July 28, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

 Companies were returning workers to U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms and restoring output shut due to Dolly. Shut-in gas was 5.5 percent of Gulf output Thursday, July 24, down from 7.9 percent July 23, and shut-in oil was 1.4 percent of Gulf output, down from 4.5 percent July 23. Dolly became a hurricane Tuesday afternoon and came ashore north of Port Isabel, Texas, about midday Wednesday. It dumped flooding rain over south Texas before breaking up near the Texas-Mexico border late Thursday. The Gulf provides 25 percent of U.S. oil output and 15 percent of U.S. natural gas production

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July 28, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

Nigerian militants announced on 28 July 2008 that they successfully sabotaged two oil pipelines in Nigeria’s Rivers state. The two Niger Delta pipelines — located in Kula and Rumuekpe — are reportedly owned and operated by Royal Dutch Shell, and the company has announced that an investigation has been launched into the “incident” involving their pipelines. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks on the oil facilities. Although the attacks did not cause significant disruptions in oil supply, they did cause Shell to decrease production at one of the pipelines. The attacks come following MEND’s statement on 23 July that it would destroy oil pipelines in the Niger Delta region to prove that it had not been paid off by oil companies to stop its campaign of violence.

Nigeria’s National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) announced on 28 July 2008 that it will renew its currently suspended strike. The union initially launched a strike on 11 July over rising diesel prices and low salaries, but suspended the action on 13 July when the government agreed to negotiate to improve working conditions. However, because the union’s two-week suspension is set to expire on 28 July and no significant progress has yet been made on the union’s demands, protests are set to renew on 28 July and are expected to be at full-scale by 30 July. No details have yet been released on the proposed union actions during this strike; the initial strike caused long lines at filling stations due to the resultant nationwide fuel shortage

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July 28, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

 On 27 July 2008 investigators announced that they believe a malfunctioning oxygen canister caused a minor explosion on a Qantas passenger aircraft two days earlier, forcing the flight to make an emergency landing in the Philippines. The London-to-Melbourne flight was jolted by a loud bang midway through its trip on 25 July, and ground crews discovered a 9 ftt/2.7 m hole in the fuselage after the aircraft landed. All passengers and crew were unharmed in the incident, and security officials launched an investigation into what caused the damage. Transportation safety experts stated that tests for residue from explosives came up negative, and a senior official in the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau claimed it was not a “security-related event.” The aircraft had been carrying a supply of oxygen bottles in the cargo hold.

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July 25, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

The Department of Homeland Security announced approximately $1.8 billion in grants to bolster state, urban area and tribal government efforts to improve the nation’s readiness, response and recovery capabilities for both natural and man-made emergencies. The department will award approximately $3 billion in Fiscal Year 2008, and has provided roughly $25 billion in grants since Fiscal Year 2002 to state, local, and tribal governments, as well as non-profit organizations.

http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1216997045027.shtm

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July 25, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

Chinese officials announced on 24 July 2008 that they have disabled a terrorist cell that was planning to attack football venues in Shanghai. Authorities have increased security in Beijing, the capital, over the past year in the lead-up to the Olympic Games, which begin on 8 August. As a result, officials stated that they obtained information which indicated terrorist organizations would be launching an attack against the Olympic venue in Shanghai. Officials raided a number of facilities; however, they have not indicated where or when the raids took place, or how many suspects they detained. In an effort to increase security in Shanghai, more than 1,500 surveillance cameras have been installed on public buses throughout the city, especially those that pass by the stadium. Additional security checkpoints have been set up in and around all underground rail stations as well.

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July 24, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq —  It looks more Star Wars than Iraq War, an unmanned aerial killer ready to fly its first combat mission in Iraq. But the MQ-9 Reaper is more than just a stunning sight — it may represent the future of combat aviation.

The Reaper’s streamlined form stands out in its hangar in Balad Air Base in central Iraq, now the busiest in the world for the Department of Defense, with F-16s and cargo planes taking off and landing every few minutes.

The Reaper looks like its predecessor, the Predator drone, which was originally built as a reconnaissance plane and is already widely in use in Iraq and Afghanistan in support of troops on the ground.

But the Reaper was built with offense in mind. It can carry four Hellfire missiles (the Predator carries only two), and it is equipped with a pair of 500-pound laser-guided bombs.

• Click here to see exclusive video from the Reaper’s first combat operations in Iraq.

