Threats To Schools

These ties to the article that I sent you a copy of about the Terrorist in Iraq having the emergency plans on his laptop about San Diego and the surveillance of a School in New Jersey and I have wondered if Al Qaeda was using the Russian school as a dry run. Read the piece below it clearly states that Al Qaeda has been using the school attack as a propaganda tool. It may presage an attack in either Europe or the U.S Close to the elections. Easy targets, great psychological value and energize their base and would be justified by claiming that America kills Muslim children while ignoring the fact that Terrorist kill hundreds and hide among them.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION THE DEPUTY SECRETARY
October 6, 2004

Dear Colleague:

The recent terrorist attack against a school in Beslan,
Russia, was obviously a shocking incident worldwide.

Understandably, the horror of this attack may have created significant anxiety in our own
country among parents, students, faculty, staff and other community
members, particularly in light of the graphic details that many of us saw
in the news. Today, I am writing to share information with you
regarding some lessons learned from the Beslan school incident in an effort to
better understand how it happened and apply lessons that might be used
to protect U.S. schools.

For your background, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) works
closely with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI), and we have teamed together with them on this
important school safety issue. DHS and the FBI have recently analyzed
the Beslan situation and shared their analysis with state and local law
enforcement officials in your community, which is why I wanted to share
that information with you as well. Again, they have done this in an
effort to use the information to safeguard American schools and our
students. The analysis was done proactively; it was not sent out due to any
specific information indicating that there is a terrorist threat to any
schools or universities in the United States.

You should also know that DHS and the FBI, as a part of their analysis,
have encouraged local law enforcement officials to maintain contact and
open lines of communication with local school administrators such as
you and to ask personnel to report any suspicious activities.

While I am aware that many of our nation’s schools have been developing
comprehensive crisis plans and that ED widely disseminated
informational material in August called “Practical Information on Crisis Planning,”
I also believe the following information will be useful as you update
your plans. The FBI-DHS analysis described some specific protective
measures that I would also like to share with you, many of which would be
applicable to a variety of potential emergency situations, including
natural disasters.

Short-term protective measures include reviewing procedures to
safeguard school facilities and students and others within them. Those
recommended in the DHS-FBI bulletin include:

• Review all school emergency and crisis management plans. Helpful
guidance can be found at www.ed.gov/emergencyplan/.
• Raise awareness among local law enforcement officers and school
officials by conducting exercises relating to school emergency and crisis
management plans.
• Raise awareness among school officials and students by conducting
awareness training relating to the school environment that includes
awareness of signs of terrorism.
• Raise community awareness of any potential threats as well as
vulnerabilities.
• Prepare the school staff to act in a crisis situation.
• Consider a closed-campus approach to limit visitors.
• Consider a single entry point for all attendees, staff and visitors.
• Focus patrols by law enforcement officers on and around school
grounds.
• Ensure that school officials will always be able to contact school
buses.
• Ensure that emergency communications from and to schools are working.
• Download the Red Cross brochure, Terrorism: Preparing for the
Unexpected, at
http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/keepsafe/terrorism.pdf
and provide a copy to students, staff and faculty.
• Report any suspicious activity to law enforcement authorities.

Long-term protective measures should include physical enhancements to
school buildings. Among the measures schools should consider are the
following:
• Install secure locks for all external and internal doors and windows.
• Install window and external door protections with quick-release
capability.
• Consider establishing a safe area (or safe areas) within the school
for assembly and shelter during emergencies.
• Apply protective coating on windows in facilities that face traffic.

That and other helpful information on school facilities can be found at
www.edfacilities.org/. In the analysis they provided to local law
enforcement officials, DHS and the FBI have also outlined activities to
watch for that may suggest potential unwelcome surveillance of educational
facilities. These indicators alone may in fact reflect legitimate
activity not related to terrorism. Multiple indicators, however, could
suggest a heightened terrorist or criminal threat. They are:

• Unusual interest in security, entry points, and access controls or
barriers such as fences or walls;

• Interest in obtaining site plans for schools, bus routes, attendance
lists and other information about a school, its employees or students;

• Unusual behavior such as staring at or quickly looking away from
personnel or vehicles entering or leaving designated facilities or parking
areas;

