Homeland Security

[Soldier4Christ]

Assisting Mexico

WND noted that in the press conference ending the third summit meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America Aug. 21 in Canada, President Bush affirmed the U.S. government was negotiating a package of military aid to assist Mexico in combating drug trafficking.

WND asked if USNORTHCOM would play a role in the aid package.

"We have a great partner relationship with the military in Mexico," Renuart responded. "Mexico is taking increasing advantage of some of our professional schooling opportunities."

Bush has indicated support for a package of aid to Mexico that could substantially improve the country's capacity to deal with narco-terrorists, identified by President Calderon as a serious strategic threat.

Reuart said the proposal is evolving as it progresses through Congress.

"I believe we would clearly have a principal role in coordinating with the Mexican military on the kinds of things that they would need in a package like we described," the general said.

"More importantly, we have to ask what kinds of training might be beneficial to Mexico," he added. "We would work with them to try to enable that through our existing IMET system and the like."

IMET, or the International Military Education & Training program, is a component of the Department of Defense that provides low-cost security training on a grant basis to friendly nation.

"Mexico is an interesting country in this regard," Reuart said, because it fuses under its military functions the U.S. separates into different agencies, such as Border Patrol, Customs, Drug Enforcement and Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.

"From our perspective, there is caution to insure that we don't trip across the border into those law enforcement areas," Renuart emphasized. "But again, I'll go back to this great interagency community that we have right here resident."

The general said he has the assistance of a group of about 16 lawyers, who examine decisions from 16 different angles.

"But, equally, our partner agencies know where they should take the lead and where we should take the lead," he said.

Presidential directive

WND asked Renuart about the role of USNORTHCOM under the National Security Presidential Directive 51 and the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20, which the president signed in May.

WND reported NSPD-51 and HSPD-20 appear to expand the president's emergency powers by allowing him to self-declare a national emergency and take over the management of all levels of government, including state, local, territorial and tribal.

"One important point, that is not so much a position, but a personal view, is that I think that for us, the military in NORTHCOM in particular, we should be careful not to engage in the legal-political questions in this regard," Renuart began.

"The key for us is do we have the authorities we need on any particular day to provide the support that the nation would ask of us," he continued. "Our involvement at USNORTHCOM would be at the specific direction of the secretary of defense, on orders from the president."

Regardless of how the issue settles, he said, "I know we have the authorities or can get the authorities to accomplish our mission."

WND also asked about the possibility that USNORTHCOM could become involved in border security issues, especially on the southern border with Mexico.

"Let me make two points on this," Renuart answered. "First, the avenues through which illicit traffic can travel make no distinction between money, weapons, narcotics, people or terrorists; so we have to assume that any of those avenues across the border could also be used by terrorists to travel through to gain access to the homeland."

All borders, he said – north, south, east, and west – pose challenges with regard to preventing individuals or small groups from crossing.

"So, we continue to work with our partners in Customs and Border Protection, and we partner with the National Guard in the various states," he said. "Both these agencies have an on-going counter-narcotics mission which gives me comfort in combating the narcotics trade."

USNORTHCOM would be involved if the mission were to combat the flow of any other dangerous people, such as terrorists, he explained.

"Working with the Coast Guard, especially in our ports and our naval approaches to the country, it's a huge, huge challenge, one we have to continue to work on," Renuart said.

"But, again, our partners are eager for us to participate, and we are very conscious of the constitutional limitations here, but we've created a pretty transparent relationship; so that if something pops up in our intelligence network that we think is not really our role, then the problem goes to the appropriate partner agency."

Renuart stressed that the partner agency relationships have built considerable confidence in the nation's ability to respond appropriately.

"Conversely, if one of our partner agencies has something that pops up in their assessment process that they think has a homeland defense impact, it comes straight to us," he said. "And so, we are working hard to preserve the confidence of our partner agencies, so they don't feel that we somehow compromise their ability to get the job done, but they feel we are value added, when needed."

[Soldier4Christ]

Military prepares to support states in terror attack 
National emergency exercises emphasize real-world experience

It was Day 3 of NORAD-USNORTHCOM's exercise, Vigilant Shield 08 and Top Officers 4, and the "reports" were coming in of the explosion of "dirty bombs" in Guam, at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix and at the Steel Bridge in Portland, Ore.

The Joint Interactive Agency Coordination Group staging the exercise to test the national response to the detonation of radiological dispersal devices was on duty.

"This is an exercise designed to look at the national response if we would have a terrorist attack," explained Michael B. Perini, director of public affairs at NORAD-USNORTHCOM. "The goal of the JIACG is to work out the coordination and processes we need as a nation to manage the terrorist emergency and to do that in a very realistic environment so if it happens for real.

"We want to avoid having to exchange business cards at the scene of the accident, as it were," Perini stressed.

The JIACG involves 40 or more "resident" agencies of the federal government that have assigned permanent representatives to the NORAD-USNORTHCOM headquarters at Peterson Air Force base in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Additionally, some 20 non-governmental partners, including private enterprise, are linked by computer and teleconference into the daily JIACG assessment meeting that convenes in the "battle cell" at 9:30 each morning during the exercise.

State and local government players in the field are linked into the daily JIACG assessment from the NORAD-USNORTHCOM headquarters, with resident players participating in person and remote players by communications with players in the field.

"This is all about relationship building," Perini stressed. "It's all about collaboration and coordination.

"A challenge for us here at NORAD-USNORTHCOM is that we are in support," Perini acknowledged. "So, we are doing everything we can to work at the local, state and federal levels to be able to show people that if they need certain talent, equipment or expertise, the military is there to help."

Michael Kucharek, current operations chief tasked with media relations and Web management in NORAD-USNORTHCOM public affairs, explained the history and context of the NORAD-USNORTHCOM mission that led to the simulation exercise.

"USNORTHCOM was created in the wake of 9/11," Kucharek began. "Obviously, there was before no combatant command responsible for defending the continental United States. Before then it was mostly law enforcement left to the states and U.S. Code Title 14 authority under the Coast Guard for maritime. The terrorist attack on 9/11 was the catalyst for U.S. Northern Command coming into existence."

