U.S. governors seek $1 trillion federal assistance

(Compiler's note: Bailout mania continues)

By Jon Hurdle

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Governors of five U.S. states urged the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country's 50 states to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession.

The governors of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin -- all Democrats -- said the initiative for the two-year aid package was backed by other governors and follows a meeting in December where governors called on President-elect Barack Obama to help them maintain services in the face of slumping revenues.

Gov. David Paterson of New York said 43 states now have budget deficits totaling some $100 billion as tax revenues plunge. ....

Terrorists use online gambling to launder money

LONDON, England -- As reported by The Daily Telegraph: "The security services have been warned that the internet is increasingly being used to train terrorists, raise money and as the main form of media to promote radical Islam.

"Computer experts in al-Qaeda have created an "online University of Jihad" that is recruiting and training potential terrorists in Britain without them having to risk travelling to camps in Pakistan.

"...Terry Prattar, a specialist in counter-terrorism with Jane's Strategic Advisory Services, said the internet had been used to raise funds for terrorists in Afghanistan including the use of on-line gambling sites to launder cash.

"...The terror groups in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to use Google maps as an information resource for targeting..."

Defense firms getting into computer-network security business

By Gopal Ratnam

BOSTON — Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. are deploying forces and resources to a new battlefield: cyberspace.

As the U.S. government increases spending for protection against computer attacks, new units of these military contractors are aiming to capture a share of a market that may reach almost $11 billion by 2013.

President George W. Bush announced a national cybersecurity plan in January 2008 to be supervised by the Department of Homeland Security, after an increasing number of attacks on U.S. government and private sector networks by groups linked to foreign governments, organized crime gangs and hackers. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to appoint a "chief technology officer" to oversee the effort.

"The whole area of cyber is probably one of the faster-growing areas of the U.S. budget," said Linda Gooden, executive vice president of Lockheed's Information Systems & Global Services unit, which includes a cyber-defense operation launched in October. "It's something that we're very focused on. I expect there will be a significant focus under Obama."

U.S. government spending to secure military, intelligence and other agency computer networks is forecast to rise 44 percent to $10.7 billion in 2013 from $7.4 billion this year, according to a report by market forecaster Input.

The number of security breaches of U.S. and private-computer networks reported to the Computer Emergency Readiness Team of the Homeland Security Department almost doubled to 72,000 in the fiscal year ended in October from about 37,000 the previous year, agency spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said in an interview.

Boeing, which bases its Integrated Defense Systems unit in St. Louis, set up its Cyber Solutions division in August because of a realization by the company that it's a very serious threat, Barbara Fast, vice president of the unit, said. "It's not a question of if we'll be attacked but when and how will we be prepared."

The possibility that the Obama administration may devote more resources to securing the nation's networks is attracting defense contractors to compete with established providers like McAfee Inc. and Symantec Corp.

New York-based L-3 Communications Holdings Inc., and San Diego-based SAIC Inc., also have created special cybersecurity units. Their spokesmen declined to comment.

U.S. government agencies received an overall grade of C on computer security in fiscal 2007, according to a May report by the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The Pentagon's D-minus was an improvement over its failing grade in 2006, while the Treasury Department, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission each scored an F. The Justice Department earned an A.

Many of the government agencies also were found lacking a crisis-response plan if their networks were to suffer a series of breaches, based on the outcome of a cybersecurity game organized Dec. 17 and 18 in Washington by the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and the non-partisan Business Executives for National Security.

In the game, players were told that university students received free portable computer drives and compact discs at a sports event. When the discs were plugged into computers, malicious software embedded on the devices spread, causing shutdowns of computer networks in the U.S. government, financial institutions, and the transportation sector.

"We need to have a plan tailored for a cyber crisis," Michael Chertoff, secretary of homeland security, said at the end of the simulated exercise.

"If the U.S. computer networks are attacked by a terrorist group or a foreign government, is this an act of war? How do we respond?" he said. "We haven't put together that strategy yet."

President-elect Obama must assert that the cyber-infrastructure of the United States is a vital asset for national security and the economy, according to a Dec. 8 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

That's just what Obama said he will do.

"I'll declare our cyber-infrastructure a strategic asset, and appoint a National Cyber Adviser who will report directly to me," he said in a July address at Purdue. "We'll coordinate efforts across the federal government, implement a truly national cyber-security policy, and tighten standards to secure information."

Congress, too, will examine U.S. antitrust laws that may restrict companies from sharing information on cyber attacks in a crisis, said Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I., and chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity.

"It's going to be a multiyear, multibillion-dollar project to get the right cybersecurity mechanisms in place," he said.

