• Italian police cannot unlock Bari terrorist iPhone

    The Italian security services have been unable to unlock the Apple iPhone 6 plus of a suspect member of a terrorist ring in the city of Bari. Analysts say the development will likely result in another stand-off between Apple and a government fighting terrorism, similar to the stand-off between Apple and the U.S. government over the iPhone used by the San Bernardino terrorists.

  • Leader of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party hanged for 1971 war crimes

    Motiur Rahman Nizami, the leader of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, was hanged at a prison in the capital, Dhaka, on Tuesday. Last week the nation’s highest court dismissed his final appeal of the death sentence, imposed on him for atrocities committed by him and his followers during the 1971 war between the majority if the Bangladeshi population, which favored independence from Pakistan, and the Pakistani military. The Islamist Jamaat movement supported the continuation of Pakistani rule over Bangladesh, and fought along the Pakistani military in an effort to suppress the pro-independence rebellion.

  • France sets up deradicalization centers, unveils comprehensive counterterrorism plan

    France plans to set up a deradicalization centers in several cities and towns to help the authorities identify would-be Islamist extremists and reach out to them in order to prevent them from joining jihadist groups. The establishment of the “reinsertion and citizenship centers” in each of the country’s regions is a central element of a comprehensive, 80-point plan to counter home-grown terrorism. The plan was unveiled on Monday.

  • Osama bin Laden's son calls on Syrian Islamist groups to unite “to free Palestine”

    Hamza bin Laden, Osama bi Laden’s son, has called on jihadists in Syria to unite, saying that fight for spreading the jihadists’ message in Syria is but a prologue to “liberating Palestine.” “The Islamic umma (nation) should focus on jihad in al-Sham (Syria) … and unite the ranks of mujahideen there,” Hamza bin Laden said in an audio message posted online.

  • ISIS manufacturing chemical weapons: UN watchdog

    A team of investigators at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said that there is “worrying” evidence ISIS is making its own chemical weapons. An OPCW team of investigators said they had found evidence of the use of homemade sulphur mustard in attacks in Syria and Iraq.

  • Secret 28-page section of 9/11 report should remain under seal: CIA director

    John Brennan, the director of the CIA, has said that the 28-page secret section of the 9/11 Commission Report which details Saudi Arabian funding for the attacks, contains “uncorroborated, un-vetted” information and should not be released. Brennan expressed his strong preference for keeping the secret section from the public domain for fear of fueling unfounded rumors and speculations.

  • Calif. Muslim woman sues Long Beach police for forcibly removing her headscarf

    Kirsty Powell, an African American Muslim woman, has on Monday sued the police in California, charging that her headscarf, which she was wearing for religious reasons, was forcibly removed by officers after she was arrested on outstanding warrants. The suit states that Powell “suffered and continues to suffer extreme shame, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional distress” as a result of her experience at the police station.

  • German domestic intelligence needs more powers to combat terrorism: Intelligence chief

    Hans-Georg Maassen, Germany’s director of domestic intelligence, said his intelligence agency should be given more resources to fight threats from militant Islamists and right-wing extremists. He was speaking in a symposium on the growing threat of terror attacks in Germany. He said the political climate in Germany was “a lot rougher” than it used to be, as former non-voters and disaffected supporters of the established parties become radicalized against the backdrop of the refugee crisis.

  • CIA’s “live tweets” marks 5th anniversary of killing of Bin Laden

    Osama bin Laden was killed five years ago, on 2 May 2011, in a raid by U.S. Special Forces on his compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan. To commemorate the event, the CIA decided to live-tweet the military operation which ended in OBL’s “as if it were happening today.” That decision, however, has been greeted with criticism as a tasteless “victory lap.” A CIA spokesman on Sunday defended the tweets, noting that it was not the first time the CIA had marked historical events on social media.

  • EU should establish U.S.-style intelligence agency: EU president

    The terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, just as the earlier ones in Madrid (2004) and London (2005), were a reminder that central pillars of the EU, such as the “area of freedom, security, and justice,” are being challenged. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission — the executive branch of the European Union (EU) – said that the EU member states’ mindsets and willingness to cooperate – crucial ingredients in the fight against terror – have not lived up to the challenge. The enduring lack of coordination between security services, police, and judicial authorities, at the national and the European levels, needs to be urgently tackled to reduce Europe’s vulnerability to such risks. To address and resolve these problems, and bolster European security in the face of terrorism, Juncker has proposed a European “Security Union.”

  • IDF deputy chief of staff: Next war with Hezbollah will be “devastating”

    The deputy chief of staff of the Israeli military warned that Hezbollah poses an “unprecedented” threat to Israel, and that any future war with the Iran-backed terrorist group will be “devastating.” “In any future crisis, they are not going to see a small war in Lebanon,” Maj. Gen. Yair Golan said of Hezbollah, which according to Israeli estimates has stockpiled over 100,000 missiles. “It’s going to be decisive. It’s going to be full-scale war.” He observed that Hezbollah’s tactic of embedding its military assets in civilian areas means that a future conflict “could create devastating damage to Lebanon.”

  • “Burner” phones, social media and online magazines: understanding the technology of terrorism

    Amid the global threat of terrorism, the actual attacks that occur can vary widely. Terrorists aim at different targets in different locations, and tend to be either shooting or bombing or both. There is, however, a central point of connection linking all these events: the use of technology to coordinate and organize the incident. Taken as a whole, we must recognize that technology use by extremist groups extends well beyond any one type of device, across the continuum of both hardware and software communication platforms. As technologies continue to evolve, extremists will continue to stay on the cutting edge of communications, whether they are encrypted or completely open. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies must be able to adapt investigative resources to these various platforms and do so quickly in order to better respond to these threats. Otherwise, gaps in collection and analysis may lead to intelligence failures and successful attacks.

  • FBI does not know how the $1m iPhone hack works

    The  FBI does not know how the hack which was used to unlock the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone 5C works, even though the agency paid about $1 million for the technique. The identity of the hackers who sold the technique to the agency is a closely guarded secret, and the FBI director himself does not know who they are.

  • ISIS runs fish farms, car dealerships to compensate for lost oil revenues

    The U.S.-led coalition’s air strike have crippled the ISIS oil-smuggling-based economy, forcing the organization to rely on fish farming and car dealing as alternative money generating resources, a new report has revealed. In order to close a yawning gap in the organization’s once-lucrative $2.9 billion oil trading scheme, ISIS has now increasingly turned to other revenue streams.

  • Coalition’s campaign has seriously weakened ISIS financial position

    The coalition’s airstrikes on ISIS-controlled oilfields, the recapturing of ISIS-held territory, and destruction of the group’s cash storage facilities – in which up to $800 million in cash went up in smoke — may have seriously undermined ISIS and its operations in Syria and Iraq, the coalition’s military commanders said. Officials at the U.K Ministry of Dense said earlier this week that ISIS has increasingly been resorting to arbitrary fines, extortion, and gangster-like tactics to compensate for the shortfall in income.