SecurityBeat

Reported by Stew Magnuson

SecurityBeat “Almost five years after 9/11, and the Department of Homeland Security still hasn’t …” was a phrase often heard in Washington in the first half of 2006.

The department, however, did release its long-awaited National Infrastructure Protection Plan in June, which was just nine weeks before this symbolic deadline. The 196-page document came two and a half years after a presidential directive called for DHS to formulate a strategy to clearly define the responsibilities for federal, state, local governments and the private sector in protecting critical infrastructure and key resources.

Next step: more plans. Seventeen of them to be exact. Industries and government agencies will have only to the end of the calendar year to write more detailed plans on how to best protect their individual turfs.

James Caverly, director of the infrastructure partnership division in DHS, said at the Infragard conference in Washington, D.C., that the plans will detail ways the government and the private sector can work as “peers” to share and protect sensitive information.

The critical infrastructure and key resources have been broken down into 17 categories such as agriculture and food, defense industrial base, public health, banking and finance, national monuments and icons, transportation, energy and water. Different federal agencies will involved — the Treasury Department for banking, the Department of Agriculture for food supply and the Environmental Protection Agency for water. The DHS office of infrastructure protection will be responsible for the chemical industry, dams, emergency services and commercial nuclear reactors.

After Dec. 31, the separate government and private sector committees will work together to improve information sharing and databases of critical infrastructure. The “sector coordinating councils” are made up of associations and large companies in their fields, and are designed to be self organized and self governed.

The plans should be more in-depth than “guns, gates and guards,” which may have been put in place immediately after 9/11, Caverly said. They should concentrate on the NIPP’s stated goals of deterring threats, mitigating vulnerabilities and minimizing consequences in the event that something does go wrong, Caverly said.

Even though there are overlapping responsibilities in the plan, “if someone blows up a waterworks, I strongly suspect the call is going to the head of DHS,” Caverly said.

More Questions Than Answers On Counter Missile Technology

The Department of Homeland Security, which was tasked by Congress to study options to protect commercial airliners from shoulder-fired missiles, sent a relentlessly downbeat report to Capitol Hill, detailing just how many hurdles it must overcome to outfit every jetliner with protective devices.

On the technological side, results of preliminary tests show a laser-based system “partially meeting the DHS performance requirements.” But these tests are being carried out on the Boeing 767 and McDonnell Douglas MD-11, which comprise only 5 percent of the domestic commercial fleet. Federal Aviation Administration certification for the technology will have to be approved separately for each aircraft type. There is still much work to be done on the narrow-body, regional jets that the commuter airlines use. Most shoulder-fired missiles are designed to take down smaller aircraft such as these.

Logistically, there are still few answers on the maintenance burden for airlines. However, inflation and fuel are now expected to cost the airline $365 per flight, up from $300 at the beginning of the project. During Phase III of the development process, counter-missile technology will be installed on courier jets to give engineers real-world data.

“Until a significant number of [counter-missile] units are installed and maintained by airlines, uncertainty regarding operation and maintenance costs will remain,” the report said.

On the bureaucratic and legal side, complications may arise when flying aircraft overseas. The military-based technology will run afoul of International Traffic in Arms Regulations that prohibit the export of such systems. Furthermore, each country where the airplane lands would have the right to certify the system’s safety. Airlines have expressed fears that they would be held liable in the event that a missile penetrates the protective shield and takes down an aircraft.

DHS estimated it would take 20 years to equip every U.S. airliner with missile defenses.

Meanwhile, the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events at the University of Southern California said coordinated shoulder-fired missile attacks on multiple airliners would cost the U.S. economy about $250 billion.

“We believe that could have the same effect as 9/11 on the airline industry with the ripple effects on the economy,” said Detlof von Winterfeldt, the co-author of a report on the cost effectiveness of missile countermeasures.

The model doesn’t assume that every missile fired would successfully take down an airliner. Even if the terrorists missed, “at that point, the public, the newspapers will know that there is this capability, and I think there will be a significant impact on the airline industry,” he told National Defense.

The report’s aim was not to specifically endorse counter-missile programs, but to outline the possible impact of such attacks. The best that it can do is say “that this is seriously worth considering,” he added.

Interest Widens in Water-From-Air Technology

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has purchased two water extraction units from Aqua Sciences Inc. of Miami Beach, Fla.

The recent hurricanes, the Southeast Asian tsunami and the war in Iraq have spurred increased interest in technology that can produce drinking water from the air or automotive exhaust.

