Homeland Security lacking 'open source' intelligence

Posted by Stephanie Condon

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has not met requirements to provide "open source" intelligence--that is, publicly available information--for state and local law enforcement, a new report shows.

The House Committee on Homeland Security released a report Friday criticizing the department after interviewing more than 350 state, local, and tribal law enforcement officials about the DHS's open source intelligence efforts.

While 82 percent of law enforcement officials surveyed said they use open source information, 60 percent said the DHS needed to establish a training program on how to use the department's open source material. Half of respondents said the DHS's open source products did not meet their needs.

"The proliferation of Internet use and other advanced forms of communication is rapidly leading to an information revolution among terrorists groups," the report says. "The sooner the Department of Homeland Security recognizes the value in this type of unclassified information, the sooner DHS analysts can analyze it and provide useful open source intelligence to state, local and tribal law partners."

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 requires DHS, whenever possible, to make available unclassified reports and analyses based on open source information like newspapers, Internet resources, or scientific journals. To reinforce that requirement, the House in July passed the Homeland Security Open Source Information Enhancement Act, requiring the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish an open source program.

Despite this, "DHS' efforts have lagged behind the rest of the Federal government," the report says. The Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency have established stronger open source programs, even though the DHS is responsible for sharing terrorism threat information with state and local law enforcement.

"The Department is far behind the rest of the Intelligence Community in implementing a comprehensive open source intelligence program," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the Homeland Security Committee. "I am convinced that the department must make a concerted effort to understand their intelligence needs and produce intelligence products that provide actionable recommendations for the cop on the beat."

Disaster victims suffer as FEMA drops ball again

NATURAL DISASTERS LIKE Hurricane Ike, which slammed into the Houston area Friday, cause all sorts of unexpected challenges. The need to bring ice, food and potable water to survivors isn’t among them.

Yet on Sunday – 36 hours after Ike blew through and three years after Hurricane Katrina supposedly prompted a major reorganization of the Federal Emergency Management Agency – residents of the nation’s fourth-largest city were waiting in vain for promised federal relief. Does the “F” in FEMA stand for “feeble”?

When state and local officials publicly complained, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff held a news conference to blame those delays on bad weather and those same state and local officials. “The federal government is leaning forward as far as it can” to provide assistance, he said.

Chertoff said FEMA had been hobbled when state officials handed his agency the “unexpected challenge” of preparing distribution points for the food, water and ice.

State officials said Sunday that they’d been surprised to learn that distribution was supposed to be their responsibility. “If I could have known something 18 hours ago, we could have made plans to pick up something a lot quicker,” said Houston Mayor Bill White.

By Monday morning, distribution centers were open and supplies were being handed out. But the inexcusable delay is clear evidence of yet another planning failure by FEMA.

Overseeing emergency preparations for a natural disaster – even those as serious as hurricanes Katrina and Ike – probably is far less demanding than responding to a bio-terror attack or pandemic illness, in which there are no forecasters to give advance warning and no playbook of past disasters to follow.

FEMA’s continued failures leave no doubt that the agency is unprepared to step up when called upon in a national emergency. Congress should hold hearings on the agency’s readiness as quickly as possible. When disaster strikes, citizens have a right to expect assistance, not excuses.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FEMA Says No to Ice For Hurricane Survivors

Under New Policy, FEMA Says Ice is Not Its Responsibility

....

Besides preserving food when electricity is out, ice is essential in maintaining temperature-sensitive medication and feeding formulas and keeping people cool in the aftermath of disaster, relief and support workers say.

"This isn't for their gin and tonics," said Elise Hough, CEO of the Houston chapter of United Cerebral Palsy, who says she encountered a lot of indifference when she started raising the issue of FEMA's ice policy last month. "This is for people who are extremely sensitive to heat, and ice has a huge impact on their health and safety." ....

Charities Unprepared for Major Disaster, GAO Says

The American Red Cross and other disaster relief charities are unprepared to meet projected mass casualty needs during a natural catastrophe or terrorist attack in major U.S. cities such as Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Miami, a government report has found.

A large-scale disaster would "overwhelm" the Red Cross and other nonprofit organizations that have federal responsibilities for assisting the government in feeding and sheltering victims of natural disasters, concludes the analysis, which is to be released today by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. ....

Public Divided on Homeland Security

by Phil Leggiere

Thursday, 18 September 2008

Poll shows polarization in public opinion about homeland security. In the plethora of election season polls tracking every twist and turn of the presidential horse race, homeland security issues have been conspicuously absent this year. Partly for the obvious reason that global economic volatility has, at least for now, replaced terrorism as the most immediately pressing concern and anxiety, partly because of the lack of emphasis candidates have placed thus far in sharpening policy differences on homeland security. One poll, however, released this week by Associated Press and GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media , provides an interesting snap-shot of the American public’s current perspectives on the success of current US homeland security policy. Its results, in addition to documenting an America sharply polarized by party, also highlight the challenges the next administration, once the frenzy of the lection season ends, will face in mobilizing the public on counterterror policy. Click here to see poll. In the poll 516 respondents were asked for their opinion about which factors were more or less important in preventing a follow-up terror attack on US soil since 9-11. Although in aggregate 64% of those polled cited actions by the federal government as a major reason the US has not been attacked since 9-11, there was a dramatic divergence between Republican and Democratic respondents. While a vast majority of eighty-nine percent of Republicans agreed the US government’s policies during the Bush administration have been a major reason there's been no follow-up attack, only a very slight majority of fifty-three percent of Democrats believed federal activity has been a primary positive factor. Divergences in perspective on other factors were similarly polarized. For instance, seven out of ten Republicans saw the war in Iraq as a major factor in preventing terror in the US. Only a tiny minority of 20% of Democrats concurred. In fact nearly half, or 47% of Democrats believed the war in Iraq had no positive impact whatsoever on slowing or stopping terror. By contrast less than one in ten, or 8 % of Republicans felt the same way. Even in areas where sentiments were somewhat more convergent significant polarization remained. For example on the question of whether increased public vigilance of American citizens since 9-11 has been a major factor, the percentage difference between the two groups remained wide, 60% for Republicans versus 40% for the Democrats. In addition 54% of Republicans as compared to only 35% of Democrats believed efforts by state and local law enforcement as major deterrents. As striking as the party polarization was in responses, what also stands out in the poll is the wide diversity of perspectives on homeland security policy. When all respondents were aggregated only one factor (US government action) was cited as a major reason for the lack of an attack by a majority of all sources. All other opinions about what was working in counter-terror currently were shared by only a minority of respondents. The poll documents and dramatizes a growing paradox in American political life largely ignored by pundits. Though the American public, liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican, overwhelmingly support proactive efforts to insure homeland security, in terms of specific policy there’s a gnawing and apparently growing erosion of consensus about the most appropriate means to pursue that end going forward. Re-establishing a workable, and sustainable, consensus in a polarized county needs to be a priority item for the next administration.

Hackers break into Sarah Palin's e-mail account

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hackers broke into the Yahoo! e-mail account that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin used for official business as Alaska's governor, revealing as evidence a few inconsequential personal messages she has received since John McCain selected her as his running mate.

"This is a shocking invasion of the governor's privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them," the McCain campaign said in a statement.

