Zawahiri also continued his promise of near victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other issues. “

(Source: Al Qaeda Message: Ayman Zawahiri Threatens US Attacks – ABC News)

‘Today, with the formal signing of the initiative, we take several significant steps forward against terrorism,’ U.S. ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer, who signed the agreement along with Home Secretary G.K. Pillai, told reporters here.

Terming the pact as symbolic of the ‘indispensable partnership’ against terrorism, Mr. Roemer said both the countries will work closely in matters like intelligence sharing and probe into bomb blasts.

‘In the coming days and months there will be even closer information sharing and collaborative efforts on issues ranging from bomb blast probe and major event security to mega-city policing, cyber and border security,’ he said. “

(Source: The Hindu : News / National : India, U.S. sign counter terrorism initiative)

The audio was released by As-Sahab Media, al Qaeda’s production company. CNN could not verify the authenticity of the message.

Radical Islamists often use the Arab-Israeli struggle as a propaganda tool to recruit militants because they believe that Israel has no right to exist on what they consider to be Muslim and Arab land.”

(Audio purportedly from al Qaeda No. 2 says victory coming – CNN.com)

Kexue Huang, 45, was arrested July 13 on a federal indictment from the Southern District of Indiana accusing him of 12 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets to benefit a foreign government and instrumentality, and five counts of foreign or interstate transportation of stolen property.

According to FBI Special Agent Alexander H. Arnett Jr., who testified at Mr. Huang’s detention hearing yesterday in U.S. District Court in Worcester, Mr. Huang worked for Dow and allegedly took company information about an organic insecticide to a Chinese university. “

(Scientist charged with economic espionage)

Police departments in cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago have undertaken their own operations — including efforts overseas — to gather intelligence on international terrorist groups like al-Shabaab, the Al Qaeda-linked group that has claimed responsibility for the two bombs that exploded in Kampala, Uganda, on Sunday, killing at least 76 people.

But when it comes to local police efforts to collect their own intelligence, ‘there are some in federal law enforcement who think that is inappropriate,’ according to one federal law enforcement official.”

(Source: Feds Grapple With Locals’ Intelligence Ops « Liveshots)

The Justice Department pointed to this while stating that the plot to bomb New York’s subway system, uncovered in September 2009, was directed by senior Al-Qaida leadership in Pakistan.

It also said the leadership plotted to use western operatives to attack targets in Britain.

The eleven-page charge sheet, which was filed in a New York federal court, said that five of the accused had received training from Al-Qaida in Waziristan in 2008 and early 2009.”

(Source: US: Terror camps still running in Pakistan)

The three men, whose names were not released, had been under surveillance for more than a year. Officials believe they were planning attacks with portable but powerful bombs like the ones at the heart of last year’s thwarted suicide attack in the New York City subway.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has called that one of the most serious terrorist plots since 9/11. On Wednesday, prosecutors revealed the existence of a related plot in Manchester, England. Officials believe the Norway plan was organized by Salah al-Somali, al-Qaida’s former chief of external operations, the man in charge of plotting attacks worldwide.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. The Norwegian Police Security Service said only that the three were arrested on suspicion of ‘preparing terror activities.’”

(Source: The Associated Press: Officials: 3 arrested in Norway al-Qaida bomb plot)

In a terrorism indictment unsealed Wednesday, prosecutors added several al-Qaida figures to the case, including Adnan Shukrijumah, an FBI most-wanted terrorist.

Attorney General Eric Holder has called the thwarted New York plot one of the most dangerous since 9/11.

Two of the men indicted Wednesday, Abid Naseer and Tariq Ur Rehman, were linked to a companion plot in London.”

(Source: The Associated Press: US: NYC subway bomb plot linked to British cell)

The magazine itself has a hefty feature well, reports The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, consistent with what any ambitious editor would want to see in a roll-out issue. Osama bin Laden himself offers his thoughts on ‘How to Save the World’: Blow stuff up when people disagree with you about what’s Islamic! His deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, shares his insights on what’s going down in Yemen. “

(Source: Watch Out, Condé Nast: Al-Qaida Launches English-Language Lifestyle Mag | Danger Room | Wired.com)

While the incidents have been close together, the FBI, local police and the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigative Command (CID), have found no connection and no link to terrorism.

Monday’s incident involved a delivery truck driver who told a guard at the gate at Lakehurst that he had a legal firearm. That happened just as there were false reports of gunshots near another gate of the same base. The base was locked down for an hour and after an investigation, the driver was allowed to leave.”

(Lots of security incidents at military bases, but no connection seen – CNN.com)

The program is called ‘See Something, Say Something’. The program is designed to make average citizens the eyes and ears of law enforcement when officers aren’t around.”

