Critical Releases in Homeland Security: December 11, 2013

"The 2013 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) Summary addresses emerging developments related to the trafficking and use of primary illicit substances of abuse and the nonmedical use of controlled prescription drugs (CPDs). In the preparation of this report, DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] intelligence analysts considered quantitative data from various sources (seizures, investigations, arrests, drug purity or potency, and drug prices; law enforcement surveys; laboratory analyses; and interagency production and cultivation estimates) and qualitative information (subjective views of individual agencies on drug availability, information on smuggling and transportation trends, and indicators of changes in smuggling and transportation methods). The 2013 NDTA factors in information provided by 1,307 state and local law enforcement agencies through the 2013 National Drug Threat Survey (NDTS). NDTS data used in this report do not imply that there is only one drug threat per state or region or that only one drug is available per state or region. A percentage given for a state or region represents the proportion of state and local law enforcement agencies in that state or region that identified a particular drug as their greatest threat or as available at low, moderate, or high levels."

"More than 2.3 million Americans in the military have volunteered to go into harm's way overseas to combat terrorists since 9/11. But these heroes 'who shall have borne the battle,' as President Lincoln called war veterans, also have been in danger here at home -- where they should be safe and secure. The threat is real. The Department of Defense considers the U.S. Homeland the most dangerous place for a G.I. outside of foreign warzones -- and the top threat they face here is from violent Islamist extremists. […] A significant and growing number of military personnel, such as alleged Fort Hood mass murderer Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, pose a serious danger to their brothers and sisters in arms who wear the same uniform. At least 33 threats, plots and strikes against U.S. military communities since 9/11 have been part of a surge of homegrown terrorism which Attorney General Eric Holder has said 'keeps me up at night.' After Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was killed May 1, the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Defense Intelligence Agency warned thousands of U.S. law enforcement and security agencies about possible retaliatory attacks by Al Qaeda, its allies or unaffiliated homegrown terrorists on our military. Weeks after the Pakistan raid, two radicalized U.S. citizens allegedly plotted to attack military personnel in Seattle. The Majority Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security has been conducting an investigation, which finds that 70% of the plots against military targets occurred since mid-2009 -- including the two successful homeland attacks since 9/11."

From the thesis abstract: "The aviation industry is a large network of agglomerated systems that connects people and places. Since the 9/11 attacks, aviation security in the United States has undergone tremendous changes and improvements. Nonetheless, threat detection mechanisms remain imperfect as seen from hijacking attempts by passengers who have gone undetected via security. Alternate ways of thinking and looking at security was explored through a system perspective. The focus was on passenger security system with the intention of identifying potential areas of improvement for aviation security with terrorist using aircraft as a weapon. A supply chain approach was taken as the model to move and deliver people as goods through security checks to the aircrafts. Together with this approach, the concept of risks, uncertainties and the associated risk assessment of potentially defective 'goods' were examined. A systems engineering process was used. Through systematic analysis scrutinizing interactions between airport objects and passengers (as objects), this thesis pin-points possible gaps, and thereby identify approaches or means to safeguard and counter these risks. Analysis included the exploration of the trade space between different entities within the system and the interactions between objects, functions, processes, and its associated results."