FREE TRAINING > Anhydrous Ammonia Training

This is the best training I have ever seen on anhydrous ammonia.  Please pass along to all your emergency responder buddies and who ever else might benefit from this great training!  

Photo courtesy of:  http://transcaer.com

Below is the list of contents.  Go to course page

1. Introduction
2. How To Use This Training Package
3. Student Handbook
4. Properties
5. Transports
6. Railcars
7. Emergency Response
8. Additional Materials
9. Sponsors & Partners
10. Conclusion

FORT HOOD SHOOTER > the accused faces court martial

• Associated Press
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday, 6JUL2011



Photo courtesy US Army

• Court could sentence Major Nidal Malik Hasan – charged over the killing of 13 people in military base rampage – to death

A US army psychiatrist charged over a 2009 killing rampage at a Texas military base will face a court martial where he could be sentenced to death, a military commander has ruled.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 40, who US officials have linked to a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen, has been charged over the Fort Hood shootings in which 13 people were killed and 32 wounded.

Lieutenant General Donald Campbell, Fort Hood's commander, referred Hasan's case to a general court martial which "is authorised to consider death as an authorised punishment", according to a statement issued by Fort Hood.

A date had not been set for the court martial, the statement said. The first likely step would be for a military judge to inform Hasan of his rights at an arraignment.

According to witnesses who testified at evidentiary hearings at Fort Hood in 2010, Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar" – Arabic for "God is Greatest" – just before opening fire on a group of soldiers undergoing health checks before being deployed to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hasan is confined to a wheelchair after he was paralysed from the chest down by bullet wounds inflicted by civilian police officers during the incident on 5 November 2009.

The attack raised concerns over the threat of "homegrown" militant attacks. US officials said Hasan had exchanged emails with Anwar al-Awlaki, an anti-American al Qaida figure based in Yemen.

Fort Hood is a major deployment point for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

TALIBAN HOTEL ATTACK > Low Death Toll, High Psychological Value | STRATFOR

STRATFOR.COMJuly 7, 2011 | 0853 GMTBy Scott Stewart

At about 10 p.m. on June 28, a group of heavily armed militants attacked the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan. According to government and media reports, the attack team consisted of eight or nine militants who were reportedly wearing suicide vests in addition to carrying other weapons. At least three of the attackers detonated their vests during the drawn-out fight. Afghan security forces, assisted by International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), needed some eight hours to clear the hotel of attackers. One group of militants even worked their way up to the roof of the hotel, where they fired several rocket-propelled grenades.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 12 people, as well as all the militants. The Taliban had a different take on the attack, posting a series of statements on their website claiming responsibility and saying the assault was conducted by eight operatives who killed 90 people and that the real news of their success was being suppressed. (Initially, the Taliban claimed to have killed 200 in the attack but reduced the toll to 90 in later statements.)

Read more: Taliban Hotel Attack: Low Death Toll, High Psychological Value | STRATFOR 

Japan Plans Safety Review for Every Atomic Reactor

Image courtesy of: http://www.nucleartourist.com/world/japan.htm 

Japan on Wednesday announced plans to probe how well each of its atomic energy facilities could stand up to significant environmental pressures, a new effort to alleviate the fear of nearby populations following the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Jiji Press reported (see GSN, July 5).Wednesday, July 6, 2011The Fukushima plant's operator has struggled to prevent radioactive contaminants from escaping the six-reactor facility following a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 20,000 people dead or missing in Japan (Jiji Press, July 6). Multiple additional reactors in Japan have remained switched off amid fears of potential new crises, Reuters reported (Tsukimori/White, Reuters, July 6).

The "stress tests" would take place in addition to standard risk audits, Jiji Press quoted Japanese Industry Minister Banri Kaieda as saying.

"Although the safety of nuclear power plants in Japan has already been ensured, we will be doing the stress tests to have Japanese people feel safer," Kaieda said (Jiji Press).

Meanwhile, a trace amount of cesium 137 has turned up in Tokyo's public water supply, the Dow Jones Newswires reported on Monday.

A quantity drawn on Saturday had .14 becquerels per kilogram of the radioactive substance, down from the .21 becquerels found in a April 22 check, the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health said. Cesium 137 was the only contaminant seen in the fluid, the organization indicated.

