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Seattle successfully tests emergency response policy
Can local public health providers can handle a major earthquake, pandemic flu, or some other really big disaster? King County, Washington, says it is ready
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Experts: Internet crime might cause global catastrophe
Damage caused by cyber crime is estimated at $100 billion annually; tech-savvy gangs from China, India, Eastern Europe, and Africa were coming up with ever more sophisticated ways of swindling money from vulnerable people
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UN: Destroyed Syrian facility resembled a nuclear reactor
On 6 September 2007 Israel destroyed a remote facility in north-east Syria; Israel and the United States claimed the facility was a nuclear reactor in the making (Syrian officials offered many different, and contradictory, explanations about the facility); Syria engaged in elaborate “landscaping,” importing tons of fresh soil to alter the site before admitting outsiders; these outsiders — IAEA inspectors — have now concluded the the site looked like a nuclear reactor
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New York City opens counterterrorism center
The $100 million project was launched after 9/11; the facility would eventually receive video footage from 3,000 cameras posted in and near the financial district, an area of about 1.7 square miles
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Can China's future earthquakes be predicted?
To predict earthquakes, China relied on GPS data, which showed movements of two millimeters per year in certain areas of Szechwan province where a May 2008 earthquake killed 70,000 people (20,000 are still missing) and destroyed more than eight million homes; scientists examine a better way to predict disasters
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Briefly noted
Obama administration looks to fill more than 300 IT positions… Larger inmate population is boon to private prisons… More attacks on critical infrastructure?
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DHS to regulate ammonium nitrate
Ammonium nitrate mixed with fuel oil commonly is used as an explosive in mining and has been used by terrorists — such as Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma; DHS proposes to regulate its use
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Briefly noted
Obama preparing comprehensive technology policy… Germans advance surveillance bill… Report warns incoming administration of of “future military failure”… Senator Clinton welcomes more than $18,000 for Long Island Fire Department
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U.S. lost, and never found, a nuclear weapon in 1968
A U.S. Air Force bomber carrying four nuclear bombs crashed in Greenland in 1968; three of the weapons were recovered; the fourth is still under the ice
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Harris to demonstrate innovative radios at ShakeOut
Great Southern California ShakeOut is the largest-ever earthquake preparedness drill in the United States; the exercise, scheduled for tomorrow, 13 November, will model the effects of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake along the San Andreas Fault; Harris will demonstrate advanced systems for restoring first responder communication links
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U.K. local authorities lack intelligence for effective counter-terrorism
A government study finds that government counter-terrorism funding to local authorities and neighborhood policing over the last two years has yet to translate into a coherent strategy to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting violent extremists
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Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository too small
Congress has placed a 77,000-ton limit on the amount of nuclear waste that can be buried in Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository (the repository will open in 2020 at the earliest); trouble is, the 104 active U.S. nuclear reactors, together with the Pentagon, produce that amount of waste in two years
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DHS releases FY2009 guidance for $3 billion worth of grants
FEMA requests applications for 14 programs for which it has allocated $3 billion; funded programs concentrate on state and local governments and strengthening community preparedness
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Train as you fight
To be effective, the training of soldiers and policemen must be done with training conditions resembling the conditions the trainee will face in a real fight; a policeman or soldier will not have time to warm up and stretch before a real encounter; they will also not be fighting wearing shorts, T-shirts, and tennis shoes; the real fight will not stop when they feel pain or discomfort
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Where is James Bond when we need him?
The villains James Bond was fighting — Dr. No, Goldfinger, and Blofeld — looked improbable in the 1960s; these miscreants of globalization — part master criminal, part arms smuggler, part terrorist, part warlord —are now the stuff of reality
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More headlines
The long view
AI-Controlled Fighter Jets May Be Closer Than We Think — and Would Change the Face of Warfare
Could we be on the verge of an era where fighter jets take flight without pilots – and are controlled by artificial intelligence (AI)? US R Adm Michael Donnelly recently said that an upcoming combat jet could be the navy’s last one with a pilot in the cockpit.
What We’ve Learned from Survivors of the Atomic Bombs
Q&A with Dr. Preetha Rajaraman, New Vice Chair for the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Need for National Information Clearinghouse for Cybercrime Data, Categorization of Cybercrimes: Report
There is an acute need for the U.S. to address its lack of overall governance and coordination of cybercrime statistics. A new report recommends that relevant federal agencies create or designate a national information clearinghouse to draw information from multiple sources of cybercrime data and establish connections to assist in criminal investigations.
Autonomous Weapon Systems: No Human-in-the-Loop Required, and Other Myths Dispelled
“The United States has a strong policy on autonomy in weapon systems that simultaneously enables their development and deployment and ensures they could be used in an effective manner, meaning the systems work as intended, with the same minimal risk of accidents or errors that all weapon systems have,” Michael Horowitz writes.
Twenty-One Things That Are True in Los Angeles
To understand the dangers inherent in deploying the California National Guard – over the strenuous objections of the California governor – and active-duty Marines to deal with anti-ICE protesters, we should remind ourselves of a few elementary truths, writes Benjamin Wittes. Among these truths: “Not all lawful exercises of authority are wise, prudent, or smart”; “Not all crimes require a federal response”; “Avoiding tragic and unnecessary confrontations is generally desirable”; and “It is thus unwise, imprudent, and stupid to take actions for performative reasons that one might reasonably anticipate would increase the risks of such confrontations.”
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”