Homeland Security Network Blog

By: NBC News The leaders of Iraq and Nigeria on Tuesday asked for more international support of their efforts to stem the spread of Islamic extremism that is feeding ISIS and its African affiliate, Boko Haram. Their pleas came during a United Nations summit led by President Obama in which representatives of dozens of countries shared ideas on how to counter the recruitment of would-be terrorists around the world, stanch the flow of those radicalized young people into Syria and Iraq, and block supporters from sending money to the extremist groups. Top billing went to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, both of whom are on the battle's front lines. There was no representative from the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whom Obama blames for a long and bloody civil war that helped give rise to ISIS. Abadi said his country is working to reform its...

By: DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis  Outgoing Deputy Director of the Shin Bet internal security service, Ronny Alsheikh, 52, leaves a job which emowered him to pick up a phone and order an undercover unit to go after a high-profile terrorist. But as new Commissioner of Police, he will function, like in most democracies, in the toils of a labyrinthine system of rules, restrictions, civilian and media oversight and politics.  The Shin Bet is like fellow security, espionage and intelligence agencies, in that it enjoys untrammeled access to the Interior Ministry’s files containing the personal data of every Israeli citizen, resident and visitor, such as addresses, dates of birth and death, marital status, criminal and other police records, travel movements and also their communications by cell phone and e-mail. This access is allowed under the law defining the agency’s top missions as being to catch spies and combat homeland terrorism. But as police...

 By: Cliff May  Not long after the implosion of the Soviet Union, I attended a conference in Moscow. The topic: how Russia would evolve in the post-communist era about to begin. Most participants were confident and optimistic. A few of us Americans — not so much. I pointed out that in libraries around the world are hundreds of books on the transition from capitalism to socialism. But a treatise on how to move in the other direction? That would be like finding a cookbook instructing how to make eggs out of omelets. You know happened after that: A small group of former Soviet officials and their cronies appropriated the bulk of the nation’s resources. But that doesn’t begin to describe the brutality and moral degradation of the kleptocracy that is Russia today. What does: A book by Bill Browder, published this year, titled, “Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance,...

By L. Todd Wood - Washington Times Nuclear annihilation across the globe. This is what a German reporter who successfully embedded with the Islamic State says the terror group is planning. Jurgen Todenhofer released his findings in a book titled “Inside IS - Ten Days in the Islamic State,” reports the UK’s Daily Express. “The terrorists plan on killing several hundred million people. The west is drastically underestimating the power of ISIS. ISIS intends to get its hands on nuclear weapons,” says Todenhofer, calling the group a “nuclear tsunami preparing the largest religious cleansing in history. “They now control land greater in size than the United Kingdom and are supported by an almost ecstatic enthusiasm the like of which I’ve never encountered before in a war zone. Every day hundreds of willing fighters from all over the world come. They are the most brutal and most dangerous enemy I have ever...

By Zeina Karam The Associated Press BEIRUT — When world leaders convene for the U.N. General Assembly this week, it will be a year since the U.S. president declared the formation of an international coalition to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State terrorist group. Despite billions of dollars spent and thousands of airstrikes, the campaign appears to have made little impact. The terrorist group may control slightly less territory than a year ago, but it continues to launch attacks and maintains key strongholds in Syria and Iraq. The terrorists' reach has expanded to other countries, including Libya, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Afghanistan. U.S.-led airstrikes helped Syrian Kurds hold the strategic border town of Kobani in January, and seize another key border town, Tal Abyad, this summer. But a much-touted offensive to oust Islamic State terrorists from the Iraqi city of Ramadi remains stalled; there have been grave losses among the...