Water containing as much as 100 becquerels per kilogram is considered reasonable for consumption by very young children (Hiroyuki Kachi, Dow Jones Newswires, July 4)

CBRNE > Enzyme Might Hold Key to Countering Nerve Agents

Military Chemical Agent Sign for "G agents"

Enzyme Might Hold Key to Countering Nerve Agents

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Drugs produced from a natural enzyme could one day be used to protect people exposed to lethal nerve agents, the U.S. National Institutes of Health said on Friday (see GSN, April 28).

The health agency is providing funding for work by Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science to develop medications that could disassemble organophosphate chemicals used in "G-type" nerve agents such as sarin and soman.

"Drugs based on [this] approach would be a valuable addition to our nation’s ability to mount an effective medical response in the event of a chemical emergency," David Jett, head contact for the NIH Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats program, said in a press release.

Sarin was notably used by the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo cult in two attacks that killed 20 people in 1994 and 1995 (see GSN, March 8).

The U.S. chemical arsenal, which is due to be fully eliminated in about 10 years, also includes sarin (seeGSN, July 5). For complete article 

FREE Medical Training > Immunization Project

[Great NEW training for nurses, immunizations and more. READ MORE]

photo courtesy of University at Albany, Center for Public Health

Nurse Training on Immunization Project

Nurse TIP

Nurse TIP recognizes that nurses play an integral role in the success of immunization programs. Nurses are often the first point of contact at any health care visit and can have considerable influence on the public health practices of a community.

Goals: Increasing the knowledge and competency of nurses in immunization by offering relevant content in a variety of distance-learning approaches.

Engaging nurses in program planning, dialogues with other nurses, and exploring strategies to promote immunization.

Target Audience: Nurses working in medical offices, clinics, community health centers as well as other settings.

FREE Course > Surviving Field Stress for First Responders

[For those of you that do not want to take the course, I have attached the 60 page  > handbook  that is of the same title.  A must have for anyone who is a first responder...]

First responders to a traumatic event are tasked with applying their expertise under incredibly stressful conditions. This webcast deals with the physical, emotional, and mental stressors first responders face when called to a technological disaster. It gives practical coping strategies and resources for dealing with stress.

Goal   To help the responder or those they assist be prepared for the stressors of twenty-first century disasters.

Objectives   Upon successful completion of the program, participants will be able to: Describe psychological stress. Explain common causes of stress. Describe the mental and physical health effects of excessive stress. Describe the social, physical, and emotional causes of first responders stress. Identify methods to cope with field related stress. Identify strategies for assisting members of the public adults and children, with their disaster-related stress in your role as first responder.

Target Audience   Health-care providers, federal, state, and local public health and emergency management officials.

Joplin MO > Three neighboring states offer aid to stricken Joplin, MO

Three neighboring states offer aid to stricken Joplin, MO

Tue, 2011-05-24 09:37 AM

By: Jacob Goodwin

Fans at Kansas Speedway will donate to help relief efforts in Joplin

Because it is located in the far southwest corner of the State of Missouri, the devastated City of Joplin is sitting only short distances from its neighboring states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, all of which have offered immediate assistance.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has activated the Missouri National Guard to respond in the Joplin area. “The State Emergency Management Agency is helping to coordinate the deployment of search and rescue teams, a disaster medical assistance team, communications vehicles, mobile command vehicles, heavy equipment and an incident support team,” announced the Missouri Department of Public Safety on May 23. Full article

Small Pox > Decision Delayed on Eliminating Smallpox Stocks

Decision Delayed on Eliminating Smallpox Stocks

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

photo courtesy  ki4u.com

The World Health Assembly on Tuesday pushed back to 2014 any decision on setting a deadline to eliminate smallpox virus strains held by Russia and the United States, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 23).  

Moscow and Washington have said they need to hold onto the world's last known variola virus stocks to allow for continued research and development of additional vaccines and antivirals. They had pressed for delaying a decision on the matter for five years.

While the European Union and nations such as China and Israel backed that position, a bloc of some 20 countries led by Iran had reportedly pressed for a schedule to be set at this meeting of the decision-making body for the World Health Organization. The gathering ended on Tuesday, following two days of consideration of the matter.

"There has been a lot of discussion around the smallpox issue," WHO official Pierre Formenty said to reporters. "Three years from now, we will resume the discussion" (Barbara Lewis, Reuters I/Yahoo!News, May 24).

Iran on Monday had taken the rare step of calling for a vote on establishing the smallpox destruction deadline, Reuters reported.

