|
| |
|
February Mid-Month 2010 |
|
|
| |
|
Your Bi-monthly Homeland Security News Source
|
|
| |
Take the Readership Survey and receive a FREE link to the Feb/Mar eZINE!
CLICK HERE!
|
Sponsors:
Select SSI Courses approved for Academic Credit through Saint Leo University:
Global Security Workshop
Now Available: The Counter Terrorist eZINE! CLICK HERE!
Subscribe to The Counter Terrorist
|
|
|
|
|
The United States is in the midst of numerous terror related issues such as:
- Christmas Day Underwear Bombing
- 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:
|
Kerry: India-Pakistan Talks Must Go On
by Paul Beckett, The Wall Street Journal
The weekend bomb blast in Pune shouldn't derail the resumption of diplomatic talks between India and Pakistan but should be the first item on the agenda if India finds a Pakistani link to the fatal attack, said U.S. Sen. John Kerry.
In an interview here, Sen. Kerry, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the  "greatest mistake" in responding to another terror strike that emanated from Pakistan would be for the two sides to give those responsible what they seek to achieve: the subversion of democracy and the rule of law.
"The right thing is to talk; you lose nothing by talking," Sen. Kerry (D., Mass.) said while on a visit to the Indian capital en route to Islamabad. If India finds a Pakistani link to the Pune attack, "I hope India will have that conversation with Pakistan and, if they have evidence to that effect, that should be the first thing on the table and Pakistan has to deal with it," he added.
Saturday evening's bomb blast in a German bakery in the western Indian city of Pune, which killed nine and injured 38, served as a pointed reminder of the imminent danger of terrorism in India despite the government's efforts since the November 2008 Mumbai attacks to beef up national security and to persuade Pakistan to clamp down on terrorist organizations that operate from its soil.
|
|
|
Terror reviews avoid word 'Islamist'
Two new documents laying out the Obama administration's defense and homeland security strategy over the next four years describe the nation's terrorist enemies in a number of ways but fail to mention the words Islam, Islamic or Islamist.
The 108-page Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, made public last week by the Department of  Homeland Security, uses the term "terrorist" a total of 66 times, "al Qaeda" five times and "violent extremism" or "extremist" 14 times. It calls on the U.S. government to "actively engage communities across the United States" to "stop the spread of violent extremism."
Yet in describing terrorist threats against the United States and the ideology that motivates terrorists, the review - like its sister document from the Pentagon, the Quadrennial Defense Review - does not use the words "Islam," "Islamic" or "Islamist" a single time.
Although the homeland security official in charge of developing the review insists it was a not a deliberate decision, the document is likely to reignite a debate over terminology in the U.S.-led war against al Qaeda that has been simmering through two administrations.
"There was not an active choice" to avoid using terms derivative of Islam, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Policy David Heyman told reporters on a conference call. President Obama had "made it clear as we are looking at counterterrorism that our principal focus is al Qaeda and global violent extremism, and that is the terminology and language that has been articulated" by Mr. Obama and his advisers, Mr. Heyman added. He declined to use the I-word.
|
Naples, Marco and Collier law enforcement officials announce participation in database sharing
by Ryan Mills
Using a pair of bolt cutters, the thief cut a lock off the North Naples trailer door in May 2009, tossed the lock in the grass and walked away with more than $6,000 in commercial paint spraying equipment.
There was no surveillance video, and little evidence for Collier County Sheriff's Office investigators to go on.
However, using a data sharing tool called FINDER - the Florida Integrated Network for Data Exchange and Retrieval - detectives learned that the machine had, in fact, been pawned at a shop in Manatee County, where authorities tracked down a suspect and made an arrest. Without the database, it's doubtful that Collier authorities would have ever made the link to Manatee County, Collier Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said.
On Thursday afternoon, Rambosk, Naples Police Chief Tom Weschler and Marco Island Chief Thom Carr announced in a joint press conference that their departments will be using that same technology to share information locally and statewide. The FINDER database will allow the departments to share booking reports, citations, field interviews, and pawn information until a regional "fusion center" is fully operational in the coming months.
|
Unique opportunity for SWAT team members who want to learn
how to conduct Counter Terrorism Operations
________________
Camp Blanding, FL - February 22-26, 2009 SPACE LIMITED - CALL NOW!
