Morning Security Brief: CIA Drone Strikes, Obama Border Security Strategy, Precrime, Prepaid Phones, & Indian Train Collision

♦ A senior United Nations official is expected to call on the United States to stop CIA-controlled drone strikes in Pakistan next week because the intelligence agency cannot be held accountable like the Defense Department. “With the Defense Department you’ve got maybe not perfect but quite abundant accountability as demonstrated by what happens when a bombing goes wrong in Afghanistan,” Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, told The New York Times yesterday. “The whole process that follows is very open. Whereas if the C.I.A. is doing it, by definition they are not going to answer questions, not provide any information, and not do any follow-up that we know about.” While Alston's report is not legally binding, it's one more example that the international community is uncomfortable with drone attacks. 

♦ The Obama administration's decision to send 1,200 National Guardsmen to the Southwest border is a quick fix that risks militarizing the border, argues Jennifer Bernal-Garcia of the Center for a New American Security. "What is needed along the border is a coordinated strategy among federal agencies and foreign governments, not incremental acts and feel-good deployments," she argues. "Such a broad strategy would focus on reducing criminal groups' ability to violently contest state authority, both by diminishing the sources of their proceeds (drugs) and their social base (through a mix of regional law enforcement and social programs)."

♦ The Los Angeles Times profiles the Homeland Security Advanced Research Project Agency and it's attempt to develop a technology to detect precrime in an airport security line and stop a terrorist attack before it occurs. "The mal-intent project began in 2007 and is based on the unproven premise that technology can identify and interpret physiological, behavioral and paralinguistic cues from someone with mayhem in mind," reports the Times' Bob Drogin. "Rather than using a Ouija board, researchers have linked high-resolution cameras, low-level lasers and other devices to measure fidgeting, pupil dilation, skin temperature, heart rate and other supposed clues."

♦ Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wants to make it mandatory for prepaid mobile phone users to give up their personal information to the seller upon purchase. "The bill was sparked because failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad admitted to using a prepaid phone, and officials were only able to trace him because he gave custom officials the same number he used to call the seller of the SUV,"  reports Gothamist. According Schumer's press release, "This proposal is overdue because for years, terrorists, drug kingpins and gang members have stayed one step ahead of the law by using prepaid phones."

♦ Indian officials are accusing Maoist rebels of causing a train collision in eastern Bengal today, reports The New York Times. Approximately 65 died and over 200 were wounded when a high-speed train derailed and was then hit by a cargo train traveling on a nearby track. “It appears to be a case of sabotage where a portion of the railway track was removed,” Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said in a statement. “Whether explosives were used is not yet clear,” he said.