“How much sense does it make to have the Department of Homeland Security in a city that is a prime target for attack?” Dan Walsh asks in a Washington Post plea that “a plan be developed” to shift federal agencies out of the D.C. area. “Every time something scary happens anywhere in the world New York City security officials ‘ramp up security’ here at home,” Jonny Diamond gripes in The L Magazine, concluding, “This is kind of silly.” The Infrastrucurist’s Melissa Lafsky ponders of the post-Moscow transit security surge, “Were all these increased security measures necessary? Or were they a waste of time and money? The answer is neither.”
Feds: “A new FBI terrorism case provides a rare nugget of intelligence about Osama bin Laden: the al Qaeda leader is alive, well, and personally ‘giving the orders,’” Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff learns. The FBI has been training thousands of law enforcers nationwide to identify, disrupt and dismantle IEDs, including bombs made out of ordinary household products, The Associated Press’ Greg Bluestein spotlights. Completely exonerated by the CIA, but convicted as a Hezbollah spy in print, Nada Nadim Prouty is a “counterterrorism heroine,” Post blogger Jeff Stein essays. A former Iranian Revolution Guards officer who spied for the CIA in Iran for nearly decade is telling his story in a new book coming next week, Ken Timmerman alerts for Gather.
Homies: A police association yesterday urged the White House to tap DHS’s federal air marshal director to head the rudderless TSA, CNN notes. DHS’s Janet Napolitano this week “reiterated her resolve to fight terrorism and urged the science and technology community to develop innovative initiatives to help protect the nation from threats,” All Headline News’ Tejinder Singh relates. At ICE detention centers, mental incompetence is routinely ignored by immigration judges and deportation officers, who are under pressure to handle rising caseloads and meet DHS quotas, The New York Times’ Nina Bernstein cites from a new report — and see The Texas Tribune’s Julian Aguilar on the same.
State and local: According to a newly released report there are 27 militia-type groups in Indiana, all against the federal government but “not necessarily racist or hate-oriented,” The Merrillville (Ind.) Post-Tribune reports — and see The Toledo Blade.The National Park Service will award a contract this spring for an $8.5 million two-lane access highway to Pennsylvania’s Flight 93 Memorial, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. The National Federation of Independent Business is urging Tennessee employers to get prepared for ICE inspections of their hiring records, The Knoxville News Sentinel says. The Frederick County (Md.) Sheriff’s Office will soon partner with ICE “in another national program to help enforce the nation’s immigration laws,” the News-Post notes.
Follow the money: While al Qaeda has used the Internet primarily to spread its propaganda and rally new recruits, like other terror groups it has also relied on the Web for fundraising, a Studies in Conflict & Terrorism article explores. Authorities are pushing to regulate an allegedly common method of moving money across the border: stored-value cards, The Arizona Daily Star says. Treasury last week levied sanctions against an Iraqi with ties to an al Qaeda-linked support network operating there, Reuters reports. Congress wants the Pentagon to better track funds spent as part of a cash discretionary fund supporting counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Christian Science Monitor mentions. A bill in the Missouri legislature would ban the State Employees Retirement System and other entities from investing in companies doing business with governments that support terrorism, The Jefferson City News Tribune notes.
Bugs ‘n bombs: Al Qaeda has “trained a group of female suicide bombers to attack Western targets including airlines,” IPT News quotes from a new intel assessment — as The New York Times has Monday’s Moscow subway bombings reviving “ a peculiar fear in the Russian capital, one that goes beyond the usual terrorism worries of a metropolis: the female bomber.” A La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology egghead has designed an antibody that will treat people exposed to smallpox during a bioterrorism attack, The Voice of San Diego profiles. Regarding attacks on lawmakers after the health care vote, The Minneapolis Star Tribune judges that whoever sent a “potentially used condom” to Rep. Betty McCollum “could have engaged in bioterrorism; body fluids, if present, can potentially transmit one of several serious diseases.”
Up in the air: An American Eagle flight from Chicago was diverted Monday night from Reagan National to Dulles by a suspicious person report, NBC Washington notes. “All selected children will have to go through the new full-body ‘naked’ scanning machines being introduced at airports,” The Daily Mail hears the Brit government ruling Monday — while The Guardian learns from defense sources that RAF jets have been scrambled twice this month in response to terrorist alerts on airliners flying over the U.K. Two breaches occurred at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport over the weekend, both involving suspects scaling walls to enter restricted areas, The Hindu relates — as the Times of India reports two security inspectors under suspension.