Kucharek said USNORTHCOM has 'two basic missions: defense support of civil authorities defined by the National Response Plan on how we support that effort and then also homeland defense."

"Now what is homeland defense?" Kucharek asked. "It's preventing attacks before they would occur and to defeat any aggressions aimed at the United States. Our role is to support the state and local governments, to bring Department of Defense military resources to bear in a national emergency when the states and local governments need help."

The national exercises eventually will include all 50 states and the territories.

"This way, when something happens in a particular state, we have a better chance that everybody knows what their lanes of responsibility are in advance," he said.

"That way we at USNORTHCOM hope to avoid being the 800-pound guerilla coming in," Kucharek continued. "We want to avoid disrupting what the states and their emergency operations centers and emergency operations managers have to put in place to mitigate the emergency for the citizens of their states."

"Our goal is to ask, 'What is the unique capability that the Department of Defense Title 10 forces would offer, as opposed to something that the National Guard doesn't have?'" Kucharek said.

"So, we are building relationships at the state level, so they know what we're all about, what we can provide, what we can't provide, and what our intentions are," he continued. "We're available and leaning forward for the states when they request it, once we get approval from the secretary of defense."

A new National Response Framework, superseding the current National Response Plan, has been drafted and placed on the Department of Homeland Security website for comment.

Kucharek walked through how a Request for Assistance, or RFA, will work under the National Response Framework, all the way from first responders to the national level.

"In any emergency, the state local assets are the first response," he stressed. "What those resources are not sufficient, then there's a Request for Assistance that goes out from the state governor to the president that says, 'Hey, we need some help here. Can you help us out?'

"From there, the president would direct some kind of response from the Department of Defense," Kucharek explained. "Then a Department of Defense-approved mission assignment comes forward and from there we would deploy forces through our force providers to get assets on the ground."

"There's a formal process," Kucharek emphasized. "When an RFA comes in, a mission assignment is given, but only after being directed by the president or the secretary of defense."

Reality TV

Throughout the NORAD-USNORTHCOM simulation at Peterson Air Force Base, flat screen televisions broadcast simulated newscasts.

"We contracted with Forrest Sawyer who used to work for ABC," Perini explained.

"Throughout the exercise, we run our own news network, VNN, that covers the exercise in real time," he continued. "Sawyer's job is to act exactly like the national news networks would act. We cover the event from the scene, and VNN has a staff of reporters that grill the players as if this were a real world event."

While interviewing Perini and Kucharek, the VNN broadcast showed Sawyer grilling officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sawyer was asking tough questions, trying to get accurate assessments of the danger to the population in Phoenix and Portland of the radiation from the detonated dirty bombs.

At this point in the exercise, the JIACG assessment had determined that Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix would completely shut down, as would the Steel Bridge in Portland.

We asked Perini how success in the exercise was going to be measured.

"Success will be measured on the amount of cooperation and collaboration we are able to move forward based on the last exercise," Perini answered.

"If we see anything we can improve from the last exercise, then we take those 'lessons-observed' and make them 'lessons-learned' and I think that will be another measure of success for this exercise," he explained.

"I will tell you that, even three days into this exercise, folks are already seeing the value from Arizona and from Oregon as well as here, in terms of working the training aspects," Perini continued.

"We have a lot of new people in this exercise and now they are going to have one under their belt," he pointed out. "That is another measure of success, especially if we ever have to do this for real, because now these players will have experience."

Perini emphasized that the simulation is "not just a table-top exercise or a command post exercise." "We are actually moving real people, but not in large numbers, especially since this exercise has a top offices focus, but we are actually putting people on airplanes," he said.

"If we say we are going to move a unit, then we have gone to the point of actually identifying a unit, identifying them by name, because it helps to see if there is a gap and it helps us with the training."

Perini said the exercise gets to the point of identifying the kind of airplane, its call sign and how long it will take to arrive at its destination.

"That's our logistics folks doing that in detail," he said, "because really the exercise is all about being able to plan, and if we can do that now, then that is going to help us do it for real."

Perini pointed out there actually werepeople at Sky Harbor going through the exercise, and, in Oregon, "we actually have students playing high school students going through the exercise as if something had happened and they are not faced with having to recover."

"Portland play is very extensive," he said. "The governor of Oregon, secretary of homeland security Chertoff and our commander General Renuart will hold a real world press conference describing what's going on in Portland to communicate that to the citizens in that great state."

Kucharek said that finally, "We take from the exercise the lessons observed and then looking at where we need to take the scenario to others. Maybe we need to circle back and work through some of the gaps. But we design them so that they are very realistic and are designed to make the nation safer.

"The terrorist threat is for real and we have these exercises designed to help us meet that threat," he concluded. "These national exercises are very critical to us and we need to continue conducting them."

[Soldier4Christ]

 Securing malls against terror a delicate balance

While the U.S. government's terrorism warning system has a range of threat levels from low to severe, Marc Strich says his Woodfield Mall has only one: full alert.

"We raised our security level to the maximum after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and have never lowered them since," said the general manager of one of America's largest malls in this Chicago suburb. "We are constantly changing and upgrading what we do because security is crucial to our business."

A report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation made public on November 8 a warning that al Qaeda might be planning to strike shopping malls in Chicago and Los Angeles in the coming holiday shopping season in a bid to disrupt the U.S. economy.

Though the agency questioned the credibility of the threat, it was a reminder of the peril posed by the post-9/11 world.

Mall operators say the FBI warning was business as usual.

"High security is the norm today, "said David Keating, spokesman for General Growth Properties Inc, the second-largest U.S. mall operator.

Behind the scenes, however, the mall industry continues exploring new ways to meet the complex challenge it faces: protecting huge areas designed to be accessible to thousands of consumers without scaring them off.

"It's a logistical nightmare," said Micah Carlson, a project manager at the National Security Technology Department of John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory.

