Tag Archives: Department of Homeland Security

Security lapses prompt changes to no-fly list

Details of Faisal Shahzad and how he was able to board an airplane despite being on put on the no-fly list continue to emerge, prompting the Department of Homeland Security to enact changes.

The New York Times reports two significant security lapses:

  1. An F.B.I surveillance team lost track of Shahzad after locating him in Connecticut prior to him leaving for the airport
  2. Emirates Airlines failed to act on an electronic message at midday on Monday notifying all carriers to check the no-fly list for an important added name

It was a routine check, when boarding was complete, showed Shahzad was on the no-fly list and had boarded a plane. The routine check involved sending the final passenger list to National Targeting Center, operated in Virginia by Customs and Border Protection, according to the Times.

CNN reports that airlines will be required to check the no-fly list within two hours, not within 24 hours, of being electronically notified of additions or changes.

Further reading: CNN Time Square bomb investigation updates, New York Times Topics – Times Square Bomb Attempt

Tagged , ,

DHS gives $2M to research the benefits of firefighters taking aspirin

CHICAGO — Fire does not kill firefighters nearly as often as do their own hearts.

According to the United States Fire Administration, in 2009, 48 percent of on-duty firefighters died from a heart attack, 31 percent from trauma, 6 percent from asphyxiation, and 2 percent from burns. So far this year, the USFA has reported 25 on-duty firefighter fatalities. Of those, 56 percent have died from heat attacks, 28 percent from trauma, 4 percent from asphyxiation, and 4 percent from burns.

In response, the Department of Homeland Security has decided to throw $2 million into researching one solution to the heart attack/heat stroke problem: aspirin.

Last week, the DHS awarded the Illinois Fire Service Institute (part of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) a Fire Prevention & Safety Research and Development grant of $999,801 to study how effectively aspirin reduces the number of heart attacks among firefighters on and off the line of fire duty.

“We continue to see clots and clot formation – even in younger firemen,” said Brad Bone, the fire fighting program director at the institute, who has been researching firefighter heart attacks since 1991. “We know exercise helps. Getting acclimated to wearing gear helps. Hydration helps. But we’ve never gone as far as to look at aspirin therapy.”

Most heart attacks occur from a buildup of plaque on the inner walls of the coronary arteries. A section of the plaque breaks open, causing a blood clot to form. If the clot becomes large enough to cut off a significant amount of blood flow through the artery, a heart attack happens. Firefighters, straining under the weight of their heavy gear and extinguishing fires through intense heat, are susceptible to intense bouts of heat stress, even if they are in fairly good health, Bone said.

To be sure, there have been numerous medical studies identifying aspirin as a blood thinner, blood-clot deterrent, and, ultimately, a potential heart-attack-preventer. But the point of the IFSI study is to provide guidelines as to how – and if – fire departments should instruct their firefighters to take aspirin regularly. Should they be taking one a day? Or a high dose just before heading into the fire?

Over the next three years, the IFSI, led by research scientist Dr. Gavin Horn, will conduct long-term and acute aspirin therapy tests on 20 firefighters over the age of 40. The three-year study will involve a 14-day test of 20 firefighters over 40. Bone, a registered nurse and former firefighter, said the institute will recruit firefighters throughout Illinois and bordering states. Scientists from U of I’s Kinesiology and Community Health department, Skidmore College in New York, Carle Hospital Occupational Medicine, and Christ Clinics will collaborate on the grant.

“We’re making progress,” he said. “This is going to take a lot of in-depth research and it will be expensive.”

This grant was made possible because of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program. Under this DHS program, grants are awarded to fire departments across the nation to improve their ability to protect the public and firefighters from fire-related emergencies.

In 2009, Congress appropriated a total of $565 million under the Homeland Security Appropriations Act to the AFG Program. Under the guidelines, at least 5 percent of the fund must support fire prevention and safety activities – in a “coordinated effort to strengthen homeland security preparedness.”

All applicants for FP&S grants in 2009 have been competing for a pool of $35 million.

The University of Pittsburgh won a $1 million grant nine months ago to conduct its own aspirin-and-heart-attacks-among-firefighters study. Research began early last month.

Unlike the Illinois study, this one should be completed by June 2011. And it’s strictly a lab study, with all variables controlled. Rather than testing firefighters in their working conditions, the Pittsburgh research group will test 160 firefighters (ages 18 to 49) after they’ve run on treadmills in a lab heated to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Dr. David Hostler, who has been at the University of Pittsburgh for nine years and is one of the lead researches on the study, aims to prove if aspirin taken by firefighters prevents platelets from becoming sticky when body temperature rises intensely. His lab will also be testing the effectiveness of daily low doses vs. acute high doses.

