“Already rumors abound on [DHS]’s operational plans for guarding centralized food warehouses and for protecting convoys to distribution points in cities,” writes an anonymous Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist forecasting “food riots and a massive dislocation of society.” Conspiracists on the right would have you believe “Mexico is slowly reconquering the land through immigration,” Paul Ramos ruminates in The Houston Chronicle in re: that controversial Absolut ad showing Mexico with pre-1848 borders.

Feds: DHS today will order airlines and cruise lines to collect digital fingerprints of all foreigners before they depart the country under an initiative the industry condemns as burdensome, The Washington Post’s Spencer S. Hsu and Del Quentin Wilber report.Dozens of DHSers will become interim administrators next Jan. 20 to run key agencies until the Senate confirms the next president’s nominees, The Associated Press’ Scott Lindlaw relates. “Whether the White House is truly doing all it can is perhaps suspect,” Robert Magginis rumbles in a Human Events look at GAO warnings about Pakistan’s terror haven. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., “wants America to ‘wake up’ and stop allowing terrorism to proliferate — [even] if that means revoking the passport of a former U.S. president,” McClatchy Newspapers’ Liz Zagaroli profiles.

Poly-ticks: In her closing ad for today’s Pennsylvania primary, Hillary Clinton invoked images of Pearl Harbor and Osama bin Laden to question Barack Obama’s ability to lead in a crisis, The New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny and John M. Broder report. What with once boasting an “anti-white, anti-American flamethrower” for a pastor and having “associated with a homegrown terrorist,” Obama’s own chickens are coming home to roost, The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle finds comfort in believing. “If Americans want to lower the terrorism threat against their nation, electing Obama is a good way to start,” Eric Margolis writes in an Edmonton (Alb.) Sun piece on the French “passion for Obama that is quite remarkable.” Security issues, obviously, are “a strength for John McCain, a hero to many neoconservatives for his unequivocal support for the . . . fight against terrorism,” Albert R. Hunt writes in a Seattle Post-Intelligencer take on the three-legged GOP stool upon which the candidate must balance.

State and local:Responders were called to the White House yesterday upon receipt of a report of a suspicious package near the northwest gate, D.C.’s NBC 4 notes. Port Authority officials are “characteristically tight-lipped” about the “bombshell front-page” disclosure that ostensibly confidential blueprints for the planned Freedom Tower were found in a Soho trashbin, The New York Post follows up. Securicrats involved in Operation Sudden Impact — a massive round up of fugitives a week back — “are trying to remind Memphis that lesser crimes often lead to terrorist acts!” The Gauntlet grumbles. “Relatively few police chiefs in the nation are inclined to assume the role of immigration enforcer,” a Los Angeles Times contributor comments — as The Toledo Blade relays word that the Border Patrol “is back in Ohio looking for recruits.”

Bid-ness: “How hot is the demand for executives to work for defense and homeland-security companies? It’s high, especially for those with security clearances,” The Wall Street Journal leads. Homeland security spending is on the rise, and several large defense groups have begun making inroads,” The Independent informs, noting BAE Systems’ bid to provide warzone surveillance aircraft for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Pilgrim’s Pride has been outspoken about the need for migrant labor, but says instances of identity theft prompted it to initiate the ICE investigation that resulted in 400 employees being arrested last week, Forbes updates. Sarah Djamshidi, who guided young startups at Maryland’s first technology incubator, has been tapped to direct the Chesapeake Innovation Center, the state’s homeland security incubator, The Annapolis Capital recounts.

Bugs ‘n bombs: Plans for DHS’s Plum Island facility — the agriculture disease lab whose mission is being moved elsewhere — “could include a new biosafety level 4 facility where pathogens potentially deadly to humans may be studied,” The Suffolk (N.Y.) Times tells (and check The Jackson Clarion-Ledger for a roster of diseases — contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, say — that a half-billion-dollar new ag lab on the mainland could be studying). Bomb threats to Department of Fisheries and Oceans offices in last week led to mass evacuations of government buildings in three Canadian cities, The Vancouver Sun says. Niger is toughening its anti-terror laws to bolster its confrontation with a rebellion by Tuareg fighters in its uranium-producing north, Reuters reports. “Is it safe to drop ammunition and grenades from the air? Yes, if you make sure it’s not falling too fast,” Slate’s Explainer explains in re: that arms shipment dropped to Taliban fighters rather than the intended Afghan National Police outpost.

