Virus Sent To Sabotage Terror Watch List Computers

Colorado’s 9News reports federal prosecutors have charged a former Transportation Security Administration employee with attempting to sabotage terror watch list computers.

According to the report, Douglas Duchak, 46, of Colorado Springs, faces two charges of attempting to damage protected TSA computers.

Duchak pleaded not guilty and was released from custody.

The suspect allegedly tried to send a virus into the computer system’s servers, after learning he would be terminated, 9Wants to Know confirms.

The computer system includes the government’s no-fly list.

Duchak worked at the TSA’s Colorado Springs Operation Center where the government loads computers with data received from the federal government’s Terrorist Screening Database and the U.S. Marshal’s Service Warrant Information Network, according to a U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman.

Duchak worked at the Colorado Springs Operations Center from August 2004 to Oct. 23, 2009 as a data analyst.

via Read Full Article.

Former HHS Official Backs Home Kits for Biodefense

As the United States considers the best strategy for distributing medical countermeasures for use in the event of a bioterrorism incident, the government should look at providing citizens with their own “home medkits” of materials, a former Health and Human Services deputy secretary said in a report carried by the Washington Times.

“Medkits let individuals prepare themselves and their families for possible biological incidents — be they naturally occurring or man-made — and they reduce the burden on federal officials who have to distribute desperately needed medications to thousands if not millions of people in a very short time frame,” said Tevi Troy, who served at the health agency and other offices in the Bush administration.

The congressionally mandated Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism in January gave the federal government a failing grade for its efforts to prepare the nation for a biological weapons attack.

“As the Obama administration looks at options for improving its recent failing grade on rapid response to biological attacks, they should make sure to consider home medkits as part of their countermeasure distribution took kit,” Troy said.

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Terrorism or Criminal Act – The Debate Grows

When a man fueled by rage against the U.S. government and its tax code crashes his airplane into a building housing offices of the Internal Revenue Service, is it a criminal act or an act of terrorism?

For police in Austin, it’s a question tied to the potential for public alarm: The building set ablaze by Joseph Stack’s suicide flight was still burning Thursday afternoon when officials confidently stood before reporters and said the crash wasn’t terrorism.

But others, including those in the Muslim community, look at Stack’s actions and fail to understand how he differs from foreign perpetrators of political violence who are routinely labeled terrorists.

via Read Full Article.

Homeland Security Launches Public Engagement Website

Web tool will increase transparency, collaboration as part of Open Government Initiative

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced the launch of a new online public engagement tool designed to solicit input from the public on ways to enhance transparency, participation, collaboration and innovation at the Department—part of President Obama’s Open Government Directive.

“Creating an open, transparent, more efficient and effective government is one of our top priorities at the Department of Homeland Security,” said Secretary Napolitano. “This new online tool allows the public to play a major part in our Department-wide efforts to enhance openness and accessibility.”

The new online tool—available from Feb.6-March 19 at www.dhs.gov/open allows members of the public and interested stakeholders to submit ideas and suggestions on ways DHS can enhance transparency, participation, collaboration and innovation—while saving taxpayer money.

The ideas submitted will help guide the development of an official DHS Open Government plan.

On Dec. 8, 2009, President Obama issued the Open Government Directive to begin breaking down long-standing barriers between the federal government and the people it serves, and instructed agencies to take immediate, specific steps to open their doors and data to the American people. Agencies across the federal government will begin engaging the public through similar online tools this week.

For more information, visit www.dhs.gov/open

Lackawanna Six Suspect Jaber Elbaneh Held in Yemen

Federal officials say a man accused of helping recruit men known as the “Lackawanna Six” to train at an al-Qaida terrorist camp has been taken into custody again in his native Yemen.

U.S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter's office confirmed the development with Two On Your Side.

Jaber Elbaneh is being held and has asked for a lawyer to

defend him against charges he's faced in Western New York since 2002. Federal authorities accuse Elbaneh of recruiting the Lackawanna Six, and bringing them to an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in 2001.

