• Alabama explores shirt-cameras for police

    With the increasing availability of cheap wearable cameras, more and more police officers could be recording their every move

  • Colorado slashes auto-theft rate with fusion center

    In 2005 Colorado had one of the highest rates of vehicle theft in the country, but thanks to the dogged efforts of local law enforcement officials and the Auto Theft Intelligence Coordination Center the state is now below the national average

  • House considers industry advisory group for TSA

    House lawmakers are currently considering a bill that would create an industry advisory panel for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on aviation matters

  • NATO: 10,000 Libyan shoulder-fired missiles unaccounted for

    Senior NATO officials said that at least 10,000 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles are unaccounted for in Libya, and that at least some of them may have fallen in the hands of al Qaeda operatives; the missiles are known as SAM-7 by NATO designation and 9K32 Strela-2 in Russia, and typically have a range of about four kilometers and an infra-red guidance system; more than forty civilian aircraft have been hit by these portable surface-to-air missiles since 1975, causing about twenty-eight crashes and more than 800 deaths around the world

  • Mississippi wildlife officers want bigger guns

    The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks says it needs bigger guns; the agency hopes to purchase 250 high-powered AR-15 assault rifles to boost its crime fighting power and is currently accepting bids

  • Head of Islamic charity sentenced to nearly three years

    Last week the head of the U.S. arm of a now disbanded Islamic charity was sentenced to nearly three years in prison for sending $150,000 to Saudi Arabia to fund terrorist activities

  • Defying governor, Mass. officials seek to join Secure Communities

    Local law enforcement officials and state lawmakers are increasingly working to circumvent Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick’s decision to opt out of the controversial Secure Communities immigration program; last Wednesday U.S Senator Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts) called on DHS secretary Janet Napolitano to allow the state to join Secure Communities without Governor Patrick’s approval; Under Secure Communities, a detained individual’s fingerprints are automatically scanned and checked against DHS and FBI databases to determine their immigration status

  • New Libyan regime to cooperate in Lockerbie investigation

    Libya’s new government said that it will cooperate with Scottish prosecutors in their ongoing investigation of the Lockerbie bombing; so far only one man has been convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland which resulted in the deaths of 270 people; Scottish prosecutors are seeking assistance from Libya’s National Transitional Council to gain evidence that could lead to the conviction of others involved in the atrocity; Libya’s interim justice minister Mohammed al-Alagi recently said, “The case is closed,” but later retracted his statement; Scottish authorities said, “The police investigation into the Lockerbie bombing remains open, and the Police should follow the evidence wherever it leads them”

  • Pakistan seeks to improve relations with Saudi Arabia, China, as U.S. relations sour

    As U.S.- Pakistan relations continue to deteriorate following the clandestine raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Pakistan has sought to improve relations with Saudi Arabia and China to offset the United States rising anger; Pakistan promised China it would root out any Uighur militants hiding out in its territory and promised to hold war games with Saudi Arabia; analysts believe Pakistan is hedging against a potential downgrade in its relationship with the United States; China has long been a close Pakistani ally and the two share a wariness of India and a desire to curb growing U.S. influence in the region

  • China teams up with Ukraine to fight terrorism

    Last week, top Chinese and Ukrainian security officials agreed to strengthen law enforcement cooperation between the two countries to combat terrorism, drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and trans-national crime; Ukrainian officials said it would work with China to combat cybercrime and other forms of trans-national organized crimes as well as the “three forces of evil” — terrorism, extremism, and separatism; Ukraine also pledged to provide more convenience for Chinese citizens entering and exiting its border; during China’s minister of public security Meng Jianzhu’s visit, the two countries signed cooperation documents

  • Pakistan promises to help China combat terrorism

    On Monday Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari pledged his country’s full support in helping China combat terrorism by rooting out Uighur insurgents hiding in its territory; Zardari’s remarks come after a meeting with Chinese state councilor Meng Jianzhu; Zardari promised to bring the two country’s bilateral relations to a new level citing strong support for each other on major international and regional issues; Meng echoed Zardari’s comments and said that the country has always viewed its relationship with Pakistan as one of its diplomatic priorities

  • India tells Pakistan to get "serious" on dismantling terror training camps

    India’s external affairs minister S. M. Krishna said Pakistan can no longer take a “selective approach” to fighting terrorism and hoped that it will get “serious” in dismantling the terrorist training camps on its soil; “I am sure they (Pakistan) will realize and they have, by now they should have (realized) that terrorism cannot be fought selectively,” Krishna said; he added, “I hope Pakistan gets serious about dismantling all the terror training camps which are existing in the country….We expect that Pakistan will live up to their pronouncements”

  • Three arrested in Ireland after car bomb discovered

    On Monday, U.K. officials arrested three men after police found a bomb in a car in Northern Ireland; the three men were apprehended in Derry, near the border with the Irish Republic; Chief Inspector Jon Burrow, Northern Ireland’s district commander, said, “I am in no doubt had the device exploded it could have injured or maimed innocent members of the public and it is due to the efficient evacuations set in place in the surrounding areas that no one came to any harm”; military explosives experts were called in to help defuse the bomb

  • Six men arrested in U.K. on terrorism charges

    On Monday, British authorities arrested six men on charges of terrorism; the men, all between the ages of twenty-one and thirty, are believed to be part of a terror network; four of the men are accused of one count of “engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts,” while the other two are being charged for failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism; the four suspected terrorists allegedly planned a bombing campaign, stated their intention to become suicide bombers, and collected money for terrorism; two of the four are believed to have travelled to Pakistan to receive weapons and explosives training

  • Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founders placed on U.S. terror list

    On Wednesday the United States announced that it had placed two founding members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist organization on its terror watch list; the United States refrained from sanctioning the Pakistani state or the ISI, its military intelligence agency, despite increasingly heated statements from top U.S. officials; David Cohen, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence described Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi as two of LeT’s “most significant leaders”; over the past twenty years, the duo has been responsible for fundraising, recruitment, and indoctrination of operatives; “By targeting the core of LeT’s leadership, today’s action aims to degrade its ability to facilitate its terrorist activities,” Cohen said