• Observation of security reaction drills or procedures;

• Increase in anonymous telephone or e-mail threats to facilities in conjunction with
suspected surveillance incidents;

• Foot surveillance involving individuals working together;

• Mobile surveillance using bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, cars,

trucks, sport utility vehicles, limousines, boats or small aircraft;

• Prolonged static surveillance using people disguised as panhandlers,
shoe shiners, food, newspaper or flower vendors, or street sweepers not
previously seen in the area;

• Discreet use of still cameras, video recorders, or note-taking at
non-tourist locations;

• Use of multiple sets of clothing and identification or the use of
sketching materials (paper, pencils, etc.);

• Questioning of security or facility personnel; and

• Unexplained presence of unauthorized persons in places where they
should not be.

It is my hope that you carefully review this information and work with
your security staff, local law enforcement, first responders and
emergency preparedness personnel to ensure that these protective measures are
included in your School Crisis Plan. I encourage you to visit ED’s Web
site on crisis planning, www.ed.gov/emergencyplan/, where additional
information about key elements of a crisis plan can be found.

To help with questions that parents, students, faculty and other
community members may ask, we have developed a series of the most frequently
asked questions regarding the issue of responding to a crisis in
general. (See attached.) I have also included a list of available resources
if you would like more information on a variety of topics, from crisis
planning to how to talk to children about these types of incidents. In
addition, I am enclosing information about various ED grant programs
concerning school safety that may be of interest.

In closing, I want to assure you that we are working very closely with
DHS, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and
Human Services and the Secret Service to ensure that our schools and our
children in them remain safe. And, again, the information recently
provided by DHS and the FBI to state and local law enforcement was not
generated by any threats received by U.S. educational institutions -- it
was a routine communication reflecting their analysis of the Beslan
incident.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and please feel free to
call the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free
Schools at (202) 260-3954 for more information or if you have any
questions. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
/S/ Eugene W. Hickok
Deputy Secretary
Attachments

Resources Available for Schools Information, Guides and Reports

Emergency Plan Web Site The Department of Education’s (ED) Office of
Safe and Drug-Free Schools’ Emergency Plan Web site
www.ed.gov/emergencyplan provides a one-stop site for information to help plan for,
mitigate, respond to and recover from any emergency (natural disasters, violent
incidents, terrorist acts and the like). The site provides access to ED
materials, such as Practical Information on Crisis Planning, and links
to additional emergency planning resources of government agencies,
nongovernmental organizations, health-care provider resources, mental
health resources, and state and local resources.

Practical Information on Crisis Planning: A Guide for Schools and
Communities This binder provides schools and communities with basic
guidelines and useful ideas on how to develop and refine their emergency
response and crisis management plans for each phase of crisis planning:
mitigation and prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. This
information is available at www.ed.gov/emergencyplan/.

Infrastructure Protection: National Clearinghouse for Educational
Facilities This Web-based clearinghouse at www.edfacilities.org provides
information on school safety issues, such as how to design buildings to
prevent or mitigate possible terrorist attacks and violence.

Bomb Threat Assessment Guide: ED and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms The Step-by-Step Guide for Bomb Threats can assist school
districts, administrators and emergency responders in planning an effective
bomb threat response protocol in schools. A CD/ROM interactive planning
tool provides schools with a 15-step guide. In 2003, a copy of the
CD/ROM was distributed to every school district in the country. It is still
available at www.ed.gov/emergencyplan/.

Campus Public Safety Guide The Department of Homeland Security’s Office
of Domestic Preparedness published a series titled Campus Public
Safety: Weapons of Mass Destruction and Terrorism Protective Measures in
April 2003. This document describes affirmative steps colleges and
universities can take to prevent, deter or effectively respond to an attack by
weapons of mass destruction. It is available at
www.ed.gov/emergencyplan/.

Safe Schools Initiative: ED and the U.S. Secret Service
The 2002 Safe Schools Initiative Guide and Final Report provides
guidelines for managing threatening situations and offers ways to create a
safe school environment. It is available at www.ed.gov/emergencyplan/.

