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Documents Reveal Bin Laden’s Bid for American Support  (Elizabeth Germino, CBS News)
New translations of Osama bin Laden’s personal documents show that the intention behind 9/11 was not only to kill Americans, but to incite U.S. protests, like those seen during the Vietnam War. These documents, first recovered in the 2011 raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, have been declassified since 2017, but were unorganized and mostly untranslated, until now. The letters offer one of the closest looks yet into the mind of America’s most infamous terrorist. In her new book, “The Bin Laden Papers,” author and Islamic scholar Nelly Lahoud distills nearly 6,000 pages of the personal notes, letters, and journals taken from bin Laden’s compound. She spoke with 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi about the al Qaeda leader’s motivation behind 9/11. “He thought that the American people would take to the streets, replicate the anti-Vietnam War protests, and they would put pressure on their government to withdraw from Muslim majority states,” Lahoud told Alfonsi on the broadcast. It was a huge miscalculation. A Gallup poll from October 2001 showed 88% of Americans approved of the military action in Afghanistan. According to Lahoud, bin Laden’s papers revealed a disconnect between his ambition and capability.

UK Neo-Nazi, 19, Sentenced for Inciting Terrorism Against Jews  ((Jerusalem Post)
19-year-old UK citizen Thomas Leech, who has encouraged terrorism against Jews and Muslims, has been sentenced to two years in a young offender’s institution. Leech posted a “call to arms” and glorified far-right killers such as Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in two terrorist attacks in Norway in 2011 and Brenton Tarrant, who murdered 51 people at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019. Leech, a Preston native, pleaded guilty to inciting terrorism against Jews and Muslims and stirring up religious or racial hatred. Rachel White, mitigating, said some offenses were committed when Leech was still a minor, aged only 17 or 18, and that he suffered from autism, agoraphobia and bullying, which kept him out of school. Manchester Crown Court heard how Leech believed conspiracy theories about Jews, saying they were planning the “great replacement” of the white race and are responsible for the “Islamification” of Europe. Leech posted online about his belief that the Holocaust was a hoax and that Jews controlled the world, as well as posting Third Reich imagery and anti-Muslim content. Prosecutor Joe Allman said Leech first came to police attention when he claimed to be planning a shooting at his school in January 2017.

Canadian Military Not Doing Enough to Detect, Prevent Extremism in the Ranks: Report  (CBC)
The number of Canadian military members belonging to extremist groups is growing and it’s getting harder to detect them, says a new report looking at racism and discrimination in Canada’s armed forces. In its 121-page report, made public Monday, members of an advisory panel on systemic racism and discrimination found widespread problems in the military, including the presence of white supremacists and those inspired by ideologically motivated violent extremism (IMVE). “Membership in extremist groups is growing, it is becoming increasingly covert, and technological advances such as Darknet and encryption methods pose significant challenges in detecting these members,” the panel wrote. “The Defense Team is not immune to infiltration by these extremist groups and some units and departments may even be more vulnerable given their isolation from large metropolitan areas.” The panel also found that DND hasn’t been very effective in detecting extremists in its ranks. Defense Minister Anita Anand and Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre discuss the key findings of a report that looked at systemic racism and discrimination within the Canadian Armed Forces. “Despite local, national and international exchanges of information about IMVE, the detection of extremist pockets or individuals is still very much siloed and inefficient,” the panel wrote.

Peekskill Man Who Identifies as an “Incel” or “Involuntary Celibate” Is Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Stalking, Threatening, and Harassing Multiple Victims  (DOJ)
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that DAVID KAUFMAN, a/k/a “David Khalifa,” a/k/a “John Morray,” a/k/a “Big Man,” a self-identified “Incel,” was sentenced to 30 months in prison, after pleading guilty to stalking multiple victims between October 2019 and August 2020.  U.S. District Judge Nelson S. Román imposed today’s sentence.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “David Kaufman, a self-described ‘Incel,’ or ‘Involuntary Celibate,’ expressed his hatred of women by terrorizing and harassing his victims though threats of violence.  The Court’s sentence sends a clear message to the public that perpetrators of violence against women will be held accountable for their crimes.”

