Terrorism
TRAC data suggests shortcomings in FBI’s dealing with international terrorism
Data from the Justice Department indicates that federal prosecutors appear to have big doubts about the FBI’s criminal enforcement activities when it comes to fighting international terrorism. According to a TRAC report, federal prosecutors so far in FY 2006 have rejected 87% of the FBI’s referrals on international terrorism. The report also shows that despite…
Read MoreStudent data from financial aid forms shared with FBI
Jonathan D. Glater of The New York Times reports that, as part of post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts, that Federal Education Department shared personal information obtained on student loan applications with the FBI. “Under the program, called Project Strikeback, the Education Department received names from the F.B.I. and checked them against its student aid database, forwarding information…Neither…
Read More“The Long Shadow of 9/11”
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is running a series entitled “The Long Shadow of 9/11” in which they’ve localized the big-picture security issues facing the nation. The stories include an examination of how local police have poured vast resources into anti-terrorism policing; how the FBI has sent national security letters to casino-hotels to access guest information;…
Read MoreU.S. secretly monitoring radiation levels at Muslim sites in D.C. area
David E. Kaplan of U.S. News & World Report finds the U.S. government has been monitoring more than 100 “Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities” since 9/11 in search of a terrorist nuclear bomb. As part of the top-secret…
Read MoreTerrorism funded by organized criminal activity
David E. Kaplan, with Bay Fang and Soni Sangwan, of U.S. News & World Report found that Dawood Ibrahim, a world-class mobster and engineer of the 1993 multiple bomb blasts in Bombay, is on Washington’s radar screen for lending his smuggling routes to al Qaeda and supporting jihadists in Pakistan, based on interviews with counterterrorism…
Read MoreNavy contracted for planes in CIA operation
Seth Hettena of The Associated Press reports the Navy issued contracts for planes “reportedly used to fly terror suspects to countries known to practice torture.” The AP says documents from the Department of Defense, obtained through a FOIA request, involve more planes (33) than previously reported. While there was “scrutiny in 2001, but what hasn’t…
Read MoreDisaster planning focused on terror threats
In a Web exclusive report, Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball of Newsweek report that state emergency management directors have complained FEMA has concentrated too much on preparing for terror threats and not enough on natural disasters. “Internal Homeland Security documents obtained by Newsweek lend support to the state directors’ complaints. Out of 15 ‘all hazards’…
Read MoreHuman smuggling networks linked to terrorist groups
Pauline Arrillaga and Olga R. Rodriguez of the Associated Press reviewed court records from Mexico and the United States as part of an investigation into “the many pipelines in Central and South America, Mexico and Canada that have illegally channeled thousands of people into the United States from so-called ‘special-interest’ countries – those identified by…
Read MoreAnti-terrorism spending problems plague state
Greg Barrett of The (Baltimore) Sun reviewed thousands of pages detailing homeland security spending in Maryland, finding that while most of the $161 million since 2002 has gone to assist first responders, “Maryland is so flush with anti-terrorism grant funds and spending authority is so broad that the state has struggled, at times, to manage…
Read MorePotential terrorism targets find lax security efforts
David Kocieniewski of The New York Times uses public records to investigate the homeland security threat, specifically along a two-mile stretch, deemed the most vulnerable by terrorism experts. The investigation looked into “… a chemical plant that processes chlorine gas, so close to Manhattan that the Empire State Building seems to rise up behind its…
Read More