An estimated 275 men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban are
held at Guantanamo.
Justice For 9/11 Culprits - Scope of
the al-Qaida conspiracy would be laid bare.
By The Day
Published on 2/12/2008
The Sept. 11, 2001 suicide terrorist attacks on the United States
killed 2,974 innocent people, and if the government can hold anyone
still living responsible for those acts, it has an obligation to bring
them to justice.
It appears that is what our government is finally preparing to do.
On Monday Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann said 169 criminal
charges will be formally filed against six men incarcerated at
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The defendants will include Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, who allegedly masterminded the attacks in which 19 men
hijacked four commercial jetliners, crashing two into the World Trade
Center towers, a third into the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in
Pennsylvania when passengers heroically fought with the hijackers.
Also charged will be: Mohammed al-Qahtani, the so-called “20th
hijacker” who was unable to get on one of the planes; Ramzi bin
al-Shibh, an alleged intermediary between the hijackers and al-Qaida
leaders; Mr. Mohammed's lieutenant, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali; Walid bin
Attash, alleged to have trained the suicide attackers; and suspected
al-Qaida operative Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi.
They are among the most high-profile inmates at Guantanamo, home to an
estimated 275 prisoners. How to deal do with these “enemy combatants”
will be a challenge for years to come, but as the government at last
begins to move forward with its first major case it's appropriate that
the defendants be those individuals most closely linked with the 9/11
terror attacks.
The public should not expect a quick resolution, however. The U.S.
Supreme Court has twice found problems with the handling of these
unique suspects, ruling that military tribunals did not provide
sufficient protection for detainees to challenge their detention and
their accusers. In response, Congress passed the Military Commissions
Act, providing detainees limited access to the evidence against them
and legal counsel. More constitutional challenges are certain, perhaps
delaying justice for years.
It was good to hear Brig. Gen. Hartmann's assurances that it will be an
open process with no secret trials, though understandably some
classified information of a national security nature must remain
closed.
It was unfortunate, however, to learn that the government would seek
the death penalty. The Day opposes state-sponsored executions as
morally wrong. But placing the moral argument aside, there are other
reasons for not seeking death sentences.
If executions are ever carried out, the United States would simply be
making martyrs of these men, and encouraging more recruits for their
twisted cause. Taking the moral high ground by issuing life sentences
for convictions is the better option if the United States wants to
generate world support for the terrorist fight along with a legal
victory. Finally, trying to get a death sentence will invite even
greater scrutiny of the prosecutorial process, prolong the legal
challenges and subject the methods used to gain evidence to even
greater scrutiny.
CIA Director Michael Hayden has recently acknowledged that Mr. Mohammed
and two other suspects were subjected to the torturous technique of
waterboarding. It will be up to a military judge to rule whether
statements gained using such interrogation methods are admissible.
The coming proceedings could present the greatest prosecutorial
challenge since the Nuremberg trials brought Nazi officials to justice.
If done right, like the Nuremberg trials, these trials will reveal the
extent of evil that the world confronted, and continues to face.
Blumenthal opposes relicensing of
Indian Point
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Brian Lockhart
Published December 4 2007
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced yesterday he is
asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deny new 20-year licenses
for Indian Point's two nuclear reactors in Buchanan, N.Y., until
security and environmental concerns are addressed.
The power plant's existing 40-year permits expire in 2013 and
2015. Indian Point's owner, Entergy Corp., applied for the new
licenses in the spring. This weekend was the deadline to intervene and
request hearings by the NRC. New York Attorney General Andrew
Cuomo also announced his state is opposing the new licenses, in large
part over concerns Indian Point is susceptible to terrorist attack.
"We're not saying that Indian Point should be shut down," Blumenthal
said. "But rather (the license) should be extended only if it meets
certain safety and environmental conditions. Those include a workable
evacuation plan, a program for disposing of nuclear waste and
procedures to safeguard against accident or terrorist attack."
Lower Fairfield County is within 50 miles of the reactors alongside the
Hudson River, with the Stamford border fewer than 23 miles away. Diane
Screnci, an NRC spokeswoman, outlined the licensing process, saying
hearing requests will be vetted by a three-person atomic safety and
licensing board.
"Your documentation should include a demonstration you . . . would be
affected by any action we might take and also the issues or
'contentions' that would need to be addressed," she said.
Screnci said it will take at least a couple months for the panel to
review petitions from Blumenthal, Cuomo and others. If no hearing
is scheduled, Screnci said the licensing process will take about 22
months, or until July 2009. A hearing process will boost the timeline
to 30 months. Jim Steets, head of regional communications for
Entergy, yesterday disputed Blumenthal's criticisms of Indian Point and
questioned whether Connecticut's attorney general had a role in the
licensing debate.
"The idea anybody would have to be evacuated from those areas (in
Connecticut) as the result of an event at Indian Point is baseless,"
Steets said. "I'm not surprised because our own attorney general thinks
these plants can blow up like nuclear bombs. But people who know how
these plants work, know that evacuating beyond just several miles in
even the worst accident would be unnecessary."
Not true, Blumenthal said.
"A major part of Connecticut's population - as much as a third, to a
half of all citizens - could be exposed to radioactive contamination if
there was a substantial accident or attack," he said.
Screnci yesterday would not comment on the merits of Blumenthal's
concerns and whether they would trigger a hearing.
"I can tell you we assess performance at the plant routinely, and we
believe the two Indian Point units are being operated safely," she said.
Screnci added that because security concerns are part of NRC's everyday
oversight of Indian Point, they are "not normally considered in
licensing renewal."
Katherine Kennedy, a special deputy attorney in Cuomo's office, hopes
the NRC will reconsider in light of a recent federal Court of Appeals
decision requiring it to review terrorism issues when relicensing
nuclear plants on the West Coast.
"So we have an unfair situation where citizens in California or Oregon
can raise security and terrorism issues and the NRC will have to
address them. But here in New York we're denied that right," Kennedy
said.
Kennedy said Cuomo was working to persuade NRC to wrap security matters
into its environmental review of Indian Point.
"We may also seek a waiver that allows parties to raise additional
issues if very relevant and important," Kennedy said.
Federal and state lawmakers have continually expressed concerns about
Indian Point's security, as well as emergency effects on Connecticut
after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"They have made some upgrades, mostly superficial," Blumenthal said.
"In our view, they still have failed to assure a sufficiently high
standard to justify licensing extension. And they should be held to a
very high standard."
The NRC said in 2004 that a speedy, significant release of radiation is
all but impossible at Indian Point, even if terrorists crashed a
jetliner into it. And in April 2006, NRC representatives told
U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Bridgeport, and other members of a House
Government Reform subcommittee that Indian Point and other nuclear
power plants can quickly change internal operations to protect the
public from radiation exposure if targeted by a hijacked plane.
But in recent months, Indian Point has suffered some high-profile
embarrassments.
In August, NRC reported one of its inspectors found an armed guard
asleep at the gate of an inner security ring at the plant and spent two
minutes trying to wake him.
And last month, Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano, in a letter
to the NRC, said the county would no longer participate in emergency
drills because Indian Point employees "were unprepared to participate,
unfamiliar with the process and uninformed about the drill scenario."
Urgency fades for pills offering
radiation protection
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Brian Lockhart
Published December 4 2007
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Mike Cosenza, like some
others in lower Fairfield County, invested in potassium iodide pills to
block radiation in case the Indian Point nuclear plant became a target.
"I remember buying some of these things at the Weston Pharmacy,"
Cosenza said. "God knows what happened to them."
But Kerry Stevens of New Canaan keeps good track of her pills. She
bought a fresh batch earlier this year.
"They're in a safe spot," Stevens said. "I do think about it
periodically. I have low-grade angst about the whole thing - nothing
like after 9/11."
As the nation examined its vulnerabilities after the terrorist attacks,
public officials and area residents were faced with the decision of
whether or not to stockpile potassium iodide, or KI, pills.
Taken in the proper dosage, potassium iodide is authorized by the
federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to prevent certain cancers caused
when the thyroid absorbs radioactive iodine dispersed in a nuclear
accident. After the attacks, state officials distributed tablets
from the NRC to residents living within a 10-mile radius of
Connecticut's nuclear power plants.
Located over the New York border in Buchanan, Indian Point is outside
the NRC's prescribed radius for distributing the tablets.
But elected officials in Stamford, Norwalk, Greenwich and Westport
fretted over contradictory claims about how far radiation could spread
and whether they needed to act independently of the state and federal
government to ensure constituents' safety. Taking the lead was
Diane Farrell, who was then the first selectwoman in Westport. That
town spent $25,000 on the tablets and distributed them in June 2002
through the Westport Weston Health District.
"I have no regrets," Farrell said yesterday, adding she has kept her
own supply. "Sadly, I believe we still live in a post-9/11 world and
our vulnerabilities remain. I think it was a prudent decision on the
town's part."
But John Cimarosa, a health district consultant, said the urgency
surrounding the pills' purchase and distribution has subsided.
Cimarosa said the health district probably has 50,000 to 70,000 doses
stockpiled.
"We haven't thought about it in a long time, to be honest," Cimarosa
said. And there appears to be no pressure on the health district
to get a fresh supply of the tablets.
KI is known to have a shelf life of five years. And the NRC, according
to the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security,
earlier this year provided the state with a new batch.
"We checked with the manufacturer. It's salt. It's basically not going
to go bad as long as it's dry," Cimarosa said. "So we're keeping it. It
doesn't make sense to me it would lose any potency . . ."
In early 2003, Dr. Anthony Iton, who was then the Stamford health
director, was planning to stockpile potassium iodide for schools and
day-care centers. But current Stamford Health Director Dr.
Johnnie Lee, as well as a city school board member, said yesterday they
do not recall that the plan moved forward.
"It doesn't sound like something we would enter into without a whole
lot of debate," school board member Susan Nabel said. She added that
Indian Point "is awfully far away from us."
Greenwich resident Stephen Myers said yesterday he continues to believe
town leaders were wrong for not purchasing and distributing the
pills. In a letter to The Advocate in 2003, Myers noted the
American Thyroid Association and other groups endorse distributing
potassium iodide in advance to individual households at a distance up
to 50 miles from the site of a nuclear emergency.
