• Cross Match's SEEK II may have identified bin Laden

    SEEK II from Florida-based Cross Match is a 4-pound computer that captures photographs, complete fingerprints, and iris scans; its memory holds the images and biometrics of up to 60,000 people; unconfirmed reports suggest that the Navy SEALs who killed bin Laden used a SEEK II to identify him; there are about 5,000 SEEK II devices in the field, being used by the U.S. military, border patrol, and law enforcement agencies, and also by other militaries

  • Al Qaeda the deadliest terror organization in history

    A new report finds al Qaeda to be the deadliest terrorist organization in history; since its founding in 1998, the organization has conducted eighty-four terrorist attacks, resulting at least 4,299 deaths and 6,300 people injured; in comparison: ETA, the Basque separatist organization in Spain, killed 820 people between 1972 and 2008; IRA attacks have killed about 1,829 people dating back to 1970; the only group that comes close in terms of deadly attacks is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), killing 4,835 people during the course of its existence

  • Arizona to solicit donation to build border fence

    Arizona lawmakers, saying they have lost patience with what they regard as federal dithering over the issue of building a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, announced plans to launch a Web site which will solicit private donations for the project; donors will receive certificates declaring that the individual has “helped build the Arizona wall”

  • 7/7 attacks could not have been prevented: report

    An inquest into the 7 July 2005 attack on London transportation concluded that any suggestion MI5 could have stopped the attacks was “based to a considerable extent on hindsight”; there were failures in the response by emergency workers — confusion, a shortage of first aid supplies, and radios that did not work underground, but the report concludes that government errors had not increased the death toll

  • Al Qaeda's plans for 9/11 anniversary: attack U.S. rail

    The treasure trove of documents, multimedia, and computers seized in the raid on bin Laden’s hideout is being exploited by intelligence experts for information on the terror network and future plots; on Thursday the FBI and DHS circulated to law enforcement units around the United States the first piece of information from the bin Laden raid: in February 2010 al Qaeda operatives discussed attacks on U.S. trains as a way to commemorate the 9/11 attacks; the discussions show that the planners, in order to achieve a maximum-casualty attack, were thinking of derailing a train so that it plunged into a ravine or fell off a bridge; the FBI-DHS Thursday warning urged local la enforcement to be circulated for clips or spikes missing from train tracks, packages left on or near the tracks, and other indications that a train could be vulnerable

  • Pakistan: duplicitous and impotent

    While most of the attention in the past week was paid to who in the Pakistani government was protecting bin Laden, there is another question that the raid by the SEALs exposed: the impotence of the Pakistani military; since 9/11, the United States has given Pakistan more than $10 billion in military aid; the United States wanted these funds to go to counter-terrorism efforts; the Pakistanis used this money toward conventional equipment geared toward a war with India; the raid exposed the fact that the Pakistanis have not done a very good job at that

  • Civil rights groups seek to block Utah's immigration law

    On Tuesday, two civil rights and immigration advocacy groups filed lawsuits against Utah in an attempt to stop a tough Arizona-style law from taking effect; Utah’s immigration law is scheduled to take hold on 10 May and comes after legislators made many compromises to draft a bill that they thought would avoid legal challenges; the American Civil Liberties and Union (ACLU) and the National Immigration Law Center brought forth a class-action lawsuit against the law on the grounds that it interferes with the federal government’s responsibility to enforce immigration; Utah’s attorney general is determined to defend the law

  • Enough already: UNHRC leader questions killing of OBL

    The ultimate oxymoron of our time? Easy: “UN High Commissioner for Human Rights”; the UN does not promote human rights or advance human rights because it cannot do so; it cannot do so because the human rights record of most of its members is nothing short of appalling; what do we want these UN members to do: volunteer to vote for and promote the very values they reject and suppress at home? Now the leader of the UN human rights body raises questions about the U.S. killing of OBL; the George W. Bush administration withdrew the United States from the UNHRC; two years ago the Obama administration re-joined that body in the hope of reforming it; it is time — high time — for the administration to admit it made a mistake and withdraw U.S. membership

  • Philadelphia police hold emergency exercise

    On Wednesday morning the Philadelphia police department held a training exercise to help prepare officers to respond during a terrorist attack; starting at 10:30 AM roughly 50 officers gathered on 22nd Street and JFK Boulevard where they were given assignments, briefed, and eventually deployed to cover different sections of Center City; The drill involved members of the department’s Homeland Security Unit and was a rapid deployment exercise that reflected Philadelphia’s heightened level of awareness following the death of Osama bin Laden

  • U.S. lawmakers want reconsideration of massive aid to Pakistan

    U.S. lawmakers and policy makers are expressing growing exasperation with Pakistan over its attitude toward Islamic terrorism; Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) plans to introduce legislation this week to freeze U.S. aid to Pakistan “unless the State Department can certify to Congress that Pakistan was not harboring America’s number one enemy”; Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) similarly called for more information on what Pakistan knew before they can receive the $3 billion in foreign aid requested for Pakistan in 2012, and potentially more in additional military funding; John Brennan, President Obama’s counterterrorism advisor, said it is “inconceivable” to think bin Laden did not have a support system

  • Portland rejoins federal terrorism task force

    Following a failed terrorist attack on Thanksgiving of last year, Portland, Oregon has opted to rejoin a federal task force aimed at combatting terrorism; in 2005 Portland became the first city in the United States to stop participating in the Joint Terrorism Task Force; but Portland has chosen to rejoin the task force after it was largely left in the dark during an FBI sting operation; the resolution instructs local police officers to err on the side of Oregon laws if they are more “restrictive” than federal laws when it comes to investigations; Portland officers will also be able to participate in regular counterterror briefings with federal and state law enforcement agencies

  • Heightened alert over reprisal attacks

    With the death of Osama bin Laden, there is a growing expectation of revenge attacks against the United States and its interests, and growing questions about its new leadership; al-Qaeda co-founder Ayman al-Zawahiri may well be only a leader pro tempore; concerns and expectations of reprisal attacks grow; al-Zawahiri may be replaced by an American

  • 25 million more users hit in second cyber attack on Sony

    Japanese electronics giant Sony recently announced that hackers successfully broke into its networks and stole sensitive data from more than twenty-five million online gaming subscribers; the announcement comes days after Sony’s admission that seventy-seven million users had their personal information stolen; in the most recent attack, hackers infiltrated Sony’s Online Entertainment network and stole names, addresses, emails, birth dates, and even phone numbers from online gamers; some analysts estimate that the attacks could cost Sony and credit card companies as much as $1 to $2 billion

  • NFL player questions OBL killing, 9/11 attacks

    The Pittsburgh Steelers Rashad Mendenhall used his Twitter to post comments criticizing the celebration which followed the news of the killing of OBL — and to say that we do not know the whole truth about what happened on 9/11; the Pittsburgh Steelers organization reacts angrily

  • Geographers predicted bin Laden's hideout location

    They do not work for the CIA or military intelligence, but undergraduate students at UCLA two years ago helped develop an analytical tool which allowed them to predict Osama bin Laden’s hiding place — well, almost predicted: their model said that there was a 80.9 percent chance that bin Laden was hiding in the town of Abbottabad, where he was killed on Sunday by U.S. special forces; the students used a theory called “island biogeography”; the theory says that species on large islands are much more likely to survive a catastrophic event than species on small islands; “The theory was basically that if you’re going to try and survive, you’re going to a region with a low extinction rate: a large town,” says the professor who guided the research