**September 18, 2006 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project
Activity Report**

\(1\) CALL FOR PAPERS:

Received today a request from Dr. Jennifer Wilson to post the following
notice in relation to a project she is working on for the FEMA EM HiEd
Project \-- putting a book together based on papers presented at the
June 2006 EM HiEd Conference. Dr. Wilson\'s note is pasted in below:

\"On behalf of the FEMA Higher Education Project, we are soliciting
papers based on the FEMA Higher Education Conference related topics.
Selected papers will be peer-reviewed and published as an E-book at the
FEMA Higher Education website. Provided there are sufficient numbers of
high quality submissions, we may be able to arrange for a publishing
house to publish the book in hard copy. Guidelines for paper submissions
are as follows:

Title, author\'s) name(s), contact information Abstract Section
subtitles References Endnotes

1 inch margins

12 pt. Times New Roman font

Double spaced

25 page maximum not including graphs, tables and references APA style,
if possible MSWord or text format

Your paper should be based on a conference presentation, dialogue
emerging from the break out sessions, issues based on discussions at the
conference, and/or your work that may be directly related to emergency
management and homeland security/defense higher education.

Publishing selected papers on conference topics will provide relevant,
quality material in support of emergency management and homeland
security/defense higher education and the professionalization of the
field as a whole. We sincerely hope that conference participants and
interested scholars will contribute to this important effort.

Submissions should be sent electronically to
jennifer.wilson@omaielson.com and arthur.yemaiel@omaielson.com.

Sincerely,

Arthur Oyola-Yemaiel, Ph.D.

Jennifer Wilson, Ph.D.

\(2\) CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS?:

Armstrong, Karen. \"We Cannot Afford To Maintain These Ancient
Prejudices Against Islam.\" Guardian (UK), 18 Sep 2006. At:

[[http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329578915-110881,00.html]{.underline}](http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329578915-110881,00.html)

\[Excerpt: \"The Pope\'s remarks were dangerous, and will convince many
more Muslims that the west is incurably Islamophobic.

Bostom, Andrew G. \"The Pope, Jihad, and \'Dialogue\'.\" The American
Thinker, September 17, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.americanthinker.com/articles_print.php?article_id=5862]{.underline}](http://www.americanthinker.com/articles_print.php?article_id=5862)

\[Excerpt: \"The most important address commemorating 9/11/01 was
delivered on 9/12/06, a day after the fifth anniversary of this
cataclysmic act of jihad terrorism. It was not delivered by President
Bush, and was not even pronounced in the United States. On September 12,
2006 at the University of Regensburg, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a
lecture\...entitled, \'Faith, Reason and the University\'\....
Christianity, the Pope maintained, was indelibly linked to reason and he
contrasted this view with those who believe in spreading their faith by
the sword\.... However, it is Benedict\'s discussion of the Byzantine
ruler\'s allusions to \"\...the theme of the jihad (holy war)\"-Koran
2:256, \"There is no compulsion in religion\", notwithstanding-that has
unleashed a firestorm of condemnation and violence from Muslims across
the world\.... even if one accepts an apologetic interpretation of Koran
2:256 as prohibiting forced conversion to Islam\...this verse was
abrogated by the verses of jihad, for example 9:5, and many others in
sura 9, as well as sura 8. Indeed Koran 9:5 alone is held to have
abrogated\...as many as 100 pacific (or seemingly pacific verses)\....
An unapologetic view of Islamic history reveals that forced conversions
to Islam are not exceptional-they have been the norm, across three
continents-Asia, Africa, and Europe-for over 13 centuries.\"\]

Cooperman, Alan. \"Pope \'Sorry\' About Reaction to Islam Remark.\"

Washington Post, 18 Sep 2006. At:

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/17/AR2006091700178_pf.html>

Dowd, Allen W. \"Here We Go Again.\" PoliticalMavens.com, September 18,
2006. Accessed at:

[[http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/2006/09/17/here-we-go-again/]{.underline}](http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/2006/09/17/here-we-go-again/)

\[Excerpt: \"It still sounds like some sort of sick, unfunny joke, but
we began this year with mobs of angry Muslims rampaging through Europe,
the Middle East and Asia in deadly protests over a cartoon. Now, many in
the Islamic world are lashing out over an academic lecture presented by
a pope eager to promote dialogue between Islam and Christianity.\"\]

Guardian (UK). \"Faith In Each Other.\" September 18, 2006. Accessed

at:
[[http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1874952,00.html]{.underline}](http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1874952,00.html)

\[Excerpt: \"Just as the scorching Australian sun dries out the bush to
the point where the smallest spark can start an uncontrollable inferno,
so the perception of a clash of civilisations evaporates good will
between the faiths until incidents that might once have gone unnoticed
can explode right around the world.\"\]

