Center of Excellence

Please take a look! Click on the link below to see the newly redesigned Emergency Management Division Homeland Security website.

http://emd.wa.gov/5-prog/wahsas/wahsas-idx.htm
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By Zack Phillips, CQ Staff

Several measures before Congress would change the way in which federal authorities use terrorist watch lists when doing background checks on potential gun buyers.

Under current law, suspected terrorists are free to purchase firearms if they have not committed a crime or disqualifying offense. For that reason, terrorist watch lists historically have not been a part of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) — the database the FBI uses to check on would-be firearm buyers — according to a report from the Congressional Research Service.
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By Caitlin Harrington, CQ Staff

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is launching a $3.7 million grant program to spur the development of systems to detect improvised explosive devices — from backpack bombs to radiation weapons — that terrorists could set off in U.S. seaports.

In an Aug. 8 notice posted on its Web site, the TSA asked academic institutions, nonprofits, businesses and national labs to submit proposals for technology to screen cars on ferries, ferry passengers and ship terminals at U.S. seaports.
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Homeland Security Affairs is now Online!

The Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security is pleased to announce the publication of the new on-line journal Homeland Security Affairs, now available at www.hsaj.org. As someone concerned with the critical issues and debates surrounding homeland defense and security, you are sure to find the journal of interest and relevance.

Homeland Security Affairs is published quarterly and presents the peer-reviewed work of top subject matter experts and practitioners. It examines new strategies, policies, concepts and data relating to every aspect of this emerging professional and academic discipline.
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ODP Information Bulletin, No. 184, August 10, 2005

TO: All State Administrative Agency Heads, All State Administrative Agency Points of Contact
FROM: Matt A. Mayer, Acting Executive Director

The Fiscal Year 2005 Transit Security Grant Program (TSGP) application kit was released on April 5, 2005. This information bulletin provides several important clarifications and updates to that guidance.

Allowable training-related costs under SLGCP grant programs include: 1) establishment of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives (CBRNE) terrorism and cyber security training programs through existing training academies, universities or junior colleges; and 2) overtime and backfill costs associated with attendance at ODP-sponsored and approved CBRNE and cyber security training courses.

TSGP funds may be used for the following training activities:
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Questions and Answers follow from questions posed to the States from Homeland Security & Technology Division Center for Best Practices, National Governors’ Association

Credentialing
1. Has any state adopted or created a credentialing program for all responders (fire, police, emergency management, medical, etc.)?
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EMD Training Bulletin 05-004
TOPIC: Additions to the Approved Federal Courses list

The following USFA all-hazards IMT Technical Assistance Program Courses have been added to the list of approved Federal Courses and are eligible for ODP funding:

NIMS ICS for Emergency Medical Service
NIMS ICS for the Fire Service
All-Hazards Incident Management Team
Command and General Staff Functions in ICS
Introduction to Unified Command for Multi-Agency and Catastrophic Incidents

For course number and description: (more…)

By Caitlin Harrington, CQ Staff

Ever since the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress has increasingly focused on making government-issued identification more tamper-proof, but some experts warn the efforts will mean little unless the security of so-called breeder documents is tightened.

Such documents, including birth certificates and Social Security cards, are used to obtain driver’s licenses and as proof of identification for jobs. Congress has recently taken initial steps to secure the documents but still has a long way to go, experts say.
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By Justin Rood, CQ Staff

If you learn of a security hole that could bring down a nuclear power plant, a bank, major corporate networks — or all of the above — do you have to tell the Department of Homeland Security? According to at least one company, the answer appears to be no.

Despite knowing since at least April of a security flaw in the software that runs on its computers, Cisco Systems did not tell DHS, one of its customers. But with more than 37,000 employees and annual revenues topping $20 billion, the San Jose, Calif.-based company is much more than a vendor to DHS. It is the world’s largest maker of networking hardware and software — including the routers that keep most of the Internet and corporate and government networks humming.
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By Caitlin Harrington, CQ Staff

For more than two years, a number of Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers questioned whether they had the same powers of arrest and other law enforcement duties as they did before CBP was created in 2003. In June, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) finally issued a memorandum clarifying that authority.
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By Zack Phillips, CQ Staff

Officials with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have developed a solution they think will calm privacy concerns associated with the controversial “backscatter” weapons-screening technology.

The technology, which uses X-rays to scan people, vehicles or containers for hidden weapons or contraband, has been criticized because it generates what many say amounts to a nude image when used on humans. The scans produce images resembling three-dimensional X-rays, in which body parts can be seen.
But TSA Chief Technology Officer Clifford Wilke said by telephone this week that the agency, working with private sector collaborators, would be able to mitigate problems associated with that.

A newly created algorithm would let the scanners display a “cartoon-like image,” he said, that would highlight the outline of the body and shade the interior of the body in a solid color, with items on the person painted in a different color.
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By Caitlin Harrington, CQ Staff

There’s room for improvement in the Department of Homeland Security’s system to mark high-risk oceangoing containers for further inspections, a new DHS inspector general’s report says.

The so-called Automated Targeting System (ATS) is a major component of the department’s efforts to prevent terrorists from sabotaging shipping containers.
DHS’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) collects information on the containers — including electronically transmitted cargo manifests and intelligence data — and uses the ATS to assign each container a risk level. “High-risk” containers are singled out for further inspection by X-ray machines or by a Customs official who opens up the container.
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In response to the need for more training and awareness of homeland security topics for first responders, Pierce College’s department of Continuing Education is offering 13 new biological terrorism classes in their fall schedule.

These classes are designed for the hazardous material or environmental safety professional whose work hours prevent them attending traditional classroom training or those who prefer to study from their home or work computer via the Internet. Students register at Pierce College and are provided information via the Internet in through the Hazardous Materials Training and Research Institute in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. View the classes at http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/conted/environ-crs.htm