Democrats Signal that CIA Nominee May Get Their OK; Athens Spares No Expense for Security; Hurricane Charley Is Next for Florida; Report: Water Supplies Targeted by Terrorists

Democrats Signal that CIA Nominee May Get Their OK

Instead of blocking the nomination of Porter J. Goss as new CIA director, it appears that Democrats will use the confirmation hearings to criticize the failure of the intelligence community under the Bush administration. According to a story in The New York Times, Senate Democrats are more concerned with the larger intelligence debate and do not want to focus on an individual. However, Goss’s perceived partisanship as a Republican has some Democrats worried and they aren’t ruling out a no vote or a filibuster if something unexpected comes up in the hearings.

For more details, read the full article in The New York Times.

Athens Spares No Expense for Security

It’s two days before the Olympics begin, and the presence of the most expensive security force in the history of the Games is palpable. According to a story in the Washington Post, there are roughly 70,000 Greek security forces patrolling Athens and the athletic venues, sharing surveillance duty with 1,000 security cameras and a couple of blimps. That doesn’t count the Greek fighter planes and NATO aircraft that are guarding the skies. The $1.5 billion pricetag is nearly triple the original projections. The centerpiece of the security program is a $312 million command and control center, built by U.S. firms, that collects video streams, audio streams and other data that is transmitted around Greece (including telephone calls and street corner conversations). In spite of the sophistication of the new technology, Philip Giraldi, a former CIA official who oversaw security plans for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, told the Post, “I think the technology has its limitations and that your security is going ot very much depend on the security that you have on the ground.

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

Hurricane Charley Is Next for Florida

Just days after tropical storm Bonnie brought wind and rain to the Florida Panhandle, Gulf Coast communities in the state are bracing for Charley, which is expected to hit land Friday and could be a Category 3 hurricane. At Category 3, hurricanes have winds of up to 110 miles per hour. According to a report in the Miami Herald, some experts expect a storm surge of 10 to 17 feet. Said Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center in West Miami-Dade County: “This is a threat to life and property in the coastal zone due to storm surge. It will be a major event for the Gulf Coast.

Read more details in the Miami Herald. For breaking developments, visit Weather.com’s Storm Watch.

Report: Water Supplies Targeted by Terrorists

Terrorists considered poisioning water supplies in major urban areas priot to the 9/11 attacks, according to a federal bulletin. The report, obtained by the Las Vegas Review Journal, was distributed to law enforcement agencies and water facilities operators Wednesday. According to a story by the Associated Press, the report did not mention Las Vegas as a target, per se. The document indicated that terrorists would recruit insiders to poison the water during the chlorination process.

For more details, read this Associated Press account in the San Jose Mercury News.