“This is descriptive research,” Hostler said. “We explain the problem and start moving for intervention.”

After $2 million in research, that’s the goal: To reduce heart-related fatalities among U.S. firefighters.

Thus far, FEMA has given out  seven research grants for 2009. The rest will be doled out until the money runs out, or by Sept. 30. Then it will be time to apply for 2010 grants.

Tagged ,

15 years after Oklahoma City, experts say domestic terrorism isn't spreading

CHICAGO — The Hutaree. The Fort Hood shootings. Jihad Jane. As more plots conceived by Americans are uncovered and more incidents of mass violence by Americans are committed, it may appear that we’re becoming our own worst enemy.

But 15 years after the Oklahoma City bombing, the most lethal act of terrorism in U.S. history until 9/11, experts say homegrown terrorism is not on the rise.

“I think it makes a nice headline or sound bite for a politician, but there’s just no clear evidence of any trend line here,” said Aziz Huq, a law professor at the University of Chicago.

Huq said the Fort Hood shootings could be better attributed to an individual psychological breakdown than to the perpetrator’s connections to a Yemeni cleric, for instance, distinguishing the shootings from an act of terror.

Charles E. Tucker, Jr., who is executive director of the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University, said rates of domestic terrorism have either remained constant or even lowered.

“We’ve had organized crime in this country for years,” he said.

Like Huq, Tucker questioned the definition of domestic terrorism, citing mob violence and gang warfare as other crimes that could be included in this category.

“I’m unimpressed with the fact that we have a new group and we’ve put a different label on them,” he said.

The USA PATRIOT Act defines domestic terrorism as “activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any state; appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.”

According to the FBI, 345 of the 481 terrorist acts in the United States from 1980 to 2001 were domestic. There were 24 incidents of domestic terrorism from 2002 to 2005, after the foreign terrorist attack on 9/11.

The FBI recognizes different categories of domestic terrorists, including eco-terrorists, lone offenders and sovereign citizens.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a report last year warning that the election of the first African-American president, the potential for increased regulation of firearms and the poor economy could fuel rightwing extremist groups. The report, titled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” drew comparisons to the rise in extremism in the 1990s under similar political and economic circumstances.

“To the extent that these factors persist, rightwing extremism is likely to grow in strength,” the department wrote in the report.

Tucker said one of the best strategies to combat this kind of terrorism is to show the perpetrators to the world.

“It’s hard to look at them and not see them for how ridiculous they are,” he said.

Timothy McVeigh, who was found guilty in the Oklahoma City bombing and executed in 2001, became “a tragic, comedic figure” for his perceptions of the government that led him to violence, Tucker said. He said he wondered if McVeigh would have blown up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building if he had known that would be his legacy.

“Would he have actually lit the fuse?” Tucker said.

Tagged , , ,

Bomb-making awareness program blows up in North Carolina

CHICAGO — While the Department of Homeland Security is throwing millions of dollars at prevention tactics for nuclear and bioterrorism threats, the department has saved a little to spend on diffusing potential weapons that could be manufactured from cleaning and construction materials purchased at your local Lowe’s, Home Depot or Sally Beauty Supply.

The Bomb-Making Materials Awareness Program, or BMAP, is one of the newest in the DHS’s arsenal of terrorism-prevention efforts. Though the measure was introduced at a National Retail Federation Loss Prevention Conference in Orlando, Fla., in June 2008, the program is slowly getting off the ground at police departments across the nation.

One state showing recent BMAP activity is North Carolina. Because of its numerous military ports, North Carolina has become a hot bed for terrorism-diffusing training. Last month, Homeland Security’s Office of Bombing Prevention set up a BMAP session at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, training 75 law-enforcement offers in the region. Another session will be held later in the month at Fort Bragg.

“North Carolina is a forward-leaning, proactive state,” says John Yarboro, a Homeland Security branch chief in Raleigh, who helped coordinate the event. “This is not Mayberry. We have a huge military footprint in addition to a robust economy.”

At the full-day session, intelligence officers trained law-enforcers how to teach workers in the private sector to spot potential bomb-makers. Workers are to notify local police who will then notify Homeland Security.

The end goal is not simply to diffuse a bomb, but to quash all efforts to make an improvised explosive device in its tracks. And to catch the would-be terrorist.