The Secret Service contacted The Associated Press on Wednesday and asked for copies of the leaked e-mails, which circulated widely on the Internet. The AP did not comply. ....

8 charged with exporting materials to Iran

MIAMI (AP) — Eight people and eight corporations have been charged with illegally shipping to Iran electronic parts that could be used in weapons, including microchips that have been found in improvised explosive devices in Iraq, federal officials said Wednesday.

The defendants, all of whom live outside the U.S., are charged with buying the goods in the United States and then funneling them to Iran through a third country. The defendants lied about the items' ultimate destination and use, officials said.

The items being shipped included global positioning systems as well as other technology that could be used for civilian purposes but also has military applications, such as computer memory, speech recognition technology and timers. Thousands of parts were shipped.

One type of microchip has been found in the triggering systems of IEDs in Iraq. More than 12,000 of part were ordered.

"This is very serious," U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of Miami said.

Brits facing al-Qaida retaliation?

LONDON -- Pakistan's new civilian president Asif Ali Zardari has flown to London for "crisis talks" with Prime Minister Gordon Brown to deliver what his aides call "a blunt warning" which has raised "serious concern" among Britain's intelligence chiefs, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Zardari will demand that Britain's SAS units must stop their "seek and kill" operations across the Pakistan border. The units are spearheading a new hunt for Osama bin Laden along the 1,500-kilometer border with Pakistan.

Zardari claims so far hundreds of "civilians" have died in the operations. He intends to tell Gordon Brown the continued attacks will "almost certainly" lead to new attacks on London by al-Qaeda. He has also indicated that if the attacks persist, Pakistan's army "may well have to defend our own sovereign territory." ....

Texas Officials Work to Avert Health Crisis After Ike (Update4)

Panel gets static on how to develop first responder system

BY OTTO KREISHER, CONGRESSDAILY

A House Homeland Security subcommittee Tuesday heard widespread agreement on the need for a nationwide communications system that will allow local, state and national first-responders to share information swiftly and seamlessly with each other in an emergency. But the panel heard considerable disagreement on how to achieve that.

The biggest gap appeared between the FCC and the Homeland Security Department, which are committed to developing a government-commercial partnership to build the system, and officials from well-resourced local jurisdictions and others who are concerned that the proposed network would interfere with their systems.

House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee Chairman Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and ranking member Charles Dent, R-Pa., appeared skeptical that the national proposal would serve their more rural constituencies.

FCC had tried to auction off part of the 700 megahertz spectrum to a commercial entity to obtain the funds and the expertise to develop the public sector emergency communications network alongside the private system. But the sole bid came in at about half the $1.33 billion minimum the commission set.

Derek Poarch, chief of the FCC Homeland Security Bureau, said the commission was preparing a draft proposal for a second auction, which he believed would be more attractive to the commercial sector.

That proposal would lower the threshold bid to $750 million, allow firms to bid for regional coverage and would relax some of the technical requirements of the first offer, Poarch said. It also would extend the license for the spectrum from 10 to 15 years, he said.

The draft proposal is to be reviewed by the FCC Sept. 25

Chris Essid, director of emergency communications at Homeland Security, supported the plan, calling it essential to the interoperability of first responders' communications. .....

Are Terrorists Plotting New Attacks On US and Europe?

According to the website HomelandSecurityUS.com, Islamic terrorist operatives may be dispatched, in place, and ready to execute a terror operation inside the U.S. and/or Europe

The article cites a disturbing communication discovered on a high level Arabic language forum. The post apparently suggests that some type of terrorist operation is now underway, targeting sites within the U.S. and Europe.

According to the website, information developed within the last 24 hours by a deep-cover intelligence operative, Islamic terrorists have been dispatched and may be in place, preparing to execute unspecified terrorist attacks.

Neither the targets nor the types of attacks were able to be identified from an analysis of the communications, although it appears possible that the European and American operations could be conducted in tandem. Also unclear is the timetable of potential attacks, although the wording pertaining to the “anticipated celebration” of the success of such attacks suggests that they will be carried out within the next few days.

Full Article

————–

Rusty, over at The Jawa Report reports a similar story.

“Al Qaeda” Warns of Sleeper Cell WMD Attack Against Texas

The al-Yaqin Media Center purportedly interviewed an al Qaeda soldier and then posted the transcripts to jihadi forums. The Nine Eleven Foundation has released a translation of it.

In the interview, the al Qaeda member claims that there are sleeper cells in the United States made up of Muslims of European decent and who are prepared to attack at any moment. He also claims that al Qaeda continues to seek WMD, implies that they already have them, and that “Texas is in our sight!”.

Time to evacuate Texas? Magic 8-ball says no.

Western intelligence has confirmed that al Qaeda does continue to seek WMD. They’ve also been public about their fears of Europeans in the al Qaeda organization carrying out attacks on the West. But the rest is just bluster.

Inactive sleeper cells in Houston that have been here since before 9/11, who have dirty bombs, and who are just waiting for the go-ahead from Osama bin Laden to kill tens of thousands of Texans? Not likely.

Read Full Article

Clandestine world of intelligence-gathering turns to an open market for data

By Bob Brewin

The global explosion in Internet-based new media has made open source information invaluable to intelligence agencies, CIA Director Michael Hayden said on Friday at the ODNI Open Source Conference in Washington.

Sections of the president's daily intelligence brief are "derived exclusively from open source intelligence" Hayden told the conference, which attracted more than 3,000 attendees from intelligence agencies, academia and industry. Those sections bear the stamp of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's Open Source Center.

Development of an open source intelligence organization was one of three key objectives for the ODNI when it was created in 2005, Hayden said, just behind the establishment of a central clandestine service branch and a security branch within the FBI. The Open Source Center, which is managed by the CIA and serves the entire intelligence community, has paid rich dividends since it went into operation in November 2005, he noted.

ODNI built the center around the CIA's Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service which monitors overseas radio and television programs, and today uses that core capability to pump more than 300 foreign TV broadcasts into intelligence operations centers, Hayden said.

Doug Naquin, director of the Open Source Center, said media monitored by his analysts include blogs, chat rooms, and social networking sites such as YouTube and MySpace. Hayden said such media allows intelligence analysts to engage in the kind of social interaction with foreign societies that he had to do in person while serving as an Air Force attaché in the mid-1980s.

Monitoring these sites requires analysts to develop modern technical and analytical skills to integrate information derived from these sources, Naquin said.

Besides tracking new media sites, analysts must be able to figure out how participants interact in a chat room, for example, and understand the networks they use, he added. Analysts also must keep up with new forms of technology such as mobile phone cameras, Naquin said, and determine how they can be used to influence public opinion.

Glenn Gaffney, deputy director of National Intelligence for Collection, said agencies should recruit young analysts from what he called the "mash-up generation" who can integrate data from disparate text, data and video sources. The insights derived from such an exercise can make "open source the first source", Gaffney said, adding that these employees have the technical skills lacking in older generations of analysts.

Adversaries have learned to use new media to spread disinformation, and Naquin pointed out that "information does not have to be true to have an impact." Joe Goldberg, a CIA veteran who now serves as the director of business intelligence for Motorola noted an erroneous news story on the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Sun-Sentinel Web site on Monday, which said United Airlines had declared bankruptcy.

That story turned out to be six years old, but by the time United managed to get the facts out, the value of its stock had dropped 75 percent, he said.