"It still strikes me as being a good idea, because the potential hazard
at Indian Point hasn't changed," Myers said. He said he and his wife
have pills stored at home.
Former Norwalk Common Council member Kevin Poruban also has KI tablets
stockpiled for his family. As chairman of the council's public
safety committee, Poruban was considering whether to recommend Norwalk
purchase and distribute the pills to residents for about $64,000. But
the city never went ahead with the plan. Poruban said he, too,
has read studies that say the pills should be distributed to residents
living within a 50-mile radius of a nuclear plant.
"It's better to be safe than sorry," Poruban said. "I'd rather throw
stuff out because it expired and I haven't used it than have a
situation arise and say, 'Gee, I wish I had it.' "
No Way This Stuff's Going To Fly
By LYNN DOAN | Courant Staff Writer
November 6, 2007
WINDSOR LOCKS - Souvenir baseball bats. Screwdrivers and wrenches. A
long and jagged piece of rock.
They all lie among the piles of prohibited carry-on items left behind
by passengers at Bradley International Airport's security checkpoints.
Last year, security workers at Bradley collected about 1.5 tons -
roughly the weight of a car - of what they determined to be potential
weapons.
But what's the ultimate fate of the abandoned items? Look no further
than New Hampshire.
For the past year, the state of New Hampshire has been picking up the
ever-accumulating treasure-trove of pocketknives, sporting equipment
and miscellaneous keepsakes to auction off at its state surplus store.
New Hampshire rids the Transportation Security Administration at
Bradley of the growing piles free of cost, and gets to pocket the money
from sales.
"[Granite State residents] love this stuff," said Gil Dubay, a TSA
financial specialist who coordinates the pickups for New Hampshire. "It
sells."
In a shipment made last week, 20 knee-high buckets of gadgets were
hauled off to New Hampshire. TSA workers recently poured the contents
of a few buckets onto a conference room table to eye the bounty before
its departure.
Out came a stick of bamboo, three free weights and a plethora of
blades. Dan Lee, a TSA spokesman, kept one item behind for a while to
show around: "Ceasefire," a cologne kept in a grenade-shaped bottle.
Though absent from the most recent batch, Red Sox paraphernalia usually
make up a good chunk of the prohibited items left at the checkpoints,
Dubay said. Fans will try to scoot through security with sporting
equipment, such as souvenir bats, not realizing that the items are
banned because they could be used as weapons, officials said.
Other items in this batch are more flagrant violations of the security
regulations. Dubay pulled a 6-inch blade out of bubble wrap. "Can you
imagine someone trying to get on a plane with this?" he said.
A New Hampshire state official said the knives, auctioned off for $1 to
$2 each, sell the best.
Before establishing the agreement with New Hampshire, Lee said, TSA
paid for the collections to be carted off to a foundry in West
Springfield, where they were melted.
Connecticut's surplus department originally was offered the non-liquid
smorgasbord but declined, he said.
Liquid and chemical items prohibited by security are disposed of
separately through a hazardous material company.
In recent years, TSA has had to worry less about disposing of the items
left behind. That's because travelers have become more aware of what to
pack in their carry-on luggage, and because some businesses at the
airport now offer to ship the prohibited items to travelers for a fee.
The volume of items collected at Bradley's security checkpoints has
decreased from 5.29 tons in 2003 to 1.5 tons last year. TSA workers
recalled a time when they used to fill a dumpster with items every
other month.
But not even public awareness campaigns can prevent travelers from
bringing unusual items, like a foot-long piece of rock.
TSA logistician Scott Greene said, "There's usually a rock every month."
TSA
to Scrutinize Remote-Controlled Toys
CABLEVISION
WASHINGTON
2007, 10 01
Airport screeners will be taking a closer look at remote control toys
in carry-on luggage due to concerns they could be used to detonate
bombs, U.S. officials said Monday.
The new practice is not a result of a specific threat, according to the
Transportation Security Administration. But authorities recently
arrested two Florida college students and accused one of them of
posting a video online with instructions on how to use a
remote-controlled toy to set off a bomb.
Passengers _ including children _ carrying these toys may have to go
through secondary screening.
"While not associated with a specific threat at this time, TSA is aware
that remote control toys can be used to initiate devices used in
terrorist attacks," according to Monday's press release.
"Transportation security officers have trained on this possibility and
travelers may encounter additional screening when bringing remote
control devices in carry-on luggage."
Town man's GIS bid fails in
Stamford
Greenwich TIME
By Neil Vigdor, Staff Writer
Published August 25 2007
Denied first by Greenwich, a town man's bid to gain computer access to
maps of fire hydrants, power lines, water mains, sewers and other
infrastructure in neighboring Stamford has been turned down a second
time for security reasons.
The state Freedom of Information Commission ruled unanimously Wednesday
that the city of Stamford does not have to turn over computer files
containing those maps to Stephen Whitaker, a self-employed computer
consultant.
"Knowledge of the direction of the water supply would be useful to an
individual seeking to introduce chemicals to the water supply," FOIC
hearing officer Victor Perpetua wrote in a decision letter adopted by
the commission. "Knowledge of the size and location of sewer mains
would be useful to an individual seeking to access and harm public
buildings or utilities through those sewer mains."
Whitaker has been seeking the files from the city since late 2005,
overlapping with a similar request denied by town officials in
Greenwich.
Both communities keep the information in geographic information system
databases, which include aerial photographs of the two communities and
supporting information on the location and dimension of landmarks such
as wetlands, flood zones, open space and property lines.
Some of the information is available to the public but other parts have
been restricted by officials after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks.
Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy said that while he is generally in favor
of giving the public access to information contained in the city's GIS
database, he does support limitations on certain data.
"So, I think it's a balancing act," Malloy said. "I support the
decision, but I also caution that people have to hold their government
accountable and not use (exemptions) as an excuse to withhold data."
Whitaker has accused the two communities of exaggerating security
concerns, which he said has enabled bureaucrats to keep vital
information to themselves and out of the hands of the public that could
be used to plan for everything from taxi routing to emergency
respoonse. For example, he said residents in both municipalities could
plan better for fires and floods if they knew the location of hydrants
and storm drains.
"It's not that I want this stuff as much as I don't want to see us go
backwards in public records law for the reasons of overreaction to an
event that happened six years ago," Whitaker said.
In August 2006, Stamford officials turned over some of the materials in
the city's GIS database to Whitaker but took advantage of a law passed
after the terrorist attacks to restrict other images.
The law gives the state's public works commissioner limited powers to
restrict public access to information that risks harm to any person. In
its decision this week, the FOIC upheld that authority.
Whitaker said he filed a motion yesterday for the commission to
reconsider the ruling.
"So we're beginning to see the fallout of this irrational closure of
what are public records, which are now claimed exempt at the very time
we need to see them to question whether our infrastructure is properly
maintained," Whitaker said.
Greenwich officials resorted to using the same exemption after the
state Supreme Court ruled in June 2005 that they lacked concrete
evidence to support their claim that the release of the images
presented an immediate danger to the community. Whitaker missed the
deadline to appeal that decision to the commission, however.
"It's very clear to me that there are things that certainly should be
in the public eye and there are things that shouldn't be," said Daniel
Warzoha, the town's emergency management director and a former fire
chief.
Warzoha said a working group of neighborhood leaders in the flood-prone
Pemberwick neighborhood has access to maps of storm drains.
But Warzoha said he felt uncomfortable providing the general public
with town-wide maps of critical infrastructure, including bridges.
"We're the gateway to New England, and if you cripple our
infrastructure here, the backups would be horrendous," Warzoha said.
"All one has to do is look at the collapse of the Mianus River bridge
to see what it did to the economy."
Congress OKs Homeland Security
Bill; Legislation Targets Tighter Cargo Screening, Anti-Terrorism
Grants
DAY
By Spencer S. Hsu , William Branigin, The Washington
Post
Published on 7/28/2007
Washington — Congress gave final approval Friday to legislation that
requires more thorough screening of air and sea cargo, and shifts more
federal anti-terrorism grants to high-risk areas such as New York and
Washington, delivering on a pledge by Democrats last fall to implement
additional recommendations of the commission that investigated the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Voting 371-40, the House followed the Senate, which voted 85-8 Thursday
night, to send the measure to the White House after dropping a
controversial provision that would have extended union protection to
45,000 federal airport screeners. That language had prompted a veto
threat from President Bush.
In a statement, the White House criticized Congress for not acting on
the Sept. 11 commission's recommendation to streamline its own tangled
oversight of domestic security. But it said Bush's major concerns “have
been addressed, and the president will sign the legislation.”
Democrats said the passage of the third of six legislative priorities
established after their 2006 takeover of Congress proved that they are
delivering on their campaign pledges.
“With this bill, we'll be keeping our promises to the families of 9/11,
we'll be honoring the work of the 9/11 commission, and we'll be making
the American people safer,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said
in a speech on the House floor.
The bill implements many of the remaining recommendations of the Sept.
11 commission. It cuts in half the amount of homeland security grants
provided to states with no regard to the risk of attack they face.
Those guaranteed, population-based allocations are to be cut from about
40 percent of the total to about 20 percent.
It requires radiation screening — within five years — of 100 percent of
U.S.-bound maritime cargo before loading at foreign ports, but it
allows the secretary of homeland security to extend the deadline two
years at a time. Similarly, it requires screening of all cargo carried
on passenger aircraft within three years, but not physical inspection,
as initially proposed. That change will limit the impact on carriers.
The bill authorizes — but does not fund — significant increases in
homeland security grants, providing billions of dollars for transit and
aviation security, emergency communications and first responders.
In two controversial steps, Congress declassified the total amount
budgeted annually for U.S. intelligence, but in a compromise with the
administration, which opposed the change, it agreed to allow the
president to waive the disclosure after two years if national security
is harmed.
