(The following article is based on information obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police’s National Security Committee.) The Energy Security Leadership Council (ESLC), a project of Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), yesterday released A National Strategy for Energy Security, a comprehensive plan that offers the public and policymakers specific solutions to the...
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Four people have been arrested on terrorism charges in Islington, London, England, after a suspected petrol bombing on the house of Martin Rynja, owner of book publishing company Gibson Square. His company recently sparked controversy after buying the rights to publish The Jewel of Medina, a work of fiction by Sherry Jones depicting the...
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The Somali pirates who hijacked a Ukrainian freighter carrying military weapons defiantly demanded $20 million in ransom despite being surrounded by three foreign warships on Sunday. The spokesmen for the pirates, believed to be members and associates of Al-Qaeda, were contacted via satellite communications. They confirmed that they were surrounded by three foreign warships...
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Cyber analysis and warning capabilities are critical to thwarting computer-based threats and attacks. The Department of Homeland Security established the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) to, among other things, coordinate the nation’s efforts to prepare for, prevent, and respond to cyber threats to systems and communications networks. The US Congress requested the...
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Last month, US intelligence intercepted Al-Qaeda communications warning operatives to be ready for instructions in October. The terrorist group is thought to be planning what has been called an “October surprise” possibly in order to influence the 2008 US elections, just as it did in 2004 when it bombed Madrid commuter trains. The messages...
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Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, combating terrorism has been one of the nation’s highest priorities. As part of that effort, preventing nuclear and radioactive material from being smuggled into the United States — perhaps to be used by terrorists in a nuclear weapon or in a radiological dispersal device (a “dirty bomb”)...
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A leader of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, was sentenced on Friday to 45 years in prison for his participation in a racketeering enterprise, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Edward M. Yarbrough of the Middle District of Tennessee announced. Escolastico Serrano, a/k/a “Chito,†was also sentenced...
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Since 2001, the US Congress has provided the Department of Defense with about $807 billion in supplemental and annual appropriations, as of September 2008, primarily for military operations in support of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). The DOD’s reported annual obligations for GWOT have shown a steady increase from about $0.2 billion in...
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The Marriot Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan has been bombed. At least 40 people are dead and twenty-five injured. The explosion, believed to be a car or truck bomb, occured at 8 p.m. (10 a.m. ET), just hours after newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari addressed Parliament and promised to destroy terrorism in the country....
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The poppy trade that fuels terrorists and insurgents in Afghanistan is a problem that must be addressed but doesn’t have a military solution, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during a teleconference for Internet journalists and bloggers. Speaking at a dinner hosted by the Pacific Council on International Policy, Navy Adm....
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The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) has invited Senator Joseph Biden and Governor Sarah Palin to participate in a nationally televised Vice Presidential Forum on Crime and Homeland Security. The forum, scheduled for Sunday, October 5 (with a backup date of October 12), will be held at the University of Richmond, in...
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A Defense Department task force has recommended the Air Force Space Command be re-designated as Air Force Strategic Command and be home to the service’s nuclear mission. Former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger briefed the press on the task force’s conclusions during a Pentagon news conference today, while DOD official Jim Garamone briefed Internet Journalists...
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Ten years of messages and interviews with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden have been leaked. Translated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the documents were posted on a blog Friday. Posted to Secrecy News blog on September 12, and copied to similar sites including Wikileaks.org, the ten years of messages span from...
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Regular readers of this blog well know that I’m a fan of Koko, the gorilla who has been taught sign language. I think that the reaction of people at the Gorilla Foundation to the horrors of 9/11 is quite interesting and worthy of discussion. As soon as Gorilla Foundation officials heard of the 9/11...
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Seven years ago, Sept. 11, 2001, we all remember where we were and with whom and what we were doing. I was rushing off for my 9:25 AM class; it was my first semester as a tenure-track professor. Teaching John Donne in a class (17th Century British lit) otherwise full of obscurities has this...
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Long before the 9/11 attacks, the Federation for American Immigration Reform warned that our unsecured borders and lax enforcement of our immigration laws posed a threat to our national security. We have advocated for specific reforms to minimize the risks to our nation and our citizens. On the seventh anniversary of those attacks we...
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Dear Mr. Obama video letter from Iraq Veteran demolishes Obama on Iraq surge AND on toppling Saddam This is one of the most powerful videos I’ve ever seen for conveying the historically pivotal nature of victory in Iraq and the utter speciousness of the moral posturing of those (such as Obama) who characterize it...
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The Radiological Threat Awareness Coalition (R-TAC) today released a national survey on homeland security preparedness, showing that at least 81% of those polled said the threat of a “dirty bomb” is serious, yet less than one third (32%) feel prepared for a terrorist attack. The national survey of public sentiment finds that a majority...
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(The following is based on material obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police.) The Council for American Islamic Relations has been trying in vain to stop a counter- terrorism program in Sarasota Florida, aimed at providing first responders with information on subjects such as building safety, suicide terrorism, technologies against terrorism and...
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We are approaching another anniversary of the infamous 9/11/ attack on the United States of America. I remember a sense of unreality on that dreadful and grim day. The horror brought home in the most painful way how much some people – a group rightly designated by the term “Islamo-fascists†– hated my country....
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