Homeland Security Stages Biochemical Attack

The U.S. Homeland Security Department has announced that it will release harmless gases and dye tracers into Boston’s subway system next week to study the circulation of airborne contaminants through public transit networks in the event of a biological or chemical attack.

The planned study, which will examine how both smoke and airborne toxins move throughout the transit system, is expected to assist experts in developing future chemical-agent monitoring while also providing guidance for future improvements in air-purification systems, evacuation plans and emergency-response protocols for transportation systems.

“This study is one of many efforts the department is undertaking across the country to inform our emergency response planning in preparation for chemical or biological terrorist attacks,” Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary, said in a statement.

The airborne contaminants study will run from December 5 through December 11. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will oversee the study, which will be conducted in more than 20 below-ground subway stations and trains throughout Boston.

“This project – combining the resources and expertise of scientists from around the world – will refine best practices for responding to the release of toxic gas or chemicals in public transportation systems,” Tara O’Toole, Homeland Security Undersecretary, said in a recent statement.

Obama Approves Information Suppression

October 29 – President Obama today signed into law a Homeland Security appropriations bill that grants the Department of Defense (DOD) the authority to continue suppressing photos of prisoner abuse. The amendment, which would allow the DOD to exempt photos from the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), is aimed at photos ordered released by a federal appeals court as part of an American Civil Liberties Union FOIA lawsuit for photos and other records related to detainee abuse in U.S. custody overseas, although it would apply to other photos in government custody as well. Earlier this month, the ACLU sent a letter to Secretary Robert Gates urging him not to exercise the authority to suppress the photos in their case, stating that the photos “are of critical relevance to an ongoing national debate about accountability.”

“We are disappointed that the president has signed a law giving the Defense Department the authority to hide evidence of its own misconduct, and we hope the defense secretary will not take advantage of that authority by suppressing photos related to the abuse of prisoners,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. “Secretary Gates should be guided by the importance of transparency to the democratic process, the extraordinary importance of these photos to the ongoing debate about the treatment of prisoners and the likelihood that the suppression of these photos would ultimately be far more damaging to national security than their disclosure. The last administration’s decision to endorse torture undermined the United States’ moral authority and compromised its security. A failure to fully confront the abuses of the last administration will only compound these harms.”

Another provision contained in the new law allows the transfer of detainees from Guantánamo Bay to the U.S. for prosecution.

“This law allows the administration to transfer prisoners to the U.S. for criminal trials in the federal courts, and the administration should now do exactly that,” said Jaffer. “The military commissions at Guantánamo are not just unlawful but unnecessary. The federal courts are fully capable of prosecuting terrorism suspects while protecting both national security interests and fundamental due process. It’s time to shut down Guantánamo, transfer the military commissions trials to federal courts that uphold the rule of law, and transfer prisoners whom the administration does not intend to charge to countries where they won’t be in danger of being tortured. Indefinite detention without charge or trial undermines the most basic values of justice and fairness.”

The full text of the ACLU’s letter to Secretary of Defense Gates is below and available online at: www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/41309res20091020.html

More information about the ACLU’s FOIA litigation is at: www.aclu.org/accountability

Future Attribute Screening Technology Raises Privacy Concerns

Next-generation system for detecting suspects in public settings holds promise, sparks privacy concerns

Millimeter Wave Screening

CAMBRIDGE – Metal detectors, X-ray machines, and dogs are used at security checkpoints to look for bombs. Now a next-generation technology under development in Cambridge will look for the bomber.

With funding from the US Department of Homeland Security, Draper Laboratory and other collaborators are building technology to detect potential terrorists with cameras and noninvasive sensors that monitor eye blinks, heart rate, and even fidgeting.

The project, called the “Future Attribute Screening Technology,’’ is aimed at allowing security checkpoint personnel at airports or large public events to make better, faster decisions about whether a person should get follow-up screening.

At a demonstration of the technology this week, project manager Robert P. Burns said the idea is to track a set of involuntary physiological reactions that might slip by a human observer. These occur when a person harbors malicious intent – but not when someone is late for a flight or annoyed by something else, he said, citing years of research into the psychology of deception.

The development team is investigating how effective its techniques are at flagging only people who intend to do harm. Even if it works, the technology raises a slew of questions – from privacy concerns, to the more fundamental issue of whether machines are up to a task now entrusted to humans.

“I know what they’re doing, and I’m ambivalent,’’ said Paul Ekman, a consultant on the project and an eminent psychologist who pioneered the study of facial expression and emotion.

“I can understand why there’s an attempt being made to find a way to replace or improve on what human observers can do: the need is vast, for a country as large and porous as we are. However, I’m by no means convinced that any technology, any hardware will come close to doing what a highly trained human observer can do,’’ said Ekman, who directs a company that trains government workers, including for the Transportation Security Administration, to detect suspicious behavior.

The researchers hope to have the device ready for field testing in 2011, perhaps at a border crossing. If it works – even Burns concedes that’s no sure thing – it could be used by government agencies. There are no immediate plans for commercializing the technology, which has cost about $20 million to develop.