The bill also sets up a program requiring air travelers from 27
friendly countries to register online with the U.S. government as much
as 48 hours before departure. Passenger manifests are now sent 15
minutes after takeoff. The change will give U.S. authorities more time
to vet passport data for high-risk travelers. Most of the nations are
in Europe. Their residents can visit the United States without visas
for as much as 90 days.
Republicans accused Democrats of making “a hollow campaign promise” by
not using the bill to consolidate Congress's oversight of homeland
security within a single committee, a charge that Democrats levied at
GOP leaders in three previous congresses. They also claimed victory by
preserving a provision that protects from lawsuits people who report,
in good faith, suspected terrorist activity involving aircraft, trains
and buses.
Rep. Peter T. King (N.Y.), the ranking Republican on the House Homeland
Security Committee, said the bill, “while not perfect, is another step
in the right direction, building on the steps of the previous five
years.”
Michael E. O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said
the measure is “a nudge in generally the right direction.
“It's reasonable. It has the virtue of identifying a short list of
priorities ... (and) of pushing hard without firmly mandating something
that may not be necessary or practical,” O'Hanlon said. “It keeps
homeland security in the conversation, when it would be all too easy to
let it slide over issues like Iraq, immigration and domestic politics.”
In related action, the Senate also passed late Thursday its $40.6
billion version of the 2008 Department of Homeland Security budget,
voting 89-4, after adding $3 billion for border security. The money is
meant to pay for fencing, sensors and vehicle barriers; 3,000 more
Border Patrol agents; 4,000 new detention beds; and 700 additional
immigration enforcement personnel.
Terror Threat Against U.S. Said
Serious
By KATHERINE SHRADER and ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writers
Posted on Jul 17, 2007 9:40 AM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The terrorist network Al-Qaida will likely leverage
its contacts and capabilities in Iraq to mount an attack on U.S. soil,
according to a new National Intelligence Estimate on threats to the
United States.
The declassified key findings, to be released publicly on Tuesday, were
obtained in advance by The Associated Press.
The report lays out a range of dangers - from al-Qaida to Lebanese
Hezbollah to non-Muslim radical groups - that pose a "persistent and
evolving threat" to the country over the next three years. As expected,
however, the findings focus most of their attention on the gravest
terror problem: Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
The report makes clear that al-Qaida in Iraq, which has not yet posed a
direct threat to U.S. soil, could become a problem here.
"Of note," the analysts said, "we assess that al-Qaida will probably
seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of al-Qaida in Iraq
(AQI), its most visible and capable affiliate and the only one known to
have expressed a desire to attack the homeland."
The analysts also found that al-Qaida's association with its Iraqi
affiliate helps the group to energize the broader Sunni Muslim
extremist community, raise resources and recruit and indoctrinate
operatives - "including for homeland attacks."
National Intelligence Estimates are the most authoritative written
judgments of the 16 spy agencies across the breadth of the U.S.
government. These agencies reflect the consensus long-term thinking of
top intelligence analysts. Portions of the documents are occasionally
declassified for public release.
The new report echoed statements made by senior intelligence officials
over the last year, including the assessment of spy agencies that the
country is in a "heightened threat environment." It also provided new
details on their thinking and concerns.
For instance, the report says that worldwide counterterrorism efforts
since 2001 have constrained al-Qaida's ability to attack the U.S. again
and convinced terror groups that U.S. soil is a tougher target.
But, the report quickly adds, analysts are concerned "that this level
of international cooperation may wane as 9/11 becomes a more distant
memory and perceptions of the threat diverge."
Among the report's other findings:
-Al-Qaida is likely to continue to focus on high-profile political,
economic and infrastructure targets to cause mass casualties, visually
dramatic destruction, economic aftershocks and fear. "The group is
proficient with conventional small arms and improvised explosive
devices and is innovative in creating new capabilities and overcoming
security obstacles."
-The group has been able to restore key capabilities it would need to
launch an attack on U.S. soil: a safe haven in Pakistan's tribal areas,
operational lieutenants and senior leaders. U.S. officials have warned
publicly that a deal between the Pakistani government and tribal
leaders allowed al-Qaida to plot and train more freely in parts of
western Pakistan for the last 10 months.
-The group will continue to seek weapons of mass destruction -
chemical, biological or nuclear material - and "would not hesitate to
use them."
-Lebanese Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim extremist group that has conducted
anti-American attacks overseas, may be more likely to consider
attacking here, especially if it believes the United States is directly
threatening the group or its main sponsor, Iran.
-Non-Muslim terrorist groups probably will attack here in the next
several years, although on a smaller scale. The judgments don't name
any specific groups, but the FBI often warns of violent environmental
groups, such as Earth Liberation Front, and others.
The publicly disclosed judgments, laid out over two pages, are part of
a longer document, which remains classified. It was approved by the
heads of all 16 intelligence agencies on June 21.
In the last week, reports on this document and another threat
assessment on al-Qaida's resurgence have renewed the debate in
Washington about whether the Bush administration is on the right course
in its war on terror, particularly in Iraq.
The White House has used the reports as evidence that the country must
continue to go after al-Qaida in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. But
critics say the evolving threat is evidence of a policy gone wrong.
The debate - and the underlying global problem - will not go away soon.
The high-level estimate notes that the spread of radical ideas,
especially on the Internet, growing anti-U.S. rhetoric and increasing
numbers of radical cells throughout Western countries indicate the
violent segments of the Muslim populations is expanding.
"The arrest and prosecution by U.S. law enforcement of a small number
of violent Islamic extremists inside the United States ... points to
the possibility that others may become sufficiently radicalized that
they will view the use of violence here as legitimate," the estimate
said. "We assess that this internal Muslim terrorist threat is not
likely to be as severe as it is in Europe, however."
Four
charged in plot to blow
up JFK airport
By Chris Michaud
Sun Jun 3, 2007 12:57 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Four people, including a former member of Guyana's
parliament, have been charged with planning to blow up New York's John
F. Kennedy International Airport, U.S. officials said on Saturday.
This was "one of the most chilling plots imaginable," Roslynn Mauskopf,
U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said at a news
conference in New York. "The devastation that would be caused ... is
just unthinkable."
The plotters sought to blow up the airport's jet fuel tanks and part of
the 40-mile (64-km) pipeline feeding them from New Jersey. Three of the
four suspects, who included a former airline cargo handler, have been
arrested, federal law enforcement officials said.
In a recorded conversation one suspect predicted there would be few
survivors and that the attacks would result in the destruction of "the
whole of Kennedy."
There was no connection to al Qaeda, officials said, but some suspects
were linked to an Islamist extremist group in Trinidad.
In one recorded conversation, a suspect compared the plot to the
September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, saying, "Even the twin
towers can't touch it." He added, "This can destroy the economy of
America for some time."
The indictment said the suspects referred to their plot as "the chicken
farm" or "the chicken hatchery" but did not explain the code name.
News of the foiled plot comes weeks after six suspected Islamist
militants were detained on charges of planning to attack a U.S. Army
base at Fort Dix in New Jersey.
Targets in the airport plot included terminal buildings, aircraft and
fuel tanks, as well as the fuel pipeline to the airport. Pipeline
operator Buckeye Partners L.P. said it had been cooperating with
authorities since the investigation started in January 2006.
Spokesman Roy Haase declined to comment on security measures but said
speculation the plotters hoped to destroy large parts of the pipeline
were unrealistic, since any damage would be confined to the area where
fuel leaked and the pipeline was almost entirely underground.
"There's no oxygen in the pipeline. It's completely full of liquid and
you need oxygen for ignition," Haase said.
The plot was foiled with the help of an informant who recorded
conversations with the suspects, some as recent as last month. The
arrests came well before the plan came to fruition and
the FBI said there was no
threat to the public.
Mark Mershon, assistant director in charge of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's New York field office, declined to say whether there
might be more arrests.
PLOT SPREAD FROM U.S.
Officials said the plot began in the United States and spread to
Trinidad and Guyana. Mershon said the cell had shown unusual
persistence, seeking finance and expert advice and gathering
photographic and video surveillance as well as satellite photographs.
"This is a very determined group," he said.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the plot was "different in its
distinct ties to the Caribbean, a region that is rarely thought of in
terms of terrorism but of increasing concern to us as a crucible in the
foment of Islamic radicalism."
White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo
said President George W. Bush
had been briefed and updated regularly on the progress of the
investigation. "This case is a good example of international
counterterrorism cooperation," she said.
Among the three suspects arrested since Friday was Russell Defreitas, a
U.S. citizen and native of Guyana who was arrested in New York.
Authorities said he was a former airport employee who conducted
surveillance for the group, using his knowledge of the site to identify
targets and escape routes.
"Any time you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United
States," Defreitas said in one recorded conversation. "To hit John F.
Kennedy, wow ... they love John F. Kennedy like he's the man ... if you
hit that, this whole country will be mourning. You can kill the man
twice."
Authorities said two suspects were in custody in Trinidad and Tobago --
Abdul Kadir, a citizen of Guyana and former member of its parliament,
and Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. Their extradition
was being sought, officials said.
Mershon said the fourth suspect, Abdel Nur, a citizen of Guyana, was
believed to be at large in Trinidad.
Authorities said Kadir and Nur were associates of Jamaat Al Muslimeen,
a Muslim group behind a 1990 coup attempt in Trinidad.
Poll
finds some U.S. Muslim support for suicide attacks
By David Morgan
May 22, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About one-quarter of young American Muslims
believe to some extent that suicide bombings can be justified to defend
Islam, while nearly 80 percent of all U.S. Muslims reject such attacks,
a survey showed on Tuesday.
The nationwide poll of 1,050 Muslim adults by the Pew Research Center
said the U.S. Muslim community is largely moderate, assimilated and
happy. But the community also contains pockets of support for
Islamist militancy among Muslims aged 18-30 and black Muslims, the
survey showed. The survey, billed as one of the most far-reaching
polls of Muslims living in the United States, asked the following
question about suicide attacks:
"Some people think that suicide bombing and other forms of violence
against civilian targets are justified in order to defend Islam from
its enemies. Other people believe that, no matter what the reason, this
kind of violence is never justified.