Though open source information is unclassified, Naquin said the insight the Open Source Center derives from it is often so revealing that "we are pressed to classify it." Open source intelligence has become such a "formidable asset," Hayden said, that even though its origin is unclassified, "our interest in it is not."

The next president's next war

By James Zumwalt

With both parties' U.S. presidential and vice presidential nominees now set, American voters have their last opportunity to decide whether Democrats or Republicans can field the team best qualified to meet the challenges of the next four to eight years.

Voters' primary concern in November should be the war - but not the one in Iraq or Afghanistan. It is the unavoidable war, already begun but not yet fully fought, that will be fully fought within the next one to two presidential terms. Our votes later this year will determine if we are prepared to do so.

This unavoidable war will be with Iran. Every American voter should understand this before casting a ballot. Every voter should understand the theocratic leadership in Tehran is of one dominant mindset. The mullahs, led by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who serves at the former's call, are committed to developing a nuclear weapon for Iran. Mr. Ahmadinejad has made his convictions on this clear. An Islamist zealot, he believes the 12th imam will return to lead Islam to world domination. As the 12th imam can only return after global cataclysmic chaos, Mr. Ahmadinejad believes he must become the vehicle for creating this chaos. (As Tehran's mayor prior to becoming president, Mr. Ahmadinejad so convinced of the 12th imam's return - widened some city streets for the welcoming parade.) In 2006, observers at the United Nations heard Mr. Ahmadinejad pray to the 12th imam before delivering his speech.

When one understands all this, factoring in Mr. Ahmadinejad's past warnings about wiping Israel off the map and his lack of intimidation over retaliatory U.S./Israeli nuclear strikes (rationalizing the deaths of any Muslim victims will expedite their journey to an afterlife of rewards for their sacrifice), one understands why war with Iran is inevitable.

When Mr. Ahmadinejad's term in office ends in August 2009, he is eligible to run for re-election. And, in Iran, where presidential election outcomes are known ahead of time by the supreme leader, Mr. Ahmadinejad, absent a flagrant act of disloyalty, will remain in office through August 2013. This is more than sufficient time, by any conservative estimate, to make final Iran's development of its first nuclear weapons.

How will war with Iran start? Three likely scenarios follow.

(1) Least likely regardless of who wins the next presidential election, the United States, having been ineffective in numerous diplomatic efforts, gives Iran a final warning to stop its nuclear weapons development, followed by surgical strikes against its nuclear facilities.

(2) Israel, realizing its survival is threatened, conducts a pre-emptive strike against Tehran to knock out its nuclear development capability. This scenario is gaining momentum. Should such an attack - which Israel has already practiced - happen, the consequences to the United States, from Iran's perspective, would be the same as if the United States had initiated the attack itself. And this scenario may receive renewed focus in view of Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden's recent defeatist comments to Israeli officials. As Barack Obama's supposed foreign policy "expert," Mr. Biden said, "Israel will have to reconcile itself with the nuclearization of Iran. ... It is doubtful economic sanctions will be effective, and I am against opening an additional military and diplomatic front." Israel is running out of options.

(3) Most likely, having developed nuclear weapons as the United States and Israel stood by, Iran will conduct a coordinated nuclear attack on Israel and terrorist nuclear/EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) attack upon the U.S. - to await a retaliatory strike by both countries. (Having lost any land-based capability to strike back but with its submarine fleet intact, Israel will still have a sub-surface capability to do so). As the United States reels from this devastating hit and Israel ceases to exist as was forewarned, Mr. Ahmadinejad, much as Emperor Nero was said to have done as Rome lay burning, will simply fiddle away his time. Awaiting the doom on Iran his actions will have wrought, Mr. Ahmadinejad will smile, firmly believing the 12th imam's return to be imminent and that Mr. Ahmadinejad's destiny to lead the imam home will be recognized.

Only by our next president aggressively taking very focused diplomatic steps is there any possibility war will be avoided. These steps, coordinated with our allies where possible, include maximizing economic sanctions against Iran, unleashing the Iranian MEK opposition group Tehran fears most by removing them from the State Department's terrorist list and rearming them, funding all such Iranian opposition groups and taking whatever other actions are necessary to effect regime change in Tehran.

While most Americans fail to grasp it, the war with Iran unilaterally began three decades ago. The Islamic extremists who took power there in 1979 embarked upon a jihad which since then has claimed hundreds of U.S. citizens' lives. We have failed to fight this war as it continues today in Iraq, where Iran's Islamic Republican Guard Corps' (IRGC) elite Quds unit is actively killing Americans.

Against this backdrop, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has proven himself dangerously naive about Iran. In 2007, he refused to support a nonbinding Senate resolution which recommended IRGC be designated a terrorist organization as he erroneously believed passage would authorize war with Iran. Too busy campaigning instead of voting on an immensely important issue to future world stability, Mr. Obama failed to vote, condemning the resolution as "excessively provocative." Instead of condemning the IRGC, Mr. Obama introduced legislation specifying use of force against Iran is unauthorized by any previous act of Congress. Instead of keeping all arrows in our diplomatic options quiver to stop Iranian aggression, Mr. Obama sought to remove a critical one.

Also against this backdrop while campaigning earlier, Mr. Obama said he would meet with Mr. Ahmadinejad - without preconditions. Yet the one precondition to a meeting upon which all our allies agree is that Tehran stop its uranium enrichment program. Even Mr. Obama's not-yet-selected vice presidential running mate at the time, Sen. Joe Biden, criticized Mr. Obama's suggestion. And, his willingness to talk with Mr. Ahmadinejad suggests Mr. Obama naively sees him as rational - rather than the religious fanatic he is, undeterred about creating the world chaos he seeks.

November's U.S. presidential election will seal America's fate. The inevitable confrontation with Iran will boil over during the next president's term. This is a time in which we can ill afford inexperienced leadership.

James G. Zumwalt, a Marine veteran of the Persian Gulf and Vietnam wars, is a contributor to The Washington Times.

Obama's Foul Weather Friends

(Compiler's note: There are simply too many connections to socialists/communists on Obama’s part to ignore.)

The lack of media interest in the role of former domestic terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn in Democratic nominee Barack Obama's political ascent in Chicago is one of the most remarkable aspects of the 2008 presidential campaign. When the question is raised at all, reporters are quick to repeat Sen. Obama's claim that his relationship with the two former bomb-makers was fleeting and casual. Some cite Chicago mayor Richard Daley's defense of Ayers as a "distinguished professor of education" and "a valued member of the Chicago community." Why then should there be cause for concern?

....Throughout his life, Barack Obama has selected his mentors from the ranks of those who despise the United States. This common thread connects Hawaiian Communist Party organizer Frank Marshall Davis, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright ("God bless America? No, no... God DAMN America!") and the former Weatherman leaders, Ayers and Dohrn.

Did Ayers, Dohrn and their fellow domestic terrorists ever give up their revolutionary goal of destroying the "imperialist" America they hate? Or have they simply substituted new tools for the bombs and violence that were once the measure of their commitment?

Message to Media: We Demand Balance in 2008 Election Coverage

(Compiler's note: Please join with me on this one. rca)

Mr. Robert Anderson
THIS IS YOUR "LINK" MESSAGE.
PLEASE FORWARD BELOW MESSAGE
TO YOUR FRIENDS IMMEDIATELY!
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

The media's coverage of the 2008 Presidential candidates
is recklessly skewed. Left unchecked and unchallenged, it
could taint the election process!