“Improvised explosive device attacks remain the primary tactic for terrorists seeking relatively uncomplicated, inexpensive means for inflicting mass casualties and maximum damage” a presentation slide from the 2008 National Retail Federation conference states.

According to the OBP, peroxides were used in the London rail bombings in 2005, the trans-Atlantic airline plot in 2006 and the shoe-bombing plot in 2001; ammonium nitrate was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. These materials can be found and purchased at retail stores nationwide.

Because improvised explosive devices are so easy to make, Yarboro says, it’s important to identify why a person might be buying massive amounts of peroxide late at night. Are they really bleaching hair?

He says BMAP does not single out foreigners but concentrates on all sorts of potential terrorists, including Americans.

“There are people in this country who want to do us harm,” he said. “It’s not just about Al Qaeda, bin Laden or Yemen. Anyone with any basic knowledge [of homemade explosives] can put one of their things together and make it go bang.”

The effectiveness of BMAP, as with most of DHS’s terrorism-prevention programs, remains to be seen. Trent Walker, a critical incident planner at the Greensboro Police Department, in Greensboro, N.C., says overall awareness since September 11 has been heightened in North Carolina and that police officers are receiving far more intelligence and terrorism-prevention training than ever before.

For the past five years, Walker, who has been with the GPD since 1992, has coordinated the department’s bomb team. Recently, he and his bomb team have been reaching out to businesses, telling them how to recognize people coming in to buy precursor materials for improvised explosives.

“It’s hard to try to get folks to take on the responsibility to doing this,” Walker says. “A lot of times employees are there to sell materials and they don’t think about it like a law-enforcement officer would.”

But, Walker said, police efforts to train businesses have not been in vein.

“There’s a chemical company that sells extremely hazardous substances in Greensboro,” he says. “Someone was taking photos [outside the facility] and police came out. They found out the citizen was with some type of group concerned about what chemicals in the facility.”

Though this incident was not terrorism-related, Walker said this sort of activity is the type security guards and cashiers need to look out for. They’re to notify the police, and the information goes to intelligence.

“What happens to that information, I don’t know,” Walker said.

Tagged , ,

Regular seismic activity despite slew of natural disasters, experts say

CHICAGO — Despite the seemingly significant and frequent natural disasters since the Haitian earthquake in January 2010, experts say there is no connection between the earthquakes around the globe, major flooding in South America and volcanic eruptions in Iceland that have followed since.

“There’s no particularly worrisome or intriguing seismic activity,” said Emile Okal, professor of earth and planetary sciences at Northwestern University.

“The distribution of earthquakes is more or less random,” added Philip Carpenter, professor of geology and environmental science at Northern Illinois University.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, on average, there are an estimated 15 earthquakes of a magnitude 7.0 each year.  And experts say we have just come off a 40-year period that, if anything, had lower than expected activity levels.

“If you average seismic activity over long enough time, you would say that perhaps the 1960 to 2000 period had been a little deficient,” Okal said. “We hadn’t really had any major earthquakes since 1965.”

Okal said the reason for reduced activity remains unknown.  But we do know that earthquakes are caused by movements in tectonic plates which lie underneath the earth’s surface.  These plates move a few centimeters each year, buckling and deforming at the edges to pass one another but sometimes they snap, similar to a tire screeching on pavement when driving, which is when an earthquake occurs.  Scientists can measure levels of deformation but they cannot predict if and when such a snap might occur.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, considers natural disasters in the scope of national security. However, because these events are random and unpredictable agencies can only ensure emergency plans are prepared and ready for execution when needed.

In Illinois, April is Earthquake Preparedness Month, reminding residents they are situated by two active seismic zones; the New Madrid, located in the Central Mississippi Valley that extends to several neighboring states and the Wabash Valley, which stretches from southeastern Illinois to southwestern Indiana.

“We are within the most active earthquake area east of the Rocky Mountains,” said Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

Although the earthquakes would not affect residents of northern Illinois directly, the relocation of families and use of state resources in helping disaster victims would be felt state-wide.

“If we had a 7.7 major earthquake in the southern part of the state, as many as 17,000 homes could be totally destroyed with another 25,000 to 30,000 that could be damaged,” Thompson said.

The largest earthquake in the continental United States occurred in the New Madrid zone in the winter of 1811- 1812. There has been activity on this line since but the quakes have hovered around the magnitude 5.0 range, meaning little damage was caused.  There is very little evidence of deformation in the zone but scientists are still actively monitoring the area to better understand if that really means an earthquake is not likely occur in the region.

