Airlines could spend up to $3.2 billion over 10 years to collect fingerprints from foreign travelers heading out of the country, USA Today’s Mimi Hall recounts. Although DHS wants fusion centers to play an integral role in info-sharing efforts and terror prevention, questions remain about their funding, Federal Computer Week’s Ben Bain relates. The debate over surveillance drones is about “what kind of military America truly needs in the age of terrorism — and how hundreds of billions of dollars will be divided among the armed services,” The New York Times’ Thom Shankar sums up. A CBP contractor yesterday surveyed the property of one of the border fence’s fiercest opponents for the first time, The Associated Press’ Christopher Sherman leads.

Poly-ticks: John McCain’s assertions to the contrary, Barack Obama “never said he would meet with leaders of terrorist organizations, just leaders of rogue nations,” Marc Ambinder maintains for The Atlantic — while Media Matters’ Lauren K. Auerbach accuses Dick Morris of falsely charging that when Hillary Clinton was on its board in the 1980s, the New World Foundation “gave money to the PLO.” Actually, “both Democrat candidates have their share of ties to terrorism,” Wake Up America’s Mike Tippitt insists in reference to Obama’s brief contact with an ex-Sixties bombthrower — as The Chicago Sun-Times’ Chris Fusco has an Obama mouthpiece asserting that Clinton, herself, “has ties to the Weather Underground through her husband,” and see AP’s “fact check” on the issue.

Stump memes: In 2004, President Bush benefited from a feeling among working-class women that he could keep their families safe from terrorism, but the key constituency this year is working-class men, and their concerns are economic, The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald F. Seib handicaps. “Five years into the Iraq War, only 11 percent said terrorism and war would be the biggest problem the younger generation will need to address,” MTV’s Gil Kaufman recounts of a new poll that sees the economics as this year’s monster issue. “With the Democrats hogging the headlines and the airwaves, John McCain is not left with much chance to talk about . . . anything that is not guns, bombs and terrorism,” The Melbourne Age’s Dan Flitton suggests.

State and local: Minnesotans could not use their driver’s licenses to board airplanes or enter federal buildings after next year unless the state’s pols settle a dispute over Real ID compliance, The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. Ground Zero families and victims are calling for tighter security around the rebuilding at the site, NY1 notes — while The Gothamist finds the Port Authority faulting an “overwhelming bureaucracy” for the confidential blueprints found last week in street trash bin. The Authority, meanwhile, has filed two amended 9/11-related complaints accusing 17 airlines and five security contractors of negligence, The Philadelphia Inquirer informs.

Follow the money: Canadian police last week busted offices and bank accounts involved in raising funds for Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers, “one of the ‘most dangerous and deadly’ extremist groups in the world,” The Washington Times tells. A Schenectady man who illegally steered $1.2 million to his native Sudan was handed four years in prison last week, The Albany Times Union tells. Canada’s spy agency has been forced to junk its approach to terror financing as clandestine groups learn to skirt post-9/11 enforcement initiatives, The Canadian Press reports. Treasury on Monday unveiled proposed new regulations to tighten security reviews of foreign investments in U.S. businesses, Reuters reports. A federal appeals court decision will delay the efforts of federal prosecutors seeking information about money transfers made by a now-defunct Saudi-backed foundation accused of having terror ties, The New York Sun says.

Bugs ‘n bombs: A man suspected to have been poisoned by ricin found later in his Las Vegas hotel room was indicted yesterday on federal charges, Newsday relays. A Monday bomb scare prompted a five-hour evacuation of the Cherokee County (Ga.) Justice Center, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recounts — while El Universal has Air Europa rescheduling a flight from Venezuela because of a bomb threat. Authorities used a water cannon to detonate a suspicious device found outside a Reno animal laboratory under fire for its treatment of research animals, The Gazette-Journalrecounts. A “dirty bomb” could be the greatest nuclear threat facing the United States, but it is also the least discussed, The Oak Ridger has Rep. Zach Wamp saying when visiting a Tennessee radiological emergency training center.

Air warfare: Writing “as a Federal Flight Deck Officer, firearms instructor, and advocate of the ‘Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act,’” an anonymous Charlotte Observer contributor sets out to describe “how politics made it inevitable a pilot would eventually blow a hole in his airplane.” Since it was created in 2001, TSA — a/k/a Take Something Always — has fired some 200 employees accused of stealing, MSNBC surveys. Security breaches are spurring Congress, airports and TSA to hasten biometric ID cards for an estimated 3 million airport employees nationwide, Washington Technology tells (and see All American Patriots for Barack Obama’s letter to TSA on the same). Land Line Magazine, meantime, finds TSA having signed up 250,000 workers, one quarter of the total, for its seaport credentialing program.