The Media Research Center just released a 7-month
study of morning news shows and found the networks
are giving nearly twice as much airtime to Democratic
candidates. Even worse, these segments actively promoted
the liberal agenda.

In other words, the networks aren't even trying to
hide their bias!

I have just signed a national petition launched by the
Media Research Center demanding balance in 2008 election
coverage, and am urging you to do the same by
clicking here:

http://www.mrcaction.org/506/petition.asp?PID=18309107&NID=1
(Note: You can access the full MRC Report, "Rise and Shine
on Democrats," by clicking on the above link.)

The MRC is mobilizing 100,000 citizens over the next 30 days,
and will present the petitions to the media as soon as our
goal has been reached.

Please take a moment to add your name:

http://www.mrcaction.org/506/petition.asp?PID=18309107&NID=1
Thanks for joining with me.

Mr. Robert Anderson

P.S. After adding your name to this important petition,
please alert your friends and family and urge them to
take action with you!

+ + Sign the MRC's petition:

http://www.mrcaction.org/506/petition.asp?PID=18309107&NID=1

Sarah Palin’s private e-mail hacked, family photos raided

....You think this is just a harmless prank? Those of you who have had to deal with break-ins and identity theft know exactly what a burdensome process it is to recover from crimes like this.

Gawker knowingly and deliberately published illegally obtained photos of the Palin children.

Where are the privacy absolutists now?

You think Palin Derangement Syndrome is bad now? These by-any-means-necessary lunatics are just warming up.....

U.S. Marines --- re 9/11

(Compiler's note: This was passed to me by another retired Marine. It speaks volumes for the Marine Corps no matter what the crisis. OooooRah! Must read rca.)

Wolf- Just came from the memorial ceremony here at NORTHCOM. LTC (CH) Robert Leivers led the group in a ceremony here at the headquarters. During the ceremony, he relayed this little-known story from the Pentagon on 9/11:

"During a visit with a fellow chaplain, who happened to be assigned to the Pentagon, I had a chance to hear a first-hand account of an incident that happened right after Flt 77 hit the Pentagon. The Chaplain told me what happened at a daycare center near where the impact occurred.

"This daycare had many children, including infants who were in heavy cribs. The daycare supervisor, looking at all the children they needed to evacuate, was in a panic over what they could do; there were many children, mostly toddlers, as well as the infants that would need to be taken out with the cribs. There was no time to try to bundle them into carriers and strollers.

"Just then a young Marine came running into the center and asked what they needed. After hearing what the center director was trying to do, he ran back out into the hallway and disappeared. The director thought, 'well, there we are- on our own.' About 2 minutes later, that Marine returned with 40 others in tow. Each of them grabbed a crib with a child, and the rest started gathering up toddlers. The director and her staff then helped them take all the children out of the center and down toward the park near the Potomac and the Pentagon.

"Once they got about 3/4 of a mile outside the building, the Marines stopped in the park, and then did a fabulous thing- they formed a circle with the cribs, which were quite sturdy and heavy, like the covered wagons in the West. Inside this circle of cribs, they put the toddlers, to keep them from wandering off. Outside this circle were the 40 Marines, forming a perimeter around the children and waiting for instructions. There they remained until the parents could be notified and come get their children."

Wolf: The NORTHCOM chaplain then said- "I don't think any of us saw nor heard of this on any of the news stories of the day. It was an incredible story of our men there.''

I must say- there wasn't a dry eye in the room. The thought of those Marines and what they did and how fast they reacted- could we expect any less from them?? It was one of the most touching stories from the Pentagon I've EVER heard.

--------------------
Semper Fi,

New Breed of Taliban Replaces Old Guard

Money and a hatred of foreigners are motivating a new generation of Afghan fighters ....

I remember when officials in Kabul pointed to that road as a shining symbol of "New Afghanistan". Nowadays any Afghan will advise you to do anything you want on that road - except drive along it.

In all of this, an urgent lesson for Nato: these local, Afghan fighters enjoy real support. It is simply wrong to say it is just coercion and terror. Just like the Mujahideen did. Indeed, on this evidence the so-called Taliban might be changing into something far more like the Mujahideen than the madrassa-produced Pakistani Taliban.

Financial Turmoil and Homeland Security

by David Silverberg

The potential impact of Wall Street's meltdown on national response and resilience.

This month's turmoil in the financial markets and the shape of the economy will have an effect on homeland security (HS)--albeit indirectly and over a long period of time.

In the short term, the fall of major Wall Street trading institutions like Bear Stearns or Merrill Lynch and the drying up of credit generally, while affecting some of the companies active in the HS market, should not have a direct impact on any government activity related to any of the HS disciplines like counterterrorism or disaster response.

Over the longer term, however, the effect of the economic slowdown is going to be felt across the board, which is always the case with macroeconomic trends.

It is likely going to be felt in state and local tax receipts, which in turn will have an impact on state, local and tribal responder operations, particularly when it comes to training, hiring and some new equipment purchases. These will likely be postponed, drawn out and in some cases cancelled.The sharp rise in gasoline prices this year has already been felt this way.

We will likely see more of these effects in the 2009 fiscal year and we're seeing it in a larger sense in California where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and the state legislature are currently in the longest budget standoff in California's history. California is always a leading indicator for the nation and if this holds true the next sessions of state legislatures around the country should be contentious ones.

The economic slowdown is also going to affect federal tax receipts but the federal government can simply increase its debt, which it will no doubt do as needed.

It is that US national debt, now running at an estimated $9.6 trillion and increasing at an estimated $1.77 billion per day, that will have the greatest impact over the long term. As foreign creditors hold US debt, the US lattitude for unilateral action, particularly in foreign affairs and more specifically in the War on Terror, will be increasingly constrained.The kind of largely unilateral actions like the invasion of Iraq that the United States could undertake with impunity in 2003, will be progressively less possible or likely as US economic weakness grows. The financial consequences of unilateral US actions, for example against Iran, Sudan or Pakistan, will have to be a higher priority in US policymakers' calculations and the possible disapproval of US creditors, like China, will likely restrict US freedom of action.

On the other hand, HS and the protection of US lives and property against all hazards remains a fundamental function of government and no administration, this year or into the indefinite future, can afford to be caught by surprize by a terrorist attack or an act of Nature. As a result, national vigilance will have to be maintained and HS investment will have to continue. Indeed, as state and local tax revenues fall, the states, locals and tribals will have to look to the federal government and HS grants to make up many of the gaps in their HS coverage and first responder funding. Theoretically, there should continue to be a robust HS grant program, no matter what happens on Wall Street.

The presidential candidates have not fully addressed the debt issue and HS has barely been mentioned in the campaigns so it's unclear how either of them will handle these challenges, which will be waiting on the Oval Office desk no matter who occupies the seat come January.

While reform of congressional earmarking is always promised and a new administration will try to control it, the fact remains that congressional earmarking remains one of the few ways that general tax revenues can be put to specific projects in specific localities. HS earmarking has been particularly popular among members of Congress and is likely to remain so. This will have the effect of making up for some of the fall in state and local revenues.

