November 29, 2007 by Tim McDowell.

On November 20, the Homeland Security Department published the final Appendix A to its Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards. If a facility possesses a chemical listed in the appendix at or above the quantity noted, it must complete and submit to DHS a Top-Screen assessment by January 22. After that, DHS will determine which facilities present a high level of risk; those will have to conduct vulnerability assessments and implement a site security plan that meets DHS performance standards.

http://www.dhs.gov/journal/leadership/

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November 29, 2007 by Tim McDowell.

“State government officials and emergency responders have a new Internet-based tool available to them that will enhance public safety,” reports the Advertiser. Virtual Alabama “pools huge amounts of information and makes it accessible to state and local public safety personnel to help in planning and emergency response.… Using an Internet platform, Virtual Alabama allows state agencies to input information such as maps, building floor plans, property values and historical data to enhance planning, economic development efforts and emergency response operations.… The program also enables government officials to access before and after data in events such as the Enterprise tornado.”

http://www.accessmontgomery.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071129/NEWS02/711290322/1009

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November 29, 2007 by Tim McDowell.

1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “on Tuesday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by immigrants arrested in a factory raid, saying their constitutional rights were not violated—though it noted that government bungling allowed children of some detainees to go unsupervised,” reports the Associated Press. “The March raid at leather goods manufacturer Michael Bianco Inc. led to the arrest of 361 of its 500 employees, mostly Central American women, on federal immigration charges.”

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/27/court_criticizes_mass_immigration_raid/

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November 29, 2007 by Tim McDowell.

“Fort Huachuca, the nation’s largest intelligence-training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility.… possibly 60 Afghan and Iraqi terrorists were to be smuggled into the U.S. through underground tunnels with high-powered weapons to attack the Arizona Army base, according to multiple confidential law enforcement documents obtained by The Washington Times.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071126/NATION/111260034/1001

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November 29, 2007 by Tim McDowell.

“Almost 3,000 families [in] Louisiana will have to leave their government-supplied trailers over the next few months under a new schedule prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” reports the New York Times. FEMA plans “to close all the trailer camps it runs for victims of the 2005 hurricanes by the end of May.” FEMA “says its action is intended to hasten the move of residents from trailers to permanent housing, and officials said FEMA is committed to helping them find new housing before the parks close.… The Department of Housing and Urban Development will assume responsibility for paying to house poor families, as it is also doing for evacuees who are already in rental units around the country.… The new schedule does not affect the largest number of trailer dwellers, those living in trailers on private property.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/us/29trailer.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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November 29, 2007 by Tim McDowell.

On Monday “a mob of angry youths torched the library in” Villiers-le-Bel “during a second night of rioting,” reports the Washington Post. Youths “went on a rampage after two teenagers were killed Sunday night when the motorbike they were riding collided with a police cruiser.… 22 youths were detained.… ‘The young guys who live here have no future,’ said [Serge] Lotterie, [a] town council member. ‘If you want to work in Charles de Gaulle’—the nearby international airport—‘and if you’re from Villiers-le-Bel, you’re black and your name is Mohammed, there’s no chance.’ More than 100 police officers were injured—five seriously—in pitched street fights here and in five other communities north of Paris on Sunday and Monday nights,” and “about 80 cars were set afire Monday night.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/27/AR2007112702460.html?hpid=topnews

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November 29, 2007 by Tim McDowell.

“Two Hungarians and a Ukrainian arrested in an attempted sale of uranium were peddling material enriched enough to be used in a radiological ‘dirty bomb,’” reports the Associated Press. “… the three suspects, who were arrested Wednesday afternoon in eastern Slovakia and Hungary, were peddling just under a pound of uranium in powder form that investigators believe came from somewhere in the former Soviet Union.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22022256/

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November 29, 2007 by Tim McDowell.

“German police say they have thwarted a plot by two students to carry out a massacre at” Georg-Buechner high school in Cologne, reports the British Broadcasting Corporation. Rolf B., “aged 17, committed suicide after being questioned about the plot and his alleged accomplice, [Robin G.], 18, is under arrest … the suspects were spotted by classmates studying pictures of the [1999 U.S.] Columbine school massacre.” They “had planned to attack” their school on November 20. “Air guns and crossbows were later found during searches at the suspects’ homes. A possible hit list of students and teachers was also discovered.” But Robin G. told police “that the two had abandoned their plans [five] weeks ago,” reports Agence France-Presse. “… His claim was backed up by analysis of computers seized from their home.” At Geschwister Scholl school in Emsdetten, a gunman, “reported to have been a former pupil of the school, apparently killed himself as police circled the building” on November 20, after he stormed the school, “injuring a teacher and several pupils,” reports the British Broadcasting Corporation.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jymCLG_5Ph4JieT_O9E9LAV9b_kw

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November 29, 2007 by Tim McDowell.

“Determined to rise up against al Qaeda terrorists, concerned local citizens, working together with coalition forces, have started neighborhood watch programs in” northern Iraq, reports the American Forces Press Service. “The citizens are calling the movement ‘Sahwa,’ an Arabic term that means ‘awakening.’ The neighborhood watch programs were established Nov. 14, two weeks after local citizens approached soldiers … with the idea. More than 1,000 citizens showed up, ready to be recruited to take up arms in defense against the terrorists in the region.”

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48198

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November 29, 2007 by Tim McDowell.

As many as 60 percent of the foreign fighters who entered Iraq in the past year have come from Saudi Arabia and Libya, according to documents discovered in a raid in September near the Syrian border,” reports CNN. “… The documents confiscated in that raid listed the identities of more than 700 foreign fighters in Iraq.”

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/11/22/iraq.fighters/index.html

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