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New York City Police to Conduct ‘Dirty Bomb’ Training Exercise in April
The New York City Police Department and a dozen regional partners will conduct a full-scale exercise early next month to test their ability to detect and intercept radioactive materials that could be used in a terrorist attack.
The exercise will be held from April 5 to April 9 and will involve 150 agencies, including law enforcement and first responders, working in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Paul Browne, a department spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement.
The exercise is part of the Securing the Cities initiative funded by the U.S. Homeland Security Department, which works to prevent terrorists from infiltrating a major city with a so- called dirty bomb or nuclear device, Browne said.
“The public can expect to observe increased law enforcement activity throughout the tri-state region in the form of traffic checkpoints and grid searches,” Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in the statement. “In particular, increased activity may be observed on roadways and transit hubs leading into New York City and may result in traffic delays in off-peak hours.”
5 Ways DHS Violates the Constitution with Website Domain Seizures
Last week, Bryan McCarthy, the 32 year old operator of ChannelSurfing.net, was arrested on charges of criminal copyright infringement. ChannelSurfing.net was one of the streaming sports sites that had its domain seized by federal authorities shortly before the Super Bowl as part of the “In Our Sites” program, run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Prior to the seizure, McCarthy reportedly made more than $90,000 from advertisements on his site.
This arrest has once again raised questions about the In Our Sites program, in which the Government has seized thousands of domains accused, but not convicted, of copyright infringement, illegal streaming of sporting events, selling black market goods and distributing child pornography. Critics ranging from bloggers to individual Read more…
U.S. might be giving away sensitive military technology, report finds
Sensitive military technology might be slipping into enemy hands, in part because of a dramatic decline in the number of foreign workers that the Commerce Department screens, federal auditors have found.
For national security purposes, the United States controls the export of so-called dual-use technologies — items that have both civilian and military uses, including computer security tools — to countries of concern, including Iran and North Korea.
One way to restrict the transfer of such technology is for Commerce to screen visa applications from foreign nationals who wish to work in U.S. high-tech companies.
But the Commerce Department, the agency responsible for checking visa applications to identify potential unlicensed exports, is not screening thousands of those forms, according to a Government Accountability Office report released on Monday.
Reduced visa application vetting is one of several factors that “may indicate the continuing risk that foreign nationals could gain unauthorized access to controlled technology,” the auditors wrote.
Commerce checked only 150 visa forms in fiscal 2009, a dramatic drop from Read more…
Secretive X-37B Space Plane Launches on New Mystery Mission
| space.com
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| The Air Force’s second X-37B robot space plane blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on March 5, 2011 to begin its secret Orbital Test Vehicle 2 mission. CREDIT: United Launch Alliance |
After being delayed a day by bad weather, the U.S. Air Force’s second X-37B robotic space plane blasted off from Florida this afternoon (March 5) on a mystery mission shrouded in secrecy.
The unmanned X-37B mini-shuttle — known as Orbital Test Vehicle 2 (OTV-2) — took to the skies from Cape Canaveral at 5:46 p.m. EST (2246 GMT) today, tucked away in the nose cone atop a huge Atlas 5 rocket.
“Liftoff of the Atlas 5 rocket and the second experimental X-37B, America’s miniature military space shuttle,” the Air Force Space Command wrote in a Twitter post as the Atlas 5 streaked into the Florida skies.
The space plane was originally scheduled to launch yesterday, but cloudy, windy conditions scrubbed two attempts. And a technical glitch caused the X-37B to miss a launch window earlier this afternoon; a faulty valve had to be replaced in a last-minute repair.
The X-37B’s mission is classified, but Air Force officials have said the vehicle will be used to test out new spacecraft technologies. Shortly after launch, the mission went into a scheduled media blackout, with no further public updates.
Today’s launch marks the start of the X-37B program’s second space mission. The Air Force’s other X-37B plane, known as OTV-1, returned to Earth in December 2010 after a similarly mysterious seven-month maiden mission. [Photos: First Flight of the X-37B Space Plane]
CREDIT: USAF
Mysterious mini-shuttle
The X-37B spacecraft looks a bit like NASA’s space shuttles, only much smaller. The vehicle is about 29 feet long by 15 feet wide (8.8 by 4.5 meters), with a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed. By comparison, two entire X-37Bs could fit inside the payload bay of a space shuttle.
