• FBI investigators visit Benghazi consulate compound

    After a delay of more than a week owing to security concerns, a team of several FBI investigators earlier this week visited the burned-down U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi to gather more information on the attack which killed Ambassador Stevens; the Department of State has created a 5-member independent investigative panel, the Accountability Review Board, to look into security arrangements at the compound, and to determine whether those arrangements were sufficient, and whether information about the deteriorating security situation in the city was ignored

  • The administration set to issue a cybersecurity executive order

    President Obama issued a proclamation the other day making October National Cyber Security Awareness month. The administration’s efforts to push a cybersecurity bill through Congress, however, have so far failed, so the administration is opting for a solution other administrations have adopted in the face of a recalcitrant Congress: executive order

  • Electronic surveillance by U.S. law enforcement agencies has increased dramatically

    According to data obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), U.S. law enforcement’s surveillance of e-mails and other Internet communication has skyrocketed in the last two years; some forms of surveillance have increased 361 percent

  • Senate panel’s report harshly criticizes role, utility of DHS fusion centers

    A 2-year bipartisan investigation by the U. S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has found that DHS efforts to engage state and local intelligence “fusion centers” has not yielded significant useful information to support federal counterterrorism intelligence efforts; the report says that senior DHS officials were aware of the problems hampering effective counterterrorism work with the fusion centers, but did not always inform Congress of the issues, nor ensure the problems were fixed in a timely manner; DHS estimates that it has spent somewhere between $289 million and $1.4 billion in public funds to support state and local fusion centers since 2003 (the report says that these are broad estimates which differ by over $1 billion); the Senate investigation raises questions about the value this amount of funding and the contribution the fusion centers make to the U.S. counterterrorism efforts; not everyone agrees with the report; Rep. Peter King (R-NY), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said: “I agree with Chairman Joe Lieberman and Ranking Member Susan Collins [of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security] that the subcommittee report issued this week paints with too broad a brush an incomplete picture that fails to recognize many of the important contributions that fusion centers have made in securing our Homeland”

  • Oregon terrorism suspect’s request to learn identity of government informant rejected

    Mohamed Mohamud, a 21-year old Somali born Oregon resident, is accused of attempting to bomb Portland, Oregon’s 2010 holiday tree-lighting ceremony; a request by Mohamud and his defense team to learn the true identity of a government informant known only as “Bill Smith” was denied by U.S. District Judge Garr King

  • Obama blocks purchase of U.S. wind farms by Chinese company

    Last Friday President Barack Obama blocked a Chinese company from owning four wind farm projects in northern Oregon; Obama cited security risks for the action, making it the first time in twenty-two years that a U.S. president has blocked a foreign business deal

  • The Western hemisphere’s largest seawater desalination plant to be built in California

    The San Diego County Water Authority announced plans to build the Western hemisphere’s largest seawater desalination plant; the plant will produce fifty million gallons of fresh water per day, enough to supply about 7 percent of the San Diego region in 2020

  • Minneapolis recruiter for Somali terrorist group al Shabab goes on trial

    Minneapolis resident Mahamud Said Omar is facing five separate terrorism-related charges after being accused of helping to recruit and finance U.S. militants for a Somali terrorist group; since 2007 the group, known as al-Shabab, has recruited more than twenty young men to leave Minnesota for Somalia to take up arms with the terrorist group; among the recruits was Shirwa Ahmed who, in November 2008, became the first known U.S. citizen to carry out a suicide bombing

  • Future of interrogation methods of terrorists may depend on election

    On the campaign trail, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have not said much about their approach to interrogating terrorists; but as the manner in which U.S. government agencies approach such interrogations, and the practices agents employ, may well depend on the outcome of next month’s election

  • Former L-3 employee guilty of selling weapon secrets to China

    A federal court judge in Newark, New Jersey convicted Sixing Liu on six counts of violating the Arms Export Control Act as well as possessing stolen trade secrets, transporting stolen property, and lying to federal agents; Liu is was convicted of stealing thousands of electronic files detailing performance and design of guidance systems for missiles, rockets, target locators, and unmanned aerial vehicles in 2010

  • Experts trying to determine cause of a giant Louisiana sinkhole

    The earth near Bayou Corne, Louisiana opened on 2 August: a 300-foot-wide sinkhole, with depth varying between 50 and 300 feet, suddenly opened up in an area, and the authorities have been trying to determine whether the sinkhole was caused by the collapse of an abandoned brine mining cavern along the margin of the Napoleonville Salt Dome or by something else

  • How vulnerable is the U.S. to agro-terror attack?

    Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States has spent billions of dollars to make the country safer from another catastrophic event, but little of that money, and little attention, have been directed toward preventing, coping with, and recovering from a terrorist agro-attack; how vulnerable is the United States to an attack on its food system?

  • Technology soon to make drones deadlier, more autonomous

    Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become America’s main weapon in the campaign against terrorists  — at the forefront are the Predator and the Reaper — and technological changes would soon make them even deadlier; in the next decade drones will be faster and carry more weapons than today’s versions; they will also have better sensors and more sophisticated computers, allowing them to plan and execute attacks with little human participation

  • PKK escalates terror campaign in Turkey

    Seven people, including three soldiers, were killed Tuesday in an explosion that struck a military truck as it traveled along a road in Turkey’s southeastern Tunceli province; in the last fourteen months, more than 700 people have been killed in attacks by the PKK on Turkish military and civilians, and in Turkish retaliatory attacks against the Kurdish organization; during the most intense period of the PKK-Turkey conflict, between 1984 and 1999, more than 40,000 Turks were killed in attacks and counterattacks; the key to the surge in PKK terrorism in the last fourteen months: the autonomy the Syrian regime has tacitly given the Kurdish region in northeast Syria, an autonomy which has allowed the PKK the freedom to organize, arm, and launch attacks into Turkey

  • Debate over causes of levee failure during Katrina intensifies

    A court case in which residents of two sections of New Orleans are suing a construction group has put millions of dollars at stake; residents of the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish residents claim that Washington Group International (WGI), an Amy Corps of Engineers contractor, removed several buildings and pilings from land along the Industrial Canal as part of a construction plan to expand the canal’s shipping lock, then failed adequately to plug the holes left behind; the holes allowed rainwater from Hurricane Katrina to seep underneath the 14-foot wall, essentially lifting the wall and allowing the areas to be flooded