Carlson and his colleagues are working on a project to determine which sensors for biological, chemical and explosive agents can work in large indoor spaces like malls -- especially which sensors may be prone to false alarms.

"There are serious ramifications to pinning grandma down on the floor when she has just taken a nitroglycerin tablet," Carlson said. "It's really not good for business."

TOURIST DE-TRACTION?

Reluctant to drive customers away, the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) has also launched a training program for mall security guards to spot suspicious behavior using U.S. government-recommended techniques.

"The industry is doing all it can to provide a secure environment but not impede customers as they shop," said Malachy Kavanagh, ICSC vice president for communications. "Customers themselves can play a big role by being vigilant."

Woodfield Mall is a good example of the scale of the challenges facing the industry.

Owned by luxury mall operator Taubman Centers Inc, Woodfield mall is among the five biggest U.S. malls, covering some 2.7 million square feet, and is home to nearly 300 stores.

Strich said about 30 million people will visit Woodfield in 2007. It is the top tourist destination in Illinois, with 4 million visitors a year coming from more than 50 miles away.

As well as security guards, Woodfield has a surveillance system that Taubman, like other operators, keeps a closely guarded secret.

"We don't want to give anything away," Strich said.

Frank MacInnis, chief executive of commercial construction company Emcor Group Inc, said security systems for malls such as closed circuit television and "air sniffer" devices are a huge growth area for his company.

"No owner of a mall can afford to put enough feet on the ground to do the job alone," he said.

A problem for mall operators is that many options to ward off a potential terrorist attack - concrete barriers, manned scanners, bag searches - could drive away customers.

"Unless the perceived threat changed rapidly, then measures like these would have a negative psychological impact on customers and drive them away," said Tom LaTourette, a physical scientist at non-profit research group RAND Corporation. "Many of the options out there are also very expensive."

Ironically, the perceived threat would increase in the event of an actual attack, he added.

The ICSC has teamed with George Washington University and former emergency service officers to develop a training course for mall security guards using U.S. government advice.

Six-thousand security guards have taken the course, launched in May, and 500 more will take it by the end of the year.

"The course does not use profiling," ICSC's Kavanagh said, "but focuses on recognizing behavior patterns indicating someone is not in a mall for the purpose of the facility.

"Ultimately, however, experience has shown it is hard to take preventive measures against someone willing to sacrifice their own life to take others'," he said.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Senate passes terror insurance bill

The Senate voted Friday to extend for seven years a post-Sept. 11 law guaranteeing federal help for the insurance industry in the event of a catastrophic terrorist attack.
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The Senate measure, approved by voice vote, differs considerably from a House version passed in September, and the two chambers have until the end of the year, when the current Terrorism Risk Insurance Act expires, to work out their differences.

The program, known as TRIA, was created in 2002 after the private insurance market for developers collapsed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "Without this program, terrorism insurance will become unavailable or prohibitively expensive, construction projects would grind to a halt and Americans would lose jobs," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

The program, capped at $100 billion a year, pledges government assistance to help pay for losses from terrorism. The Senate bill retains the current threshold of $100 million for triggering federal aid. The House approach would lower the threshold to $50 million.

The House measure, passed 312-110, would extend the program for 15 years, rather than the seven years in the Senate bill. It specifies that nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological attacks will be covered.

The White House threatened to veto the House bill, saying the 15-year extension effectively makes TRIA permanent, increases the federal role in the private insurance market, and "expands the scope of coverage well beyond the point where it is needed."

Last month Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wrote leaders of the Senate Banking Committee repeating the administration position that TRIA should be phased out in favor of a private market for terrorism insurance. But he said the administration would not oppose the Senate version as long as it did not expand the current program.

Marc Racicot, president of the American Insurance Association, welcomed the Senate action Friday, saying the seven-year extension "will provide more stability and certainty in the market and will foster long-term investment and economic growth."

Racicot, former Montana governor and former chairman of the Republican National Committee and Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, said it was crucial that Congress reauthorize the program by the end of the year.

A final sticking point for the Senate was how to meet budget rules that require offsets for new spending. The Congressional Budget Office, while acknowledging that there is no accurate way to estimate damages from any future terrorist attacks, put the cost of the program at $3.4 billion over the next five years.

The Senate bill includes provisions to speed up recoupment payments that insurance companies must already make, up to a certain level, on federal aid. The House bill contains language requiring Congress to enact a resolution approving federal funds after a terrorist attack.

Presidential hopeful Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said he returned to Washington late Thursday night after the Democratic debate in Las Vegas to iron out the last Republican objections and pass the bill before the Senate leaves on a two-week Thanksgiving recess. He said he was "very confident" the House and Senate could reach a compromise before Congress adjourns at the end of the year.

The bill is H.R. 2761.

[Soldier4Christ]

GAO: Bomb Parts Snuck Past Airport Checks
Investigators Got Through Passenger Checkpoints With IED Components

CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports terrorists could slip past Transportation Security Administration screeners and, with a few readily available components, assemble an explosive that could cause severe damage to an airplane, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

The report, obtained exclusively by CBS News, details how GAO investigators conducted covert tests at 19 airports earlier this year to test the vulnerabilities of the passenger screening process. The investigators succeeded in passing through TSA checkpoints undetected with components for making improvised explosive devices (IED) and improvised incendiary devices (IID).

"Our tests clearly demonstrate that a terrorist group, using publicly available information and a few resources, could cause severe damage to an airplane and threaten the safety of passengers," the report states.

Investigators identified two devices a terrorist could use to cause such "severe damage." The first was an IED made up of a "liquid explosive and a low yield detonator." The second was an IID "created by combining commonly available products (one of which is a liquid) that TSA prohibits in carry-on luggage." The bomb parts were purchased over the Internet and from a local store for approximately $150, according to the report.

    Read The GAO's Aviation Security Report

The investigators demonstrated how it is possible to bring parts for these devices "through TSA checkpoints and onto airline flights without being challenged by transportation security officers," according to the report.

Specific details about the components and methods of concealment for these devices are classified, however the report states the components were concealed in carry-on luggage and on the bodies of investigators.