So the HS economic outlook is mixed. An ebbing tide lowers all boats--but some vessels have to remain shipshape and ready to sail on a moment's notice no matter the tide or weather and homeland security is one of those boats.

Honoring and Preserving the Constitution

Egypt: Muslim convert to Christianity, "on the run" and "hiding for his life," including from his own family

Federal bank insurance fund dwindling

WASHINGTON - Banks are not the only ones struggling in the growing financial crisis.

The fund established to insure their deposits is also feeling the pinch, and the taxpayer may be the lender of last resort. The level set by Congress, could be forced to tap tax dollars through a Treasury Department loan if Washington Mutual Inc., the nation's largest thrift, or another struggling rival fails, economists and industry analysts said Tuesday.

Treasury has already come to the rescue of several corporate victims of the housing and credit crunches. The government took over mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and helped finance the sale of investment bank Bear Stearns to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Eleven federally insured banks and thrifts have failed this year, including Pasadena, Calif.-based IndyMac Bank, by far the largest shut down by regulators.

Additional failures of large banks or savings and loans companies seem likely, and that could overwhelm the FDIC's insurance fund, said Brian Bethune, U.S. economist at consulting firm Global Insight.

"We've got a ... retail bank run forming in this country," said Christopher Whalen, senior vice president and managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics. .....

First they came for the anarchists ...

By Mordecai Specktor

My son Max was arraigned at the Ramsey County Law Enforcement Center on Wednesday, Sept. 3. He's in serious legal trouble.

In the aftermath of the Republican National Convention — and the arrests of more than 800 protesters, journalists and bystanders in the Twin Cities — Max and seven others, the alleged ringleaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee, have been charged with conspiracy to commit riot in the furtherance of terrorism.

That's right, terrorism. ....

Terror experts say some moderate Muslim voices hide a radical agenda

Some terror experts say that Muslim groups that sound moderate often have a hidden, radical agenda.

But it says that those groups that are confirmed as moderate must be encouraged and supported by U.S. officials.

According to Fox News, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which bills itself as the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the U.S., has won both praise and criticism.

It says that CAIR has long maintained that it is a moderate force that soundly rejects terrorism.

"CAIR's position on terrorism is very clear: We have condemned it persistently and consistently wherever they do it, whenever they do it," said Corey Saylor, governmental affairs director at CAIR.

Yet some critics note that former CAIR associates have been convicted on terrorism-related charges and express alarm that the group was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror-related trial.

CAIR officials were linked to the Holyland Foundation, a major Islamic charity that allegedly funneled money to Hamas.

When asked to specifically condemn Hamas and Hezbollah - two groups that have been identified by the State Department as terror organizations - CAIR refused to directly condemn them.

CAIR have termed the accusations against it "guilt by association," and said they were not accurate depictions of the group's activity.

"Who are the moderates?" said Mansour, an Egyptian-born scholar. "You probably never heard of them, and that, they say, is part of the problem. The message of peace does not make the news," he added.

Yet more voices of Muslim moderation are emerging in the U.S. In the aftermath of 9/11.

Iraqi refugee Zainab Al-Suwaij created the American Islamic Congress, a non-profit organization that promotes tolerance and interfaith dialogue.

"We have a campaign, for example, called 'No Buts,'" she said. "We do not accept any excuses for radicalism and extremism and terrorism."

The Free Muslim Coalition offers another moderate voice in Islam struggling to be heard.

"We believe the true Muslim perspective was not being represented, the people who so called represented us, represented a very small ideology in the Muslim community," said Kamal Nawash, the group's president and founder.

Some analysts predict, the fate of the Western world depends on whether moderates can wrest away the center of gravity from Islamic radicals. (ANI)

Reaction to Obsession DVD Distribution Shows Many Americans Clueless

By Robert Spencer

The DVD Obsession is being packaged with the morning paper all over the country, and millions upon millions of copies have been distributed. That's all to the good, but the reaction to it shows in numerous ways that many, if not most, Americans have no clue about what we're up against.

Of course, the distribution of the film is designed to fix that problem, and for many people it probably will, but in the Jihad Watch echo chamber it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we represent a very, very small percentage of people who realize the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat. Polls show that fewer Americans today believe that terrorism is a threat than at any time since before 9/11; several of the larger blogs that used to care about this issue have for various reasons lost interest; and the jihad threat is nowhere discussed fully and adequately in the mainstream.

A few of the news stories commenting on the Obsession distribution indicate the scope of the general ignorance. I had originally intended this as an elephantine post discussing several of these stories, but I went on so long about the first one here that I will save the others for future posts.

"Controversial film on Islam delivered nationwide," by Yonat Shimron for the Raleigh News & Observer, September 11 (see also Raymond's comments here):

Bundled in home-delivered editions of The News & Observer today is a paid insert featuring a controversial DVD on Islam that has stirred anger nationwide. [...]

Translation: "Readers, don't take this DVD seriously. It's "controversial." This is what passes for journalism these days, but just consider for a moment how different readers' reactions would have been if the story had started out this way: "Bundled in home-delivered editions of The News & Observer today is a paid insert featuring a DVD on Islam that attempts to alert people to the magnitude of the jihad threat." Which lead is more objective?

Jim McClure, vice president of display advertising for The N&O, declined to say what it is charging to deliver the DVD as part of today's newspaper. He dismissed allegations that it is inflammatory.

"In the beginning of the DVD it clearly states it's not about Islam. It's about radical Islam," McClure said.

That is a key weakness of an otherwise excellent film. Of course, it probably wouldn't be being distributed all over the country if it had spoken more forthrightly about the roots of the jihad ideology and Islamic supremThe problem is not so much with the use of the term "Radical Islam," which can refer to many things and doesn't necessarily assume that the violent and supremacist elements of jihadist teaching are corruptions of Islamic theology, but with the implication in the film that there is a benign, mainstream and standard version of Islam that does not teach warfare against and the subjugation of unbelievers. There isn't, and it is misleading in the extreme to suggest otherwise.acism in core Islamic texts and teachings. There are many peaceful Muslims who have no interest in furthering the jihad and never will, but there is no peaceful Islam -- and that makes these peaceful Muslims always vulnerable to appeals to Islamic authenticity.

Despite the disclaimer, the film features prominent anti-Muslim pundits, including Daniel Pipes, Steven Emerson and Walid Shoebat, who told the Springfield News-Leader -- a Missouri daily -- that "Islam is not the religion of God -- Islam is the devil."

To dismiss Pipes and Emerson as "anti-Muslim pundits" is to ignore the monumental work they have both done to expose the activities of jihadists in the United States and elsewhere, reducing this work to bigotry and trivia. Which was, no doubt, precisely the objective.

Films aim in question

Muslims across the nation and in the Triangle said they are disappointed by the film.

"It adds fuel to the fire and devalues the work we do," said Khalilah Sabra, an organizer with the Raleigh chapter of the Muslim American Society, which lists "promoting understanding" as its mission.

While Pipes, Emerson, and Shoebat are tarred and dismissed as "anti-Muslim," Khalilah Sabra and the Muslim American Society are all about "promoting understanding." The N&O can't find any room for the fact that, according to a 2004 Chicago Tribune exposé, the Muslim American Society is the name under which the Muslim Brotherhood operates in the United States. Nor does it mention that according to a 1991 Brotherhood memorandum about its strategy in the U.S., it is embarked upon a “grand Jihad” aimed at “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

The film features footage of elementary schoolchildren reciting mantras such as "When I wander into the entrance of Jerusalem, I'll turn into a suicide warrior."