Information Specifically for Children A Web site with age-appropriate
information for children on disasters is at www.fema.gov/kids/. In
addition, the Department of Homeland Security is working to expand its
citizen preparedness “Ready” campaign by getting children involved in
preparing for crises. The Web site is planned to be launched later this year.

Information Dealing With Trauma The National Child Traumatic Stress
Network Web site http://www.nctsnet.org/nccts/nav.do?pid=ctr_tool contains
the following links to tools and materials that can be used by schools
both for school planning purposes and as handouts to parents and
caregivers:
The link to “Presentation Tools”
http://www.nctsnet.org/nccts/nav.do?pid=ctr_tool_present allows one to
view and download slide presentations on selected topics related to
child trauma and traumatic stress, including statistics on the prevalence
of child trauma, current interventions to reduce the impact of child
traumatic stress, and an overview of the National Child Traumatic Stress
Network.
The “Educational Materials” link
http://www.nctsnet.org/nccts/nav.do?pid=ctr_tool_educ includes tip
sheets for parents, caregivers, and teachers on current topics, as well as
basic information on child traumatic stress for different audiences.

*** Grants Available From the U.S. Department of Education
Emergency Response and Crisis Management Discretionary Grants Emergency
Response and Crisis Management grants provide funds to local
educational agencies to improve and strengthen their emergency response and
crisis management plans. This year, ED is obligating 105 awards for a total
of $28 million. ED anticipates conducting another competition in the
area of crisis planning in fiscal year 2005. We anticipate that a notice
regarding the competition will be issued in a few months.

The Safe Schools-Healthy Students Initiative Grants These grants
provide students, schools and communities with federal funding to implement a
comprehensive plan of activities, programs and services focusing on
promoting healthy childhood development and preventing violence and
alcohol and drug abuse. In fiscal year 2004, ED contributed a total of $95
million for grants supporting this initiative. Other federal departments
also contributed funds. We anticipate additional funding for this
initiative in fiscal year 2005.
Questions and Answers

Q. Why is the Department of Education sending this information? Is
there an imminent threat to America’s schools?
A. The FBI and DHS are currently unaware of any specific, credible
information indicating a terrorist threat to public or private schools,
universities or colleges in the United States. The FBI and DHS have told
us that there is no imminent threat to U.S. schools and that the group
that conducted the operation in Russia has never attacked or threatened
to attack U.S. interests. However, in an abundance of caution, the
Department of Education and our federal law enforcement partners are
providing state and local law enforcement officials and educators with an
analysis of some of the important lessons learned about the recent
incident in Beslan, Russia.

Q. Who else have federal officials contacted regarding the Beslan
incident?
A. The DHS and FBI recently sent an analysis of the Beslan incident to
their constituents in the law enforcement field. The Department of
Education (ED) is distributing information to our constituents in the
education community. Among those to whom ED is sending the information are:
school police and school security personnel; school resource officers;
emergency response and crisis management grantees; chief state school
officers; members of boards of education; organizations representing
principals; institutions of higher education; and various groups
representing non-public schools. Our intent is to inform all appropriate
school-related constituencies, all types of schools, whether public or
non-public, and institutions of higher education.

Q. How should those informed respond to the bulletin?
A. School districts, in partnership with local law enforcement
officials and first responders, should review their crisis plan, ensure that it
is up to date, practice their plan, and make modifications as needed.
Q. What should we tell parents and students? A. We believe you need to
be truthful and open. You need to tell students that there are no
imminent threats to U.S. schools but that there is a continued need to be
prepared to deal with a wide range of crises that can occur in schools and
communities.

Q. Are there any resources available at the federal level to help us
with our crisis planning?
A. Yes, there are numerous Web pages, booklets, manuals,
clearinghouses, etc. available to help you. A summary of resources is found as an
attachment to this document. Q. What about financial resources? Does ED
have any financial resources to assist school districts? A. ED
anticipates conducting another competition in the area of crisis planning in
fiscal year 2005. We anticipate that a notice regarding the competition
will be issued in a few months.

San Diego school crisis plan is found on disk in Iraq No threat seen to district; children are safe, police say

A man arrested by U.S. authorities in Iraq had a computer disk in his possession containing a public report downloaded from a U.S. Department of Education Web site on crisis planning in school districts, including San Diego Unified.

