Homeland Security workers to be told: Be vigilant By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press WriterMon Jul 28, 6:53 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/heightened_threat_awar eness_1 <http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080728/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/heightened_threat_awa reness_1&printer=1;_ylt=Aswh_IoqCFnRZZGWae.gqc2WwvIE> &printer=1;_ylt=Aswh_IoqCFnRZZGWae.gqc2WwvIE The Homeland Security Department will soon tell its employees to review security and emergency plans as the country enters into a period of heightened alert lasting until next summer because of the Olympics and U.S. presidential election. The Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympic Games, presidential nominating conventions, November elections and transition to a new administration pose opportunities for terrorists to attack. Drafts of the heightened alert document were circulated in the past few weeks, and a final document is expected soon. Intelligence officials are reporting no new, credible information about a specific threat to the country at this time, Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said Monday. There are also no plans to raise the color-coded threat level, which was last raised in 2006 after officials uncovered a London plot to blow up U.S.-bound airplanes. The alert level was raised from yellow (elevated) to orange (high) in the aviation sector, and it has not since been lowered. The alert level across the country is still at yellow. "We're ramping up our focus on everything we do," from threat analysis to planning and preparedness, Knocke said. This includes making sure federal emergency managers are up-to-date on response plans, such as how to respond to an improvised explosive device attack. "Quite frankly, I think that the way the department is approaching this is what the American public would expect," Knocke said. The Homeland Security Department was created in 2003 in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Next year will be the first time the department is operated under a new administration. The department has about 208,000 employees. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is sending similar reminders to its agents and analysts to dust off emergency phone lists and plans as the country enters into this vulnerable period. Government officials were criticized after 9/11 for not taking seriously enough warnings about the potential for a terrorist attack. The current threat picture is one of vulnerability and not specific, credible threats, intelligence officials have said. The Olympics and other high-profile events, such as the presidential nominating conventions, are vulnerable to terrorist attacks. But U.S. government officials are not working off of specific threats to these events. (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: <http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml> http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