Elbaneh was out of the county when authorities arrested the Lackawanna Six in September of 2002.

The 43-year-old Yemeni-American is on the FBI's list of

most-wanted terrorism suspects. He been held several times by

Yemeni officials since being charged in the U.S. The two countries don't have an extradition treaty.

“We would like to get him back here in the United States for prosecution,” said James Robertson, the Special Agent-in-Charge of Buffalo's F.B.I. Office. “He's on our top 28 Most Wanted Terrorists Lists. I think there's a five million dollar reward out for him. It's a matter of high interest to the United States Government.”

via wgrz.com | Buffalo, NY | Lackawanna Six Suspect Jaber Elbaneh Held in Yemen.

U.S. Cautions Citizens On Olympics Terror Threats

CTV reports that while there are no specific terror threats, the U.S. is advising American sports fans traveling to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics to watch out for al-Qaeda and other extremists, especially on transit and in restaurants, churches and other areas outside official venues.

Al-Qaeda’s demonstrated capability to carry out sophisticated attacks against sizable structures – such as ships, large office buildings, embassies and hotels – makes it one of the greatest potential threats to the Olympics,” the U.S. State Department said in a fact sheet on the Games posted on its website.

No specific credible threats have been identified, the U.S. government said. However, Americans planning to attend Olympic events or participate in large-scale public gatherings during the Winter Games should use caution and be alert to their surroundings, the advisory said.

Americans are advised to be especially alert when outside Olympic venues. “As security increases in and around Olympic venues, terrorists could shift their focus to more unprotected Olympic venues, open spaces, hotels, railway and other transportation systems, churches, restaurants and other sites not associated with the Olympics.”

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Terror Suspect’s Houston Ties Raise Questions

We haven’t seen too much about this anywhere else however this Houston Chronicle reports states Northwest Airlines flight 253 terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is no stranger to the US, apparently having visited Houston last year.

As some Houston leaders called on Sunday for measures to help guard against future terrorist attacks, others questioned why the Nigerian man charged with trying to destroy a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit spent time last year in Houston.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is believed to have traveled to Houston in 2008, but no details of the trip were available Sunday.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston declined to discuss any connection Abdulmutallab might have to the city, saying details of the investigation remain classified.

U.S. government officials did confirm that they are looking into his travel itinerary, but the FBI and other agencies refused to comment.

Terror suspect’s Houston ties raise questions

Inside The Fusion Center, Southern Nevada’s Counterterrorism Center

Open for more than two years, the Las Vegas “fusion” center is battling terrorism and street crime, a dual mission that has affected how local and federal law enforcement agents view each other and their jobs. Take a ‘behind the scenes’ look.

When a tip arrived about a threat of violence at a southern Nevada high school football game, a Clark County School District police officer helped plan a response.

When a Colorado man was arrested on terrorism charges, a Department of Homeland Security analyst probed whether he had Las Vegas ties.

Though the two cases are very different, the officials who worked them were in the same cubicle-filled room at the Southern Nevada Counterterrorism Center.

Open for more than two years, the Las Vegas “fusion” center is battling terrorism and street crime, a dual mission that has affected how local and federal law enforcement agents view each other and their jobs.

The fusion center concept, which was developed by the federal government after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is grounded in the idea that information flow between police agencies is the key to stopping terrorism.

In Las Vegas and elsewhere, the concept has evolved to include a broader “all crimes, all hazards” approach.

A sign that federal law enforcement has embraced this strategy came last month when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visited Las Vegas and praised the local fusion center as a national model.

The maturation of the facility coincides with Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons’ decision last month to fold the state’s Office of Homeland Security into the Nevada Division of Emergency Management.

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HUD and DHS Launch Disaster Recovery Website

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced the launch DisasterRecoveryWorkingGroup.gov—a new inter-agency website that will allow federal disaster recovery officials to solicit public comments from state, local and tribal partners and the public.

