Center of Excellence

ASSOCIATED PRESS

US Homeland Security Department inspectors at US airports said don’t have enough training to keep a deadly strain of bird flu from getting into the country, a union official charged Saturday, citing the handling of live birds found in the luggage of a passenger from Vietnam.
More @ The Jerusalem Post
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Bruce Schneier

California was the first state to pass a law requiring companies that keep personal data to disclose when that data is lost or stolen. Since then, many states have followed suit. Now Congress is debating federal legislation that would do the same thing nationwide. Except that it won’t do the same thing: The federal bill has become so watered down that it won’t be very effective. I would still be in favor of it — a poor federal law is better than none — if it didn’t also pre-empt more-effective state laws, which makes it a net loss.
More @ Wired News
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REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - PacketHop™, Inc., the leader in next-generation mobile mesh communications software and real-time multimedia applications, today announced that it’s joining forces with federal, state and local first responder agencies to provide the mobile broadband communications system for a full-scale Homeland Security Exercise & Evaluation Program (HSEEP). The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mandated live exercise will take place in Long Beach, Calif., at the Long Beach Airport on Saturday, April 22 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
More @ Packet Hop
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Geoff Davis
COMMUNITY RECORDER GUEST COLOMNIST

In the early 1990s, it was estimated that nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants entered the United States each year. Since then, the number has more than doubled, and it is estimated that more than 850,000 migrants now illegally enter the country annually. The time for strengthening border security and reforming our nation’s immigration policies has come.
More @ Community Press
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In a deal similar to one that led to the Dubai ports furor in the US earlier this year, Dubai International Capital has purchased for US$1.24 billion Doncasters Group Ltd, a private British aerospace manufacturer that works on sensitive weapons programs such as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).
More @ Asia Times
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Brock Spencer

An all-terrain vehicle built by Columbus Industries in Fulton County will be aiding Homeland Security. The state’s Opportunity Returns program has earmarked $150,000 to upgrade the machine called COOT2. Currently, Illinois State Police Tactical Response Teams and U.S. Border Patrol officers use the machine.The money will pay for the Fairview-based company to add diesel and remote-controlled technology to the vehicle.
More @ ABC Illinois
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DES MOINES, Iowa – Iowa’s top judge said he’s disappointed the Legislature won’t take up courthouse security this session, but he’ll continue to push for upgrades. Chief Justice Louis Lavorato is also dismissing one lawmakers’ suggestion that judge’s carry guns to increase security. Lavorato highlighted his security concerns in a speech to the Legislature in January. But there was no mention of it in the Judicial branch budget sent to Gov. Tom Vilsack this week.
More @ KCCI
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Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Fire departments are using Homeland Security grants to buy gym equipment, sponsor puppet and clown shows, and turn first responders into fitness trainers. The spending choices are allowable under the guidelines of the Assistance to Firefighters grant administered by the Homeland Security Department, which has awarded nearly 250 grants since February totaling more than $25 million out of the current spending pot of $545 million.
More @ The Washington Times
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Jackie Kucinich

In the event of a power outage, approximately 20 to 30 small diesel generators scattered around the Capitol complex could barely provide enough energy to maintain basic emergency systems in the U.S. Capitol, according to a source familiar with the systems.
More @ The Hill
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States and India have agreed to share information on a real time basis and hold joint exercises as part of counterrorism efforts, the State Department said. The decision was made at a two-day meeting in Washington of the India-US joint working group on counterterrorism, the department said in a statement on Friday.
More @ Yahoo News
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Andrew Zajac
WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON — As the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui nears a conclusion, the biggest immediate question looming over the proceedings is whether the volatile confessed terrorist will be sentenced to death. But in the long run, there’s a more significant question: whether the government, more than four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is using the tools of the U.S. legal system to deliver justice to the hundreds of prisoners it has captured in the war on terror that it is now confining in the U.S., at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at undisclosed locations around the world.
More @ Chicago Tribune
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John Solomon
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON - A botched Detroit terrorism case that already has embarrassed the Bush administration is taking a new twist: A fresh FBI analysis of the evidence undercuts the recent indictment of the former chief prosecutor in the case.
More @ Yahoo News
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Bridget Gutierrez
THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

The staid academic world of one of Georgia’s most prestigious universities so far seems undisturbed by news that one of its own may have ties to Islamic terrorists. Days after news that Syed Haris Ahmed, a 21-year-old mechanical engineering major, was facing federal charges in the state’s first international terrorism case, fellow Georgia Tech students were either skeptical, unconcerned or unaware.
More @ The Atlanta Journal
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Adam Goldman
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

A teenager suspected of meeting with Islamic extremists to discuss possible U.S. targets for a terrorist attack sat silently in a Brooklyn courtroom Saturday during a brief hearing that followed his extradition from Bangladesh.
More @ AM New York
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William F. Jasper

Though politicians are now paying lip service to “border security” and immigration reform, both major parties are pushing legislation that would only make things worse. “April Fool!” Congress and the White House are playing some cruel prank, right? Surely, they can’t be serious about granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and opening the border floodgates even wider than they already are to millions more aliens who will be instantly legalized as “guest workers.” Unfortunately, this is no joke. It is for real, and it is deadly.
More @ The New American
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Sylvain Metz

CANTON — Four Blackhawk helicopters descended in a field across the street from the Canton Multipurpose building Wednesday morning, deploying 75 members of the Mississippi Army National Guard.
More @ The Clarion Ledger
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Warren P. Strobel
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON - The number of terrorist attacks documented by U.S. intelligence agencies jumped sharply in 2005, crossing the 10,000 mark for the first time, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials and documents obtained by Knight Ridder Newspapers. Officials caution that much of the increase, due to be reported publicly next week, stems from a change last year in how terror attacks are counted, coupled with a more aggressive effort to tally such violence worldwide.
More @ KR Washington Bureau
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Tom Regan

In a report to be released next week, US government figures will show that the number of terrorist attacks in the world jumped sharply in 2005, totalling more than 10,000 for the first time. That is almost triple the number of terrorist attacks in 2004 — 3,194. Knight Ridder’s Washington bureau reports that counterterrorism experts say that there are two reasons for the dramatic increase: a broader definition of what consitutes a terrorist attack, and the war in Iraq.
More @ Christian Science Monitor
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Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has approved the military’s most ambitious plan yet to fight terrorism around the world and retaliate more rapidly and decisively in the case of another major terrorist attack on the United States, according to defense officials.
More @ The Washington Post
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Alison Auld
Canadian Press

HALIFAX — The Canadian military is working to prevent possible terrorist attacks against several giant oil and gas platforms currently drilling off the country’s East Coast. Rear Admiral Dan McNeil said yesterday that various government agencies are trying to come up with defence strategies against possible scenarios that could leave the numerous rigs vulnerable to threats.
More @ Globe and Mail
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