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December Mid-Month 2009 |
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Your Bi-monthly Homeland Security News Source |
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Alleged Chicago Jihadi: Key Role in the Mumbai Attacks?
By Jyoti Thottam
The case against David Headley, 49, the American accused of helping plan the November 2008 terrorist strikes in Mumbai, fills in several of the missing links about how the attacks were planned and executed with such precision. Because two Indian men on trial in Mumbai for providing intelligence were arrested months before the attacks took place - before the Mumbai strategy was even finalized - security analysts here have long assumed that the plotters must have had other sources of information. The complaint against Headley claims that he was that source. If true, it opens a window into how the global jihadi network operates.
Headley was born Daood Gilani in Washington, D.C. His father was Pakistani; his mother, American. The Chicago resident's alleged involvement with the radical Pakistani Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) began nearly three years before the Mumbai attacks. In late 2005 he was told by his handlers to travel to India to do surveillance, so he changed his name in February 2006 to David Headley "in order to present himself in India as an American who was neither Muslim nor Pakistani," according to the complaint filed in U.S. district court in Chicago. He allegedly made the first of several trips to India in September 2006, using the cover of working for an immigration agency. But according to investigators, he actually spent his time in Mumbai "taking pictures and making videotapes of various targets," including those that would eventually be attacked - the Taj and Oberoi hotels, Leopold Café, Nariman House and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the city's main railway hub.
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The United States is in the midst of numerous terror related issues such as:
· Five Americans held in Pakistan
· Chicago Businessman charged with planning the attacks in Mumbai
· Denver man charged with terror plot
· American Somali Terrorist Connections
· Radicalized Americans such as the Fort Hood attacker
· And the possibility of Guantanamo detainees being brought to the United States
It is now more than ever that homeland security professionals at the local level must be armed with the skills and knowledge to protect us.
SSI has courses already scheduled in 2010 to provide this knowledge:
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Pakistan blocks deportation of 5 Americans
From Samson Desta and Nasir Habib
A court order issued Monday blocks five Americans arrested in Pakistan last week from being deported or being handed over to the FBI, officials said. 
"All the government functionaries, including federal government or provincial governments are directed not to hand over the alleged detainees [Americans] to any American agencies, or any other foreign agencies," the order said, according to Faisal Zaman, attorney for the government of Pakistan's Punjab province.
The five were arrested Wednesday amid suspicion that they were plotting terrorist attacks. They were transferred Saturday from Sargodha, a small town where they were seized, to a more secure location in Lahore, police said.
The court order was a response to a petition from Khalid Khawaja, a former Pakistani intelligence official and founder of an organization called Defense of Human Rights of Pakistan. Under Pakistani law, any citizen can file a petition with a court.
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U.S. DNA suppliers warned against bioterrorism threat
From UPI
U.S. businesses that trade in DNA have been warned to stay on guard against abuses leading to bioterrorism.
The Department of Health and Human Services issued guidelines for the trade in customized DNA sequencing that, if abused, can lead to bioterrorism, with unforeseeable consequences. 
DNA sequencing refers to methods used by scientists to determine the order of the nucleotide bases in a DNA molecule. Manipulation of the DNA sequences is usually fraught with risks and can be the stuff of nightmare scenarios, with large population clusters exposed to bioterrorist attack.
The correct sequence of nucleotide bases -- adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine -- in a molecule of DNA is critical to the safety of the trade, which is part of research requirements by the scientific community.
In recent months, analysts have expressed concern that DNA sequences can be abused to terrorize and harm entire populations without so much as a bang.
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Bio espionage: New threat to U.S. economy
In January, DHS warned of an increased cyber attack threat by activists/hacktivists and extremist groups; these groups are known to target life sciences and biotech companies; life sciences sector, pharmaceutical sector, and biotech sector are areas where we should expect information security challenges to increase exponentially for the foreseeable future.
Biotechnology is one of the fastest growing new sectors in the U.S. economy. Billions of dollars have been poured into biotech research and these investments will continue. The product of biotech research is information that is turned into products, treatments, and insights that drive value and revenues.
Kevin G. Coleman, a certified management consultant and strategic adviser with the Technolytics Institute, writes that this massive investment is at risk. International espionage activities have targeted the biotech industry with their eyes on data from later stages of research.
Security experts estimate that theft of intellectual property from U.S. companies exceeds $200 billion a year. The figure could be significantly higher, though, since most organization do not publicly disclose security breaches that result in the theft of research data or other sensitive information. "A comprehensive data breach analysis and report, based on a four-year history of data breaches in the U.S., suggests that incidents may be under-reported by a factor of 100 times," Coleman writes.
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Crime scene measurements can be taken from a single image
Two researchers from the University of Salamanca have developed a procedure to enable forensic police to extract metric data from crime scenes using just a single photograph. Their proposal, published this month in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, makes it possible to reconstruct a crime scene in 3D. 
"We have studied an unprecedented and original line of research in the field of criminology and forensic engineering, which makes it possible to derive metric data from a single image", Diego González-Aguilera, co-author of the study and a researcher in the Department of Cartography and Soil Engineering at the University of Salamanca (in the University's Ávila offices), tells SINC.
González-Aguilera and his colleague Javier Gómez-Lahoz have recently published a study in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, which offers "a novel approach for documenting, analysing and visualizing crime scenes".
The process starts by capturing an image that must include easily-identifiable details and at least three vanishing points (the convergence point of straight lines projected in one direction) as well as at least one distance in the scene. These data are used to extract the structural components or most important objects in the image "automatically and robustly".
The researchers also calibrate the camera to be able to determine both the internal (focal distance, main point and radial distortion) and external (lens turns and lens viewpoints) parameters.
