December 4, 2006 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project Activity Report

(1) CITIZEN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AT DHS GOES ALL-HAZARDS!

Fox, Jon. "New DHS Disaster Preparedness Ads Play Down Terrorism."

Global Security Newswire, 1 Dec 2006. Accessed at:

(2) HOMELAND SECURITY:

Sullivan, Eileen. "The Root of All Terror." CQ Weekly. December 4, 2006.

[Excerpt: "The Department of Homeland Security is the home of many mysteries.... And now Jim O'Brien, the director of the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security in Clark County, Nev., has discovered another hard-to-fathom DHS notion: a mathematical value purporting to represent the square root of terrorist intent. The figure appears deep in the mind-numbingly complex risk-assessment formulas that the department used in 2006 to decide the likelihood that a place is or will become a terrorist target - an all-important estimate outside the Beltway, because greater slices of the federal anti-terrorism pie go to the locations with the highest scores. Overall, the department awarded$711 million in high-risk urban counterterrorism grants last year."]

(3) MARTIAL LAW IN DISASTER RESPONSE:

Stein Jeff. "Fine Print in Defense Bill Opens Door to Martial Law." CQ- Homeland Security, December 1, 2006. Accessed at:

[Excerpt: "It's amazing what you can find if you turn over a few rocks in the anti-terrorism legislation Congress approved during the election season. Take, for example, the John W. Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2006, named for the longtime Armed Services Committee chairman from Virginia. Signed by President Bush on Oct. 17, the law (PL 109-364) has a provocative provision called 'Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies.' The thrust of it seems to be about giving the federal government a far stronger hand in coordinating responses to Katrina-like disasters. But on closer inspection, its language also alters the two-centuries-old Insurrection Act, which Congress passed in 1807 to limit the president's power to deploy troops within the United States.That law has long allowed the president to mobilize troops only 'to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy'. But the amended law takes the cuffs off.Specifically, the new language adds 'natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident' to the list of conditions permitting the President to take over local authority - particularly 'if domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order'.... One of the few to complain, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., warned that the measure virtually invites the White House to declare federal martial law. It 'subverts solid, longstanding posse comitatus statutes that limit the military's involvement in law enforcement, thereby making it easier for the President to declare martial law,' he said in remarks submitted to the Congressional Record on Sept. 29. 'The changes to the Insurrection Act will allow the President to use the military, including the National Guard, to carry out law enforcement activities without the consent of a governor,' he said. Moreover, he said, it breaks a long, fundamental tradition of federal restraint. 'Using the military for law enforcement goes against one of the founding tenets of our democracy.' And he criticized the way it was rammed through Congress. It 'was just slipped in the defense bill as a rider with little study,' he fumed. 'Other congressional committees with jurisdiction over these matters had no chance to comment, let alone hold hearings on, these proposals'."]

(4) TEXASA&MUNIVERSITY, COLLEGE STATION -- TO OFFER GRADUATE PROGRAM IN HOMELAND SECURITY:

Received today from Dr. David McIntyre, Director of the IntegrativeCenter for Homeland Security at TexasA&MUniversity, a press release, dated today, to the effect that TAMU is planning on establishing a graduate program in homeland security. "If the program receives approval from the state of Texas, the master's curriculum should become available in about 18 months. For additional information, the website for the ICHS is: Dr. McIntyre can be reachedat:

B.Wayne Blanchard, Ph.D., CEM

Higher Education Project Manager

Emergency Management Institute

NationalEmergencyTrainingCenter

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Department of Homeland Security

16825 S. Seton, K-011

Emmitsburg, MD21727

(301) 447-1262, voice

(301) 447-1598, fax

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