DHS plans to shift its research on one of the most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock, raising concerns on the Hill about a catastrophic outbreak, The Associated Press’ Larry Margasak relates. In 2005, the potential economic impact of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the United States was estimated at $40 billion to $60 billion, according to USDA estimates, The Butner Blogspot adds.

Mike is in the building: Michael Chertoff’s address on cybersecurity last week was “at best underwhelming, and at worst downright frightening,” Carl Weinschenk weighs on Network Sentry. “Even with the most sophisticated and technologically advanced systems . . . errors still occur,” The Morgan Hill (Calif.) Times notes in objection to DHS’s planned no-match letter push — while Chertoff tells AP’s Scott Lindlaw that until Congress enacts broad immigration reforms employers shouldn’t expect any changes in enforcement. Chertoff also insists DHS has every intention of tapping into the nation’s most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes, rebuffing challenges by House Dems over the scheme’s legality, The Washington Post’s Spencer Hsu says.

Feds: “We know of no trained al Qaeda operatives who have crossed over our southern border,” but Osama bin Laden’s followers have considered doing so, Reuters’ Randall Mikkelsen cites DHS’s intel czar. Scrambling to hire thousands of agents by the end of the year, the Border Patrol is taking its recruiting efforts overseas to try to enlist military veterans as they leave their tours of duty, USA Today’s Mimi Hall mentions. FEMA says “it will no longer use travel trailers to house the victims of future disasters, but its effort to develop a replacement has not impressed housing experts,” The New York Times’ Leslie Eaton relates. Although he resigned in February to work at Chevron, ex-Pentagon general counsel William Haynes “remains a key figure in a sweeping Senate probe into allegations of abuses to detainees,” Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff reminds. The National Counterterrorism Center, meantime, has launched an interactive version of its 2008 calendar, In Homeland Security takes note.

Divided loyalties: John McCain may have been catering to the bill’s neo-con opponents when he — seemingly deliberately — missed the March 13, 2007, vote on a measure to codify the 9/11 Commission recommendations, an AlterNet contributor comments. “The terrorists have stepped up their attacks. It is in their best interest to keep the war on the front page to stir anti-war sentiment in this country, thereby improving the prospects of a Democratic victory in November,” The Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American asserts. “Now is it clear why Obama refuses to cover his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance, or wear an American flag pin on his lapel? His loyalties are not to the USA,” the ultra-right American Free Press charges. (“Democrats routinely respond that their patriotism is being questioned. In fact, they’re rarely if ever accused of being unpatriotic. But to the paranoid, that’s immaterial,” The Weekly Standard’s editor scoffs.) “The mullahs want us to die. Obama thinks he can talk them out of it?” Michael Ledeen demands in Human Events. “Former president Jimmy Carter’s plan to meet with the exiled leader of Hamas in Damascus is drawing criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike,” The Jewish Daily Forward recounts.

State and local: The LAPD has launched a new reporting system aimed to help connect dots that could uncover local terror plots — a program other major city cop shops hope to emulate, AP reports. DHS has approved Massachusetts’ advanced communications plan for first responders, and released grants worth nearly $21 million to implement it, The Boston Heraldrelates. The pope’s impending visit presents New York City and federal law enforcers with a security challenge of considerable complexity, the Times tells — and see The Australian: “Benedict XVI is confident the U.S. government has done enough to protect him during his visit to the U.S.” A multimedia exhibit designed to give a newsroom perspective of how the media covers terrorism opens today at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, The Tulsa World tells.

Bugs ‘n bombs: A Chinese man probably infected his father with the H5N1 strain of bird flu before dying, renewing concerns that the disease could one day spread easily among humans, Agence France-Presse reports. Researchers have developed a nasal spray anthrax vaccine that provides protection against the deadly bacterium, at least in mice, Homeland Security Daily Wire records — while The Washington Examiner has a biotech firm working on a patch-delivered vaccine. Scientists mimicking one of cancer’s sneaky tricks have created a drug that promises a radiation antidote to administer in nuclear emergency,APlearns.

Coming and going: The “world’s busiest airport” plans to Roto-Rooter its clogged checkpoints with a $25 million mid-summer upgrade promising more screening lanes,The Atlanta Journal-Constitutionrecounts. A Canadian screener who delayed a plane from takeoff after requesting an area where there were passengers belonging to an HIV/AIDS activist group be cleaned, has resigned, The Vancouver Sun says. Behavioral screening and turban searches “are valid, even if they may inconvenience certain classes of passengers. Putting an end to either would be an open invitation to terrorists,” The Wheeling News-Register argues — and see Smarter Travel on how to board with an ice pack. Malaysia has mounted armed patrols of Kuala Lumpur’s airport after a dramatic robbery that left five people injured in a hail of bullets, APF reports.

