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Pakistani military delegation cancels U.S. talks over stringent security checks
A high-level Pakistani military delegation has cancelled a visit to the United States after members of an earlier delegation, which came to the United States to visit the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM), were subjected to stringent -- the Pakistanis say "unwarranted" -- security checks at Dulles International Airport
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Taliban launches poisonous gas attack on school girls and teachers in Afghanistan
The Taliban continues its violent campaign to push Muslim women back into Medieval times; in Afghanistan, the Taliban is pursuing a campaign against girls' education; the organization's latest tactics: poisonous gas attacks on girls' schools, aiming to scare students and teachers; Taliban operatives launched eight poisonous gas attacks on girls schools since April, and earlier today it launched the ninth attack, this time against a girls high school
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Report says Gaza exporting terror
A former Gazan who was in the Islamic Jihad set up a terror network in Morocco aimed at targeting key Moroccan officials and Jews, an intelligence report said
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Iran's bombIran gearing up for a post-attack retaliatory campaign in Western Hemisphere
In February 2007, Iran Air launched flight 744 -- a bimonthly flight that originates in Tehran and flies directly to Caracas with periodic stops in Beirut and Damascus; passengers cannot book a seat on the flight because it has never been opened to the public; U.S. intelligence services have been worried for a while now that the flight is used for two purposes: first, for smuggling nuclear weapons-related materials into Iran, and, second -- in cooperation with Venezuela -- for setting up a network of Iranian operatives to retaliate against U.S. targets and Jewish communities in the Western Hemisphere in the event of a U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear weapons facilities
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Resurgence of violence in Ireland leads to questions about MI5 intelligence gathering
The Police Federation of Northern Ireland has attributed 49 bomb incidents and 32 shooting incidents to dissident republicans since the beginning of the year; so far this year, on both sides of the border, there have been 155 arrests and 46 charges related to militant republican activities compared with 108 arrests and 17 charges in the whole of 2009; law enforcement authorities in Northern Ireland complain about an alleged lack of information from MI5 about increasingly active republican groups
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The food we eatMaple syrup producer ends factory floor tours
For almost a century Maple Grove Farms of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, has produced maple syrup and maple candies; for much of that time, tourists have been able to watch the production process from the factory floor -- but not anymore: fears about terrorists, disguised as visitors, contaminating some of the more than twelve million pounds of maple products processed every year lead company to end tours
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FBI grants more top secret clearances for terrorism cases
Security clearances granted to members of the FBI's network of regional terrorism task forces jumped to 878 in 2009, up from 125 in 2007, signaling intensified attention to domestic terror threats; part of the increase is because of the rapid expansion of the terrorism task forces created after the 2001 assaults to disrupt future terror plots; since 2001 the number of terror units, which draw on federal, state, and local investigators, have grown from 35 to 104 nationwide
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Nuclear mattersU Rochester lands $15 million to study medical response to nuclear terrorism
Research has revealed that it is not just the immediate effect of radiation that makes adults and children sick; rather, the radiation damage can remain relatively undetected in key tissues and organs, but will trigger life-threatening illnesses after an injury that occurs later; new project places the University of Rochester Medical Center firmly in a leadership position in the counterterrorism effort
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U.K. Muslim group holds antiterrorism summer camp
More than 1,000 attend 3-day al Hidayah event at University of Warwick campus to learn how to fight arguments of extremists; those attending are taught practical ways of countering extremist views in their schools, universities, and communities, and are learning how to engage with people expressing extremist views and are being directed to passages in the Qur'an and other Islamic texts to allow them to argue against them
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Indonesia joins countries mulling BlackBerry ban to fight terror
Indonesia considers joining a growing list of countries, including India, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in banning BlackBerry devices; Research in Motion is receiving increasing pressure to allow government access to data generated by the hand-held devices
