Protecting Seaports | COVID-Driven Attacks on Scientists | Passenger Self-Screening Hardware System, and more

Small Numbers of Military Extremists Can Still Pose a Large Threat, Experts Warn  (Leo Shane III, Military Times)
Experts studying violent, extremist organizations warned that even if the number of veterans and military members who participate in such groups is small, they can still be very dangerous to the country. “Extremist ideas and groups cannot be left to operate unchecked within the very organizations charged with protecting the population, including its most vulnerable citizens,” said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab at American University. “The future of multicultural democracy from extremism in the military and the veterans communities must be treated like the threat to national security that it is.” The comments came at a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday on the targeting of veterans by extremist groups, an issue that drew national headlines after a significant percentage of rioters involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol Building were found to have military experience. Experts in homegrown extremism have warned for years about efforts by far-right militants and white-supremacist groups to radicalize and recruit people with military and law enforcement training.

Terror Suspect, 24, “Planned to Livestream Himself Blowing Up a Mosque and Had Images Glorifying New Zealand Terrorist Brenton Tarrant,” Court Hears  (Jamie Phillips, Daily Mail)
A terror suspect planned to livestream himself carrying out a terror attack on a mosque in Scotland and had pictures glorifying New Zealand mass shooter Brenton Tarrant on his phone, a court has heard. Sam Imrie, a 24-year-old said to have been infatuated by Adolf Hitler, is alleged to have been plotting an attack on the Fife Islamic Centre in Glenrothes.  A trial at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday heard a phone recovered by police was found to contain a number of images glorifying the New Zealand shooter with the accompanying words ‘Brenton Tarrant did nothing wrong’, ‘hail Tarrant’ and ‘Saint Tarrant’. Giving evidence,  Detective Constable Murray Cairns described the footage as ‘graphic’ and ‘horrific’. He said: ‘[Tarrant] carried out a filming session of the attack. He livestreamed it at first, which was copied and then went massive on the internet.’ ‘It’s horrific. It starts with him driving, playing music before arriving at the Islamic centre. ‘You see him getting the weapon from his car, going to the Islamic centre, you can see people walking towards him and he starts shooting, murdering them. ‘You see him going from room to room, getting back into his vehicle. ‘It’s graphic, you see him deciding when to fire and when not to fire.’

U.S. Antigovernment Groups Are Influencing the French Far Right  (Julian E. Barnes, New York Times)
Right-wing extremist groups in the United States have been influencing French groups, spreading antigovernment conspiracy theories in Europe, the top French intelligence official said on Wednesday. The official, Laurent Nuñez, France’s national intelligence and counterterrorism coordinator, has been in Washington this week for meetings with American officials such as his U.S. counterpart, Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence. Relations between Paris and Washington have been strained after a U.S. deal last month to sell Australia nuclear submarines, which put an end to a French contract. Mr. Nuñez did not mince words, saying “the serious bilateral crisis” remained. Still, President Emmanuel Macron of France authorized Mr. Nuñez’s visit as part of efforts to ease the diplomatic feud and restore high-level communications between the two governments. Cooperation among intelligence services, often stripped of politics, is usually far steadier than relations between heads of state, and that has been the case with France, according to U.S. officials. French officials said they were continuing to work together on a wide array of counterterrorism issues in Syria, Africa and Afghanistan and threats from domestic extremist groups.

“I Hope You Die”: How the COVID Pandemic Unleashed Attacks on Scientists  (Bianca Nogrady, Nature)
Dozens of researchers tell Nature they have received death threats, or threats of physical or sexual violence.

DHS S&T Awards Funding to Design Passenger Self-Screening Hardware System  (DHS S&T)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHSScience and Technology Directorate (S&T) Screening at Speed Program announced the award of $387,415 in technology maturation funding to Voxel Radar, based in San Francisco, California, in the United States and headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, to develop a passenger self-screening hardware subsystem for airport checkpoints. Funding was awarded under the Screening at Speed Broad Agency Announcement, which accelerates Screening at Speed’s and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Innovation Task Force’s efforts to explore the use of a self-screening experience at TSA airport security checkpoints.

Developing a Risk-Informed Decision-Support System for Earthquake Early Warning at a Critical Seaport  (Gemma Cremen et al., Safety)
The system integrates seismic risk predictions and multi-criteria decision-making. The system identifies the optimal action (issue or not a warning) for a given event. The optimal action can be sensitive to stakeholder risk preferences. The optimal action can depend on the level of functionality interdependence captured.