Posts Tagged ‘Security’
Saturday, June 12th, 2010
 FBI special agent Richard J. Kolko confirmed the arrests of the New Jersey suspects. The arrests of two more Americans as would-be jihadists recently, as they were trying to board flights from New York City to Somalia, is a warning that the face of terror may be changing. Threats not only come from abroad; they can be homegrown.
Domestic terrorism is not new … as this area, home to the late Timothy McVeigh, is all too aware. And the two New Jersey men unmasked by an undercover New York City police officer and arrested as they headed toward hoped-for terror training were just the latest episode in domestic arrests that started with the Lackawanna Six shortly after 9/11.
So far, there have been 49 cases of radicalization and recruitment to jihadist terrorism within the United States, and 133 arrests. And so far, the would-be terrorists have proven, thankfully, inept.
But it only takes one. And America must not let down its guard.
“There is no long mile between the terrorist wannabe and the lethal zealot,” Rand Corp. analyst Brian Jenkins testified May 26 before the House Homeland Security Committee.
America’s Muslim-American community plays a huge role in maintaining our guard. It has indeed been helpful … the local chapter of the Muslim American Public Affairs Committee has been recognized for its work with the FBI … but there must be no let-up in community condemnation of terrorism and the organizations that support it. (more…)
Saturday, June 5th, 2010
 Yemeni officials have claimed that some of the foreign nationals detained have connections with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up a transatlantic airliner on Christmas Day last year, and Anwar al-Awlaki, a jihadist cleric.
The arrests of the British nationals follow an investigation into the activities of an Australian woman by police in the capital Sana’a after information was supposedly passed to the Yemenis by the Australian government.
Shyloh Jayne Giddens, a Muslim convert who moved to Yemen to bring up her two children in an Islamic country, has been detained without charge in Sana’a's political prison since May 15.
Her Australian passport was cancelled two months ago by the Australian government for “national security reasons”.
Ms Giddens, 30, was teaching English in Sana’a at the time of her arrest. She denies having any terrorist links.
At least two of the British nationals being held are of Yemeni extraction, and others detained include American and French nationals as well as “Asians and Africans”, the Independent reports.
Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian student responsible for the failed Christmas Day attack, told US investigators after his arrest that there were “many like me” trained by the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP).
US intelligence officials warned in February that al-Qaeda was trying to recruit English-speaking westerners, particularly women, who could easily slip past security controls to launch terrorist attacks.
Saturday, June 5th, 2010
 About 150 automatic number plate recognition cameras (ANPRs) have been installed in two predominantly Muslim areas of Britain’s second biggest city Birmingham from the government’s anti-terrorism fund, it was reported Saturday. The cameras, including 40 concealed in walls and trees, are targeted to track the precise movement of people entering and leaving the Sparkbrook and Washwood Heath neighbourhoods of Birmingham, central England in the first surveillance of its kind in the UK.
The installation project, which is three times the number to monitor the city centre, was principally been sold to locals as an attempt to combat antisocial behavior, vehicle crime and drug dealing in the area.
But according to the Guardian, the cameras have been paid for by a £3 million grant from the Terrorism and Allied Matters Fund, which has been previously used to monitor potential targets but not whole communities.
Respect Party councillor for Sparkbrook Salma Yaqoob said that the funding arrangement was not made clear to the local authority, which was only told at a briefing the money was from the Home Office.
“The terrorism aspect was certainly not emphasised in that meeting. In fact it was me having to be portrayed as the awkward squad, or even paranoid, for even raising the issue of whether this was really about counterterrorism,” Yaqoob said.
“I raised my concern then: is this really about spying?” she said, but who was told “No, this is about burglary and crime.”
The surveillance of Muslims is in addition to the government’s Prevent extremism program, which the Institute of Race Relations has already castigated as “one of the most elaborate systems of surveillance ever seen in Britain”.
Prevent, set up by the Home Office over two years ago, offers additional funding to work with community groups to effectively spy on all Muslims as potential terrorists.
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
By Helen T. Gray, McClatchy-Tribune News Service
 A security officer examines a computer screen showing a scan from a RapiScan full-body scanner at Manchester Airport, Photograph by: Phil Noble, Reuters KANSAS CITY, Mo. – As Mahnaz Shabbir thought about a coming flight, she grew worried about the full-body scanners used at some airports.
Kansas City International Airport will be one of 11 airports getting body scanners by this summer, federal authorities announced last week. The scanner coming to KCI would be installed at a security checkpoint serving Southwest Airlines.
Shabbir is concerned that the scanners might compromise the modesty teachings in Islam. Other religious groups, such as Orthodox Jews and conservative Christians, express similar views.
The question is whether religious teachings on modesty will be trampled in the march toward better security.
“In Islam, both men and women should dress modestly,” said Shabbir, who does diversity training. “Women covering their arms, chest and hair are part of being modest, even though some Muslim women may not cover their hair and even wear sleeveless tops.
“But the body scan is going underneath our clothing and going where nobody should be looking except your spouse and your physician. So when some strange person, even in another room, is looking at you, my thought is, ‘Oh, my gosh, who is looking at my body?’” (more…)
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Muslim woman and companion gave religious and medical reasons for refusing scan at Manchester airport
 Manchester and Heathow are the first airports in Britain to have full-body scanners. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images Two women, one a Muslim, have become the first people to be barred from boarding a flight because they refused to go through a full-body airport scanner.