"Do you personally feel that this kind of violence is often justified
to defend Islam, sometimes justified, rarely justified or never
justified?"
The survey found 26 percent of younger Muslims believed suicide
bombings are often, sometimes or rarely justified, compared with 69
percent who believed such attacks can never be accepted. By
contrast, 13 percent of all U.S. Muslims felt suicide attacks could be
justified often, sometimes or rarely, while 78 percent completely
rejected the deadly tactic that has been used by al Qaeda and other
Islamist militants.
The poll, conducted from January 24 to April 30 in four languages, had
a 5 percent margin of error.
"It's not something they see themselves engaging in. It's more of them
seeing what's happening abroad and ... feeling that in these
situations, suicide bombings are justified for others," said Farid
Senzai of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a
Michigan-based research group that studies U.S. domestic and foreign
policy.
Senzai attended the news conference as a member of the Pew survey
project's outside advisory board. Experts said the level of
Muslim youth support for suicide bombings was similar to patterns seen
in Europe. Support in some degree for suicide bombings among
younger European Muslims ranged from 22 percent in Germany to 29
percent in Spain, 35 percent in Britain and 42 percent in France,
according to a May 2006 Pew poll.
Pew estimates that there are 2.35 million Muslims living in the United
States, a tiny fraction of an overall U.S. population of 300 million
people. But Muslim population estimates vary widely, ranging as high as
7 million, because the U.S.
Census Bureau does not ask about religious affiliations in its national
surveys.
Pollsters said they were surprised to find that only 40 percent of U.S.
Muslims believed Arabs carried out the September 11 attacks on New York
and Washington. The survey suggested 53 percent of Muslims
believe their life has become more difficult since the 2001 attacks
because of discrimination or government surveillance.
But the findings also showed that 78 percent of U.S. Muslims are either
"pretty happy" or "very happy" with their lives.
Fort Dix Suspects Denied Bail
Hartford Courant
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated press Writer
12:05 PM EDT, May 11, 2007
CAMDEN, N.J. -- Six Muslim men suspected of plotting to massacre U.S.
soldiers at Fort Dix were ordered held without bail Friday.
Prosecutors argued that the men, all born outside the United States,
pose a flight risk. They are being held at a federal detention center
in Philadelphia.
The men were arrested Monday night during what the FBI
said was an attempt to buy AK-47 machine guns, M-16s and other weapons.
They targeted Fort Dix, a post 25 miles east of Philadelphia that is
used primarily to train reservists, partly because one of them had
delivered pizzas there and was familiar with the base, according to
court filings. Their objective was to kill "as many American soldiers
as possible," the documents said.
The men have lived in and around Philadelphia for years, worshipped at
moderate mosques and worked blue-collar jobs installing roofs, driving
a cab, delivering pizzas and baking bread. Four are ethnic Albanians
from the former Yugoslavia, one is from Jordan and one is from Turkey.
Defense lawyers for some of the men said they are considering attacking
the prosecution's reliance on two paid informants who infiltrated the
group more than a year ago and recorded conversations with the
defendants. Authorities said they first learned about the men in
January 2006 after a tip from a clerk at a Mount Laurel electronics
store. The clerk called police because a home video the men wanted
transferred to a DVD looked like it might have terrorist links, U.S.
Attorney Christopher J. Christie said.
Earlier this year, authorities said, the men took a training trip to
the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, where they fired weapons and
played paintball to prepare for an attack.
Five of the men -- Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; Serdar Tatar, 23;
Dritan "Anthony" or "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis"
Duka, 23 -- are charged with conspiring to kill uniformed military
personnel, an offense punishable by life in prison. Agron
Abdullahu, 24, is charged with helping illegal immigrants obtain
weapons. He could face 10 years in prison if convicted.
Abdullahu, who faces the least serious charges of the six, will have
another bail hearing next Thursday.
U.S. man accused of plot to bomb resorts
By MATT LEINGANG, Associated Press Writer
April 12, 2007
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A federal grand jury indicted a U.S. citizen on
charges of joining al-Qaida and conspiring to bomb European tourist
resorts and U.S. government facilities and military bases overseas,
officials said Thursday.
The investigation of Christopher Paul, 43, spanned four years, three
continents and at least eight countries, FBI agent Tim Murphy said
shortly before the Columbus man appeared before a federal judge.
Paul had trained with al-Qaida in the early 1990s and told al-Qaida
members in Pakistan and Afghanistan that he was dedicated to committing
violent jihad, according to the indictment issued Wednesday.
"The indictment of Christopher Paul paints a disturbing picture of an
American who traveled overseas to train as a violet jihadist, joined
the ranks of al-Qaida and provided military instruction and support to
radial cohorts both here and abroad," Assistant U.S. Attorney General
Kenneth Wainstein said in a statement.
Paul, who was arrested Wednesday outside his apartment, is charged with
providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide support
to terrorists and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.
In court Thursday, Magistrate Judge Terence Kemp asked Paul if he
understood the charges. "Yes, sir," Paul replied. Prosecutors
asked that he be held without bond, and Kemp set another hearing Friday
on the issue. Paul's lawyer, Don Wolery, did not return a message
seeking comment before the hearing.
The indictment says Paul traveled to Germany about April 1999 to train
co-conspirators to use explosives to attack European and U.S. targets,
including government buildings and vacation spots frequented by
American tourists. It does not name specific resorts or buildings
that might have been targeted, but gives U.S. embassies, military bases
and consular premises in Europe as examples.
Paul later sent a wire transfer of $1,760 from a financial institution
in the U.S. to an alleged co-conspirator in Germany, prosecutors
allege. A fax machine in his home contained names, phone numbers
and contact information for key al-Qaida leadership and associates,
according to the indictment.
Paul also is accused of storing material at his father's house in
Columbus, including a book on improvised land mines, money from
countries in the Middle East and a letter to his parents explaining
that he would be "on the front lines," according to the indictment.
His sister, Sandra Laws, answered the door at the home and said she and
her father live there. She said the family will be speaking to Paul's
attorney later Thursday and declined further comment. No charges
are expected against family members, authorities said.
Paul was born Paul Kenyatta Laws. He legally changed his name to
Abdulmalek Kenyatta in 1989, then to Christopher Paul in 1994,
according to the indictment. After finishing his al-Qaida
training in the early 1990s, he returned to Columbus to teach martial
arts at a mosque, the indictment said.
Two other Columbus men have been charged in federal investigators'
terrorism investigation. Lyman Faris was sentenced in 2003 to 20 years
in prison for a plot to topple the Brooklyn Bridge. Nuradin Abdi,
accused of plotting to blow up a Columbus-area shopping mall, is
awaiting trial on charges including conspiring to aid terrorists.
Terrorists to form
their own union?
9/11 Bill May Face Scrutiny in Senate
DAY
By BEVERLEY LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer
Published January 10 2007, 7:21 AM EST
WASHINGTON -- An anti-terrorism measure that easily passed the House
faces tougher scrutiny from senators skeptical of its call for tougher
screening for cargo aboard ships, a new way to divide federal security
aid among states and other provisions.
Raising further questions about the bill's future, the Bush
administration said it opposed the measure's collective bargaining
rights for airport screeners, inspections of cargo on passenger
airliners and the cargo-scanning requirement for ships bound for U.S.
ports. A White House statement, however, did not threaten a veto.
An obviously delighted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced
the vote by which the bill passed on Tuesday by a bipartisan roll call
of 299-128. It was the first of six measures the House is expected to
pass in its first 100 hours in session under Democratic control.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said adopting these and other
recommendations of the 9/11 Commission were a vital step toward the
goal to "protect the American people, to defend our homeland and to
strengthen our national security."
It is not clear how soon the Senate will take up the measure, which
would enact many of the remaining recommendations by the bipartisan
commission, which was formed after the 2001 terrorist attacks to
suggest changes the government should make to upgrade security. The
previous Republican-controlled Congress approved many of the
commission's proposals, such as reorganizing the nation's intelligence
agencies.
The House bill would also provide more funds to improve local emergency
agencies' communications gear and take steps aimed at making it harder
for terrorists to obtain nuclear weapons.
Democrats provided no cost estimate of the package, but a Senate bill
introduced last year to adopt the commission's proposals had a
five-year price tag of $53 billion.
Republicans warned that the bill would be too costly and require
technology that doesn't yet exist. They also assailed Democrats for
posing as being tough on terrorism.
"Homeland security is too important to play politics when American
lives are at stake," said Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
The bill also would change the way federal security funds are
distributed to communities around the country, giving more to areas
considered at higher risk of terrorist attacks and less to smaller and
rural states. That is one of the biggest obstacles to the bill's
friendly reception
in the Senate, where many leaders represent small and rural states that
could lose money under the new formula. The Bush administration
said it supported the measure's plan for
distributing security aid.
But in a statement, it said it opposed provisions:
* Allowing inspectors employed by the Transportation Security
Administration to have collective bargaining rights. The administration
said these provisions were not recommended by the 9/11 Commission and
would diminish the Homeland Security secretary's flexibility to
effectively manage the department.
* Requiring scanning of all U.S.-bound cargo containers before loading
in foreign ports. The administration said the requirement, which might
eventually apply to more than 700 ports worldwide, is not feasible. The
administration is also reluctant to pass on to commercial carriers the
significant costs involved. Last year, the Senate rejected such a
measure after senators aired similar reservations.
* Requiring that all air cargo shipped on passenger planes be
inspected. "Technology does not currently exist that would allow for
physical inspection of all air cargo ... without impeding the
legitimate flow of commerce," the administration says.
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, there has been a
tug-of-war between the House and the Senate over how security aid
should be distributed.
The Homeland Security Department has gradually been given more control
over funds it could allocate based on risk. But some money has
still been guaranteed to every state. The new bill
drops the amount from 0.75 percent of the pot to 0.25, or 0.45 percent
for states with a foreign border. The amount of money available would
be determined later in an appropriations bill.
Zombie Computers Attack - Spammers invade
with new 'botnets'
By New York Times News Service
Published on 1/7/2007
In their persistent quest to breach the Internet's defenses, the bad
guys are honing their weapons and increasing their firepower...read full story here.