Its aim is to liken radical Islam to Nazism and to promote the state of Israel, said Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, who has seen the film several times.

"One of the running themes is, 'We stand today as the world stood in 1938,' " said Safi, referring to the rise of Nazism. "It's fear mongering. It appeals to people's emotions."...

Not like Omid Safi, who propagandistically stacks the deck for his students by pre-emptively classifying a diverse list of people as "Islamopobes" and asking them to write a report on their evils. No emotionalism in that, oh no. Omid Safi is all dispassionate intellect -- as witness his fearmongering and emotionalism a bit farther on in the story:

In a statement, N&O Publisher Orage Quarles III wrote: "As a newspaper we tend to shy away from censorship. In cases of controversial topics, if we err, we tend to do so on the side of freedom of speech."

But some questioned whether this is a censorship issue.

"If there was a 30-minute DVD warning people against the danger of blacks or Jews, would the N&O distribute it?" asked Safi....

Safi, of course, ignores the distinction that the film makes between non-jihadist Muslims and jihadist Muslims -- however faulty the distinction is made in the film (as I explained above), it is certainly made, and made more than once. And there is no doubt that many Muslims are not on board with the jihadist program. Safi himself professes to be one of them. But in his comment here Safi would have you believe that the film lumps all Muslims together, and is thus comparable to a Klan piece on blacks or a Nazi piece on Jews.

Were Omid Safi at all interested in being fair-minded, he would acknowledge that the film makes this distinction, and would even perhaps explain why a film about an ideological threat does not fall into the same category as scaremongering about racial groups.

But it gets even worse: the story concludes with a Muslim playing the victim card -- and, of course, there is no mention made of how many Muslims-as-victim stories have been fabricated outright or greatly exaggerated:

One Muslim reader wrote the N&O to say that the film can only make local Muslims feel vulnerable.

"I must say that this video makes me fear for my safety and the safety of my family since people may not be able to differentiate between Muslims living here in Raleigh and the way Muslims are depicted in this scary film!" said Shadi Sadi, a data analyst in Raleigh.

To put this in perspective, consider the prospect of a German in 1943 writing angrily about an anti-Nazi presentation that it put Germans in fear for their safety. By contrast, German-Americans were anxious to prove their loyalty to the United States. Those days, it seems, are gone forever.

Appraisal and Prediction of School Violence

Controversial Boston mosque run by Muslim Brotherhood opens, will broadcast call to prayer over loudspeaker

By Robert Spencer

Sure, the controversy has faded -- except the Muslim American Society is running this mosque. According to a 2004 Chicago Tribune exposé, the Muslim American Society is the name under which the Muslim Brotherhood operates in the United States. Nor does it mention that according to a 1991 Brotherhood memorandum about its strategy in the U.S., it is embarked upon a “grand Jihad” aimed at “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

"Making peace, and prayers: Mosque opens its doors as controversy fades," by Michael Paulson for the Boston Globe, September 15 (thanks to Solomon):

Sixteen years after 2 acres near Roxbury Crossing were designated for use as a mosque, the area's growing Muslim community has quietly begun using the building for regular worship.

Every night since the start of Ramadan this month, hundreds of Muslims have been gathering for evening prayers at the mosque, now called the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center. Officials of the Muslim American Society, which is overseeing the project, say they plan to gradually add activities throughout the fall and winter and hope to hold a formal opening of the building early next year....

"This is such a happy occasion for the Muslim community - this has been a project in the making for decades," said Hossam Al Jabri, president of the Muslim American Society's Boston chapter, which has taken over management of the mosque from the Islamic Society of Boston, which runs a mosque in Cambridge. "It's strange, but I'm thankful that we had to go through the difficulty, because it forced us to come out of an isolation that we were comfortable in, and helped us to see that we have a world out there that is interested to know who we are. And it helped us to make so many friends."...

The mosque has been controversial for years. A conservative Israel-advocacy organization called the David Project asserted that some of the mosque's founding leaders had links to terrorism. In 2005, the Islamic Society filed a lawsuit against the David Project and two media outlets, saying that those allegations were defamatory, but dropped the suit last year after another suit, challenging the mosque's construction, was also dropped....

"Usually we find there's some level of resistance, but the situation in your area was unique in its level of vitriol and viciousness," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. "It was atypical in the level of controversy that was generated by those who were opposed to the mosque, and I don't mean legitimate controversy, I mean fake controversy. There's an effort by some minority of people in any community who seek to marginalize Muslims and demonize Islam, and that's what we saw in this case."

The leading critic of the mosque, Charles Jacobs, said he continues to have concerns about the mosque's leadership, but that "our concerns were never with the rank and file of the Muslim community."

Jacobs was president of the David Project until leaving the post in July.

"Our concern was with the leadership, and the ties that that leadership had, it seemed, to terrorism and the teaching of hatred," Jacobs said. He said he has ongoing concerns about the Islamic Society of Boston and the Muslim American Society, both of which, he says, have expressed extremist views. He said "it's been estimated that 80 percent of mosques are radicalized" but that "it's very difficult for American citizens to speak about these things, because they don't want to be labeled as bigots or Islamophobes, so that has allowed these connections to go much unspoken and unreported."...

CAIR, of course, is an unindicted co-conspirator in a jihad terror funding case. It is a spinoff of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which is listed in that same 1991 Muslim Brotherhood memorandum on strategy in the U.S. as part of its "grand jihad." Several CAIR officials have been arrested and convicted on terror-related charges, and one of its founders has made Islamic supremacist statements, hoping that one day the Qur'an would be the only law of the land in America. But the Globe, of course, mentions none of this.

And the Boston Mosque will also be broadcasting the call to prayer into Hyde Park via loudspeaker. From "A view from the minaret, by Michael Paulson in his Articles of Faith blog at the Globe, September 14 (thanks again to Solomon):

I made it high enough to report that there's a nice view to be had of the crescent-topped mosque dome silhouetted against the distant skyline, but not high enough to tell you what it would be like if you were the muezzin who had to go up there five times a day to chant the call to prayer. Of course, the muezzin can't tell you either -- he's no fool -- they're going to broadcast the prayer summons (which will only happen during the day out of respect for the neighbors) by loudspeaker.

Of course he's no fool. That they're going to broadcast the call to prayer at all, despite previous assurances that they wouldn't, according to Solomon, is a supremacist statement. For in the modern world, with cell phones and phone alarms and clocks everywhere and all sorts of related amenities, there is no need whatsoever for an amplified call to prayer. It is simply an assertion of Islamic dominance over the area.

Russell Comes Out Swinging Against Murtha

By Jon Delano

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Lt. Col. Bill Russell was in the Pentagon when it was attacked on September 11th.

"The office I was in was actually one floor up and about 150 feet from where the cockpit ended," says Russell.

That experience and his military service in Iraq shaped Russell's strong support for the Iraq war and his political challenge to long-time Democratic Congressman John Murtha.

"People can disagree about whether we should be there, but the fact of the matter is that we are there -- and we have no choice but to win and achieve victory," says the Republican candidate.

Facing off against Murtha -- the leading critic of the war -- in a congressional district that stretches across this region, Russell's television ads use Murtha's own words against certain American troops.

