• After Times Square, questions raised about naturalization process

    The suspect in the Times Square car bombing attempt is the latest in a series of U.S. citizens and green card holders to be implicated in a terror plot inside the United States, raising questions about the naturalization process that turns foreigners into Americans

  • Obama permits CIA to broaden UAV war target list in Pakistan

    President Obama gave the CIA secret permission to attack a wider range of targets, including suspected militants whose names are not known, as part of a dramatic expansion of its campaign of UAV strikes in Pakistan’s border region; of more than 500 people who U.S. officials say have been killed since the pace of strikes intensified, the vast majority have been individuals whose names were unknown, or about whom the agency had only fragmentary information. In some cases, the CIA discovered only after an attack that the casualties included a suspected terrorist whom it had been seeking

  • New York City's leaders urge Congress to close "Terror Gun Gap"

    In the United States, the fact that you are on the terrorist watch list does not disqualify you from purchasing an AK-56 assault rifle (if your immigration status is unclear, you are disqualified); FBI data showed that between 2004 and February 2010, a total of 1,228 background checks were conducted for purchases of firearms and explosives attempted by people on the U.S. terrorist watch list; of those purchases, 91 percent were allowed to proceed, while a total of 109 were denied

  • Mumbai gunman sentenced to death in India

    The sole surviving gunmen of the November 2008 Mumbai attack, in which 166 people were killed, was sentenced to death by an Indian court; the attack was noted not only because of its scope, but also because of the degree of complicity of the Pakistani army and intelligence services in its planning and execution, and the admission by the Pakistani government that the perpetrators were Pakistanis and that the plot was hatched on Pakistani soil

  • U.S. officials: Smaller terrorist attacks would be devastating

    Terrorism experts say Saturday’s botched car bombing in New York’s Times Square, and other recent plots, could be a sign that militant groups, hard-hit by U.S. drone strikes targeting their leaders, were starting to opt for smaller, rather than more spectacular, terror attacks; there are about 450 commercial airports and more than 50,000 malls and shopping centers in the United States; National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair and CIA chief Leon Panetta have both warned these could be targets for attack

  • Map offers details of DHS grant money disbursement since 9/11

    The federal government — and, since 2003, DHS — have disbursed more than $30 billion in grants to states and localities since the 9/11 attacks; now you can see where each dollar went, and what states and localities did with the money they received; most of the money was used for homeland security-related projects; an uncomfortably large amount, though, was used in a way not as directly related to securing the home front

  • Taliban uses poisonous gas in attack on Kabul girls school

    The Taliban continues its violent campaign against girls’ education in Afghanistan; the Taliban’s latest tactics; poisonous gas attacks on girls’ schools, aiming to scare students and teachers; in mid-April the Taliban attacked three girls’ schools in northern Afghanistan; yesterday, the Taliban attacked a school in the middle of Kabul; twenty-two students and three teachers were hospitalized

  • U.S. has 5,113 strategic nuclear warheads -- down from 31,225 in 1967

    IN 1967 The United States had 31,255 strategic nuclear warheads in its arsenal; in 1989, the number fell to 22,217; today, the number of warhead is 5,113; the number of non-strategic, or tactical, nuclear weapons fell by 90 percent between 1991 and 2009

  • U.S. steps up Awlaki targeting

    In an unprecedented move, president Obama in April authorized the assassination of U.S.-born radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al Awlaki; Awlaki was involved in the attempt to bring down a U.S. passenger plane on Christmas Day and in the shooting by U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan in Fort Hood, Texas; the U.S. military is deploying an increasing number of UAVs to the skies of Yemen in search of Awlaki

  • U.S. nabs Times Square bomber at JFK airport

    Pakistani-born U.S. citizen was caught while trying to board a plane to Dubai from JFK; the man is not the individual seen on videotape near the bomb-laden SUV; bomb experts say the would-be bomber had left many leads for detectives to follow; one expert: “He was trying to cover his tracks, but he left more clues than a guy walking into a bank to rob it without a mask. This guy left everything here but his wallet”

  • U.S. worried about China industrial espionage activities during World's Expo

    China has been engaged in a vast, well-coordinated, and resourceful espionage campaign against U.S. and European governments and companies; the systematic stealing of Western military, scientific, and industrial secrets aims to help China short-cut its path to global political and economic hegemony; China is employing its military, intelligence services, trade missions abroad, students sent to foreign universities — and Chinese-born citizens who are sent to form espionage sleeper cells; the mammoth World’s Expo, which opened in Shanghai last Friday, offers the Chinese a golden opportunity to steal even more intellectual property on the cheap

  • Europol: Islamist terrorism in Europe has sharply declined

    Terrorist attacks in Europe fell by a third between 2008 and 2009 - from 441 to 294; the number of people arrested in 2009 connection with Islamist terrorism declined sharply, falling to 110 compared to 187 in 2008 and 201 in 2007

  • DHS IG identifies weaknesses in airport passenger screening

    DHS IG inspects the operation of advanced passenger scanning technologies in sixteen unnamed U.S. airport, and reports: “We identified vulnerabilities in the screening process at the passenger screening checkpoint at the eight domestic airports we conducted testing”

  • DOE removes from its Web site a guide on nuclear plant air attacks

    Since 2008 the Department of Energy’s Web site offered the public a virtual how-to manual for attacking a nuclear plant with an airplane; The document showed the areas that a plane could hit at a reactor with maximum effect, and it cited buildings or targets that a plane could strike and cause radioactive release; the document has now been removed

  • Australia's Biometrics Institute launches privacy awareness checklist

    Australia’s Biometric Institute will release its Biometrics Institute Privacy Awareness Checklist (PAC) to its member organizations to promote good privacy practices; the Biometrics Institute Privacy Code already is at a higher level than the Australian Privacy Act 1988