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TSA enlisting parking attendants and meter maids in anti-terror campaign
From the 1993 attempt on the Twin towers, to Timothy McVeigh, to Faisal Shahzad, the United States has experience with terrorists using vehicles to carry out their plots; TSA's First Observer program will roll out lesson plans for workers such as parking attendants and meter maids to help them become the latest anti-terror weapons
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End to water-boarding: Using brain waves to reading terrorists minds about imminent attacks
There may soon be no need for water-boarding or other "enhanced interrogation" to extract vital information about pending attacks from captured terrorists or terrorism suspects; Researchers at Northwestern university were able to correlate P300 brain waves to guilty knowledge with 100 percent accuracy in the lab
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A Qaeda attacks Jordanian port city; 1 killed, 3 hurt
A Grad rocket exploded early Monday in the Jordanian seaside resort of Aqaba, killing one person and injuring at least three; al Qaeda operatives launched a similar rocket attack on Aqaba on 8 July 2007, in which a Jordanian soldier was killed; one of the targets of the 2007 attack was the USS Ashland, which was docking at the Aqaba port at the time
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Leaked U.S. documents: Pakistan collaborates with the Taliban to kill Americans
Leaked U.S. military documents offer detailed and disturbing accounts of the degree and scope of the cooperation between Pakistan's intelligence agency and anti-American forces in Afghanistan; this cooperation comes from an agency of a country that receives more than $1 billion a year in aid from the United States; ISI, the Pakistani secret service, recruits insurgents, trains them, supplies them, helps them choose targets, and provides them with the weapons to carry out attacks; the cooperation has resulted in the death of many American soldiers and, more broadly, is aimed to undermine U.S. strategy and goals in Afghanistan
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Petraeus pushes for labeling Afghanistan's Haqqani network as terrorists
Gen. David H. Petraeus is pushing the Obama administration to have top leaders of the Haqqani network, a feared insurgent group run by an old warlord family, designated as terrorists; the group’s power lies in its deep connections to Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI, which sees the Haqqani network as a way to exercise its own leverage in Afghanistan; move could add more tension to U.S.-Pakistan relations, and complicate Afghan political settlement with the Taliban
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As he looked at the radar screen Captain Andrey Nozhkin immediately feared the worst. A small vessel was closing fast from the stern
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The Long View
The food we eatSchneier: no need to worry about terrorists poisoning food
Security maven Bruce Schneier says that fears of food-based bioterrorism are exaggerated: The quantities involved for mass poisonings are too great, the nature of the food supply too vast, and the details of any plot too complicated and unpredictable to be a real threat
Close Quarters Combat // Tzviel (BK) BlankchteinThe suicide bomber
Suicide bombers are a fact of life, so we must learn how to deal with them; there are ways to identify them, and ways to disable them and prevent them from carrying their deadly mission; doing so is not easy or simple, but it can be done
Somali pirates benefit from a global network of informers
These are not your father's pirates: Somali pirates benefit from information sent to them by informers planted in key shipping hubs around the world; this information includes vessels' cargo, layout, and route -- and is transmitted early enough to allow the pirates enough time to practice their assault based on the information they received
Insight into the news // Ben FrankelSudan attack demonstrates new U.S.-Israel counter-Iran policy
Israeli aircraft, with U.S. logistical and intelligence support, attack and destroy an Iranian arms convoy in Sudan; arms were part of an effort by Iran to resupply Hamas's forces in Gaza
Country watch: Moribund MexicoMexican drug cartels employ more foot soldiers than Mexican army
Mexico is spinning out of control; narco-terrorists have infiltrated the Mexican government, creating a shadow regime that complicates efforts to contain and destroy the drug cartels; Mexico ranks behind only Pakistan and Iran as a top U.S. national security concern -- but above Afghanistan and Iraq
India's private security companies flourish
As a result of the Mumbai attacks, the Indian private security industry has been growing by leaps and bounds; already the country's private security force numbers 5 million, 1.3 million more than India's police forces
As I Was Saying // Ben FrankelNew U.S. strategy begins to take shape in Pakistan
The U.S. military and elements in the Pakistani national security establishments collaborate much more closely than in the past; the strategy of General David Patreus and the new Obama administration is to recognize that Pakistan is a fractured, divided country, and to work with those elements closer to us