(Las Vegas Law Enforcement Launch Anti-Terrorism Campaign – KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las Vegas)

This was one of the responses I received from a young man during my eight day trip to the Cancun area of Mexico. The farther I traveled from the concentrated tourist parts of Cancun, Cozumel, and Playa Del Carmen, the more I would hear very candid responses regarding my questions regarding her emergence. I was asked several times if I believed in her. Each time I responded: “No, just curious.” Some looked at me with intrigue and gave more information about her, others gave me a rebuke with a stern warning not to “mess with her; she’s a devil!” I came away with one primary conviction, there is a religious revival in Mexico, and it’s a dark one.

I’ve mused and stated since 1993 that cults and extremism were on the rise. Curiosity gave birth to study and later confirmation. The world has witnessed the emergence of new versions of faith coupled with bloodthirsty gods of war and vengeance. They will remain with us far into the foreseeable future according one eminent scholar.
Martin van Creveld stated:

In the future, war will not be waged by armies but by groups whom we today call terrorists, guerrillas, bandits, and robbers, but who will undoubtedly hit on more formal titles to describe themselves. Their organizations are likely to be constructed on charismatic lines rather than institutional ones, and to be motivated less by “professionalism” than by fanatical, ideologically-based, loyalties. While clearly subject to some kind of leadership with coercive powers at its disposal, that leadership will be hardly distinguishable from the organization as a whole; hence it will bear greater similarity to “The Old Man of the Mountains” than to institutionalized government as the modern world has come to understand that term.

He, unfortunately, was right.

My research defines extremism as one symptom of the fissuring and fracturing of traditional capital cohesion (the ability of leaders to maintain influence and sway over their followers). Mexico is a perfect example of this and corruption at all levels fuels the unraveling of the state apparatus. Scholars such as John Sullivan, Adam Elkus, Robert Bunker, Pamela Bunker, David Ronfeldt, and Max Manwaring have kept a careful eye on visceral violence in this country for some time. All agree that the rule of law must be restored if Mexico is going to stabilize at anytime in the near future. In recent years extremism has added fuel to this movement. Life and death issues and the thrill of battle and bloodshed, coupled with spirituality, can prove addictive for some. Extremist movements that call for violence against the state will have no shortage of willing participants. Not only are the new leaders of these movements skilled in the art of violence; they are charismatic preachers and their followers are zealously fighting against members of different faiths.

La Familia has its version of Christianity. Los Zetas and other cartels deify Santa Muerte. Some prefer the Aztec gods of war. The ideology creates followers and binds them to a higher power than the immediate leader. In February of 2009 I wrote these words and I think they are worth revisiting:

A familiar pattern is forming; criminal soldiers are creating disciples among a disaffected Hispanic population. It’s the latest craze in radicalization. Shrewd criminal networks and gangs are now acting upon the tenets of the Saint of Death in hopes of creating an even stronger bond with their members and solidifying their claims to authority by adding religious identity. Mexico and the state of Texas are the most fertile grounds for an expanding movement toward Santisma Muerte. The new preachers may soon pose a greater threat to international security by promising a holy death to their recruits and filling them with fervor unmatched by typical criminal orgs and gangs.

The fervor has helped push the death toll pass 23,000 and Holy Death has welcomed many into her bosom.

(Source: Mexico’s Drug War: “Pinal County Sheriff: Mexican drug cartels now control parts of Arizona.”)

Two U.S. military officials confirmed the estimate to CNN, emphasizing it is only an estimate because of the lack of direct intelligence information from the ground.

It comes as a senior U.S. official separately confirmed to CNN that updated plans have been put into place for U.S. special operations forces to conduct operations against al Qaeda personnel in Somalia, if targets can be identified and located.”

(Source: Up to 200 foreign fighters in Somalia, U.S. officials say – CNN.com.)

Intelligence officials believe the North hacked into the Internet identities of housewives, students and others for its campaign, the Munhwa Ilbo afternoon newspaper said.

The North has put forward the view through websites at home and abroad to give the impression that many South Koreans do not trust the findings of a multinational investigation team, it said.

The paper said South Korean intelligence officials are tracking the campaign.

‘The report is true,’ a National Intelligence Service (NIS) spokesman told AFP, declining to give details.”

(Source: AFP: N.Korea in warship sinking cyber campaign: Seoul official.)

They are accused of kidnapping, torturing, and killing left-wing activists under the country’s military rule between 1976 and 1983.

Human rights groups hope the trial will shed light on Operation Condor, a joint effort among South American military rulers aimed at suppressing opposition. “

(Source: BBC News – New ‘Operation Condor’ trial starts in Argentina.)

Now, they are working to get the whole city involved.