Harding, Luke and Hugh Muir. \"Muslim World Divided Over Pope\'s
Apology.\" Guardian, September 18, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1874853,00.html]{.underline}](http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1874853,00.html)

\[Excerpt: \"While some welcome gesture, others demand act of
contrition\.... Massoud Shadjareh, of the Islamic Human Rights
Commission, said: \'He needs to convince that this is a genuine apology
because many people are aware of the sort of things he has been saying
for a long time. Threats are not the way forward but some of the things
he has said have been music to the ears of racists\'\.... One Iranian
cleric said the Pope\'s apology could only be accepted if the pontiff
fell to his feet.\"\]

Hooper, John. \"Pope Benedict\'s Long Mission To Confront Radical
Islam.\"

Observer (UK), September 17, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1874385,00.html]{.underline}](http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1874385,00.html)

\[Excerpt: \"This is not the first time the pontiff has spoken out on
the links between fundamentalism and terrorism\.... It is doubtless
true, as the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, said
yesterday that the Pope had no intention of offending Muslims. However,
both yesterday\'s statement and the Pope\'s own track record make it
quite clear that Benedict XVI sees it as his duty to speak out about the
way in which violence in the name of religion seems to be tolerated by
some Muslim clerics and actively encouraged by others\....
He\...believes that the link between terrorist violence and its
sponsorship by some Muslim clerics is a big obstacle to further
progress\.... In August last year, he went beyond anything his
predecessor had dared to say at a meeting with Muslim leaders in
Cologne, challenging them to condemn \'any connection between your faith
and terrorism\'. Unabashedly lecturing his listeners, he added: \'Words
are highly influential in the education of the mind. You therefore have
a great responsibility for the formation of the younger generation.
There is no room for apathy and disengagement, and even less for
partiality and sectarianism.\' Under Benedict, the key issue, in
Vatican-speak, is not \'dialogue\' but \'reciprocity\'\.... endless
discussion did not seem to be solving the biggest outstanding problem
between the two religions: that while Muslims were free to build
mosques, worship and proselytise in the West, Christians were often
denied religious freedom in Islamic countries.\"\]

Johnson, Anna. \"Iraq al-Qaida Says Pope, West Are Doomed.\" Associated
Press, September 18, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060918/ap_on_re_mi_ea/muslims_pope_5]{.underline}](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060918/ap_on_re_mi_ea/muslims_pope_5)

\[Excerpt: The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of
Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, issued a
statement on a Web forum\.... \'you and the West are doomed as you can
see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere\.... We
will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the
only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the
sword\'.\"\]

Nahmias, Roee. \"Arab Op-Ed: Pope\'s Remarks May Lead To War.\" Ynet
News (Israel), September 16, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3304575,00.html]{.underline}](http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3304575,00.html)

Thompson, Damian. \"He Bears No Malice, But He Is A Worried Man.\"

Telegraph (UK), 16Sep2006. Accessed at:

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/16/wpope116.xml>

\[Excerpt: \"It is ironic that Benedict XVI finds himself accused of
crude anti-Islamic prejudice after quoting a medieval emperor\'s opinion
that Mohammed\'s violent teachings were \'evil and inhuman\'. For no
pope in history has made a deeper study of Islam. Having explored every
verse of the Koran, and engaged in long debates with Muslim scholars, he
rejects the simplistic notion - held by fundamentalist Christians, and
by the Roman Catholic Church until the middle of the 20th century - that
Islam is evil. Yet he is convinced that some of its doctrines are
morally indefensible\.... Where the pontiff differs from his predecessor
is in his impatience with what might be termed \'Islamic political
correctness\'. John Paul II hoped that prayer could bring Christians and
Muslims closer together, and famously prayed alongside Islamic leaders
at Assisi in 1986. He also reassured Muslims that \'we believe in the
same God\'. Benedict would emphasise that the Islamic understanding of
God is radically different from that of Christians\.... \'The Koran is a
total religious law,\' he wrote in 1996, \'which regulates the whole of
political and social life.\' Therefore, a devout Muslim living in the
West must aspire to live under sharia law. A multi-faith society \'is
not consistent with Islam\'s inner nature\'. In other words, the Pope
subscribes to a version of the \'clash of civilisations\' theory, which
sees a fundamental incompatibility between Western and Islamic
cultures\.... How could a man who is so notoriously careful with words
have committed what, in the eyes of liberal society, is a diplomatic
blunder? The answer may be that underlying Benedict\'s nuanced world
view is a deep-seated fear of Islam.\"\]

Wilkinson, Tracy. \"Pope Issues a Rare \'Sorry\'.\" Los Angeles Times,
September 18, 2006. At:

