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Bush Signs Homeland Security BillBy David McGlinchey The president has come under recent fire, however, after asking for $87 billion to pay for fiscal 2004 operations and rebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan. Democrats have called for more spending on homeland security efforts. In a September editorial, the Los Angeles Times pointed out that the fiscal 2004 budget for the Homeland Security Department and the State Department, combined, will be $68.7 billion. Yesterday’s homeland security bill allocates about $4 billion to local first responders and $41 million to hire up to 570 additional border patrol officers. The bill provides $62 million for the Container Security Initiative, which stations U.S. customs officials abroad to screen shipments before they reach the United States (see GSN, Aug. 6). The bill also funds a Secret Service initiative to improve mail screening procedures at the White House. In a speech at the Homeland Security Department in Washington yesterday, Bush made note of the $918 million that will be spent to develop new security technologies. Included in that funding is $88 million to build the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, which will serve as a hub for Washington’s biological defense efforts.
From October 1, 2003 issue.U.S. Justice Department Announces New Hazardous Materials Security InitiativeBy Mike Nartker According to Ashcroft, more than 1.5 billion tons of hazardous materials are shipped each year, often on “complex shipment routes” which provide opportunities for potential terrorists. A Justice investigation has found the potential for “significant and repeated illegal transport” of hazardous materials by air, sea, road and rail, Ashcroft said. “Over the past two years terrorists have forced us to alter our assumptions about their targets and their tactics. It is not difficult to postulate a terrorist attack that involves hazardous materials,” Ashcroft said. “Thousands of deaths and injuries and severe property damage could result from an incident involving illegal transportation of hazardous materials,” he said. Under the Hazardous Materials Transportation Initiative, Justice will use existing tools in environmental and safety laws to counter potential security threats arising from illegal hazardous material shipments, Ashcroft said. The department has established a group of prosecutors from the Environment and Natural Resources Division who will work with U.S. attorneys and the Transportation Department to train enforcement and regulatory personnel to investigate and prosecute violators of hazardous material shipment requirements, he said. “Compliance with and enforcement of these laws makes a real difference in our level of national preparedness,” Ashcroft said. “All those who violate these laws are on notice. We will prosecute those who knowingly break the law and endanger our land and our lives,” he said. The new initiative is the latest in a series of measures implemented over the last year to help improve the security of hazardous material shipments. In August, the Transportation Department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration proposed a safety permit program for carriers of certain types of hazardous materials, including radioactive materials. In May, the department required that drivers of hazardous material shipments would have to pass a federal background check (see GSN, May 6). The department also required in March that hazardous material shipment carriers train their employees to respond to terrorist threats (see GSN, March 26). Ashcroft also announced yesterday the first action on the new initiative — the guilty plea entered yesterday by Emory Worldwide Airlines to 12 felony violations of the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act. The company had been charged with illegally transporting hazardous materials via aircraft, Ashcroft said, adding that the charges were unrelated to terrorist activity. Under its guilty plea, Emory Worldwide Airlines will pay a $6 million fine and will develop a compliance plan to prevent future violations, he said.
From September 26, 2003 issue.No Evidence of State-Sponsored WMD Proliferation to Terrorists, Former Israeli Official SaysBy David Ruppe The black market WMD supply “is a threat that should not be ignored, but it is not a major threat,” said Ilan Mizrahi, former deputy director of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. He said further that there are no significant signs of governments providing terrorists with chemical, biological, nuclear or radiological weapon materials. “There is no hard evidence to suggest that states supply WMD to terrorist organizations,” he said. Of all terrorist groups, al-Qaeda poses the greatest WMD threat, Mizrahi said. That group already has the know-how and production capability to manufacture chemical and biological weapons from materials obtained within a targeted country, he said, and while interested in nuclear or radiological weapons, al-Qaeda would have difficulty acquiring, handling and smuggling them. U.S. Maintains Its Threat Assessment The Bush administration has asserted that some states might one day share WMD capabilities with terrorists and therefore could be justifiably attacked to prevent a WMD attack. President George W. Bush reaffirmed the U.S. position Tuesday in his address to the United Nations. “The deadly combination of outlaw regimes and terror networks and weapons of mass murder is a peril that cannot be ignored or wished away. If such a danger is allowed to fully materialize, all words, all protests, will come too late. Nations of the world must have the wisdom and the will to stop grave threats before they arrive,” Bush said. Today, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Stephen Rademaker told Global Security Newswire that the potential for WMD proliferation to terrorists is real, even if past evidence of state sponsorship is lacking. “First of all, many states with a track record of supporting terrorism up until now haven’t had weapons of mass destruction,” he said after addressing the conference. In addition, Rademaker said, it would be a mistake “to count on the good will of state sponsors of terrorism to continue to exercise restraint and to continue to only provide only low-level support of terrorism and to not provide weapons of mass destruction once they have them.” Incomplete Information Cited Mizrahi acknowledged that “substantial and definitive information” on black market WMD activity is lacking. He said that media accounts have described anywhere from 200 to 1,000 WMD material smuggling incidents from 1991 to 2003, but cautioned, “We have to remember that what was seized and exposed might represent only a fraction,” of the actual trade, he said. Such uncertainty “reflects how problematic these statistics on these matters are,” he said. He said, though, that the number of black market smuggling busts appears to have sharply decreased in the last four years, perhaps reflecting greater international law enforcement attention. Describing the Smugglers Some of the deals that authorities have successfully stopped were conducted by renegade state officials and former military personnel, he said. “The sellers were ex-military and –KGB personnel, [and] senior corrupted officials in WMD sites who have ideological sympathy for certain states or certain organizations,” Mizrahi said. He cited Russia (including Chechnya), Pakistan, Ethiopia and Kazakhstan as nations where such people had been identified. Mizrahi also said some smugglers are motivated by a desire for cash and said suspected WMD materials in Iraq could be a potential source of black market proliferation. “What did they do, destroy it or hide it? If they hid it, there is a potential for reaching terrorist organizations,” he said. Buyers have included “Chechens, underground terrorist organizations in Latin America, extreme cult sects, lunatics and of course al-Qaeda,” he said. As the most advanced terrorist organization, al-Qaeda now has chemical and biological weapon capabilities, “so that there is no urgent need for [the] black market,” Mizrahi said. As for nuclear or radiological weapon materials, he said al-Qaeda has tried and failed in recent years to acquire them. “After all, it is a very complicated and risky job to buy, to transfer, and to store” those materials, he said, but warned that al-Qaeda has not given up such efforts.
