• Arab youths reject ISIS, say effort to establish Islamic State will fail

    Arab youth say the rise of ISIS remains the single biggest challenge facing the Middle East, but young people in the region overwhelmingly reject the extremist group and believe it will fail to establish an Islamic state. That is the headline finding of the eighth annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey, released the other day. ASDA says that while three in four Arab youth are concerned about the rise of ISIS, just one in six believes the terrorist group ultimately will succeed.

  • 10-fold increase in number of children Boko Haram uses in suicide attacks

    The number of children involved in ‘suicide’ attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger has risen sharply over the past year, from four in 2014 to forty-four in 2015, according to a UNICEF report released yesterday. More than 75 percent of the children involved in the attacks are girls.

  • Privacy advocacy groups ask NSA to halt changes to data sharing rules

    More than thirty organizations sent a letter to the Director of National Intelligence and the Director of the National Security Agency, urging them to halt reported changes to the rules governing when and how the NSA can share the data it collects through overseas surveillance.

  • Boko Haram willing to release kidnapped girls for $56 million ransom

    Boko Haram has said it was demanding a ransom of nearly $56 million for the release of the 219 schoolgirls it kidnapped from the Nigerian town of Chibok two years ago. The Islamist militants conveyed their demand in secret contacts with the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, who, during last year’s presidential campaign, said that if need be, he would negotiate with the militants for the girls’ release.

  • Overwhelming majority of British Muslims reject suicide bombers, terrorism: Survey

    An in-depth survey found that 96 percent of British Muslims do not sympathize with radical Muslims who take part in suicide bomb attacks. The vast majority of those surveyed show similar levels of support to the wider British public in support for British institutions and a feeling of belonging to Britain. On some social and cultural issues, however, a large number of British Muslims are out of step with the wider population.

  • Four questions Belgians should ask about the Patriot Act

    The Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks added a sense of urgency to calls for Belgium to enact its own counterterrorism bill. It is a call the French government has already answered. Increased use of surveillance is a worldwide trend. There is no guarantee, however, that even with the most sophisticated surveillance technology out there today, passing a bill or law to collect private information on citizens will protect us from terrorist threats and violence. Even more vexing: the nature of intelligence gathering means we may never know exactly how many attacks have been prevented by the Patriot Act, the French surveillance law — or a similar law that Belgium may soon pass.

  • New urgency in preparing for solar storm Big One

    The specter of a geomagnetic solar storm with the ferocity to disrupt communications satellites, knock out GPS systems, shut down air travel and quench lights, computers and telephones in millions of homes for days, months, or even years has yet to grip the public as a panic-inducing possibility. But it is a scenario that space scientists, global insurance corporations and government agencies from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to NASA to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) take seriously, calling it a “low probability but high-impact event” that merits a substantial push on several fronts: research, forecasting, and mitigation strategy.

  • U.S. more likely to use force in a military dispute when the president is a Southerner

    The United States is more likely to use force in a military dispute when the president is a Southerner, according to a new study. The study argues that “Southern honor” — an ethical code that emphasizes a reputation for resolve — pervasively shapes Southern presidents’ approach to disputes with other nations, making those presidents less willing than their peers from northern states to back down during international disputes. Consequently, Southern presidents have been more likely to use military force, resist withdrawal, and ultimately achieve victory, the study finds.

  • El Paso doesn't want ID as "sanctuary city"

    An El Paso-based immigrant rights group could see its hopes for a municipal ID card dashed after leaders there determined that issuing the card might prompt immigration hardliners to label the town a “sanctuary city.”

  • Cannibal al-Nusra commander killed by rival Islamist militia

    Khaled al-Hamad, otherwise known as Abu Sakkar, a senior commander of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front who was filmed eating an organ of a dead Syrian government soldier, has been killed by gunmen near the Turkish border, al-Nusra has announced. Al-Hamad gained notoriety for the shocking video which surfaced in 2013, and which, for many, captured the brutality of the Syrian civil war. The cannibalism scene captured on video showed al-Hamad eating either the heart, lung, or liver of the dead soldier.

  • U.S. strike kills senior al-Nusra official – an al Qaeda “legacy” leader

    A Pentagon spokesman said that the targets of a U.S. airstrike in northwestern Syria that were several top leaders of the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, including the group’s spokesman Abu Firas al-Suri. Al-Suri, a Syrian national, served in the Syrian military before being forced out for Islamist leanings. He became close to bin Laden while fighting in Afghanistan, and rose to a senior position in al Qaeda in the late 1980s.

  • Germany to put a Syrian refugee on trial for war crimes

    A Syrian national who arrived in Germany as a refugee has been arrested and charged with war crimes in his home country. The man is accused of leading a 150-strong armed militia which tortured civilians, kidnapped others for ransom, and enriched itself by selling looted art.

  • What is a dirty bomb and how dangerous is it?

    The worrying news that individuals affiliated with the so-called Islamic State have undertaken hostile surveillance at a Belgian nuclear research facility has created growing speculation about the group’s nuclear ambitions. There are no indications that a terrorist group has obtained any fissile material to date. An easier option for a terrorist group would be to build a dirty bomb or, technically, a radiological dispersal device. This is the reason for sensible concern, rather than hysterical speculation about Islamic State’s recent activities in Belgium and, especially, Iraq and Syria. After all, without an effective government, it is unclear who controls the many radioactive sources in the region.

  • Terrorists may have entered Europe hiding among asylum-seekers: EU border police

    Frontex, the EU’s border police, has said that terrorists may have entered Europe by hiding among asylum seekers. Frontex noted that two of the bombers in last November’s Paris attacks made it to the continent in a smuggling boat from Turkey. “As the vast majority of migrants arrive undocumented, screening activities are essential to properly verify their declaration of nationality,” the report says.

  • Better tactics for dealing with terrorist threats to cities

    Counter-terrorism technologies and diverse partnerships are essential when dealing with terrorist threats in cities. The findings follow the European Commission-funded TACTICS project to create a better counter-terrorism system for EU member states.