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Apr 16, 2010

CQ - Behind the Lines for Friday, April 16, 2010

By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly

Don't believe the hype: Transnational cybercrime, actually a far more serious concern than "cyberwar" attacks against the electrical grid, e.g., cyberczar says . . . Duck and recover: California shelter firm offers guaranteed survival of bioterror, nuclear terrorism, chemical attack, etc. at only $50,000 per head . . . Taxpayers beware: It would take trillions of Uncle Sam's dollars to decontaminate the site of a major biological attack. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage.

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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.”

Source: CQ Homeland Security

Apr 13, 2010

CQ - Behind the Lines for Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly

Seeing is not believing: Mexican drug cartels using "cloned" Border Patrol vehicles to smuggle drugs into the United States, DHS warns . . . The Mole People: Subterranean beat cops defend against terror attacks in Gotham's intricate underground mass transit network . . . Good old days: Once a "proud, independent" agency but now folded into DHS, CBP "ain't what it used to be -- and that ain't good," maven maintains. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage.

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Aviation security is far from cheap, Bruce Kennedy affirms in Daily Finance, observing, e.g., that scrambling an F-16 to shadow a potentially imperiled airliner costs $7,500 per hour. The creation of a federal airport security service after 9/11 “came with a massive conflict of interest: TSA serves as both the aviation-security regulator and the provider of key security. Who’s watching the watchmen?” a Washington Times op-ed observes. Cultural, political and legal differences must be set aside to heighten global aviation security, Agence France-Presse hears DHS’s Janet Napolitano urging African aviation ministers in Nigeria on Sunday.

Feds: CBP agents along the Texas border were warned that Mexican drug cartels are using “cloned” Border Patrol vehicles to smuggle drugs into the United States, according to docs obtain by the Washington Examiner’s Sara A. Carter. Before it was folded into DHS in 2003, CBP was a “proud, independent” agency, but it now “ain’t what it used to be — and that ain’t good,” DC Velocity’s Toby Gooley quotes a D.C. trade attorney. The Pentagon will brief House Armed Services members on the investigation into whether defense attorneys for Guantanamo detainees endangered CIA interrogators, The Washington Times’ Bill Gertz relates.

Going to extremes: The Hutaree militia “is only one among a number of separatist, terrorist and hate groups that view police as their No. 1 target for attack,” Madeleine Gruen observes in a Baltimore Sun op-ed — as The New York Daily News’ Rocco Parascandola and Joe Kemp say MS-13 may have issued a hit on the NYPD. Two members of the Michigan militia charged with plotting to assassinate law-enforcers are ex-servicemen, Newsweek notes — and recall the controversy excited last spring when a DHS report on right-wing extremists referenced just such a nexus. “Liberal MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow will host an April 19 special on Timothy McVeigh’s 1995 act of terrorism and how it ‘puts into perspective the threat posed by anti-government extremism,’” NewsBusters’ Scott Whitlock reprovingly relates.

State and local: From unmarked access tunnels, NYPD beat cops defend against terror attacks in the city’s intricate underground mass transit network, The Associated Press spotlights. Security measures imposed at the Nevada Capitol after a threatening letter will remain while the FBI investigates, and possibly longer, The Nevada Appeal notes. A proposed $5.5 million cut to New Jersey’s homeland security office could cost twice that when DHS matching grants are factored in, The Newark Star-Ledger relates. Ex-Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura raised eyebrows last week by asserting that the United States has been “practicing terrorism for 50 years, only we call it ‘foreign policy,’” The Minnesota Independent mentions.

Bid-ness: “Do you want to think about the United States as the nation that fights terrorism or the nation you want to do business with?” Mona Charen, in a Tennessean op-ed, scornfully quotes a National Security Council staffer’s rhetorical question. Basque separatists are “supposed to be out of business, at least the terrorism business. But ETA’s money-making operations are still active, and most of them are illegal,” The Strategy Page reports. A report tracking cyber-espionage against U.S. defense contractors finds unmanned aerial vehicles likely to remain a principle target of foreign collection, Homeland Security Newswire notes. Systems integrator SDI has inked a $2.3 million contract for an Airport Response Coordination Center at LAX, Security Systems News notes.

Close air support: “The case of the Qatari diplomat at least establishes the principle that egregious behavior justifies authorities being able to use their judgment to deter potential terrorists,” a Wall Street Journal columnist comments. Next time you fly, “avoid the temptation to fall into the usual pattern of griping. Remember that these pesky procedures are really a small price to pay,” Orlando’s Central Florida Future enjoins. “It’s rude when a distracted or lazy person holds up the [checkpoint] line, but it’s also rude to roll your eyes, let out exaggerated sighs, etc. Your being a jerk won’t make the line move any faster,” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette admonishes.

Coming and going: Chilling new details about the foiled al Qaeda plot to blow up Gotham’s busiest subways have emerged as a fourth suspect was quietly arrested in Pakistan, The N.Y. Daily News also learns. “One need only travel through Grand Central Station at any time to recognize the enormity of the risk. A suicide attack . . . involving a simple explosive or chemical-biological agent would be catastrophic,” a Boston Herald columnist comments. As Canada prepares to host two major global events this summer, the Mounties are hoping the trucking industry can play a role in assisting security by reporting any irregular activity, Today’s Trucking tells. Days after murdered rancher Robert Krentz was buried, “his family and others are still waiting for troops to be deployed to the border,” The Arizona Daily Star leads.

