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Conventions to be under `multiple layers of security'
Unprecedented security precautions - some visible, but many not - will be unfurled in Boston and New York for the national political conventions, which U.S. officials fear could present enticing terrorism targets. Bomb-sniffing dogs, pager-size radiation detectors, high-tech cameras, increased marine patrols, and battalions of uniformed and plainclothes officers will be deployed as the Democrats gather Monday through July 29 for their Boston conclave, followed by the Republicans Aug. 30-Sept. 2 in New York. Government officials say they know of no specific threats to the conventions. But, they caution, a stream of credible intelligence indicates that al-Qaida intends to strike the United States prior to the general election, emboldened by its perceived success in toppling Spain's government with the Madrid train bombings. For more than a year, federal, state and local officials in both convention cities have mapped out intricate security plans, testing their preparedness with drills and disaster "tabletop" scenarios.
www.kansascity.com
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Ridge Says Homeland Security Employees' Job Performance Must Be Perfect
Instilling in 180,000 employees the message "that we can't afford mistakes" was the most important challenge in the start-up of the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Tom Ridge said yesterday. Ridge's remark came during a question-and-answer session after a luncheon address at the ninth annual Excellence in Government Conference at the Washington Convention Center. A member of the audience had asked Ridge to identify the biggest management challenge that faced the department, which was created by the merger of 22 agencies. Ridge paused, allowing silence to envelop the giant ballroom, before offering his response. "The single most important challenge we had initially was to try to convey to each and every one of my colleagues -- 180,000 strong -- that their commitment to getting their particular work, their assignment, down as well as they can -- frankly, better and better every day -- was absolutely critical to the overall mission of homeland security," Ridge replied.
www.washingtonpost.com
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Wireless Technology In Emergency Response and Homeland Security
The utilization of wireless technology to communicate critical information to the right person at the right time during the early stages of an emergency event is critical to homeland security. Wireless technology companies and systems integrators are competing for market share as wireless technology is utilized to move time-critical and time-sensitive information to and from first responders. Players in the sector since 9/11 include: Flarion Technologies Inc., a wireless broadband technology provider partnered with Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics TalkSECURE™ wireless phone, RSA Security Inc. and small innovators like Aether Systems Inc, Roaming Messenger, Inc (OTCBB: RMSG) and Aegis Assessments Inc. The need for secure and reliable means of communications in homeland defense and emergency response is driving technology and innovation. Wireless phone use has exploded, and so have wireless 9-1-1 calls. According to a July 20th report by Research and Markets, 150,000 cellular emergency 9-1-1 calls are made each day. ”This has enormous implications with respect to the design of our public safety system and overall how we approach homeland security, and how federal, state, and local officials develop and implement policy and allocate funds. Wall Street needs to understand how wireless 911 will be deployed, who the players are, and how allocated funds will flow and be utilized.”
www.wi-fitechnology.com
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Law Enforcement Tackling Computer Crime
Federal and state law enforcement agencies are joining forces to combat computer crimes, officials announced. The Cyber-Crime Strike Force will have a staff of seven investigators: four from the FBI, two from the state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore's office and one from the Virginia State Police. They will work out of the Richmond FBI office, which has a computer lab from which online undercover investigations may be conducted. Three attorneys from Kilgore's office and one from the office of U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty will prosecute the cases in state and federal courts. The strike force also will work closely with the Bedford County Sheriff's Office, which formed its own "Blue Ridge Thunder" task force to track down online pedophiles in 1998. McNulty said at a news conference Thursday that the partnership will help agencies share intelligence and bring computer criminals to justice more quickly. "Cyberspace has a dark side," McNulty said. "This incredible technology is especially attractive to the criminal mind." Kilgore agreed, noting that the Internet can be a sophisticated weapon for criminals as well as a virtually indispensable tool for law-abiding citizens. "Criminals can raid bank accounts without even leaving home," Kilgore said. "... Worse yet, children can be preyed upon in our very own homes with a few clicks of the mouse."
www.forbes.com
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Trained for mass casualties, emergency personnel encounter few problems
On the fourth floor of the FleetCenter, behind Section 15, Dr. Katherine Brinsfield and Dr. Liz Temin are standing next to a stretcher piled with medical equipment, outside a room with a gray door with a red cross painted in the middle. Two metal-framed beds draped by white sheets, surrounded by curtains, lay empty in the middle of the room. A stethoscope dangles from the brace holding a TV to the wall. Blue gloves, radio battery chargers, bandages decorated with dinosaurs and dragons, orange fireman-style hard hats and an assortment of medical bags line the tables and shelves around the room. Paramedic Lenny Shubitowski and a few other emergency medical personnel watch the Red Sox game on the TV, watch the Democratic delegates passing by and talk into their radios to other Boston Emergency Medical Service workers stationed throughout the FleetCenter. Monday night was quiet at the EMS outpost for the 2004 Democratic National Convention. "Most of it's been minor GI," Shubitowski said. That's gastrointestinal problems, per the not-so-healthy FleetCenter food. "A lot of headaches," he added. The EMS handed out aspirin for pain in the brain. Delegates with new shoes stopped by for bandages to cover their blisters. There were a few cuts, a few minor bruises. In all, the EMS treated 87 patients the first two nights of the convention, including six who were taken to the hospital and later released for minor lacerations and medical problems.