Russell's ads quote Murtha, saying of American troops, "They went into houses and killed children, women and children."

"He has definitely lost his way," says Russell, "and he has certainly made some statements that have played directly into the hands of the enemy and as a savvy politician, he should understand propaganda and as a former intelligence officer he should understand enemy propaganda."

Russell stops short of calling Murtha a traitor -- but says the congressman aided and abetted the enemy.

"Sounds like you're accusing him though of treasonous activity?" Political Editor Jon Delano asked Russell.

"Well, the definition of treason is aiding and abetting the enemy, and i've got to leave that up to the voters to decide that particular issue."

"But you think he did aid and abet?"

"I believe he aided and abetted the enemy," says Russell.

Russell says Murtha's accusations against the Haditha Marines -- found untrue in all but one still unresolved case -- led to American deaths in Iraq.

"If you consider that the enemy used his words as propaganda on the Arab street to incite those who were intent on murdering, killing, injuring, maiming, or mutilating our soldiers, that's certainly -- everyone is welcome to read their definition of that."

Click here and here and here and here for important related information.
vvvvvvvv

Barney's Rubble

(Compiler's note: FYI—We owe it to ourselves and the national security of our country to be better informed about our elected crooks.)

From The Wall Street Journal: Opinion

Barney Frank didn't like our recent editorial taking him to task for his longtime defense of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Congressional baron defends himself in his signature style here. We'd let him have his say without comment except that his "whole story" is, well, far from the whole truth.

Mr. Frank contends that he favored "very strong reform" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, even before Democrats took over Congress after the 2006 elections. To adapt a famous phrase, this depends on what the meaning of "reform" is. Mr. Frank did support a bill that he and others on Capitol Hill described as reform. But on the threshold reform issue -- limiting the size of the portfolios of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) that the two companies could hold -- Mr. Frank was a stalwart opponent.

In fact, Mr. Frank was publicly arguing for an increase in the size of their combined $1.4 trillion portfolios right up to the day they were bailed out. Even now, after he's been proven wrong about a taxpayer guarantee, he opposes Treasury's planned reduction in the size of the portfolios starting in 2010, according to a quote attributed to him in this newspaper last week. "Good luck on that," he reportedly said. Mr. Frank's spokeswoman hung up the phone when we sought confirmation Tuesday.

Fannie Mayhem: A History

A compendium of The Wall Street Journal's recent editorial coverage of Fannie and Freddie.

The MBS portfolios have long been both the chief source of the systemic risk posed by the two mortgage giants and of the profits that so handsomely enriched shareholders and officers alike for decades. Without the extreme leverage inherent in those portfolios -- which the companies borrowed heavily, at taxpayer-subsidized rates, to accumulate -- their federal takeover might never have become necessary.

For years, Mr. Frank and other friends of Fan and Fred opposed not only bills written to limit the size of their portfolios, but any bill that in their view gave an independent regulator too much discretion to order a reduction. This was true of the reform that his House committee passed last year. Only when the White House caved to Mr. Frank and dropped its earlier insistence that a reform bill rein in the portfolios did Mr. Frank move his bill.

In his letter, Mr. Frank also repeats his familiar claim that Fannie and Freddie are vital because they support "affordable housing." This is political smoke. The awful irony of Fan and Fred is that they have done very little to assist affordable housing. Most of the taxpayer subsidy has gone to enrich shareholders and Fannie managers, as a 2003 study by the Federal Reserve shows.

Mr. Frank says he favored the disclosure of Fannie and Freddie compensation -- which is nice, but beside the point. The source of the rich pay packages was the Fannie business model that Mr. Frank fought so hard to protect. Instead of helping the poor, Mr. Frank was enriching Jim Johnson, Frank Raines, Angelo Mozilo and Wall Street.

If Mr. Frank thinks his "affordable housing" goals are so popular, he can always ask Congress to appropriate money for any housing subsidy he desires. But he knows those votes are hard to come by. It's much easier to have Fannie and Freddie take inordinate risks, even at taxpayer expense, so they can pay a political dividend called an "affordable housing trust fund" that politicians will disperse. In opposing genuine reform of Fan and Fred, Mr. Frank wasn't acting like a principled liberal. He was protecting corporate giants while hiding their risks from taxpayers until the middle class got stuck with the bill.

Power grid vulnerable to cyberattacks, committee told

(Compiler's note: I'm equally concerned about the crumbling infrastructure that is our power grid. rca)

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is aiming to take up legislation next week that would provide the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with additional authority to help protect the nation's power grid from a cyberattack. During a hearing before the Energy and Commerce Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee, several witnesses and lawmakers argued that the threat to the nation's power grid from cyberattacks is real and urged lawmakers to enact legislation to give FERC additional powers to order utilities to take the necessary steps to address the problem. "The Department of Energy regularly discovers new vulnerabilities in the control systems employed by many utilities," said Kevin Kolevar, the department's assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability. "This is not hyperbole ... cyberattacks against control systems have occurred and they are becoming increasingly sophisticated."

FERC argues that current law is inadequate to allow the agency to take action to protect against cybersecurity attacks in a timely and confidential manner. And while the North American Electric Reliability Corp., the industry self-regulatory group overseen by FERC, issued an advisory in 2007 to 1,800 power operators and owners outlining immediate and longer term steps they should take to address cybersecurity vulnerabilities, compliance with the advisory was voluntary. A recent FERC audit of 30 utilities found that most were not in compliance with the advisory.

Draft legislation developed by the subcommittee would give FERC the necessary authority it needs to require compliance with cybersecurity standards and issue emergency orders to help protect against an immediate cybersecurity threat, Energy and Commerce Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., said. However, Boucher cited some outstanding disagreements over such issues as the definition of a cybersecurity threat, whether the legislation should also address immediate physical threats to utilities, and whether there should be a sunset on the emergency powers granted under the measure. If the outstanding issues can be addressed, Boucher said he plans to mark up the legislation next week. FERC Chairman Joseph Kelliher said he believed the draft legislation strikes the right balance and said the agency would agree to a one-year sunset on the emergency powers provided in the bill. On the definition of a cybersecurity threat, Susan Kelly of the American Public Power Association said her group favors a more narrow definition than one favored by FERC.

Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=40940&dcn=e_hsw

Biological warfare

Recently it has been observed that a sharp rise in chronic kidney disease (CKD) among farming communities in the North Central province of Sri Lanka. Local medical researchers have come up with several possible risk factors for the disease, including high groundwater fluoride content in some affected areas, leaching of heavy metals such as cadmium from agricultural chemicals into water sources, exposure to inorganic pesticides and fertilizers, and usage of aluminum vessels to store drinking water. Unfortunately any of the studies conducted were unable to conclusively prove the etiology of the disease.

Dr. Channa Jayasumana of Rajarata University has put forward a rather different hypothesis for CKD. Dr. Jayasumana and his team has observed a higher number of chronic kidney disease patients from villages located adjacent to so called Eelam territory in Sri Lanka. Furthermore he claims that bioterrorism could be the causative factor for CKD in the North central and Eastern regions. Could CKD be a result of bioterrorism? Is it even possible?

