Coastal Infrastructure : Risks grow as Americans continue to build on eroding coast

Published 30 September 2014

More than two million housing units have been built along the nation’s coast within the last twenty years, and as the American economy recovers after years of recession, development along the U.S. coastline is steadily increasing. Scientists warn, however, that building along coastlines could put life and property at risk due to erosion, rising sea levels, and storm damage.

More than two million housing units have been built along the nation’s coast within the last twenty years, and as the American economy recovers after years of recession, development along the U.S. coastline is steadily increasing, according to a new report from Reuters. Florida has the most coastline out of the contiguous forty-eight states. It boasts 1,350 miles of shoreline and represents a third of the nation’s coastal building.

Climate scientists warn, however, that building along coastlines could put life and property at risk due to erosion and climate change-induced rising sea levels and storm damage.

“Florida is lucky in that the geologic platform is far more stable than Louisiana and some of the other states where the apparent sea level rises fast, and also our erosion rate is slower than many states,” said Dr. Courtney Hackney, the director of University of North Florida’s coastal biology program. “But, we also have many areas around of coast that are really close to sea level. So, they’re extremely vulnerable and, as everyone in Florida knows, hurricanes are a common occurrence here.”

WJCT News reports that Florida state legislators have passed multiple laws intended to reduce development along the most vulnerable coastal areas, but the state government also offers strong incentives for developers to continuing building along Florida’s sea shore. “This has trapped the state in a cycle of working to maintain its perpetually eroding shores,” Reuters notes. Taxpayer funded projects that aim to replenish eroded beaches are unsustainable. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spent $150 million to replenish thirty-nine miles of Florida’s beaches in 2013.

“The solutions are either you armor the shoreline, which means that the beach for the public goes away, or you nourish. The nourishing facet works to the degree that those are sacrificial beaches,” Hackney said. “As you build up the beach one place, if you don’t do it along the entire coastline, that beach becomes the focus of wave energy, which means it erodes more quickly. The more time that goes on, the faster the erosion occurs.”

www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com 

Cybersecurity : $3 million in grants for three pilot projects to improve online security, privacy

Published 30 September 2014

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) the other day announced nearly $3 million in grants that will support projects for online identity protection to improve privacy, security and convenience. The three recipients of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) grants will pilot solutions that make it easier to use mobile devices instead of passwords for online authentication, minimize loss from fraud and improve access to state services.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) the other day announced nearly $3 million in grants that will support projects for online identity protection to improve privacy, security and convenience. The three recipients of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) grants will pilot solutions that make it easier to use mobile devices instead of passwords for online authentication, minimize loss from fraud and improve access to state services.

A NIST release notes that this is the third round of grants awarded through NSTIC, which was launched by the Obama administration in 2011 and is managed by NIST. The initiative supports collaboration between the private sector, advocacy groups and public-sector agencies to encourage the adoption of secure, efficient, easy-to-use and interoperable identity credentials to access online services in a way that promotes confidence, privacy, choice and innovation.

“The Commerce Department is committed to protecting a free and open Internet, while also working with the private sector to ensure consumers’ security and privacy,” said U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews. “The grants announced will help spur development of new initiatives that aim to protect people and businesses from online identity theft and fraud.”

NIST says that the NSTIC pilots have made progress both in advancing the strategy and fostering collaborations that would not otherwise have happened. One consortium of firms that are normally rivals wrote in its proposal, “Even if individual vendors in the identity space could develop a framework, it would be very difficult to get buy-in from other vendors who are competitors. With the recognition and funding from NSTIC, the pilot activities gain the vendor neutrality, visibility and credibility needed to get the various identity vendors to work together to develop a common framework that they can adopt.”

“The pilots take the vision and principles embodied in NSTIC and translate them into real solutions,” said NIST’s Jeremy Grant, senior executive advisor for identity management and head of the NSTIC National Program Office. “At a time when concerns about data breaches and identity theft are growing, these new NSTIC pilots can play an important role in fostering a marketplace of online identity solutions.”

The pilots will also inform the work of the Identity Ecosystem Steering Group (IDESG), a private sector-led organization created to help coordinate development of standards that enable more secure, user-friendly ways to give individuals and organizations confidence in their online interactions.

