By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly

Iran and North Korea both have nuclear weapons potential, but al Qaeda is the CIA’s top concern because it is the most likely to use them, The Associated Press’ Pamela Hess quotes the agency chief saying yesterday. “Some fear that terrorists could acquire a nuclear weapon through Iran. But Iranian officials would be highly motivated to prevent that,” Ward Wilson assures in The Chicago Tribune — while Charles V. Pena asserts, similarly, in a United Press International op-ed that “there is no history of hostile regimes supplying terrorist groups with chemical or biological weapons they have access to, let alone a nuclear weapon.”

Feds: Top U.S. counterterrorists say al Qaeda is “imploding” and that its violent tactics have turned Muslims worldwide against the organization, while cautioning against expecting its prompt demise, TheAssociated Press’ Pamela Hess reports. New rules for national security investigations will help protect Americans from terror attacks, AP’s Lara Jakes Jordan has FBI chief Robert Mueller telling lawmakers yesterday, even if they do single out people from the Middle East. House homelanders are expected to quiz DHS officials today on more than $15 billion worth of mismanaged contracts, Federal Times’ Elise Castelli recounts — and see The Washington Post’s Dana Hedgpeth. The major strategic homeland security changes facing the next administration include improving border security, info sharing and disaster response, Federal Computer Week’s Alice Lipowicz quotes a new Homeland Security Advisory Council report.

Quo vadis? A Heritage Web Memo says neither John McCain nor Barack Obama will significantly change President Bush’s governmental architecture for counterterrorism, citing Obama’s shift on FISA and his advocacy of more civilian manpower for the terror fight, a gather essayist takes note. Even if the Dems win, there remains “the work demanded to craft a sane security policy because our political system continues to evade the challenge of finding an exit from the ‘war on terror,’” The Nation’s Katrina Vanden Heuvel contends. Although some “continue to suggest that our military response to terrorism is indeed libertarian,” if pro-war members are not fully repudiated the Libertarian Party won’t “attract any true libertarians into the next decade,” a Nolan Chart contributor comments.

Poly-ticks:Post-9/11, most American Muslims overwhelmingly support the Dems and some “even exercise takfir by insisting that any Muslim who would dare to say anything good about the Republican Party is automatically an apostate,” The American Muslim mentions. Along with terrorism, immigration seems to have faded as a campaign issue, taking the backseat to the high price of gasoline, the housing crisis and unemployment, The Arizona Capital Times surveys. Although just 2 percent of respondents recently termed it a top problem, the contenders are unlikely to “stop presenting terrorism as a pressing danger,” The San Francisco Chronicle surveys — and see Gallup: “Majority of Americans Not Fearful of Terrorist Attack.” Candidates must explain to voters their intentions as to “border security, protection of chemical and nuclear plants, and diplomacy aimed at nuclear non-proliferation,” a Kansas City Star contributor counsels.

State and local: “No Philadelphia-area Jewish agencies were awarded security grants in 2008. But, seven years after [9/11], that might just turn out to be a good thing,” The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent explores. A child advocacy group is calling on state officials to adopt regulations requiring day-care centers to develop written plans to reunite parents and their children after disasters, The Louisville Courier-Journal relays. “If Gov. Rick Perry is eager, as he appears to be, to remake the Texas Department of Public Safety, now is his chance,” according to a Houston Chronicle column, noting 13 senior officials’ recent departures. The U.S. territory of the Northern Marianas is suing to prevent Washington taking over the islands’ immigration system, ABS-CBN News notes.

Follow the money: A Vienna court ruling that unfroze a suspected terrorist’s bank account could potentially help fund the Abu Nidal Organization, Haaretz reports. Even in the United States, writers and publishers have been backing away from books about terror financing — particularly about the Saudi connection — for fear of being sued, a New York Times op-ed quotes an author taken to court in Britain by a Saudi subject. Jury selection opened in Dallas yesterday “as prosecutors take a second run at convicting officers of a Texas-based charity that the government contends was a Hamas beachhead in America,” The New York Sun spotlights — and see a Dallas Morning News blog on emblematic responses elicited during the voir dire. Since 9/11, counterterrorists have shut down six major Islamic charities, “transforming the way many Muslims in the United States give to charity. Many donate only to local groups they know, or to relatives overseas,” The Tennessean surveys. Turkish prosecutors may inquire into a scandal currently before a German court where an Islamic charity allegedly siphoned off donations to benefit the ruling party in Ankara, Deutsche Presse Agenturrecords.

