Monday, May 25, 2009

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North Korea Conducts Underground Nuclear Bomb Test


Posted: 24 May 2009 11:25 PM PDT



North Korea Conducts Underground Nuclear Bomb Test


Tremors from a 4.7 magnitude artificial earthquake were detected just before

ten o’clock local time, after North Korea detonated a bomb in a bunker six
miles underground.


The rogue state, which had previously tested a nuclear weapon in October

2006, boasted that its latest test was more powerful “in terms of its
explosive power” and more technologically-advanced.


“We successfully conducted another underground nuclear test on May 25

as part of measures aimed at strengthening our self-defence nuclear deterrent

in every way,” said the state-run North Korean news wire.


The test will “contribute to safeguarding our sovereignty and socialism and
guaranteeing peace and safety on the Korean peninsula and the surrounding
region,” it added.


The test site was around 230 miles north east of Pyongyang, according to the

United States Geological Survey. The location is just a few miles from where
North Korea tested its first nuclear device in 2006.


Yonhap, the South Korean news wire, also reported that a single ground-to-air
missile, with a range of 80 miles, was fired from a launch site nearby just a few

hours later. The rogue state is not thought to have yet developed a missile
capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, experts said.


Taro Aso, the Japanese prime minister, said he would set up a task force to

handle the situation and seek an emergency meeting of the UN Security
Council to discuss a plan of action.


The US, meanwhile, said it was not able to confirm the reports of a test, and

was seeking “more information from its allies” before making a
statement.


Source


Report: Pyongyang also test-fires short-range missile…


Korea military forms crisis team…


Japan says test ‘unacceptable’…


U.S. ‘gravely concerned’…


Britain: ‘Breach’ of UN resolutions…


Asian markets rattled…



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information.






Homeland Security - New Disaster Shelter System Announced


Posted: 24 May 2009 09:32 PM PDT



Federal officials on Tuesday announced a new national shelter system to help

locate temporary housing for victims of hurricanes and other natural
disasters.


The shelter system is a key part of preparations for hurricane
season, which begins June 1.


Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Craig Fugate,
the new director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, called for

the public to help prepare for storms, mostly by devising family evacuation

plans.


“We are only going to be as successful as the public is prepared,” Fugate said.

“There are a lot of folks who are going to need very specific help that should
not have to compete with the rest of us.”


Fugate was sworn into office on Tuesday.

He and Napolitano briefed governors and emergency-management officials from

more than a dozen hurricane-prone states via video teleconference. They
plan to tour federal facilities in Miami on Friday to assess emergency

preparedness.


The shelter system will form a nationwide database of thousands of places to

go in an emergency.


It includes a variety of housing, including trailers.


“Often times in a really big disaster, people may have to leave the area while housing

is rebuilt,” Napolitano said.


FEMA also is developing a security communications system to allow officials to
communicate with many states and jurisdictions at the same time.

via New disaster shelter system announced - Los Angeles Times.



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information.






Crisis Preparedness - What We Can Learn From Israel


Posted: 24 May 2009 09:26 PM PDT



Report suggests that America can learn much from Israeli example on public

crisis preparedness.


It’s a widely accepted truism in American politics that an engaged citizenry is

the best defense. Yet, when it comes to emergency preparedness, the American

public remains incredibly unengaged in the process, largely lacking both the

knowledge and the opportunity to participate proactively and constructively.


A report titled Public Role and Engagement In Counterterrorism Efforts:

Implications of Israeli Practices for the U.S., prepared for the U.S. Department

of Homeland Security’s Office of Science and Technology by the Homeland

Security Institute (a federally-funded research and development center

which serves as the Department’s think tank) examines both why that is

the case, and how study of Israeli citizen involvement in crisis response

might help US preparedness and “social resilience” improve.


The study was co-authored by Dr. Sibel McGee (the principal investigator),

Catherine Bott, Vikram Gupta, Kimberly Jones and Alex Karr. Published as a

PDF document it has not yet been released on the web.


“The successful management of emergency situations,” according to the

report, “ requires not only competent emergency response personnel and

prudent and effective emergency plans by the local/ state/federal government,

but also a public that is equipped and empowered with knowledge and

information.”


The report cites Israel as a primary example of a nation with an effective track

record in motivating and maintaining public mobilization in support of
counterterrorism efforts. A reflection of that success, the report suggests, is

that “the level of public understanding of the terrorist threat and readiness for

terror-induced emergencies is such that Israeli public has an impressive ability

to bounce back from frequent terrorist attacks.”


