“Many experts are concerned about the potential for a terrorist attack between now and several months after the inauguration,” Federal Computer Week’s Ben Bain surveys. “It is customary to extend to nominees a daily intelligence briefing similar to the one the president receives, but we need to go well beyond that norm,” Jamie Gorelick and Slade Gorton urge in a New York Times op-ed addressing transition concerns. A post-attack White House succession “coup by the executive branch would be especially devastating at a time at which Democrats control the House,” Bruce Ackerman argues in Slate.

Feds: The United States still lacks a long-term strategic plan to provide detection of radiological and nuclear materials that may be smuggled into the country, ABC News’ Maddy Sauer sees a GAO report finding yesterday — and check a new GAO audit of biosurveillance efforts. The border fence will make life harder on some South Texas farmers and “generally become an obstacle to border life,” The Associated Press’ Christopher Sherman cites a new DHS report — and see The Rio Grande Guardian’s Steve Taylor on local concern about planned “moveable fences.” DHS’s proposed rule forcing airlines to collect biometrics of foreign visitors departing the United States unfairly burdens the already stressed industry, Medill’s Hallie D. Martin has House homelanders agreeing yesterday.

Obama-rama: For the thirdtime this year, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews slipped up Monday, saying “Osama bin Laden” when he meant “Barack Obama,” TheHuffington Post points out. “Rather than get out of Afghanistan, Obama is proposing more troops, more helicopters, and more war,” Steven Argue argues for Indy Media. Obama “wants to talk to groups associated with terrorism and I don’t agree with him on that,” an Ohio voter tells The Logan Daily News’ Gretchen Roberts. “It’s worth digging down and looking at how myths about the Obamas continue to percolate throughout the inboxes of the nation,” The Chicago Tribune’s James Oliphant blogs, directing readers to the debunking snopes.com. “Many Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans are growing increasingly uneasy with Obama,” who needs to do some fence-mending, Moustafa Bayoumi urges in The Progressive.

Poly-ticks: Barack Obama and John McCain both want to close the Guantanamo prison but neither says where to put detainees, United Press International notes. Pray the White House doesn’t “leave behind another problem for the new administration,” a UPI commentary also says, noting that an attack on Iran “would make a U.S. presence in the Persian Gulf almost impossible, and hurt already bloated oil prices.” Seventy-two percent of voters nationwide view McCain as the better candidate to fight terrorism, though 48 percent credit Obama with good security credentials, AHN recounts. Saying he knows “how to win wars,” McCain urges the Iraq “surge” strategy also be applied to Afghanistan, AP records. Obama yesterday charged the Bush administration with failing to address nuclear terrorism, a deficit he promised to remedy as president, Deutsche Presse Agentur recounts.

State and local: “For Indiana, Purdue is about as good a place as any to hold a panel discussion on homeland security issues,” The Lafayette Journal and Courier leads in re: yesterday’s Obama event. A new state driver’s licensing law “was meant to tighten security, so the wrong people don’t get Oregon ID. But . . . it may also affect you,” Oregon Public Broadcastingspotlights. Lansing, Mich., anticipates a $946,520 DHS grant to help protect local vaccine producer, Emergent BioSolutions, the State Journal says. An article in Time Magazine “about the very elusive Osama bin Laden has a family connection with Albert Lea, because of the author’s last name,” The Albert Lea (Minn.) Tribune extols, grasping for a straw of relevance.

Ivory (Watch) Towers: DHS will award the Stevens Institute of Technology some $2 million annually for up to six years for research on detecting maritime threats, The Jersey Journal notes — while The Calgary Herald has a University of Calgary researcher winning a $1.7 million U.S. grant to develop a vaccine against a potential bioterror disease. The Houston Chronicle profiles a nationwide post-Virginia Tech movement pushing for the right to carry pistols on campuses. Fire and EMS companies from three states participated in a mass casualty disaster exercise Sunday at the University of Delaware, The Wilmington News Journal notes.. Kentucky’s Midway College, for women only, is now offering a Bachelor of Arts in Homeland Security Corporate Management and Assessment, cryptogon.com recounts.

Bugs ‘n bombs: “Millions of tons of deadly cargo move through the Union Pacific yards in Downtown Las Vegas — explosives such as bombs, bullets, and grenades, flammable and combustible gases, fuels, poisons, you name it,” KLAS 8 News spotlights. “The spread of virulent epidemics in numerous urban centers, might have a far greater devastating effect on an industrial nation than the destruction of a city by a nuclear blast,” an israelinsiderop-ed observes. “Marburg, a deadly hemorrhagic fever closely related to Ebola, is back in Europe, after a four-decade absence,” New Scientist leads. The Pentagon says Iran has the ability to launch a ballistic missile capable of hitting sections of eastern and southern Europe, Reuters reports.