Coming and going: For the first time in recent years, Canada has put its subway networks on “extra alert” in the wake of Monday’s Moscow metro blasts, IANS notes — while AP has Prague’s subways boosting security for the April 8 summit where Obama and his Russian counterpart will sign an arms accord. Amid security warnings, Port of Corpus Christi commissioners will hire only half the marine patrol staff originally planned, the Caller-Times tells. The ongoing saga of Coast Guard demands on inland Minnesota fishing guides continues, but state officials recommend guides start applying for TWICs, The Duluth News Tribune relates. “Could a national identity card help resolve the heated immigration-reform divide?” Time Magazine wonders.
Terror tech: “As threats to Pentagon computer networks . . . continue to grow, the Senate Armed Services Committee is holding up creation of a new Cyber Command,” The Washington Times tells. Britain’s MI5 security agency “is launching an unprecedented round of redundancies to improve the overall level of computer skills among its staff,” The Daily Telegraph records. DHS’s First Responder Technologies program has created a virtual platform where first responders and . . . officials can “collaborate on team projects and critical homeland security initiatives,” News Blaze relays. Researchers have developed a technique to ascertain the “chemical fingerprint” of compounds such as mustard gas, rat poison and VX, providing vital clues to responders, Wired Science says. By mimicking biological tissues that respond to shifting environments, a multifunctional polymer developed by a U-Pittsburgh researcher can decontaminate a range of bio-agents and chemical toxins, Popular Science reports.
Gizmotronica: A U.K. biotech consortium has developed a gadget that trains groups of bees at a time to smell out explosives, obviating costly and time-consuming individual coaching, New Scientist notes. A hand-held version of a Pentagon-developed beam weapon that subjects recalcitrant targets to an ostensibly “harmless” burning sensation could end up being used by police to control rowdy civilians, Homeland Security Newswire relates — while Danger Room reports Israeli boffins’ development of a loud-hailer/weapon so ear-piercing it could kill. “Some of New York’s newest high-tech weapons in the war on terror look like ordinary blankets,” but they’re made of “state-of-the-art material that can protect civilians and rescuers against chemical, biological and radiological attacks,” The New York Post spotlights — as NBC Dallas-Fort Worth sees North Texas business owners turning to an innovative weapon long used in Canada and Europe to foil burglaries: fog combined with a strobe light.
Over there: Monday’s twin suicide bombings in Moscow included an attack on a subway station just steps away from secret police headquarters, The Washington Post reports — while The New York Times sees the blasts presenting “a grave challenge” to P.M. Vladimir Putin’s record of curbing terrorism. Moscow authorities say they will step up security measures, not just on the subways, during Orthodox Easter (April 4) and Victory Day (May 9) celebrations, RIA Novosti notes. A pipe bomb explosion in Athens on Sunday night killed a 15-year-old Afghan boy, injuring his mother and sister, Kathimerini recounts. “As if South Africa’s own high crime rate and the threat of European football hooligans weren’t enough, World Cup planners are also bracing for a possible terror attack,” AP leads.
Courts and rights: A Chicago cabdriver charged with trying to send money to an al Qaeda-linked Pakistani terrorist leader will remain in custody after deciding Tuesday not to contest detention, The Chicago Tribune tells. A federal appeals court has ordered a Rhode Island judge to hear more arguments on whether to vacate a $116 million judgment against the PLO over a 1996 terror attack that killed a U.S. citizen and his wife, The Providence Journal reports. Cracks are beginning to appear in the military’s prosecution of three Navy SEALs accused of striking a most-wanted terrorism suspect they had captured in Iraq, The Washington Times leads. An alleged leader of a violent cross-border drug gang believed involved in the slayings this month of three U.S. consulate employees in Juarez was arrested Monday, the Post relates.
This just in, from The Onion: “2,000 MILES BENEATH BAVARIA, GERMANY—Mytron the Fifth, Illuminati ruler and secret mastermind of the entire human race since the year 8449 on the world’s true calendar, died yesterday in his subterranean bedchamber. He was 112. Mytron, who assumed clandestine dominion of the planet upon the sudden withering of Hemmonphanes the Ancient, was perhaps best known for engineering more than 200 wars, economic catastrophes, and famines, and for having psychokinetic control over the inner thoughts of every man, woman, and child on earth. ‘He’ll be missed,’ said a longtime friend and Roman Catholic archbishop who declined to be identified. Mytron is survived by 251 offspring, primarily from his human wives.” Read, also in The Onion: “Computer Company Started In Garage 30 Years Ago Now In Smaller Garage.”
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