The man was described as an Iraqi national with connections to terrorism and the insurgency that is fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.

Officials in San Diego said the man's intentions were unknown. San Diego law enforcement officials said there was no indication of any terrorist plot against schools in San Diego or elsewhere in the country. They did not publicly release the information because there appeared to be no threat. The information was relayed to the San Diego FBI office last week and then to the school district Friday.

"The children are absolutely safe," said San Diego Police Chief Bill Lansdowne. "If there was a threat, we, the San Diego Police Department, would be first to notify (parents). This is not a threat." The disk contained a document entitled "Practical Information on Crisis Planning, A Guide for Schools and Communities." The 50-plus page document, published in May 2003 by the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, is available to the public on the U.S. Department of Education's Web site, said San Diego District spokeswoman Peri Lynn Turnbull. FBI officials visited the office of district Superintendent Alan Bersin Friday to inform him, Turnbull said. Because there was no indication that terrorists were targeting any schools, in San Diego or elsewhere, the district informed the school police department, but decided not to notify schools and parents.

"We certainly did not want to create any unnecessary panic in our community," Turnbull said. The FBI said because there was no specific threat, that was the appropriate response. "The superintendent was alerted by the FBI that there were no direct threats to the district or any San Diego school and that by our maintaining our same level of care and concern that our schools would be safe," Turnbull said. Dan Dzwilewski, head of the FBI office in San Diego, said there is no reason for alarm.

"We don't know the intention of the person that had this material," Dzwilewski said. "But the disk contained absolutely no threat information. It's only out of an abundance of caution because it was discovered in Iraq that we shared this with another public agency." Some counterterrorism officials said they were concerned that the information would be misinterpreted and would alarm people unnecessarily. They said the information was withheld from the public because there was no specific threat, and the public may become inured to repeated general warnings of vague possibilities of attacks.

"There is no threat here," said a San Diego police lieutenant who spoke on condition of confidentiality because of the sensitive nature of such investigations. "When you've put out information month after month after month, the public thinks we're crying wolf. "The context here is, a public source document put out by the U.S. Department of Education was found on a computer. Period. My concern would be if a particular school district, or a particular school, or a particular institution was targeted, which it has not been." Lansdowne said the situation shows that the federal government is sharing information with local agencies in an efficient manner.

"I think it's a good indication of how quickly we're notified and the thoroughness of the information we receive," the chief said. "They give us all the information now and allow local jurisdictions to do with it what they think they should." Lansdowne said the report on the disk lauds the district as an example of good planning. The document mentions other school districts and gives information about evacuations, lockdowns and other emergency procedures in the event of a disaster, such as an earthquake or terrorist attack. "If somebody read the article, they would say we're not going to pick San Diego because they have a very good plan in place," Lansdowne said. "It's probably more good news than bad news."

Information retrieved from a computer hard drive overseas triggered an alert to police and school officials in Franklin Township this week. A notice was sent out on Tuesday alerting county police departments that a school district in Franklin Township had been under surveillance by someone overseas, sources reported.

An advisory was issued by the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office, but Prosecutor Sean Dalton did not respond to a request made Friday through his media coordinator, Bernie Weisenfeld, for information or comment on the alert. Paul Loriquet, spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, which oversees the state Office of Counter-Terrorism, said Friday the alert was not meant to be made public.

"I can tell you the Attorney General's Office of Counter-Terrorism has received no specific threat information with regard to any New Jersey school or school district," he said. "What the Office of Counter-Terrorism did receive was information that Web pages of two New Jersey schools had been accessed via the Internet from overseas," Loriquet explained. The information was shared with "pertinent" law enforcement and school personnel, he added.

"Officials from school districts all through New Jersey are currently updating their security plans and dictating new best-practices policies," Loriquet said. "In the climate we live in today, we tend to act on less-than-complete information. The minute we receive any information that's somewhat of a threat, we have to take precautionary measures," he said. "There was nothing specific," said Loriquet, "but we can't take chances." Franklin Township Police Chief Michael DiGiorgio would not confirm or deny the alert notice.