Border wars: Phoenix’s mayor has requested an FBI investigation whether immigration sweeps by a flamboyant county sheriff violate civil rights laws, The Arizona Republic reports. Illegal immigrants arrested in Iowa would be denied all bail under a new provision added to an already controversial legislative proposal, The Des Moines Register recounts. Illegal immigrants armed with torches, hacksaws, ladders and even bungee cords are penetrating a section of the much-hailed border fence, AP says — while Reuters sees a judge ordering a Texas property owner to let barrier builders survey her land. Conservationists worry that a sweeping environmental waiver may give DHS cover to barricade even areas not designated under the Secure Fence Act, The Tucson Weekly surveys. Two volunteer groups now have surveillance cameras pointed at the Mexican border up to 200 yards away, The Arizona Republic, again, says. Residents of a Quebec hamlet are “ready to go to the wall [if Ottawa] installs an anti-terrorist fence to block off their local pier,” The Canadian Press reports.

Bar chat:Stalemated in the second trial of six men accused of plotting against Chicago’s Sears Tower and FBI offices, a federal jury will return to its deliberations today, The Miami Heraldmentions. The military lawyer for a Guantanamo detainee captured by in Afghanistan when he was 15 termed the tribunal process inherently unjust on Friday, AFP reports. Expressing frustration with delays, a military prosecutor urged a Pentagon judge to schedule that prisoner’s trial sooner rather than later, the Times tell — while The Washington Times charts legal wrangling over “missing” classified files in that case. The brother of a suicide bomber who died in last year’s bungled Glasgow Airport attack is to be deported after being sentenced to 18 months’ jail Friday, The Sun says.

Rights and wrongs: “How could two really smart government lawyers authorize torture in arguments that have no foundation in law?” a Nation piece on the just-unearthed torture memo wonders — while President Bush tells ABC News he had approved high-level meetings on “harsh” interrogation techniques. “How does a nation, threatened by terrorists, balance respect for cherished civil liberties against the government’s need to gain information and to maintain secrecy to protect us?” a Central Maine Morning Sentinel op-ed ponders. Afghan Gitmo detainees are being transferred home to face closed-door trials in which they are often denied access to defense attorneys and the U.S. evidence used against them, the Post reports — and recall The New York Times’ earlier piece. Pakistan must immediately release dozens who were secretly detained as part of a former regime’s cooperation with the U.S.-led war on terrorism, AP has an Islamabad rights group insisting.

Over there: Security forces are investigating “30 deadly terror plots which threaten mayhem across Britain,” the home secretary tells News of the World. China claims to have foiled plots to kidnap foreigners and carry out suicide attacks around the Beijing Olympics, Reuters reports — while AFP probes the “mystery and doubt” still shrouding official reports of a deadly raid in Urumqi also aimed to defend the games from a terror attack, and see Time Magazine on “China’s Murky Olympic Terror Threats,” and Reuters on the games’ “clouded” fate. “Arab media commentators think that the United States and NATO will have to negotiate with a resurgent Taliban in order to reassert control over Afghanistan,” a New American Media commentary contends — but see American Thinker on “The Afghanistan Success Story.” NATO’s top commander said last week that the failure of some European countries to fight terror with military means is contributing to tensions within the alliance, AP reports.

Pressing the torch against a new generation: “A universally recognized symbol of goodwill, the Olympic torch was used to immolate hundreds of Tibetan protesters during its journey across mainland China last week, in what is being called a stirring display of competitive spirit and Chinese nationalism,” The Onion reports. “ ‘It was a thrilling experience,’ said torchbearer Wei Xiang, a member of the People’s Liberation Army, who personally set 23 monks ablaze as he ran past their peaceful protest. ‘Today, I am very proud to be Chinese.’ As the torch travels the globe, a group of Serbian nationalists has reportedly offered to transport the emblematic flame across the newly independent nation of Kosovo.” And see also, Onion Sports on “Olympic Torch Relay Difficulties” (“Beijing, China: The torch relay starts in this city, providing a symbolic reminder of what a huge mistake it was to hold the Olympics in Beijing.”)