U.S. To Check Cargo Overseas For
Radiation
DAY
By Devlin Barrett, Associated Writer
Published on 12/8/2006
Washington — U.S.-bound cargo at six overseas ports will be screened
for nuclear and radiological material in an expanded effort to prevent
terrorist bombs from entering American waters, federal officials said
Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security said it would scan all containers
bound for the United States in the ports of Qasim, Pakistan; Puerto
Cortes, Honduras; and Southampton, England.
Radiological scanning will also be done at Port Salaleh in Oman, the
Port of Singapore, and the Gamman Terminal at Port Busan in Korea,
though not every container will be screened, officials said. Officials
said the examinations would begin early next year at all six ports.
The Southampton facility is operated by Dubai Ports World, the same
company whose planned purchase of U.S. port operations caused an uproar
earlier this year. One of the chief opponents of that deal said the
company had undergone closer scrutiny this time.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called the effort part of
a strategy to “secure the global supply chain and cut off any
possibility of exploitation by terrorists.”
The program was created by Congress in September, but the agency said
it was going beyond the legislation's requirement of screening in three
foreign ports. The departments of Homeland Security and Energy
will split the nearly $60 million cost of the detection equipment,
ranging from large portals to handheld scanners.
Dubai Ports participating in U.S.
security plan
By David Morgan
December 7, 2006
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dubai Ports World, the Arab-owned firm whose
purchase of American port facilities caused a U.S. political uproar,
will join a program aimed at stopping nuclear weapons being smuggled
into the United States, sources familiar with the agreement said on
Thursday.
The program would involve screening U.S.-bound cargo for radiation at
more than half a dozen ports including in Britain, Honduras, Oman and
South Korea, sources said.
Dubai Ports World is among several international shipping and port
operators chosen for the screening program mandated by the Safe
Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006, legislation that resulted
from the Dubai Ports controversy.
An announcement was expected on Thursday afternoon from the Department
of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy and the State Department.
Asked about the program, a Homeland Security spokesman said only that
Secretary Michael Chertoff planned to speak publicly about a new
initiative to strengthen the international supply chain. The
sources described the initiative as the first phase of a broader effort
to screen cargo for radiation.
The SAFE Port Act authorizes $3.4 billion over five years for safety
measures, including installing radiation detectors at the 22 largest
U.S. ports by the end of next year.
Port operators, which are expected to participate in the program by
providing customs officials with space and access to their facilities,
include A.P. Moeller-Maersk, PSA International and Hutchison Whampoa.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Nike Inc. were expected to be among
participating shippers, sources said. Dubai Ports, owned by the
United Arab Emirates, became the center of a bitter debate in Congress
after buying assets at six U.S. ports within its $6.8 billion purchase
of Britain's Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. in February.
The Bush administration approved the purchase of facilities in New
York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans. But
lawmakers had security concerns about an Arab state-owned company
running U.S. port terminals. Dubai Ports responded by saying it
would sell those U.S. assets. No sale has yet been announced.
David Sanborn, Dubai Ports World's managing director for the Americas,
has sharply criticized the U.S. port-security law as fundamentally
inadequate. Sanborn, whom
President George W. Bush once nominated to head the U.S. Maritime
Administration, told a security conference in October that the law did
not go far enough to require radiation screening. Sanborn
withdrew his name from consideration for the Maritime Administration
post amid the uproar over Dubai Ports.
Department of Homeland Security
Selects AMETEK to Supply Portable Radiation Detection System;
High-Resolution System Incorporates Best-Available Identification
Technology
Press Release Source: AMETEK
Thursday October 26, 11:29 am ET
PAOLI, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) has awarded a contract to AMETEK (NYSE:AME - News) for the
design, development and production of a high-resolution portable
radiation detection system. The system will be used by U.S. Customs and
Border Protection, public safety officials and other first responders
to screen vehicles and search public facilities for potentially harmful
nuclear materials.
The contract calls for a base year award of $2.4 million for research
and development. As well, the contract contains option years for both
research and development and production. If all option years are
exercised by the government, the total value of the contract will range
from approximately $5 million to $50 million over a five year period.
"AMETEK is pleased to be selected as the only high-resolution germanium
supplier for this important program. We believe our system represents
the best technology for quickly, accurately and reliably identifying
nuclear material and determining whether or not it poses a threat,"
noted AMETEK Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frank S. Hermance.
"Our Detective® family of high-resolution radiation detection
systems represents a substantial advance in system performance and
significantly improves the ability to detect potentially harmful
radioactive material without interfering with the normal flow of
commerce.
"These systems employ a unique class of high-purity germanium-based
gamma ray detectors that offer the best available combination of
resolution and sensitivity for the rapid, positive identification of
nuclear materials. These detectors can identify nuclear material which
can be used in a nuclear weapon, an improvised nuclear device or a
dirty bomb," added Mr. Hermance.
This award from DHS follows a number of recent wins for AMETEK's
radiation detection systems. In recent months, AMETEK has been awarded
contracts totaling more than $12 million by the US Departments of
Defense and Energy and the UK Ministry of Defence. These include
standard handheld Detective radiation identifiers, a backpack version
of the Detective, and a transportable portal system.
Corporate Profile
AMETEK is a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and
electromechanical devices with annualized sales of approximately $1.8
billion. AMETEK's Corporate Growth Plan is based on Four Key
Strategies: Operational Excellence, Strategic Acquisitions &
Alliances, Global & Market Expansion, and New Products. Its
objective is double-digit percentage growth in earnings per share over
the business cycle and a superior return on total capital. The common
stock of AMETEK is a component of the S&P MidCap 400 Index and the
Russell 1000 Index.
Forward-looking Information
Statements in this news release that are not historical are considered
"forward-looking statements" and are subject to change based on various
factors and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ
significantly from expectations. Those factors are contained in
AMETEK's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
NOTE:
What was the vote in
Congress? It was this webpage's feeling that from the
moment the second plane hit the World Trade Center towers, it was
inevitable that our democracy would have to adapt. Very sad.
The Shaving Of Democracy
DAY editorial
Published on 9/30/2006
The detainee legislation passed by the House and the Senate this week
seeks to legitimize extreme standards that are an anathema to our
democratic government. Conceived amid shameful political rhetoric that
anyone who didn't support the measures was supporting terrorists, the
legislation is fundamentally flawed and likely to face harsh review in
the courts.
This was bad legislation passed at this time in order to influence the
outcome of the November elections and designed to give Republicans a
platform on which to campaign. It is a gross abuse of the congressional
process and a dangerous precedent for a democratic nation.
Many elements of the legislation are bad. But perhaps the worst part of
the bill may be the stripping away of the habeas corpus rights of
detainees who are terrorist suspects. The bill will prevent them from
challenging in court their detentions. Republican Sen. Arlen Specter,
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tried unsuccessfully to
amend the bill, saying: “What the bill seeks to do is set back basic
rights by some 900 years.” He added that challenging detention has been
a basic right since the signing of the Magna Carta.
And Congressman Steny H. Hoyer, the Maryland representative who is the
No. 2-ranking Democrat in the House, predicted that the legislation
would undermine the moral credibility of the United States around the
globe.
Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat, was more pointed. He argued
that the Bush administration has been “relentless in its determination
to legitimize the abuse of detainees.”
It's disappointing that Republican Sens. John Warner, John McCain and
Lindsey Graham, who had opposed President George W. Bush on
surrendering the rights of the Geneva Conventions, suggest that the
“compromise” rules laid down keep the conventions intact and that this
is good legislation. It is not. This
bill compromises democracy with the flat assumption that the new world
created by terrorists demands new tactics — apparently, no matter what
they are.
By such declarations are the easy reductions of human rights made. The
legislation allows the president to decide what is an abusive
interrogation method. It prevents the courts from reviewing any part of
the new system except for verdicts by military tribunals. It allows
secret evidence kept from defendants. It limits the definition of
torture.
Only one Republican senator had the courage to oppose this measure.
Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island again demonstrated that he thinks
for himself and won't bend to unreasonable measures. Regrettably,
Democratic Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman supported the legislation.
What we witness in this debacle is a justification of the violations of
people's rights under the umbrella excuse that the terrible tactics
used by terrorists require sterner measures, even if they compromise
basic human rights.
Liberty is a precious commodity. The patriots of earlier days
understood this. Where are the patriots today?
Three firms win US DHS nuclear detection
contracts
Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:36am ET
WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - L-3 Communications Holdings Inc.
(LLL.N: Quote, Profile, Research), American Science & Engineering
Inc. (ASEI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and SAIC have won $1.35 billion
in contracts as part of developing a system to detect nuclear and
radiological matter in cargo, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
said on Wednesday.
The so-called Cargo Advanced Automated Radiography System program is
designed to create an imaging system to detect high density shielding
that could be used to hide enriched uranium or weapons grade plutonium,
DHS said in a statement.
Experts: 9/11 Won't Be the Last Attack
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
4:36 PM EDT, September 9, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The threat of terrorism against the United States remains
chillingly lethal five years after 9/11, and officials predict another
massive attack is not a matter of if -- but when.
Despite a government overhaul and more than $250 billion spent to
bolster security on airlines, at borders and in seaports, few doubt
al-Qaida's intent to strike the U.S. again. That the nation hasn't been
hit since Sept. 11, 2001, may say as much about terrorists' patience as
it does about steps taken to stop them.
"I know of nobody in the intelligence field who doesn't believe there
will be another attack," said Thomas Kean, former New Jersey governor
and Republican chair of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the
government's security missteps leading up to the 2001 hijackings.
"There's going to be another attack," Kean said. "They just can't tell
you when."
In a new age of rapid and widespread ID checks, locked and bulletproof
cockpit doors in airliners, armed pilots, tracking foreigners' visas
and monitoring Muslim and Arab communities, few expect a precise repeat
of the plot that used airline hijackings to bring down big buildings.
The unsettling reality of terrorism, however, is that it is always in
search of new ways to accomplish mass death and destruction. And always
in search of the weakest link.
Authorities have disrupted a number of high-profile plots, including
last month's bombing scare on as many as 10 Britain-to-U.S. flights.