For months the LAPD has been rolling out the community-involvement phase of its counter-terrorism efforts. Named iWatch, it offers a crash course in identifying the types of activity the department deems suspicious and allows people to report questionable incidents to police.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and community leaders are scheduled to hold a news conference at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday to announce the expansion of the campaign into the airport with fliers and posters alerting travelers to the program.”

(Source: LAPD rolls out iWatch, an expansion of its
counter-terrorism program that gets public involved | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times.)

While the Obama administration is ‘clear-eyed about the challenge of mobilizing collective action’ those putting strategy into action will have to build smarter networks if diplomats are to collaborate effectively within complex networks of influence. Two aspects of these smart networks will be particularly important.”

(Source: National Security will require Smarter Networks – www.MountainRunner.us.)

The sticker, which was discovered on a trash can in the airport, displays a man clad in a long black jacket, all black pants, shirt, boots and baseball cap with his arms outstretched, his gaze pointed upwards and a bomb prominently attached to his chest.

In an e-mail being distributed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), it is clear that the authorities are not taking the placement of the sticker – in one of the nation’s busiest airports – lightly. The e-mail, which was obtained by GSN: Government Security News from two different sources, both whom asked not to be identified, stated, ‘Attached is a photo taken of a sticker placed on a trash bin at Reagan National Airport. ICE is circulating this photo to see if anyone knows anything about it. If you have any information, please contact your local InfraGard Coordinator and/or DHS SA.’”

(Source: Suspicious sticker found at airport | Government Security News.)

More than a million documents were siphoned by the activist as they traveled across the internet through Tor, also known as ‘The Onion Router,’ a sophisticated privacy tool that lets users navigate and send documents through the internet anonymously.

The siphoned documents, supposedly stolen by Chinese hackers or spies who were using the Tor network to transmit the data, were the basis for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s assertion in 2006 that his organization had already ‘received over one million documents from thirteen countries’ before his site was launched, according to the article in the New Yorker.”

(Source: Wikileaks Was Launched With Documents Intercepted From Tor | Threat Level | Wired.com.)

The NSS, required by Congress of every administration to be prepared every four years, for the first time combines homeland security and national security, focusing not only on threats internationally but on the threat of home-grown radicals inspired and recruited by al Qaeda.

‘We view this as an important and emerging challenge,’ Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, told reporters. Al Qaeda, he said, is less capable of using safe havens for training abroad and is now ‘trying to inspire Americans to carry out attacks on the U.S.’”

(Source: New Obama security strategy targets Americans radicalized by al Qaeda – CNN.com.)

Some 32 people were arrested, including the suspected ‘godfather’, in a strike on a crime conspiracy with tentacles stretching across the globe.

‘The target was a criminal network suspected of trafficking huge quantities of drugs and firearms and of laundering hundreds of millions of pounds (dollars, euros) in criminal profits,’ Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) said in a statement.

The gang’s suspected crime lord, a 53-year-old Irish-born British national living in Malaga, was arrested in the southern Spanish coastal resort.”

(AFP: 32 arrested in hit on major European crime ring)

Nigerian terror suspect Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab, who is charged with trying to blow up a U.S.-bound flight last December after training with al Qaeda in Yemen, also had a Facebook account.

There is little information about the role social network websites might play in the radicalization and recruitment of terrorists, but the FBI is seeing an increase in the use of such websites by radical groups.”

(Source: Alleged Terrorists Used Social Network Sites – CBS News Investigates – CBS News.)

Now, be thankful I work for a company that embodies the value of a spirit of generosity, because when I read that, I wasn’t thinking very generous things. In fact, it is precisely the mission of the NCTC to connect dots. Right? I mean, who DIDN’T know that? Really? Who didn’t know that?

Let’s assume, for the moment, that the law does not give the director of NCTC, Michael Leiter, the ‘primary responsibility within the United States Government for conducting net assessments of terrorist threats,’ which it does. “

(Source: The Intelligence Community Had 14 Chances to Connect the Dots – Politics – The Atlantic.)

Faisal Shahzad, 30, pondered attacks on Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Terminal, the World Financial Center and Connecticut helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky, going so far as to case some of the targets, a senior counterterrorism official with oversight of the investigation said Tuesday.

Dressed in a gray sweatsuit, free of handcuffs, Shahzad appeared before a federal magistrate on Tuesday afternoon to hear the charges against him. His court-appointed lawyer did not object to the government’s request that he remain in federal custody. He did not enter a plea, and Magistrate Judge James Francis set his next hearing for June 1.

Shahzad faces five counts in connection with the attempted bombing in Times Square on May 1. He could face life in prison if convicted.”

(Source: Times Square bomb suspect eyed other targets, official says – CNN.com.)