(NOW A FIVE DAY PROGRAM!)
The scope of this training is to teach SWAT team members how to conduct an operation with the special characteristics peculiar to terrorist incidents and accomplish the mission, whether there are hostages involved, IED's, booby traps, or suicide terrorists with maximum safety for: citizens, team members and surrounding assets.
For more information on hosting an SSI SWAT CTU OPS Course for your agency, please contact Sol Bradman at (305) 302-2790.
|
|
|
|
|
$57.7-million fence added to an already grueling illegal immigration route
by Richard Marosi
Reporting from San Diego - The border barrier dips and curves, zigs and zags, hugging the mountain's contours like a slimmed-down version of the Great Wall of China.
Among the costliest stretch of fencing ever built on the U.S.-Mexico border, the 3.6-mile wall of steel completed last fall is meant to block trafficking routes over Otay Mountain, just east of San Diego. 
People seeking to enter the country illegally have hiked the scrub-covered, tarantula-infested peak for years, trying to get to roads leading to San Diego.
"We're no longer conceding this area to smugglers," said Jerome C. Conlin, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman.
But critics are bewildered. Why, they ask, would people determined to scale a rugged, 3,500-foot peak be deterred by an 18-foot-high fence? They also point out that the Department of Homeland Security deemed it unnecessary in 2006.
The $57.7-million project is one segment in the massive expansion of border infrastructure approved by Congress during George W. Bush's presidency. Homeland Security has erected fencing in small towns, remote valleys and high-desert mesas from the Pacific Ocean to Texas.
|
Anti-Olympic Protests Turn Violent in Vancouver
By Phred Dvorak
Anti-Olympic protests turned violent here Saturday, as demonstrators smashed windows, overturned newspaper boxes and spray-painted buildings and cars downtown.
Vancouver police said that about 100 masked protesters marched through the city Saturday morning, kicking cars, ripping down signs and vandalizing buildings. The masked protestors, who the police say were intermingled with a few hundred other "legitimate" demonstrators, smashed windows of the Hudson Bay Company's flagship downtown store. Down the street, they tossed a newspaper box through the window of a Toronto-Dominion Bank.
Vancouver police said they called on the help of Olympic security forces to stop the vandalism, and had dispersed the demonstrators and arrested several by midday.
The violence came on the first full day of Vancouver's Olympic Games, which have been accused by activist groups of everything from civil liberties violations to destroying the environment. Saturday's protests underscored the difficulties police here face in trying to handle the large and varied group of activists who've gathered to protest various aspects of the Olympics. They include the Council of Canadians, the country's largest citizens' group, which promotes progressive policies on such issues as fair trade and public health care. Vancouver police said Saturday's demonstrators included members of a violent anarchist group. Some of those demonstrators taunted and spat at officers, in what seemed to be a deliberate attempt to provoke trouble, the police said in a statement.
|
|
|
US hikers' mothers ask to visit Iran
from BBC
The mothers of three US hikers who are being held in Tehran for crossing into Iran illegally want to travel to the country to meet the president. Cindy Hickey, Norah Shourd and Laura Fattal have written a letter to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In it, they say they would be honoured to tell him in person why their children "do not deserve to continue to be held in detention".
The three hikers have been held for more than 200 days in Evin prison. Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were seized by Iranian border guards on 31 July 2009 near the town of Marivan. They have been accused of spying and illegal entry.
'Lost travellers'
 But their families say they crossed the border into Iran accidentally while hiking in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region. Their mothers said the three friends had not been allowed to make any phone calls or to write letters. "For more than three months, we have no independent information about our children's health or their state of mind," they wrote in the letter released on Monday. "We cannot explain why for more than six months, Iran has not found it in its heart to demonstrate magnanimity toward our children - young travellers whose only mistake appears to have been to lose their way on a hiking vacation," the letter said.
In an interview with Iranian state TV at the beginning of February, President Ahmadinejad said there were ongoing negotiations about a possible prisoner swap in exchange for several Iranians jailed in the US. But US National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said the US had not entered "into any discussion with Iran about an exchange".
