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Anthrax
Emergent BioSolutions signed follow-on contract with CDC valued at up to $911 million to supply to the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) approximately 29.4 million doses of BioThrax through September 2021. BARDA issued notice of intent to separately procure approximately $100 million of BioThrax for the SNS over twenty-four months from contract award, which is expected in 1H 2017. These actions, together with the recently awarded BARDA contract for NuThrax, reflect the U.S. government’s intention to transition the stockpile of anthrax vaccines from BioThrax to NuThrax.
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Chemical weapons
Israel is working hard to keep chemical weapons out of the hands of the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman told a Knesset committee Thursday. His comments to the Knesset seemed to suggest that at least one of the strikes Israel carried out the same day at the Mazzeh military airport near Damascus was in order to stop Hezbollah from acquiring chemical weapons.
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Chemical weapons
First used by the German military against Allied troops in the First World War and in subsequent wars including the Iran-Iraq conflict during the 1980s, chemical weapons were more recently used by the Assad regime in Syria and by ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Rutgers University a five-year grant for more than $19 million for research that would lead to the development of drugs to treat toxicity from chemical agents used in a terrorist attack.
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DHS
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Gen. John F. Kelly, 66, a retired four-star Marine general whose son was killed in combat in Afghanistan, as his nominee for secretary of homeland security. Kelly led U.S. Southern Command, and served for forty years in the Marine Corps. He led troops through tough battles in western Iraq. In 2003 he was promoted to brigadier general while in active combat – the first Marine colonel since 1951 to be recognized this way.
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Terrorism
Defenders must perpetually defend numerous targets using a limited number of resources, whereas attackers are able to surveil and learn defenders’ strategies and attack after careful planning. Game-theoretical algorithms can be used by defenders optimally to randomize their patrols so that attackers cannot predict which target defenders are going to protect at any given time.
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Assassinations
Chile’s supreme court has ruled that the Chilean government could ask the United States to extradite two former secret police agents in the regime of General Augusto Pinochet, who, in 1976, placed explosives in a car in Washington, D.C., killing a former Chilean ambassador and a U.S. citizen. In a unanimous decision on Monday, said the Chilean foreign ministry should begin the procedures needed to seek the extradition of Michael Townley, a U.S. citizen, and Armando Fernandez Larios, a Chilean. Both now reside in the United States.
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Iran
While President-elect Donald Trump will likely be stricter in enforcing the terms of the nuclear deal with Iran, the incoming administration should not ignore the threat that Iran’s chemical and biological weapons programs pose, says an expert.
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Female terrorists
Security services in many countries are facing a new challenge: More and more women are sent or inspired by ISIS to engage in terrorists acts in Europe and the Islamic world. Female followers of ISIS have until now been largely limited to support roles I the organization. Since the summer, however, as the retreat of ISIS in the face of a U.S.-led coalition campaign accelerated, the organization has reversed its policy on women in operational roles.
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Female terrorists
A new study examining the roles of American jihadi women and found a significant increase in their participation in terrorist activity in the past five years. Within the wider movement, American women served primarily as plotters, supporters, and travelers. While few female American jihadists appear to act alone or carry out violent plots, many support activities along with friends, siblings, and romantic partners. The women are active online and offline, and social media use is common.
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Terrorism
As the Islamic State (IS) loses ground in the Middle East, the pattern of its recent terrorist attacks in Europe suggests that it has already adopted new tactics to attack the West. These developments are highlighted in the report Changes in Modus Operandi of IS revisited published today (Friday) by Europol’s European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC). The report provides an up-to date assessment of the threat this group poses to the EU, on which basis EU member states can prepare for future attacks.
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Hezbollah
A Hezbollah arms convoy and a Syrian military target were hit overnight by Israeli air strikes, Arab media reported Wednesday. Syrian government-associated news sources reported that there were four explosions in Damascus at 1:15 in the morning, as a military compound near the Damascus airport was hit by Israel Air Force planes operating in Lebanese airspace. The Kuwaiti news network al-Rai reported that the planes also struck several vehicles travelling along the Beirut-Damascus highway, which were apparently part of a Hezbollah arms convoy.
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JASTA
Senior British political and military figures have warned that Britain faces a wave of legal claims from U.S. lawyers — and could even be taken to court by victims of ISIS follower Jihadi John. The warning comes in the wake of Congress passing the controversial Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which permits U.S.-based lawyers to sue foreign states for not doing enough to tackle terrorism, and limit terrorist activities by their citizens.