To accomplish this, according to the report, the Israeli government pursues

a comprehensive and diverse program to bolster a strong public resilience and
utilizes it as a deliberate counterterrorism tool.


Source



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information.






Sci-Fi Writers Dream Up Plans for Homeland Security


Posted: 24 May 2009 07:04 PM PDT



The line between what’s real and what’s not is thin and shifting, and the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security has decided to explore both sides. Boldly

going where few government bureaucracies have gone before, the agency is

enlisting the expertise of science fiction writers.


Crazy? This week down at the Reagan Building, the 2009 Homeland Security

Science & Technology Stakeholders Conference has been going on. Instead of just
another wonkish series of meetings and a trade show, with contractors hustling

business around every corner, this felt at times more like a convention of

futuristic yarn-spinners.


Onstage in the darkened amphitheater, a Washington police commander said

he’d like to have Mr. Spock’s instant access to information: At a disaster scene,
he’d like to say, “Computer, what’s the dosage on this medication?”


A federal research director fantasized about a cellphone that could simultaneously

text and detect biochemical attacks. Multiple cellphones in a crowd would confirm

and track the spread.


The master of ceremonies for the week was Greg Bear, the sci-fi novelist whose

book “Quantico” featured FBI agents battling a designer plague targeting
specific ethnic groups.


Source



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information.






U.S. Cyberattack Console Aims to Turn Grunts into Hackers


Posted: 24 May 2009 07:00 PM PDT



The U.S. military is putting together a suite of hacking tools that could one day

make breaking into networks as easy for the average grunt as kicking down a
door.


That’s the word from Aviation Week, which snuck an unusual peek inside a

“U.S. cyberwarfare attack laboratory.” There, researchers are building a “device”
that would “weaponiz[e] cyberattack for the non-cyberspecialist, military user.”


In recent years, Defense Department officials have thumped their chests, hard,

about how good the Pentagon is at hacking enemy networks. But discussing
specific online attacks — ordinarily,
that’s done mostly inside of secure facilities.

A 2008 Danger Room post on an unclassified Air Force research project to give

cyberwarriors “full control” of “any and all” computers set of a frenzy inside

the service. Generals were pelted with questions about how such supposedly-

sensitive information was allowed to escape into the public sphere. Since then,

there have been increased calls within military circles to show off at least some

of what the armed forces’ network attackers can do. It’s an effective way

of detering potential foes online, the logic goes.


The device described to Aviation Week is designed “to tap into satellite

communications, voice over Internet, proprietary Scada [supervisory control

and data acquisition] networks — virtually any wireless network.” And it would

be able to do so in a way that makes sense to n00bs.


via U.S.
Cyberattack Console Aims to Turn Grunts into Hackers Danger Room
Wired.com
.



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information.






U.S. Will Rely On Allies in Terror Cases


Posted: 24 May 2009 06:56 PM PDT



The United States is now relying heavily on foreign intelligence services to

capture, interrogate and detain all but the highest-level terrorist suspects

seized outside the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to current

and former American government officials.


The change represents a significant loosening of the reins for the United

States, which has worked closely with allies to combat violent extremism

since the 9/11 attacks but is now pushing that cooperation to new limits.


In the past 10 months, for example, about a half-dozen midlevel financiers

and logistics experts working with Al Qaeda have been captured and are

being held by intelligence services in four Middle Eastern countries after

the United States provided information that led to their arrests by local

security services, a former American counterterrorism official said.


Read Full Article



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information.






10 Chemical Vials Stolen From University of Waterloo
Researchers


Posted: 24 May 2009 03:27 PM PDT



Police are searching for 10 vials of a deadly substance after it was stolen

from a group of University of Waterloo students who were doing research

at a nearby river.


Students were conducting water tests at Moyer’s Landing Park along

Grand River in Cambridge around 9 a.m. Saturday when they noticed

10 vials of sodium azide had been taken from a cooler at the research

site, said Waterloo regional police.


The stolen goods are being described as clear liquid inside clear glass vials

with vacuum seal tops. Each vial contains about 160 mL of the chemical.


According to the Ontario Poison Centre, the chemical can enter humans

through skin contact, inhalation, ingestion and intravenous injection.


While it may produce a pungent odour when reacting to metals or
other liquids, the Centre for Disease
Control warns that by the time a victim

notices the smell, it may be too late.


Symptoms of consumption include low blood pressure, diarrhea, vomiting,

central nervous system depression causing sleepiness or even comas, chest

pain, heart rhythm problems, shortness of breath, seizures and acute heart

attacks.


Exposure can be fatal if left untreated.


Source



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information.















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