The space plane, built by Boeing for the U.S. military, can fly long, extended missions because of its solar array power system, which allows it to stay in orbit for up to nine months, Air Force officials have said. [Infographic: The X-37B Space Plane]
What exactly the vehicle does while circling the Earth for so long is a mystery, since the craft’s payloads and missions are classified. Partly as a result of the secrecy, some concern has been raised — particularly by Russia and China — that the X-37B is a space weapon of some sort.
But the Air Force has repeatedly denied that charge, claiming that the X-37B’s chief task is testing out new hardware for future satellites — instruments like sensors and guidance, control and navigation systems. And that’s likely to be the case, experts say.
“It gives the Air Force the ability to test-fly some of this hardware,” said Brian Weeden, a former Air Force orbital analyst who works as a technical adviser for the nonprofit Secure World Foundation.
Weeden suspects the X-37B is testing gear for the National Reconnaissance Office, the intelligence agency that builds and operates the U.S.’s spy satellites. That would explain all the secrecy, he said.
Second mission for the X-37B
The Air Force’s other X-37B, known as OTV-1, launched last April and returned in December after spending 224 days in space. While its mission was also classified, technology-testing was OTV-1’s primary job, too, Air Force officials have said.
CREDIT: United Launch Alliance
And things presumably went well, experts say, or the Air Force wouldn’t be launching the craft’s twin a few short months later.
While the X-37B is likely trying out new hardware, the vehicle itself is experimental — hence the “X” designation — so these flights should also help the Air Force assess the space plane as well as its payload.
“Part of its mission is to test out reusable technologies and to see how quickly they can turn around these vehicles and launch them again,” Weeden said.
Boeing’s Space and Intelligence Systems division builds the X-37B for the Air Force. Originally, NASA used the space plane as an experimental test bed until funding for the project ran out in 2004.
The vehicle then passed to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and was ultimately turned over to the Air Force in 2006.
DHS to gain real-time access to DoD biometrics
The Homeland Security Department hopes to soon have real-time access to the military’s biometrics database letting them better sort out who’s who at U.S. points of entry.
The capability will be similar to what DHS is already doing with the FBI, and through it, local law enforcement agencies around the country, said Bob Mocny, director of the Homeland Security Department’s U.S. VISIT program. U.S. VISIT, the office responsible for screening foreign visitors to the U.S.-is the main repository for DHS’ biometric data. That information, mainly fingerprint data, can be shared between DHS and the criminal record system that the FBI holds at its Criminal Justice Information Services division in West Virginia.
Mocny said DHS had already proven the value of biometric information sharing through the Secure Communities program, which lets participating local law enforcement see data Read more…
DHS To Begin Testing Portable DNA Scanner (Video)
Proof the government is preparing for a catastrophe
58% Favor Government Shutdown Until Spending Cuts Are Agreed Upon
As Republicans and Democrats in Congress haggle over the budget, most voters would rather have a partial shutdown of the federal government than keep its spending at current levels.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 33% of Likely U.S. Voters would rather have Congress avoid a government shutdown by authorizing spending at the same levels as last year. Fifty-eight percent (58%) says it’s better to have a partial shutdown until Democrats and Republicans can agree on what spending to cut. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The partisan differences are striking. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Democrats prefer avoiding a shutdown by going with current spending levels. But 80% of Republicans — and 59% of voters not affiliated with either major party — think a shutdown is a better option until Read more…
Court case warns EPA could ‘own’ your land!
By Bob Unruh
WorldNetDaily
 Mike and Chantell Sackett |
A legal team asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in an Idaho controversy is warning landowners that under the compliance order procedures being used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency virtually anyone could be told to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in permit fees – or face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and penalties – over ordinary home construction work.
A petition for certiorari has been submitted to the court by Pacific Legal, an organization working on behalf of the Sackett family of Idaho.
They own a half-acre lot in a residential area near Priest Lake and wanted to build a home. But after excavation work was begun the EPA “swooped in” with a “compliance order” that requires them to undo the excavation and restore the “wetlands,” and then leave it for Read more…
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