Under thick cloak of secrecy, the U.S. operates “floating prisons” to house those arrested in its war on terror, The Guardian’s Duncan Campbell and Richard Norton-Taylor find a British rights group suspicioning. With the accused 9/11 mastermind due to appear in a courtroom Thursday, a controversial Guantanamo legal adviser promises “fair, open, just, honest” proceedings in a Q&A with Newsweek’s Dan Ephron. State, meantime, has launched a publicity campaign in Pakistan offering rewards for leads on California-born al Qaeda mouthpiece Adam Gadahn, ABC News’ Maddy Sauer reveals.

Hapless homies: DHS’s highly touted, $70 million program to administer high-tech, tamper-resistant ID cards to seaport employees “is facing delays that lawmakers say could threaten the nation’s security,” The Washington Times’ Jen Haberkorn recounts. Increased corruption among DHS border agents “is linked, in part, to tougher enforcement, driving smugglers to recruit federal employees as accomplices,” The Hendersonville (N.C.) Times-News’ Randal C. Archibold and Andrew Becker survey. FEMA may house this year’s hurricane evacuees in trailers, as a last resort, despite promises never to use them again post-Katrina because of formaldehyde concerns, The Associated Press’ Eileen Sullivan says. “Recent reports about ineptness and corruption [at DHS] signal a need for closer congressional oversight of the huge bureaucracy, which appears to be in disarray,” The Honolulu Star-Bulletin broods. Homeland security efforts must be “more focused and coherent” in the next administration, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., tells Morgantown Metro Newsat the conclusion of his homeland conference yesterday.

McBama: “On critical issues, like dealing with Iraq and Iran, Barack Obama is too raw, and John McCain is too rigid,” The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Trudy Rubin writes, yearning for “a presidential candidate called McBama.” Muslim extremists don’t sweat the prospect of an “apostate Muslim” as president, but “they are being re-energized by the hateful and Islamophobic attacks on Obama that they have seen broadcast in Western media and the blogosphere,” Evan Kohlmann contends in The Counterterrorism Blog. Obama’s Wesleyan commencement speech touting public service signally failed to mention military service, William Kristol complains in The New York Times. Once again mocking Obama’s willingness to meet with its leaders, McCain yesterday in a speech to “America’s pro-Israel lobby” denounced Iran as the “foremost” Middle East foe, The Washington Post’s Michael D. Shear blogs. “It doesn’t take very long to uncover national security issues that McCain is weak on,” retired Gen. Merrill McPeak tells The Washington Times’ Rowan Scarborough. MSNBC’s Domenico Montanaro, meantime, deconstructs an alleged McCain campaign flip-flop on immunity for terror-tapping telecoms, an issue on which CNET News’ Anne Broache finds Hill Dems ready to cave.

State and local: DHS wants to defund intel fusion centers such as the Washington Joint Analytical Center and slough the costs off onto the states, The Olympianreports — while a Computerworld survey concludes that while law enforcement database integration can help track activity for known criminals, “identifying terrorists is more challenging.” As this year’s New York legislature session nears its climax, “the conflict between giving the public access to the Capitol and security concerns is nearing its annual peak,” The Rochester Chronicle and Democrat spotlights. In Illinois, meanwhile, a tornado warning interrupted lawmakers Friday evening, sending them scurrying to the state Capitol basement, The Chicago Tribune tells. “Texas is showing that America can enhance border security while enhancing border trade and transportation,” an El Paso Times op-ed lauds.

Borderlines: The Army Corps of Engineers has begun inviting bidding on DHS’s new fence along a section of border between Texas and Mexico, CNN Money relays. “Tired of making little money, feeling lonely and fearing arrest, more Latin American immigrants are voluntarily returning home,” The Miami Herald spotlights — while The Houston Chroniclesees 1,750 arrested in ICE raids during May alone in a crackdown intended to run “for the remainder of the year, without regard to any political fallout,” and see Slate on “the government’s immigration enforcers run amok.” Lack of health care “turns federal detention into a death sentence for some immigrants,” an L.A. Times contributor contends.

Coming and going: In a TSA pilot, Continental airlines is allowing Newark airport fliers to use e-boarding passes downloadable to hand-held devices from whence they are scanned by screeners, The Star-Ledger spotlights. More than 41 million flights in the United States were avoided by travelers over the last year due to airport and security hassles, costing the U.S. economy about $26 billion, International Business Timescites from a survey. “Taking. Something. Always. That’s what TSA means to airline passengers,” leads a Tribune Media Services service feature asserting that “hardly a week goes by without another story about alleged TSA pilferage making headlines.” A 10-year-old boy, who last year talked his way through Sea-Tac security to board a flight to Texas without a ticket, has tried again, The Seattle Times tells. “I am 70 years old, with a body that only a mother could love. Any screener who would get excited by viewing an anatomically explicit image of my body needs serious help,” a Denver Post reader reproves.

