[SCADASEC] Danger from Canada

[Kevin McGrath]

> While Congress is very critical of that DHS move (mostly for economic
> reasons), it is mind-boggling that six and half years after Sept. 11
> the U.S. borders are still so open and that such a system was in
> place.

Howdy,

What boggles my mind is that since apparently nothing bad has happened 
in these 6.5 years why should we do anything? I think the bigger threat 
is in making this more public knowledge then it already is in an attempt 
to try and justify the existence of various govt. agencies and get more 
funding. If we harden these sites they will just find other weak links 
in the long undefended border. Maybe we need an iron curtain between us 
& the Great White North, eh?

Regards,
Kevin
--
Kevin M. McGrath, CISSP, TCSP-P
Lead Analyst | US-Gas Management System (GMS)
Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) | National Grid
Office: (718)403-2910 | Cell: (917)939-8569 Nextel 172*86*2119
kmcgrath at keyspanenergy.com


Bob Radvanovsky wrote:
> URL:
> http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/02/11/danger_from_canada/8977/
> 
> 
> Danger from Canada By OLIVIER GUITTA (Middle East Times) Published:
> February 11, 2008
> 
> On Jan. 15, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff told the BBC
> that one of the biggest threats to U.S. security might now come from
> Europe. Even if this assessment is quite accurate, the immediate
> danger might be coming from a much closer place: Canada.
> 
> The fact that based on the honor system, people claiming to be U.S.
> or Canadian citizens could just enter the U.S. by land or by sea
> makes it even more dangerous. But on Jan. 31, the Department of
> Homeland Security finally revoked this honor system.
> 
> While Congress is very critical of that DHS move (mostly for economic
> reasons), it is mind-boggling that six and half years after Sept. 11
> the U.S. borders are still so open and that such a system was in
> place. The honor system was basically resting on trusting everyone
> not to lie about their citizenship without any kind of proof. Thus,
> potentially hundreds of terrorists may have been allowed into the
> U.S. without showing any proof of identification.
> 
> To show how potentially damaging this policy is, just one statistic
> suffices: in just three months, from October to December 2007,
> Customs and Border Protection officers reported 1,517 cases of
> individuals falsely claiming to be U.S. citizens. Two recent telling
> examples show the very alarming situation at the border.
> 
> First, in May 2006, CNN reported that a border station between
> Manitoba and Minnesota was unmanned and that people crossing the
> border were supposed to phone in to ask to be granted entry.
> Incidentally, the videophone was working very spottily and the local
> sheriff estimates that about 70 percent of people did not bother
> calling in. He also has information that drug smugglers and potential
> terrorists took advantage of this easy crossing.
> 
> The second example, even more mind-boggling, comes from a September
> 2007 Government Accountability Office report that shows that a
> terrorist with the intention of smuggling radioactive material from
> Canada to the United States could likely easily do it. The reason
> they know that is because GAO's investigators were able, "to cross
> undetected, simulating the cross-border movement of radioactive
> materials."
> 
> The overall conclusion of that report was that regarding the northern
> border, "CBP faces significant challenges in effectively monitoring
> the border and preventing undetected entry into the United States."
> 
> This should not be surprising in light of how little human capital is
> devoted to protecting the border with Canada: as of May 2007, the CBP
> had 972 U.S. Border Patrol agents on the 5,500-mile northern border.
> 
> In light of the above-mentioned facts, it should be clear that the
> very porous border with Canada is a pressing national security issue.
> This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. Why?
> 
> Historically, a number of terror attacks targeting the U.S. have
> originated in Canada, such as the "Millennium plot" planned against
> Los Angeles airport. Another example: Just two months ago, the Paris
> daily Le Figaro revealed that the leader of the Palestinian commando
> team that perpetrated the Oct. 3, 1980, terror attack on the Rue
> Copernic synagogue in Paris (which killed 4 and injured 20) is living
> in Canada. The suspect is of Palestinian descent and holds both
> Lebanese and Canadian citizenships, an expert on the Rue Copernic
> case said:
> 
> "We always knew that the leader of the commandos behind the Rue
> Copernic [terror attack] was very unlikely ever to be tried." One of
> the reasons behind this assessment is that the
> Palestinian/Lebanese/Canadian terrorist picked the right place to
> live: Canada."
> 
> In fact, Canada is well known for its reluctance to extradite
> suspects, especially when they are nationals. According to Le Figaro,
> the Canadian police have confirmed to Interpol the name and address
> of the alleged terrorist, but they have not followed up. French
> authorities are looking for this individual in order to interrogate
> him.
> 
> In his book, "In Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports
> Terrorism Around the World" (first published in 2004, revised and
> updated in 2007), journalist Stewart Bell explains why terrorists
> elect Canada as a place of residence and "business." First, Bell
> points out, the judicial and immigration systems are basically
> broken: Even if a terrorist is caught, he rarely suffers a fate worse
> than deportation. In many instances, an individual ordered deported
> does not leave.
> 
> For example, the Canadian leader of the Tamil Tigers, Manickavasagam
> Suresh, was arrested in 1995 as a threat to national security and was
> ordered to be deported, but he is still in Canada 13 years later.
> 
> Canadian immigration laws, combined with the difficulty of enforcing
> better antiterrorist laws, make it tough for security services to do
> their job properly. The province of Quebec has attracted members of
> the Algerian GIA (Armed Islamic Group) – Ahmed Ressam, the
> "Millennium Bomber" was one of them – and Lebanese Hezbollah
> operatives.
> 
> David Harris, a former official with the Canadian Security
> Intelligence Services, told PBS in May 2001: "Montreal is the place
> you probably want to be if you are an Algerian extremist." This
> statement is still very much accurate today: Algerian or Moroccan
> elements of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb or Hezbollah operatives
> can easily pass as immigrants wanting to move to Canada.
> 
> Even after the arrests of 18 homegrown Muslim terrorists in Toronto
> in June 2006 authorities seem to downplay the threat, worried not to
> disrupt the important cross-border trade that could suffer as a
> result of beefed-up border security measures.
> 
> In a post-9/11 world proper border security is a must, even if the
> DHS' new policy is somewhat late.
> 

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