Pacific Northwest Environmental Extremist and Arsonist Pleads Guilty  (DOJ)
A Pacific Northwest environmental extremist, arsonist and former fugitive pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court for his role in two arson conspiracies targeting commercial and government-owned animal processing facilities in Oregon and California.
Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, 53, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson and arson in the District of Oregon and conspiracy to commit arson in the Eastern District of California.

Peace Tribunal Identifies 4,600 Killings of Colombian Leftists  (Agence France-Presse / VOA News)
More than 4,600 members of a leftist party in Colombia were killed and another 1,100 went missing between 1984 and 2007, a special tribunal set up to try the worst atrocities committed during the country’s half-century conflict said in a report released Friday.
The victims were members of the Patriotic Union (UP) communist party that was formed in the 1980s during an attempt by then-president Belisario Betancur to make peace with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) found that “of the 5,733 victims, 4,616 were victims of murder” while the rest were “forcibly disappeared,” the report said.

U.S. Is Taking “a Close Look” at Whether to Label Russia a State Sponsor of Terrorism  (Christine Wilkie, CNBC)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently asked President Joe Biden to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism during a phone call between the two leaders. But U.S. officials say the specific sanctions triggered by the state sponsor of terror label, like arms embargoes, have all already been imposed on Russia. Biden didn’t commit to Zelenskyy’s request, The Washington Post reported, but he didn’t deny it either.

More Picks

The Backlash to DHS’s Anti-Disinformation Board Shows How U.S. Law Is Falling Behind the Problem (Patrick Tucker, Defense One)
Legal ambiguity may have crippled DHS’s new board from the start.

The Uproar over Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board  (Aaron Blake, Washington Post)
The Department of Homeland Security’s creation of a Disinformation Governance Board has set off a backlash on the right — even as it’s not entirely clear what the perhaps unfortunately named board will do.

The Case for the Nuclear Deterrent Is Clearer than Ever  (Julian Lewis and John Woodcock, Prospect)
It is beyond doubt that Ukrainians today wish they had nuclear weapons. We should never surrender ours.

What Have US Special Operators Learned from the Ukraine War?  (Elizabeth Howe, Defense One)
The Army, for one, is considering creating a special-operations drone specialty.

Feared Russian Cyberattacks Against U.S. Have Yet to Materialize  (Colin Demarest, Defense News)
The leader of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said American networks have yet to experience significant cyberattacks by Russian operatives amid the ongoing belligerence in Ukraine.
“To date, we have not seen specific attacks on the U.S.,” CISA Director Jen Easterly said April 28. “What we are concerned about is the fact that Russia’s malicious cyber activity is part of their playbook.”

5 Ways to Better Protect Vulnerable Mass Transit  (Brian M. Gant, HSToday)
What was adequate pre-9/11, or even 10 years ago, may no longer be effective. If security hasn’t been updated in recent years, it’s time to take a look with fresh eyes.

The Army Wants to Change How It Manages Cyber Risk  (Lauren C. Williams, Defense One)
The service is working to stand up a risk management council in the coming month.

Feds Seek Nearly $3M from Manafort Over Undisclosed Accounts  (Associated Press, VOA News)
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Thursday against Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort — who was convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and later pardoned — seeking to recover nearly $3 million from undeclared foreign bank accounts.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in West Palm Beach, asks a judge to force Manafort to pay fines, penalties and interest after prosecutors say he failed to disclose more than 20 offshore bank accounts he ordered opened in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The Justice Department alleges Manafort failed to file federal tax documents detailing the accounts and failed to disclose the money on his income tax returns. The lawsuit charges the money was related to consulting work in Ukraine with his deputy Rick Gates and an associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, who were both key figures in Mueller’s investigation.

Threat of Russian Chemical Weapons is ‘Wake-up Call’ on WMDs  (Greg Hadley, Air Force Magazine)
Concerns over weapons of mass destruction have surged in recent weeks, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned increasingly brutal and officials warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin may use chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapons.
For the Defense Department’s counter-WMD leaders, it’s a pivotal moment—and potentially a “wake-up call” for the U.S. to realize the importance of the mission, they told a House Armed Services subcommittee on April 1.

