“Whether the Apocalyptic Hutarees’ alleged plan to attack police was meant to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing may never be known, [but] the possibility is inescapable,” The Tulsa World’s Randy Krehbiel leads. The date of the anniversary, April 19, is shared with the first shots fired at Lexington and Concord, The New York Observer’s Joe Conason reminds, while All Hands relays word that DHS’s Janet Napolitano will attend this year’s commemoration in O.C.
Homies: Almost a decade after 9/11, DHS has inspected just a dozen of the 6,000 chemical facilities it says require special security measures, The Houston Chronicle’s Monica Hatcher spotlights — Homeland Security Newswire reports that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is planning hearings. The department has also identified 15 hypothetical terrorist attack scenarios, but it has completed incident planning work on only one, which envisions explosions similar to Moscow’s metro bombing, Government Security News’ Jacob Goodwin relates. One year after the Conficker botnet was front-page news around the world, DHS is preparing a report examining efforts to keep the destructive zombie-maker in check, Computerworld’s Robert McMillan mentions.
Feds: The Obama administration has authorized operations to capture or kill a U.S.-born Muslim cleric based in Yemen, Reuters’ Adam Entous reports. About to transfer to DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, the ODNI’s chief strategist Patrick C. Neary contributes an essay to Studies in Intelligence diagnosing the ills of the post-9/11 intelligence community, The Washington Post reports — and see Security Management’s Matthew Harwood on the same. Efforts to overhaul U.S. intel ops are “very much a work in progress” and “true information sharing” has barely started, CongressDaily’s Chris Strohm hears top spy Dennis Blair saying yesterday. The Post’s Jeff Stein, meantime, chronicles the long-running legal travails of “Peter B.,” a one-time deep-cover CIA counterterrorist who alleges he was unfairly fired in 2002.
State and Local: The statewide head of the Ohio Defense Force militia assures The Dayton Daily News that “his group is in business to help the police in times of crisis, not to kill them” — as the founder of the Indiana Militia informs The Merrillville Post-Tribune that “most militias form with the intent to uphold the U.S. Constitution,” and a Daily Illini op-ed argues that “one bad militia group doesn’t speak for them all.” Arizona’s A.G. tells The Associated Press that the slaying of a southern Arizona rancher was the work of a drug cartel scout, but the Cochise County Sheriff sees no evidence supporting that theory. Mississippi’s Emergency Management chief says all entities that may have been overpaid FEMA grant money related to Hurricane Katrina have been contacted, but that resolving the issue could take a year or more, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger updates.
Follow the Money: A federal court ruling on warrantless wiretapping may dismantle a five-year probe into a defunct charity’s financial support for terror outfits, Right Side News frets. New Delhi last week froze 18 allegedly terror-linked bank accounts under India’s stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Press Trust of India informs — as Asia Times sees subcontinental terrorist outfits reviving older methods of garnering funds, most notably extortion. “They say sunlight is the best disinfectant. Nowhere is that truer than in Iran. We must have transparency from firms doing business in Iran,” the president of United Against Nuclear Iran inveighs in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Treasury last week imposed new sanctions on an al Qaeda associate who helped smuggle foreign fighters into Iraq and a German jailed for plotting to bomb American targets there, AP reports.
Bugs ‘n Bombs: Authorities have traced to Brooklyn the mailing location of the March 25 anthrax letter hoax that caused Rep. Anthony Weiner’s Queens office to temporarily shut down, The New York Post relays. “Our adversaries — no, our enemies — have but one goal: to kill us,” Lancaster Farming has an FBI official addressing the annual Virginia Agroterrorism Conference. Even as the FDA increases inspections and growers focus on food safety, the walnut industry is focusing on traceability, Food Safety News notes. Using operating manuals for the Russian 107mm Katyusha rocket, an al Qaeda Web site tutors British fanatics on building cruise missiles with solid fuel engines, ANI notes.
Know Nukes: Thermo Fisher Scientific has been awarded two U.S. patents for radiation instruments that can help protect the public against nuclear terrorism, Nuclear Street says. The hard-negotiated U.S.-Russian nuke arms pact being inked Thursday “took so long to conclude it has jeopardized Obama’s chances of achieving another nuclear goal: Senate ratification of a nuclear test ban treaty,” AP analyzes. “The most serious threat America faces is nuclear terrorism from Iran, either a nuclear EMP attack launched by missile or a warhead smuggled into a city,” Family Security Matters leads.