The CIA has helped ensnare some 5,000 terror suspects around the world.
And the government has imposed hundreds of security measures on foreign
visitors and U.S. residents alike, from making travelers take off their
shoes at airport checkpoints to eavesdropping on phone and e-mail
conversations.
But glaring gaps in the security net remain.
Undercover inspectors testing the nation's security system have
repeatedly sneaked weapons through airport checkpoints, entered the
country with fake identification and foiled detectors that catch the
trace amounts of radiation in kitty litter and bananas, but not always
nuclear materials. Air testers to sniff out biological agents are
becoming obsolete. And not all port or airline cargo is rigorously
inspected.
And, as Hurricane Katrina showed last year, disaster response systems
at all levels of government are woefully unprepared for a catastrophe.
"No matter what you do, it's not enough," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney,
D-N.Y., co-chair of a congressional 9/11 caucus. "But the systems we've
worked hard on to put in place are not working."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose department was
created in 2003 as a result of 9/11, points to strides made in sharing
intelligence and screening passengers and cargo on flights and at
seaports as proof that the country has been made safer without shutting
down commerce. Yet he acknowledges more needs to be done in his agency
that largely grapples with reacting to past crises while also thinking
about what terrorists might try next.
The intelligence community spends a significant amount of time doing
what Chertoff described as "putting ourselves in the heads of
terrorists -- looking at emerging techniques and trying to figure out
how terrorists might exploit our systems."
In one example, Chertoff said, the department last year relaxed its ban
on scissors and small innocuous tools from being carried on planes to
give inspectors more time to look for explosive devices. Screeners also
are now being trained to interpret facial expressions and other
behavioral patterns to pick out suspicious travelers.
"We will live with some form of this problem for a very long time,"
Chertoff said in an hour-long interview last month wedged between a
phone call with British Home Secretary John Reid about the foiled
flight plot and a meeting with FEMA director David Paulison about the
hurricane season.
Several government-appointed panels -- including the 9/11 Commission --
have concluded over the last five years that the nation was vastly
unprepared for the deadly attacks.
Their findings triggered a massive reshuffling of the government's
counterterror missions, the largest since the Defense Department was
created in 1947. In addition to merging 22 agencies into the new
Homeland Security Department, a new position of intelligence director
to oversee the nation's 16 spy agencies was established.
Congress approved policies such as the USA Patriot Act, allowing more
surveillance in counterterrorism investigations. Federal spending on
domestic security programs has more than tripled since 2001, to $55
billion this year, almost equal to what is spent on education.
The results have been mixed. Criticism for Homeland Security has run
from sweeping (for cutting emergency responder funding to New York and
Washington) to nitpicky (the color-coded threat alert system is too
vague to be meaningful).
"Everything the department was supposed to do is still, at best, a work
in progress," said Clark Kent Evin, Homeland Security's former
inspector general.
Meanwhile, the government's once-greatest target in the war on terror
-- Osama bin Laden -- remains on the loose. Michael Scheuer, the former
head of the now-defunct CIA unit dedicating to finding the al-Qaida
leader, said catching him now is mostly a matter of luck. "He's going
to have to zig when we zag and we'll end up in the same place at once,"
Scheuer said.
With or without bin Laden, authorities expect al-Qaida's threat won't
dim in coming years.
Some sympathizers -- including small pockets of homegrown Islamic
extremists already in the United States -- may not even be directly
linked to al-Qaida but aim to carry out its mission. Those who make up
al-Qaida's core will wait years, and even decades, for the chance to
attack when America least expects it.
"I'm convinced they're prepared to wait centuries if they have to,"
former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said. "They're looking
much longer term than we are. So we have to match their patience with
our persistence and our continued focus. We can never let our guard
down."
US charges Hezbollah TV
provider
I-BBC, 25 August 2006
A US businessman has been charged with offering broadcasts of
Hezbollah's al-Manar satellite television station to customers in the
New York-area.
Javed Iqbal, originally from Pakistan, is accused by prosecutors of
doing business with a terrorist entity. The Hezbollah Shia
militia has
been involved in a month-long conflict with Israeli forces in Lebanon
and is seen as a terrorist group by the US.
Mr Iqbal's lawyers say his arrest violates his right to free speech.
"It's like the government of Iran saying we are going to ban the New
York Times because we think of it as a terrorist outfit, or China
saying we will ban CNN," a spokesman for the law firm representing Mr
Iqbal told the Reuters news agency.
"America would be hopping up and down crying freedom of speech and
freedom of the press," the spokesman said.
A lawyer representing Mr Iqbal said he knew of no other case where a
person had been accused of breaking US law by offering access to news
outlets via satellite dish.
'Hezbollah mouthpiece'
According to court papers and government documents, the authorities
sent an agent posing as a potential customer after being informed that
Mr Iqbal was offering al-Manar TV.
Mr Iqbal reportedly offered the agent a television package that
included access to al-Manar broadcasts.
Mr Iqbal appeared in court on Thursday and was bailed for $250,000
(£132,300). Prosecutor Stephen A Miller had argued against
granting
him bail, indicating more charges were likely to be filed.
"The charge lurking in the background is material support for
terrorism," the Associated Press news agency quotes him as
saying.
Al-Manar TV is broadly seen as the mouthpiece of the Hezbollah militia
and European-owned satellites have been banned by the EU from
broadcasting it.
Seattle port terminal evacuated
By Daisuke Wakabayashi
August 16, 2006
SEATTLE (Reuters) - U.S. Customs officials in Seattle evacuated one of
North America's largest ship container terminals on Wednesday after two
cargo containers from Pakistan alarmed bomb-sniffing dogs.
Authorities found no explosives or chemical or biological agents in
containers, one filled with clothes and the other with large bundles of
used or recycled textiles.
"We are all very grateful that we didn't find anything," said U.S.
Customs and Border Protection spokesman Mike Milne. "The terminal is
going to reopen for operation this evening."
The port evacuation follows a series of major security scares in the
last week since British authorities said they had foiled a plot to blow
up planes from London to the United States. Earlier on Wednesday,
a woman panicking from claustrophobia caused a Washington-bound flight
from London to make an emergency landing in Boston and sparked a
security alert.
The two containers raised suspicion when a screening using gamma ray
technology about the contents' density did not match the items listed
on a ship's manifest.
The containers were two of 70 set aside from the vessel for closer
inspection. Certain containers are held and inspected at the port based
on risk scores determined by factors gleaned from the ship's manifest,
officials said. The vessel originated in Hong Kong and made stops
in China and South Korea before reaching Seattle on Monday; the two
containers came from Pakistan, said Milne.
Authorities set up a 2,000-foot (600-meter) perimeter around Terminal
18, just south of downtown Seattle, port spokesman David Schaefer said.
The U.S. Coast Guard also established a 300-yard (270 meter) perimeter
in the water. All nonessential port personnel were evacuated
after dogs detected the possible presence of explosives, Schaefer said.
The 196-acre (79-hectare) Terminal 18 is the Port of Seattle's largest
container terminal and one of the largest in North America.
Earlier on Wednesday, Rep. Edward Markey (news, bio, voting record), a
Massachusetts Democrat and a senior member of the House of
Representatives Homeland Security Committee, urged authorities to
establish a program for screening all cargo containers.
"We have the technology. We know the risks," Markey said in a statement.
U.S. seaports handle 2 billion tons of freight each year but only about
5 percent of containers entering the country are examined on arrival.
Hazardous-materials
trucks: terror threat? Technology could reduce the risk by a
third, but at a cost of $1.1 billion to the industry.
By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
July 9, 2006
When he crisscrossed the East Coast in his big rig, New Jersey truck
driver Bob Grant hauled everything from baby powder to rocket fuel. His
specialty was hazardous materials, or hazmats, such as gasoline,
butane, and diesel fuel.
Then came 9/11. Worried that terrorists would hijack his tanker truck
and use it as a weapon, Mr. Grant switched to dump trucks and retired a
few years later.
His jitters reflect a growing concern about terrorist truck bombs. In
Tunisia in 2002, a suicide terrorist linked to Al Qaeda detonated a
propane tanker beside a synagogue, killing 21 people. A 2004 visit to
Iraq by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was punctuated by a
fuel-truck attack that burned a section of Baghdad. These and scores of
other truck attacks worldwide have fueled a growing debate over whether
the United States is vulnerable to a similar strike. Last August, the
FBI warned of a possible fuel-truck attack in a major US city.
The federal government's post-9/11 programs are enough to protect
hazmat trucking, say federal officials and trucking organizations. Some
security experts say more needs to be done. At issue: Should the
government force the industry to spend $1.1 billion - about $5,500 per
truck - on new technologies that could reduce the truck-bomb threat by
a third?
"If you gave me a tanker truck and a phosphorous bomb, I could make a
huge explosion anywhere I want," says Randy Larsen, an analyst with the
Institute for Homeland Security in Alexandria, Va., a nonprofit
consulting firm. "Hazmat security should be among the Top 10 national
concerns, but we don't act like it is."
Ever since Timothy McVeigh drove an explosive-laden truck into the
garage of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995,
Americans have been aware of truck bombs. But Mr. McVeigh's homemade
bomb was only 2 tons. Large hazmat 18-wheelers - Class 6 trucks - can
haul 20 times as much weight. Every day, some 800,000 hazmat
loads hit the road, carrying everything from chlorine and gasoline to
liquefied natural gas and radioactive material each year, according to
a recent study by the Transportation Security Administration. Nearly 2
in 5 of those shipments are classified as "extreme risk."
Such shipments are "dangerous and ready-made weapons," the Department
of Transportation concluded in 2004, and are "especially attractive" to
terrorists.
Since 9/11, the federal government has tightened trucking security. The
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began in 2004 requiring
fingerprinting and background checks on drivers with hazmat licenses.
It also instituted a "highway watch" program to help drivers spot
threats. The Department of Transportation also requires hazmat truck
companies to have detailed security plans.