The grantees announced today are:

GSMA (Atlanta, Georgia: $821,948)
GSMA has partnered with America’s four major mobile network operators to pilot a common approach — interoperable across all four operators — that will enable consumers and businesses to use mobile devices for secure, privacy-enhancing identity and access management. GSMA’s global Mobile Connect Initiative is the foundation for the pilot; the initiative will be augmented in the United States to align with NSTIC. By allowing any organization to easily accept identity solutions from any of the four operators, the solution would reduce a significant barrier to online service providers accepting mobile-based credentials. GSMA also will tackle user interface, user experience, security and privacy challenges, with a focus on creating an easy-to-use solution for consumers.

Confyrm (San Francisco, California: $1,235,376)
The Confyrm pilot will demonstrate ways to minimize loss when criminals create fake accounts or take over online accounts. A key barrier to federated identity (in which the identity provider of your choice “vouches” for you at other sites) is the concern that accounts used in identity solutions may not be legitimate, or in the control of their rightful owner. Account compromises and the subsequent misuse of identity result in destruction of personal information, damage to individual reputations and financial loss. Confyrm will demonstrate how a “shared signals” model can mitigate the impact of account takeovers and fake accounts through early fraud detection and notification, with special emphasis on consumer privacy. Aligning with the NSTIC guiding principles, this solution enables individuals and organizations to experience improved trust and confidence in identities online. Pilot partners include a major Internet email provider, a major mobile operator and multiple e-commerce sites.

MorphoTrust USA (Billerica, Massachusetts: $736,185)
MorphoTrust, in partnership with the North Carolina Departments of Transportation (DOT) and Health and Human Services (DHHS), will demonstrate how existing state-issued credentials such as driver’s licenses can be extended into the online world to enable new types of online citizen services. The pilot will leverage North Carolina’s state driver’s license solution to create a digital credential for those applying for the North Carolina (DHHS) Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) Program online. This solution will eliminate the need for people to appear in person to apply forFNS benefits, reducing costs to the state while providing applicants with faster, easier access to benefits.

www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com 

ISIS : Cost of U.S. war on ISIS reaches $780 million

Published 30 September 2014

The cost of the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) Islamist group has totaled at least $780 million, according to a new estimate, as U.S. warplanes and drones continued to strike Isis positions in Iraq and Syria on Monday and Tuesday. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Friday that the U.S. military is spending up to $10 million a day and will likely request more money from Congress to fund the war. The attacks on ISIS began 8 August, and before they were expanded to include targets in Syria, the Pentagon estimated the daily war costs at $7.5 million.

The cost of the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) Islamist group has totaled at least $780 million, according to a new estimate, as U.S. warplanes and drones continued to strike Isis positions in Iraq and Syria on Monday and Tuesday.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Friday that the U.S. military is spending up to $10 million a day and will likely request more money from Congress to fund the war. The attacks on ISIS began 8 August, and before they were expanded to include targets in Syria, the Pentagon estimated the daily war costs at $7.5 million.

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), an influential Washington, D.C. think tank, estimated on Monday that the air war has already cost between $780 million and $930 million between 8 August, when it began, and 24 September.

The Guardian reports that Congress has not voted on going to war, outside of authorizing the military to train a proxy Syrian rebel ground force, and will not do so until after the November midterm elections at earliest.

The CSBA priced out estimates of a range of options proposed by politicians, retired military officers, and pundits for escalating the war. What it called a “moderate level of air operations,” involving 2,000 “deployed ground forces” — a level slightly higher than the 1,600 ostensibly non-combat security and “advisory” U.S. forces in Iraq now — would total as much as $320 million each month and $3.8 billion annually.

Should the United States deploy a ground force of 25,000 U.S. troops, as advocated by Frederick Kagan, the Iraq surge architect, annual costs would run “as high as $13 billion to $22 billion.” An air campaign with a higher operational tempo and a 5,000-troop deployment would cost between $350 million and $570 million per month and $4.2 billion to $6.8 billion each year.

General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, earlier this month said U.S. ground combat alongside Iraqi and Kurdish forces was possible. He and Hagel on Friday anticipated asking Congress for additional money in the military’s baseline budget, which already stands at about $500,000, excluding nearly $59 billion in requested war funding, mostly for Afghanistan.

