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CBP agent acquitted in abuse case
Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent Luis Fonseca was acquitted of one count of deprivation of rights last Friday. The CBP has recently been under scrutiny for its rules on the use of force and the acquittal is considered a victory for the agency.
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Police captures second Boston suspect
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, was captured Friday evening. The 19-year old suspect was found, covered in blood, on a boat which was parked in the backyard of a house on Franklin Street in Watertown, covered with a tarp. The police used a robot to remove the tarp off the boat. After trying to negotiate with the suspect, a SWAT team stormed the boat and captured the suspect. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is listed in serious condition.
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Second suspect eludes dragnet as Boston remains locked down
The second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, 19-year old Dzokhar Tsarnaev, has so far managed to elude a massive dragnet, which began shortly after midnight. The streets of Boston and many of its suburbs remain empty, as residents were told to stay home, schools and businesses were closed, and public transportation and taxis were not in operation.
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One bomber killed, Boston area under lock down as hunt for second bomber continues
Boston police earlier this morning shot and killed one of the suspects in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing. The shooting took place in Watertown, a suburb of Boston. The police says that suspect no. 1 – the one seen wearing a dark baseball cap in the images the FBI releases Thursday afternoon – was apparently killed by an explosive device he was carrying on him or with him. The explosives went off after an exchange of heavy fire with the police.
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FBI releases images of bombing suspects
The FBI yesterday released videos and photographs of two young men, saying both are suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings. The agency warned that the two suspects should be regarded as armed and dangerous. The FBI was also analyzing cellphone tower records to identify positive hits for signs of calls which may have been placed to trigger both explosions remotely. Investigators are also interested in a battery believed to be used in one of the bombs. The battery was likely purchased with a remote control toy and then extracted so it could be used in the bomb. That could potentially make it easier to zero in on a suspect.
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DHS cuts funds for programs aiming to prevent a McVeigh-like fertilizer bombing attacks
Timothy McVeigh used two tons of fertilizer and $3,000 of racing fuel to detonate a bomb outside the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. The blast killed 168 people. The Obama administration is currently not allocating money or resources to preventing fertilizer bombing attacks like the one McVeigh used, according to a former DHS official with direct knowledge of the department’s budgeting and operations.
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DHS-funded police gear blurs line between crime-fighting and war-fighting
DHS is funding the purchase of military gear by Bay Area police departments. Critics of the program say the money allocated for the war on terror is blurring the line between local law enforcement focusing on crime fighting and soldiers fighting in an enemy war zone.
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Federal security grants to Kansas City cut
DHS has removed Kansas City from the list of cities receiving DHS grants, which means that the city will now have to rely on its own resources to train local law enforcement on how to predict, spot, and react to terrorist activities.
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Reinvestment in U.S. water infrastructure should be a top national priority
The U.S. water infrastructure is often called the “invisible infrastructure” – a vast, largely invisible network of pipes and tunnels — nearly 1.4 million miles span across the United States, which is eight times the length of the U.S. highway system. Much of the U.S. infrastructure was built more than a century ago, and currently around 10 percent of these systems are at the end of their service life. If not addressed by 2020, this number could rise to 44 percent. A summit meeting of the U.S. water community calls on Congress to make water infrastructure a top national priority.
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Mississippi man arrested for sending ricin letters to Obama, Sen. Wicker
The FBI confirmed yesterday (Wednesday) that a letter addressed to President Obama was found to contain the toxin ricin. As is the case with all the mail sent to the White House, the letter was screened in a remote mail sorting facility in Anacostia, a neighborhood in southeast Washington, D.C., and intercepted. The FBI arrested a man from Tupelo, Mississippi, on suspicion that he was behind the ricin letters to the White House and to Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), who lives in Tupelo.
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IEDs a growing threat in U.S.: security experts
Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) killed and maimed so many U.S. and coalition soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the Pentagon was forced to create the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO).Terrorism experts say that as al Qaeda and its affiliates find it more and more difficult to engage in more spectacular terrorist attacks such as 9/11 and other attacks on aviation, they may resort to low-tech, IED-based attacks.Incendiary IEDs were already the most common weapons used in the 207 terrorist plots and attacks in the United States from 2001 to 2011. Domestic groups, led by the environmental Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, were responsible for most of the attacks in that 10-year period. Al Qaeda was involved in four such attacks.
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Ease of construction makes pressure-cooker bombs popular among terrorists
The ease of building pressure-cooker bombs has made them popular among terrorist organizations and insurgent groups. Inspire, the on-line English-language magazine published by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), three years ago published an article titled “How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom” by “the AQ Chef,” which contained detailed instructions on building a pressure-cooker bomb.
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White House threatens to veto House cybersecurity bill
The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto the cybersecurity bill drafted by the House of Representatives. The house is expected to vote on the bill later this week. The cybersecurity bill died in the Senate last August after the White House said it would veto the bill.
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DHS formula grants to states drop dramatically
DHS money allocation o money to states for first response and disaster recovery has dropped significantly. DHS formula grant program was at an all-time high of $2 billion in 2003, but last year the program had only $294 million. As a result of the sequester, another 5 percent will be cut from the program.
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Boston bombing may signal end to ten relatively terror-free years in U.S.
The bombing at the Boston Marathon on Monday may signal an end to more than ten years in which the United States was surprisingly free from terrorists attacks, largely as a result of aggressive law enforcement tactics which followed the 9/11 attacks.
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More headlines
The long view
Preventing Another 'Jan. 6' Starts by Changing How Elections Are Certified, Experts Say
By Sara Savat
The 2024 presidential election may be a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, but preventing a repeat of Jan. 6, 2021 — when false claims of a stolen election promoted by Donald Trump and his allies led to an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol —will be top of mind this election year. Research finds broad support among public for nonpartisan certification commissions.
States Rush to Combat AI Threat to Elections
By Zachary Roth
This year’s presidential election will be the first since generative AI became widely available. That’s raising fears that millions of voters could be deceived by a barrage of political deepfakes. Congress has done little to address the issue, but states are moving aggressively to respond — though questions remain about how effective any new measures to combat AI-created disinformation will be.
Chinese Government Hackers Targeted Critics of China, U.S. Businesses and Politicians
An indictment was unsealed Monday charging seven nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their involvement in a PRC-based hacking group that spent approximately 14 years targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses, and political officials in furtherance of the PRC’s economic espionage and foreign intelligence objectives.
European Arms Imports Nearly Double, U.S. and French Exports Rise, and Russian Exports Fall Sharply
States in Europe almost doubled their imports of major arms (+94 per cent) between 2014–18 and 2019–23. The United States increased its arms exports by 17 per cent between 2014–18 and 2019–23, while Russia’s arms exports halved. Russia was for the first time the third largest arms exporter, falling just behind France.
LNG Exports Have Had No Impact on Domestic Energy Costs: Analysis
U.S. liquified natural gas (LNG) exports have not had any sustained and significant direct impact on U.S. natural gas prices and have, in fact, spurred production and productivity gains, which contribute to downward pressure on domestic prices.