Coming and going: The pilot of an Air Pacific flight to Australia on which a bomb note had been found did a very bad thing by not telling air traffic control exactly why he needed to circle back to Fiji, e-Travel Blackboard relates. “Rail stations are regular mob scenes during peak hours. Suppose a team ‘randomly’ searches 2 percent of passengers. That means that of every 50 terrorists, 49 will get through,” a Washington Times op-ed objects in re: new Amtrak security plans. A Coast Guard Port Security Advisory says that the requirement for armed security guards on vessels subject to conditions of entry into U.S. ports will no longer be automatic, MarineLog mentions. After years of delays and disagreements, a permanent security perimeter will soon be put in around Gotham’s Penn Station, WNBC 4 News learns.

Borders and papers: “To listen to the paranoid debate now taking place over the Real ID Act . . . one might think that this legislation was some Bush administration plot to create a national identity card and spy on innocent Americans,” a Washington Timeseditorial chides. A coalition of Texas border officials is joining a lawsuit challenging DHS fence-building efforts, The McAllen Monitor mentions. One of the most lasting impacts of the southern border barrier “may well be on the animals and vegetation that make this politically fraught landscape their home,” The Washington Post surveys. Self-appointed border-watchers are increasingly using remotely operated cameras to catch people sneaking into the country, AP spotlights in a TechnoPatriots profile.

Talking terror: “The lack of a security mindset explains a lot of bad security out there... The designers are so busy making these systems work that they don’t stop to notice how they might fail,” Crypto-Gram’s Bruce Schneier muses. “We are well beyond arguing over ‘root causes’ of terrorism. That argument is over. It’s time to declare an impasse, assign sides, and let the games begin,” Jeffrey Breinholt asserts in The Counterterrorism Blog. Despite “claims that al Qaeda’s leadership is finished and today’s terrorist threat comes primarily from below, the terrorist elites are alive and well, and ignoring the threat they pose will have disastrous consequences,” Bruce Hoffman disputes in Foreign Affairs. The pope’s “Swiss Guards are renowned in the security community; they are the world’s smallest army, but have an excellent reputation, outstanding capabilities and a noble history,” FOX News’ Allison Barrie spotlights.

It’s the stupid economy: “In the name of fighting the 9/11 terrorists, the Bush administration overthrew the one Arab government most adamantly opposed to the Saudi financiers of that son of their system, Osama bin Laden,” Robert Scheer rumbles in The San Francisco Chronicle. “Lest we forget, anti-freedom, anti-capitalism jihadists were attempting to drive a dagger through our economy. That was the point of hitting the World Trade Center, wasn’t it?” National Review’s Larry Kudlow contends. “With its economy in rapid decline and with oil increasingly in short supply, the United States will not only remain in control of Iraqi oil, but will also attempt to seize Iran’s oilfields,” Christopher King unconvincingly insists for Al Jazeera. As the public’s view of the economy deteriorates, “those polled [have] also turned negative on Iraq, with six out of ten saying the United States doesn’t need to win the war there to combat terrorism,” Bloomberg’s James Kraus recounts.

Courts and rights: In the face of U.S. denials, Guantanamo inmates claim to have been given drugs against their will before questioning, the Post reports. Eight Britsfreed from Gitmo are suing the MI5 and MI6 secret services for complicity in their abduction and interrogation, The Daily Mail reveals. An Indonesian court yesterday sentenced the self-proclaimed leader of the Islamist group blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings to 15 years, Agence France-Pressereports. “Canada’s biggest terrorism case [is faltering] because laws against murder, bombing and butchery do not stop committed, suicidal terrorists,” The Ottawa Citizen suggests.

Over there: An unsecured bathroom window and complacent guards allowed a top terror suspect’s February flight from a high-security prison, AP learns from a Singaporean probe. Aiming to boost the Philippine’s anti-terror campaign, Manila Police District officers have gone through a two-day seminar by DHS and ICE trainers, The Philippine Daily Inquirer informs. Berlin wants the police to be able to install secret cameras in places regularly visited by terror suspects, Deutsche Welle broadcasts — even as Spiegel has Germany’s Muslims fearing “imams could face more scrutiny than their Christian counterparts.” The United Nations has put up blast walls around its HQ and closed some offices in Yemen due to security concerns, AP reports.

Nothing to fear but lack of fear itself: “Approximately 550 mongers in the fields of war, hate, and fear mongered together at the Washington D.C. Marriott last week as part of the 34th annual mongering conference,” The Onion reports. “According an itinerary released by the National Mongering Council, the three-day summit featured monger-building activities from 9 a.m. to noon, optional night-mongering seminars, and three meals a day to promote social mongering. ‘This is the greatest collection of mongering minds in our generation, making the conference a prime target for any number of horrific biological and terrorist attacks,’ fearmonger Gerald Sachs mongered. ‘Of course, with the current political and social climate, the main question is whether next year will be anywhere near as mongerly.’ None in attendance could confirm whether they would be present at next week’s fish- and whoremongering conference in El Paso, TX.”