Bugs ‘n bombs: The first ever outbreak of bird flu in the West African nation of Togo is confirmed to be the virulent H5N1 strain of the virus, The Seattle Times tells — while Buffalo Business First has a new $13.3 million HHS grant helping push Cleveland BioLabs a step closer to FDA approval for its drug to treat the gastrointestinal effects of acute radiation syndrome. DHS cyberwarriors will focus on improving network defense capabilities and acquisition rules to protect against malicious code installed during the manufacturing process of electronic devices, PC World reports. Iran has blocked a U.N. inquiry into whether it researched ways to make a nuclear bomb, Reuters quotes the U.N. nuclear watchdog. Insisting the women are acting on their own motives, including ideology and revenge, Iraqi Sunni extremists describe female suicide bombers as the latest tactic in a slow-burning war, the Post spotlights.

Coming and going: A man allegedly flew into Brisbane Airport with 11 kilos of cannabis in his suitcase, which went undetected until he was picked up by police after a roadside breath test, The Australian informs. “Any suggestion that stringent security checks at our airports be relaxed are premature and ill-advised,” The Daily Telegraph’s travel editor insists following the inconclusive London air terror trial — while Travel Industry News says most flyers accept the need for increased security but dearly want it to be efficient. Russian aviation authorities dismiss any claims that an airliner crash in the Urals had any link to terrorism, The Independent informs. As of yesterday, New Yorkers can buy new driver’s licenses containing a radio chip that will let them travel between the United States and Canada or Mexico without a passport, The Albany Times Union tells.

Terror tech: “A new grenadelike gadget—designed to quickly extinguish flames in small quarters, thereby limiting injury to victims as well as firefighters—is becoming an important part of firemen’s arsenals,” Scientific American spotlights. “The technological push to round up suspected terrorists has branched out to haul in garden-variety criminals,” The Attleboro (Mass.) Sun Chronicle recounts in a piece on federally funded gizmos now being used by local cops. Despite the fizzled U.K. trial in the liquid-bomb plot, the defendants in fact were ready to assemble devices that would have had a good chance of getting through 2006-era airport security and severely damaging a big jet, The Register follows up. “It’s probably not the game-changing, ‘secret weapon’ of the Iraq War. But it could help win the next one: a stealth sniper scope for invisible assassination,” Danger Room leads.

Cyberia: “No intelligence system can work all the time, but the government still has a lot to learn from Silicon Valley about how information flows best and how technology can help turn facts into knowledge,” a Wall Street Journalcolumnist contends. “The next time militants send out a terror message, it could bear the tag of your computer unless you take steps to secure your connection,” a Calcutta Telegraph columnist leads — and see UPI on the subcontinent’s “tech-savvy terrorists.” Some view the brain scanning lie detector used to secure a conviction in India “as a silver bullet against terrorism that could render waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods obsolete,” The New York Times spotlights — while AP covers a debate among radicalization experts over whether shutting down extremist Muslim sites is the most effective way to counter the terrorist threat on the Internet.

Over there: A group of prominent European lawyers accused the European Union on Tuesday of abusing the law in order to keep an Iranian group on its list of terrorist organizations, The Wall Street Journal spotlights. “America’s new approach toward India, a secure democracy, is a recognition that the main bulwark against Islamist militancy cannot be Pakistan,” an Online Journal analysis suggests. Top Pentagonians were in Afghanistan and Pakistan yesterday amid growing fears of a rising Taliban insurgency and anger over U.S. cross-border raids, Reuters reports — as AP has Pakistan threatening to open fire in event of future American incursions from Afghanistan. The Pentagon, meantime, plans to expand intelligence ops at its main prison in Afghanistan, USA Today learns.

Oh, the humanity: “The Bush administration is said to be considering an appeal for a disaster declaration by officials at Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch and other Wall Street firms who said they need FEMA to intervene in the wake of a ‘Category 5 liquidity crisis.’” ScrappleFace reports. “A White House spokesman said President Bush plans to fly over the region later this afternoon to view the devastation in person, and has assured Wall Street CEOs that the United States stands ready to rescue their firms from the ‘ravages of capitalism,’” Scott Ott writes. “National Guard helicopters have already plucked dozens of investment analysts and stock traders from Manhattan rooftops . . . FEMA, already stretched thin from back-to-back relief efforts along the Gulf Coast, nevertheless stands ready to provide mobile housing units and sacks of cash to buttress the cracked walls of America’s financial markets.”