Terrorism and counterterrorism

  • Law enforcement disrupted eleven plots against NYC since 9/11

    Since the 9/11 attacks, New York police and the U.S. intelligence services have disrupted eleven plots against New York City

  • Calls in Canada for better protection against fertilizer bomb threat

    The Canadian Association of Agri-Retailers wants a comprehensive plan of action to prevent agricultural supplies such as fertilizers from becoming tools of terrorists; the association calls for an “integrated crop input security protocol” for Canada’s 1,500 agri-retail sites; this plan would include perimeter fencing, surveillance and alarm devices, lighting, locks, software, and staff training in various security techniques, at retail outlets; estimated cost: $100 million

  • Emergent sells anthrax vaccine to U.S. allies

    European countries, worried about bioterror attacks, are working on a plan to stock vaccines regionally — a Baltic stockpile, a Nordic stockpile, and so on would help in covering countries that have not expressed a desire to form their own stockpiles; a Maryland-based companies is providing these European countries with anthrax vaccine

  • North Carolina prepares for bioterrorism, epidemics

    North Carolina universities and state and federal agencies create the new North Carolina Bio-Preparedness Collaborative; the idea is to use computers to link all the disparate forms of data collected by various agencies quickly to root out indicators of new disease, or food-borne illness, or, in a worst-case scenario, an attack of bio-terrorism

    • TECHEXPO - Exclusive Security-Cleared Hiring Events - Register Now!
    view counter

  • TSA looks for commercial software to manage Secure Flight

    Managing the long — very long — No Fly and Terror Watch lists is not a simple task; TSA is looking to purchase commercial software to help manage its Secure Flight program which checks the information airlines collect about passengers against DHS terrorist watch lists

  • Bill seeks to bolster U.S. ability to fight bioterror

    Bill calls for bolstering U.S. defenses against future bioterror attacks requiring the director of national intelligence to produce and administer a National Intelligence Strategy for Countering the Threat from WMD, which would be created in consultation with the homeland security secretary as well as other relevant agencies

  • Administration moves ahead on Illinois prison purchase -- possible Gitmo replacement

    The Justice Department informed the Illinois congressional delegation that the White House was going ahead with consideration of the Thomson Correctional Center, located 150 miles west of Chicago, as home for some detainees from Guantanamo Bay; lawmakers opposing to moving terrorists to a U.S. prison blocked funding for refurbishing Thomson, but the administration says the Justice Department can purchase the prison and hold federal inmates in it

  • Lawmakers push for designating the Taliban a terrorist organization

    Faisal Shahzad, a U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, said in court Monday that his failed car bomb plot was backed and financed by the Pakistan Taliban; the group, though, is not yet labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, unlike al Qaeda and its affiliates; lawmakers want to change that

  • Pakistani court convicts, sentences 5 American for terrorism

    Five young Americans from the Washington, D.C. area, captured in Pakistan last December, were convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 10 years in prison each; prosecutors said e-mail records and witness statements proved they were plotting terror attacks in Pakistan and conspired to wage war against nations allied with it, a reference to Afghanistan; one of the convicted Americans left behind a farewell video in the United States showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended

  • Supreme Court: Humanitarian aid to terrorist organizations is illegal

    Many terrorist organizations also provide basic services such as education, health, and welfare to the people they say they represent; since the corrupt and ineffective central governments do not provide such services, militant organizations step in to fill the void; those who send money to these organizations or provide other help argue that they aim to support the humanitarian activities of the these organizations, not their terror campaigns; the U.S. Supreme Court says this is a distinction without a difference; there is also no violation of the First Amendment here: “independently advocating for a cause is different from the prohibited act of providing a service to a foreign terrorist organization,” the Court ruled

  • Would-be terrorists in U.S. hobbled by logistics

    Explosives experts say there are many reasons for the string of bomb failures in recent attempts by would-be terrorists in the United States; among them: it is hard to get explosive materials in the United States; putting together a bomb is a complicated process; and these kinds of attacks require a team to get them off the ground

  • Myanmar's nuclear ambitions exposed

    Robert Kelley, an experienced former inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), analyzed materials smuggled to the West by a scientists who defected from Myanmar, and wrote that the kind of nuclear research work Myanmar is doing leads to the inescapable conclusion that such work is “for nuclear weapons and not civilian use or nuclear power”

  • Forecasting the misuse, and abuse, of evolving technologies

    New project aims to identify and assesses future threats posed by the abuse of evolving science and technology knowledge; examples could include the development of new infectious bacteria or viruses resistant to known medical treatments, or the invention of materials with camouflaging properties for covert activity

  • Study: Pakistan's ISI military intelligence directly funds, trains, directs Taliban

    New study argues that Pakistan’s secret service, the ISI, directly funds and trains the Afghan Taliban, and provides its fighters with intelligence and logistical support; “Pakistan appears to be playing a double game of astonishing magnitude,” the report says; “There is thus a strong case that the ISI orchestrates, sustains and shapes the overall insurgent campaign,” it said

  • Mexican drug cartels smuggling illegals into U.S. create security risk, officials say

    DHS has defined several countries — primarily China, but also Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan — as “special interest countries”; smuggling potential terrorists and citizens of special interest countries across the U.S. border is evolving into a billion dollar industry for Mexican drug cartels, posing a significant threat to the United States