That war funding is “gas money,” Dempsey said, above and beyond the difficulties that a new and unanticipated war are likely to have on the funding assumptions of the military services.

The United States is trying to help build Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces to reclaim territory from ISIS, but the plan to raise a Syrian proxy force is not expected to create a battle-capable force for nearly a year. Dempsey on Friday estimated that rolling back Isis in Syria will require a proxy force of between 12,000 and 15,000.

The White House requested $500 million to train and arm Syrian rebel forces, but the Guardian notes that it is unclear how many rebels that total will initially fund. The Pentagon estimates it can train up to 5,000 “vetted” Syrians within a year, a figure suggesting the training might run to $1.5 billion for a force of 15,000, excluding the costs of keeping that force viable in the field.

— Read more in Todd Harrison et al., Estimating the Cost of Operations Against ISIL (CSBA, 29 September 2014

www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com 

Homeland Security and Public Safety : Forecasting the Future for Technology and Policing

With funding spigots turning off, law enforcement agencies must find ways to operate more affordably, such as using technology in more efficient ways, which also means being smarter.

Tod Newcombe | September 29, 2014

Inside the Camden, N.J., Police Department's Real Time Tactical Operational Intelligence Center, analysts monitor maps showing locations of calls, shots fired and police cruisers. David Kidd

In 2010, just as the recession’s wave of fiscal calamity was peaking, George Bascom and Todd Foglesong, from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, published a report, Making Policing More Affordable. They pointed out that public expenditures on policing had more than quadrupled between 1982 and 2006. But with city budget shortfalls opening up across the country, police departments and their chiefs, once used to ever-growing budgets, were now facing a new reality of cutbacks, layoffs and even outright mergers and consolidations of entire police departments with others. With federal subsidies disappearing (federal support for criminal justice assistance grant programs shrank by 43 percent between 2011 and 2013), thanks to a frugal Congress, police had few options.

With funding spigots turning off, law enforcement agencies must find ways to operate more affordably, according to Bascom and Foglesong. One obvious way is to use technology in more efficient ways. Being more efficient with technology also means being smarter. 

One example can be found in Camden, N.J., a poverty-ridden, high-crime city of 77,000, located on the banks of the Delaware River, across from Philadelphia. Desperate to cut costs, the city disbanded its entire police force. The Camden County Police Department rehired most of the laid-off officers, and hired another 100 at much lower salaries and benefits, to create a consolidated regional police force. The move is considered highly controversial and certainly radical. While police departments in other jurisdictions have merged or consolidated to cut costs, none have gone down the path that Camden has taken.

Underpinning Camden’s radical plan is an effort to run a “smarter police” operation, according to Chief Scott Thomson. The concept that he and other police chiefs have adopted is to use technology as a “force multiplier” to give cops a leg-up on fighting crime. The Camden Police Department has set up a real-time tactical operational intelligence center that pulls together data from an array of cameras, gunshot location devices and automated license plate readers. Real-time data is fed back to the cops on the beat, giving them useful information when they respond to incidents. Even patrol car locations are tracked so officers can be deployed where they are most needed.

The situation in Camden certainly is unique and it’s too early to tell whether the force multiplier approach is making a dent in the crime rate (in the first 12 months of the new department, the city recorded 57 murders, down from 67 in 2012), but in some ways it crystallizes what’s happening to police departments across the country.

As city budgets start returning to normal, police departments have increased their investments in technology and the results are beginning to show. Robert Davis, director of research at the Police Executive Research Forum, said officers are becoming more professional in how they operate and that includes how they apply technology. “They are getting better at procuring technology that can deliver capabilities they didn’t have before,” he said.

As always, funding continues to be an issue. In May, the major law enforcement agencies sent a letter to the House and Senate Homeland Security Committee asking that the National Preparedness Grant Program reconsider a series of proposed changes that would reduce funding for terrorism prevention. A 2013 survey by the Institute of Justice found that 78 percent of law enforcement agencies had their grant funding cut since 2010 and 43 percent reported cuts of between 11 and 25 percent.