Bioterrorism is the intentional use of micro-organisms to bring about ill effects or death to humans, livestock, or crops. Biological warfare (BW) agents can cause large numbers of casualties with minimal logistical requirements. Perpetrators can escape long before BW agents cause casualties, due to the incubation periods of the agents. Weapons are easy and cheap to produce and can be used to selectively target humans, animals, or plants. Pathogens may be used against personnel, animals, or plants. Agents may kill or incapacitate victims. Incapacitating agents may be more effective in battle by both preventing a unit from carrying out its mission and overwhelming medical and evacuation assets. Agents with short incubation times would be most effective in a tactical setting, while those with longer incubation periods would appeal more to terrorists.

Biological attacks could be attempted by contaminating food and water supplies. While intact skin is an excellent barrier to most biological warfare agents, some agents, such as trichothecene mycotoxins, can penetrate the integument and cause systemic illness. Trichothecene mycotoxins ('Yellow Rain' : In 2005/4/21 Divaina newspaper reported yellow rain incident in Thalawakele) are the only potential BW toxins with cutaneous activity and manifestations. Mycotoxins are a diverse group of small molecular weight compounds produced by fungi. Spores of mycotoxin-producing fungi are possible anti-personnel biological weapons agents due to their stability, ease of manufacture, and ease of dissemination in aerosol form. For example, Fusarium, Stachybotrys, Memnoniella fungi strains produce more than 100 compounds classified as tricothecenes. T-2 toxin, a biological warfare agent, is probably the best known of the tricothecenes, and is believed to be the mycotoxin responsible for some forms of aleukia (the absence of white blood cells). T-2 toxin is believed to have killed thousands of Soviets who ate mold-infested cereal grains toward the end of World War II.

The fungi Penicillium produces several toxins, including ochratoxin A, which has been shown to cause miscarriage, birth defects and kidney damage in experimental animals. It has also been linked to a form of kidney disease found in people in the Balkan Valley region of Bulgaria and former Yugoslavia (another conflict region). The family of ochratoxins consists of three members, A, B, and C which differ slightly from each other in chemical structures. These differences, however, have marked effects on their respective toxic potentials. Ochratoxin A is the most abundant and hence the most commonly detected member but is also the most toxic of the three and is a potent toxin affecting mainly the kidney.

Also, the use of depleted uranium (DU) in ammunition is known to cause dramatic side effects, such as kidney diseases, stillborn babies, toxic and poisonous land, water supplies, and residential territories. NATO's use of DU ammo in former Yugoslavia has resulted in extensive irreversible damage to kidney and partial kidney failure in many civilians.

According to certain intelligence agencies Israel is trying to identify genes carried only by Arabs that could be used to develop a biological weapon (ethnic weapons) that would harm Arabs but not Jews. Furthermore, the report says that the Israeli scientists are working to create a genetically modified bacterium or virus that only attacks people who carry certain genes.

Considering the developments and historical events related to biological/chemical and genetic warfare agents it is certainly a possibility that terrorists and their allies could use such weapons to systematically destroy the people residing in a certain area. It is the responsibility of the GOSL to investigate the past activities of INGOs and NGOs in the CKD affected areas and also conduct an unbiased research into finding the etiology (and creating a national CKD database) of the disease.

Akila Weerasekera
Department of chemistry
California State University.

CIA Chief: Open Source Intel Rocks - But You Can't See It

By Noah Shachtman

The material is out in the public sphere, for anyone to see: newspapers, television shows, Internet postings. The methods for obtaining the material are straight-ahead: watch the tube, click on a mouse, and translate accordingly. The end product is almost always unclassified. And the whole thing is paid for by U.S. taxpayers. But the head of the CIA says that average Americans shouldn't be able to see so-called "open source intelligence" products. It's too sensitive for public eyes.

"The information is unclassified. Our interest in it is not," Gen. Michael Hayden told the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Conference late last week. (Click here for the audio.) "One irony of working the open source side of the intelligence business… is that the better we do, the less we can talk about it."

Just a few years ago, open source intelligence was a backwater in a community where wiretaps and surveillance satellites and clandestine agents were prized. But that's changed, of late. The head of the Open Source Center, where public information is collected, now reports directly to Hayden – just like the Directorate of Intelligence and National Clandestine Services chiefs. Open source material is included regularly in the President's Daily Brief – the intelligence summary, delivered right to the Oval Office.

These days, "secret information isn't always the brass ring in our profession," Hayden said. "In fact, there's a real satisfaction in solving a problem or answering a tough question with information that someone was dumb enough to leave out in the open."

He added, "The questions our customers ask – whether it’s a policy maker or a military commander or a law enforcement official -- demand answers, many of which are only available through open source research."

Open source material not only fills in blanks often-elusive adversaries. It can also give a broader sense of the mood in a particular country, or the feeling in a particular group. Hayden himself found this out recently in Key West, Florida. At a CIA listening station, he watched a Cuban soap opera, where they joked constantly about the Castro regime Keystone Kops approach to domestic surveillance. "It gave me a new appreciation for life and thought on the island," Hayden said.

But, by the end of his talk, it still wasn't clear is why the rest of us couldn't enjoy that same appreciation.

MORE ON ISLAMIC SAUDI ACADEMY TEXTBOOK ISSUE

WOLF CONTINUES TO PUSH ON ISLAMIC SAUDI ACADEMY TEXTS

Sends Fourth Letter to State Department Seeking Resolution of Issue

Washington, D.C. - Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10th) today sent the following letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding the issue of whether or not textbooks being used at the two Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) campuses in northern Virginia promote violence or intolerance. This is Wolf's fourth letter to the secretary on this issue.

Copies of Wolf's earlier letters and the State Department's first response are available online at wolf.house.gov.

September 16, 2008

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice

Secretary of State

2201 C St NW Ste 7276

Washington DC 20520

Dear Secretary Rice:

I write to let you know that I just received my first response from the State Department after having written three letters over a two-month period regarding the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) and concerns raised by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on the content of textbooks being used there.

I've noted in these letters the time sensitivity of resolving this issue which hinged on the start of the 2008 school year, now well under way. After seeming inattention to these concerns, the letter my office ultimately received in response did not address my repeated request that you convene a meeting of relevant State Department and USCIRF representatives-to include the expert analysts commissioned by USCIRF to translate and interpret the ISA textbooks as well as any analysts commissioned by the State Department to translate and interpret the ISA textbooks that the department has received- to conclusively determine what is being taught at ISA. Such a meeting is in the interest of all involved. If ISA is in the process of adopting new curricula as State's response indicated then this independent review would either conclusively alleviate broader concerns or would rightly inform an appropriate response from the U.S. State Department.

I have enclosed a copy of a recent report issued by the Heritage Foundation which stated, consistent with the findings of the American Law Division of the Congressional Research Service, that ISA is subject to the terms of the Foreign Missions Act as laid out in my previous letter. Heritage noted that "presidential case law and established rules of statutory interpretation mandate that the secretary of State may declare that the ISA is a foreign mission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and, if operating against the interests of the United States, may be closed." In fact, Secretary of State George Schultz used his authority under the FMA to exercise jurisdiction over the Palestinian Information Organization.

I bring this report to your attention to stress once again that you are well within your authority to convene a meeting as described above, and arguably are obligated to do so given what is at stake.

Best wishes.

Sincerely,

Frank R. Wolf

Member of Congress

FRW:ea

enclosure

g/press/releases/education/saudiacademy4