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Terrorism
Neil Basu, deputy assistant commissioner to the U.K. national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, has said police fear the threat of far-right violence is growing and poses a similar danger to communities as other forms of extremism. “Over the past twelve months, there have been indications that the threat from [the] extreme right wing could be increasing and we are alive to this,” he said. Figures release by the police show that concerns over potential extreme rightwing radicalization led to a 73.5 percent increase in referrals to the counter-radicalization program Prevent last year, compared with the previous twelve months.
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Muslim registry
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city would sue the U.S. government if Muslims were required, under a Donald Trump administration, to sign up to a “registry.” “We will use all the tools at our disposal to stand up for our people,” he said. The Muslim registry plan advanced by Trump supporters like Kris Kobach, the secretary of state of Kansas, would require all Muslims in the United States sign to a registry in which they would reveal their identity, religious beliefs, and political affiliations. In its original form, the registry requirement would apply to Muslim visitors to the United States – students, business people, and tourists – as well as to Muslim citizens of the United States.
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Hezbollah
Iran is smuggling weapons to the terrorist group Hezbollah inside commercial flights to Lebanon, the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations has charged in a letter to the UN Security Council. Such actions would violate several Security Council resolutions. The arms were either shipped directly to Hezbollah on commercial flights to Lebanon, or flown to Damascus, Syria, and then shipped to the terror group over land.
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Terrorism
New edition of the Global Terrorism Index highlights a complex and rapidly changing set of dynamics in global terrorism. While on the one hand the top-line statistics highlight an improvement in the levels of global terrorism, the continued intensification of terrorism in some countries is a cause for serious concern. There was a 10 percent decline from 2014 in the number of terrorism deaths in 2015 resulting in 3,389 fewer people being killed. Iraq and Nigeria together recorded 5,556 fewer deaths and 1,030 fewer attacks than in 2014. However, with a global total of 29,376 deaths, 2015 was still the second deadliest year on record.
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Hezbollah
The Israeli army is bolstering the country’s northern defenses in anticipation of future attacks from the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah. The Israel Defense Forces changed its doctrine towards the terror group following threats by its leader Hassan Nasrallah, who claimed that Hezbollah sought to “enter into the Galilee.”
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Resilience
Magen David Adom, the Israeli affiliate of the Red Cross, is building an underground blood bank in order to secure the country’s blood supply in case of attacks or natural disasters. “With all blood transfusions stored in an underground space, the facility will ensure that they remain unharmed even when the building is under a massive barrage of missiles,” Magen David Adom director said. The terror organization Hezbollah has an estimated arsenal of over 130,000 rockets capable of firing at Israel — more than the combined amount of the twenty-seven non-U.S. NATO member states.
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U.S. Muslims
A Georgia lawmaker wants to prohibit Muslim women from wearing hijabs, niqabs, and burqas in public. The proposed law would modify the original 1951 anti-masking law which targeted Ku Klux Klan members. The purpose was to prevent them from committing violence while preserving their anonymity by wearing their Klan hoods. The bill’s sponsor said the law would be expanded to women driving on public roads, making it a misdemeanor to wear a Muslim traditional headwear while driving. The language of House Bill 3, however, suggests the prohibition would apply to any public property, not only public roads.
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Hate groups
White supremacists associated with the alt-right movement said they were planning to retaliate against Twitter by inundating it with postings from fake accounts pretending to be black people. The alt-right extremists said the retaliation is in response to Twitter’s banning several accounts belonging to individuals and groups associated with the racist and anti-Semitic movement. Alt-right figure Andrew Anglin of the neo-Nazi Web site Daily Stormer instructed his followers: “When you have time, create a fake black person account,” he wrote. “Just go on black Twitter and see what they look like, copy that model. Start filling it with rap videos and booty-shaking or whatever else these blacks post.”
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More headlines
The long view
Patriots’ Day: How Far-Right Groups Hijack History and Patriotic Symbols to Advance Their Cause, According to an Expert on Extremism
Extremist groups have attempted to change the meaning of freedom and liberty embedded in Patriots’ Day — a commemoration of the battles of Lexington and Concord – to serve their far-right rhetoric, recruitment, and radicalization. Understanding how patriotic symbols can be exploited offers important insights into how historical narratives may be manipulated, potentially leading to harmful consequences in American society.
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”
“Tulsi Gabbard as US Intelligence Chief Would Undermine Efforts Against the Spread of Chemical and Biological Weapons”: Expert
The Senate, along party lines, last week confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National intelligence. One expert on biological and chemical weapons says that Gabbard’s “longstanding history of parroting Russian propaganda talking points, unfounded claims about Syria’s use of chemical weapons, and conspiracy theories all in efforts to undermine the quality of the community she now leads” make her confirmation a “national security malpractice.”