The 193-member state World Health Assembly typically makes decisions based on consensus. Tehran's proposal was dismissed by other countries who instead backed forming a working group to attempt to bridge disagreements on the schedule issue.  Full article

U.S. Sends Humanitarian Envoy to North Korea

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The United States on Tuesday dispatched an official envoy to North Korea in a rare trip aimed at assessing food scarcity in the impoverished state against the backdrop of a building push to resume the paralyzed aid-for-denuclearization talks, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 23).

photo courtesy:  dailyworldtrends.com

Special envoy for North Korean human rights Robert King and a small delegation of U.S. officials arrived "to consult humanitarian issues" between Washington and Pyongyang, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch.

The last formal trip by a U.S. official to the Stalinist state took place in December 2009.

"Since North Korea sees U.S. decisions on humanitarian aid through a political lens, the food aid assessment might be treated in Pyongyang as a political signal that the Obama administration might finally be open to a broader political dialogue with North Korea," North Korea specialist Scott Snyder stated on the Council of Foreign Relations website.

King's visit occurs while North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il is in China -- his third such trip in little more than a year. Experts and envoys believe Kim will use the trip to seek more financial and food assistance from its longtime ally. In exchange for providing badly needed aid, analysts anticipate Beijing will pressure Pyongyang to agree to South Korea's proposal for bilateral talks on North Korea's nuclear activities.

Washington shut off food aid to Pyongyang in 2008 and is waiting for the OK from Seoul to open up the pipeline, according to Reuters.

Opponents of providing further food to Pyongyang argue the regime has previously used the assistance to feed its large army and not its citizenry. Seoul says the North has the same food supplies as in 2010. South Korean officials are also suspicious that Pyongyang wants to build up its food supplies prior to a third nuclear test that would presumably result in further restrictions on foreign assistance (Jeremy Laurence, Reuters/Yahoo!News, May 24) Full article
.

North Korean Missile Reach Will Extend to U.S.: Senior Intel Official

Thursday, May 19, 2011

By Diane Barnes

Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON -- North Korea's ballistic missile program would eventually yield systems capable of delivering nuclear weapons to the United States, a senior U.S. intelligence official said on Wednesday (see GSN, April 14).

(May. 19) - A North Korean missile unit, shown in a 1992 military parade in Pyongyang. North Korea is on track to one day produce ballistic missiles suited for carrying nuclear weapons to the United States, a high-level U.S. intelligence official said on Wednesday (Getty Images).

The North Korean missile threat is "very different from what we had 40 years ago with the Soviet Union and the threat of first strikes," Raymond Colston, the new national intelligence manager for Korea at the National Intelligence Director's Office, said during a Capitol Hill panel discussion of Korean Peninsula security issues.

"No one is looking at the North Koreans as building these systems to have a first-strike capability or anything like that. That's not what we're really concerned about. But they are certainly building missiles that eventually will be capable of targeting the U.S., and these missiles will be capable of having nuclear weapons."

The North has an aggressive missile development program that has included two apparent test launches of its Taepodong 2 long-range ballistic missile, in 2006 and 2009. The first flight ended in less than a minute, while the second rocket flew farther but apparently crashed down with the second and third stages failing to separate.

Pyongyang is not known to have yet developed nuclear warheads that could be loaded onto missiles. The regime, though, is believed to hold enough plutonium for six weapons and last November unveiled a uranium enrichment plant that could give it a second route for preparing weapons material.

Years of diplomatic activity under the six-party talks process have failed to persuade the regime to accept nuclear disarmament.

North Korea's proliferation of weapons systems is a "very serious concern," added the official, who spoke on the third day in his present position at the National Intelligence Director's Office.

The U.S. intelligence community, Colston said, has "reasons ... to be concerned that North Korea is a country that will sell just about anything, and we don't put past North Korea a willingness to sell even the most dangerous weapons that they might have."  Full article

OBL ID > How Osama bin Laden was identified

The complete article is below
Osama bin LadenCross Match's SEEK II may have identified bin Laden

SEEK II from Florida-based Cross Match is a 4-pound computer that captures photographs, complete fingerprints, and iris scans; its memory holds the images and biometrics of up to 60,000 people; unconfirmed reports suggest that the Navy SEALs who killed bin Laden used a SEEK II to identify him; there are about 5,000 SEEK II devices in the field, being used by the U.S. military, border patrol, and law enforcement agencies, and also by other militaries

The SEEK II combines three technologies in one unit // Source: crossmatch.com

It appears that the Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden used a device from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida-based Cross Match to identify the al Qaeda’s founder, allowing President Obama to declare in his speech to the nation last week that bin laden was dead.