The new website will be used by the federal government’s newly-formed Long Term Disaster Recovery Working Group—co-chaired by Secretary Donovan and Secretary Napolitano—to allow stakeholders to submit ideas for disaster recovery; articulate objectives for recovery assistance going forward; identify examples of best practices; raise challenges and obstacles to success; and share thoughts, experiences and lessons learned.

“It is vital to our success that disaster recovery professionals and stakeholders provide their input as we move forward to improve disaster recovery efforts across the country,” said Secretary Donovan. “This new website will give everyone involved in disaster recovery a voice in shaping how we respond, and then rebuild and revitalize communities in the wake of disaster.”

“Successful recovery relies on effective collaboration with partners from state, local and tribal governments and the private sector,” said Secretary Napolitano. “This new website will support the federal government’s efforts to enhance our nation’s resiliency in the face of emergencies by engaging directly with our stakeholders.”

Last month, President Obama asked Secretaries Napolitano and Donovan to co-chair the Long Term Disaster Recovery Working Group, comprised of more than 20 federal departments, agencies and offices, to ensure that individuals, communities and the nation’s economy can withstand and rapidly recover from disasters. In order to develop a better national strategy for an effective approach to long-term disaster recovery, the Working Group will:

* Provide operational guidance for Federal, State, Tribal and local authorities to provide for effective and unified disaster recovery. This includes defining roles and responsibilities, detailing recovery management and operational coordination, articulating communications strategies and establishing measurements for success;

* Review disaster recovery programs and the framework of disaster recovery, and identify gaps as well as overlapping and/or conflicting sources of authority for disaster recovery efforts;

* Examine areas for improved interagency planning and collaboration among federal agencies;

* Examine methods to build capacity within State, local and tribal governments as well as within the nonprofit, faith-based, and private sectors; both in recovery operations and in pre-disaster recovery planning; and

* Examine successful practices and lessons learned during previous disaster recovery efforts, with particular attention to catastrophic disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

In addition, Secretaries Donovan and Napolitano will provide the President with recommendations to improve long-term catastrophic disaster recovery and help develop a National Disaster Recovery Framework that will provide detailed operational guidance to recovery organizations under existing authorities.

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Terror-Related Arrest Began in Las Vegas

Last week we linked to a story on Fox News about a a Somali man on the U.S. government’s terrorist watch list who was stopped  outside Las Vegas along with four other men. The man was released because the officer had no legal authority to detain him. As we stated in the post, the story didn’t end there.Two days after the vehicle was pulled over outside Las Vegas, two of the passengers appeared at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in San Ysidro, Calif.

So is that the end of the story?  Apparently not.

The Channel 8 I-Team in Las Vegas has additional details as well as pdfs of a Criminal Complaint and Criminal Indictment

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Domestic Terror Threat Growing, Senate Committee Warns

There is an increasing threat of homegrown terror stemming from segments of a deeply isolated and alienated Somali-American community, a U.S. Senate committee hearing concluded Wednesday.

The hearing, conducted by the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee, focused on the attempted recruitment of young Somali-American men by al-Shabaab, “a violent and brutal extremist (Somali) group” with significant ties to al Qaeda, according to the U.S. State Department.

“Over the last two years, individuals from the Somali community in the United States, including American citizens, have left for Somalia to support and in some cases fight on behalf of al-Shabaab,” noted the committee’s chairman, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Connecticut.

Al-Shabaab — also known as the Mujahedeen Youth Movement — was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in March 2008.

The hearing highlighted the case of Shirwa Ahmed, a 27-year-old Somali-American who had been radicalized by al-Shabaab in his adopted home state of Minnesota before traveling to Somalia and blowing up himself and 29 others in October.

The idea that Ahmed was radicalized in the United States raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community. The incident — the first suicide bombing by a naturalized U.S. citizen — was the “most significant case of homegrown American terrorism recruiting based on violent Islamist ideology,” Lieberman said.

“The dangers brought to light by these revelations is clear: radicalized individuals trained in terrorist tactics and in possession of American passports can clearly pose a threat to the security of our country,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

via Domestic terror threat growing, Senate committee warns – CNN.com.

