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The Counter Terrorist Your bi-monthly update on Homeland Security
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A Big Year for Border Security
By Arthur H. Rotstein
Call it cause and effect.
With border-security attention riveted in Arizona during 2007 on the issues of illegal immigration, drug smuggling and potential terrorist infiltration, federal authorities responded with a spree of fence building and high-tech surveillance.
The construction included both old-fashioned fences and the new high-tech virtual variety, plus vehicle barriers and remote-controlled aircraft equipped with eyes in the sky.
And there are signs that the buildup is having an impact, particularly in far Southwestern Arizona.
In the Border Patrol's Yuma Sector, which roughly covers Arizona's westernmost 110 miles of border, apprehensions of illegal entrants plunged dramatically. They were down about 68 percent during fiscal 2007 compared with the previous year - from more than 118,000 to about 38,000.
Lithium Battery Limits in Carry-on Baggage on Passenger Aircraft
Effective January 1, 2008, spare lithium batteries - extra batteries not installed on devices - will no longer be allowed in checked baggage. Spare lithium batteries may be packed in carry-on baggage and lithium batteries installed in a device may be packed in either checked or carry-on, as long as the battery is installed in the device.
Below are some tips for safe travel with batteries:
Keep batteries and equipment with you, or in carry-on baggage - not in your checked baggage! In the cabin, flight crew can better monitor conditions, and have access to the batteries or device if a fire does occur.
If original packaging is not available for spare batteries, effectively insulate battery terminals by isolating the batteries from contact with other batteries and metal. Do not permit a loose battery to come in contact with metal objects, such as coins, keys, or jewelry.
With funding from the DHS science and technology directorate, a team of researchers from the University of Mississippi and the University of Alberta in Canada is developing an innovative way to detect underground tunnels with the use of seismic sensors.
The goal is to determine the location of covert tunnels along the U.S.-Mexican border which could be used by drug smugglers and perhaps less frequently by terrorists.
The tunnel spotters have received a research grant under S&T's international program designed to sponsor U.S. and foreign universities engaged in homeland security studies.
According to a recent article in an S&T online publication, Craig Hickey, a professor of geological engineering at the University of Mississippi, "bangs a hammer onto a line of sensors called geophones, which are placed strategically aboveground." A separate receiver tracks the resulting seismic waves as they travel through the ground. These waves are charted on a computer through a process called seismic refraction tomography, creating a cross-sectional view that can sometimes spot abnormalities that might signify tunnels.
U.S. Eyes 'Pain Beam' for Home Security, Law Enforcement
By David Hambling
Burglars break into an apartment, hoping to pick up some expensive electronics or jewelry. But they're out again, empty-handed, within seconds, howling with pain and surprise. They've been driven back by waves of intolerable heat: Entering the apartment is like stepping into a furnace. It's the Active Denial System, or ADS, at work, the ultimate in home protection ... among other uses.
Also known as the "pain beam," ADS is a revolutionary non-lethal weapon that uses microwaves to cause burning pain without injury. The 95-GHz waves only penetrate a fraction of an inch, heating the outer surface of the target's skin. According to the Air Force, nobody can tolerate the beam for more than five seconds, and improvised protection such as wrapping yourself in wet towels or tin foil is useless.
The Bishop, a Time Domain Reduction System, is a unique directed energy platform designed specifically for EOD operations and bomb technicians. The high-frequency generator produces a continuous electromagnetic wave which is focused on the target circuitry. The Bishop serves as a front line tool in Render Safe operations.
CELL PHONE JAMMERS FOR SWAT and Special Operations Available!
EXCLUSIVE: New Developments in USF Students Explosives Investigation
By Alexandra Hackett
Tampa, Florida - For the third time in months, the University of South Florida is taking a hit for housing three students with alleged terrorist ties.
"There [might] be others that may be involved in this thing too, that we don't even know about today," said retired FBI agent Oscar Westerfield.
Now the recent arrest of Karim Moussaoui is raising eyebrows. According to a USF police report, Moussaoui got a written warning for trespassing at the Embassy Suites on campus, just one day before his arrest by the FBI.
Hotel Security Director Robert Forteau told police he was patrolling the parking lot around 2 a.m. when he saw Moussaoui milling around. When he approached Moussaoui, that's when the situation escalated.
Sympathy for al Qaeda has produced "sudden jihad syndrome" in domestic terror cells unaffiliated with foreign terrorists and people seeking to carry out attacks in the U.S., a law-enforcement intelligence analysis says.
The Dec. 6 report by the Texas Public Safety Department's Bureau of Information Analysis warns officials not to dismiss individual or homegrown terror cells as "wannabes," saying they pose a credible threat to homeland security.
"Oftentimes, these attackers are dismissed as suffering from mental health issues, but their own words and writings reveal an affiliation with Islamic supremacy or an affinity for Islamic extremism," said the report, which was distributed to federal, state and local law enforcement in Texas. "As a result, law enforcement should not be too quick to judge their attacks as having no nexus to terrorism."
It said they might act with the intention of eventually joining al Qaeda or the jihad movement overseas.
NEW DELHI: By hitting security camps as well as civilian targets like temples, trains, markets, courts and sufi shrines and specific mosques, jihadi groups are working to a plan to stir communal tensions, bleed the forces and win appreciation of handlers across the border for putting the focus on "home-grown" terror.
The attack at Rampur in Uttar Pradesh is the 20th jihadi attack on India's mainland, outside Jammu and Kashmir in the past three years and it conforms to the jihadi gameplan of hitting targets which get high media attention. Though tougher targets than public spaces, security camps are often handicapped by lack of foreknowledge.
CRPF's IG (operations) A P Maheshwari told TOI that had the jawans not been alert, the terrorists would not have been repulsed. They could enter only till the point which had become a general thoroughfare due to negligence of the civic authorities, he claimed. Beyond that point no access was possible and the attackers were repulsed, he added.
Seeking Psychological Victory in the 'Global War on Terror
By Tony Blankley
In Iraq, as military and security conditions continue to improve, American war politics enters one of its stranger moments in our history. Certainly it is historically odd for war reporting to diminish almost to the point of public invisibility -- just as our troops are starting to gain the upper hand. But we are fighting this war with the journalists we have, not the ones we want.
However, although the media maintained a virtual radio silence once things started going our way, the public has come to recognize the military success. Typical of recent polling is the Pew Research Center poll from Nov. 27, which shows that about half the country thinks the military effort is going very or fairly well (up from 30 percent). The public is also substantially more optimistic than it was in recent years that we are reducing civilian casualties, preventing civil war, defeating insurgents, preventing terrorist bases and rebuilding infrastructure.
Rowenna Davis explores differences in national identity between British and American Muslims
"Baby, listen to me, I came here and I like to live independent," said Akhtar Mamood, his Pakistani-New York accent coming out staccato. "This country gave me food, money, respect - I love this country."
Mamood, who immigrated to the US more than 30 years ago, is proud to call America home. He talked to me during break at his favorite Pakistani lunch spot. "We make money independently here and we're free to do what we want," he said. "We're proud to be American."
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