With new technologies emerging all the time and a new normal when it comes to funding, how should the police proceed? New technologies must be benchmarked, with metrics that forecast just what their impact will be on operations before they are fully implemented. Second, police departments need to set policies, especially around tools that gather data about individuals, such as video, to ensure that the civil liberties and privacy of law-abiding citizens is not compromised.

Ultimately, however, police can’t forget the fact that they are in the people business. The quality of policing depends on the experience and common sense of every officer. “It’s a very subjective business in many ways,” said Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation. “There has to be a balance between the technology and the cop. If you lose the human side to policing, then you lose the compassion that’s part of the job.”

What will be the next groundbreaking technology that will help law enforcement improve public safety while battling crime? This year, the Police Executive Research Forum published a survey of its members conducted to find out which emerging tech tools could bring fundamental changes to policing. Social media, license plate readers and video streaming from wearable and in-car cameras stood out as technologies that have either received wide acceptance already or show promise. But several other emerging technologies were also singled out for their potential to change police operations:

1. The Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network

Also known as FirstNet, the proposed network was signed into law in 2012 with the mission to build, operate and maintain a nationwide wireless broadband, radio access network for public safety. The goal is to put an end to the interoperability and communications challenges that have occurred during exceptional and complex disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and terrorist attacks. Participants include the federal government, all 50 states, six territories, local governments and approximately 5.4 million first responders. FirstNet estimates the cost for the network at $7 billion, with funds to be raised by the FCC’s spectrum auctions. FirstNet is expected to provide police officers with a technology platform that will help them solve crimes more quickly and efficiently, using a secure and reliable network that could enhance everything from video streaming to real-time crime centers. But concerns over cost, participants and local control could stand in the way of FirstNet’s mission.

2. Next-Generation 911

One of the biggest shifts in how people communicate is the explosive growth in text messaging. Not surprisingly, the public is now demanding that they be able to text to 911 when there’s an emergency. Current 911 technology is extremely limited in terms of options when it comes to receiving emergency text messages. The answer: Next-generation 911 has features based on the latest technology that runs on Internet Protocol standards. NG 911 allows call centers to integrate not just text messages, but photos, video and other types of attachments, as well as scripted responses, so call takers don’t have to type out their messages to callers. New systems can also locate where the text message was sent from (dispatchers will still need to get a street address to verify the person’s location). But NG 911 isn’t cheap. The FCC estimates the cost of upgrading every call center in the country at nearly $3 billion.

3. Real-Time Crime Centers

Facilities that can gather vast amounts of crime-related data, such as arrest records, mug shots and warrant information, and then push it out to officers and investigators in the field, are expected to have an impact on crime investigations in the future, according to PERF. New York City and Houston have pioneered the concept of real-time crime centers. Analysts in the Houston Police Department’s crime center monitor social media during major incidents, sifting through feeds and sending relevant information to officers on their way to a crime in progress. Satellite imaging and mapping technology also can enhance the real-time data used in these crime centers.

4. Cybercrime

While not a tool for the police, cybercrime has grown significantly in recent years. But many local law enforcement agencies are unsure of their role, in part because of jurisdictional issues. According to PERF, cybercrime is vastly underreported. Local police also have been slow to take on the challenge of cybercrime, which continues to grow in scope and sophistication. Police departments need to develop cybercrime expertise, as well as develop partnerships with other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to expand their understanding of the crime. At the same time, police departments need training to understand how to respond to victims and to provide others with information on how to protect themselves.

This article was originally published by Government Technology.

Tod Newcombe  |  Senior Editor

---

With more than 20 years of experience covering state and local government, Tod previously was the editor of Public CIO, e.Republic’s award-winning publication for information technology executives in the public sector. He is now a senior editor for Government Technology and a columnist at Governing magazine.

www.emergencymgmt.com 

National Guard leads cybersecurity battle

By Jonathan Meerdink. CREATED Sep 27, 2014

 WISCONSIN -- The war of the future will be fought with computers, not guns, and the Wisconsin National Guard is ready for a role on the front lines.

The Journal Sentinel reports the Wisconsin National Guard is leading the effort to styp cyberattacks that could derail the systems guarding and controlling the state's electricity, water, food, healthcare, and transportation information.