The letter by the three mothers ends with a personal appeal to Mr Ahmadinejad in his role as a father: "You too are a parent, Mr President. "Surely you understand the depth of our distress, and the hopelessness we feel after appealing to you time and again to show our children the compassion they deserve, irrespective of their land of birth."
|
|
|
|
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.
|
US, Afghan Troops Battle Snipers in Marjah Offensive
from The Wall Street Journal
Sporadic resistance from Taliban snipers slowed U.S. Marines and Afghan troops as they fought for a third day to retake this insurgent enclave in the first major test of the U.S.-led troop surge in Afghanistan.
Meantime, the U.S.-led coalition said Monday an airstrike against suspected insurgents killed five civilians and wounded two others in an operation that is not part of the current offensive. The latest news of civilian deaths in neighboring Kandahar province comes after NATO confirmed that errant rockets killed 12 civilians in Marjah Sunday.
The massive offensive in the Marjah area of southern Helmand province pits about 15,000 U.S., Afghan and British troops against hundreds of Taliban fighters in the biggest joint operation since a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban leadership in 2001.
The Marjah area is one of the world's key opium trafficking hub. The Taliban draw much of their financial support from the international trade narcotics.
Coalition progress is being slowed by the need to clear Marjah of hundreds of mines and explosive booby traps left by the Taliban. Advancing even the length of a football field can take hours.
On Monday, Afghan Brig. Gen. Sher Mohammad Zazai said Afghan and NATO forces have largely contained the insurgents and succeeded in gaining trust from residents, who have pointed out mine locations.
"Today there is no major movement of the enemy. South of Marjah they are very weak. There has been low resistance. Soon we will have Marjah cleared of enemies,'' Gen. Zazai said at a briefing in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand province. He added that only three Afghan troops had been injured.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Xmas Bomb Attempt Prods Super Bowl Security Change
by Howard Fendrich
The massive, multimillion-dollar security operations for the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics are being adjusted in light of recent breaches such as the attempted Christmas Day bombing of an airliner and the White House gatecrashers.
Sports and government officials say such lapses - where individuals got past guards on the ground - are leading to increased screening efforts at major upcoming events, including the NFL championship game between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints in Miami next Sunday, and the Vancouver Games  starting Feb. 12.
Extensive ticket-checking procedures also are being implemented for soccer's World Cup, which begins June 11 in South Africa. Even entertainment awards shows are taking extra steps, like stricter monitoring of cars arriving at the Golden Globes Awards ceremony two weeks ago.
"We're very mindful of the world that we live in," the NFL's vice president of security, Milt Ahlerich, said in a telephone interview from Florida.
"We put our fate and our protection in the hands of that person on the front lines - those people that are protecting our gates - and being sure that someone who comes through doesn't have anything on them," Ahlerich said.
Part of the $6 million or so the NFL spends each year for Super Bowl security - on top of tax dollars spent by the government - has been devoted to what Ahlerich said were "several hours of extra training" for screeners by the Secret Service and the Transportation Security Administration. He wouldn't say whether any additional screening equipment was added in response to the failed Dec. 25 attack on a flight from the Netherlands to Detroit.
|
Homeland1.com is revolutionizing the way in which the homeland security community finds relevant news, identifies important training information, interacts with each other and researches product purchases. It is becoming the most comprehensive and trusted online destination for industry personnel and aspiring professionals alike.
|
|
Counter Terror Expo, the leading global event for counter terrorism and specialist security solutions for the public and private sector.
300+ exhibitors, 85 leading international conference speakers and 90+ free to attend workshops.
|
|
New Products from SSI: FloodSax and BlastSax
Exclusive Sole Source Distributor
 FloodSax enables everyone to prepare for flooding: from children or elderly and disabled people living alone, to giant corporations. With FloodSax, everyone can buy time to safeguard their properties from flooding without the need for outside help that may never come or arrive when it's too late!.
FloodSax semi-porous inner liners contain thousands of super absorbent non-toxic crystals that are bonded to cotton-wool which soak up water to 90% capacity in less than 3 minutes. Each FloodSax can hold up to 5.5 gallons of water (45 lbs.) for up to three months from a single activation. They act just like sandbags to keep floods at bay only WITHOUT the SAND because they use WATER as their volume and weight!
______________________________
Security Solutions International is proud to introduce BlastSax TMD (Transportable Mitigation Device). The patent pending BlastSax devices are engineered for the military, private industry and public safety to save lives in the field during wartime, training, industrial construction and homeland terrorist attacks. BlastSax are extremely lightweight, portable and always ready to deploy in seconds.