"There is a much sharper realization among hazmat truckers since 9/11
that you've got to be more alert," says John Conley, president of the
National Tank Truck Carriers Association. That includes "things as
basic as locking your truck. Our drivers understand their loads could
be used in a bad way."
But these steps aren't enough, several industry observers say.
"Normal trucking operations are still an open invitation to a
terrorist," says Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the
Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Inc. in Grain Valley,
Mo. "Even now, five years later, I don't know if they've really
tightened up."
These observers point to multiple vulnerabilities. "My biggest concern
is that we've got pretty lax security at a lot of trucking terminals,"
says a terminal manager for a large liquid bulk hazmat carrier on the
East Coast, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to
speak to news media. "It's not uncommon at all to see several tankers
already loaded with hazmat, and the gates to these facilities are wide
open most of the time. It's inviting trouble."
Such vulnerability rises dramatically after a truck hits the open road.
Hijackers could take it by force, many agree.
Available technologies, however, could prove a major deterrent, says
the Transportation Department. Its 2004 study found eight technologies
were largely successful, including satellite-based communications,
global positioning tracking systems, remote vehicle-disabling devices,
and "panic buttons" that send out an instantaneous alert to law
enforcement. Biometric identification had some problems but was
considered promising.
Such a portfolio of technologies could reduce the hijacking threat by
about 36 percent, the DOT study concluded. At the same time, the
technologies could save the industry an estimated $4.1 billion through
improved operating efficiencies, it found.
As of 2003, nearly two-thirds of the nation's 115,000 fuel trucks had
global positioning systems and wireless communications - the basic
platform for more advanced systems. But only 12 percent had a panic
button, and just 8 percent had remote vehicle disabling, the study
found. And getting the industry to adopt these might require government
mandates - something the industry opposes.
"We're not supporting the mandating of any technology simply because
you are a hazardous-materials transporter," Mr. Conley says. "Tell me
what you're hauling, and we'll tell if it makes sense."
Some truckers say the technology is vital. "I don't know why this
technology isn't moving faster into the industry," says Reggie Dupre,
president of Dupre Transport, which transports a range of hazardous
materials in a 350-truck tanker fleet based in Lafayette, La.
During a year-long federal test, one of Mr. Dupre's drivers
accidentally bumped a "panic button" device. Within minutes, police had
the rig surrounded.
Tanker trucks carrying liquefied energy gases have worried terror
experts since the 1970s. Now, with shipments of liquefied natural gas
(LNG) set to soar in coming years alongside already robust shipments of
liquefied petroleum gas, some security experts are again sounding the
alarm. Their prime evidence: a truck accident in Spain.
Industry officials have long argued that LNG trucks are almost immune
to explosion. But in 2002, an LNG truck in Spain flipped over, burned,
then exploded into a 500-foot fireball that killed the driver and
burned two others.
"The severity of this kind of explosion is something people haven't
usually considered applicable to LNG trucks," says Jerry Havens, former
director of the Chemical Hazards Research Center at the University of
Arkansas. "But what happened in Spain changes that picture. It shows
you've got the potential for a massive explosion."
Despite the Spain incident, industry spokesmen say LNG is not explosive.
"We don't view LNG tractor trailers as a high target for any
intentional attacks whatsoever," says Bill Cooper, of the Center for
Liquefied Natural Gas, a coalition of energy providers. "It would not
explode, just burn back to its ignition source. Therefore you have to
wonder if that's really a target-rich environment."
When an LNG tanker truck flipped in Massachusetts in May and another
LNG tanker burned in Nevada last summer, neither produced an explosion,
he notes.
But if terrorists are involved, then the equation changes, Dr. Havens
and other experts argue. A hijacked LNG tanker truck could be rigged to
explode fairly easily, Richard Wilson, a Harvard physicist, warned in a
2003 speech.
One thing is clear: More LNG trucks will hit the road in coming years
if the federal government approves new LNG terminals at US ports.
FBI disrupts New York
City tunnel plot
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
July 7, 2006
WASHINGTON - Authorities have disrupted planning by foreign terrorists
for an attack on New York City tunnels, two law enforcement officials
said Friday. FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms used by
extremists learned in recent months of the plot to strike a blow at the
city's economy by destroying vital transportation networks, one
official said.
Lebanese authorities, acting on a U.S. request, have arrested one of
the alleged plotters, identified as Amir Andalousli, the other official
said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the
investigation is still under way.
Sen. Charles Schumer D-N.Y., said, "This is one instance where
intelligence was on top of its game and discovered the plot when it was
just in the talking phase."
The planning for the tunnel attacks was first reported by the New York
Daily News in its Friday editions, the first anniversary of the attacks
on the London transportation system that killed 52 people.
The planning was not far along, one U.S. official said, but authorities
"take aspirations of that sort seriously."
"At this time we have no indication of any imminent threat to the New
York transportation system, or anywhere else in the U.S.," Richard
Kolko, Washington-based FBI special agent, said in a statement to
Associated Press Radio.
Last month, authorities announced the arrests of seven men in Miami and
Atlanta in the early stages of a plot to blow up the Sears Tower and
other buildings in the United States. That plan was described by deputy
FBI director John Pistole at the time as aspirational, rather than
operational.
Rep. Peter King R-N.Y., said that federal law enforcement and New York
police have been monitoring a plot to attack New York's mass transit
system for at least eight months.
"There was nothing imminent, but it was being monitored for long period
of time," said King, who said he has received regular intelligence
briefings on the alleged plot as chairman of the House Homeland
Security Committee.
King said he had been unable to publicly disclose the plot because to
do so would risk the investigation.
"This is ongoing, that's why I've said nothing about it until now,"
King said. "It would have been better if this had not been disclosed."
The Daily News reported that the plotters wanted to blow up the Holland
Tunnel, the southernmost link between Manhattan and New Jersey, in the
hopes of flooding New York's financial district. The desired effect
would be akin to the flooding that ravaged New Orleans in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina, the newspaper said.
A government official with knowledge of the investigation said while
the alleged plot did focus on New York's transportation system, it did
not target the Holland Tunnel. The official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because the case is ongoing, would give no further details
about the intended targets.
It's unlikely that any plan to flood the financial district would work
because it is above the level of the Hudson River.
Miami men accused of
discussing attacks
By Michael Christie
June 23, 2006
MIAMI (Reuters) - Seven people arrested in Miami discussed attacks on
the landmark Sears Tower in Chicago,
the FBI building in Miami and
other government buildings in a mission "just as good or greater" than
September 11, U.S. officials said on Friday.
But Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told a news conference in
Washington that the plotting of the seven, who were called part of a "a
home-grown terrorism cell," never went beyond the earliest planning
stages.
"There was no immediate threat," Gonzales said, acknowledging the
defendants never had any contact with al Qaeda and did not have any
weapons. "They didn't have the materials required."
An indictment handed up against the men by a grand jury in south
Florida said they pledged loyalty
to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda
in order to "wage war" against the U.S. government and build an Islamic
army. It said at least one of them plotted to blow up the
110-story Sears Tower, the tallest building in the United States.
But Deputy FBI Director John Pistole said at the Justice Department
news conference that the discussions to attack the Sears Tower were
"aspirational rather than operational."
Gonzales emphasized there was no immediate threat to the Sears Tower or
the five government buildings in the Miami area. The men, named
as Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar
Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin and Rotschild Augustine,
were due to appear in a Miami magistrate's court later on Friday.
Justice Department officials said five were Americans and two were from
Haiti, and that one of the two Haitians was in the country illegally.
'WE ARE NOT TERRORISTS'
The defendants thought they were discussing the attacks with a member
of al Qaeda, but in reality the person was an informant cooperating
with the FBI, the officials said.
They were arrested on Thursday after heavily armed FBI agents and other
law enforcement agencies swooped on a warehouse in one of Miami's
poorest neighborhoods, Liberty City, a predominantly black area that
has witnessed some of Miami's worst race riots.
A man identified as a member of the "Seas of David" religious group
told CNN on Thursday that five of his fellow members were among those
arrested and that they had no connection to terrorists.
"We are not terrorists. We are members of David, Seas of David," said
the man, identified as Brother Corey. He said the group had "soldiers"
in Chicago, but reiterated it was peaceful movement. Miami media said
the group of men sold hair grease and shampoo in the streets. Some
worked on construction crews. The indictment said all of the
defendants also referred to themselves as "Brothers."
It said one of the men, Batiste, told an FBI informant he believed to
be an al Qaeda representative that he wanted to attend a training camp
with some of his "soldiers" and wage a "full ground war" against the
United States.
Their aim was to "'kill all the devils we can' in a mission that would
'be just as good or greater than 9/11,' beginning with the destruction
of the Sears Tower," according to the indictment. A parade
through Miami to celebrate the victory by the Miami Heat team in the
National Basketball Association championship, expected to attract about
200,000 people, was still due to go ahead on Friday and the authorities
stressed that citizens were never at risk.
It was unclear what impact if any the arrests might have on public
opinion ahead of mid-term congressional elections in November, and amid
a deep slump in President
George W. Bush's popularity and in public support for the Iraq war.
Al-Qaida Conspirator Moussaoui
Gets Life
Hartford Courant
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN, Associated Press Writer
4:40 PM EDT, May 3, 2006
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A federal jury rejected the death penalty for
al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui on Wednesday and decided he
must spend life in prison for his role in the deadliest terrorist
attack in U.S. history.
After seven days of deliberation, the nine men and three women rebuffed
the government's appeal for death for the only person charged in this
country in the four suicide jetliner hijackings that killed nearly
3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.
The verdict came after four years of legal maneuvering and a six-week
trial that put jurors on an emotional roller coaster and gave the
37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent a platform to taunt
Americans. The judge was to hand down the life sentence Thursday
morning, bound by the jury's verdict.
It was the sixth case in a row since the death penalty was restored in
1976 in which federal prosecutors failed to obtain an execution in this
courthouse -- all the more striking this time because the Pentagon is
just miles away.
In their successful defense of Moussaoui, his lawyers revealed new
levels of pre-attack bungling of intelligence by the FBI and other
government agencies. By the trial's end, the defense team was
portraying its uncooperative client as a delusional schizophrenic. They
argued he took the witness stand to confess a role in Sept. 11 that he
never had -- all to achieve martyrdom through execution or for
recognition in history.