Close Air Support: Security officers at Tulsa International chased down and arrested a man who threatened at a checkpoint April 4 to detonate a bomb in a gym bag, The Tulsa World tells — as The Cleveland Plain Dealer learns that the gun found in Cleveland Browns lineman Shaun Rogers’ carry-on at another airport security checkpoint was cocked and loaded. North Carolina’s Charlotte-Douglas International will close a checkpoint throughout April for expansion and renovations, WBTV 3 News notes. The full-body scanners that DHS is deploying since the Dec. 25 bomb threat are not the best devices available, Maine Public Broadcasting Network quotes Sen. Susan Collins — while The Bangor Daily News says Collins is right to say that new screening procedures for international arrivals “won’t help much if U.S. agencies don’t share information.”
Coming and Going: Although some subway stations in the United States have been outfitted with a bio-chemical threat detection system, its installation isn’t presently supported by DHS funding or transit authority budgets, Global Security Newswire notes — as The Infrastructurist concludes that “there’s still an elephant in the room when it comes to adapting sophisticated technologies on a large scale: cost.” The Arizona rancher killing, meantime, has drawn fresh scrutiny to the patchwork of fencing along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, FOX News spotlights.
Cyberia: The European Union is funding research aimed at detecting suspicious behavior on board aircraft using “a combination of cameras, microphones, explosives detectors and a sophisticated computer system,” The Daily Telegraph relates. “For Israel’s chief of military intelligence, ‘cyberspace has become the fifth dimension of warfare, following land, sea, air and space,’” Aviation Week leads. “Over the next three years, the DHS is slated to hire 1,000 cybersecurity professionals and has extended offers to roughly 200 individuals so far,” eWeek updates — while U.S. News runs a point-counterpoint debate on the question: “Should the U.S. be prepared for offensive cyberwarfare?” See a sidebar, as well, on six vulnerable potential terrorist targets.
Terror Tech: “The most extensive and sophisticated video surveillance system in the United States . . . is transforming what it means to be in public in Chicago,” AP spotlights. The EPA is working with a Pentagon agency on anthrax sporicides, the deputy director of its National Homeland Security Research Center writes in Armed With Science in regards to interagency collaboration on bioterror R&D. Homeland Security Watch ponders “What Zombies Can Teach About Homeland Security,” drawing on the (actually serious) Canadian academic paper, “Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection.” In Afghanistan, meanwhile, “evidence shows that while drone strikes wear down the will of insurgents, they also give policymakers the illusion of quick, seemingly costless success,” Asia Times assesses.
Over There: Monday’s attack on the U.S. consulate in Peshawar marked “the first most-coordinated and well-planned direct strike on a U.S. interest in Pakistan,” Foreign Policy essays. Obama administration plans to train a covert Indonesian army counterterror unit could violate the Leahy Amendment, the Los Angeles Times hears human rights advocates fretting. According to Canada’s Tourism Commission, visits from Americans dropped by 9 percent in 2009 and increased U.S. ID hassles at the border would seem to be the cause, The Bangor Daily News notes. The Canadian lawyer who forced the U.S. government to admit that Abu Zubaydah is not an al Qaeda terrorist says the revelation could seriously jeopardize Ottawa’s case against Mohamed Harkat, the Citizen says.
Courts and Rights: The Supremes have declined to take the case of a Saudi defendant in Colorado whose lawyer was barred from questioning a prospective juror about a likely bias against Muslims, The Christian Science Monitor mentions. A Philadelphia man who threatened Rep. Eric Cantor and his family via YouTube has been found incompetent to stand trial, the Inquirer informs — as The Seattle Times sees a Washington State man charged with threatening to kill Sen. Patty Murray over her support for the health care overhaul. A migrant aid agency says two Uighur brothers resettled in Switzerland from Guantanamo Bay are studying French and settling in, AP reports — while Agence France-Presse learns that some Gitmo detainees are setting aside food as a donation to Haiti’s earthquake victims. Justice included non-terrorists on a list backing up administration claims that hundreds of terrorists have been convicted in criminal courts, Cybercast News Service contends.
Patriot Ponies: “A Christian militia, made up entirely of horses, was arrested today for planning a stampede through the middle of Main Street, USA, on July 4th,” The Spoof (a bit inexplicably) spoofs. “The leader of the herd, known only as Star, has confessed his organization was intent on creating anarchy by going to a series of 4th of July parades around the U.S. and causing a few flighty horses to break. Then, the group of militant mustangs would follow through with a general equine panic culminating in chaos throughout the country causing widespread property damage. The alleged co-conspirators and their ages are Duke 5, Bandit 7, Doc 9, Ollie 12, and Red 8. All those arrested could face punishments ranging from 15 years to life in a maximum security pen surrounded by electrical fencing.”
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