Wisconsin state leaders, meanwhile, are working to put together a cyber emergency response group in collaboration with federal leaders and key industries, just in case an attack would come our way.

http://www.jrn.com/

Fact Sheet: Blueprint for a Secure Cyber Future

Release Date: 

December 12, 2011

The United States is facing a continued and growing cyber threat, which has the potential to jeopardize our national security, public safety and economic competitiveness. This threat makes securing cyberspace one of the most important missions facing the homeland security community today.

The Department of Homeland Security’s 2010 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) established the safeguarding and securing of cyberspace as a critical mission of DHS, with the goals to create a safe, secure and resilient cyber environment and promote cybersecurity knowledge and innovation. The Blueprint for a Secure Cyber Future proposes a path forward to achieve these goals.

The Blueprint calls for a coordinated effort across the homeland security community to protect our nation’s critical information infrastructure and build a safer and more secure cyber ecosystem. Specific actions range from hardening critical networks and prosecuting cybercrime to raising public awareness and training a national cybersecurity workforce.

Cyberspace forms the backbone of our modern economy and society. The Internet is an engine of immense wealth creation and a force for openness, transparency, innovation, and freedom. Information and communication technologies allow generators to turn, businesses to operate, and families and friends to communicate. Cyberspace is vital to our way of life, and we must work to make this domain more secure—the safety of our critical infrastructure, the strength of our national security, our economic vitality and public safety depend upon it. 

The Blueprint outlines an integrated and holistic approach to protecting our nation’s cyberspace. It is a map – a guide – to enable the homeland security community to leverage existing capabilities and promote technological advances that enable government, the private sector and the public to be safer online.

The document complements the President’s International Strategy for Cyberspace, the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace and the recently released Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace.  Together, these documents provide a whole of government approach to the many opportunities and challenges the nation faces in cyberspace.

Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility, and each of us has a role to play. DHS will work with federal, state, local and private sector partners across the homeland security community to achieve the goals outlined in the Blueprint. Implementing the Blueprint will be an inclusive, participatory effort to make cyberspace a safe, secure and resilient place where the American way of life can thrive.

dhs.gov 

National Terrorism Advisory System

The National Terrorism Advisory System, or NTAS, replaced the color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) in April, 2011. The NTAS system effectively communicates information about terrorist threats by providing timely, detailed information to the public, government agencies, first responders, airports and other transportation hubs, and the private sector.

It recognizes that Americans all share responsibility for the nation's security, and should always be aware of the heightened risk of terrorist attack in the United States and what they should do.

This page also contains any current NTAS Alerts and archived copies of expired alerts.

The NTAS Alert – How can you help?

Each alert provides information to the public about the threat, including, if available, the geographic region, mode of transportation, or critical infrastructure potentially affected by the threat; protective actions being taken by authorities, and steps that individuals and communities can take to protect themselves and their families, and help prevent, mitigate or respond to the threat.

Citizens should report suspicious activity to their local law enforcement authorities. The “If You See Something, Say Something^TM” campaign across the United States encourages all citizens to be vigilant for indicators of potential terrorist activity, and to follow NTAS Alerts for information about threats in specific places or for individuals exhibiting certain types of suspicious activity.

dhs.gov 

FEMA Unveils National Strategy to Strengthen Youth Preparedness

Release date: 

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

Release Number: 

HQ-2014-79

Ad Council, FEMA and Disney launch “Big Hero 6” PSAs to Encourage Emergency Preparedness for Kids

WASHINGTON -- Today, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced a new strategy to educate young people about disaster prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery.  The National Strategy for Youth Preparedness Education: Empowering, Educating and Building Resilience (National Strategy) couples attention on emergency and disaster preparedness with community action that focuses specifically on youth readiness for disasters and related events. The National Strategy was developed in partnership with the American Red Cross and the U.S. Department of Education, and more than 25 organizations have affirmed their support.

Research shows that it is important to educate and empower young people to prepare for disasters. A 2010 study from Oregon State University showed that 14 percent of children and teens had experienced a disaster during their lifetime, and four percent had been in a disaster within the past year. Of those who had experience with disaster, a quarter reported experiencing more than one.