The Palm Beach Post reports that Cross Match representatives would not confirm whether their product was used in the identification of bin Laden, partly because they are not sure. Still, the Post says that company representatives “offer tantalizing hints, such as that the Department of Defense is one of their biggest clients and that their mobile device is the only one approved by the FBI to take rolled fingerprints, which provide more data and better matches than flat prints.”

The paper quotes Michael Oehler, vice president of mobile biometrics, to say that it appears that a Cross Match product was used to identify bin Laden “really is a good feeling, I must say. We have a very strong sense of patriotism in the company.”

The device likely used to identify bin Laden is the SEEK II — a 4-pound computer that captures photographs, complete fingerprints, and iris scans. Its memory holds the images and biometrics of “60,000 of your favorite bad guys,” Oehler said. With 3G technology or a satellite connection, the SEEK also can link to databases all over the world. This means that SEEK can identify a match within seconds – and helpful feature when the identification has to be doe under fire.

Oehler would not specify to the Post which data points the SEEK registers, but he said the technology generally measures things such as space between the eyes or the nostrils. It looks for features that do not degrade (measuring skin, which sags with age or can be transformed by plastic surgery, would not be useful).

Ohler noted that although an iris scan is 100 times more accurate than fingerprints, it is unlikely the military used the iris scan feature on bin Laden because that would require a previous iris scan to make a match. Moreover, even if bin Laden’s iris had been in the system, the SEALs would have had to move quickly to compare it with the real thing because an iris is “valid” for only five to ten minutes after death.

The company notes that there are fewer than 5,000 SEEKs currently in the field. The device is used by the U.S. military and other armies, and also by border patrol and other law enforcement agencies.   to see full article by HSNW

First Bin Laden Revenge Strike Hits Pakistan; 80 Dead

The first terrorist revenge attack for the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was claimed on Friday after two individuals detonated suicide bomb vests at a paramilitary training facility in Pakistan. The strike resulted in 80 deaths, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, May 12).

(May. 13) - Security officials examine wrecked vehicles outside a training center for Pakistan's Frontier Constabulary, where two people detonated suicide bomb vests on Friday. The Pakistani Taliban said the attack was carried out in retaliation to the U.S. raid last week that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (A. Majeed/Getty Images).

The attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban was intended to "avenge the Abbottabad incident," spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said, referring to the May 1 U.S. commando raid that resulted in bin Laden's death at a compound in the town of Abbottabad.

The two suicide attackers detonated their explosives at the primary entrance to a military training center for the Frontier Constabulary, which has been financially supported by the United States and has sent troops to fight al-Qaeda and other extremists near the Pakistan/Afghanistan border. Police officer Liaqat Ali Khan said 66 of those killed were recruits.

Ehsan said the Friday attack in Shabqadar would be followed by strikes targeting U.S. citizens residing in Pakistan.

An explosion at a parking lot in northwest Pakistan also caused the destruction of about 24 vehicles, including 15 tanker trucks transporting fuel for NATO into Afghanistan (Riaz Khan, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, May 13).

Even as bin Laden for years evaded a massive manhunt, he pondered ways to mount another terrorist assault in the United States as a follow-up to the September 11 attacks. His thoughts, recorded in a diary, show he focused on maximizing U.S. casualties by attacking large population centers such as Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The journal, other documents, data storage devices and computers were captured by U.S. Navy SEALs during their raid on the Abbottabad compound. U.S. intelligence analysts are now racing to analyze the large information cache.  Read more

Mass-casualty > simulator aims to make disaster planning more precise

The number and types of mass casualties a hospital might expect from a terror incident is usually just supposition, handicapping planners with inexact estimates. A new version of a free, Web-based simulation tool developed at Johns Hopkins University removes much of this guesswork from disaster-planning equations.

Mass-casualty simulator aims to make disaster planning more preciseThe Electronic Mass Casualty Assessment & Planning Scenarios system, or EMCAPS, predicts the mass casualty impact on individual hospitals Read more...

By Doug Page

Free Course > Mass Casualty Incident Triage

This course is intended for pre-hospital care providers who may be called on to respond to a mass casualty incident resulting when a large numbers of victims are injured or exposed to hazardous materials or WMD agents. The course will prepare trainees to use the Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (START) system, along with the "All Hazards" or "All Risk" Triage Tag. The course will also cover use of the Incident Management System (IMS) to respond with maximum effectiveness to a mass casualty event. Previous training of trainees may range from Medical First Responder or EMT-Basic to Paramedic. -Read more

Video > Food helps brain injuries in warriors