The Reaper doesn’t have to refuel as often as typical fighter jets, so it can stay airborne longer and be involved in even more combat.

Thanks to its turboprop engine and advanced sensors, the Reaper can fly twice as fast and reach much higher altitudes than the Predator. And it doesn’t miss much on the ground — even from miles above.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,389962,00.html

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July 23, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

Release Date: July 23, 2008

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Homeland Security (DHS) released guidance on allocating and targeting pandemic influenza vaccine. The guidance provides a planning framework to help state, tribal, local and community leaders ensure that vaccine allocation and use will reduce the impact of a pandemic on public health and minimize disruption to society and the economy.

“This guidance is the result of a deliberative democratic process,” HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. “All interested parties took part in the dialogue; we are confident that this document represents the best of shared responsibility and decision-making.”

“A severe pandemic has the potential to disrupt our everyday way of life,” said DHS Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jeffrey Runge. “This guidance was developed to ensure that our nation’s critical infrastructure remains up and running and we address the needs of all of our citizens, enabling the country to recover from a pandemic more quickly.”

As part of developing the guidance, HHS held day-long public engagement and stakeholder meetings throughout the country and received more than 200 written public comments on the goals and objectives of pandemic vaccination. In all the meetings, stakeholders and the public identified the same four vaccination program objectives as the most important:

• Protect persons critical to the pandemic response and who provide care for persons with pandemic illness;
• Protect persons who provide essential community services;
• Protect persons who are at high risk of infection because of their occupation; and
• Protect children.

The guidance is also firmly rooted in the most up-to-date scientific information available and directly considers the values of our society and the ethical issues involved in planning a phased approach to pandemic vaccination.

The ultimate goal of the pandemic vaccination program is to vaccinate every person in the United States who wants to be vaccinated. Because pandemic vaccine cannot be made fast enough for everyone to be vaccinated at once, federal, state, local and tribal governments, communities, and the private sector can use the guidance to decide who should be vaccinated during this early stage to best protect people and communities.

The guidance’s vaccination structure defines four broad target groups: people who 1) maintain homeland and national security, 2) provide health care and community support services, 3) maintain critical infrastructure and 4) are in the general population.

Everyone in the United States is included in at least one vaccination target group. People who are not included in any occupational group would be vaccinated as part of the general population based on their age and health status.

While vaccines are an important resource in a pandemic, vaccination will only be one of several tools to fight the spread of influenza if and when a pandemic emerges. Other tools include community public health measures, antiviral medications, facemasks and respirators, washing hands, and covering coughs and sneezes.

 http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1216831362171.shtm

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July 21, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

(InfoWeek, 7/8/08)In order to enhance the security of air travel and to help manage illegal immigration, the Department of Homeland Security has solicited a proposal from a Canadian security company to develop a passenger stun bracelet. Like the pain collars featured in the classic Star Trek episode The Gamesters of Triskelion, Lamperd Less Lethal’s electro-muscular disruption (EMD) bracelet is intended to incapacitate wearers on remote command.

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July 21, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

 (Forbes.com, 7/17/08)

U.S. companies need to be increasingly careful about what they tell their Chinese engineers.Last August J. Reece Roth, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Tennessee, passed along a research paper to Sirous Nourgostar, a graduate student from Iran working under his supervision. It contained details on refined plasma actuator technology, which uses ionized gas to improve aircraft control. Roth was doing research on flight performance for a U.S. Air Force contractor and had relied on the assistance of Nourgostar and of Xin Dai, a Chinese national also studying under him.

That turned out to be a bad idea. In May Roth and the penny stock company he was working for were indicted by the federal government for violating an export control law that carries a maximum jail term of ten years. Roth’s business partner, Daniel Sherman, pleaded guilty and fingered Roth for giving Dai restricted data. Roth, who pleaded not guilty, got entangled in a little-known area of export law that is alarming big business and scientific researchers. It covers transfers of controlled technological information to foreigners on U.S. soil. The transfers are considered exports because they are “deemed” to be going to the country where the recipient is a citizen.

http://www.forbes.com/global/2008/0721/042.html

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July 19, 2008 by Tim McDowell.

This event, sponsored by the Virginia Association of Hazardous Materials Response Specialists in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, features over 60 educational workshops and an exhibition area featuring the latest products and technology for the hazardous materials industry. [View event website]

http://virginiahazmat.org/displayconvention.cfm

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