Recognizing that children have the ability to play an important role in preparing themselves, their families, and their communities for a disaster, Disney, the Ad Council and FEMA are releasing new Public Service Advertisements (PSAs) as an extension of the Ready campaign. These new PSAs highlight several steps that kids can take to prepare for emergencies: Make a Plan, Build a Kit and Know The Facts. The new English and Spanish ads feature leading characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ upcoming film “Big Hero 6,” and they encourage viewers to visit Ready.gov/Kids  to learn how to prepare for emergencies. 

“Children who learn about emergency preparedness experience less anxiety during an actual emergency or disaster,” FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said. “This National Strategy will encourage communities and organizations to give children and their families the information they need to prepare for disasters.”

“When it comes to emergency preparedness, we know that communication and planning in advance are critical,” Ad Council President and CEO Peggy Conlon said. “Research has shown that children can play an important role in creating family emergency plans, which is why this extension of our longstanding campaign with FEMA incorporates wonderfully entertaining Disney characters that will both entertain and educate children.”

“Young people can do amazing things when given the chance,” said Richard Reed, senior vice president of Disaster Cycle Services at the American Red Cross. “Just watch an entire school full of kids evacuate in a couple of minutes for a fire drill, or listen to the story of the young man who gave his birthday money to buy smoke alarms for his community. At the Red Cross, we’re just delighted to stand with this coalition to help prepare young people and their families.”

The National Strategy presents nine priority steps to further youth preparedness education including: building partnerships to enhance, increase and implement youth preparedness learning programs; connecting young people with their families, communities, first responders and other youth; and increasing school preparedness. More information about these steps--as well as the national organizations that have affirmed their support--is available under the National Strategy tab in the FEMA Youth Technical Assistance Center at www.ready.gov/youth-preparedness.

More information about emergency preparedness is available at www.ready.gov.

www.fema.gov 

Terrorism Financing : A first: Jury finds bank guilty of financing terrorism

Published 24 September 2014

In a major development on the terrorism financing front, a U.S.jury found Arab Bank Plc liable for providing material support to Hamas and ordered the bank to compensate nearly 300 Americans who are either victims or relatives of victims of at least two dozen attacks tied to Hamas in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

In a major development on the terrorism financing front, a U.S. jury foundArab Bank Plc liable for providing material support to Hamas and ordered the bank to compensate nearly 300 Americans who are either victims or relatives of victims of at least two dozen attacks tied to Hamas in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

On Monday, jurors at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York reached their verdict after a six-week trial, considered the first terrorism financing civil case in the United States. The victims first filed suit against Arab Bank in 2004, accusing the Jordanian bank of violating the Anti-Terrorism Act, under which victims of U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations could seek damages.

The Insurance Journal reports that two other lawsuits are pending in New York against Bank of China Ltd., for providing services to Palestine Islamic Jihad, and Credit Lyonnais SA, for aiding Hamas (regarding the Bank of China case, and the Netanyahu government’s reluctance to go against it, see“Israel withdraws from U.S. terror case to placate China,” HSNW, 22 November 2013).

 In a separate case, the court also ruled on Monday that Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s National Westminster Bank unit must face allegations by terrorism victims regarding banking services it gave a Hamas-linked charity.

Lee Wolosky, an attorney representing plaintiffs against Bank of China, warns that the Arab Bank verdict shows “it is insufficient to simply say it is the job of governments to identify terrorists.”

“Knowing your customer is essential,” said Will Schwartz, senior vice president for the U.S. financial sector at DBRS credit rating service. “You are at least partially responsible if it’s discovered you are, inadvertently or not, financing nefarious activity.”

According to the judge’s instructions, jurors had to find liability by concluding that Arab Bank knowingly supported Hamas, and that such support was a “substantial factor” in the group’s attacks, and that the attacks were a “reasonably foreseeable” result.

The court found that Arab Bank knowingly maintained accounts for Hamas operatives and charities, adding that the bank financed millions of dollars in payments for families of suicide bombers between 2000 and 2004.

“That is how we stop terrorism,” Tab Turner, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in his closing argument last week. “You take the money away.”

Arab Bank rejects the charges, noting that people and organizations alleged to have received improper banking services had not been designated by the U.S government as terrorists. “The plaintiff’s evidence was a mile wide and an inch deep,” Arab Bank’s lead lawyer Shand Stephens said on Monday. “The government is supposed to designate people, and the banks react,” Stephens said.