Shadow of Iran Looms Large Over Gaza

Dr. Walid Phares

The Israeli air raids on Hamas’ infrastructure, along with troop movements around Gaza’s enclave and the shelling of Israel by the Jihadist organization, are both troubling developments in the Middle East but they are certainly neither new nor surprising. Dramatic images of bloody Palestinian civilians fleeing from attacks and pictures of Israelis rushing to the shelters while under fire will always bring chills to observers and depress the entire international community.

Sadly, it’s hardly the first time we’ve seen these images and tragically, seven years after 9/11, they seem to connect with similar bloodshed in Mosul, Kabul and Mumbai. Even if both sides in the current Gaza conflict insist that their confrontation is at the center of the world, in reality it isn’t anymore. Car bombs and missiles in Beirut, Baghdad and Islamabad are all horrifying. There is no “top horror” anymore, even in the never-ending cycle of Gaza’s turmoil. It has all become part of the so-called “War on Terror” even though the Palestinian-Israeli quarrel is a conflict all its own. Still, why is this escalation so dramatic, why did it happen, who triggered it at this particular moment – and what can we expect going forward? It’s too grandiose to claim that anyone has all the answers, but here is my take: ....

What Is In The Hamas Arsenal?

9 Muslim Passengers Removed From Jet - Reagan Intl. Airport

Officials ordered nine Muslim passengers, including three young children, off an AirTran flight headed to Orlando from Reagan National Airport yesterday afternoon after two other passengers overheard what they thought was a suspicious remark.

Members of the party, all but one of them U.S.-born citizens who were headed to a religious retreat in Florida, were subsequently cleared for travel by FBI agents who characterized the incident as a misunderstanding, an airport official said. But the passengers said AirTran refused to rebook them, and they had to pay for seats on another carrier secured with help from the FBI.

Kashif Irfan, one of the removed passengers, said the incident began about 1 p.m. after his brother, Atif, and his brother’s wife wondered aloud about the safest place to sit on an airplane.

A source close to the investigation says Sobia was overheard talking about the safest place to sit on a plane if a bomb was on board. An Airtran spokesman says what was allegedly heard by other passengers was enough to remove the entire Irfan family from the plane.

Obama faces a difficult test in the Department of Homeland Security

by Marsha Mercer

.... Created five years ago by combining 22 federal agencies, Homeland Security is a giant nobody loves, not even its 216,000 employees. The department routinely has the worst morale in the federal government -- a shame since the work is so vital.

Among its parts: the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Coast Guard. Its gargantuan mission ranges from preventing terrorist attacks and responding to disasters to policing the borders and deporting illegal immigrants.

Despite the department's problems, current Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says rushing reform is a bad idea.

"There's a presumption in my mind against any massive changes," Chertoff told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday. "At a minimum, you ought to take a couple of years and make sure you're using existing structures as well as you can."

Obama and Napolitano face pressure to make changes immediately. But Chertoff, who gave up a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge to lead Homeland Security, warned that reorganizing is a recipe for federal inaction.

"Each time you reorganize, you freeze everything. People become uncertain what their future is. All actual, substantive work becomes impeded, and then you lose time," he said.

And, time -- as the attacks in Mumbai and the report on biological and nuclear threats reminded everybody this week -- is not on our side.

"We know that our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing," said the report by the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. It predicted that without U.S. government leadership, a biological or nuclear terrorist attack will occur somewhere in the world by the end of 2013.

The blue-ribbon panel, which was formed by Congress, singled out Pakistan as a potential "unwitting source of a terrorist attack on the United States."

The sobering reality, the report said, is that "the risks are growing faster than our multi-layered defenses."

This is not a news flash. But many will find the commission a more reliable source than the Bush administration, which has been criticized for "crying wolf."

So, as Obama sets his priorities, homeland security necessarily will be near or at the top. The sick economy dominates the news, but, if people aren't safe and secure in their daily lives, the queasy stock market hardly matters.

What Homeland Security lacks is credibility. Its earnest advice in 2003 that Americans stock duct tape and plastic sheeting so they could shelter in place during a terrorist attack was ridiculed, and the color-coded threat levels never really made sense. What should we do differently when the threat level is Orange that we don't do when it's Yellow?

The change the new administration could start on is restoring the people's faith in the government. Obama is likely to make high-profile appointments on specific areas of concern, such as WMD and cyber security. These czars would report directly to him, bypassing the Department of Homeland Security. Also under review is whether to remove FEMA from the department.

For what it's worth, Chertoff doesn't think much of those ideas either. What, he asks, would more czars add? And he said that having the agency that responds to disasters as part of the larger prevention effort makes sense.

The WMD commission recommended that the government do more to make information available that helps people understand the terrorist threats, what specifically they can do to help prevent them and steps they can take if an attack occurs. That could go far toward creating real Homeland Security.