• One third of U.K.'s specialized terrorist response vehicles to be scrapped

    In 2004, to meet the threat of terrorists using chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons in an attack in the United Kingdom, the government introduced the Incident Response Units (IRUs), with their distinctive red coloring with yellow stripes, at a cost of £54 million. To save money, one third of all the fire brigade vehicles which were part of the IRUs, and which would have been called out in the event of terrorists setting off a “dirty bomb,” are being scrapped.

  • Understanding Jihadi ideology and propaganda

    There is increasing recognition from politicians and policy makers that the ideology of jihadi movements must be countered to undermine the threat. The jihadi movement’s combination of theology and political objectives needs to be uprooted through rigorous scrutiny and sustained intellectual confrontation. New research from the Center on Religion & Geopolitics finds a common ideology communicated through the propaganda of three leading jihadi groups — ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The report notes that violent ideologies do not operate in a vacuum. A fire requires oxygen to grow. A broader political culture overlaps significantly with some of the assumptions of the jihadi ideology, without necessarily being extreme or agreeing with its violence.

  • Terrorism pushes liberals to think more like conservatives

    Liberals’ attitudes in the United Kingdom toward Muslims and immigrants became more like those of conservatives following the 7 July 2005 bombings in London, new research shows. Data from two nationally representative surveys of British citizens revealed that feelings of national loyalty increased and endorsement of equality decreased among political liberals following the terrorist attack. “Our findings show that terrorism shifts public attitudes towards greater loyalty to the in-group, less concern with fairness, and greater prejudice against Muslims and immigrants, but it seems that this effect is stronger on those who are politically left-leaning than those who are right-leaning,” explained one of the researchers.

  • No rise in anti-Muslim sentiment in U.K. in wake of Paris attacks: Poll

    Last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris appear not to have led to a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment in Britain, a new study has shown. The new research comes amid concerns that Western public opinion may grow more hostile toward Muslims, as evidenced by the success of the Front National in the first t round of France’s regional elections three weeks ago, and the apparent popularity of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called for a ban on Muslim immigration to the United States.

  • Terrorists used encrypted apps to plan, coordinate Paris attacks

    The leaders of U.S. and European law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been explicit in their warnings: commercially available communication devices equipped with end-to-end encryption software make it impossible for security services to track terrorists plotting an attack – or monitor the terrorists’ communication while the attack is under way. Sources close to the investigation of the 13 November Paris terrorist attacks have now confirmed that the terrorists used the encrypted WhatsApp and Telegram messengers apps to communicate for a period before the attacks – and with each other during the attacks. What was said in those encrypted messages, and who sent and received these messages, may never be known, because the companies themselves do not have the key – or back door – to decrypt these messages. Thus, security services could not monitor such messages before an attack in order to prevent it, and cannot read these message after an attack to learn more about the terrorists’ network and support system.

  • Process of radicalization is becoming more complex: Experts

    Officials and security experts have been to determine what could have led Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik to become radicalized and when, and over what period, the process of radicalization took place.“I think the face of radicalization has changed,” said one expert. “It’s a hybrid now — a hybrid, robust network to mobilize people to action to commit acts of violence under the banner of compelling narratives.”

  • Germany’s new anti-terror police unit, squeezing ISIS financially, U.S. Libyan operations

    Germany on Wednesday announced the creation of a new police unit which officials said will be specifically armed, outfitted, and trained to deal with terrorism; the UN Security Council on Thursday passed a resolution aiming to make it more difficult for IIS to raise funds by selling oil and antiquities, ransom payments, and other criminal activities. It remains to be seen whether the two big buyers of ISIS oil – the Assad regime and Turkey – will comply; a Facebook photo inadvertently reveals U.S. commando presence in Libya.