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TSA launches review after online release of screening procedures by Mike Ahlers
The Transportation Security Administration Tuesday said it is launching a "full review" of an incident in which the agency posted on the Internet a sensitive manual outlining screening procedures for law enforcement officers, diplomats, prisoners, federal air marshals and others. 
In a statement Tuesday night, the TSA sought to minimize the impact of the unintentional release -- calling the document "outdated," "unclassified" and unimplemented -- while saying that it took the incident "very seriously," and "took swift action" when it was discovered.
Congressional critics, meanwhile, lambasted the agency and called for an independent investigation.
"Undoubtedly, this raises potential security concerns across our transportation system," House Homeland Security Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, wrote in a letter to TSA Acting Administrator Gale Rossides.
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May 10-12, 2010
Hosted by MBTA (Quincy, MA)
In a fascinating, insightful and packed three-day program, you are taken through the formative phases of the Islamic religion and will understand the different branches of Islam, understand how these were formed and on what ideology they are based. You are taken through a journey up to the present time, to really understand how  extremism is organized in Radical Islam. You will also get practical hands-on information on recognizing Suicide Bombers, planning and changing protocols to respond to acts of terror, the detection of terrorists through fake ID's and the basics of their tools such as IED and VBIED's.
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Group proposes economic incentives to improve cybersecurity by William Jackson
Cybersecurity is fundamentally an economic rather than a technical issue, and government needs to address it by providing economic incentives to the private sector rather than issuing regulatory mandates, an industry trade association says in a report released today. 
"We will never have a sustainable system of cybersecurity until we change the economic equation that governs it," said Ty Sagalow, chief innovation officer of Zurich North America and chairman of the Internet Security Alliance.
ISA today released the report on implementing elements of the Obama administration's cybersecurity strategy, advocating a model of public-private partnership that was successful in establishing universal electrical and telephone service in the early 20th century. By providing incentives for cybersecurity investments, the government can help level the playing field in which cyber attackers now have all the advantages, ISA said.
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Tel Aviv, Israel - May 7-15th, 2010
A brand new program, global expertise and global best practices.
Security Solutions International, SSI, is proud to announce that our CEO and Global Counter Terrorism Operations Director, Sol Bradman, is taking over our Training in Israel Mission, with an exciting new program, locations and experts.
Join the more than 300 Homeland Security Professionals that have selected SSI's training in Israel program over 15 missions from 2005 to 2009 (making it the most successful program for overseas training in Homeland Security) on an exciting advanced workshop and get the benefit of featured International speakers.
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FBI to probe panels that reviewed e-mails from alleged Fort Hood gunman
by Carrie Johnson
FBI leaders announced Tuesday that they are launching an independent investigation into the policies and actions of two bureau task forces that reviewed e-mails from the alleged Fort Hood shooter in the months before the Nov. 5 massacre at the Army base. 
The inquiry will be headed by William H. Webster, who served as director of both the FBI and the CIA in the 1980s. He will have free rein to probe whether there were lapses in sharing information about Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan within the FBI and between that agency and the military. Hasan, a military psychiatrist, has been charged with murder and attempted murder in the deaths of 13 people and the wounding of nearly three dozen others at the base in Texas last month.
The action by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III is the first significant signal since the attack that the bureau is concerned about its own actions. The Defense Department had already launched such an inquiry, led by former military officials.
Hasan exchanged as many as 18 e-mail messages with radical Yemeni American cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi between December 2008 and May 2009. But a joint terrorism task force analyst determined that the correspondence was innocent and in keeping with the doctor's research into religious conflicts among some Muslims in the military.
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Colleges prepare for 'the when, not the if'
By Leischen Stelter
In an emergency, the last thing security professionals want to be wondering is who they should contact and what resources are available. For example, during the deadly shooting incident at Wesleyan University this May, the college contacted surrounding universities for assistance, but because there was no pre-established policy in place for sharing resources, it was difficult for other colleges to effectively respond, said April Vournelis, campus security executive director for the University of Bridgeport. "When they reached out for help from surrounding colleges, we all definitely wanted to help, but it became a matter of who's going to pay for this and do this?" said Vournelis. After the incident, "we started thinking this isn't good. If we put something in place ahead of time, money doesn't become the issue of who is paying for what," she said. 
In an effort to prevent that type of situation from happening again, and continuing an emerging trend of university-security collaboration, four Connecticut schools have come together in a proactive effort to maximize their resources during an emergency: The University of Bridgeport, St. Vincent's College, Fairfield University and Sacred Heart University on Nov. 9 signed a memorandum of understanding to provide each other with everything from manpower and information technology to food and student housing during an emergency. Vournelis said this agreement is designed to prepare each university for the "when not the if" of a campus incident.
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Lawsuit seeks information on federal surveillance of social networking sites
By Jaikumar Vijayan
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the University of California, Berkeley's Samuelson Clinic have filed a lawsuit (PDF document) against six government agencies, seeking information on their use of social networking sites for data collection and surveillance. 
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It invoked the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in seeking information from the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Department of Treasury, Central Intelligence Agency, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Shane Witnov, a law student at UC Berkeley School of Law's Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic said the lawsuit was prompted by the need for more transparency around the government's use of social networking sites for information gathering purposes.
"Social networking Web sites can be invaluable sources of information. There is a wealth of information on there that can be really useful in crime protection," he said. At the same time, an unchecked ability to gather information from such sites could be invasive of privacy, he said.
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Sincerely, Security Solutions International | |
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For further information:
Security Solutions International,
13155 SW 134th Street STE 204,
Miami, FL 33186
866-573-3999 Office, 866-573-2090 Fax
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