Since 2001, military fighters have been scrambled some 2,500 times “to intercept passenger airliners because of reported suspicious behavior. Lavatories are a common theme,” Salon’s Patrick Smith comments in re: that ill-considered Qatari diplomatic smoking break. (During the first quarter of 2010, the number of flights forced to land early due to security threats doubled compared to the first quarter of 2009, USA Today’s Thomas Frank adds.) DHS’s Janet Napolitano has thanked air marshals for dealing with the Wednesday incident, The Hill’s Susan Crabtree relates — while Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow reports GOP Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. urging abolition of the Federal Air Marshal Service, arguing that the $860 million spent annually reaps only 4.2 arrests per year, at a cost of $200 million per bust.
Feds: Napolitano has also been mentioned as a possible replacement for the Supremes’ John Paul Stevens, but it’s not clear if she’s interested, FOX News’ Mike Levine relates. Meanwhile, the DHS chief is in Abuja, at Nigerian government invitation, to assess the current state of international airport security, The Vanguard’s Kenneth Ehigiator explains. Sixteen counties nationwide are the latest to join an ICE initiative to ID illegal immigrants with criminal records, prompting new debate about the effectiveness of federal deportation programs, FOX News’ Diana Nguyen also notes. The National Association of Broadcasters charges that the FCC’s “anti-broadcast, pro-broadband prejudice is a threat to homeland security” and that broadband service would overload and shut down in an emergency, Daily Finance records.
Going to extremes: “To experts who follow militias, the existence of the Hutaree — and the cool reaction it generally received from other militia groups — is a reminder that the movement is far from monolithic,” The Chicago Tribune’s Nicholas Riccardi and Richard Fausset survey. “The question that those who call themselves conservatives must face is whether other elements within their movement . . . now tolerate and even blatantly encourage the use of violence to achieve their aims,” Salon’s Joe Conason chides. But what worries conservatives “is that the demonizing of anyone who opposes big-government policies could offer a sort of prelude to a slow cracking down on . . . political dissent generally,” The New American’s Steven Yates relates — while Newsweek’s Eve Conant notes rebuttals to the allegation that FOX News “radicalized” the man who threatened House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
State and local: Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez has asked Texas Gov. Rick Perry to focus more homeland security funds on counties along the Mexican border, The Associated Press reports — while The Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News exhorts: “Let’s beef up the border to prevent more violence.” A mass casualty drill involving school districts and emergency agencies from two Pennsylvania counties is slated for April 24, The Wayne Independent informs. A Browning, Mont., man is one of 35 members of a new DHS task force charged with assessing the nation’s disaster preparedness, The Great Falls Tribune relays. The NYPD is losing its top counterterrorism official, Richard Falkenrath, at month’s end, WABC 7 News confirms. Check, finally, The Washington Post’s map of downtown streets to be closed from last night through Tuesday p.m. for the head-of-state-heavy Nuclear Security Summit.
Know nukes: “President Obama is marginalizing our nuclear umbrella,” Human Events, relatedly, inveighs — as a New York Times op-ed soothes: “Obama’s new policy on the use of atomic weapons makes only minor changes that won’t endanger America,” and a Real Clear Politics contributor insists: “No arms-control treaty will stop the Khomeinists’ quest for a nuke.” Obama is hoping the many world leaders gathering in Washington this week can agree on how to keep nukes out of terrorists’ hands, Reuters reviews — as a Newsweek columnist contends that “eradicating nuclear weapons should still be our ultimate goal.” During the Chilean quake in February, National Nuclear Security Administration officers labored to secure 40 pounds of highly enriched uranium, enough to build a good-sized atom bomb, Time Magazine details.
Bugs ‘n bombs: A federal prosecutor affirms that a recent rash of pipe bombs left in East Texas postal collection boxes amounts to domestic terrorism, The Longview News-Journal relates. “The number of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan has doubled. So has the number of American casualties,” The American Forces Press Service leads — as Weslaco (Texas)’s KRGV 5 News learns that the Mexican drug cartels are also deploying IEDs. Speaking of which, an explosive device thrown over the fence of the U.S. consulate in Nuevo Laredo damaged windows but not people, CNN says. Rescue workers who developed lung damage following work at Ground Zero have persistent breathing problems, U.S. News reads in a New England Journal of Medicine study.
