• One bomber killed, Boston area under lock down as hunt for second bomber continues

    Boston police earlier this morning shot and killed one of the suspects in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing. The shooting took place in Watertown, a suburb of Boston. The police says that suspect no. 1 – the one seen wearing a dark baseball cap in the images the FBI releases Thursday afternoon – was apparently killed by an explosive device he was carrying on him or with him. The explosives went off after an exchange of heavy fire with the police.

  • FBI releases images of bombing suspects

    See video

    The FBI yesterday released videos and photographs of two young men, saying both are suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings. The agency warned that the two suspects should be regarded as armed and dangerous. The FBI was also analyzing cellphone tower records to identify positive hits for signs of calls which may have been placed to trigger both explosions remotely. Investigators are also interested in a battery believed to be used in one of the bombs. The battery was likely purchased with a remote control toy and then extracted so it could be used in the bomb. That could potentially make it easier to zero in on a suspect.

  • DHS cuts funds for programs aiming to prevent a McVeigh-like fertilizer bombing attacks

    Timothy McVeigh used two tons of fertilizer and $3,000 of racing fuel to detonate a bomb outside the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. The blast killed 168 people. The Obama administration is currently not allocating money or resources to preventing fertilizer bombing attacks like the one McVeigh used, according to a former DHS official with direct knowledge of the department’s budgeting and operations.

  • Mississippi man arrested for sending ricin letters to Obama, Sen. Wicker

    The FBI confirmed yesterday (Wednesday) that a letter addressed to President Obama was found to contain the toxin ricin. As is the case with all the mail sent to the White House, the letter was screened in a remote mail sorting facility in Anacostia, a neighborhood in southeast Washington, D.C., and intercepted. The FBI arrested a man from Tupelo, Mississippi, on suspicion that he was behind the ricin letters to the White House and to Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), who lives in Tupelo.

  • IEDs a growing threat in U.S.: security experts

    Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) killed and maimed so many U.S. and coalition soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, that the Pentagon was forced to create the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO).Terrorism experts say that as al Qaeda and its affiliates find it more and more difficult to engage in more spectacular terrorist attacks such as 9/11 and other attacks on aviation, they may resort to low-tech, IED-based attacks.Incendiary IEDs were already the most common weapons used in the 207 terrorist plots and attacks in the United States from 2001 to 2011. Domestic groups, led by the environmental Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, were responsible for most of the attacks in that 10-year period. Al Qaeda was involved in four such attacks.

  • Ease of construction makes pressure-cooker bombs popular among terrorists

    The ease of building pressure-cooker bombs has made them popular among terrorist organizations and insurgent groups. Inspire, the on-line English-language magazine published by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), three years ago published an article titled “How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom” by “the AQ Chef,” which contained detailed instructions on building a pressure-cooker bomb.

  • Boston bombing may signal end to ten relatively terror-free years in U.S.

    The bombing at the Boston Marathon on Monday may signal an  end to more than ten years in which the United States was surprisingly free from terrorists attacks, largely as a result of  aggressive law enforcement tactics which followed the 9/11 attacks.

  • Experts will meet in September for the bi-annual anthrax research conference

    More than 300 scientists and researchers from all over the world who work on Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, and B. cereus and B. thuringiensis, two closely related bacilli, will be heading to Victoria, British Columbia for the Bacillus ACT 2013 conference, which will be held 1-5 September.

  • Bombs kill 3, injure 130 at Boston marathon (updated)

    See video

    Two loud explosions near the finish-line of the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured 130 Monday afternoon. The two blasts occurred after about half the runners taking part in the marathon had already crossed the finish line. Thousands of runners were still heading toward the finish line, but race organizers halted the race within minutes after the explosions.

  • Bombs kill 2, injure 23 at Boston Marathon

    See video

    Two loud explosions near the finish-line of the Boston Marathon killed two people and injured twenty-three this afternoon. The two blasts occurred after about half the runners taking part in the marathon had already crossed the finish line. Thousands of runners were still heading toward the finish line, but race organizers halted the race within minutes after the explosions.

  • Footwear safety reflectors help in detecting bioterror threats

    Tiny versions of the reflectors on sneakers and bicycle fenders that help ensure the safety of runners and bikers at night are moving toward another role in detecting bioterrorism threats and diagnosing everyday infectious diseases, scientists said the other day.

  • Mississippi to add terrorism to crimes for which death penalty may be sought

    The state of Mississippi is considering adding terrorism to the list of crimes for which the death penalty could be applied if a victim is killed during an incident. Constitutional lawyers say the law is not likely to be used much since significant acts of terrorism are typically prosecuted as federal offenses. They also say that it would not be  bad idea for the law to cover a renewal of Ku Klux Klan-style killings in the future.

  • New Jersey to launch emergency, preparedness awareness campaign

    The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness is currently looking for a PR firm to help it launch a multifaceted awareness campaign. The campaign, worth about $4 million over three years, would aim to increase the level of emergency awareness and preparedness of residents, businesses, and communities in New Jersey.

  • Withdrawal of Syrian troops from Golan area heightens Israel’s concerns

    For forty years, Syria had deployed four army divisions in positions along the eastern border of the Golan Heights. Israel has considered the Israel-Syria border to be its safest border. With the continuing deterioration of the Syrian regime’s military situation, the Assad government is in the process of redeploying two divisions – some 20,000 soldiers – from the Golan region to Damascus to help defend the capital against growing rebel pressure. Jihadi elements from the anti-Assad coalition have been moving into the security vacuum created along the Israeli border by the withdrawal of the Syrian troops, increasing the opportunities for friction and the likelihood of an Israeli military involvement in Syria.

  • U.S. deploys F-22 stealth fighters to South Korea

    As tensions on the Korean Peninsula intensify, and North Korea’s belligerent threats multiply, sources inside the administration said that the United States has deployed F-22 stealth fighter jets to South Korea to take part in large-scale military drills.