The report also details some of the interactions between TSA officers and the GAO investigators. On one occasion, a TSA officer did not allow an investigator to pass through with a small, unlabeled bottle of medical shampoo - a "legitimate toiletry item," according to the report. "However, a liquid component of the IID - despite being prohibited by TSA - was allowed to pass undetected through the checkpoint."

More precise technology, like so-called backscatter x-rays could eventually help screeners find hidden bomb parts, but that equipment is still being tested.

For, now the Transportation Security Administration is relying on 2,500 undercover tests every day to keep screeners on their toes.

"That means every checkpoint, every shift, everyday, every one of the four hundred fifty some airports that we have," says TSA Administrator Kip Hawley.

Still, the failures exposed by the GAO report underscore a long-held fear that a team of terrorists working together could easily beat the system.

"If you start to break up all the components over several different people, and you bring them in in different ways, on your person, in your carry-on luggage, how is a TSA screener supposed to put all those pieces together?" says CBS News security analyst Paul Kurtz.

[Soldier4Christ]

Pilot, Crew, TSA: Four Passengers Targeted Bathroom, Tampered with Mirror

On 24 October 2007, crewmembers aboard a Reagan-Washington National to Milwaukee General Mitchell International Airport flight reported to a Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) flying in non-mission status that they noticed suspicious behavior by four passengers.

One of the subjects entered and exited the rear aircraft lavatory three times and failed to comply with crewmembers' verbal instructions. The FFDO seated himself near this subject to observe his behavior. Shortly afterward, two more of the subjects moved into the aisles and entered both lavatories. After one of the subjects vacated the rear left lavatory, the FFDO searched it, noting that the mirror above the sink was not properly latched.

He exited the lavatory and a fourth subject was waiting second in line with a passenger in front of him. The FFDO offered the fourth subject access to the right lavatory, but the subject declined, claiming the right lavatory was dirty.The FFDO noted the right lavatory was clean, and the subject reluctantly entered the right lavatory and remained there for an extended period of time. (TSA/SD-10-3849-07)

(U//FOUO) TSA Office of Intelligence Comment: Although there is no information that the aircraft was being specifically targeted for a future terrorist attack, the actions of the four passengers are highly suspicious. FFDO confirmation of possible tampering of the lavatory mirror in one of the lavatories could be indicative of an attempt to locate concealment areas for smuggling criminal contraband or terrorist materials. In this case, it appears the left lavatory was the sole area of interest for the passengers. One subject's excuse that the right lavatory was dirty when it was confirmed to be clean shows the four passengers had a specific, operational objective. Although unconfirmed at this time, this incident has many of the elements of pre-operational terrorist planning....

[Soldier4Christ]

Tucson TV Station Broadcasts Arizona Fort Huachuca Terror Threat Report

KOLD News 13 Tucson is currently running a special report focused on a urgent FBI report outlining a possible terrorist threat in southern Arizona. It speaks specifically to Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista. The document gives no timetable or explanation of how the threat will be carried out. But it does say, “a group of Iraqis may have entered the United States through tunnels from Mexico into Arizona,” and those same “Iraqis are believed to be the ones who will perpetrate the attack on Fort Huachuca.

______________

Southern Arizona Security Alert

The Arizona-Mexico border is so much more than just an international line. Depending on who you are or where you're coming from, it's a passageway of hope, opportunity or asylum.

But since 9/11 the Arizona-Mexico border has become something more, a possible point of entry for the very people who hate us most.

KOLD News 13 asks, "As a member of our society, do you believe this is something people need to be aware of, need to be notified of?" Jack Gresham says, "I believe it is, I believe it is, yes."

KOLD News 13 is the only news outlet to obtain this FBI urgent report outlining a possible terrorist threat right here in southern Arizona. It speaks specifically to Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista.

The document gives no timetable or explanation of how the threat will be carried out. But does say, "a group of Iraqis may have entered the United States through tunnels from Mexico into Arizona," and those same "Iraqis are believed to be the ones who will perpetrate the attack on Fort Huachuca."

Lt. Colonel Matthew Garner of the United States Army says, "The military is always a target, I believe."

For security purposes, Lt. Col. Garner wouldn't tell us what's been done or what's being done to stop the threat. But he did say the U.S. Government takes this very seriously.

And that Fort Huachuca is fully aware and prepared for anything that comes its way.

Lt. Col. Garner says, "We operate within that knowing that we are always a target, and then we take all precautions necessary whether it's a general threat or a specific threat like the one you're talking about."

According to the report which cites sources and sub sources within the DEA, the Iraqis may currently be located on an "unidentified Indian reservation" in Arizona.

The Tohono O'odham nation is one possibility, with more than 2 and half million acres that start near Casa Grande and continue south all the way to the Mexico border.

William Bevill says, "The fact that it's somewhere closer to Tucson makes it more of a concern."

Audrey Gresham says, "Why didn't we know about this? It's pretty scary that they could be coming. It's like who else is coming?"

Gresham says, "It's pretty scary, pretty scary that they're using tunnels to come through, you know."

Opinions aside, not everyone views the report as an imminent threat.

One former Congressman, who asked not to be identified for this report, said the document seems "dubious" and "without merit." Not only that, it's dated May 14th, 2007.

That was six months ago.

And Fort Huachuca hasn't seen an attack yet.

Ashleen O'Gaea says, "The administration has given us a lot of convenient information before which has proved to be less than accurate."

O'Gaea says, "Whether that be honest misunderstanding or deliberate deceit is up for debate."

Still, what's most troubling about the report is the mere possibility - and nobody's disputing the fact this could happen.

Lending fuel to that possibility, the report says, is an arsenal of weapons already in the United States.

They include two Milan--surface to surface, anti-tank missiles; some Soviet made surface to air missiles; and an unspecified number of grenade launchers.

When we showed the report to Tucsonans, many of their reactions were the same. They were definitely concerned and disturbed about the possibility- but even more so by the idea. This may very well be taking place, and nobody brought it to their attention, until now.

