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New Mexico company awarded a contract to develop the “foam-based vehicle arresting system,” which could stop a car or a truck before it gets close enough to do real damage
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As I Was Saying // Ben Frankel
The U.S. military and elements in the Pakistani national security establishments collaborate much more closely than in the past; the strategy of General David Patreus and the new Obama administration is to recognize that Pakistan is a fractured, divided country, and to work with those elements closer to us
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To improve on X-ray and millimeter-wave scanning and go beyond group profiling, some suggest screening passengers for hostile intentions
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Eye on Afghanistan -- Analysis // Ben Frankel
A 7 February UAV strike on targets inside Pakistan killed 30; it was the fifth such attack since the beginning of the year — and the second since Obama took office; there were two things different about this attack: Its main target was a Pakistani insurgent leader, and it was launched from inside Pakistan
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Eye on Afghanistan
Shamsi airbase lies in a sparsely populated area about 190 miles southwest of the city of Quetta; it is also 100 miles south of the border with Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand and about 100 miles east of the border with Iran
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Iran watch
Iran says it has developed a UAV with a range of more than 950 kilometers; it is not yet clear what electronic and other capabilities Iran has mounted on the drone
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The number of cyber attacks on U.S. government computers and networks grow; there were 5,488 tracked incidents of unauthorized access to U.S. government computers and installations of hostile programs in 2008, compared to 3,928 such incidents in 2007, and 2,172 in 2006
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Security experts say U.S. and NATO forces are not likely to defeat the Taliban and other insurgent groups on their own; closer cooperation with Afghan tribes and local organizations is essential
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Counter Terror Expo round-up
Electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, has been typically associated with high-altitude nuclear explosions — explosions which disable electronic devices hundreds of miles away from the explosion; militaries and law enforcement want a hand-grenade-size EMP device for use in war and crime-fighting
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In the face of irrefutable evidence, Pakistan admits the 26 November attacks in Mumbai, in which more than 180 people were killed, were planned on Pakistani soil and carried out by Pakistanis
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The U.S. Army is looking for a stun grenade which would subdue targets by releasing a shower of high-velocity rubber pellets
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Former assistant chief of U.K.’s MI6 says pandemics posed more of threat to the U.K. population than terrorism; he also says that privacy worries about the international counterterrorist databases are exaggerated
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India is paying more attention — much more attention — to homeland security in the wake of the November 2008 Mumbai bombing; among the first priorities is securing the very long coast lines of the country; Raytheon, already a presence in India, stands to benefit
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The United States has launched some 40 UAV-carried missile attacks inside Pakistan in the last year; during the presidential campaign, Obama supported such attacks; Secretary of Defense Bob Gates says these attacks will intensify; is it a good idea?
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Sometime in the near future a lethal combination of transnational terrorism and criminal gangs is going to cross the U.S. border in force
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We use UAVs because they are inexpensive and can do many things manned aircraft can do; this is all the more reason for terrorists and insurgents to want to use them; the military is looking for effective anti-UAV systems
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Congress wants DHS to create a “white list” — a database of people who are not terrorists, but are routinely flagged at airports anyway
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Company to note
The Obama administration wants to send tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan; these troops will need protection from land mines and IEDs; Force Protection, a company producing Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MARP) vehicles, stands to benefit
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Nine countries around the Gulf of Aden sign an accord enhancing cooperation in the fight against piracy in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden
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Nuclear matters
Terrorists may try to smuggle nuclear materials into the United States through Ireland; Irish government will build radioactive waste facility near Shannon airport in case radiological screening of aircraft bound for the United States discovers such material
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The long view
How Male Grievance Fuels Radicalization and Extremist Violence
Social extremism is evolving in reach and form. While traditional racial supremacy ideologies remain, contemporary movements are now often fueled by something more personal and emotionally resonant: male grievance.