www.govexec.com
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New Tool Helps State, Local Officials Locate Alternate Health Care Sites During Potential Bioterrorism Emergency
WASHINGTON, July 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality today released a tool to help state and local officials quickly locate alternate health care sites if hospitals are overwhelmed by patients due to a bioterrorism attack or other public health emergency. The alternate care site selection tool is being shared with emergency response planners at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. In the aftermath of a bioterrorist event or other public health emergency, hospitals may be overwhelmed by a sudden influx of patients. The new alternate care site selection tool is designed to allow regional planners to locate and rank potential alternative sites-stadiums, schools, recreation centers, motels, and other venues-based on whether they have adequate ventilation, plumbing, food supply, and kitchen facilities, for example. "Finding a place to handle hospital overflow in an emergency situation is one of the most fundamental steps in bioterrorism preparedness," said Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. "The Department is proud to have played a key role in funding this important resource."
releases.usnewswire.com
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Some Steps Put in Place to Aid Border Security
Immigration officials said they had already started taking some of the urgent steps recommended last week by the Sept. 11 commission to enhance border security, but with intelligence reports describing the threat of a new attack as extraordinarily high, the effort remains far from complete. The Department of Homeland Security, created after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has collected digital fingerprints and photographs from more than six million foreign visitors since January, the first move toward creating a comprehensive system to screen travelers as they arrive and depart. State Department officials, who were criticized for issuing visas to the hijackers, started collecting similar data in December as foreigners applied for visas in 174 of 211 visa-issuing embassies and consulates around the world. Over the past six months, officials said, the two departments have turned away hundreds of criminals, travelers with fraudulent passports and fake documents and others barred from entry to the United States after immigration workers screening visitors in airports and State Department officials interviewing visa applicants in embassies compared their names, fingerprints and photographs to those in available security databases.
www.nytimes.com
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Police chiefs get inside info on G-8 security
State and local agencies sent more than 11,000 police and security officers, including 4,800 National Guard troops, to the G-8 summit last month, Georgia's Homeland Security director said Monday. Georgia police chiefs attending a training conference here got some inside details of security operations during the June 8-10 summit of world leaders, including how undercover cops posed as protesters during demonstrations. The G-8 presentation at the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police conference was the first time state officials have given specific numbers of police or National Guard troops used to guard summit venues near Sea Island and Savannah, where international delegates and reporters stayed. The federal government budgeted $35 million to pay for mobilizing the National Guard as well as police overtime, meals, lodging and equipment. State Homeland Security Director Bill Hitchens said that amount should be enough. "Our expectation at this juncture is that we're going to be able to pay for everything that was incurred," Hitchens said. Hitchens said 136 state and local agencies devoted 11,056 personnel to the summit, including a small number of state police from neighboring South Carolina and Florida. The National Guard, used to patrol the streets near summit venues, made up the largest chunk.
www.macon.com
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Energy halts use of classified discs, drives
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham ordered today all Energy Department operations to halt using controlled removable electronic media (CREM) to improve media protection procedures. Abraham's directive follows an announcement earlier this month that Los Alamos National Laboratory employees had lost two Zip discs containing classified material. Lab workers are searching for the discs amid more than 2,000 safes and vaults. The lab's director has halted all operations at Los Alamos, and Abraham has directed that classified operations will not resume until Energy's deputy secretary, Kyle McSlarrow, and the National Nuclear Security Administration's administrator, Linton Brooks, confirm that newly implemented corrective actions improve CREM management. "While we have no evidence that the problems currently being investigated are present elsewhere, we have a responsibility to take all necessary action to prevent such problems from occurring at all," Abraham said in a statement. CREM includes all types of classified hard drives or computer discs. In May, Abraham called for a variety of security reforms, including several that affect the way the agency protects classified data. Among the reforms is an initiative to move toward disk-free computer environments and keyless security possibly involving a biometric identifier.
www.fcw.com
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Panel urges passenger-screening plan similar to CAPPS II
The commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks believes the Bush administration should require airlines to provide passengers' personal information to the government in order to screen individuals before boarding airplanes. The proposal follows an announcement last month by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge that the department has scrapped an existing, albeit besieged, initiative to do just that. A Homeland Security spokesman said Monday that officials are reconfiguring the Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, known as CAPPS II, and are moving forward to develop an advanced way to check passengers' biographical data such as names, home addresses and birthdates against databases with names of suspected terrorists.
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