Officials at Atlantic City International Airport have announced plans for a new security screening initiative. Innovative technology will be used to screen the underside of cars, trucks, and buses for potential car bombs or contraband entering the airport.
Using a four-inch ramp, a video image of the vehicle's underside will be captured, and transmitted to a nearby security screen, reports the Associated Press.
Kris Kolluri, New Jersey State Transport Commissioner, commented: "This equipment gives law enforcement officers another tool to use in the fight against terrorism and helps us to ensure a safe flying environment for the traveling public."
The system has been paid for by $22,500 of Homeland Security funding.
Based in Miami, Florida, Technon LLC develops products that protect human life and empower individuals in dangerous situations.
___________________________
Terrorism arrests made on Texas border
DALLAS - Texas' top homeland security official said Wednesday that terrorists with ties to Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaida have been arrested crossing the Texas border with Mexico in recent years.
"Has there ever been anyone linked to terrorism arrested?" Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw said in a speech to the North Texas Crime Commission. "Yes, there was." His remarks appear to be among the most specific on the topic of terrorism arrests along the Texas-Mexico border. Local and elected officials have alluded to this happening but have been short on details.
Leticia Zamarripa, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in El Paso, said Wednesday she was unaware of any border arrests of people with terrorist ties. An ICE spokeswoman in San Antonio did not return phone messages left by The Associated Press. U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd M. Easterling was unable to comment.
Now taking applications for February 2008 - 11th Mission to Israel
_______________________________
Pino 911
On September 11, 2007, I was sitting around minding my own business and quietly remembering the thousands who lost their lives six years earlier. It was a nice, peaceful morning until I received an email from someone claiming to be Professor Julio Pino of Kent State University. Pino is a Muslim extremist who advocates the mass murder of Jews while drawing a paycheck from the hard-working people of the great state of Ohio.
The most memorable portions of the disturbing email are reproduced below:
"O, Slaves of Zion and Amerika, Arise! The shaheed (martyr) who yearns to die, and has prayed for this moment all his life, has come to rescue you!"
"The martyr is performing an action that is the culmination of a whole life's struggle, and in turn gives meaning to that life. Muslims venerate the Prophet Mohammed (Peace and Blessings of Allah Be Upon him) as al-kemal-al-insan (The Perfect Man)."
Krav Maga - Courses in Miami in November: Expert coming from
Israel: Call 1-866-573-3999 and speak to Henry Morgenstern
Adams Industries is your one stop source for tactical electronics including NIGHT VISION, THERMAL, and LASER Technologies since1994!
_______________________________
Car's explosive contents revealed at hearing for USF students
TAMPA -- PVC pipe filled with homemade "low-grade explosive mixture'' and a videotape instruction for turning a remote-controlled toy car into a detonator were among the items found in the car driven by two University of South Florida students arrested in South Carolina and now facing federal explosives charges, according to a federal prosecutor.
A judge set bail at $200,000 for one of the defendants, Youssef Megahed, but the government immediately appealed, which means Megahed will remain in custody.
Earlier in the court hearing Friday, an assistant U.S attorney outlined the evidence confiscated from the car driven by Megahed and another suspended USF student -- describing a container and three pipes filled with a low-grade explosive mixture.
Nextel Wireless Solutions cater to the special needs of law enforcement, public safety agencies and other first responders. From special public safety handsets and modems, to our Priority Connect service, we can help enhance your field communications.
_______________________________
Are we really safer here? By Aaron Kinney
Many residents of San Mateo County have asked themselves this question: Are we any safer now from a major terrorist attack than we were on Sept. 11, 2001?
Though the threat of terrorism cannot be eliminated completely, local officials have enacted a series of measures and spent millions of dollars over the past six years to improve the county's ability to prevent and respond to an attack.
The Sheriff's Office has bolstered existing services, from the SWAT team to the bomb squad, and created new ones, such as a telephone emergency notification system. San Francisco International Airport has overhauled its security, local schools have developed disaster-preparedness plans and county hospitals have joined a nationwide initiative to streamline emergency communications.