Close air support: The Trinidad-born basketball player who helped stop Richard Reid from igniting his shoes eight years ago was finally sworn in as a U.S. citizen last week, The New York Post reports. The U.S. Airways clerk who checked in a scowling Mohammed Atta at Portland’s airport the morning of 9/11 relates (yet again) to CBS News his immediate thought: “If this guy doesn’t look like a typical Arab terrorist, nobody does.” Most American travelers are happy with current airport security measures, The Atlanta Business Chronicle sees a Travel Leaders survey finding — as CBS 2 News reports Chicago naming a new head of security at O’Hare in wake of the fired former chief’s accusations that the massive air hub is vulnerable to terrorists. Transport Canada, meantime, has eliminated funding for armed police patrols in eight of the country’s busiest airports, a move likely to leave passengers paying the shortfall, CBC News notes.
Coming and going: “Progress on studying and detecting chemical attacks on subway systems has been plodding,” Homeland Security Newswire essays, noting that the U.S. Army as early as 1966 conducted a test simulating a bio-attack on Manhattan’s subways. Fighting nearly a decade of fines exceeding $61 million and the seizure of 24 rail cars, Union Pacific petitioned a judge to stop the feds from levying penalties for illegal drugs found on trains coming from Mexico, The Omaha World Herald relates. California’s Port of Stockton is undertaking various improvements to allow port police to launch their patrol boat on a moment’s notice, the Record records. Saudi plans to spend $26.3 million on port security make it the Middle East’s biggest spender in this area, Port Strategy briefs.
Courts and rights: In an opinion released Friday, a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional to hold a Guantanamo detainee simply because the government fears he will renew his al Qaeda ties or commit unlawful acts, The Washington Post reports. Suspects in the alleged 2007 plot to blow up JFK airport fuel tanks sought funding from wanted Saudi terror suspect Adnan Shukrijumah, Guyana’s Stabroek Times cites U.S. prosecutors alleging. The Army psychiatrist charged in the Fort Hood shooting spree will be kept isolated from other inmates at the Texas jail where he’s been transferred, The San Antonio Express-News notes. Canada must allow Abdullah Khadr to face trial in the United States even if his detention in Pakistan was illegal, The Toronto Star has Crown attorneys arguing at his Toronto extradition hearing last week.
Over there: Senior Afghan officials now condemn as counterproductive the arrest in Pakistan this year of the No. 2 Taliban official, complaining it has derailed Kabul-led peace talks, the Post reports — as another Post story sees Pakistani intel officers playing catch-and-release with other senior Afghan Taliban figures.A powerful tribe in Yemen threatened violence Saturday against anyone trying to harm a radical U.S.-born imam whom Washington has reportedly placed on its hit list, Agence France-Presse reports. (“Finding Anwar al-Awlaki will be difficult; killing him even more so,” The Times of London warns.) “Is Turkey the next big Islamist threat?” a John Birch Society editorial, meanwhile, wonders — as The Belfast Telegraph hears Greek police saying they have detained six left-wing terror suspects for questioning. USA Today, finally, explores whether Qatar should reimburse the United States for the air terror scare prompted by its pipe-smoking diplomat.
Qaeda Qorner: “Al Qaeda has threatened to kill hundreds of football fans in a bloody attack during England’s high-profile opening World Cup game against the United States,” The Daily Mirror leads — while the N.Y. Post hears the group claiming it will use explosives that can’t be detected by security scanners, and CNN has South Africa insisting that this summer’s competition will be safe. At least 12 al Qaeda members have crossed from Yemen into Somalia in the last two weeks, bringing money and military expertise, Reuters reports. The Islamic State of Iraq, the al Qaeda front there, has claimed the triple suicide bombings that killed 30 at foreign embassies in Baghdad last week, AFP, again, reports. “When news started to circulate that [Tennessee’s Bonnaroo music festival] was possibly sued by al Qaeda, you can imagine the skepticism with which this story is now being approached,” Crawdaddy cautiously leads.
By George, I think he’s got it: “In what some are calling the boldest move of his presidency, Barack Obama broke with a time-honored tradition observed by several U.S. presidents including George W. Bush by pronouncing the word ‘nuclear’ as it appears in the dictionary,” The Borowitz Report reports. “Announcing the new weapons pact with Russia, Obama repeatedly pronounced the word in a way that has rarely been used by a U.S. president since Jimmy Carter was in the White House. But according to Davis Logsdon, a professor of international relations at the University of Minnesota, Obama’s pronunciation of ‘nuclear’ may have been key to the diplomatic breakthrough: ‘The Russians have heard presidents pronounce it “nucular” for so long, they may have thought he was offering something new.’ Obama’s obscure pronunciation of “nuclear” drew harsh reactions from members of the Tea Party movement, who see the president’s obsession with correct English usage as an attempt to make the nation more European.”
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