They overcame the impact of two dramatic appearances by Moussaoui
himself -- first to renounce his four years of denying any involvement
in the attacks and then to gloat over the pain of those who lost loved
ones.
Using evidence gathered in the largest investigation in U.S. history,
prosecutors achieved a preliminary victory last month when the jury
ruled Moussaoui's lies to federal agents a month before the attacks
made him eligible for the death penalty because they kept agents from
discovering some of the hijackers.
But even with heart-rending testimony from nearly four dozen victims
and their relatives -- testimony that forced some jurors to wipe their
eyes -- the jury was not convinced that Moussaoui, who was in jail on
Sept. 11, deserved to die.
The case broke new ground in the understanding of Sept. 11 -- releasing
to the public the first transcript and playing in court the cockpit
tape of United 93's last half hour. The tape captured the sounds of
terrorists hijacking the aircraft over Pennsylvania and passengers
trying to retake the jet until it crashed in a field.
Inquiry Finds Port Security Lacking
NYTIMES
By Mike Nizza
May 27, 2008, 10:38 am
The attacks
of Sept. 11 transformed ports of entry into points of
anxiety, but the job itself didn’t get any easier — just as illegal
drugs slipped through loopholes, so did potential security threats.
While no
attacks have originated at the ports, reminders that they are
vulnerable are frequent — from the Sept. 11 Commission’s final report
to the uproar over a proposal to allow a Dubai company manage U.S.
ports. Today’s reminder is from the Government Accountability
Office, an
investigative arm of Congress that studied one important part of port
security known as the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism
(C-TPAT). In exchange for lighter — and faster — scrutiny at U.S.
ports, the federal incentive program requires companies shipping cargo
from overseas to follow a list of security precautions. About 8,000
companies participate.
Unfortunately,
those protocols are not being faithfully followed
abroad, opening the door to terrorists, the study concluded. The
Associated Press, which obtained a copy of the G.A.O. report before its
official release, listed some of the findings. Here are two key points:
– A company is generally
certified as safer based on its self-reported
security information that Customs employees use to determine if minimum
government criteria are met. But due partly to limited resources, the
agency does not typically test the member company’s supply-chain
security practices and thus is “challenged to know that members’
security measures are reliable, accurate and effective.”
– Companies can get certified for reduced Customs inspections
before
they fully implement any additional security improvements requested by
the U.S. government. Under the program, Customs also does not require
its employees to systematically follow up to make sure the requested
improvements were made and that security practices remained consistent
with the minimum criteria.
As The A.P.
noted, this is hardly the first piece of criticism for the
program, which is operated by the Customs and Border Protection
division of the Homeland Security Department. In 2005, the G.A.O. found
several faults highlighted today, particularly the lack of following up
with members of the program. Others critics said the government had
settled on a slogan: “Trust, don’t verify.”
But Bradd M.
Skinner, the C.B.D. official running the program, hailed
the department’s success in a January news release that proudly noted
several improvements. His staff visited 79 countries last year,
increasing “validations” by more than 20 percent. In addition, 112
companies were suspended or dropped from the program for violations.
“When you
consider what C-TPAT accomplished in 2007, you can see that
we are producing solid results,” Mr. Skinner said. “We are holding
members accountable to meet their commitments to the program but doing
so in the spirit of collaboration.”
Despite the
figures, the G.A.O. found that there is simply too much
work for Customs. In offering a possible solution, it urged the U.S.
government to consider using private contractors.
About a week ago, another concern was raised on port security as
biometric ID cards were introduced to port workers. The effort was
“riddled with problems as it’s getting underway,” USA Today reported.
That was a
departure from the good vibes spreading earlier in the
month, when the Homeland Security Department announced $844 million in
port security grants for cities across the country. Unlike state
officials quoted in The New York Times over the weekend on devoting
funds to the I.E.D. threat in the U.S., leaders from New York to
Milwaukee to Houston-Galveston welcomed the money as “vital” and
“critical” to fighting terrorism.
Private aircraft to file passenger data
under new rule
By Laura Mandaro, MarketWatch
Last Update: 4:42 PM ET Sep 11, 2007
SAN
FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Private aircraft entering the United States
would have to give U.S. government authorities their passengers'
identities under a proposal by the Department of Homeland Security,
which says it's concerned the growing ranks of these planes could be
used to fly terrorists onto U.S. soil.
The proposed
rule would require pilots of private aircraft to provide an electronic
list of names of passengers traveling to and from the United States to
another country, one hour prior to departure.
"This rule
is designed to further protect the nation by improving our ability to
identify threats on flights to and from the United States," said
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in a written statement
issued on the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The
Department of Homeland Security, created in the wake of the attacks,
says that on average, 400 non-commercial aircraft enter the United
States from foreign locations every day. A large volume enters the
United States from the Caribbean, following by trans-Atlantic traffic
from Europe.
The growth
of private aircraft, which have increasingly drawn corporate flyers
frustrated by delays, has also raised complaints from the commercial
aircraft industry that the lighter jets are contributing to congestion
in the nation's airspace.
Industry
groups representing corporate jet operators are tussling with
commercial airlines over how a modernization of the air-traffic control
system should be funded.
U.S.
to give $445 million to protect
transit, ports
DAY
By DONNA DE LA CRUZ, Associated Press Writer
Posted on Jan 9 2007, 4:09 PM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly half a billion dollars will be given to U.S.
cities and regions to help reduce the risk of terror attacks on ports,
transit systems and chemical plants, Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff announced Tuesday.
Recipients will have to submit detailed plans on how they will use the
funds to protect critical sites, Chertoff said.
"We're simply not going to give the money out without any
accountability," Chertoff said, adding that this was being done to make
sure the money "goes for the kinds of things the public expects."
He touched on previous grant programs that were so broad they allowed
cities to use allocations to pay for just about anything, including
leather jackets.
Nearly half the grant money, $201 million, would be used to secure
ports and rail systems, including Amtrak. The Port of New York and New
Jersey would get the biggest share, $27.2 million.
Chertoff's announcement came as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg
complained during a Senate hearing that his city was long overdue in
getting its fair share of anti-terrorism grants. He compared the
current system to spreading dollars "across the country like peanut
butter."
"For the sake of New York City and the security of our nation, I hope
you will stop writing politically derived formulas into homeland
security bills," Bloomberg told the Senate Homeland Security Committee,
which is considering further legislation to enact recommendations of
the 9/11 commission.
Seven other ports qualified for Tier 1, or highest risk status. Those
included the ports in the New Orleans region, devastated by Hurricane
Katrina in 2005. The ports will get $17.3 million, followed by $15.7
million for the Houston area. The other five ports were Los
Angeles-Long Beach, Calif. ($14.7 million); Seattle-Tacoma, Wash., area
($12.2 million); Delaware Bay consisting of Philadelphia, Wilmington,
Del., and southern New Jersey ($11.3 million); San Francisco Bay area
($11.2 million); and the Sabine-Neches River in the Port
Arthur-Beaumont, Texas area ($10.9 million).
DHS set aside $172 million to protect the nation's transit systems,
with New York City and northern New Jersey getting the largest cut of
$61 million. This year, money for rail and bus systems are combined, so
recipients can decide which system needs more attention, Chertoff said.
Washington, D.C. and the Baltimore area will get $18.5 million, the
Boston area $15.3 million, followed by the San Francisco Bay area at
$13.8 million. The other four cities considered in Tier 1 are Chicago
($12.8 million); Philadelphia ($9.7 million); Greater Los Angeles ($7
million); and Atlanta ($3.4 million). Amtrak will get $8.3 million.
Transit funding this year includes 19 ferry systems in 14 regions in
California, Connecticut, southern New Jersey and Delaware, northern New
Jersey and New York City, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and
Washington state.
Intercity bus systems and trucking safety will each get $11.6 million.
And DHS set aside $48.5 million for "buffer zone protection" which
would provide security around critical facilities such as chemical
plants.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., remarked that the New York region was
awarded a small boost in funding in this grant category from last
fiscal year.
"We're glad this is a modest increase in funding for New York, but
we're still not close to our fair share of what we need," he said.
Chertoff said he wanted to get away from the mindset of officials
comparing how much money they got from year to year.
"We're investing resources where risk is greatest and where the funds
will have the most significant impact," he said.
Ports
security bill clears passes
Congress, goes to president
DAY
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
Sep 30, 8:38 AM EDT (2007)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress approved a major ports security bill early
Saturday, providing new steps to prevent terrorists from slipping a
nuclear, chemical or biological device into one of the 11 million
shipping containers entering the nation every year.
Passage of the bill was the last act of the House as lawmakers left for
a five-week election campaign during which candidates will be trying to
prove to voters their commitment to keeping America safe in the war on
terrorism. The Senate passed it by a voice vote, sending it to the
president for his signature.
Containers, now largely uninspected, "have the potential to be the
Trojan Horse of the 21st century," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine,
chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
She said the legislation would be a "major leap ahead" in strengthening
national security.
Democrats favored the bill, but said it failed to address rail and mass
transit, other areas considered highly vulnerable to terrorist attack.
"The terrorist attacks on rail and transit systems in Spain, London and
Mumbai (Bombay) should be enough evidence to convince the
Republican-led Congress that U.S. rails are dangerously vulnerable,"
said Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.
The bill approves $400 million a year over five years for risk-based
grants for training and exercises at ports. It requires the nation's 22
largest ports, which handle 98 percent of all cargo entering the
country, to install radiation detectors by the end of next year.
Pilot programs would be established at three foreign ports to test
technology for nonintrusive cargo inspections. Currently only one
foreign port, Hong Kong, scans all U.S.-bound cargo for nuclear
materials.
Background checks and credentials will be required for workers at the
nation's 361 ports, and the Homeland Security Department would set up
protocols for resuming operations after an attack or incident. It is
feared that a terrorist attack, such as a nuclear device set off by
remote control, could cripple the entire economy as well as cause