Homeland Security News
Homegrown Terrorism
On November 9, 2009, U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan entered the crowded Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas, and opened fire on soldiers, killing 13 and wounding 32 others.
Hasan had been corresponding with a radical imam in the months leading up to the shootings. How many other individuals are falling into the clutches of radical ideology? Personal contacts, publications, and the Internet provide the indoctrination, but not everyone exposed to these sinister forces takes the bait, contemplates murder, and acts on their thoughts - only those with vulnerable psyches.
• Who becomes a homegrown terrorist?
• Why do they become terrorists?
• What are the personality traits of those individuals who are most vulnerable to the radical message?
• What are the motivational factors that draw them in?
Terr...
Prepare for the worst
There's an ABCHS (American Board for Certification in Homeland Security) certification that confirms a candidate’s preparation for all types of disasters. The year 2011, which has become the year of disasters, illustrates the need for the kind of awareness you demonstrate when you become Certified in Disaster Preparedness, CDP-I®:
• Floods along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers have displaced people and destroyed infrastructure, including 130,000 acres of Illinois farmland that the U.S. Army Corps of engineers flooded to save the town of Cairo, Illinois.
• Massive tornados destroyed wide swaths of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Joplin, Missouri, killing hundreds of people. Smaller communities have been wiped off the map.
• In addition to natural disasters, the year began with a shocking manmade...
Smuggling: The Subterranean Threat
The current issue of Inside Homeland Security has an article about smuggling tunnels, which are a security concern on the U.S. southwestern border. In "Smuggling Tunnels: The Need for a Transnational Analysis," Terrance G. Lichtenwald and Frank S. Perri warn about the ease with which a tunnel for smuggling drugs could easily become a conduit of terror.
The writers compared the use of tunnels in other security hot spots across the globe and found that terrorists and criminals may share tunnels, and that one type of smuggler may coexist or cooperate with the other. Conditions are right for hybrid tunnel use on our southwest border, they conclude.
Illegal tunnel activity has been on the rise since the first documented tunnel was discovered in 1990. Since then, 154 tunnel attempts have been discovered, all but one of which were located along the southwest border, James A. Dinkins, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Executive Associate Director, told ...