<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pope18sep18,0,5605366.story?track=tottext>

\[Excerpt: \"Regardless of how Benedict\'s Sunday message is accepted,
damage has been done to the Roman Catholic Church and its international
mission, analysts said. In the minds of many Muslims, the pope has
cemented what they see as his disdain for their faith, a perception that
imperils inter-religious dialogue and could only further sour ties
between Muslims and Christians at a time of global confrontation.
Several of the Islamic leaders who rose to condemn Benedict in the last
several days have cast him as part of what they see as a vast Western
conspiracy against Islam, and have put him in the same category as
President Bush.\"\]

\(3\) DAM SAFETY:

Kivlan, Terry. \"Infrastructure Subpanel Approves Dam Safety
Legislation.\" Congress Daily, September 15, 2006. At:

[[http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=35029&dcn=e_gvet]{.underline}](http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=35029&dcn=e_gvet)

\[Excerpt: \"A House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee
Thursday approved legislation that would increase federal funding for
state dam safety programs by 50 percent and for the first time mandate
Army Corps of Engineers inspection of all state regulated dams\....
Under the bill, annual funding for the program, which is mainly
administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would rise from
\$8.6 million to \$12.7 million. The bulk of the funding, \$8.7 million,
would be allocated in grants to the states to help them improve their
dam safety efforts. The money would be divided up according to a formula
based on the number of dams in each state\.... Similar legislation
extending the federal dam safety program has cleared a Senate Committee.
Meanwhile, the panel also approved legislation to create a four-year,
\$350 million program to help states repair and rehabilitate dams.\"\]

\(4\) FEMA:

Lipton, Eric. \"Congressional Plan Would Bolster Disaster Agency.\" New
York Times, September 16, 2006. Accessed at:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/washington/16fema.html?_r=1&oref=slogin>

\[Excerpt: \"Congressional negotiators agreed Friday on a plan to
restructure the Federal Emergency Management Agency that would give it
somewhat more clout and responsibility, but still not as much as it had
during the Clinton administration. The compromise effectively ends the
campaign by some in Congress to separate FEMA from the Department of
Homeland Security and re-establish it as an independent agency reporting
directly to the president.\"\]

\(5\) HOMELAND SECURITY:

Chertoff, Michael. \"Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial.\" September 15,
2006. Accessed at:

[[https://dhsonline.dhs.gov/portal/jhtml/dc/sf.jhtml?doid=43598]{.underline}](https://dhsonline.dhs.gov/portal/jhtml/dc/sf.jhtml?doid=43598)

Strohm, Chris. \"Senate Approves Port Security Bill.\" Congress Daily,
September 15, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=35033&dcn=e_gvet]{.underline}](http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=35033&dcn=e_gvet)

\[Excerpt: \"The Senate bill, which passed 98-0, would establish a \$400
million port security grant program, require the Homeland Security
Department to create a plan for resuming trade in the event of an attack
and lay the groundwork for what Republicans say will ultimately lead to
the scanning of all containers before they reach U.S. ports\.... Across
the Hill, House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., said he
is \'optimistic that a conference agreement will be reached. The House
approved its version of the bill, 421-2, on May 4\.... Unlike the House,
the Senate approved an amendment that would authorize \$3.5 billion for
mass transit security grant programs and \$1.2 billion for freight and
passenger rail security.\"\]

\(6\) KATRINA:

Shoop, Tom. \"Storm of Coverage.\" Government Executive, September 18,
2006. Accessed at:
[[http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0906/091806ol.htm]{.underline}](http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0906/091806ol.htm)

\(7\) MATERIALS RECEIVED FOR REVIEW:

Risk Management Magazine, September 2006. (A Publication of the Risk and
Insurance Management Society, Inc.,
[[http://www.rmmagazine.com]{.underline}](http://www.rmmagazine.com/)).

\(8\) PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE:

Greenhill, Jim. \"National Guard Chief: More Domestic Assets Needed.\"

American Forces Press Service, September 18, 2006. At:

[[http://www.defenselink.mil/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=956]{.underline}](http://www.defenselink.mil/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=956)

\[Excerpt: \"ALBUQUERQUE, N.M\...The National Guard\'s domestic
equipment levels must be significantly improved, the chief of the
National Guard Bureau said here Sept. 16\.... \'We are superbly equipped
overseas\', {said} Army Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum\.... But the domestic
picture is less rosy. \'We are now in a dangerously low resourcing level
for missions back here at home, and that must be seriously addressed,
Blum said\....

\'Nobody would accept that from their fire department in any hometown in
America, and we should not allow that to be accepted in any (National
Guard) armory or readiness center,\' he said. \'The American people are
not going to be happy with a response from the National Guard that has
not been fully equipped for the mission it has been assigned\'.\"\]

\(9\) UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS \-- RENEWED EXECUTIVE MASTER\'S IN
CRISIS AND EM PROGRAM:

Met today with Dr. Christine Gibbs Springer, the new Director of the
Executive Masters in Crisis & Emergency Management Program at UNLV. This
program, which went into effect in 2004, was recently put on hold while
courses and curriculum were reevaluated and a new Director (Dr.
Springer) was brought on. Based in the curriculum review currently
underway, which was the subject of Dr. Springer\'s visit, a new program

will begin this coming Winter/Spring Semester in January 2007. For
additional information Dr. Springer can be reached at:
<Christine.springer@unlv.edu>.

