The FBI is warning police across the country that an anti-government group’s call to remove governors from office could provoke violence, The Associated Press’ Eileen Sullivan and Devlin Barrett relate. At least 30 state executives have received the Guardians of the Free Republics’ demand that they cede office within three days, the Los Angeles Times’ Kathleen Hennessey adds. The man at the center of the affair seems to be Texas talk show host Sam Kennedy, The Christian Science Monitor’s Patrik Jonsson reports — though Mother Jones’ Adam Weinstein traces the Guardians’ Web address to “one Clive Boustred of Soquel, California — a British-educated former South African soldier with an apparent knack for ‘anti-terrorist warfare.’”
Barack O’Bush: Current and former counterterrorists see little difference between President Obama’s policy on remote-control drone attacks and that of his predecessor, save for his greater openness, Newsweek’s Mark Hosenball surveys. While welcoming an Obama administration effort to legally justify drone strikes on suspected terrorists, “human rights groups say critical questions remain unanswered,” Jim Lobe, relatedly, writes for Inter-Press Service. Last week’s court ruling on warrantless wiretapping may force on the table discussion of how aggressively the administration should continue to defend Bush-era counterterror policy from judicial review, The New York Times’ James Risen and Charlie Savage assess.
Homies: The leaderless TSA and embattled Federal Air Marshals suffered a personnel shake-up Thursday, CBS News’ Pia Malbran relates, posting “internal emails explaining the new management changes.” For all of DHS boss Janet Napolitano’s “vaunted assets, she may have the worst job in Washington — one where keeping the public safe is only part of the battle and where even minor missteps can prove professionally calamitous,” Michelle Cottle mulls in a New Republic profile. Aviation experts and officials say that the administration’s new screening protocols for air passengers coming to the United States are a marked improvement over the regime imposed immediately after the Dec. 25 bombing attempt, the Times’ Scott Shane notes — as The Village Voice’s Jen Doll terms the new rules “vague as all get out,” and The Hill’s Susan Crabtree airs Rep. Pete King’s fury at White House homeland adviser John Brennan for not briefing Congress about the changes.
State and Local: DHS’s Napolitano last week announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the murder of an Arizona border rancher, The Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News notes — as The Providence Journal sees her in flood-ravaged Rhode Island on Friday reserving judgment whether “local match” rules will be waived on FEMA disaster aid. The Pentagon is investigating the second sighting within three weeks of a Mexican military chopper flying in U.S. airspace over rural Zapata County, The San Antonio Express-News notes — while CBS News has two more explosive devices turning up in a post office collection box and a mailbox in East Texas last week. For much of Thursday morning, those who needed an ambulance or a police officer in Nebraska’s capital city got only a busy signal when they called for help, The Omaha World-Herald relates.
Bugs ‘n Bombs: Columbus, Ohio, health officials announced last week that the bacterium that causes tularemia was found during routine air sampling, NBC4i News notes — while The Columbus Dispatch spotlights the BioWatch program that detected the potential bioterror agent. The ACLU of Michigan has filed a brief trying to get the court to drop bioterror charges against an HIV-positive man accused of biting his neighbor, The Detroit Free Press reports — and see a new CRS Report: “Federal Efforts to Address the Threat of Bioterrorism: Selected Issues for Congress.” Last week’s cancellation of a terror nuke response simulation in Las Vegas and reconsideration of next year’s National Level Exercise play into a quiet debate about the future of the large-scale national exercises, The Washington Post reports.
Know Nukes: The United States faces a critical shortage of atomic arms mavens, needed to manage an aging arsenal and monitor world stockpiles, The Boston Globe spotlights. “If we want to stop Burma’s atomic ambitions, we should engage the regime and encourage political liberalization,” The National Interest advises. Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed Saturday that new nuclear sanctions would only strengthen the country’s technological progress by encouraging it to become more self-sufficient, the Post reports — as the L.A. Times learns that Iranian scientists plan to launch at least one new nuclear facility by September, and check The Weekly Standard on “The CIA’s Curious Report on Iran’s Nuclear Program.” Jonathan Schell, meantime, ponders in The Nation, “How can nuclear weapons be abolished when nuclear technology has gone global?” — and The Times of London previews this week’s nuclear posture review release.