Coming and going: “The notion that the government can arbitrarily have a free crack at your e-mail, Web searches and other personal electronic data is chilling,” USA Todayopines, in re: border laptop seizures. “Osama bin Laden himself could have obtained a New Haven ID card and Connecticut’s homeland security department would not know about it,” a New Haven Register op-ed objects.Africa remains a piracy hotspot following a spike in attacks in the second quarter of 2008, Agence France-Presse cites a marine watchdog that singles out Somali and Nigerian waters as the most dangerous — while a Canadian skipper tells The Canwest News Service: “The coast of Somalia is the Wild West. Any vessel that goes within a couple of hundred miles of there can be in peril.”

Courts and rights: Guantanamo’s youngest detainee — seen weeping in an interrogation video released this week — “earned his stay,” a U.S. soldier ambushed during his capture tells Canada’s National Post — while Reuters has Ottawa declining to press for the Canadian citizen’s return. A judge, meanwhile, is slated to consider today whether to delay the military tribunal of Osama bin Laden’s former driver, The Washington Times curtain-raises. “Sound policy reasons” may justify keeping Guantanamo open deep into the term of the next president, a Chicago Tribune feature suggests. A court in Stuttgart has convicted three Iraqis for the attempted murder in 2004 of an ex-Iraqi prime minister, Spiegel relates — while Reuters reports that he execution of three Indonesian men convicted for the 2002 Bali bombings is not imminent, reports to the contrary.

Over there: “In an Orwellian move, the Home Office is proposing to detail every phone call, e-mail, text message, internet search and online purchase in the fight against terrorism,” The Daily Mail leads — and see The Guardian on the now-aborted SCOPE project. Giving the United States access to Euro-info on individuals under a secret agreement “gives Big Brother an even tighter grip,” William Rees-Mogg maintains in Khaleej Times. Britain’s MI6, “home to the very white and very male 007, is hunting for women and minorities to tackle global terrorism,” AP reports. U.S. forces in Afghanistan confront a “syndicate” of Taliban fighters and “powerful warlords who were once on the payroll of the CIA,” U.S. News notes. In a pre-Olympics security blitz, Chinese police have broken up 12 “Muslim terrorist cells in western China, AFP reports.

Over here: The documentary “Karachi Kids” shows the sons of a Pakistan-born Atlantan sent to a homeland madrassa and being changed “from naive schoolchildren to solemn teenagers who assert that no Muslims were involved in 9/11,” the Journal-Constitutionhighlights. The U.K. government will sponsor a theological board of leading imams and Muslim women to refute the ideology of violent extremists, The Times of London tells. The Guardian, meantime, sees France denying citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wears a burqa, which a court judged incompatible with basic French values — and check Islamophobia Watch. Six imams removed from a US Airways jet in 2006 seek a court order releasing a decade of discrimination complaints to compare the airline’s pre- and post-9/11 behavior, The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports.

Holy Wars: “The full meaning of the Iranian revolution and the rise of the mujahidin in Afghanistan was lost on [American policymakers], not only in 1979 but for years thereafter,” a Washington Post review of “A Choice of Enemies” (PublicAffairs) remarks. Speaking in Pennsylvania Sunday, the Dalai Lama termed it “totally wrong, unfair” to call Islam a violent religion, AP reports. “Other Islamist organizations had gone through violent phases before deciding such actions led to a dead end . . . Could it happen even to al Qaeda?” Lawrence Wright asks in a three-part Observer dissection of an Egyptian jihadi’s turn against terror. Turkish prosecutors have indicted 86 people for murder, bombings and incitement as part of a militant secularist plot to overthrow the government, The Times of London tells. “Educating girls is the best means to curb terrorism,” a columnist writes in Pakistan’s Daily Times. No, no, no, “education won’t stop terrorism,” a Jackson Sun contributor counters.

Herd on the Street: “Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama asked comedian Bernie Mac to ‘clean up his act’ after some of his jokes rankled audience members at an Obama fundraiser. What do you think?” The Onion’s inquiring street photographer asks your friends and neighbors. “What’s this all about? Is Bernie Mac a Muslim as well?” car stereo installer Jason Schidel wonders. “The audience members spent over two grand each to attend this thing. If this was a just world, they would have heard Kathy Griffin discuss her vagina and how Gwyneth Paltrow was mean to her once for 50 minutes straight,” business consultant Liz Pisarra judges. “Interesting. What’s McCain’s stance on the Bernie Mac question?” paleontologist Joe Heater asks. Check out also, on Onion Network News: “No Values Voters’ Looking To Support Most Evil Candidate” — and, on CAP News: “McCain Advisor: We’re A Nation Of Winos.”