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Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange goes through
Earlier today, the initial phase of prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas has taken place; Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas operatives more than five years ago and held incommunicado since — even the Red Cross was not allowed to visit him — returned to Israel in exchange for 450 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails; in total, 1,027 Palestinian (1,000 men and twenty-seven women) will be released in the exchange; the deal was reached after both Israel and Hamas agreed to major compromises; analysts say that one of the main reasons prompting Israel to show more flexibility was the desire to “clean the table” of troublesome and divisive issues in preparation for a possible Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities
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The Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange
If everything goes according to plan, then this coming Tuesday will see Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas operatives more than five years ago and held incommunicado since – even the Red Cross was not allowed to visit him — return to Israel in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails (1,000 men and twenty-seven women); the deal was reached after both Israel and Hamas agreed to major compromises; analysts say that one of the main reasons prompting Israel to show more flexibility was the desire to “clean the table” of troublesome and divisive issues in preparation for a possible Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities
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Little progress despite $3.4 billion spent on food safety programs
In the past decade the U.S. government has gone to great lengths to secure the nation’s food supply against terrorists, but more than $3.4 billion later it has little to show for its efforts; despite all the government spending, key food safety programs and counter-terror policies have been bogged down by a murky, convoluted bureaucratic process
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Iranian airline sanctioned for ties to terrorism
On Wednesday the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on sanctioned Mahan Air, an Iranian airline, for supporting terrorism
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U.S. unprepared for large-scale bio-attack, report warns
On Wednesday, the WMD Center released its latest report that found the United States is unprepared for a large-scale biological attack, despite spending more than $65 billion on biodefense over the past decade; the report warned that the threat of biological weapons is now greater than ever as a result of technological advances; a small team of individuals with training in key disciplines can produce “the type of bioweapons created by nation-states in the 1960s”
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U.S.: Iranian agents tried to kill Saudi ambassador to U.S.
The U.S. attorney general Eric Holde rannounced yesterday that the U.S. government has foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States; Iran wired $100,000 into a U.S. bank account in August as a down payment for the hit; the assassins — the Iranians thought they were members of a Mexican drug cartel — were to receive $1.5 million if the hit was successful
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Concordia Summit: sustaining "at risk" communities long-term
The high-level Concordia Summit, which gathered heads of state, business leaders, government officials, and counter-terrorism experts to find solutions focusing on public-private partnerships, announces its key findings
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Al Awlaki assassination raises legal questions
Friday’s assassination of Anwar al Awlaki, the radical Yemeni-American imam, by a U.S. drone has sparked fierce criticism from those who argue his death raises a serious question about the government’s counterterror policies; in particular legal authorities, lawmakers, and opinion leaders expressed grave concern over the ability of the government to kill an American citizen with no judicial process far from a combat zone
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NATO: 10,000 Libyan shoulder-fired missiles unaccounted for
Senior NATO officials said that at least 10,000 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles are unaccounted for in Libya, and that at least some of them may have fallen in the hands of al Qaeda operatives; the missiles are known as SAM-7 by NATO designation and 9K32 Strela-2 in Russia, and typically have a range of about four kilometers and an infra-red guidance system; more than forty civilian aircraft have been hit by these portable surface-to-air missiles since 1975, causing about twenty-eight crashes and more than 800 deaths around the world
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Head of Islamic charity sentenced to nearly three years
Last week the head of the U.S. arm of a now disbanded Islamic charity was sentenced to nearly three years in prison for sending $150,000 to Saudi Arabia to fund terrorist activities
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New Libyan regime to cooperate in Lockerbie investigation
Libya’s new government said that it will cooperate with Scottish prosecutors in their ongoing investigation of the Lockerbie bombing; so far only one man has been convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland which resulted in the deaths of 270 people; Scottish prosecutors are seeking assistance from Libya’s National Transitional Council to gain evidence that could lead to the conviction of others involved in the atrocity; Libya’s interim justice minister Mohammed al-Alagi recently said, “The case is closed,” but later retracted his statement; Scottish authorities said, “The police investigation into the Lockerbie bombing remains open, and the Police should follow the evidence wherever it leads them”
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India tells Pakistan to get "serious" on dismantling terror training camps
India’s external affairs minister S. M. Krishna said Pakistan can no longer take a “selective approach” to fighting terrorism and hoped that it will get “serious” in dismantling the terrorist training camps on its soil; “I am sure they (Pakistan) will realize and they have, by now they should have (realized) that terrorism cannot be fought selectively,” Krishna said; he added, “I hope Pakistan gets serious about dismantling all the terror training camps which are existing in the country….We expect that Pakistan will live up to their pronouncements”
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Three arrested in Ireland after car bomb discovered
On Monday, U.K. officials arrested three men after police found a bomb in a car in Northern Ireland; the three men were apprehended in Derry, near the border with the Irish Republic; Chief Inspector Jon Burrow, Northern Ireland’s district commander, said, “I am in no doubt had the device exploded it could have injured or maimed innocent members of the public and it is due to the efficient evacuations set in place in the surrounding areas that no one came to any harm”; military explosives experts were called in to help defuse the bomb
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Six men arrested in U.K. on terrorism charges
On Monday, British authorities arrested six men on charges of terrorism; the men, all between the ages of twenty-one and thirty, are believed to be part of a terror network; four of the men are accused of one count of “engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts,” while the other two are being charged for failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism; the four suspected terrorists allegedly planned a bombing campaign, stated their intention to become suicide bombers, and collected money for terrorism; two of the four are believed to have travelled to Pakistan to receive weapons and explosives training
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Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founders placed on U.S. terror list
On Wednesday the United States announced that it had placed two founding members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist organization on its terror watch list; the United States refrained from sanctioning the Pakistani state or the ISI, its military intelligence agency, despite increasingly heated statements from top U.S. officials; David Cohen, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence described Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi as two of LeT’s “most significant leaders”; over the past twenty years, the duo has been responsible for fundraising, recruitment, and indoctrination of operatives; “By targeting the core of LeT’s leadership, today’s action aims to degrade its ability to facilitate its terrorist activities,” Cohen said
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More headlines
The long view
A View from the CT Foxhole: William Braniff, Director, Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
By Kristina Hummel and Samuel Bowles
The decade after 9/11 was largely about integrating our special operations community with our intelligence community. “The decade after the decade after 9/11, we started to really integrate our federal law enforcement efforts so that we could find, fix, finish, exploit, analyze, and prosecute here in the United States,” says William Braniff.