Morning Security Brief: New Orleans' Levees, Bank Security, Domestic Terrorism, Cargo Security, & HLS Stimulus Spending

♦ As the fifth anniversary of when the levees broke approaches, The New York Times today reports that a new levee system is almost up and running although New Orleans residents are skeptical. "The scale of the nearly $15 billion project, which is not due to be completed until the beginning of next year’s hurricane season, brings to mind an earlier age when the nation built huge works like the Brooklyn Bridge, the Hoover Dam and the Interstate highway system," according to the Times. 'The city’s reinforced defenses are already stronger than they were before Katrina. But even after 2011, experts argue, they will still provide less protection than New Orleans needs to avoid serious flooding in massive storms.For a region devastated by a storm and by a loss of faith in the government’s ability to safeguard it, the new system is a test of more than the prowess of the Army Corps of Engineers. Some residents say they may never fully get over the failure of the Katrina response."

♦ Criminals stole $46 million from American banks last year the old-fashioned way: by holding them up. The Crime Report provides such answers why banks remain an attractive, and easy, target for bandits. "One reason why banks remain attractive crime targets, ironically enough, is their concern for customers―and profits. In an age when retail banking has become so competitive that branches pop up on every street corner, executives worry that the high cost of additional security, plus the possibility that obtrusive security may drive away customers, will affect their bottom line," Steve Yoder writes. "FBI statistics suggest that relatively few banks have the crucial physical defenses that could deter robbers. Less than 10 percent of the banks hit in 2009 had tellers behind bullet-resistant enclosures, and less than five percent employed guards."

♦ The FBI continues to pursue a domestic terrorist who helped detonate a bomb at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus 40 years ago today in protest over the Vietnam War. Leo Burt, a student and aspiring journalist, was the only one of the four conspirators who got away. And the FBI's still on the trail. "On Monday, the FBI upped the profile of the case, prominently displaying a story on its website that began: 'Where is Leo Burt? You can earn up to $150,000 by helping us find him,'" according AOL News' Allan Lengel. "The bombing occurred on Aug. 24, 1970. The country was in turmoil. Richard Nixon was president. The rock 'n' roll landscape was flush with giants like the Rolling Stones and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. And campuses like the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor were bubbling with the anti-war, anti-establishment sentiments that were polarizing the nation." The attack was the worst domestic terrorist attack, killing one and wounding three, until Oklahoma City, writes Lengel.

♦ A former White House Homeland Security Council and lead intelligence officer for the Secretary of Defense told the Heritage Foundation yesterday that the United States still needs to secure the supply chain. "The global supply chain, which consists of 140 million shipping containers, faces unique challenges, Barrett said, because in addition to the sheer mass of traveling cargo, materials move by ship, rail and truck, making it hard to secure," reports Courthouse News. "Also, the United States has 12,000 miles of coastline, making it hard to funnel cargo through a limited number of entrances. Barrett said a nuclear weapon delivered via the supply chain could be an 'existential threat.'" Currently, only 6 percent of cargo that enters the United States is scanned.

♦ Cities across Oklahoma are choosing to purchase weapons rather than hire more police officers with federal stimulus money, reports the Tulsa World. "Statewide, cities and counties spent nearly $7.7 million of their American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds on everything from patrol vehicles to digital video systems to high-powered guns," according to the paper. "The stimulus money, officers said, allowed the departments to buy equipment that they needed but otherwise would not be able to afford. They said hiring officers would create problems in the coming years when the stimulus money runs out and departments might not be able to pay them."