Manchester airport confirmed today that the women, who were booked to fly to Islamabad with Pakistan International Airlines, were told they could not get on the plane after they refused to be scanned for medical and religious reasons.
The women had been selected at random, said the airport.
The Muslim woman decided to forfeit her ticket and left her luggage at the airport. Her companion also left the airport saying she did not go through the scanner on medical grounds because she had an infection. (more…)
Tags: Body Scanner, Pakistan, Privacy, Security, Terrorism, Women Posted in Body Scanner, Pakistan, Privacy, Security, Terrorism, Women | No Comments »
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Thursday, March 25th, 2010
 Uh oh. Bad news for full body scanner proponents. A 25-year-old airport worker in Britain has been “issued a warning” for sexual harassment for taking a scan of a female colleague, Jo Margetson, against her will.
Apparently, she thinks the scanners are mighty invasive:
“I can’t bear to think about the body scanner thing,” she told the Sun. “I’m totally traumatised. I’ve spoken to the police about it. I’m in too much of a state to go to work.”
via Airport worker given police warning for ‘misusing’ body scanner | UK news | guardian.co.uk.
Hmmmm, a Heathrow airport attendant flipping out because she was scanned isn’t very reassuring to anyone with privacy concerns about the machines.
On the other hand, she may be a very private person (Margetson only has 60 friends on Facebook, after all.) And the Guardian story does not clarify what exactly her role is at the airport. Maybe she’s not actually a “scanner person” and has been fooled by this hoax into thinking her colleague captured a porn star version of her.
Her privacy concerns were not allayed by her coworker, who, according to news reports, allegedly told her “I love those gigantic tits” after taking the scan.
It sounds like that guy was going to get hit with a sexual harassment charge regardless of the scanners.
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
LONDON (AP) — The privacy fears raised by the deployment of full body scanners at airports are overblown, a committee of British lawmakers said Wednesday, adding that the technology was no more of a threat to passengers’ rights than pat-downs or bag searches.
The government promised to install body scanners across Britain’s airports after a botched attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound jet on Dec. 25 — allegedly by a terrorist who hid explosives in his underwear. But privacy groups bristled at the prospect of scans that can peer under clothes to reveal hidden items, likening them to a “virtual strip search.”
The lawmakers said the fears were over-hyped.
“Air passengers already tolerate a large invasion of their privacy,” the House of Commons’ Home Affairs Committee said in a report covering counterterrorism measures at Britain’s airports. “We do not feel that full body scanners add greatly to this situation.”
The report welcomed the introduction of the scanners and recommended that other security measures be adopted quickly, including new equipment to sniff out trace levels of explosives. (more…)
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
 The United States will supply drone aircraft to Pakistan which will significantly enhance the country’s surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, visiting U. S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.
Talking to reporters in Islamabad, Gates said that 12 RQ-7 Shadow unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be part of one billion dollar allocation for Pakistan from its Coalition Support Fund.
He said weapons and equipment will also be provided to Pakistan for the war against terrorism.
The Shadow UAVs will help build the Pakistan Army’s capacity for intelligence-gathering, said the U.S. defense secretary.
Gates did not reply to a question whether the U.S. would impose any condition as that the Shadow drones could not be used along Pakistan’s eastern border with India. (more…)
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
 Airport officials thought to be investigating whether passports were genuine or fake They were arrested along with five Pakistani nationals after they were allegedly seen swapping boarding cards, the officials said.
However, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said that no British nationals had been arrested.
According to a Pakistan immigration official, five British nationals were booked onto a flight to Manchester, believed to be operated by local airline Air Blue, while the Pakistani nationals were due to board a flight to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The ten had already completed immigration and security checks, including having their photographs taken, and were in the departure lounge when they were arrested, the officials said.
A Foreign office spokesman said there was no indication that the incident was terrorism-related, while other sources suggested the motivation for swapping boarding cards was more likely to be illegal immigration into Britain by the Pakistani nationals.
“We’re investigating their motives,” said a Pakistan interior ministry official.
Saturday, January 16th, 2010
 Clients in the capital city complain that the private security companies are ignoring the quality of their employees, adding that some companies are not well qualified and their employees not well trained while several companies even enter into illegal operation for profits.
A security manager of a private security company based in Islamabad, on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that some of the companies have training facilities for their employees but most of the companies don’t concentrate on enhancing the security-related skills of its employees.
”Companies like ours always prefer to employ personnel of the armed forces and believe that they are already trained, but for non-armed man the companies have no training facilities. I think even the ex-army men need some training,” he said.
Private security companies are supposed to train their guards or hire ex-servicemen, but in reality they are not following the serules, clients said.
Moreover, dozens of companies don’t pay salaries to the guards on a periodic basis, while payment of some companies are too low to satisfy its employed guards who sometime perform duties for more than 10 hours a day.
A 48-year-old guard of a private company told Xinhua that he hasn’t got his last month salary so far as they are paid, generally, after 54 days. He said that he is an ex-army man and a retired driver.
He said he had gone through a month-long training after he joined the previous company but in the current company he got no training.
Another guard, 50, who retired from Pakistani army said the company pays him a monthly salary of 6,000 Pakistani rupees (about71 U.S. dollars) while the company charges its clients much more.
”After retirement I joined a security company in Karachi then came to Rawalpindi. In the present company I don’t know even about the status of any contract, neither they signed any contract with me,” he said.
Without any leave policy and with a low pay, he said he had to quit. (more…)
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