COVID-19 and Terrorism – 3-28-20

I briefly mentioned yesterday that the threat from domestic terrorists may be increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is a brief reading list of recent articles supporting that view. These are not intelligence reports by any means, but they do offer some insights into the potential problem.

• Self-Isolation Might Stop Coronavirus, but It Will Speed the Spread of Extremism

• Extremists Are Exploiting COVID-19 Pandemic To Inspire Supporters, NJ Officials Warn  

• Extremists Use Coronavirus to Advance Racist, Conspiratorial Agendas

I will share more information along these lines as it becomes available.

Congressional Hearings – Week of 10-06-13

With the government heading into its second week of fiscal fiasco the congress continues to schedule a variety of non-funding hearings. Last week most of those scheduled were canceled, probably due to inadequate staff support (staff pay is affected by the shut-down). This week we still see a fair number of scheduled hearings, four of which may be of specific interest to the chemical safety-security and cybersecurity communities. They include a second attempt at a TWIC markup, two transportation hearings and a terrorism hearing.

TWIC Markup

The Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a markup hearing on Wednesday that will address HR 3141, the Essential Transportation Worker Identification Credential Assessment Act. It appears that an amendment in the form of a substitute may be offered. A markup hearing last week that included this bill was postponed; no guarantees on this one.

Transportation Hearings

The Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday that will look at Maritime Transportation Regulations: Impacts on Safety, Security, Jobs and the Environment, Part 2. There is no witness list available so there is no telling exactly what might be included; potential topics of interest could include TWIC and hazmat regulations.

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s special Panel on 21st Century Freight Transportation will hold a hearing on Thursday looking at “Funding the Nation’s Freight System”. Taxes and fees and how they get allocated are always a concern. No witness list is available for this hearing.

Terrorism

The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday looking at “From al-Shabaab to al-Nusra: How Westerners Joining Terror Groups Overseas Affect the Homeland”. No witness list is available for this hearing either. I expect generic comments from non-government experts that will say operational experience will make returning fighters more of a threat.

Congressional Hearings – Week of 07-07-13

Congress will be back in town this week from their long Fourth of July weekend and there is just about a month remaining before their summer break. Historically budget and spending considerations will control the news and this week we will see at least one spending bill in Committee that might be of interest. We also have a cyber-espionage hearing, two looks at recent terrorist attacks and a TSCA hearing.

Spending

The House Appropriations Committee will mark up the FY 2014 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Bill on Wednesday. I haven’t paid a lot of attention to this bill in the past, but cybersecurity is likely to get significant mention, so I’ll keep an eye on this.

HR 2609, the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2014 will come to the House floor this week under a rule to be adopted Monday afternoon by the House Rules Committee. Nothing of particular interest here; what is interesting is that HR 2410, the Ag spending bill is not scheduled to come to the floor this week even though a rule was written before the recess. The Republican leadership is still apparently trying to work out a deal on the authorization bill and will apparently hold this bill until that problem is disposed of.

Cyber-Espionage

The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a hearing on Tuesday looking at “Cyber Espionage and the Theft of U.S. Intellectual Property and Technology”. I am a little concerned that the hearing is focusing solely on the intellectual property angle (very important, I know), but appears to be ignoring the problem of espionage looking for access to control systems a potentially much larger and more dangerous problem. Well, maybe that will be addressed in a subsequent hearing.

Terrorist Attack Reviews

The House Committee on Homeland Security will be holding a hearing on Wednesday looking at "Assessing Attacks on the Homeland: From Fort Hood to Boston.” Nothing specifically related to cybersecurity or chemical security is expected. The witness list is not currently available.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will be holding a hearing on Wednesday looking at “Lessons Learned from the Boston Marathon Bombings: Preparing for and Responding to the Attack”. Again I don’t expect anything specifically concerning cybersecurity or chemical security to be discussed. The witness list includes:

• Richard Serino, Federal Emergency Management Agency;

• Kurt N. Schwartz, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

• Edward F. Davis III, the City of Boston; and

• Arthur L. Kellermann, M.D., the RAND Corporation

Learning from successful terrorist attacks is very important. Even though these attacks did not include specific cybersecurity or chemical security components, the lessons learned will still have important applications to those security areas.

TSCA

The Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a hearing on Thursday looking at “Regulation of New Chemicals, Protection of Confidential Business Information, and Innovation”. No witness list is currently available.

Possible Hearings to Come

I have been hearing some comments, public and private, about some interesting hearings that are planned for later this month. It looks like there will be a House hearing on the West Fertilizer explosion which I suspect will include some pointed questions about the Ammonium Nitrate Security Program. I am expecting at least one House hearing on the status of the CFATS program with a special emphasis on the Personnel Surety Program.

Terrorist Words

The folks over at the Law Enforcement and Public Safety Network (LEAPS.TV) have an interesting project underway and they are looking for some assistance from the various security communities. They are preparing a CD with a variety of words and phrases associated with terrorism in the native language of a variety of terrorist organizations.


They are looking for input from the law enforcement and security communities as to what words and phrases should be included on the CD as well as suggestions as to what languages should be covered.

If you have any suggestions, contact Jim Cavanagh at Jim@leaps.tv.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have a training program that I have developed with LEAPS.TV and have other programs under development with them.