Bucks: Given his stated goal of threatening the United States with financial ruin, Osama bin Laden “must be thrilled we’ve continued the emergency supplemental war funding, draining our economy for more than five years and counting,” a Billings Gazette op-ed contends — while a Los Angeles Times column gripes that “the 2009 defense budget commits the United States to spending more to defeat a ragtag band of terrorists than it spent at the height of the Cold War,” and a New York Times review-essay concludes: “Seven years’ distance from 9/11 reveals a brutal reality. For both his family and his country, bin Laden’s attacks have turned a tidy profit.” Pakistan’s Taliban chief, who commands untamed South Waziristan, spends more money on yearly operations than al Qaeda spent year prior to the 9/11 attacks, The Long War Journal quotes a Pakistani official.

Bugs ‘n bombs: “We can do far more than we think to improve our odds of preventing and surviving even the most horrendous of catastrophes,” a Time Magazine service feature maintains — and see The Council Bluffs (Iowa) Daily Nonpareil on homelanders’ tips on helping out in disaster’s wake. A security company whose rent-a-cops at Chicago water-filtration plants were accused of sleeping on and wandering off of the job “is — seven months later — still guarding pumping stations because City Hall has yet to find a replacement,” The Chicago Sun-Times says. See also Madison’s WISC-TV on the key distinctions between private security firms and municipal police.

Talking terror: “It is unlikely that al Qaeda will voluntarily revise its violent strategy. But it is clear that radical Islam is confronting a rebellion within its ranks, one that [its leaders] are poorly equipped to respond to,” The New Yorker’s Lawrence Wright writes. “The objective of the terrorist is always not to overthrow the government of a country, but rather to change the political calculus of that country,” Muhammad Nurul Huda mulls in Bangladesh’s Daily Star. A knee-jerk rejection of negotiation with radicals is “likely to do more harm than good. The smart question is not whether to talk to terrorists, but, instead, which terrorists to talk to and how to talk to them,” Paul Staniland assesses in The Christian Science Monitor. “Fact is, in reality, there is always a chink in our security armor. That’s how politicians can always play the ‘fear card’ to get your vote,” but faith can fill that gap, retired missionary Charlie Chilton writes in The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star.

Dealing with Uncle Sam: “The United States sees the fight against terrorism as a global war. European nations perceive the terrorist threat as a law enforcement problem,” Mark Brzezinski states in a Boston Globe op-ed urging this be discussed during summer summitry. “Nearly three decades after its inception, the state sponsors of terrorism list is not just about terrorism. It has become a diplomatic tool to win concessions from U.S. adversaries eager to end the stigma and sanctions that come with the designation,” AP’s Foster Klug surveys. “Most of the Middle East hates America, but Iranians see a more appealing image. It’s their own president they can’t stand,” Azadeh Moaveni thumb-sucks for the Post. “Anti-American sentiment in the South Asian ‘war on terror’ theater is on the rise, leaving Washington in a dilemma over how to intervene and preserve its interests,” Syed Saleem Shahzad spotlights for Asia Times.

Over there: An American lawyer pleaded yesterday for the Pakistan government to intervene on behalf of a Gitmo detainee, Reuters reports. In the second recent attack aimed at foreigners, a suicide car bomb outside the Danish Embassy in Pakistan, killing at least six, BBC News notes. For the first time, Syria will allow U.N. inspectors later this month to examine the alleged reactor site bombed by Israeli planes last September, The New York Times tells. “The U.S. Africa Command, designed to boost America’s image and prevent terrorist inroads on the continent, has scaled back its ambitions after African governments refused to host it,” the Post leads.

Herd on the Street: “Scientists in Germany are experimenting with new environmentally friendly explosives to use in combat. What do you think?” The Onion’s wandering street interviewer asks a supposed cross-section of average Americans. “That’s smart since peace talks spawn such a huge waste of paper,” wedding planner Logan Richardson remarks. “Well, if it‘s anything like the ’green’ dishwashing liquid my wife makes us use, you’ll have to use a ton of these ‘green’ bombs to have the same effect as one regular one,” graphic designer Matthew Moore maintains. “Well, that solves all of the issues that I have with warfare,” custodian Anna Hartsell briskly concludes. Check out also, exclusively on Onion Network News:“Biologists Apologize For Release Of Giant Winged Serpents.”