Founder Of Prison-based Terrorist Group Sentenced To 16 years

The founder of a prison-based terrorist group that targeted the U.S. government and supporters of Israel was sentenced Friday to 16 years in federal prison.

Kevin James, 32, who founded Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS, pleaded guilty in 2007 of plotting “to levy war against the United States through terrorism.”

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney described James as “the mastermind and architect of a terrorist conspiracy” to attack LAX, Army recruiting centers and the Israeli Consulate. Still, Carney said he believed James felt genuine remorse and had written him “the most powerful letter I’ve ever received” as a judge.

In the letter, portions of which the judge read aloud, James described his violent upbringing in Inglewood, harsh conditions he endured at the California Youth Authority and the horrors of prison, where James has spent much of his adult life.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory W. Staples, arguing for an 18-year prison term for James, said that when authorities stopped the conspirators, “they were gearing up and accelerating.” He said James’ group planned to stage attacks on political targets with the proceeds of gas station robberies, and the group’s writings contained calls to acquire remote-controlled bombs and silencer-equipped guns.

At New Folsom prison in 2004, James recruited fellow inmate Levar Washington, who was released that year and in turn recruited Gregory Patterson. When Torrance police focused on Washington and Patterson as suspects in a series of 2005 robberies, a search of their South Los Angeles apartment turned up the JIS manifesto and a list of potential targets of attack.

In James’ prison cell, authorities found a statement he had written to be distributed to the media in the aftermath of such an attack. It warned “sincere Muslims” to avoid supporters of Israel and promised more attacks intended “to defend and propagate traditional Islam in its purity.”

via Founder of prison-based terrorist group sentenced to 16 years – Los Angeles Times.

The Doomsday Memo – Administration Prepares For Worst-Case Terror Scenarios

“In the post-9/11 world, this isn’t just good manners, good government; it’s a national security responsibility,” said outgoing White House chief of staff Josh Bolton.

So this past week, outgoing Bolton and his Obama counterpart Rahm Emanuel took part in something that has never happened before: a mock homeland security exercise for top incoming and outgoing officials.

The premise: In the wake of train and bus bombings in London and Madrid, how would the U.S. government deal with bomb attacks simultaneously targeting transportation and other major systems in numerous American cities?

“We need to train, exercise, and execute as a team,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “And we built the process based on a lot of some of the tough lessons learned over the last few years that now works.”

But mock domestic attacks, such as one staged in Seattle last year to simulate how rescue workers would respond to a dirty nuclear bomb set off in an American city, are just part of the planning.

Memories of the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa have led the National Security Counsel to create a memo suggesting options for dealing with future attacks on U.S. facilities abroad – just one of about a dozen scenarios dealing with possible overseas crises that could impact the United States.

“As far as I know, this is the first time that policy contingency papers have been created,” NSC spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, adding that his boss, National Security Adviser Steven Hadley, came up with the idea.

via Source – CBS News.

Defusing Armageddon – Doomsday Detectives Battle Nuclear Terror

The U.S. government has developed a suite of technologies that would enable it to determine the origin of a nuclear weapon used in an attack against the United States, according to a forthcoming book on America’s nuclear detectives.

In the event of such an attack, U.S. officials believe they could determine where the fissile material used in the nuclear weapon originated, as well as who carried out the assault, intelligence historian Jeffrey T. Richelson writes in “Defusing Armageddon.”

“Not only can intelligence help prevent a nuclear terrorist attack, but also in the event one occurs, it may be able to identify the entity responsible and those who contributed, particularly by providing a bomb or components,” Richelson claims in the first book-length treatment of these counter-nuclear efforts, including the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST), America’s bomb hunters.

This is important, Richelson argues, because U.S. officials believe the most likely nuclear attack would involve an established nuclear power providing either a nuclear device or components to a terrorist group. Finding out which nuclear power provided these items to the terrorists would be key in crafting an appropriate U.S. response.

Source – msnbc.com.

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