The Urgent Need for an Overhaul of Global Biorisk Management  (Filippa Lentzos, Gregory D. Koblentz, and Joseph Rodgers, CTC Sentinel)
 The biological risk landscape is rapidly evolving and presents significant new challenges to preventing the accidental, reckless, or malicious misuse of biology. At the same time, oversight systems to ensure that life sciences research is conducted safely, securely, and responsibly are falling behind. An urgent overhaul to realign biorisk management with contemporary risks is needed. This must include not only an international framework to establish values and principles for biorisk management and guidelines to develop and implement governance tools and mechanisms, but also an authoritative international institution with a mandate to systematically register and track maximum containment facilities and to oversee extremely high-risk research.

Biosecurity in an Age of Open Science  (James Andrew Smith and Jonas B. Sandbrink, PLOS Biology)
The risk of accidental or deliberate misuse of biological research is increasing as biotechnology advances. As open science becomes widespread, we must consider its impact on those risks and develop solutions that ensure security while facilitating scientific progress. Here, we examine the interaction between open science practices and biosecurity and biosafety to identify risks and opportunities for risk mitigation. Increasing the availability of computational tools, datasets, and protocols could increase risks from research with misuse potential. For instance, in the context of viral engineering, open code, data, and materials may increase the risk of release of enhanced pathogens. For this dangerous subset of research, both open science and biosecurity goals may be achieved by using access-controlled repositories or application programming interfaces. While preprints accelerate dissemination of findings, their increased use could challenge strategies for risk mitigation at the publication stage. This highlights the importance of oversight earlier in the research lifecycle. Preregistration of research, a practice promoted by the open science community, provides an opportunity for achieving biosecurity risk assessment at the conception of research. Open science and biosecurity experts have an important role to play in enabling responsible research with maximal societal benefit.

China’s Biomedical Data Hacking Threat: Applying Big Data Isn’t as Easy as It Seems  (Kathleen M. Vogel and Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley, Texas National Security Review)
Concerns have developed in recent years about the acquisition of U.S. biomedical information by Chinese individuals and the Chinese government and how this creates security and economic threats to the United States. And yet, China’s illicit acquisition of data is only one aspect of what is required to produce an enhanced science and technology capability that would pose a security threat. Current assessments fail to account for the heterogeneity of big data and the challenges that any actor (state or nonstate) faces in making sense of this data and using it. In this context, current law enforcement and policies that focus on the Chinese acquisition of biomedical big data should expand to other important aspects of China’s science and technology capabilities, including the country’s ability to interpret, integrate, and use the acquired data for its economic or military benefit. This article provides new socio-technical frameworks that can be used to provide greater insights into Chinese threats involving biomedical big data.

War amid a Pandemic: The Public Health Consequences of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine  (Michaela Simoneau and Humzah Khan, CSIS)
Russia’s invasion has inflicted extreme physical and psychological trauma inside Ukraine. As a renewed Russian assault against Ukraine’s southeast begins, Ukrainians are likely to face persistent and intensifying public health challenges as a direct result of the conflict, compounding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The security and safety of healthcare facilities, workers, and supply lines remain paramount concerns. Disruptions to surveillance and treatment programs risk an eruption of infectious disease outbreaks. Interruptions to chronic care and routine health services threaten to increase mortality and decrease life expectancy. The long-term mental health consequences of war-related trauma will be considerable. Over 5 million people have fled the country, while an estimated 7 million or more are internally displaced out of a pre-war population of 44 million. Fleeing populations have been met with a surge of support, but receiving health systems, both within and outside Ukraine, are under stress. 

AI Drug Discovery Systems Might Be Repurposed to Make Chemical Weapons, Researchers Warn  (Rebecca Sohn, Scientific American)
A demonstration with drug design software shows the ease with which toxic molecules can be generated.

How Many Nuclear Weapons Does Russia Have in 2022?  (Hans M. Kristensen and Matt Korda, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
Russia is in the late stages of a decades-long modernization of its strategic and nonstrategic nuclear forces to replace Soviet-era weapons with newer systems. In December 2021, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported that modern weapons and equipment now make up 89.1 percent of Russia’s nuclear triad, an increase from the previous year’s 86 percent.

