**October 17, 2006 FEMA Emergency Management Higher Education Project
Activity Report**

\(1\) AUBURN UNIVERSITY, AL: EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT FOR GOVERNMENT AND
PUBLIC SECTOR CERTIFICATE:

The Project Assistant, Barbara Johnson, communicated today with Maria
Folmar with the Center for Governmental Services at Auburn, who noted
that this new Emergency Management Certificate Program kicked-off
yesterday with the first offering of the first course \-- Planning and
Preparedness for Homeland Security and Emergency Management Post 9/11
and Post Katrina \-\-- in a distance learning format. The second course,
Resource Management, is scheduled to begin November 13. For additional
information, Maria Folmar can be reached at: <folmama@auburn.edu>

\(2\) CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS?:

Ergil, Dogu. \"Pope and Reason Revisited.\" Turkish Daily News, October
16, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=55861]{.underline}](http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=55861)

Fields, Suzanne. \"Is Islam the Real Problem?\" Real Clear Politics,
October 16, 2006. At:

<http://www.realclearpolitics.com/printpage/?url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/10/turning_swords_into_bombs.html>

\[Excerpt: \"The interpretation of the Islamist mentality as rooted in
Muhammad\'s appeal to violence, and the Islamist determination for
religious domination of the world, may not tell the whole story today,
but it explains why, for millions of Muslims, the image of the warrior
trumps the image of a prophet of peace \-- if, indeed, there ever was
one.\"

\(3\) DISASTERS WAITING TO HAPPEN/DISASTERS AS A GROWTH BUSINESS:

Weiser, Matt. \"Levee Woes Pile Up.\" Sacramento Bee, October 17, 2006.

Accessed at:
[[http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/40571.html]{.underline}](http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/40571.html)

\[Excerpt: \"State and federal officials have identified at least 71
more damaged levee sections throughout the Central Valley that could
fail this winter\.... The 71 new levee repair sites come on top of 33
\'critical erosion\' sites now being fixed under an emergency order by
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.\"\]

\(4\) MATERIALS RECEIVED FOR REVIEW:

HS Today, Vol. 3, No. 10, October 2006. (Monthly;
[[http://www.HSToday.us]{.underline}](http://www.HSToday.us/)).

IAEM Bulletin, Vol. 23, No. 10, October 2006. (International Association
of Emergency Managers, 111 Park Place, Falls Church, VA 22046-4513,
(703) 538-1795, (703) 241-5603 (fax), e-mail: <nccem@aol.com>) \[Note:
Lead article is on the 1,000th CEM Certification.\]

\(5\) PREPAREDNESS:

Mansfield, Duncan. \"Farmers to be Trained to Fight Terror.\" Associated
Press, October 17, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/4264371.html]{.underline}](http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/4264371.html)

\[Excerpt: \"The University of Tennessee is creating a new center to
train communities and farmers in protecting the nation\'s food supply
from terrorists. Funded with a \$2 million grant from the Department of
Homeland Security, the Center for Agriculture and Food Security and
Preparedness will address safeguards that can be applied across the
agricultural spectrum \-- from crops to dairies to meat processors, UT
officials announced Monday\.... John Shipkowski, Tennessee\'s deputy
director for homeland security, noted that concerns about the nation\'s
food supply have moved beyond accidental contamination. \'We are now in
a world where we\'ve got to worry about potential adversaries
deliberately targeting the agricultural system,\' he said. \'That threat
requires a new breed of professionals to educate industry, assess
vulnerability and come up with ways to mitigate those vulnerabilities.\'
The potential impact couldn\'t be much greater. \'This will affect every
American, as long as they are still eating,\' said UT Veterinary Dean
Dr. Michael Blackwell. The center is part of the university\'s College
of Veterinary Medicine.\"\]

\(6\) ST. JOHN\'S UNIVERSITY, NYC \-- INVESTIGATING EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
CERTIFICATE:

Exchanged communications today with Dr. Gerard McEnerney, Assistant Vice
President and Executive Director of St. John\'s University in New York
City, concerning the school\'s interest in furthering its investigation
into the development of an undergraduate certificate in Emergency
Management. I had last communicated with Dr. McEnerney and other
principals at St. John\'s last November when an interest in
investigating the development of an emergency management program first
arose. A first-cut curriculum outline has now been put together and is
one of the subjects of our communications, as well as an invitation to
attend a meeting at St. John\'s.