Close Air Support: “Finally, in the changed travel environment following the foiling of the Christmas Day bomber, United States security officials are taking a holistic approach,” The San Gabriel Valley (Calif.) Tribune applauds. Cleveland Browns nose tackle Shaun Rogers pleaded innocent Saturday to trying to board with a loaded handgun at Hopkins International Airport, The Plain Dealer records. “With the summer flying season throttling up, the feds are cracking down locally and nationally on passengers looking to cash in on spurious luggage-theft claims,” The Boston Herald leads. Every year, more than 50,000 personal items — including a wedding dress, a prosthetic leg and $10,000 in cash — are abandoned at Orlando airport screening areas and turned in to lost and found, the Sentinel says.
Coming and Going: A new report paints a gloomy picture of the nation’s ground transportation system, reaching the “unnerving conclusion that security . . . is ‘inefficient’ and ‘poorly coordinated,’” ABC News notes. Oregon’s largest transit agency says it will use a $1.9 million DHS grant to install closed-circuit cameras at nine more light-rail stations, The Bend Bulletin relates. An anti-terrorism exercise next month will test Melbourne’s underground rail network’s responses to a full-scale attack, The Herald Sun says. The U.S. Maritime Administration has warned cruise lines that pirate attacks are likely to increase in the waters off the Horn of Africa and in the Indian Ocean over the next two months, USA Today tells.
Courts and Rights: A Colorado woman was indicted Friday for her role in a terrorist plot to kill a Swedish artist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, “while toting her 6-year-old son around with her to European terrorist camps,” The Denver Post reports. A federal court last week ordered Iran to pay $1.3 billion to the victims of the 1983 U.S. Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, the latest in a series of enormous verdicts against rogue nations, ABC News notes —while Stars and Stripes has another fed bench ruling that Camp Lejeune can’t ban anti-Islamic decals while allowing bumper stickers that say “Islam Is Love” or “Islam Is Peace.” Assailing “predatory exploitation of U.S. courts by Islamists,” Daniel Pipes wonders in The American Spectator, “How can this abuse of the U.S. legal system be prevented?” See also The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer on the death of an Afghan detainee in U.S. custody.
From Russia With Loathe: Other countries’ leaders would pay a political price for not preventing a startling attack like the Moscow metro suicide attacks on March 29, but not in Russia, where terrorism has long served to strengthen Vladimir Putin’s hand, The New York Times assesses. The subway blasts could have been planned and executed by people trained in Pakistan’s tribal areas, jihadi circles there believe, Asia Times tells — as Reuters reports that one of the two bombers was the 17-year-old widow of a North Caucasus insurgent, and AP says the “Black Widows” may have been motivated by a forest massacre in which garlic-picking villagers were slain by Russian government forces. Two bombs that derailed a freight train in Russia’s Dagestan province Sunday are linked to the Moscow blasts, RIA Novosti notes.
Qaeda Qorner: In recent years, “a crop of American citizens have sympathized with, or, in some cases wholeheartedly embraced, the Taliban and al Qaeda,” Newsweek notes, offering a rogues gallery of “the newest breed of traitor.” A noted Pakistani journalist, who has twice interviewed Osama bin Laden, insists there is no evidence to prove he is dead, and moreover al Qaeda would never hide its chieftain’s death, ANI notes — while The Daily Telegraph has Pakistani forces “launching an offensive in North Waziristan, believed to be the hiding place of Osama bin Laden,” and check Foreign Policy, relatedly, on “al Qaeda’s ground zero.” U.S. and Iraqi troops have killed or arrested at least six suspected al Qaeda leaders allegedly involved in an extortion and assassination ring in northern Iraq, Reuters reports. At least 20 civilians were killed and dozens injured in clashes between al Qaeda-linked Islamic militants and government forces in the Somali capital, CNN has hospital officials saying Saturday.
Parlez Vous Barbeque: “Officials from the United States and Canada gathered today in Canada’s capital city to sign an historic agreement whereby the countries agree to exchange the province of Quebec for the state of Texas,” CAP News notes. “‘It’s basically an even-steven swap,’ said U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson. ‘Texas already seceded from the United States once, back in the 1800’s, and they’ve been talking about doing it again for a while. Likewise, Quebeckers have been clamoring for a break from Canada for years. For both governments, this was an easy play,’ added Jacobson. ‘Our feeling is, if you don’t like being part of this country, maybe you’ll like being part of theirs better, and vice versa.’ The move is expected to be a boon for the trucking industry, whose vehicles begin rolling almost immediately to start swapping the two locations piece by piece. Officials said that while some things may break or be lost in transit, they expect both Texas and Quebec to be delivered mostly intact.”
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