Arab Bank plans to appeal, saying the verdict is based on a series of what it considers legally incorrect court rulings that kept it from offering a proper defense, and effectively “put Hamas on trial.”

Mark Werbner, an attorney for some of the plaintiffs, said the verdict sends a message that “when a bank opens its doors to terrorists, they’re going to be held accountable.”

www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com 

Epidemics : Ancient plague offers insights on how to improve treatments for infections

Published 29 September 2014

Dangerous new pathogens such as the Ebola virus invoke scary scenarios of deadly epidemics, but even ancient scourges such as the bubonic plague are still providing researchers with new insights on how the body responds to infections. Researchers have detailed how the Yersinia pestis bacteria that cause bubonic plague hitchhike on immune cells in the lymph nodes and eventually ride into the lungs and the blood stream, where the infection is easily transmitted to others. The insight provides a new avenue to develop therapies that block this host immune function rather than target the pathogens themselves — a tactic that often leads to antibiotic resistance.

Dangerous new pathogens such as the Ebola virus invoke scary scenarios of deadly epidemics, but even ancient scourges such as the bubonic plague are still providing researchers with new insights on how the body responds to infections.

A Duke Medicine release reports that in a study published 18 September 2014 in the journal Immunity, researchers at Duke Medicine and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore detail how the Yersinia pestisbacteria that cause bubonic plague hitchhike on immune cells in the lymph nodes and eventually ride into the lungs and the blood stream, where the infection is easily transmitted to others.

The insight provides a new avenue to develop therapies that block this host immune function rather than target the pathogens themselves — a tactic that often leads to antibiotic resistance.

“The recent Ebola outbreak has shown how highly virulent pathogens can spread substantially and unexpectedly under the right conditions,” said lead author Ashley L. St. John, Ph.D., assistant professor, Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Singapore. “This emphasizes that we need to understand the mechanisms that pathogens use to spread so that we can be prepared with new strategies to treat infection.”

While bubonic plague would seem a blight of the past, there have been recent outbreaks in India, Madagascar and the Congo. And it’s mode of infection now appears similar to that used by other well-adapted human pathogens, such as the HIV virus.

In their study, the Duke and Duke-NUS researchers set out to determine whether the large swellings that are the signature feature of bubonic plague – the swollen lymph nodes, or buboes at the neck, underarms and groins of infected patients – result from the pathogen or as an immune response.

It turns out to be both.

“The bacteria actually turn the immune cells against the body,” said senior author Soman Abraham, Ph.D. a professor of pathology at Duke and professor of emerging infectious diseases at Duke-NUS. “The bacteria enter the draining lymph node and actually hide undetected in immune cells, notably the dendritic cells and monocytes, where they multiply.

Meanwhile, the immune cells send signals to bring in even more recruits, causing the lymph nodes to grow massively and providing a safe haven for microbial multiplication.”

The bacteria are then able to travel from lymph node to lymph node within the dendritic cells and monocytes, eventually infiltrating the blood and lungs. From there, the infection can spread through body fluids directly to other people, or via biting insects such as fleas.

Abraham, St. John, and colleagues note that there are several potential drug candidates that target the trafficking pathways that the bubonic plague bacteria use. In animal models, the researchers successfully used some of these therapies to prevent the bacteria from reaching systemic infection, markedly improving survival and recovery.

“This work demonstrates that it may be possible to target the trafficking of host immune cells and not the pathogens themselves to effectively treat infection and reduce mortality,” St. John said. “In view of the growing emergency of multi-resistant bacteria, this strategy could become very attractive.”

— Read more in Ashley L. St. John et al., “S1P-Dependent Trafficking of Intracellular Yersinia pestis through Lymph Nodes Establishes Buboes and Systemic Infection,” Immunity 41, no. 3, (18 September 2014): 440-50 (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2014.07.013)

www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com 

Public Health : Ebola Is a Threat to Global Security, Says Obama

At a United Nations meeting, leaders said the world is not doing enough to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and avert a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

Alexandra Zavis and Kathleen Hennessey, Los Angeles Times | September 26, 2014

Volunteers with the Red Cross Society of Guinea are trained and deployed to disinfect homes and health facilities infected by the Ebola virus disease. ©afreecom/Idrissa Soumaré

(MCT) — President Obama and other leaders delivered a sobering message at the United Nations on Thursday, saying the world was not doing enough to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and avert a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

“This is more than a health crisis,” Obama told leaders at a special gathering convened while the U.N. General Assembly was meeting in New York. “This is a growing threat to regional and global security.”

