• Rebels, not the Syrian army, fired last week’s chemical weapon: experts

    Western intelligence services, analyzing the few facts known about the use of a chemical weapon near Aleppo in north Syria last week, have concluded that it was one of the rebel militias, rather than Assad government forces, which fired a “home-made” chlorine-based chemical artillery round. If the conclusion of the intelligence services is correct, it raises disturbing questions about both the capabilities of at least some rebel militias – and about their readiness to use non-conventional weapons.

  • Enhancing Army capabilities as new threats emerge

    Some twenty-eight nations have some type of weapons of mass destruction capability, with some of them having nuclear weapons or nuclear-weapons capability. The nuclear materials in many of these countries are kept in hundreds of sites without global safeguards in place for securing them. A senior American military official described these loose nukes as the “single biggest existential threat to Western survival.” Yet, in a recent exercise, the U.S. response time for deploying 90,000 troops to a crisis area – an area which included loose nukes, other WMDs, or both — took fifty-five days. U.S. military leaders say this is just not good enough.

  • WOT distorting focus, resource allocation of U.S. intelligence community: experts

    The U.S. Intelligence Advisory Board, a panel of fourteen highly regarded and experienced experts, many of whom past holder of high-level national security positions, has submitted a secret report to President Obama in which they say that the intense, 12-year focus of the intelligence community on finding and fighting terrorism has distorted the priorities, resource allocation, and training within that community. Former Senator David Boren, a member of the panel, asks: “in the long run, what’s more important to America: Afghanistan or China?”

  • Sharia law imposed in some rebel-controlled areas in Syria

    The Syrian revolution has mutated from a spontaneous uprising against the authoritarian rule of the Assad family into a full-scale war, and is now changing yet again – into what appears to be a systematic, coordinated effort to impose strict Sharia Islamic law in those parts of Syria which have come under the control of the Jihadi elements in the anti-Assad coalition.

  • Concerns about Mali’s future as French prepare to leave

    The French military campaign against Islamic militants in northern Mali has killed many of the Jihadists and drove the rest of them from the region’s cities to hideouts in the mountains. Now, as France is getting set to pull its soldiers out, questions are being raised about the ability of the African coalition forces to patrol the vast territory and keep the Islamists at bay. UN officials now consider the formation of a heavily armed rapid-response force of up to 10,000 troops, mostly from Chad, to intervene in Mali in the event the peace keeping force there is unable to deal with the Islamist threat.

  • A better cyanide antidote for terrorist attacks, mass casualty events

    The current procedure for treating cyanide poisoning requires highly trained paramedical personnel and takes time. Cyanide, however, is a fast-acting poison. In a situation involving mass casualties, only a limited number of victims could be saved with IV medication. Scientists are reporting discovery of a promising substance that could be the basis for development of a better antidote for cyanide poisoning.

  • Questions raised about Iron Dome success

    MIT professor Ted Postol is at it again: in 1992 he successfully challenged the claims made by the United States, Israel, and Raytheon about the effectiveness of the Patriot missiles in intercepting Iraqi SCUD missiles fired at Israel, and now he is raising similar questions about the accuracy of claims made about the effectiveness of Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket system during the 10-day Israel-Hamas war last November, a war code-named Pillar of Defense.

  • Growing tensions in Iran-al Qaeda relationship

    What began two years ago in Syria as one more manifestation of the pro-democracy Arab Spring, has soon deteriorated into an inter-communal conflict between Sunnis and Shi’as. This change in the nature of the Syrian conflict found the Shi’a forces in the Muslim world – Iran, Iraq, and Hezbollah – siding with the beleaguered Alawite regime of President Assad, at the same time that the Sunni forces in the Muslim world, including al Qaeda, were offering increasing political and material support to the Sunni-based anti-regime insurgency. Growing tensions between Iran and al Qaeda were the inevitable result.

  • UN: Hamas rocket, not Israeli air strike, killed BBC Gaza journalist's family

    UN says that a BBC journalist’s son and two other family members who were killed during the first hour of last November’s Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza, were not killed by an Israeli air strike, as was assumed. Rather, the family was killed by a misfired Hamas rocket.

  • Nigerian Islamic militants execute seven Western hostages

    Ansaru, a Nigerian Islamist militant group which is an off-shoot of Boko Haram, said it has killed seven hostages it captured in the northern Nigeria province of Bauchi last month. The hostages are from Italy, Britain, Greece, and Lebanon.

  • June workshop on approaches to CBRNE incidents

    NIST-organized workshop will explore ways to improve an all-of-government approach that increases resilience to international chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive (CBRNE) incidents.

  • Bin Laden's son-in-law captured, will appear in NYC court this morning

    Usama bin Laden’s son-in-law, who is one of al Qaeda’s top spokesmen, has been captured overseas and charged in the United States with conspiracy to kill Americans, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday. Administration’s sources said he was apprehended “some time ago,” without giving specifics. Abu Ghaith is dues to appear today (Friday) in a federal court in New York City to face the charges. Some GOP lawmakers criticized his court appearance, saying he should have sent directly to Guantanamo.

  • White House cancels award to Egyptian activist after her anti-Semitic tweets come to light

    The Obama administration planned on giving Samira Ibrahim, an Egyptian democracy and women-rights activist, an award – she and eight other women were selected to receive the International Women of Courage award from Michelle Obama in a White House ceremony today — but decided to put the whole thing on hold after it has emerged that Ibrahim sent crudely anti-Semitic and anti-American messages to her Twitter followers.

  • Senate confirms Brennan for CIA post

    The Senate, on a 63-34 vote Thursday afternoon, confirmed John Brennan as the new director of the CIA. The vote came after Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), ended his 13-hour filibuster, saying he was now satisfied with the clarifications by Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the use of drones to kill American citizens. Paul’s tactics divided the Republican caucus, with Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and John McCain (R-Arizona), who spoke on the Senate floor earlier today, mincing no words in denouncing Paul’s quest for clarifications. Paul’s filibuster is the ninth longest filibuster in Senate history.

  • Marburg drug shows promise

    Marburg hemorrhagic fever is a severe and highly lethal disease with no effective treatments, and it has been classified as a Category A bioterrorism agent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Sarepta Therapeutics announced positive results from a non-human primate study of AVI-7288, the company’s lead drug candidate for the treatment of Marburg virus infection.