• A first: Criminals steal nuclear material, than demand ransom for its return

    Criminals in Argentina steal cesium-137 from a drilling company, then demand $500,000 and threaten “to make this city glow” if they did not get the money

  • Radioactive rabbit poo found at plutonium production site

    A clean-up survey at the Hanford site in Washington State, where military-grade plutonium was produced during the early years of the cold war, discovered radioactive jackrabbit droppings around the site; the rabbits burrowed in the area and discovered the tanks in which nuclear waste is stored; they liked the salty taste of the radioactive cesium and strontium salts, so they began drinking and licking them routinely

  • U.S. cannot track foreign visitors who overstay their visas

    Last year, 39 million foreign travelers were admitted into the United States on temporary visas; based on the paper stubs, homeland security officials said, they confirmed the departure of 92.5 percent of them; most of the remaining visitors did depart, officials said, but failed to check out because they did not know how to do so; more than 200,000 of them are believed to have overstayed intentionally

  • TSA allows law enforcement personnel to carry fire-arms on board

    TSA has created a secure registration facility which allows state, local, territorial, and tribal Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) to pre-register with the agency — and then fly armed

  • Packing heat may backfire

    New study finds that people who carried guns were 4.5 times as likely to be shot and 4.2 times as likely to get killed compared with unarmed citizens; the authors of the study say it is not clear why this is the case, but suggest that it may be the case that guns give a sense of empowerment that causes carriers to overreact in tense situations, or encourages them to visit neighborhoods they probably should not

  • DHS, FBI worried about home-grown terrorists

    The risk of al-Qaeda has not disappeared, but in a testimony on the Hill, Napolitano and Mueller say that the United States is facing an increased risk from home-grown terrorists and radicalized immigrants

  • Philadelphia schools deploy sex offender screening software

    Adults wishing to enter schools in the Philadelphia area are now screened to make sure they are not sex offenders; the V-Soft solution created by Houston-based Raptor Technologies can also warn administrators or police of problem students, fired employees, and parents in custody disputes

  • Missile defense system that might just work

    The Obama administration’s decision to scrap the Bush administration’s plan to place ballistic missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, and replace it with short-range defensive systems closer to Iran, makes sense; instead of making a political point to Russia, the U.S. might now have in place a defensive system that works

  • Revelations about Iran's facility raise questions about U.S. intelligence

    Both the 2003 “slam dunk” assertion about Iraq’s WMDs, and the 2007 NIE’s conclusion that Iran had “halted” its nuclear weapons work, were absurdities; we should worry about the fact that they came to the surface — and influenced policy

  • Fujitsu asks terrorists whether they would use its software for WMD

    Fujitsu runs a patching site for Sun Microsystems’ Solaris Unix variant; the company asks end-users to fill out a survey before downloading the latest patch, and the first question asks whether the customer would be using the patch to build WMD; even if you admit to building a nuclear bomb, Fujitsu allows you to download the patch; either Fujitsu targets really honest terrorists, or the company wants to use the information in its advertising (as in: “5% of our customers are terrorists who use our software to build weapons of mass destruction”)

  • Clayton Consultants on kidnapping and ransom

    In many developing countries, kidnapping the family members of rich individuals and then asking for ransom has become a small industry; a specialist offers ideas about what to do to prevent kidnapping — and deal with it when it happens

  • Mafia's new business: sinking nuclear waste at sea

    The Sicilian Mafia had muscled in on the lucrative business of radioactive waste disposal; to increase the profit margin, mafia operatives blow up and sink the ships at sea rather than process the nuclear waste on board

  • GAO: FEMA not ready for nuclear, radiological attack

    GAO: “FEMA has not developed a national disaster recovery strategy or related plans to guide involvement of federal agencies in these recovery activities, as directed by federal law and executive guidance”

  • California police employs nonlethal weapon used against pirates

    ATC’s long range acoustic device (LRAD) blast sounds at 150 decibels — 50 times the human threshold of pain — to fend off approaching pirates or massing insurgents; California law enforcement is now using the device at local political events

  • NRC moves to allow more heavily armed nuclear facility guards

    The U.S. Nuclear regulatory Commission (NRC) has moved to allow guards at U.S. nuclear facilities to be equipped with more “enhanced weapons,” including machine guns, short-barreled shotguns, or short-barreled rifles