• Administration: attack on consulate was a pre-planned terrorist attack

    The administration yesterday (Thursday) began to move away from its initial description of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi as a spontaneous reaction to the anti-Islamic movie, to suggest that the attack was a terrorist act  planned in advance

  • Critics: U.S. not doing enough to combat domestic terrorism

    The effectiveness of the U.S. campaign against al Qaeda and its affiliates may have reduced the threat of foreign terrorists launching attacks on targets in the United States, but the threat of terrorism the United States is facing has not been reduced owing to the rise in domestic terrorism

  • LAPD wants to know why you are taking these photos

    If you live in Los Angeles and decide to take some pictures of a few monuments or public places to send to friends and family or for your own private collection, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) may see you as a potential threat to public safety

  • France braces for Muslim backlash

    France said it would temporarily close French embassies, diplomatic facilities, cultural centers, and schools in twenty Muslim countries in anticipation of anti-French backlash; on Wednesday, the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published cartoons which mocked the Prophet Mohammed; the French government government also said it would not give a permit for a protest demonstration, scheduled for 22 September, against the crude anti-Islamic movie produced by an Egyptian Christian Copt now living in California

  • Many issues fueling Muslim world's anti-American backlash: expert

    Anti-U.S. uprisings in the Muslim world reveal old and new tensions despite hope for better relations with the West since the Arab Spring; the sources of the unrest are suspicion of U.S. motives; ignorance of the norms and practices of democratic societies; and the more recent, and more dangerous, manipulation of these sentiments by radical, conservative Islamic groups in the Middle East and North Africa

     

  • Sequestration would result in draconian cuts in biological, medical research

    The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology says that sequestration would result in draconian cuts in biological and medical research; the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would be reduced by $2.529 billion, the National Science Foundation would lose $586 million, and the Department of Energy Office of Science would be cut by $400 million

  • French satirical magazine today publishes unflattering caricatures of Prophet Mohammed

    The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo announced yesterday (Tuesday) that today (Wednesday), it would publish satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as a protest against the violent wave of anti-American demonstrations in several Muslim countries

  • U.S. urgently needs better bioterrorism, disease tracking system

    Nearly eleven years have passed since the fall 2001 bioterrorism-related anthrax attacks that shook the United States, killing five people and injuring seventeen, a leading bioterrorism expert says the country has still not learned its lesson; he says that current data mining approaches are passive and do not provide immediate solutions to the emergencies at hand, proposing instead an electronic, clinician-based reporting system which would have the capacity to limit the impact of a bioterrorism attack

  • Power lines to Iran’s enrichment facilities cut, damaging centrifuges

    Iran said that power lines to two of its uranium enrichment facilities, Fordow and Natanz, have been cut by explosions, disrupting enrichment work and causing damage to centrifuges; the head of Iran’s nuclear program said that the ranks of the IAEA may have been infiltrated by “terrorists and saboteurs,” hinting that IAEA personnel may have been behind the sabotage; in the meantime, news emerged of a late-August series of tests the Syrian military conducted with tank- and aircraft-fired systems designed to deliver chemical agents; the tests were conducted in the presence of officers from Iran Revolutionary Guard

  • New immigration policy separates families, loved ones

    When DHS issued, on 15 June, an executive order which would defer, for two years, deportation proceedings against many illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children, it was a day of celebration for many young immigrants and their families; the order went into effect on 15 August; some illegal immigrants had a cause for celebration, but many do not – because they found out they were not eligible

  • Libya arrests 50 in connection with Benghazi consulate attack

    The Libyan government and the Obama administration differ on the origins of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi; Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, insisted that attack in Benghazi was similar to the attacks on embassies in Cairo and Sana, and that all were reminiscent of previous spontaneous unrest among Muslim in response to perceived slights toward the Prophet Mohammed; the Libyan president, announcing the arrest of about 50 in connection to the attack, said the attack was planned “by foreigners” affiliated with al Qaeda; among those arrested are militants from Mali and Algeria

  • U.K.’s first research institute to investigate the science of cyber security

    A new U.K. academic research institute, aiming to improve understanding of the science behind the growing cybersecurity threat, was announced last week; GCHQ, the U.K. intelligence agency, says that the institute, which is funded by a £3.8 million grant, is part of a cross-government commitment to increasing the U.K. academic capability in all fields of cybersecurity

  • Thorium to play limited role in U.K. future power supply

    Worldwide, there has for a long time been a sustained interest in the thorium fuel cycle and presently there are several major research initiatives which are either focused specifically on the thorium fuel cycle or on systems which use thorium as the fertile seed instead of U-238; the U.K. National Nuclear Laboratory examined the topic and concluded that thorium has theoretical advantages but that these benefits are often overstated; as a result, thorium fuel cycle at best has only limited relevance to the United Kingdom as a possible alternative plutonium disposition strategy and as a possible strategic option

  • China’s nuclear strategy too risky: experts

    Beijing’s nuclear missiles exist to deter a nuclear first strike on China, and are only to be used in extremis; at the same time, conventional weapons — including missiles with conventional warheads – located on formerly all-nuclear bases must be ready to strike first and hard; targeted enemies and their allies will not immediately be able to distinguish whether any missiles launched from these bases  are conventional or nuclear

  • U.S. sends two guided missile destroyers, more drones, to Libya

    The United States is increasing its military and intelligence presence in and around Libya – on the ground, in the air, and at sea; in addition to helping the Libyan authorities hunt down the members of the cell which attacked the consulate, the United States is increasing its surveillance of Islamic militants in eastern Libya, with the al Qaeda-linked Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades considered to be the main culprit behind the consulate attack, and behind Islamic terrorism in Libya more generally; drone strikes against militants in Libya, similar to the drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, should be initiated sooner rather than later