At the demonstration, actors walked one-by-one into a room with a metal detector, a guard, and a set of sensors that monitored their reactions while they spent a few minutes answering a dozen questions, ranging from where they lived to whether they planned to detonate a device.

Most of the system’s sensors are commercially available. An eye tracker measures blinks, gaze direction, and pupil dilation. Two separate devices track heart rate and respiration. A thermal camera measures the way heat changes on a person’s face. And underfoot, an accessory normally used with the Nintendo Wii gaming system, has been re-purposed to detect fidgeting.

Burns said being able to simultaneously observe a suite of traits – such as slight variations in the interval between heartbeats, the way a person’s pupils dilate, the way the heat on their face changes, or whether they stop moving when asked a certain question – makes the system more accurate.

“I think it is very interesting, but it also sets off alarm bells,’’ said Jennifer Lerner, a professor of public policy and management at the Harvard Kennedy School who has studied how facial expressions can be a readout of biological responses to stress. “The key here is to not to get too impressed by the physiological measurement and to pay attention to the validity of the science.’’

Researchers are evaluating how well the technology can detect a person’s intentions to do harm, compared with a human observer’s ability to do the same thing. They say initial results are promising.

They also plan to test whether the software can distinguish malicious intent from other things that fluster a person. In the future, for example, experiments might include subjects who have to run to get to the screening checkpoint, or have an initial experience with a rude guard.

Hardened terrorists might be able to control their heartbeat or breath, but researchers say that is one reason they are looking at multiple traits thought to be involuntary. Even if someone could control many physiological factors, researchers said that a person who lacked normal bodily reactions to questions would also raise a red flag.

A privacy watchdog, after being told of the technology, expressed concern the technology would misidentify innocent people who might then be branded as potential terrorists by the Department of Homeland Security.

“For goodness sakes, you are at an airport,’’ said Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “How many people are calm? People running to get to the gate, sweating through the security line, will I get there before my plane takes off?’’

“This agency does maintain watch lists, it does maintain a number of other programs. It’s important for them not to create files or reports or records on individuals because this technology picked up something,’’ Coney said.

Burns said the technology would erase data after each screening, and no personal information would be used to identify subjects, create files, or make lists. He said there would be close oversight, and regulations would be put in place to protect privacy if and when the technology is deployed.

Ultimately, he hopes the technology can be developed to a point where it does not depend on an interviewer asking questions, but scans people as they walk through a checkpoint.

“I remember when I could freely go through airport buildings,’’ Burns said. “I’d like to restore that – walk through security with my 4-year-old daughter, and not have her walk ahead of me.’’

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The Right to Seize your Computer

The Government can Examine your Computer at Will

In what was presented to the public this week as a clarification of its privacy policy, the US Dept. of Homeland Security published a paper referring to new guidelines for its immigration and customs agents regarding how they may conduct border searches of travelers’ computers and electronic media. Clarifying the existing law, both sets of guidelines reiterated the department’s policy created during the previous administration: Agents may seize, detain, and/or retain individuals’ PCs and media without having reason to suspect that those people or those machines and devices are connected with a crime.

“ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Special Agents acting under border search authority may search, detain, seize, retain, and share electronic devices, or information contained therein, with or without individualized suspicion, consistent with the guidelines and applicable laws set forth herein,” states the new policy for immigration authorities published last August 18 (PDF available here). “Assistance to complete a border search may be sought from other Federal agencies and non-Federal entities, on a case by case basis, as appropriate.”

The guidelines for Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) agents says pretty much the same thing, adding that whenever a CBP agent encounters technical trouble figuring out how a mechanism works, or what the meaning of some piece of information is, he can seek help from other US government sources. “In such situations, Officers may transmit electronic devices or copies of information contained therein to seek technical assistance from other federal agencies,” reads the CBP guidelines (PDF available here).

What’s been a subject of contention ever since the government tightened border inspection policies in the wake of 9/11 hasn’t been so much agents’ rights to act without suspicion (although for some, that already crosses the line) as the authority DHS grants them to transmit the information they find elsewhere, under the auspices of “seeking help.” Both guidelines now state that agents may only seek help from other federal sources, but they are not explicit with regard to what level — for example, whether a private consultant under retainer for the FBI would qualify. … Continue Reading

Militia Group Activity Increasing in U.S.

Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends.

The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.

Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told SPLC researchers that this is the most growth he’s seen in more than a decade.

“All it’s lacking is a spark,” McEntire said in the report.

It’s reminiscent of what was seen in the 1990s — right-wing militias, people ideologically against paying taxes and so-called “sovereign citizens” are popping up in large numbers, according to the report to be released Wednesday. The SPLC is a nonprofit civil rights group that, among other activities, investigates hate groups.

Most recently, a protester against President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul plan was seen wearing a gun at a town hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire attended by the president on Aug. 11.

The man, William Kostric was holding a sign while at the New Hampshire town hall that read “It Is Time To Water The Tree Of Liberty,” invoking a phrase from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Kostric was questioned by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews over his choice to carry “a goddamned gun at a presidential event.”

Kostric said he participated in the protest against the proposed government health care initiative because “we’re traveling down the road at breakneck speed that’s toward tyranny away from liberty. And that has much to do with excessive taxation.” … Continue Reading