"There's a tapestry of things that we've woven together to make the community stronger," said Bill O'Callahan, supervisor of the sheriff's Office of Emergency Services and Homeland Security.
US Homeland Security introduces new rules for private planes
The US Homeland Security Department has announced new rules aimed at preventing terrorists from using private airplanes to enter the US. On the eve of the sixth anniversary of 9/11, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described the lack of tighter security for private planes as a major gap.
The new Homeland Security rules require private pilots coming from overseas to give the United States the names, birth dates and other information about their passengers one hour before takeoff. They have provide the information even now, but not until they are close to landing.
However, Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke clarified that there was "no information indicating a specific or imminent threat" from private planes. Security experts have warned for years that the most likely way a weapon of mass destruction will come into the US is on a private plane.
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office November 15th and 16th, 2007
_______________________________
LAPD buys `dirty bomb' detectors
Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton has bought seven devices that can detect the radioactive signature of "dirty" bombs. One of the devices has apparently been implemented in a helicopter and is able to locate an unexploded dirty bomb from 800 feet above the ground. Dirty bombs use traditional explosives to disperse radioactive substances into the adjacent atmosphere. Bratton says that Los Angeles is the U.S. city with the third largest risk of being impacted by a dirty bomb, due to the special attributes the city possesses--the airport, port, and "just the symbolism of so much of what [terrorists] hate." Bratton states the Los Angeles Police Department has been given $3 million in Homeland Security money and has utilized those funds to also purchase a bomb-response truck for $900,000 that has a robot that can be worked from one mile away. In addition, the department has bought a mobile response truck for police public information officers, to function as a portable center for communicating data through news media.
Note: A comprehensive study published in Popular Mechanics came to the same conclusion.
An analysis of the World Trade Center collapse has challenged a conspiracy theory surrounding the 9/11 attacks. The study by a Cambridge University engineer demonstrates that once the collapse of the twin towers began, it was destined to be rapid and total. One of many conspiracy theories proposes that the buildings came down in a manner consistent with a "controlled demolition". The new data shows this is not needed to explain the way the towers fell. Over 2,800 people were killed in the devastating attacks on New York.
After reviewing television footage of the Trade Center's destruction, engineers had proposed the idea of "progressive collapse" to explain the way the twin towers disintegrated on 11 September 2001.
WASHINGTON (AP) - National intelligence director Mike McConnell said Tuesday that U.S. authorities are worried about "sleeper cells" of would-be terrorists inside the United States and are remaining vigilant against any new attacks. On the sixth anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and in western Pennsylvania, McConnell also said plots against the United States have been thwarted. But he said there can make no safety guarantees. "We're safer but we're not safe," he said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."
McConnell said that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network "intends to have an operation in the United States that will result in mass casualties." "We have stopped some efforts and we must stop all efforts. We're not sure we can stop 100 percent of them," he said. McConnell spoke as U.S. intelligence experts continued to assess the latest messages from bin Laden. In a new video released Tuesday, bin Laden urged sympathizers to join the "caravan" of martyrs and he praised one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers.
Homeland Security Management Institute November 1st and 2nd, 2007
_______________________________
Pilots: Cockpits remain vulnerable to terrorist assault
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- If one hardened cockpit door is good, would two barriers be even better?
Many airline pilots believe the answer is "yes," and are hoping to reinvigorate efforts to require so-called "secondary barriers" on every commercial plane in the country. Pilots praise the hardened cockpit doors mandated after 9/11, saying they have done as much as anything to protect aircraft from terrorist assaults. But planes remain vulnerable for short periods of time during some flights when pilots go to the lavatory, get meals or, on long flights, change out crews. Currently, flight attendants sometimes block the aisle with beverage carts to prevent possible terrorists from rushing the cockpit. But pilots believe the barriers -- relatively inexpensive gates that would be deployed before pilots come out of the cockpit -- would solve that vulnerability.
"This is an absolute no-brainer," Capt. Bob Hesselbein of the Air Line Pilots Association said. "Of all the things we could do, the most cost-effective thing we could do right now is put the device in."
About SSI 