"I don't know why we haven't heard about it sooner, according to Gresham.""It's pretty scary, our kids are here. This is where we live."

Bevill says, "If this is being kept confidential, something so close to here, I think this of more importance than what we're doing in Iraq. Seems like the kind of information that would benefit everybody here."

FBI officials wouldn't speak to us on camera, but said in a prepared statement: "The information in this report was disseminated to law enforcement and intelligence partners for situational awareness, even though it had not been completely evaluated."

They went on to say, "There is no information to state this is a credible threat. We remind people to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to their local authorities."

That, more than anything is what officials want people to remember.

Threats can and do exist and that's why reporting suspicious activity is so important. We all hope something like this never happens.

But if it does awareness and vigilance may be what's needed most in such a time of crisis.

[Soldier4Christ]

U.S. won't close Cheyenne Mountain defense center 
Development of new command posts has sparked rumors of Cold War bunker's demise

The commander of NORAD-USNORTHCOM says the Department of Defense will not close its command centers in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado.

Responding to a question from WND during an exercise simulating a terrorist attack, Gen. Gene Renuart answered without hesitation.

"No," he said. "There is no plan to close the command centers within Cheyenne Mountain."

"Cheyenne Mountain has been here for many years, built for a very specific purpose, a wonderfully hardened facility," Renuart added.

WND previously reported the development of command centers within the new headquarters building at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs has raised questions about the future of Cheyenne Mountain.

Since the height of the cold war, Americans have identified NORAD command facilities build deep within Cheyenne Mountain as the most secure military facilities in the U.S., built with the intention to survive even a nuclear attack, then envisioned from the Soviet Union.

In June, WND published an exclusive two-part interview with Col. Tom Muir, U.S. Army deputy operations officer for command center operations for NORAD and USNORTHCOM, detailing the distinctions between the NORAD command facilities housed in Cheyenne Mountain and the new NORAD-USNORTHCOM headquarters facilities at Peterson Air Force Base.

Renuart explained to WND that even before USNORTHCOM was created, the mission of homeland defense was not focused on a single command but spread over services and other agencies.

"As NORTHCOM stood up after 9/11, in October 2002 we became a coherent Department of Defense force for homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities," he said. "Clearly, this mission requires a command-and-control capability that is agile and up-to-date, built to handle the current threats and potential contingencies that we see."

Renuart explained that the mission of NORAD is interdependent with homeland defense, "because once you've warned, for instance, of a missile or air threat to the United States, in other words, once you've identified a principal NORAD mission, then you have to be able to do something about it, which becomes the NORTHCOM mission."

"Cheyenne Mountain is going to remain our primary command center for missile warning," he said. "But missile defense actually resides with NORTHCOM, because we have the response."

The plan then, is to bring NORAD and USNORTHCOM together "so that there is a seamless transparency between the warning, the air intercept that we do in our NORAD hat, and the response, all the way through consequence management."

If the threat is able to conduct its operation, he said, then "we have to be able to deal with a national emergency and that, once again, becomes a USNORTHCOM mission."

"So, the size of that entity combining NORAD and USNORTHCOM into a joint command facility and the ability to integrate it all is larger than the capacity that we have within Cheyenne Mountain," he explained.

"It is partly a physical space constraint," Renuart added. "Then we have here multiple agencies being wired together here in a modern Internet, telecommunications infrastructure that possibly may be better able to do from this new facility at the NORAD-USNORTHCOM building at Peterson Air Force Base."

Will Cheyenne Mountain become obsolete in the future?

"No," Renuart answered. "Cheyenne Mountain has a very important role for us because it also gives us the ability to have a hardened, protected operations center for those key instances where we may need that."

Cheyenne, he elaborated, doesn't have the "same size and muscle that we will have in our combined center here at the NORAD-USNORTHCOM headquarters. But we are also integrating some of those most critical functions in the homeland defense world up into the mountain. If the threat requires a hardened facility, and we need to go to Cheyenne Mountain, we will do so."

WND asked Renuart to address the security of the NORAD-USNORTHCOM headquarters building at Peterson Air Force Base.

"First, we work very closely with Peterson Air Force Base to make sure the physical security of the base is robust," he replied.

"We are taking some additional action in addition to the design of our operations center," he continued. "We are taking some additional actions to physically improve security to the key infrastructure on the base. The base has built new single-point entry inspection sites. We are becoming more robust in security patrols."

He emphasized that officials have the ability to go to the mountain and continue operations quickly.

"Or, if a nation-state becomes a threat like we used to face, and we can't rule that out right now, but if a nation-state does that, we do have an ability to maintain continuity of operation in a very high threat environment by continuing to modernize the mountain," he said. "We will continue to use the mountain to train our command post teams. We can do that in a wonderful facility there."

The mountain infrastructure also will be used for training, he said, along with becoming a contingency location, if that is required.

[Soldier4Christ]

Bush homeland security adviser resigns 
Fran Townsend had key role in formation of anti-terror strategy

Fran Townsend, the leading White House-based terrorism adviser who gave public updates on the extent of the threat to U.S. security, is stepping down after 4 1/2 years.

President Bush said in a statement Monday morning that Townsend, 45, "has ably guided the Homeland Security Council. She has played an integral role in the formation of the key strategies and policies my administration has used to combat terror and protect Americans."

Her departure continues an exodus of key Bush aides and confidants, with his two-term presidency in the final 15 months. Top aide Karl Rove, along with press secretary Tony Snow and senior presidential adviser Dan Bartlett, left earlier this year.

Bush in his statement early Monday noted that Townsend had served in the position for more than 4 1/2 years.

"Fran always has provided wise counsel on how best to protect the American people from the threat of terrorism," the president said. "She has been a steady leader in the effort to prevent and disrupt attacks and to better respond to natural disasters."

Townsend, who at one point had figured in speculation as to who would head the then-new Department of Homeland Security, was a familiar face, often appearing to argue the administration's position on morning news and Sunday interview shows.

When Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold called on Bush to refrain from using the phrase "Islamic fascists" on grounds it was offensive to Muslims, Townsend explained the president's use of the phrase.

"What the president was trying to capture was this idea of using violence to achieve ideological ends—and that's wrong," Townsend said at a news conference. "Regardless of what label you pin on it, it is this form of radical extremism that really wants to deny people freedom and impose a totalitarian vision of society on everyone, that we object to."

She had a high profile in the administration's recent response to the devastating wild fires in California, defending the White House reaction to the disaster as going "exactly the way it should be" and assuring Californians the federal response would be "better and faster" than its performance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's strike against the Gulf Coast states in 2005.

"This is not the end of federal assistance. It's just the beginning," Townsend said in connection with the wild fires.

Bush noted in his statement that Townsend prosecuted violent crimes, narcotics offenses, Mafia cases and white-collar fraud as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y. and as an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan.

No reason was cited for Townsend's departure, and there was no word on a successor.

Bush has seen a substantial revamping of the lineup of players on the team he brought to Washington as the just-elected president in a disputed election with Democrat Al Gore in 2000.

He saw longtime friend, aide and confidant Alberto Gonzales resign earlier this fall in the face of a convulsive uproar on Capitol Hill over the dismissals of a slew of federal prosecutors and in connection with the administration's warrantless wiretap program. And Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld resigned just after the time of the 2006 elections in which Democrats, harping on a get-out-of-Iraq theme, regained control of Congress.

[Soldier4Christ]

Marine officer has Hezbollah ties 
Illegal immigrant faked marriage to get U.S. citizenship


A NEW 'JIHAD JANE'
SHE'S MARINE OFFICER

The illegal immigrant with Hezbollah ties who faked a marriage to get U.S. citizenship, and then landed jobs as a top-level federal agent, has a former sister-in-law who pulled the same scam and is now a Marine officer, The Post has learned.

Commissioned Officer Samar Khalil Nabbou Spinelli married the brother of the sham first husband of disgraced former FBI and covert-ops CIA agent Nada Prouty, according to a tangled trail of public records.

The Lebanese women, who came to the United States on nonimmigrant visas, wed Michigan brothers Christopher and Jean Paul Deladurantaye in 1990, records show.

Prouty, who pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy and immigration-fraud charges, admitted in Detroit federal court that she never lived with or consummated her relationship with Chris Deladurantaye, and married him just to obtain citizenship.

A source close to the brothers told The Post both men agreed to the deal.

Spinelli and Prouty lived with Prouty's sister, Elfat El Aouar, during the time they claimed to be married, while their husbands lived elsewhere, according to public records.

Records show once their naturalization was finalized, the women filed for divorce - and went on to federal jobs.

Prouty later married Gordon Prouty.

Spinelli enlisted in the Marine in 1990 and rose to the rank of commissioned officer, which required US citizenship.

Nada Prouty used Spinelli, who is now remarried to a Marine, as a reference when she applied for an FBI job in 1997.

In court last week, Nada Prouty, who had been indicted earlier in the month, admitted she duped the FBI and CIA with her ill-gotten citizenship papers.

Spinelli - along with Nada Prouty's sister and her Hezbollah-connected husband, Talil Kahil Chahine - was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the feds' case against Nada Prouty.

She's the only named co-conspirator who is a military officer.

As part of her plea, Nada Prouty admitted she conspired with the others to defraud the government of the "valuable benefits of citizenship," including government jobs, security clearances and "U.S. military commissions."

Newsweek reported that as part of her plea, she'll have to answer questions about her sister and brother-in-law while wired to a lie-detector machine.

Spinelli, now stationed in Japan, could not be reached for comment.

A Marine spokesman did not respond to a detailed request for comment.

[Soldier4Christ]

Is U.S. gov't infested with terrorist moles?
Intelligence official: 'FBI might as well put out a sign – Double agents wanted'


Thanks to lax background checks, even after 9/11, the Hezbollah spy who managed to obtain sensitive jobs at the FBI and CIA is not the first terrorist supporter to infiltrate the U.S. government.

An alleged al-Qaida operative also infiltrated the Environmental Protection Agency, according to federal investigators and court documents obtained by WND.

The case, details of which are revealed here for the first time, involves Waheeda Tehseen, a Pakistani national who obtained a sensitive position with the EPA in Washington as a toxicologist even though she was not a U.S. citizen.

Like the Lebanese national suspected of passing secrets to Hezbollah, Tehseen lied about her citizenship on her government application, a falsehood that the government failed – in both cases – to catch in its security background investigation.

In hiring Tehseen in 1998, the EPA also missed another red flag in her file – her husband's ties to Pakistani intelligence, which has a long history of clandestine support for both the Taliban and al-Qaida. Her husband served as a major in the Pakistani military specializing in intelligence.

FBI investigators say that while Tehseen had access to classified information as a toxicologist, she and her husband ran a charitable front for Osama bin Laden's inner circle in Peshawar, Pakistan. She even got colleagues to donate to the front – called Help Orphans and Widows, or HOW – which, among other things, operated an orphanage and madrassa for more than 200 boys on the Pakistani-Afghan border.

Investigators say Tehseen, a "very devout" Muslim who wears a hijab, was really acting as a conduit for money funneled to bin Laden from the Missouri-based Islamic American Relief Agency, which the Treasury Department has blacklisted for helping fund bin Laden's operations overseas. Treasury has frozen IARA's assets, and the FBI has conducted raids on its offices.

Investigators also suspect the building she used for the orphanage doubled as a safehouse for al-Qaida.

"She had big-time contacts with al-Qaida, including with people just once removed from bin Laden himself," said an FBI special agent familiar with the case.

The EPA bought Tehseen's story that HOW was a legitimate charity. In 2002, her supervisors even presented her with the agency's "Unsung Hero Award" to honor her charitable work, court records show.

The certificate, a copy of which was obtained by WND, reads: "For providing care, funds and needed articles through your own resources and contacts to isolated refugee camps often not reached by international aid groups."

On top of her $90,000 salary, the agency awarded her six cash bonuses.

