SubscribeAirlines blast plan to fingerprint foreign fliers
March 17, 2008
“Airlines are protesting a government plan that would require them to take fingerprints of foreign travelers as they fly out of the USA, saying it could create massive lines at airport check-in counters.
Congress has required that the 33 million foreigners a year coming into U.S. airports be fingerprinted when they arrive and leave the country but did not specify who should take the prints.” (USA Today)
Hussein’s Iraq and al Qaeda not linked, Pentagon says
March 14, 2008
“The U.S. military’s first and only study looking into ties between Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and al Qaeda showed no connection between the two, according to a military report released by the Pentagon.
The report released by the Joint Forces Command five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq said it found no “smoking gun” after reviewing about 600,000 Iraqi documents captured in the invasion and looking at interviews of key Iraqi leadership held by the United States, Pentagon officials said.” (CNN)
House agrees to rare secret session on spy bill
March 14, 2008
“The House of Representatives abruptly postponed a vote on a spy bill on Thursday after Democrats agreed to a Republican request to hold a rare secret session to discuss classified security matters.” (Reuters)
Cyberexercise shows need for better training to avoid major network failures
March 14, 2008
“Workers operating networks supporting the nation’s critical infrastructure such as telecommunications and transportation need better training on how to manage backup systems in case cyberattacks take down main systems, said a top Homeland Security Department official Thursday.” (GovExec)
Anti-terror rules for trains rapped
March 14, 2008
“New anti-terrorism rules aimed at stopping companies from sending railway cars packed with toxic chemicals through cities may still leave large populations vulnerable, according to members of Congress and security experts.” (USA Today)
Arizona city seeks moat to secure Mexico border
March 13, 2008
“Most plans to gain control of the porous U.S.-Mexico border focus on some combination of fence. But this city in far west Arizona is looking to build a moat.Faced with high-levels of crime and illegal immigration, authorities in Yuma are reaching back to a technique as old as a medieval castle to dig out a “security channel” on a crime-ridden stretch of the border and fill it with water.” (Reuters)
Top Defense commander hints at taking offensive actions in space, cyberspace
March 13, 2008
“The chief of the Strategic Command hinted Wednesday during a Senate hearing that the Pentagon has plans to conduct warfare in space as well as in cyberspace, strategies the Defense Department has been reluctant to discuss openly in the past.
Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that cyberspace has emerged as “a unique global domain in which the United States must maintain freedom of action.”" (GovExec)
EU and U.S defuse crisis over visas — for now
March 13, 2008
“The European Union and the United States agreed on Thursday to defuse a crisis over visa deals by allowing talks between Washington and individual EU states to run in parallel with EU-U.S. negotiations.” (Reuters)
US Capitol evacuated, no threat: Homeland Security
March 13, 2008
“The US Capitol building was partly evacuated Wednesday after a plane violated its airspace, but there was no imminent threat, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department said.” (AFP)
House Fails to Override Torture Veto
March 12, 2008
“House Democrats on Tuesday failed to overturn President Bush’s veto of a bill that would have prohibited the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques on terrorist suspects.
The vetoed legislation would have limited the CIA to using only the 19 interrogation methods approved in the Army field manual.” (AP)