Faced with a caseload that is doubling every three weeks, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for a “twentyfold surge in care, tracking, transport and equipment” to get in front of the epidemic, which is believed to have killed more than 2,900 people.

Obama said last week that he would send as many as 3,000 military personnel to establish a coordination center in Liberia and work with partners to set up Ebola treatment facilities, train health workers and distribute medical supplies and prevention information.

Britain, France, Cuba, China and others have also announced significant contributions to the effort. But U.N. and humanitarian officials say the response has until now fallen critically short.

“This is a fast-moving epidemic that got ahead of everyone at the start and is still running ahead, jumping over everything we put in place to try to slow it down,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, head of the World Health Organization.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in additional help were pledged during the two-hour meeting, by organizations such as the World Bank and European Commission and U.N. member states big and small.

Leaders of the countries affected by Ebola and representatives of some of the aid groups working to contain the epidemic welcomed the announcements, but they said they would mean little unless the donors quickly made good on their pledges.

“The reality on the ground today is this: The promised surge has not yet been delivered,” said Dr. Joanne Liu, international president of the charity group Doctors Without Borders. “The sick are desperate, their families and caregivers are angry, and aid workers are exhausted.... Today, Ebola is winning.”

The sick continue to be turned away from Ebola care facilities because there aren’t enough beds, returning home to spread the virus further, she told world leaders.

“Our 150-bed facility in [the Liberian capital] Monrovia opens for just 30 minutes in the morning,” she said. “Only a few people are admitted — to fill beds made empty by those who died overnight.”

It is the largest such outbreak the world has seen, with more than 6,200 suspected or confirmed cases in five countries reported to the WHO since March. In the hardest-hit nations — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — health systems are buckling under the strain.

At least 373 healthcare providers have contracted Ebola and 208 have died of the virus, which is spread through contact with bodily fluids. Many of their colleagues are now too afraid to work. Patients, too, are staying away. More people are dying in Liberia of common and treatable ailments than of Ebola, Ban said last week.

The World Bank has warned of a “potentially catastrophic blow” to the economies of the most affected countries. Trade, transport and other services have been disrupted. Food prices are rising. In Lofa County, once Liberia’s breadbasket, fields are lying fallow. Nearly 170 farmers and their family members have died of Ebola in that county alone, according to the WHO.

Fear and confusion about the virus have led to outbreaks of violence. Last week, eight members of a delegation sent to a remote village in Guinea to educate people about Ebola were attacked and killed, their bodies thrown into latrines.

Sierra Leone’s president, Ernest Bai Koroma, called Ebola “a disease worse than terrorism” and said the affected countries would need the “heavy aerial and ground support of the world” to defeat it. He announced Wednesday that he was sealing off three districts that are home to more than 1 million people. About a third of the country’s 6 million people are now under quarantine.

Last week, the U.N. Security Council declared the Ebola crisis a threat to international peace and security, unanimously passing a resolution that calls on member states to urgently send medical personnel, supplies and logistical help to fight the outbreak. An emergency mission is being set up to coordinate the response.

Ban urged leaders at Thursday’s meeting to consider whether the world needs a standby corps of medical professionals, saying the Ebola crisis has highlighted the need to strengthen early identification systems and early action.

“Just as our troops in blue helmets help keep people safe, a corps in white coats could help keep people healthy,” he said.

Speaking to an organization not known for rapid action, Obama warned against following the deliberative pace and political jockeying that typically come with a broad international effort.

“Everybody’s got to move fast,” Obama said. “Do not stand by thinking that somehow because of what we’ve done that it’s taken care of. It’s not.”

Hennessey reported from the United Nations and Zavis from Los Angeles.

©2014 the Los Angeles Times. Distributed by MCT Information Services.

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