From September 25, 2003 issue.Terrorists Could Target Drug Supply, Report WarnsThe U.S. prescription drug supply is a potential target for terrorist attack, according to a privately researched report that is set to be presented in Washington today (see GSN, Sept. 10). “It would be very easy for terrorists to mount an attack,” said Bill Livingstone, director of analysis at GlobalOptions, the Washington research firm that produced the report. According to the report, terrorist groups could send tainted drugs into the U.S. supply through small wholesalers or the Internet. “The government understands that to protect the drug supply, they would have to do some really politically unpopular things, like banning people from getting drugs in the mail or closing down 80 percent of the wholesalers,” said Donald deKieffer, who represents drug, food and apparel companies. Today’s conference, sponsored by the Institute for International Research, will explore potential solutions to track prescription drugs and ensure that tainted drugs are not sold (Julie Appleby, USA Today, Sept. 25).
From September 25, 2003 issue.GAO Criticizes U.S. Supervision of Nuclear Power Plant SecurityBy Mike Nartker The NRC supervises nuclear plant security through an annual inspection program and periodic “force-on-force” exercises that test how plant security forces respond to simulated terrorist attacks. The GAO found, however, that several aspects of the NRC security inspection program reduced the commission’s effectiveness in overseeing plant security, according to the report. The report says congressional auditors found that NRC security inspectors often used a process that “minimized the significance” of discovered security problems by labeling them as “noncited violations” if they were not a frequent problem or if the violation did not have immediate adverse consequences. Noncited violations, according to the report, do not require a written response from the plant operator and do not require the commission to verify later that the problem has been corrected. As an example of a noncited violation, the report describes a situation at one plant where guards failed to physically search individuals after metal detectors had detected metal objects in their clothing. The individuals were then allowed unescorted access through the plant’s protected area, the report says. “By making extensive use of noncited violations for serious problems, NRC may overstate the level of security at a power plant and reduce the likelihood that needed improvements are made,” the report says. In addition, the GAO also found several flaws in the force-on-force exercises. For example, more personnel were used to defend plants during the exercises then normally would have been on duty, the report says. It also says that simulated terrorists were not trained in actual terrorist tactics and that unrealistic weapons, such as rubber guns, were used during the exercises instead of those that would better simulate actual gunfire. Responding the report in an attached letter, NRC Chairman Nils Diaz said the GAO failed to take into account “significant changes” made to the security inspection program following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The annual inspections and force-on-force exercises were suspended in 2001 to redesign them taking into account the heightened terrorist threat, according to the report. It says that five force-on-force exercises have been conducted so far this year through a pilot evaluation program, and that annual inspections are set to resume in 2004. In his letter, Diaz defended the commission’s use of noncited violations, saying it helps to create “an environment that fosters licensee self-identification and correction of problems, an important organizational behavior the NRC encourages.” The commission requires that a sampling of the corrective actions undertaken to fix such violations be later reviewed during subsequent inspections, Diaz wrote. Yesterday’s report was requested by Representatives John Dingell (D-Mich.), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee; and Edward Markey (D-Mass.). In a statement released yesterday, Markey criticized the NRC for its lax oversight of security at nuclear power plants, which he called “facilities that are at the very top of al-Qaeda’s list for future attacks.” “It is stunning that the NRC still isn’t assuring the safety of the millions of Americans who live near the 104 licensed nuclear reactors two years after the attacks of September 11,” said Markey, who has often been a critic of the U.S. nuclear industry and the NRC.
From September 25, 2003 issue.U.S. Congress Approves $30 Billion for Homeland Security DepartmentThe U.S. Congress yesterday approved almost $30 billion in fiscal 2004 funding for the Homeland Security Department, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Sept. 18). The House of Representatives voted 417-8 to approve the $29.4 billion homeland security appropriations bill. The Senate approved the bill by a voice vote. The funding in the bill is $1 billion more than the Bush administration’s original request and includes more than $4 billion for first-responder programs, $9 billion for border protection and more than $5 billion for the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Air Marshall program, AP reported. The bill also funded the Bush administration’s Project Bioshield with $890 million next year and $5.6 billion over the next 10 years to help fund research and procurement of treatments and vaccines against biological weapons agents (Associated Press/Washington Times, Sept. 25).
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