A top White House cybersecuricrat terms transnational cybercrime a far more serious concern than “cyberwar” attacks against such infrastructure targets as the electricity grid, Technology Review’s David Talbot relates. “As U.S. officials struggle to put together plans to defend government networks, they are faced with questions about the rippling effects of retaliation,” The Associated Press’ Lolita C. Baldor adds, which questions have stalled establishment of the Pentagon’s Cyber Command — while Threat Level’s Ryan Singel notes the command’s control center contract going to the employer of ex-DNI Mike McConnell, who furiously fans fears of cyber-attack.
Feds: “It is painfully easy to fool the protective force that guards Uncle Sam’s real estate,” The Washington Post’s Joe Davidson paraphrases a GAO report. Senate homeland overseers accuse the Obama administration of stonewalling their investigation into Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan’s Fort Hood massacre, Newsweek’s Mark Hosenball reveals. Having previously IDed two distinct domestic terror threats — eco-terrorists and lone offenders — a new FBI report assesses a third: the “sovereign citizen” movement, The Kingsport (Tenn.) Times News notes. Four GOP congressmen moved this week to ban Interior from using environmental regulations to hinder CBP agents along the Mexico border, FOX News’ Joshua Rhett Miller reports.
Order in the court: “There is little debate that Justice John Paul Stevens’ terrorism-related opinions and influence have checked a broad and bold assertion of executive power,” Marcia Coyle comments in The National Law Journal. If DHS’s Janet Napolitano gets tapped to replace Stevens, “it would bring a fresh perspective to a body made up exclusively of former appeals court judges who have never held elected office,” legal eagles tell The Arizona Republic’s Erin Kelly — and check her speech today at Harvard. FOX News, again, tenders “a list of disputes” involving A.G. Eric H. Holder, most of the beefs terror-related — while the Post’s Dana Milbank proclaims him “a Guantanamo Bay prisoner.”
Chasing the dime: Until recently, few Mexican criminals dared touch the border’s teeming multinational factories, but amidst a raging cartel war those are no longer untouchable, The McAllen (Texas) Monitor relates. For $50,000 per person, a California company offers clients a berth in an underground shelter guaranteed to survive nuclear attacks, bioterrorism and chemical warfare, NPR spotlights. The Chertoff Group, helmed, of course, by the ex-DHS chief, has hired Richard Falkenrath, who is retiring as NYPD counterterrorist at month’s end, SecurityInfoWatch relays. Raytheon Co. says it’s received an $88 million TSA contract to install passenger screening equipment, BusinessWeek relays.
State and local: A GOP candidate for Oklahoma governor who endorsed a state citizen militia is retreating from his earlier position that it be used to oppose the federal government, The Oklahoman relays — as The Bay City Times notes the second installment in a two-part NPR report on the cop-threatening Hutarees profiling a “kinder, gentler” side to Michigan militias. Members of The Dallas Morning News editorial board, meantime, debate the merits of installing metal detectors and X-rays at the Texas Capital. A House homeland hearing in Plant City, Fla., on Monday will examine security of pipelines, including hundreds of miles of gas and oil pipe in the Tampa area, the Tribune relates.
Bugs ‘n bombs: Whether McAlester, Okla., would be ready for an “incident involving chemical exposure and mass casualties” was answered in the affirmative by last weekend’s terror exercise, the News-Capital leads. “For years, specially trained dogs have run their noses over objects to screen for explosives. But vapor wake dogs can detect explosives in the air despite crowds, cross-currents and other odors,” CNN spotlights. It would take trillions of Uncle Sam’s dollars to decontaminate the site of a major biological attack, Global Security Newswire finds a new report alerting. Following al Qaeda threats to the World Cup soccer match, State is “providing extensive training to South African police to deal with potential bioterror or nuclear attacks,” BioPrepWatch reports.
Know nukes: Georgian security forces foiled a criminal plot to peddle weapons-grade uranium on the black market, The Guardian has the country’s president reminding summit-goers this week— and see Before It’s News for “five scary nuclear scenarios.” As to which, a “leading nuclear expert” tells Australia’s ABC News “it is only a matter of time” before terrorists launch a dirty bomb attack — as The Christian Science Monitor ponders possible contradictions between U.S. efforts to secure nuclear materials and its push to help other nations develop nuclear plants, generating more such bomb fuel. Logistical disputes over a proposed “nuclear fuel swap” means “the crisis over Iran’s uranium-enrichment program stumbles on,” Asia Times assesses.
