• U.S. security agents have 20,000 contacts a year with people on terrorist watch lists

    U.S. law enforcement and security agencies encounter, on average, fifty-five “known or suspected terrorists” a day — at airports, border crossings, ports, and more; this means that U.S. security agencies have more than 20,000 contacts per year with known or suspected terrorists

  • FAA moves on integrating drones into U.S. airspace

    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) now allows a government public safety agency and first responders to operate drones weighing 4.4 pounds or less in the U.S. air space, but under certain restrictions: these drones should be used for training and performance evaluation, they must be flown within the line of sight of the operator, less than 400 feet above the ground, during daylight conditions, inside Class G (uncontrolled) airspace, and more than five miles from any airport or other location with aviation activities; the FAA says that if safety agencies then apply for a waiver, the agency will allow the operation of drones weighing up to twenty-five pounds

  • Bios of female terrorists contradict stereotypes: study

    Much like their male counterparts, female terrorists are likely to be educated, employed, and native residents of the country where they commit a terrorist act, new research finds

  • Congress considering biodefense measure

    H.R. 2356, the WMD Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2011, will soon be debated before four different House committees, before going to the Senate to be debated further – all this four years after a congressionally mandated commission defined bioterrorism as a grave threat to the United States; critics charge that the reason is the unwieldy and dysfunctional manner in which Congress oversees DHS: currently there are 108 congressional committees and subcommittees with oversight responsibilities for different parts of DHS

  • U.K. faces problem of security service members with links to terrorism

    Abdul Rahman, a 33-year old Scotland Yard constable of Bangladeshi descent, had his security clearance revoked in 2006 — he chose to resign rather than be dismissed — following an MI5 investigation which concluded that, in 2001, he spent time in a terrorist training camp in Pakistan; he is one of three members of the U.K. security forces dismissed because of links to terrorism; this case made the headline because he is suing the service for compensation, and the secret legal proceedings are about to begin

  • Lawmakers call for adding the Haqqani Network to U.S. terror-group list

    A group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers are calling for the Obama administration to add the Haqqani Network to the U.S. list of terrorist organizations; the administration is not quick to move on the issue of designation because of the on-going U.S.-Pakistan-Taliban negotiations about the future of post-withdrawal Afghanistan, but the military drone attacks on Haqqani targets is continuing unabated

  • Sinai Peninsula lawlessness worries terrorism experts

    The other day, Egyptian forces seized a large quantity of weapons near the Libyan border; Egypt says the large weapon shipment was bound for the Sinai Peninsula further to destabilize the area and stir up trouble ahead of upcoming presidential elections

  • FBI sting operations become more common

    The FBI is using more and more informants in sting operations aiming to spot, and thwart, terrorist attacks in the United States; this use of informants and undercover agent by the FBI is being questioned by defense attorneys and civil liberties advocates, who ask whether such operations are preventing crimes that could have resulted in scores of deaths, or creating a crime that would not have occurred without the FBI’s help

  • Fears of cyber espionage hinder U.S. license to China Mobile

    Serious concerns over cyberspying have fueled a debate among U.S. national security agencies about whether communications giant China Mobile should be granted a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license to provide international service to American customers

  • CIA thwarts second underwear bomber attempt

    The CIA has foiled a second attempt to down a U.S. airliner by means of an underwear bomber; this device was more sophisticated than the Christmas Day airline bombing attempt over Detroit in 2009; the new bomb contains no metal, making it likely it will avoid detection at airport security checkpoints

  • Maryland teen pleads guilty in plot to support Irish terror cell

    A Maryland teen, who had won a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University, pleads guilty to being part of a plot, hatched by “Jihad Jane” from Pennsylvania, to launch a Jihad in European

  • USS Cole attack mastermind killed in drone strike in Yemen

    A U.S. drone attack in Yemen kills Fahd al-Quso, 37, one of the masterminds of the 2000 USS Cold attack; al-Quso was a senior operative in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and among other plots, was behind the underwear bomber’s attempt on a Delta flight to Detroit; he escaped an earlier drone attack, in 2009; the Obama administration has dramatically intensified drone attacks on terrorist targets; since Obama took office on 20 January 2009, there have been 260 attacks by Predators or Reapers in Pakistan — averaging one every four days; in addition, there have also been some three dozen drone attacks on terrorist targets in Yemen, and a few in Somalia

  • Detecting a North Korea nuclear test

    The monitoring tools that scientists have available to them to detect a nuclear test have improved in quality and quantity since North Korea last tested a nuclear weapon in 2009; the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) has a total of 287 detection facilities available, consisting of 157 seismic monitoring stations, forty-five infrasound stations, sixty-five radionuclide stations, and ten hydroacoustic stations

  • Protecting U.S. bridges from terrorism, accident

    More than 600,000 bridges in the United States are 20-feet long or longer, some over a century old, many of them national iconic monuments; DHS, the Federal Highway Administration, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are conducting a series of tests aiming to make the bridges better able to withstand a terrorist attack; this research is discovering how materials, connection details, and designs in aging bridges react to IEDs, other explosives, kinetic impact, intense fires, and other accidents

  • New tool offer better flooding protection

    There are more than 84,000 dams across the United States, and millions of Americans live behind them; if these dams and levees were to fail and unleash catastrophic flooding, as some did in New Orleans in 2005, a high price will be paid in life lost and property destroyed; DHS S&T and partners develop new software systems for fast simulation of catastrophic flooding