• Green laser pointer identifies traces of dangerous chemicals in real time

    By using an ordinary green laser pointer, the kind commonly found in offices and college lecture halls, an Israeli research team has developed a new and portable Raman spectrometer which can detect minute traces of hazardous chemicals in real time; the new sensor’s compact design makes it a candidate for rapid field deployment to disaster zones and areas with security concerns

  • State Department denies concluding attack on consulate was in reaction to anti-Islamic video

    Ahead of hearings today before a congressional panel investigating potential security lapses at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, the U.S. Department of State has said that it had no actionable intelligence about plans by a terrorist organizations for the deadly attack on the consulate; State Department officials also said the department had never concluded that the sacking of the mission was motivated by the U.S.-made video ridiculing Muslims

  • Hezbollah drone shot down over Israel

    The Israel Air Force (IAF) planes shot down a UAV over the north Negev; the UAV entered Israeli air space from the west, but Israeli intelligence says the drone was launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon, then made its way south over the Mediterranean, then turned east when it reached the water off the Gaza Strip

  • Jewish Community Homeland Security Primer distributed to law enforcement agencies

    Amidst the Jewish High Holidays, the Secure Community Network (SCN), the national homeland security initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents, distributed what SCN described as “a first ever” homeland security briefing primer for American law enforcement and homeland security agencies and national security partners across the United States

  • FBI investigators visit Benghazi consulate compound

    After a delay of more than a week owing to security concerns, a team of several FBI investigators earlier this week visited the burned-down U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi to gather more information on the attack which killed Ambassador Stevens; the Department of State has created a 5-member independent investigative panel, the Accountability Review Board, to look into security arrangements at the compound, and to determine whether those arrangements were sufficient, and whether information about the deteriorating security situation in the city was ignored

  • Senate panel’s report harshly criticizes role, utility of DHS fusion centers

    A 2-year bipartisan investigation by the U. S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has found that DHS efforts to engage state and local intelligence “fusion centers” has not yielded significant useful information to support federal counterterrorism intelligence efforts; the report says that senior DHS officials were aware of the problems hampering effective counterterrorism work with the fusion centers, but did not always inform Congress of the issues, nor ensure the problems were fixed in a timely manner; DHS estimates that it has spent somewhere between $289 million and $1.4 billion in public funds to support state and local fusion centers since 2003 (the report says that these are broad estimates which differ by over $1 billion); the Senate investigation raises questions about the value this amount of funding and the contribution the fusion centers make to the U.S. counterterrorism efforts; not everyone agrees with the report; Rep. Peter King (R-NY), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said: “I agree with Chairman Joe Lieberman and Ranking Member Susan Collins [of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security] that the subcommittee report issued this week paints with too broad a brush an incomplete picture that fails to recognize many of the important contributions that fusion centers have made in securing our Homeland”

  • Oregon terrorism suspect’s request to learn identity of government informant rejected

    Mohamed Mohamud, a 21-year old Somali born Oregon resident, is accused of attempting to bomb Portland, Oregon’s 2010 holiday tree-lighting ceremony; a request by Mohamud and his defense team to learn the true identity of a government informant known only as “Bill Smith” was denied by U.S. District Judge Garr King

  • Minneapolis recruiter for Somali terrorist group al Shabab goes on trial

    Minneapolis resident Mahamud Said Omar is facing five separate terrorism-related charges after being accused of helping to recruit and finance U.S. militants for a Somali terrorist group; since 2007 the group, known as al-Shabab, has recruited more than twenty young men to leave Minnesota for Somalia to take up arms with the terrorist group; among the recruits was Shirwa Ahmed who, in November 2008, became the first known U.S. citizen to carry out a suicide bombing

  • Future of interrogation methods of terrorists may depend on election

    On the campaign trail, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have not said much about their approach to interrogating terrorists; but as the manner in which U.S. government agencies approach such interrogations, and the practices agents employ, may well depend on the outcome of next month’s election

  • How vulnerable is the U.S. to agro-terror attack?

    Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States has spent billions of dollars to make the country safer from another catastrophic event, but little of that money, and little attention, have been directed toward preventing, coping with, and recovering from a terrorist agro-attack; how vulnerable is the United States to an attack on its food system?

  • Technology soon to make drones deadlier, more autonomous

    Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become America’s main weapon in the campaign against terrorists  — at the forefront are the Predator and the Reaper — and technological changes would soon make them even deadlier; in the next decade drones will be faster and carry more weapons than today’s versions; they will also have better sensors and more sophisticated computers, allowing them to plan and execute attacks with little human participation

  • PKK escalates terror campaign in Turkey

    Seven people, including three soldiers, were killed Tuesday in an explosion that struck a military truck as it traveled along a road in Turkey’s southeastern Tunceli province; in the last fourteen months, more than 700 people have been killed in attacks by the PKK on Turkish military and civilians, and in Turkish retaliatory attacks against the Kurdish organization; during the most intense period of the PKK-Turkey conflict, between 1984 and 1999, more than 40,000 Turks were killed in attacks and counterattacks; the key to the surge in PKK terrorism in the last fourteen months: the autonomy the Syrian regime has tacitly given the Kurdish region in northeast Syria, an autonomy which has allowed the PKK the freedom to organize, arm, and launch attacks into Turkey

  • West Africa expert still hopes Mali would not devolve into “Africanistan”

    Earlier this summer, Islamic militants in the West African nation of Mali destroyed the tombs of Sufi Muslim saints in the fabled city of Timbuktu; the act, widely compared to the Taliban’s destruction of colossal stone Buddhas in Afghanistan, raised concerns about the fate of other cultural treasures in what was once a vibrant center of Islamic scholarship

  • Libya gives Islamist militias until Tuesday to disband

    Libya president Mohammed el-Megaref on Saturday announced he was giving rogue militia forces in Libya until Tuesday to disband; he said that the Libyan government would address the illegitimate militia problem by using the joint police, the armed forces, and the what he referred to as the “authorized militia brigades”

  • Twenty dead, scores injured, in violent anti-U.S. demonstrations in Pakistan

    Demonstrations across Pakistan this afternoon (local time) have turned deadly, with reports that eighteen people were killed and seventy-eight injured; most of the violence occurred during demonstrations in Karachi and Peshawar; among those killed in Karachi were two police officers; in Peshawar, two police officers were killed; U.S. diplomatic facilities were cordoned off by the police, and the demonstrators instead torched theaters and shops; the Pakistani government deployed a large number of military and security personnel, and cellular phone services in fifteen cities were temporarily blocked to prevent militants from using phones to detonate bombs during the protests; in several cities, military helicopters buzzed overhead