Close air support: Three GOP senators want TSA to adopt at U.S. airports the technology Amsterdam’s air hub uses to screen passengers for explosives, Government Computer News notes. Southwest Florida International’s federal security director assures The Naples Daily News that explosive trace detection will not add extra wait time because passengers are tested while standing on the checkpoint line — while Reuters airs DHS plans to spend $35.5 million in stimulus moneys on another 1,200 detectors. Extra screening measures announced by TSA will see some 50 percent of British airport passengers facing secondary screening, Travel Weekly relates.
Coming and going: “Two detailed reports on risks to surface transportation offer intriguing insights,” Homeland Security Newswire promises. “Beijing’s subway security has reached the highest level in history, with all of its nine subway lines’ entrances, passages, stations and security checkpoints being guarded by armed police, SWAT teams [and] police dogs,” China Daily leads. Arizona lawmakers have approved what foes and supporters agree is the toughest measure in the country against illegal immigrants, the Los Angeles Times relates. Ranchers fed up with border violence in southern Arizona, meantime, are demanding action to close the border and restore order, The Arizona Republic recounts.
Courts and rights: The Afghan-born Queens imam in the Najibullah Zazi terror case was yesterday given a suspended sentence and 90 days to leave the country, The New York Daily News notes. “Why would the FBI deny potential evidence to another law enforcement agency investigating the case?” The Detroit Free Press wonders in re: the Oct. 28 shooting of a radical Michigan imam. A Somali man accused of piracy last year in the hijacking of an American-flagged cargo ship appears to be in negotiations to plead guilty, The New York Times tells. If the military terror tribunal system’s “proponents were hoping this week’s proceedings would showcase the strengths of the military system, they were disappointed, yet again,” The Huffington Post spotlights.
Over there: The Toronto 18 terror cell hoped footage of them firing paintballs at a picture of a Hindu deity would woo jihadi leaders in Afghanistan, The Canadian Press has a court being told — as Der Spiegel reports Berlin prosecutors indicting an ex-RAF terrorist for the 1977 murder of Germany’s then-attorney general. Syria stands accused of transferring long-range Scud missiles to the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, The Wall Street Journal relates — while AKI explores Saudi fears of al Qaedaites targeting officials by impersonating journalists and hiding bombs in camera equipment.
Welt Zeitgeist: A TV spot by a Colombian ad agency proclaims “Desinfex household cleaner will do to germs what bombs do to suicidal terrorists. It’s that effective!” Gothamist relays. “Scotland Yard has bowed to Islamic sensitivities and accepted that Muslims are entitled to throw shoes in ritual protest — which could have the unintended consequence of politicians or the police being hit,” The Times of London tells. “Roars, growls and galloping hooves replaced music Tuesday on some of Mogadishu’s radio stations in a protest of a ban on music imposed by Islamic extremists,” CNN leads. Iraqi authorities have uncovered 9/11-esque plans by al Qaeda to fly hijacked planes into the country’s Shiite mosques, Agence France-Presse reports. The Brit Army stands accused of “gross insensitivity” for erecting seven mosque-like structures on a firing range, The Daily Mail mentions.
Kulture Kanyon: Massive steel remnants of the fallen Twin Towers have returned to a National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum in the Pennsylvania city where they were originally forged, AP spotlights. “Moscow” (Paramount), the tentatively titled next entry in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan franchise, will show him as a stockbroker whose “billionaire employer sets him up to take the fall for a terrorist plot designed to collapse the U.S. economy,” Fused Film previews. The real value of the Batman feature “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.) “regarding the discussion of terrorism . . . is in its depiction of the effects of terror,” a Foreign Policy poster weighs. “This misses the point about ‘The Dark Knight’ in important ways,” Attackerman retorts. A Washington Post columnist, finally, imagines recently cancelled FOX “24” icon Jack Bauer bringing his famously effective counterterror interrogation techniques to bear on bankers for the Senate investigations subcommittee.
Bauer-ing Inferno: “Only days after canceling the television series ‘24,’ FOX Entertainment announced today that it had reversed its decision and decided to pick the show up for a ninth and final season,” Glossy News notes. “The announcement came just as tabloid Web sites were reporting that Kiefer Sutherland, star of the popular action thriller, had begun intimidating and threatening executives at FOX over the show’s early demise. The suits say there is ‘absolutely no truth’ to the rumors and that the renewal was just a change of heart on their part. ‘We realized the show is amazing and that we had acted a bit prematurely in canceling it,’ said head of programming Kevin Reilly. ‘We love “24,”and we love Kiefer. I also love my family. I love them very, very much.’Asked what that non-sequitur had to do with the FOX show, Reilly broke down crying.”
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