Justice and DHS officials yesterday “described a growing number of unauthorized exports that could be dangerous if the parts and supplies end up in the hands of terrorists or hostile nations,” The Associated Press’ Lara Jakes Jordan reports in re: the new Counterproliferation Initiative. The CIA has mounted an unusual internal probe of its IG’s office, suspected of being less than “fair and impartial in its scrutiny of the agency’s terrorist detention and interrogation programs,” the Los Angeles Times’ Greg Miller mentions.

Feds: Energy and DHS are currently ill equipped to quickly track down the make and origin of nuclear materials used in a terror attack, AP’s Eileen Sullivan reports from a Wednesday hearing. The White House’s new strategy for domestic defense “obfuscates rather than clarifies the government’s homeland security mission,” James Jay Carafano condemns in a Heritage WebMemo. “Did the NSA’s massive call records database program pre-date the terrorist attacks of 9/11?” Threat Level’s Ryan Singel asks, pointing to court documents. “Satire became reality last Friday,” when armored Federal Marshals detained everyone at the Homeland Stupidity editor’s home “for nearly 90 minutes to determine who might pose a threat to the government,” Michael Hampton leads.

Poly-ticks: Democratic “governance-by-acquiescence” might be less disturbing “if the Bush administration could point with pride since 9/11 to a series of smart, measured and constitutional anti-terror measures,” CBS News legalist Andrew Cohen complains. The Virginia governor’s hot-potatoing of a commission appointee — revealed as a jihadist — “should yet again remind our elected officials across the country of the stakes in this global ideological conflict,” M. Zuhdi Jasser asserts in Family Security Matters. Praying the issue still offers traction, Dem Barack Obama has a new Internet ad commemorating the day several of his Dem rivals voted for the Iraq war resolution,” The New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny takes notice.

State and local: Five Maryland centers for the controversial Chabad-Lubavitch sect have received $350,000 in DHS grants over the past two years, The CL Media Center says — and see The Baltimore Jewish Times: “Jewish institutions will receive the majority of U.S. federal funds designated this year to help secure non-profit organizations.” Kansas’ eminent domain law was meant to protect property owners from government bull-dozing, “but officials in storm-torn cities worry new red tape will keep them from restoring what they once had,” The Kansas City Star says. A 9/11 memorial in Jersey City has been put on hold after construction bids came in $12 million over budget, The Newark Star-Ledger notes — while Newsday notes that the Empire State Building will be illuminated green this weekend in honor of Eid-al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan.

Chasing the dime: The 9/11 attacks “didn’t change everything — but they did bring into stark relief a collection of trends in business continuity/disaster recovery that had been building since the 1990s,” a NewsFactor Network essay explores. “Exerting unprecedented Islamic influence in the heart of the U.S. and Western economies,” the world’s first Islamic stock exchange “should raise our alarm,” The Terror Finance Blogwarns of Borse Dubai’s proposed acquisition of 20 percent of Nasdaq. Treasury took action Wednesday against three Saudis suspected of raising money to bankroll terrorist acts, United Press International informs. Is the Holy Land Foundation terror-funding case head for a mistrial? The Counterterrorism Blog thinks maybe yes.

Bugs ‘n bombs: Three Dover (N.J.) alderman are crusading to ensure machine-dispensed gum balls aren’t “poisoned by an enterprising terrorist who sees them as bait for young kids,” The Newark Star-Ledger spotlights. A Joint Terrorism Task Force agent this week retrieved a box containing some $21,000 in Raytheon missile parts a Norfolk man found in a trashed 1965 Nova he’d bought for $625.00, NBC 11 Alive informs. About 30 cars in a toxic chemical-hauling freight train derailed in Ohio Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of hundreds, The Painesville News-Herald notes. “The plant owner, the security company and the NRC all failed” in the case of the sleeping Peach Bottom nuke plant security guards, USA Today chides. We have “no tolerance for nuclear plant security officers dozing on duty,” an agency officer reassuringly retorts.

Powder puffs: Fire officials responded to a “mysterious white powdery substance” at a downtown Dallas courthouse Wednesday, the Morning News notes. A South Jersey law office was also emptied by a “mysterious white powder,” later IDed as baking soda from a discharged fire extinguisher, The Burlington County Times tells — while CBS 4 has a Miami Hooters dealing with a “racial threat” dusted with more “white powder.” Toronto Police rushed in last Friday after a homeowner opening a U.S.-posted package was sprayed with a “mysterious white powder” that numbed his hands and feet, CityNews says. “Production slammed to a screeching halt Wednesday at Adronics/Elrob Manufacturing following a bomb threat,” The Hays (Kan.) Daily News leads — as Georgia’s WALB 10 finds a regional medical center “on high alert after two separate bomb threats, just two days apart.”

