Our PicksThe FBI’s FISA Mess | DHS Climate Action Plan | Preparing for More Biothreats, and more

How a Coast Crowded with Ships, Port Gridlock and an Anchor May Have Caused Orange County Oil Spill  (Thomas Curwen, Richard Winton and Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times)
In a year that has set records for the number of ships coming and going through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Friday was not unusual. Winds were light, and the steady movement of traffic at sea was routine.
But the status quo, compared to previous years, was extraordinary, given the heavy concentration of ships waiting offshore to deliver cargo. Container ship traffic has increased fivefold since 2019, and supply chains, affected by production slowdowns and high consumer demand related to the pandemic, are in an unprecedented bottleneck.
With Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors at near capacity, container ships and oil tankers have had to drop massive anchors in designated sites that place them near oil platforms and an undersea infrastructure of oil lines, sewage treatment pipes and communications equipment.

What Biden Needs to Say About Surveillance Tech and Foreign Policy  (Monica Greco. Just Security)
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 21, President Joe Biden announced that the United States would work with its democratic partners to ensure that emerging technologies are used to promote rights – not to oppress and crush dissent. He leveled this criticism against China more directly last June when he issued an executive order prohibiting American investment in Chinese surveillance companies because they contribute to repression and human rights abuses “inside and outside China.”
Biden’s right. China uses tech to brutally oppress minorities including Uyghurs in Xinjiang. It has installed Orwellian surveillance and policing systems in Chinese cities and developed an omnipresent and potentially discriminatory social credit system. And it exports surveillance technologies to other countries. But if the United States and its partners are serious about addressing this, they will have to offer a vision for technological advancement that genuinely centers civil liberties and human development. And to do that, they will have to recognize and correct their own role in developing and proliferating surveillance technologies at home and abroad.

The FBI’s FISA Mess  (Natalie K. Orpett and Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare)
The inspector general’s latest report on FISA implementation at the FBI is not as bad as it looks, but it’s not good either.

New DOD Climate Plan: Adjust Ops, Training, Gear for Extreme Weather  (Tara Copp, Defense One)
Virtual exercises will help when wildfires rage; equipment will be tested for health effects in intense heat and cold.
From hurricane winds that ravage military bases to monster wildfires that shut down exercises, extreme weather is forcing the military to rapidly shift how it trains and equips, the Defense Department said in its 2021 climate plan Thursday. 
“More extreme environments may require changes to where and how U.S. forces train for future conflict,” the Department’s 32-page action plan found, as it laid out how its force, weapons systems and facilities will be able to operate as rising temperatures and sea levels introduce dangerous variables to people, buildings and gear. 

DHS Releases New Climate Action Plan to Address the Impacts of Climate Change and Ensure the Department’s Climate Resilience  (DHS)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a new Climate Action Plan outlining the steps the Department is taking to tackle the climate crisis, including bolstering the Department’s ability to adapt to climate change, building national resilience, undertaking mitigation measures, and addressing key vulnerabilities. This plan is part of President Biden’s whole-of-government approach to confronting the climate crisis.

Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants  (Julian E. Barnes and Adam Goldman, New York Times)
Counterintelligence officials said in a top secret cable to all stations and bases around the world that too many of the people it recruits from other countries to spy for the U.S. are being lost.

Critical Infrastructure Sectors, DHS Must Prepare More for Biothreats: Report  (Bridget Johnson, HSToday)
The anthrax events of 2001 impacted 11 critical infrastructure sectors. All 16 critical infrastructure sectors remain at biological risk today.

DHS Publishes Two Free Resources to Protect Critical Infrastructure from GPS Vulnerabilities  (DHS)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) announced today it has published a Global Positioning System (GPS) Receiver Whitelist Development Guide and a new release of the Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Integrity Library to protect against the spoofing, or deceiving, of GPS devices through false signals. These resources advance the design of PNT systems and increase resilience of critical infrastructure to PNT disruptions.