Homeland Security Newswire

The Counterterrorism Response to 9/11 Killed More People Than It Saved

Guest Writer — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:46:01 +0000

9/14/26

COUNTERTERRORISM

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Nineteen Islamist terrorists murdered 2,979 people on September 11, 2001. The government’s counterterrorism (CT) response to 9/11, which was the deadliest terrorist attack in world history, included domestic security measures like the TSA, the PATRIOT Act, surveillance, and numerous wars overseas that we lost. The costs of 9/11 were horrific, and the response was gargantuan. When studying public policy, we must ask: Was the counterterrorism response to 9/11 worth it? Did it save enough lives to pay for itself or at least break even?

In AI and Nuclear Alike, Extraordinary Claims Need Extraordinary Evidence

Guest Writer — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:44:21 +0000

9/14/26

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In 1942, scientists working on what became the Manhattan Project confronted a disturbing possibility: could an atomic explosion become hot enough to ignite a self-sustaining nuclear reaction in the atmosphere?

They took the question seriously and did the physics. Hans Bethe, Emil Konopinski and others examined whether the reactions could release energy faster than the atmosphere could dissipate it, and their calculations showed they could not. Three years later, the Trinity test went ahead.

A Blueprint for Keeping Humans in Control of AI

Guest Writer — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:42:21 +0000

9/14/26

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In Brief

● Stanford GSB researchers are building frameworks that keep AI under human control even as they become more autonomous.

● In a cooperative game, an AI agent learns when to check in with a person and when to act alone.

Another framework sets up effective oversight of an untrusted model by pools of human or AI supervisors.

Big AI Wants to Slow Down AI Research. Is It a Safety Pause or a Strategic Retreat?

Guest Writer — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:40:57 +0000

9/14/26

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Over the weekend, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called for artificial intelligence (AI) companies, including his own, to slow down their work. Sam Altman and Elon Musk, heads of rivals OpenAI and xAI respectively, agreed.

Trump on AI: AI Guardrails? Who Needs AI Guardrails?

Staff — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:39:48 +0000

9/14/26

QUOTE OF THE DAY

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From the headlines: “A.I. Queries from Abroad Raise Fears of a Biological Weapons Race: Today’s chatbots aren’t likely to help lone actors invent a deadly pathogen, experts say. But newer models, trained in biology, may need stronger safeguards.”

Financial Surveillance in the Shadow of 9/11

Guest Writer — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:38:15 +0000

9/14/26

SURVEILLANCE

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September 11 marks one of the darkest days in US history. Terrorists murdered thousands of people on American soil, put countless people in fear for their safety, and left a scar in American history that can still be felt to this day. Yet what is less known is the financial surveillance that was expanded in the wake of the attack.

A Year of Hands-On Security Work for Cybersecurity Master’s Students

Staff — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:36:26 +0000

9/14/26

CYBERSECURITY

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NYU Tandon School of Engineeringannounced today that it has launched the NYU Software Supply Chain Security Operations Center (NSOC), a new initiative in the NYU Center for Cybersecurity (CCS) whose centerpiece is a one-year program that embeds Tandon master’s students directly in the open-so

A Federal Judge Just Told Trump There’s no “Emergency” to Justify Keeping a Michigan Coal Plant Open

Guest Writer — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:34:45 +0000

9/14/26

POLITICIZING ENERGY

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The Department of Energy overstepped when it ordered an aging coal-fired power plant in Michigan to stay open past its planned retirement date last year, a federal court ruled on Friday.

Trump Says a Smart President Is All That’s Needed to Rein In A.I. | Growing Fears of a Biological Weapons Race | Experts Sound Alarm over US Counter-Terror Efforts, and more

Staff — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:32:03 +0000

9/14/26

OUR PICKS

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Trump Says a Smart President Is All That’s Needed to Rein In A.I. (Jonathan Swan, New York Times)
The president again rejected calls to try to regulate the industry, even as some of its leaders are speaking more openly about the risks of rapidly developing artificial intelligence.

Trump Has Killed ‘Strategic Ambiguity’ Over Taiwan | The Laws of War Must Change for the Drone Age | South Africa Is at Risk of Becoming a Mafia State, and more

Staff — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 11:31:09 +0000

9/14/26

WORLD ROUNDUP

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China’s Top Spy Chief Warns A.I. Is a Threat to Party Rule (Lily Kuo, New York Times)
Even as Beijing urges the United States not to hype the dangers of A.I., its own spy chief is framing the technology as a threat to the Communist Party’s security.