• Food for thought: Including agriculture in biosecurity and biodefense

    From agriculture to animal health, Kansas State University has been on the forefront of the national discussion in bio/agrodefense since it published the Homeland Defense Food Safety, Security and Emergency Preparedness Program — also known as “The Big Purple Book” — in 1999. Recently, the university co-hosted an event at the Bipartisan Policy Center, highlighted the threat of bio/agroterrorism and the importance of including agriculture in biosecurity and biodefense.

  • New genetic mutations in antibiotic-resistant bioterrorism agent identified

    Researchers have identified new genetic mutations in antibiotic-resistant Francisella tularensis bacteria that could be used in a bioterrorist attack. The mutations confer resistance to ciprofloxacin (Cipro), one of the most common antibiotic treatments. F. tularensis is a Category A Select Agent, a designation for organisms and toxins that pose the greatest risk to public health and safety, such as the microbes that cause anthrax and plague.

  • Understanding insurgency warfare

    A new book explores the history and details of 181 insurgencies since the end of the Second World War, providing lessons for those fighting insurgent campaigns today in such countries as Syria, Libya, and Iraq. The book finds that there has been a significant increase in the past decade in the number of insurgencies involving extremist Islamic groups. The book also finds that insurgent groups are most likely to lose when they perpetrate large-scale brutality against civilians and fail to secure outside support from great powers.

  • Why it’s not all about security as West beefs up military in Africa’s Sahel

    Over the past few weeks the United States and France have pledged considerable extra funds to strengthening their military presence in Africa’s Sahel region – a narrow, arid band of land stretching across the continent from west to east just south of the Sahara desert. This has been prompted by growing Western fears of destabilization. There has been concern that Islamist groups were establishing themselves in the vast spaces between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. But Western interest in the Sahel region is not merely about security. It has also been linked by some to the West’s desire to protect vital natural resources such as oil, gas, and uranium. One geographer and Africa specialist has called this a new scramble for Africa.

  • More than 500 ISIS militants killed in Mosul so far -- 300 of them child-soldiers

    More than 500 ISIS militants have been killed since the beginning of the campaign to re-retake Mosul. Of the 500 ISIS dead, about 300 are child-soldiers called “Caliphate Lion Cubs.” ISIS militants have killed more than 300 civilians last week alone – some of them members of ISIS suspected of trying to stage a revolt against the jihadists.

  • ISIS plotting Paris-style attacks in Britain: U.K. police

    The U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) and Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command, in a rare public statement, said that terrorists had tried to get their hands on a large quantity of weapons in order to launch wide-scale gun attacks in Britain. The details have emerged as a result of investigations in the wake of five jihadist terror plots which have been foiled in the last two years. The investigation into the origins and background of the five foiled plots has also discovered that 800 legally owned guns had gone missing.

  • ISIS coming defeat in Mosul could drive jihadists attacks in Germany

    Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, said that the German authorities are preparing for possible terror attacks on German soil as pressure builds on ISIS in Iraq. The U.S.-led coalition’s operation to push ISIS out of Mosul could encourage ISIS supporters in Europe to carry out attacks, Maassen said.

  • Is the Islamic State finished? Five possible scenarios

    Most military analysts believe it’s only a matter of time before Mosul falls. The next target on the coalition’s agenda is Raqqa, Syria, the capital of IS. It may only be a matter of time before IS’s territorial “caliphate” is no more. What then will be the fate of IS? Can the group survive without controlling any territory? Will it rebound? Or will it disappear? Whatever the case, history provides lessons on how effectively to deal with movements and individuals who wage war against the international order. For example, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, anarchists struck out at rulers and symbols of capitalism throughout the world. Then, suddenly, the wave of anarchist violence ceased. Historians point to a number of reasons the anarchist moment passed. Anarchism competed for hearts and minds with other dissident groups. Nations undertook political and social reforms that addressed the grievances of potential anarchists. They adopted new methods of policing and surveillance. Police agencies cooperated across borders. But perhaps most important was the fact that high-risk movements that attempt to realize the unrealizable have a short shelf life. Such might be the case for IS.

  • The “blind spot” in extremist Web content

    In order better to understand the process of on-line radicalization, researchers examined the average monthly number of global searches and regional search frequencies conducted in Google for 287 Arabic and English keywords relating to violent and non-violent extremism. Further analysis was then conducted within the search results for forty-seven of the relevant keywords to understand placement of extremist and counter-narrative content.

  • Risk of student radicalization in Quebec low

    A new survey of CEGEP students found that the risk of violent radicalization among Quebec youth remains “very weak,” while incidents of racism and hate speech remain common. CEGEP is a network of publicly funded pre‑university colleges in the province of Quebec’s education system – similar to U.S. community colleges.

  • Paris venue of Victoria's Secret December show kept secret for fear of terrorism

    Victoria’s Secret officials admitted they were worried about a possible terrorist attack during their 5 December 2016 Fashion Show in Paris. The lingerie company typically announces its annual runway show in the spring of each year — but this year the company waited until Monday, 24 October, to announce this year’s location. Several venues in Paris were considered, until one was selected because the French security services concluded it would be easier to secure.

  • Bavaria wants tighter monitoring of Reichsbürger movement extremists

    The government of the state of Bavaria wants the German federal government to monitor the far-right Reichsbürger movement more closely. The movement resembles the American sovereign citizen movement: It does not recognize the authority of the government in Berlin, and challenge the legality of the German political structure. The Reichsbürger claims that the last legitimate German government was the one elected in November 1932 – and which made Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933 – and that all German governments since the surrender of Germany on 7 May 1945 have been illegitimate.

  • Germany's far-right, populist, xenophobic movements on the rise

    There have been many extremist right-wing, nationalist, populist, racist, anti-Semitic, anti-immigration groups and movements in Germany (and, earlier, West Germany). Currently, the German intelligence and law enforcement agencies are monitoring about three dozen groups, associations, fellowships, movements, open networks, and organized political parties. The German authorities say there are 22,600 registered members of right-wing extremist groups in Germany, and that 8,000 of them have proven themselves ready to use violence.

  • ISIL uses toxic chemicals in its defense of Mosul

    In the run up to the U.S.-led coalition campaign to liberate Mosul, U.S. officials warned that ISIS would likely use chemical weapons to slow down the progress of coalition forces and terrorize the residents. Last Thursday ISIS took the first step in its chemical strategy by setting ablaze the Mishraq Chemical plant and sulphur mine, located thirty km south of Mosul. The toxic cloud includes lethal sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide. When combined with residue from burning oil wells, it is deadly for people caught in the open or without gas masks. Military experts say health effects from the toxic fumes from oil and sulphur will likely subside in about eighteen months, but the toxic clouds could harm much of the plant and animal life in the area and make it difficult for local farmers to return to their fields until then.

  • Refugees and terrorism -- “No evidence of risk”: UN

    “Overly-restrictive migration policies introduced because of terrorism concerns are not justified and may in fact be damaging to state security,” warned the United Nations Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, Ben Emmerson, at the UN General Assembly in New York. The perception that there is a link between to flow of refugees and an increased risk of terrorism “is analytically and statistically unfounded, and must change,” he said.