Aqua Sciences and Hamilton Sundstrand of Windsor Locks, Conn., displayed their water recovery systems for Army officials at a recent tactical wheeled vehicle technology demonstration at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md.

Officials at both companies said Army officials are interested in systems that can be scaled down and fit into the back of a Humvee to produce “water on the go.”

Water-from-exhaust systems can recover about a half-gallon of water for every gallon of fuel, said Doug Snowdon, an engineer with Hamilton Sundstrand. “The water tastes very flat, like distilled water,” he said.

Mike O’Connor, program manager at Aqua Sciences, said atmospheric conditions effects how much water can be collected from air extraction systems. Even in hot, dry areas such as Iraq, water can be extracted. Cold and dry weather produces less water than desert conditions, he said.

“When the temperature is 30 degrees and the relative humidity is 5 or 10 percent, that definitely affects the amount of water that we can produce,” O’Connor said.

Court Allows Random Searches in Subways

As airline passengers endured more stringent searches in the wake of an alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound jets, a federal court of appeals in August upheld a ruling allowing for random bag searches in New York subway stations.

Checking every bag for explosives with the thoroughness of airport security has never been practical or proposed.

The New York City Police Department in 2005, however, set up a random system to check large bags for explosives. It was immediately challenged in court by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The NYPD said the purpose of the searches was to act as a deterrent. The appearance of random searches at random stations would create enough hesitation on the part of potential terrorists for them to abort an attack, the department maintained.

The police set up a table outside turnstiles and chose passengers carrying bags large enough to carry explosives on a numeric, random basis, which was about every fifth or tenth person. The officers were not permitted to inspect containers too small to carry a bomb, such as small purses or wallets. They could not arrest anyone for refusing inspection, but those who did, could not re-enter the subway. If they attempted to return, they were subject to arrest. Police could not intentionally look for other contraband, although if they incidentally came across it, they could make an arrest. They could not read any material in a bag or ask for personal information. The inspection could last no longer than it took to determine if a bag contained an explosive device.

The civil liberties union argued that the program was “not sufficiently effective to justify subjecting millions of daily subway riders to police searches.” There were too few police assigned to the task to thwart at attack, it argued.

In a bench trial, the NYPD brought out several expert witnesses who testified that the program could act as a deterrent. Ultimately, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit agreed.

“An unexpected change of plans might well stymie the attack, disrupt the synchronicity of multiple bombings, or at least reduce casualties by forcing the terrorist to detonate in a less populated location,” Judge Chester J. Straub wrote in affirming the decision.

DHS to Upgrade Nuclear Detection Capabilities

The Department of Homeland Security awarded three contracts to upgrade its radiation detection portals at U.S. ports of entry. The $1.15 billion program aims to decrease the false alarm rates in current systems.

Raytheon Co.’s Integrated Defense Systems, Thermo Electron Corp. and Canberra Industries Inc. were each given one-year contracts with four-year options.

Current devices, employed by Customs and Border Protection domestically and overseas, have had difficulty distinguishing between naturally occurring radiation and the type found in weapons. However, they will remain in place as the new system is rolled out.

“The advanced spectroscopic portal provides significant improvement in the detection of special nuclear materials such as highly enriched uranium and weapons grade plutonium,” said Vayl Oxford, director of the DHS’ domestic nuclear detection office.

Raytheon officials said their advanced spectroscopic system will be able to speed containers through portals at 20 to 30 miles per hour.

False alarm rates currently stand at about one of every 40 containers inspected, which is slowing down commerce, said Michael Sharp, Raytheon’s ASP program director, at a press briefing. Such items as kitty litter and bananas have set off the machines.

The Massachusetts-based contractor will deliver 32 systems, with the first five to be shipped in November. These will be used to test the system.

While the initial contracts call for 80 portals, DHS wants 1,400 to be in place by 2011, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said. The Department of Energy through its Mega-Ports program will be in charge of deploying the portals overseas.

DHS is also beginning work on the cargo advanced automated radiography system, which will detect high-density material that could be used to shield radiological materials from ASP systems.

Lianne Ing, vice president of business development for Bubble Technology Industries, an Ontario, Canada-based subcontractor for Raytheon, said the November tests will prove the technology works.

“There’s going to be a real and tangible difference in the performance when these systems are fielded,” she said. Preliminary testing has shown a ten-fold improvement in reducing false alarms, she said.

Email your comments to SMagnuson@ndia.org