Terrorism

February 4, 2009 -- While al Qaeda is the primary terrorist/extremist threat in East Africa, the region suffers more broadly from a danger of radical Islamist groups and organizations that the United States and its allies must address to reshape the region's security environment, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

"The internal conflict and corruption enveloping weak African governments make it easy for terrorists to move, plan and organize," said Angel Rabasa, the report' author and a senior policy analyst at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "The United States and its allies in the region need an effective, long-term solution to rid the area of the extremist and terrorist elements that reside there."    » read more »

January 23, 2009 -- The FBI is working with Canadian authorities to confirm the possible sighting of one of its Domestic Terrorism fugitives.

Last November, the Bureau announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of four eco-terrorists known as “The Family.”

Rebecca Rubin, one of the four fugitives, was spotted by a tipster who may have seen her near her hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia.

We received several tips about all of the fugitives as a result of the publicity.

Some of the information was pretty specific about Rebecca Rubin

The FBI is working through its agents assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to follow up on this information.    » read more »

24 August 2008 -- Iraqi officials say a suicide bomber has struck a dinner feast west of Baghdad, killing at least 25 people and wounding 32 others.

Officials say the attacker blew himself up at the home of a local sheikh who was celebrating his son's release from U.S. detention. The guests at the dinner included members of a Sunni Awakening council -- a U.S.-allied militia group that has turned against al-Qaida.

In other violence Sunday, a double bomb attack in Baghdad against Iraqi security forces killed four people. In the eastern province of Diyala, a roadside bomb killed four Iraqi soldiers in the town of Balad Ruz, while gunmen also killed two policemen in Baquba, the provincial capital.    » read more »

23 August 2008 -- A suicide bomber blew himself up in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk Saturday, killing at least five people and wounding at least eight others.

Local police say among those killed at a car dealership in the southern part of the city was a senior member of a U.S.-allied Sunni group from Diyala province.

Earlier Saturday, unknown gunmen killed an adviser to Iraq's culture minister in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad. Authorities say Kamel Shiya was driving on a highway when the gunmen opened fire, killing him and wounding his bodyguard.    » read more »

21 August 2008 -- Authorities in Pakistan say at least 15 people have been killed in two explosions outside a weapons factory Thursday.

The blasts occurred simultaneously at two gates outside the military facility in the town of Wah. Several people were also wounded in the explosions.

Preliminary reports suggest the explosions were caused by two suicide bombers.

Pakistani security has been engaged in a growing battle with Islamic militants based in tribal regions along the Pakistani border.

Source: VOA News

Push Ban To Keep Dangerous Materials Out Of Terrorists' Hands

August 12, 2008 -- Today Representative Peter King (R-NY), Ranking Member on the House Homeland Security Committee and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo warned that current restrictions on access to highly enriched uranium (HEU) are too lax and could potentially lead to terrorists acquiring the potentially lethal material. There are seven civilian facilities across the country that continue to use HEU even though safer alternative materials exist.    » read more »

August 7, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barack Obama today released the following statement on the tenth anniversary of the African embassy bombings:

"Ten years ago, al Qaeda carried out simultaneous attacks on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Two hundred and twenty-four people were killed, including 12 Americans. Some 5,000 more people were wounded. The pain those bombings inflicted on the loved ones of the Americans that we lost - and on the people and economies of Kenya and Tanzania - can never be fully measured nor healed. I renew my condolences to all of those whose lives were changed forever on that day.    » read more »

Washington, DC, July 17, 2008 --The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated four leaders of al Qaida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a terrorist organization that has carried out numerous attacks in Algeria. On July 3, 2008, these four individuals were added to the United Nations Consolidated List of individuals and entities associated with Usama Bin Laden, al Qaida, and the Taliban.    » read more »

House Homeland Security Committee must exercise oversight over DHS’s creation of militarized zones within the US

WASHINGTON, DC, 7/17/2008 – Today, when Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union calls on the committee to exercise vigorous oversight of the many DHS programs that endanger U.S. citizens’ privacy and civil liberties without increasing security. DHS’s unchecked detention and deportation powers have resulted in abusive interrogations of families with children at checkpoints, creation of militarized zones within the U.S. and widespread fear in immigrant communities facing natural disasters.    » read more »

Frances Townsend Becomes CNN Contributor

5/13/2008 -- Frances Fragos Townsend, who recently stepped down as President George W. Bush’s chief anti-terrorism and homeland security adviser, will join CNN as an on-air contributor providing analysis and insight on national security issues, it was announced by Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S.    » read more »

8 May 2008 -- Experts appearing before a congressional panel have voiced concerns about U.S. policies toward Pakistan and Afghanistan. VOA's Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill on testimony before the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee by former State Department and military officials.

Taliban flags on Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan: Photo by Talk Radio News Service (CC)    » read more »

7 May 2008 -- A top counterterrorism official says the United States has had a mixed record of success in the fight against al-Qaida terrorists. President Bush's nominee to run the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, said Pakistan could do more to crackdown on terror safe-havens.

Afghanistan-Pakistan border station: Photo courtesy DOD

Michael Leiter, who has served as Acting Director of the National Counterterrosim Center since November of last year and is expected to be easily confirmed by the Senate, listed a number of successes in the fight against terrorism, including tracking and disrupting plots.    » read more »

Initial observations preview full report due out soon

May 6, 2008 -- WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) today helped unveil new findings from the independent Government Accountability Office showing the failure of $5.56 billion in U.S. taxpayer money since 9/11 intended to help defeat al Qaeda (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08735r.pdf).    » read more »

Document shows that U.S. could also offer removal from state sponsors of terrorism list to Sudan in exchange for allowing some peacekeepers into Darfur region

April 21, 2008 -- WASHINGTON — Last week, the New York Times reported on a Bush administration document showing that it could offer normalized relations with the Sudanese regime and removal from the state sponsors of terrorism list if Khartoum allows Thai and Nepalese peacekeepers into the Darfur region.    » read more »

U. of Penn Professor Argues We Are Suffering from a Self-Inflicted Disaster

April 7, 2008 -- March 25, Oakland, Calif—Five years after invading Iraq—a war that was sold as short-term—the U.S. is constructing permanent bases in the country and has no plans to withdraw. Presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, has endorsed an indefinite presence, lasting even a hundred years.

Taken as a whole, the War on Terror has cost the U.S. $650 billion, 30,000 wounded Americans, more than 4,000 lives, and invaluable civil liberties. Yet the conflict has uncovered no weapons of mass destruction and has succeeded only in radicalizing and augmenting the terrorist threat.    » read more »