\(7\) WAR ON TERROR:

Stein, Jeff. \"Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?\" New York Times,
October 17, 2006. Accessed at:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/opinion/17stein.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin>

\[Excerpt: \"Too many officials in charge of the war on terrorism just
don\'t care to learn much, if anything, about the enemy we\'re fighting.
And that\'s enough to keep anybody up at night.\"\]

Zhou, Kevin. \"Chertoff Defends Bush Policies on Terror, Immigration.\"
The Harvard Crimson, October 17, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=514992]{.underline}](http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=514992)

\[Excerpt: \"\...most of Chertoff\'s speech {Harvard Law School, Oct.
16} was devoted to the war on terror\.... Douglas M. Kochelek, a
first-year law student, asked Chertoff to elaborate on the criteria by
which the end and success of the war would be measured. \'I can\'t tell
you exactly when that is going to happen,\' Chertoff responded. \'The
fact that I can\'t predict when the war is going to end doesn\'t mean
that it isn\'t a war.\' Chertoff was also asked about the role Iraq
played in anti-terrorism efforts. \'The outcome of the war in Iraq will
have a significant impact on our safety here at home,\' he responded.
\'We need to make sure Iraq never falls into the category of a failed
state\'.\"\]

\(8\) WAR ON TERROR - IRAQ:

Cockburn, Patrick. \"The General Was Far Too Gentle.\" The Independent
(UK), October 15, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article1873768.ece]{.underline}](http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article1873768.ece)

\[Excerpt: \"It is absurd to say that American and British forces will
stay until Iraqi security forces are trained to take their place. What
soldiers and police lack is not training but loyalty to the Iraqi
government. Far from establishing an independent Iraq or preventing a
civil war, the continued presence of American and British troops deeply
destabilises the country, de-legitimises its government and deepens
sectarian hatred.\"\]

Kay, Jonathan. \"Confessions of a Misguided Hawk.\" Political Mavens,
October 16, 2006. Accessed at:

<http://politicalmavens.com/index.php/2006/10/16/confessions-of-a-misguided-hawk/>

\[Excerpt: \"It\'s been three years and seven months since the United
States invaded Iraq. But only last week did I become definitively
convinced that the war I once cheered on was a failure - that it made
the world a more dangerous place overall. As I saw things in early 2003,
there were three good reasons for deposing Saddam Hussein, any one of
which, by itself, was sufficient to justify his ouster: (1) Saddam was a
maniac who had weapons of mass destruction; (2) The creation of a
democracy in the heart of the Muslim Middle East would transform the
region by firing a fatal crack into the monolith of Arab tyranny; and

\(3\) Putting the wrecking ball to Saddam\'s dungeons would end the
wanton slaughter of Iraq\'s long-suffering people. Turns out I was zero
for three.\" Note: Kay is the Comment Editor of \"The National Post\" in
Canada.\]

Wood, Sara. \"Cheney To Troops: U.S. Will Keep Its Word in Iraq.\"

American Forces Press Service, October 17, 2006. Accessed at:

[[http://www.defenselink.mil/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=1629]{.underline}](http://www.defenselink.mil/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=1629)

\[Excerpt: \"Iraq is the central front in the global war on terror, and
America\'s only option is to take the fight directly to the enemy and
accept no outcome except the victory of freedom, Vice President Dick
Cheney said here {Fort Campbell, KY} yesterday\.... We\'ll face them far
from home, so we do not have to face them on the streets of our own
cities.\"

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, K-011

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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