"Based on the things that have gone on in the world, we have conducted a threat assessment at our schools and are increasing patrols around the schools and we're updating our school response plans and security procedures in all the schools in Franklin Township," he said. "Franklin Township wants to be proactive in respect to the safety of the kids in our schools. School safety and security is a living document and will be constantly updated as events in the world dictate," DiGiorgio said. He said Army counter-terrorism experts from Fort Dix helped in making the threat assessments.

Citing a posting on the Internet, NBC News said an al-Qaida statement celebrates the deadly attack in the southern Russian city of Beslan. The posting claims the attack changed the course of the war between Chechen insurgents and Russia and urges Muslims to send money and fighters to Chechnya.

Russian officials have claimed al-Qaida had a direct hand in the school attack, although no direct evidence has surfaced. Chechen warlord Shamil Besayev has claimed direct responsibility for the attacks and militants who seized the school included two Arabs, but he has also sought to downplay connections to al-Qaida.

According to NBC, the current relationship between al-Qaida and Chechen rebels remains murky, although the terror network has in the past helped the Chechens with training and financing. Recent videos have turned up showing Arabs congregating with Besayev's fighters and meeting with the warlord, the network reported. The report cited fears among intelligence officials that al-Qaida and Chechen rebels may team up to attack targets in Europe, most likely Russian interests.

MOSCOW - Russian authorities have confirmed that Saudi nationals were among the 32 attackers that captured a high school in Beslan earlier this month. They said the attack was financed in part by a Saudi charity and planned by Saudi nationals that had joined the Chechen revolt a decade ago.

"There is no Saudi government link," an official said. "But we are sure that Saudi nationals and Saudi money contributed to this terrorist attack." The Saudis were joined by Jordanians and Syrians recruited by Al Qaida-aligned operatives in the Middle East, officials said. Al Qaida has provided the ideology for the Chechen revolt, led by Shamil Basayev.

Last week, Basayev acknowledged the use of Arab nationals in the attack on Beslan. But in a statement to the Islamist website Kavkaz Center, Basayev did not identify the nationality of the Arabs. "Thirty-three holy warriors took part in Nord-West [a reference to Beslan]," Basayev said. "Two of them were women. We prepared four [women] but I sent two of them to Moscow on Aug. 24. They then boarded the two airplanes that blew up. In the group there were 12 Chechen men, two Chechen women, nine Ingush, three Russians, two Arabs, two Ossetians, one Tartar, one Kabardinian and one Guran."

Russian officials said authorities have identified 10 Arabs among the 32 attackers. They said authorities have confirmed the nationalities of the Arabs, but did not provide details. The leading ideologist of the Chechen revolt was Mohammed Abu Omar A-Seif, a Saudi national. Sources said the Saudis have managed to dominate the Chechen insurgency movement despite friction between the Arabs and local Chechens.

Al Qaida financing has enabled many Arabs to marry local women and integrate into Chechnya and the surrounding region, officials said. Under heavy pressure from Russia, Saudi Arabia has reduced support for the Chechen revolt. Officials said that until 1999, the official Al Haramain Foundation was the leading financier of the Al Qaida-aligned insurgency.

The Baku office of Al Haramain was the conduit of the funding, they said. But despite Saudi cooperation, Al Haramain continued to finance the Chechen revolt into 2004. This funding was used for the Beslan attack, officials said. In late 2003, Russia and Saudi Arabia began exchanging information on Al Qaida's role in the Chechen revolt, officials said. Riyad's decision to cooperate was based on its assessment that Saudi nationals returning from Chechnya used their expertise in Al Qaida attacks against the kingdom.

"Many Arab regimes, in particular, Saudi Arabia, have started revising their policies," said Dmitri Makarov, a researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "Upon returning home, the young Saudi who has been to hot spots has begun to pose a threat to the local authorities. This is why there are many more opportunities for cooperation between Moscow and Riyad in combating extremism." Despite Al Qaida's efforts, the Chechen revolt has not been united by a single Islamic network, Makarov said. Basayev's so-called Gardens of the Righteous group appeared to be a loose coalition of many smaller groups, he added.