Coming and going: A poorly performing shoes-on scanner on trial at Orlando airport checkpoints was turned off Wednesday, USA Today tells — while AP has TSA finally testing a body-scanner that could supersede metal detectors. A New York county legislature — defying the governor’s bid to license illegals — has ordered its county clerk to require anyone seeking a driver’s license to provide a valid SSN, The Albany Times-Union relays. Stiffer ID requirements for people entering the United States from Canada are already hurting Vermont businesses and the fallout is likely to get even worse, The Canadian Press quotes from Senate testimony. The AFL-CIO complained yesterday that a CBP screening program might be retaining records of whether international travelers are union members, AP reports.

Guantanamo Bay Watch: Military prosecutors have filed attempted murder charges against a Guantanamo detainee, the fourth such under the new rules, The International Herald Tribune tells — while AP finds them reviewing the classification of hundreds of inmates as “enemy combatants.” Justice claims in a new brief that Guantanamo detainees “enjoy more procedural protections than any other captured enemy combatants in the history of warfare,” The New York Times relates. “The administration’s secretive [interrogation] practices perpetuate the debate when a unified national policy would be far preferable,” USA Today, relatedly, opines. Counters the White House homeland advisor, “This program is legal, and it has made us safer.”

Over there: Three al Qaedaites behind the assassination of a Sunni preacher died in a U.S. air strike Wednesday, Reuters reports. A British Muslim has gone on trial as the “recruiter, groomer and corrupter” of budding young Islamists, including would-be London train bombers, The Independent informs — and see The Daily Telegraph on proceedings against “Osama bin London.” A man on trial for last year’s failed German train bombing tells a Beirut court the explosives were to protest cartoons of Muhammad, but denied any al Qaeda linkage, Deutsche Welle records. A sharp intra-administration debate argues over the intel supporting last month’s Israeli strike against an alleged Syrian nuke lab, The New York Times tells — while The Jerusalem Post finds Syria now denying the bombing ever even happened. See also, The Daily Dish: “What The Hell Just Happened In Syria?”

Over here: U.S. religious re-education programs for Islamist detainees in Iraq are modeled, in part, on Singapore’s and on a much larger program in Saudi Arabia, The Christian Science Monitor spotlights. Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first Twin Towers terror attack, claims he’s converted from Islam to Christianity, CBS Newsreveals. “Muslim jihadists continue to obey Islamic theology and to prey on the Christians in their midst,” Robert Spencer scowls for FrontPage. On-lookers worry that racist skinheads are surging back to the Northwest on a wave of anti-immigrationism, The Oregonian observes. “White House Ramadan is so much better than bingo,” a sardonic Washington Times columnist carps.

The Silver Scream: Despite the post-9/11 boom in Middle East-oriented scripts, “the roles suddenly being created for Arab-heritage actors often are limited to those of terrorists or are otherwise so poorly drawn that actors must swallow their pride to take them,” The Los Angeles Times’ Ashraf Khalil surveys — and see the LAT’s Robert W. Welkos, as well, on the evacuation of three child actors from Afghanistan in advance of the delayed opening of “The Kite Runner” (Paramount). The “cliched, slick, manipulative” Saudi-situated terror flick, “The Kingdom” (Universal), “plays fast and loose with facts and is disturbingly rife with anti-Arab bias,” Kaveh L Afrasiabi pans in Asia Times. “It’s the strangest film screening I’ve ever been to,” ABC News’s Miguel Marquez writes of a preview for U.S. troops in Iraq of “Meeting Resistance” (Nine Lives), an inside documentary examination of the insurgency.

Kulture Kanyon: A Heathrow airport worker who called herself the “lyrical terrorist” wrote a poem entitled “How to Behead,” The Times of London quotes from court testimony. A “team of failed Washington insiders” has an online, made-for-disaster TV network — called ‘Homeland Security Television,’ which promises “television for a new generation of homeland security leaders,” Slate previews. A Colorado museum gift shop is besieged with requests for a T-shirt — featuring four armed Comanches and the slogan: “Homeland Security. Fighting terrorism since 1492” — yanked from the shelves last week as “too offensive,” ABC 7 News notes. Since 9/11, the NFL strongly recommends a 100-foot buffer zone around the stadium to protect against bombings — a benchmark snarling traffic at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, KSDK NewsChannel 5 notes.

Downpressor Man: “The White House is looking at deterring the Iranian nuclear program with new sanctions. What measures have been proposed?” an Onion “Infographic” asks,, enumerating: “1) Cutting off two-thirds of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s name any time he is mentioned in the press; 2) Revoking the country’s membership in the Axis of Evil; 3) Ceasing production of monogrammed ‘U.S. & Iran: A Perfect Match’ matchbooks; 4) Miss America not including Iran on world tour; 5) Jesse Jackson to be sent, without an interpreter, to negotiate; 6) Copyrighting the phrase ‘The Great Satan’ and suing Iran every time it is used to refer to U.S.; 7) Putting restrictions on how much Iran is allowed to hate the U.S. at any given moment; 8) Will stop selling them uranium.” Reference, also, in Unconfirmed Sources: “U.S. Propaganda Magnifies Ahmadinejad Threat.”