"She even got the EPA to pay for her many trips to Pakistan, claiming she was visiting sick relatives or orphans," the FBI agent told WND. "It was a pack of lies."

In 2004, federal agents arrested Tehseen as she was preparing to board a flight to Pakistan on behalf of her charity. They raided her half-million-dollar home in a leafy subdivision in Fairfax, Va. – located not far from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' home – where they executed a search warrant for all documents and other items related to her charity.

Tehseen later pleaded guilty to federal charges of fraud, and was deported to Pakistan. Sources say her husband is now working for the Pakistani government in Islamabad.

It's not clear if Tehseen, 49, stole classified information for al-Qaida, but investigators suspect espionage is probable, as she produced highly sensitive health-hazard documents for toxic compounds and chemical pesticides. Tehseen also was an expert in parasitology as it relates to public water systems, a terror target of al-Qaida.

"She's a classic example of an al-Qaida sympathizer who infiltrated our government and our society, and worked and lived among us for years and years, and even started a family here," the agent said of Tehseen, who had a fourth child while living in America for 17 years.

Former WND Washington bureau chief Paul Sperry was the first journalist to expose the threat of Islamist espionage in his bestselling 2005 book, "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington."

Quoting FBI officials who have worked counterterrorism and counterespionage cases in the D.C. area, Sperry warned that terror-support groups posing as Islamic charities, think tanks and other nonprofits have conspired to run infiltration operations against the U.S. government to collect intelligence.

Yet it wasn't until October 2004, according to Sperry, that the Justice Department convened a high-level meeting to discuss the possibility of infiltration from Muslim NGOs, or nongovernmental organizations.

Secret Islamist spy plan

He cites a document, seized by federal agents and translated from Arabic, that reveals a secret plan to spy on U.S. agencies.

"Our presence in North America gives us a unique opportunity to monitor, explore and follow up," it states. "We should be able to infiltrate the sensitive intelligence agencies or the embassies in order to collect information."

Shockingly, the U.S. security agencies they've targeted for infiltration have not made it very hard for them.

John M. Cole, who in 2004 retired from the FBI as program manager for foreign intelligence investigations covering Pakistan and Afghanistan, says he observed serious security lapses involving the screening and hiring of Arabic and other translators at the bureau.

"We have serious problems with the hiring of language specialists," he told Sperry. "Background investigations are not being conducted properly, and we're giving people TS/SCI (top secret/sensitive compartmented information) clearance who shouldn't have it."

He says at least a dozen translators still on the job have major "red flags" in their files. "And we have espionage cases because of it," Cole claimed.

One such red flag popped up in the file of an FBI translator hired after 9/11, who had also emigrated from Pakistan. And like Tehseen, she had a relative connected to Pakistani intelligence.

In fact, the translator is the daughter of a retired Pakistani general whose name showed up in the FBI's Automated Case System, according to Cole. He says the bureau had opened a case file on her father in the 1980s, when he was the military attaché stationed at Pakistan's embassy in Washington.

U.S. intelligence lists Pakistan among the top 10 spy threats in the world.

It was a major red flag, and Cole recommended rejecting her application. But the Urdu and Pashto translator, who is married to a State Department official, nonetheless was hired and given Top Secret/SCI clearance. The bureau has since promoted her, and even hired her sons.

Sperry reports that, desperate for Arabic translators after 9/11, the FBI hired even Arab taxi-cab drivers in the Washington area, cutting corners on background investigations to get them on the job.

"They just grabbed a bunch of Arab people off the street and said, 'Oh, we'll do the background checks later,'" said former FBI special agent Emanuel "Manny" Johnson Jr., who worked closely with Farsi translators as a squad supervisor in the Washington field office.

cont'd

[Soldier4Christ]

They also turned to other local Muslims recommended by Washington-based Muslim leader Abdurahman Alamoudi, now a convicted terrorist who helped al-Qaida raise funds in the U.S.

In fact, FBI Director Robert Mueller made direct appeals to militant Islamic groups in his haste to hire translators to clear huge backlogs of untranslated terror intercepts and other materials. Many of them are the same Muslim NGOs now listed by federal prosecutors as members of the dangerous Muslim Brotherhood, as well as unindicted co-conspirators in a major ongoing terror-financing case involving America's largest Muslim charity.

At the same time, Mueller snubbed hundreds of Arabic-speaking Sephardic Jews in New York who applied to help the bureau, as WND first reported.

FBI a 'mole house'

As a result of the rush through what normally would be a rigorous security clearance process, the FBI's language squad in Washington is now a "mole house" for radical Arabs and Muslims, claimed former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds.

She says she knows of at least two former FBI translators, both female, who tipped off targets of FBI terror probes after becoming romantically involved with them. One spoke Arabic and was working on an al-Qaida case, and the other translated Farsi in an Iranian case out of the New York field office.

And according to a post-9/11 investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general, a male FBI translator from the Middle East was fired for taking gifts from foreign targets and then lying about it.

"A language specialist was dismissed for unauthorized contacts with foreign officials and intelligence officers, receipt of things of value from them, and a lack of candor in his 'convoluted and contradictory responses' to questions about his contacts," the inspector general found, according to a November 2002 report cited by Sperry in "Infiltration."

Recently, the inspector general reported that the FBI still has not fixed weaknesses in its internal security program – including personnel security – making it highly vulnerable to foreign moles, including those spying for terror groups.

Nada Nadim Prouty is the latest failure of the FBI vetting system. She worked as a special agent for the bureau from 1999 through 2003, before joining the CIA as an analyst. She made it through the FBI academy even though she fraudulently obtained her citizenship and had family ties to Hezbollah in her native Lebanon.

The CIA also missed the red flags in her background. Prouty earlier this month resigned from her job as a midlevel CIA operations officer, after working at the agency for three years. She worked for the division of Langley that runs covert operations.

Prouty has pleaded guilty to secretly obtaining information about ongoing FBI terror investigations. She's suspected of passing it on to relatives tied to the terror group Hezbollah.