Four Unanswered Questions About the Intersection of War and Nuclear Power  (Julien de Troullioud de Lanversin and Maxime Polleri, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
For a night on March 3, Russian military forces seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, damaged its infrastructure, and spread fear of a nuclear catastrophe. Fortunately, the attack did not threaten sensitive areas of the nuclear power plant, and radiation levels around the plant did not raise concern. Still, the crisis underscored the danger posed by a war that crosses paths with a nuclear power plant. Since this may be a case of when, not if, the next wartime attack on a nuclear power plant happens, scholars and policymakers would be wise to revisit concepts for assessing and protocols for responding to nuclear power plant crises in war zones.

How Emerging Technology Is Breaking Arms Control  (Amy J. Nelson, Lawfare)
Until recently, arms control—the system of agreements, organizations and processes to regulate certain types of weapons—has proved an effective tool for threats from conventional and nuclear technologies. Today, however, arms control is suffering from a spate of major violations, suspensions and withdrawals.

Ransomware Attacks on Agricultural Cooperatives Potentially Timed to Critical Seasons  (FBI)
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is informing Food and Agriculture (FA) sector partners

that ransomware actors may be more likely to attack agricultural cooperatives during critical

planting and harvest seasons, disrupting operations, causing financial loss, and negatively

impacting the food supply chain. The FBI noted ransomware attacks during these seasons

against six grain cooperatives during the fall 2021 harvest and two attacks in early 2022 that

could impact the planting season by disrupting the supply of seeds and fertilizer. Cyber actors

may perceive cooperatives as lucrative targets with a willingness to pay due to the timesensitive role they play in agricultural production. Although ransomware attacks against the

entire farm-to-table spectrum of the FA sector occur on a regular basis, the number of cyber

attacks against agricultural cooperatives during key seasons is notable.

US Supreme Court Weighs Policy for Migrants to Wait in Mexico  (AP / VOA News)
President Joe Biden halted the “Remain in Mexico” policy his first day in office. A judge forced him to reinstate it in December, but barely 3,000 migrants were enrolled by the end of March, making little impact during a period when authorities stopped migrants about 700,000 times at the border.

“Hack DHS” Program Successfully Concludes First Bug Bounty Program  (DHS)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the results of its first bug bounty program. Through the “Hack DHS” program, vetted cybersecurity researchers and ethical hackers are invited to identify potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities in select external DHS systems. In the first phase of this program, more than 450 vetted security researchers identified 122 vulnerabilities, of which 27 were determined to be critical. DHS awarded a total of $125,600 to participants for identifying these verified vulnerabilities. DHS was the first federal agency to expand its bug bounty program to find and report log4j vulnerabilities across all public-facing information system assets, which allowed the Department to identify and close vulnerabilities not surfaced through other

AI Is Already Learning from Russia’s War in Ukraine, DOD Says  (Patrick Tucker, Defense One)
Today’s battlefield data is helping smart machines model the wars of the future.

How Facial Recognition Software Is Changing the War in Ukraine (Ian Haworth, Daily Wire)
In the early days of the Russian invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine’s defense ministry announced that it had started using facial recognition technology to identify Russian military members, as well as Ukrainians, who have been killed.

Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction: DHS Could Improve Its Acquisition of Key Technology and Coordination with Partners  (GAO)
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD) continues to carry out functions of its predecessor offices. For example, CWMD continues to manage a program to acquire replacements for radiation portal monitors that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operates at high-volume ports (see fig.). However, the new radiation portal monitors will be late to deploy and may not meet user needs. For example, CBP officials told GAO that tests of replacement monitors resulted in higher nuisance alarm rates than originally planned. Nuisance alarms result from naturally occurring radioactive materials in certain consumer goods, requiring CBP officers to conduct a secondary scan to determine that the source of the alarm is not a threat before a cargo container or vehicle can leave the port. Reducing such alarms is a key goal of the replacement program. By coordinating with CBP to reassess its current acquisition strategy, CWMD may help ensure an acceptable nuisance alarm rate, better positioning CBP to prevent radiological and nuclear threats without unduly delaying U.S. commerce.

The Next Cybersecurity Crisis: Poisoned AI  (Tim Culpan, Bloomberg)
A lot of machine learning relies on massive data sets of unknown provenance. That’s a problem when digital defenses are on the line.