Morning Security Brief: Gitmo North, Terrorist Org List, Intel Leakers, Identity Management, &Toronto Fortified

♦ Gitmo North may have some life. "The Obama administration will purchase the Thomson prison in rural western Illinois even if Congress doesn't approve the president's plan to lock up terror suspects there, a key official at the Justice Department said Monday," reports Tribune's The Swamp Blog. Since the White House told lawmakers of its desire to move Gitmo detainees stateside, Congress has tried to stop the transfer by blocking federal funds for refurbishing Thomson to accommodate its new prisoners. "However, that measure did not prohibit use of federal funding to actually buy the prison, and Monday's letter indicates the Justice Department wants to keep the Thomson option alive as negotiations continue with congressional leaders."

♦ A day after the Times Square bomber's guilty plea, a group of senators are pushing for the State Department to designate the Pakistani Taliban a foreign terrorist organization. "Placing the Pakistan Taliban on the State Department’s list of terror organizations is more than just a bureaucratic step," reports The Wall Street Journal. "It would allow the U.S. to seize assets of the Pakistan Taliban, and permit prosecutors to charge individuals with providing material support to the group."

♦ The FBI has identified one out of every two people that leak U.S. intelligence over the past five years. "The FBI says that of 183 cases referred to the Department of Justice between 2005 and 2009, it opened 26 leak investigations and that it identified 14 suspects in those cases," reports Information Week. "Despite a roughly 50% success rate for investigations that have been undertaken, none of the identified suspects has been prosecuted."

♦ On Friday, the White House will unveil its strategy to promote identity management in cyberspace and secure online transactions, reports the Federal News Radio."When you look at the various identification processes to allow me to feel more confident in how I'm interacting with organizations, individuals or computers, I want to make sure the computer on the other end is also confident that it's me who is interacting with them," said White House Cyber Coordinator Howard Schmidt.

♦ Canada's Globe and Mail calls Toronto a "fortified city" because of this week's G-20 Summit. "Police and military leaders decided that Muskoka, host of the G8 summit, could not also accommodate the G20 to follow," the paper reports. "So they were forced to accept that dozens of world leaders would be crammed into the densest corners of Canada’s largest city – and that, to protect them, authorities would need to install three-metre-high fences and summon thousands of police, leaving residents bemused and bothered."