'Nitwits' in Washington

"The average Marine lance corporal has more security awareness than the nitwits charged with protecting us in Washington," a senior U.S. military intelligence official told WND. "The FBI might as well put out a sign: 'Double agents wanted, no experience necessary.'"

Prouty isn't the first Arab agent to raise security alarms at the FBI.

Special agent Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, an immigrant Muslim from Egypt, twice refused on religious grounds to tape-record Muslim terrorist suspects, hindering investigations of a bin Laden family-financed bank in New Jersey, as well as Florida professor Sami al-Arian, who recently was convicted of terrorism despite Abdel-Hafiz's refusal to cooperate in the case.

In an exclusive interview with Sperry, reported in "Infiltration," Abdel-Hafiz confided that he respected al-Arian.

"These people think Sami al-Arian is an idiot," he said, referring to fellow agents investigating him. "But Sami al-Arian is a very smart man."

After 9/11, agents complained that Abdel-Hafiz was not helpful in running down al-Qaida leads in the FBI's office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he had been stationed. They said he wore Arab headgear and robes on work assignments there, and even made a pilgrimage to Mecca on bureau time.

Agents who later visited the office after Abdel-Hafiz was reassigned noted that secret documents and files had been carelessly scattered across tables and even wedged behind cabinets.

Despite the complaints and other red flags in his file, Abdel-Hafiz was kept on the job, and is still in the bureau after threatening to sue for Arab discrimination – a legal tactic that has protected other suspect Arab employees at the bureau.

William Gawthrop, a former senior Pentagon counterintelligence official, warns that U.S. security agencies should use extreme caution in employing Arab immigrants and Muslims. He says giving them a direct role, either as agent or translator, in investigations involving other Arabs or Muslims "invites conflict."

"Recent examples of a Muslim FBI agent and other Muslim law enforcement personnel declining to investigate their fellow Muslim are very probably concrete expressions of conscientious decisions rooted in a clearly articulated religious and legal doctrine," Gawthrop said in a recent Pentagon briefing obtained by WND.

[Soldier4Christ]

 US wary about election terror threat: Townsend

Election-period bombings in Madrid and Glasgow have raised US wariness of the possibility of a terror attack during the 2008 presidential campaign, the White House's top anti-terror official said Tuesday.
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Fran Townsend, President George W. Bush's domestic security and anti-terror advisor, told CNN that the government has not detected any specific threat, but that Al-Qaeda sees elections as an opportunity to make attacks.

"It's about not that we know there's a specific threat," she said.

"What we do know is, we saw the Madrid train bombings just before the elections in Spain. After (British Prime Minister) Gordon Brown took office, we saw the bombings at Glasgow.

"We know Al Qaeda views these periods as being a particularly vulnerable period," she added.

"But given our experience and what we know, I believe we've got a real obligation to prepare for that transition between the election and the inauguration in a special way.

Townsend said Al-Qaeda's operational capability has improved, in their bases in Pakistan's tribal regions.

However, she said, "What they haven't got, according to the NIE (National Intelligence Estimate), is infiltrated operatives inside the US. And that is a key target of our efforts."

Townsend, one of Bush's top aides, announced Monday she would be leaving the White House in the beginning of 2008.

[Soldier4Christ]

Nothing Found on Suspicious Plane That Flew In From Canada To Pasco Washington

This is one of those stories that asks more questions than it answers. For instance, isn’t Pasco Washington about 300 miles from the Canadian Border?

    Investigators say the suspicious plane that landed at the Pasco Airport Tuesday flew in from Canada but never filed a flightplan or stopped for customs.

    Investigators now say the suspicious plane that landed was coming from Saskatchewan.

    They won’t say who was on the plane, only that it was just the pilot and a passenger.

    Neither were detained and nothing was seized from the plane.

    Investigators say the reason the plane was searched was because it didn’t radio or land after it crossed the U.S.-Canada border.

    “We keep track of all international aircraft arriving in the U.S. from foreign countries and this particular one had not either given us advance notification and had not landed at an international airport that provides customs and border protection clearance,” said Mike Milne with Customs.

    Customs enforcement says the plane was intercepted by a customs jet as it landed here in Pasco, but that it did land voluntarily, and it was after that that police surrounded the plane.

[Soldier4Christ]

Agencies Watch for 'Lone Wolf' Terror Scenarios Leading Up to Mideast Talks

There are no specific terror threats to next week's Mideast peace conference scheduled in Annapolis, Md., although authorities will be keeping an eye out for "lone-wolf" terrorists who might act outside of what observers are predicting.

The threat assessment — an unclassified version of which was obtained by FOX News — was done by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI in advance of the peace conference at the U.S. Naval Academy on Nov. 27. These assessments are done routinely for major events that could be attractive targets for terrorists.

"To date, DHS and the FBI have no intelligence reports indicating a possible threat to the Annapolis Peace Conference (APC); nevertheless, with the media coverage and the sensitive issues involved, the possibility of a terrorist attack against such a prominent event remains," the report says.

The report found no evidence that the Palestinian political faction Hamas — deemed by the U.S. as a terror group — plans an attack, and also found that other terror groups like the Al Qaeda and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade have not expressed interest in mounting an attack.

The report notes that "domestic extremist organizations" have a presence in Maryland, but there is "no information suggesting any of these organizations pose a threat to the conference or Islamic or Jewish sites in the vicinity."

"Nonetheless," the report continues, "DHS does not discount the threat of the lone-wolf terrorists, including individuals radicalized by homegrown extremist groups or Internet content.

"Anti-U.S. rhetoric from Palestinian terrorist or organizations opposing the conference has the potential to spark violence by unaffiliated Palestinian sympathizers or lone-wolf terrorists. Many lone-wolf terrorists have conducted attacks against targets they perceived as being associated with Israelis or Jews.

"DHS and the FBI have no credible information indicating that Jewish extremist groups seek to target Muslim sites in the vicinity of the event or the USNA other than an extremist Israeli website run by Russian emigres has called for acts of civil disobedience by American Jews to protest the conference."