In addition to suppressing shock waves from an explosion, BlastSax can assist in containing the flash, smoke and most importantly the fragmentation or "frag". A unique feature that was engineered into BlastSax is its capability to "capture" and "cool" hot frag pieces to assist in forensic analysis for a more complete reconstruction of the device.
BlastSax can assist to:
- Reduce demand on resources
- Considerably reduce blasts
- Contain blast frag pieces and contaminants
- Save lives & protect property from blasts or flood water (see FloodSax)
Learn More...
|
|
Airport security is a tech-firm gold rush
Companies compete for government contracts to design and make new baggage-screening and body-scanning devices.
For airline passengers, the attempted Christmas Day attack and a directive by President Obama to pursue advanced screening technology will certainly mean added security procedures at airports.
So for high-tech companies in Southern California and elsewhere, the increased focus on airport security means new opportunities to land hefty government contracts.
Among those is Syagen Technology Inc., a Tustin company with 20 employees that has built an airport screening device that blows air on travelers and then analyzes the cast-off particles to detect explosives.
The Transportation Safety Administration shelved an older version of the device because of maintenance problems. But, company President Jack Syage said, the Christmas attack has renewed interest in the next generation of air-analyzing units.
"Everybody has started to talk about new technology at the airports," he said.
Other firms, including a small New York company that makes a shoe-scanning device and a Torrance venture that builds screeners to take full-body images of passengers, have shifted into high gear in recent weeks to meet the renewed security efforts.
And plenty of money is at stake.
The Obama administration set aside $1 billion last year in stimulus funds for new security technology for the TSA. About $700 million of that will be spent to improve baggage screening efforts, and $300 million is allocated for technology to detect explosives carried by passengers.
|
|
|
|
Join the author's of Muslim Mafia, Dave Gaubatz, at the central event in the First Responder calendar - SSI's 5th Annual Homeland Security Professionals Conference in Las Vegas, NV - October 25-29, 2010.
Dave son's, Chris Gaubatz, infiltrated CAIR's inner sanctum, and worked undercover as David Marshall, a converted and devoted follower of the Muslim religion. Chris discovers incredibly disturbing information: Which politicians are given money by CAIR. How Capitol Hill staffers are strategically placed by CAIR.
Participants will also have the opportunity to network with fellow professionals and over 10 experts in the field presenting on key topics, including Evolution of Mass Hostage Siege Tactics, Protecting Large Gatherings from Sporting Events to Casinos, The Attack in Mumbai India, Psychological Impact and Implications to the First Responder Community, among others. The Exhibit Hall will showcase the latest technologies to all participants. Systems, tools and equipments used to prepare and react to any incident will be on display and ready for testing on site.
|
|
|
McDonald's, Saks begin first install of HDCCTV
by L. Samuel Pfeifle
While thus far most talk of HDCCTV has been theoretical, a McDonald's franchise in Texas and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York are two of the first corporations to begin implementing the technology.
Tony Montes, director of physical security at Saks, who began testing the technology in December, said this system will provide an additional layer of security for the high-end retailer. "It's definitely something we want to use to supplement our existing system. It's not the cure all; it's a supplement for high security areas, predominantly the jewelry department, customer doors, anywhere we have very high end product. We sell $3,000 handbags. I want to have a very good picture of the guy who walks out with one of those."
Why not deploy an IP-megapixel solution?
"The problem with the IP world that we've found," Montes said, "is that you need everybody on board, the IT department included, and then you have to have the bandwidth available, and then a system to control all the variables out there. There might be 100 IP cameras out there, and a lot of them are pretty good, but you need a platform to manage them all." Montes isn't convinced yet there's a video management system that can handle all the IP cameras he would need for all the different applications.
"I think this is going to be the future," said Sonny Roberts, VP of sales at Gnisec, the systems integrator who has been doing these installations of HDCCTV equipment manufactured by SG Digital. "With IP, you've gotta get onto the network and put it throughout the building and not everybody has technicians who can do that. But they've got technicians who can plug in a camera and run wire."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sincerely,
Security Solutions International |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
For further information:
Security Solutions International,
13155 SW 134th Street STE 204,
Miami, FL 33186
866-573-3999 Office, 866-573-2090 Fax
|
| |
|
Home 