  • “Death ray” plotter gets 8 years for plan to kill Muslims, Obama

    Eric Feight, 55, has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for plotting to build a remote-controlled radiation-emitting “death ray” with which he was planning to kill Muslims and assassinate President Barack Obama. He admitted to helping a Ku Klux Klan member Scott Crawford to modify an industrial-grade radiation device, dubbed a “death ray,” and building a switch to operate it from a distance.

  • Israel-Turkey rapprochement; refugees’ jewelry in Denmark; mysterious death in Argentina

    Israel and Turkey were once close allies, but the relationship between the two countries has cooled after the Islamist party of President Recep Tayeep Erdogan came to power in 2002, and he was elected president in 2003. The two countries have decided that the many challenges they face in common now justify the resumption of normal relationship, even if the two countries are deeply divided over the treatment of the Palestinians by Israel; Denmark is set to pass a law which would allow authorities to confiscate jewelry from refugees entering Denmark in order to pay for some of the refugee-related expenditures by the government; the new government in Argentina will reopen the investigation in to the mysterious death in January of a prosecutor who was about to charge former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner with covering up Iran’s involvement in the killing of eighty-five Argentinian Jews in 1994.

  • New evidence released showing deaths in Syrian state detention centers

    Human Rights Watch has released new evidence that up to 7,000 Syrians who died in state detention centers were tortured, mistreated, or executed. The human rights organization says that holding Syrian government officials to account should be central to peace efforts. Observers were aware of the five large detention centers the Assad regime ran. Analysts estimate that more than 117,000 Syrian civilians were tortured and mistreated in these centers since the anti-Assad rebellion erupted in March 2011.

  • Saudi-led alliance sends troops to Syria; protecting Mosul dam; Italy and refugees

    On Monday, Saudi Arabia announced the formation of a new alliance, consisting of thirty-four Sunni Arab and Muslim states, to fight terrorism. The alliance forces will join the moderate rebels in Syria – Prime Minister David Cameron said last week that these rebels were 70,000-strong – not only to fight ISIS, but also to turn their fire on the weakening Assad regime’s military; Italy will send troops to defend the strategically important Mosul Dam in northern Iraq; the EC ordered Italy to use force if necessary to compel migrants and refugees to have their fingerprints taken, this obliging these refugees to apply for asylum in Italy rather than use Italy as a corridor on their way to other EU countries.

  • 34 Muslim states form new military alliance to fight terrorism

    Saudi Arabia has announced the formation of a 34-state Islamic military coalition to combat terrorism, according to a statement published by SPA, the state news agency. A long list of Arab countries such as Egypt, Qatar, and the UAE, along with Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, and several African states were named in the Saudi statement. Iran is not part of the new alliance.

  • U.S. officials barred from reviewing social media postings of visa applicants

    Officials from DHS and the Department of State, as a general policy, do not check social media postings of applicants out of civil liberties concerns. With this policy in place, the department’s officials who handled Tashfeen Malik’s application could not have seen her pro-ISIS postings and note her growing radicalization. Officials from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pressed for a change in DHS policy in light of the fact that social media  is increasingly used by followers of jihadist groups to declare their allegiance, but the disclosures by Edward Snowden about NSA surveillance programs was behind the reluctance of DHS high officials to change the policy for fears such a change would further damage the administration’s standing with civil rights groups and European allies.

  • The third intifada; new, smaller Schengen; EU border patrol

    Mahmud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has been warned by the military wing of the PLO that unless he can persuade the UN Security Council to vote for a resolution calling for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, a new intifada will be launched to convince Israel that a continued occupation of Palestinian lands will be costly; European officials are planning to abandon the 30-year old Schengen Agreement and replace it with a much smaller, Western Europe-only free-travel zone; facing rising seas, residents of the Pacific island of Tuvalu are looking for a new home.

  • How French strategies prevented Al Qaeda's expansion in Mali

    There have been many books on the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there are few about the recent military interventions of America’s allies in countries such as Mali and others on the African continent. Because the January 2013 French intervention in Mali against the local Al Qaeda affiliate was quick, effective, and relatively low cost, the story contains valuable lessons for future strategy.