Coming and going: “Canadians suspected of offenses at the U.S. border will be ordered to provide DNA samples starting later this year,” The National Post leads. The new market in anti-piracy tech includes “night-vision equipment, high-powered water guns, ear-splitting klaxons, and a lubricant foam that make it difficult for pirates to get their footing,” Time Magazine surveys — while Bloomberg has a suspected pirate ship causing an oil spill by firing on a Japanese tanker off the Yemeni coast. “The problems with America’s transportation network are as serious as a heart attack,” Barry McCaffrey maintains in The Minneapolis Star Tribune — and see Chemical & Engineering News’ take on Transportation’s new hazmat safety and security regs for rail carriers.

Cyberia: “It’s been dubbed ‘cybergeddon,’ the ‘digital mushroom cloud,’” The Melbourne Age leads in re: that ceaselessly evoked infrastructure-annihilating Internet terror attack. Last summer the FBI joined with intel and other agencies to form a National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force to identify and respond to cyber threats, United Press Internationalinforms. Under a new measure, Internet provocation to commit attacks, as well as online terror recruiting and training, will be punishable offences throughout the European Union, BBC News notes.Technology News Daily looks anew at the University of Southern California software that randomizes decisions based on calculated probabilities of a terrorist attack at different locations, yielding unpredictable policing ops. “The Air Force seems far too eager to pitch its new ‘cyberspace’ mission. Case in point: their brand-new Air Force Cyberspace Command published a classified publicity photo on their Web site,” SecurityCritics.Org chides.

Terror tech: With the Pentagon’s announcement of a new Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, “the regeneration of lost body parts has just moved from science fiction to U.S. military policy,” Slate spotlights. Before Israel “sabotaged” the deal, Venezuela was offering up to $150 million for partial interest in a company operating an extremely precise observation satellite, The Miami Herald mentions. “Speeding tickets from the sky might sound like science fiction, but the robot spy-plane technology that is used in the war on terror in Afghanistan may soon be coming to British roads,” The Times of Londonleads. TSA’s new authenticated boarding pass technology “lays the groundwork for a surveillance state, enforceable all-points-bulletins, and most scary of all, data discrimination,” a notorious pass hacker blogs for CNET News. “Calling all brainiacs and engineers who have been toiling in basement labs perfecting new security technologies: It’s time to cash in!” SecurityInfoWatch.com notifies of the opening of 2008 Global Security Challenge.

Courts and rights: A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that an ex-EPA head cannot be held personally liable for her post-9/11 statements about Ground Zero air quality, The New York Times tells. A judge has severed the federal trials of two former South Florida students whose legal battle began after their car was pulled over by deputies in South Carolina, The Tampa Tribune tells. Cross-examination of the government’s key witness in the trial of three Toledo-area men accused of terrorism-related charges will begin today, the Blade relates.

Over there: A senior U.K. securicrat said publicly for the first time that Britain was the primary target for Muslim extremists, ahead of America and other European countries, The Daily Telegraph tells. In a new Internet audiotape, al Qaeda’s No. 2 criticizes Muslims for failing to support Islamist insurgencies in Iraq and elsewhere, Agence France-Presse reports. A new provincial government in Pakistan released from prison the leader of a banned Islamist movement who has fought the United States in Afghanistan after he agreed to denounce violence, the Times tells. A leading activist for ethnic Uyghur’s denied Chinese accusations the Muslim minority group is planning terrorist attacks tied to the Beijing Olympics, AP reports.

Herd on the Street: “In an effort to distance himself from President Bush’s foreign policy, John McCain called for closing Guantanamo Bay and said the United States could not consider ourselves a lone superpower. What do you think?” The Onion’s nosy parker with a Nikon asks very random Americans on the street. “After Bush slandered him for fathering an illegitimate black child and challenged his status as a war hero, this is how McCain repays him?” shocked systems analyst Ben Shapiro asks. “No more Gitmo? Then where would President McCain put all the enemy combatants that we capture in Iraq over the next thousand years?” horse trainer Laurie Frendrich wonders. “He probably didn’t need to end his speech with ‘Ya happy now?’ ” cabinet maker Paulo Garcia suggests. See, also, the Onion campaign bio for McCain, e.g., “Thoughts On Torture: Doesn’t support stuff he couldn’t handle.”