Update on Judiciary Committee Hearing

The Senate Judiciary Committee updated their web site today on their threat hearing that I mentioned in an earlier blog. The updated information includes witness list for the hearing and a change in the location. Somehow I got the date for the hearing wrong in my earlier blog, it will be held on Wednesday instead of the earlier reported Thursday.

Witnesses

There will be two witness panels for this hearing and neither of them have much in common with the Homeland Security Committee’s panel. The first panel will be government witnesses, including:

• Scott McAllister, Deputy Under Secretary State & Local Program Office, DHS;
• Roy L. Austin, Jr., Deputy Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division, DOJ; and
• Michael A. Clancy, Deputy Assistant Director Counterterrorism Division, FBI;

The public panel consists of:

• Harpreet Singh Saini, Oak Creek, WI;

• Daryl Johnson, Founder & Owner, DT Analytics, LLC; and
• James B. Jacobs, New York University School of Law

Hate Crimes

This hearing will be more focused on hate crimes than terrorism threats. These can still serve as the basis for attacks on high-risk chemical facilities if the perpetrator can find some link, even if only in his mind, between his hate and the facility. Facility security managers may still find some bits of intel here worth the price of admission.