\(10\) WAR ON TERROR:

Dreyfuss, Robert. \"There Is No War On Terror.\" TomPaine.com, September
13, 2006. Accessed at:

<http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/13/there_is_no_war_on_terror.php>

\[Excerpt: \"Part of what follows is derived from a series of some two
dozen interviews I conducted over the summer with leading U.S.
counterterrorism officials, many of whom served in top posts during the
Bush administration. Not all of them agree with each other, nor with all
of my conclusions, which can be found in the Sept. 21 issue of Rolling
Stone . But most of them served on the front lines of the so-called
\"war on terror.\" If U.S. counterterrorism efforts were run by these
officials, instead of Bush and Cheney, those efforts would look
radically different than they do today.

I. The threat of terrorism is wildly exaggerated\....

II\. Al-Qaida barely exists at all as a threat\....

IX\. Vulnerabilities are not threats\....\"

Note: Robert Dreyfuss is the author of Devil\'s Game: How the United
States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam (Henry Holt/Metropolitan
Books, 2005).\]

Harris, Sam. \"Head-in-the-Sand Liberals - Western Civilization Is
Really At Risk From Muslim Extremists.\" Los Angeles Times, September
18, 2006. Accessed at:

<http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-harris18sep18,0,1897169.story?track=tottext>

\[Excerpt: \"my correspondence with liberals has convinced me that
liberalism has grown dangerously out of touch with the realities of our
world - specifically with what devout Muslims actually believe about the
West, about paradise and about the ultimate ascendance of their faith.
On questions of national security, I am now as wary of my fellow
liberals as I am of the religious demagogues on the Christian right\....
A cult of death is forming in the Muslim world - for reasons that are
perfectly explicable in terms of the Islamic doctrines of martyrdom and
jihad. The truth is that we are not fighting a \"war on terror.\" We are
fighting a pestilential theology and a longing for paradise.\]

Lappin, Yaakov. \"Expert: No Peace With Muslims Ever.\" Ynet News
(Israel), September 14, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3304024,00.html]{.underline}](http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3304024,00.html)

\[Excerpt: \"Professor Moshe Sharon tells counter-terrorism conference
Iran\'s regime is seeking Armageddon, says no peace ever possible with
Muslim world.\"\]

Rosen, Michael. \"Pilgrims\' Progress.\" TCS Daily, September 18, 2006.

Accessed at:
[[http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=091806A]{.underline}](http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=091806A)

\[Note: This is the first installment of a two-part series. \"What do
historian Nathaniel Philbrick and Atlantic columnist James Fallows have
in common? Both advocate similar but distinct approaches to conflict
resolution and point the way toward potential success in the War on
Terror.\"\]

Washington Post. \"Playing Politics With Terror.\" September 18, 2006.

Accessed at:

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/17/AR2006091700430_pf.html>

\[Excerpt: \"Is John Boehner more interested in keeping the House than
protecting Americans? We\'re just wondering\.... \'I LISTEN TO MY
Democrat friends, and I wonder if they are more interested in protecting
the terrorists than protecting the American people\'.\"\]

White House. \"President\'s Radio Address\" (War on Terror). September
16, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060916.html]{.underline}](http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060916.html)

\[Excerpt: \"Next week\...I will address the United Nations General
Assembly. I look forward to talking to the world leaders gathered there
about our obligation to defend civilization\...\"\]

\(11\) WAR ON TERROR \-- IRAQ:

Grier, Peter. \"Is War In Iraq A Shield Against Attacks At Home?\"

Christian Science Monitor. September 18, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0918/p03s02-usfp.html]{.underline}](http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0918/p03s02-usfp.html)

\[Excerpt: \"Simply put, the US is fighting Al Qaeda and other
extremists there, so it doesn\'t have to fight them on American soil.
That\'s the way President Bush sees the situation, anyway\.... Is that
really the case? Many critics of the administration think Iraq is not
the foremost trench in a global war on terrorism. The enemy there, they
say, is only loosely related to the one that struck at the American
heartland five years ago.\"\]

B.Wayne Blanchard, Ph.D., CEM

Higher Education Project Manager

Emergency Management Institute

National Emergency Training Center

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Department of Homeland Security

16825 S. Seton, N-430

Emmitsburg, MD 21727

\(301\) 447-1262, voice

\(301\) 447-1598, fax

wayne.blanchard@dhs.gov

[[http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu]{.underline}](http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu)

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