IEMA estimates that a serious earthquake in the New Madrid zone could result in $60 to $80 billion of damage.

“It is advisable to prepare for the earthquakes,” said Carpenter of Northern Illinois University, “because it’s impossible to make a prediction.”

Tagged , , , ,

Protecting federal buildings 15 years after Oklahoma City

CHICAGO — Fifteen years ago, an American militia sympathizer four days shy of his 27th birthday drove a Ryder truck into the parking complex of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Timothy McVeigh and passenger Terry Nichols were neither halted by security for clearance, nor approached after they parked the truck and walked away – to a different car.

Days after the Ryder’s deadly contents destroyed the Murrah (and 168 people within), the U.S. government began to rethink the security of its federal buildings. In October 1995, former President Bill Clinton created the Interagency Security Committee to standardize rules for nationwide federal-facility security.

The ISC, which since Sept. 11, 2001, has been branched under the Department of Homeland Security, comprises security officers and executives from 45 federal agencies and makes decisions about improving building safety.

To coincide with the Oklahoma City bombing’s 15th anniversary, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announced two new federal-building-protection standards: the Physical Security Criteria for Federal Facilities and the Design-Basis Threat Report.

“These standards leverage over a decade of collaboration and research by experts across the federal government to establish adaptable security measures that will better secure our federal infrastructure,” said Napolitano in an April 12 press release.

The specific details of the new initiatives have not been released to the public. Basically, every federal facility is to implement security measures based on the new physical security criteria (which apply to site, structure, facility entrance, interior, security equipment and administration) and the new threat report, which establishes a profile of the type, composition and capabilities of potential terrorists.

The day after Napolitano’s announcement, the Government Accountability Office released a report evaluating one aspect of federal building security: the Federal Protective Service’s (also under DHS) contract security guard program. Federal agents visited six out of the 11 regions in the U.S. that employ contract guards. Part of the findings showed that many of the guards lacked training, particularly in regard to X-ray machines and metal detectors: In some cases, undercover officers were able to pass security checks with fake guns in their pockets and fake explosives in their briefcases.

The GAO concluded that there needs to be more oversight and a reassessment of this program. The FPS has a budget of $1 billion. In 2009, $659 million went to its guard program, which employs about 15,000 security guards at 2,360 federal facilities across the U.S, according to the report

Because the details of federal building security plans are confidential, it’s unclear whether the GAO’s findings will be incorporated into the new standards. Requests for comment from DHS were not returned by press time.

There are more than 9,000 government facilities in the U.S., according to FPS. Charles Paidock works in one such building: the John C. Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago.

Paidock – who works for the General Services Administration as a national administrator to federal employees – says that when he started in 1980, there was very little security at the Kluczynski, which houses offices for Air Force recruitment, passport issuance, the Internal Revenue Service, state senators, and an underground post office.

“You could just walk in,” he says.

He doesn’t remember much heightened security after the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City, but everything changed after 9/11.

“There’s guys with uniforms that weren’t there before,” Paidock says. “As employees we’re issued special cards. They were re-issued recently. Now we have high-tech ones that show our data and information.”

There are also security cameras throughout the exterior and interior of the building and a barrier was constructed around the building. All visitors must enter through metal detectors. When President Obama, who used to work in the Kluczynski as a senator, first became president-elect, even employees had to go through the detectors, Paidock said.

“Oklahoma City was disconcerting to us understandably,” Paidock says. “But you can’t really seal off a public building. One thousand people come in and out of here every day. We have to serve the public.”

August Vernon, assistant coordinator and operations officer at the County Office of Emergency Management in Norh Carolina, says all federal buildings are vulnerable to a host of devastating threats – some from the forces of nature and others from individuals who wish to harm the U.S. government. Vernon’s office plans for the prevention of such emergencies.

“The strategy is more awareness,” Vernon says. “[Before the Oklahoma City bombing], at a lot of federal buildings you could park right under the building and walk out. Now we don’t allow people to just pull in to the parking lot underneath the building.”

For the past 10 years with the OEM, Vernon has studied patterns that lead up to man-made disasters. In many incidents, Vernon says, shooters or bombers visit their targeted site beforehand, observing the building’s perimeters and questioning building attendants about security. Vernon’s office trains law enforcement and schools on ways to prevent these types of attacks – by taking notice to suspicious behavior.

Vernon’s office is part of the DHS’s vast network of federal security, which for the next two years will be implementing the new facility-protection standards. In 2012, DHS will evaluate the efficacy of its security programs, largely through field testing.

Tagged , , ,