Bugs ‘n bombs: With the Ag Department counting 656,475 beef raisers alone, “there are a lot of livestock operations that could potentially be under threat from natural disasters/emergencies or agroterrorism,” Cattle Network notes. “A rogue crop duster, someone tossing an infected rag over the loafing lot fence, or an upset employee with access to a food processing facility could conceivably commit an act of agroterror,” Homeland Security Newswire leads. Since 2001, members of the American Chemistry Council have led the way on security, investing more than $8 billion on facility security enhancements, an official assures in a Houston Chronicle letter.

Know nukes: “Does the Secret Service have too much power to disrupt life in Washington?” a Washington Post blogger asks in re: intense security at the ongoing Nuclear Security Summit. If al Qaeda acquired nuclear weapons, it “would have no compunction at using them,” Reuters hears President Obama predicting — as ABC News finds barely half of Americans viewing nuclear terrorism as a top-level threat. Even as the United States and other nations press the issue, “there have been doubts within the international community about the immediacy of the threat posed by nuclear terrorism,” a U.S. specialist tells Global Security Newswire — while AP quotes experts chiding that such complacency slows efforts to lock down the makings of atomic bombs, and see Newsweek on nuclear terrorism as “an afterthought.”

Ways and means: White House authorization for assassinating a U.S.-born imam “raises an important legal question: Is it legal in the war on terror for the United States to target an American citizen?” The Christian Science Monitor’s Gordon Lubold muses. The director of NYU’s Center on Law and Security tells The Washington Independent’s Spencer Ackerman that you can’t just revoke citizenship and, anyway, assassination of the Yemen-based cleric is a looming national security blunder. “In an effort to soften the playing field in their favor, terrorist, separatist, and hate groups will continue targeting police,” The Counterterrorism Blog’s Madeleine Gruen maintains. “Was the reaction to an Arab diplomat’s ill-timed smoke break aboard a flight to Denver overkill, unnecessarily alarming the entire country, inconveniencing passengers and squandering the taxpayers’ money?” The New York Times’ Scott Shane poses.

Talking terror: With mounting evidence of the role of women in terrorist operations, “it is essential that counterterrorism experts not rely on outdated racial and gender profiles to protect Americans,” Joyce Davis advises in a Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News op-ed. “When it comes to terrorism, men and women have much in common,” ABC News’ Patrik Jonsson adds. That the 168 deaths in Oklahoma City “were the result of Americans killing Americans in the name of America has made the incident in some ways harder for the nation to process than 9/11 and the less-complicated enemy, al Qaeda, The Observer’s Ed Vulliamy explores. Obama administration plans “to expel certain religiously charged words, such as ‘Islamic extremism’ . . . is a mistake that only adds ambiguity to the fight against global terrorists,” The Grand Junction (Colo.) Daily Sentinel editorializes. “If we continue to find words to obfuscate the threat, we will lose the capacity to address it,” Alan Caruba similarly inveighs for Right Side News.

Courts and rights: A court ruling has revealed that a convicted Ohio terrorist had ties to an al Qaeda suspect who met with some of the 9/11 hijackers, AP relates. Police fabricated evidence to incriminate five Americans facing trial in Pakistan on terror charges, lawyers representing the men will argue in court this week, ANI informs. President George W. Bush and senior officials covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to Guantanamo because they feared that releasing them would harm the broader war on terror, The Times of London says it has learned. “The thing that first strikes you about Guantanamo Bay’s “Camp Justice” is what an extraordinary effort was made to create something that never needed to exist,” The Seminal, relatedly, leads.

It’s the end of the world as we know it (and we feel fine): “The European Organization for Nuclear Research, has announced a successful run of the $10-billion dollar Large Hadron Collider, which has been plagued for years with both technical problems and predictions that its use will cause the destruction of the known universe,” Unconfirmed Sources confirms. “And while scientists cheered as the collider directed two proton beams into each other at three times more force than ever before, naysayers expressed a grim satisfaction as the known universe did indeed implode, just as they predicted . . . The end of the universe as we know it also has its bright side, of course. Fears of global warming have decreased markedly, as there is no longer a globe to warm, the glut of foreclosed and existing homes have eased dramatically and the crisis in the Middle East has disappeared, along with the rest of everything else. Plus, and most happily of all, you’ll never get stuck reading any of this writer’s crap again.”

Source: CQ Homeland Security

Apr 12, 2010

CQ - Behind the Lines for Monday, April 12, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly

A year of living dangerously: During first quarter of 2010, flights forced to land early due to security threats doubled compared with last year . . . Always a bridesmaid: Seat on the Supremes coming open and, once again, Napolitano's doubtless long-shot name heard in the buzz . . . This week's worry: Al Qaeda claims it will use explosives undetectable by security scanners to kill hundreds at U.S.-U.K. World Cup match. These and other stories lead today's homeland security coverage.

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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.”

Source: CQ Homeland Security