Homeland Security Network Blog

By Brian Michael Jenkins, contributor at TheHill.com For many Americans, the era of modern terrorism began on 9/11. The catastrophic death and destruction on that horrific morning seemed to obliterate the nation's collective memory of recent history. But the phenomenon of contemporary global terrorism actually emerged more than 40 years ago, as this week's episode of the CNN series "The Seventies" makes clear. While terrorism worldwide has increased over the past four decades — and the threat of terrorism continues to dominate Americans' fears — the nearly 14 years since 9/11 have been tranquil on the home front compared to the violent 1970s. Nearly 9,840 incidents of terrorism were recorded worldwide during that decade, and more than 7,000 people were killed. During the recent surge from 2002 through 2013, 72,185 terrorist attacks occurred — and nearly 170,000 died because of them. But in the United States, terrorism has declined dramatically since...

By Jennifer Agiesta, CNN Polling Director Washington (CNN)A majority of Americans want Congress to reject the recently-negotiated nuclear deal with Iran, even as President Barack Obama's approval rating continues to stand in net-positive territory for the second month in a row, according to a new CNN/ORC poll. The new CNN/ORC poll finds 49% approve of the way Obama is handling his job, 47% disapprove, about the same as in a June survey, which found the President's approval rating at 50% for the first time since 2013. But on the President's biggest accomplishment since then -- the nuclear agreement reached between the U.S., its allies and Iran -- most say they would like to see Congress reject it. Overall, 52% say Congress should reject the deal, 44% say it should be approved. READ THE POLL RESULTS Some opposition to the deal may be fueled by skepticism. A CNN/ORC poll in late June, conducted...

By Danuta Kozaki Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:107%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} A leading international counter-terrorism expert from Israel has issued a warning to Australia about the success rate of deradicalization programs. Professor Boaz Ganor, from the International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism, has told a meeting in Sydney only a minority of deradicalization cases work. "I don't believe in deradicalization in general terms because once those people have been radicalized, it is practically impossible to uproot those ideas in their heads," he said. "However, I'm a great believer in prevention. A lot can be done in the education and religious systems to prevent those people who might be intrigued." Professor Ganor was speaking at a forum organized by the New South Wales Parliamentary...

  The Washington Post By Liz Sly and Karen DeYoung BEIRUT — Turkey has agreed to let the United States use Turkish soil to launch air attacks against the Islamic State, signaling a major shift in policy on the part of the once-reluctant American ally, U.S. officials said Thursday. The decision to allow U.S. warplanes to use the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey is one element in a broad cooperation plan first broached nine months ago. Additional elements — including expanding U.S. airstrikes into the western part of the border area and using Turkish military ground spotters to guide them — are being discussed and finalized. Turkey had resisted being drawn too deeply into the war against the Islamic State because of concerns about the direction of the Obama administration’s Syria policy. The Incirlik deal was sealed in a telephone conversation Wednesday between President Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip...

 The Wall Street Journal - By Hillel Fradkin and Lewis Libby The Obama administration assures Americans that the Iran deal grants access within 24 days to undeclared but suspected Iranian nuclear sites. But that’s hardly how a recalcitrant Iran is likely to interpret the deal. A close examination of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action released by the Obama administration reveals that its terms permit Iran to hold inspectors at bay for months, likely three or more. Paragraphs 74 to 78 govern the International Atomic Energy Agency’s access to suspect sites. First, the IAEA tells Iran “the basis” of its concerns about a particular location, requesting clarification. At this point Iran will know where the IAEA is headed. Iran then provides the IAEA with “explanations” to resolve IAEA concerns. This stage has no time limit. Opportunities for delay abound. Iran will presumably want to know what prompted the IAEA’s concern. The...

Washington (CNN)"Good morning, American pilots. We are here to greet you on your Fourth of July Independence Day." That was the message two Russian bombers delivered while flying within tens of miles of the California coast this month to the U.S. fighter jets that intercepted them, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command. The greeting may have been unusual, but the close encounter was not. Russian military planes have been encountered near U.S. airspace a number of times before. On June 4, 2014, U.S. fighter jets intercepted Russian bombers off Alaska and California following a string of aerial encounters over the Pacific. According to U.S. defense officials, four long-range Russian Tu-95 Bear-H bombers, accompanied by an aerial refueling tanker, flew into the U.S. Air Defense Identification Zone, an area extending 200 miles from the North American coast, off Alaska, where they were intercepted by U.S. F-22 fighter jets. Two of...

Reuters - NEW DELHI | By Sanjeev Miglani Japan is set to take part in joint naval exercises with India and the United States in the Indian Ocean in October, military and diplomatic sources said, a drill that so riled China eight years ago that Delhi has not since hosted such a multilateral wargame. The Indian Ocean has emerged as a new arena of competition between China making inroads and India trying to recover its position as the dominant maritime power in the region. New Delhi’s decision to expand the “Malabar” exercises that it conducts with the United States each year to include Japan suggests a tightening of military relations between three major maritime powers in Asia, analysts said. Military officials from India, the US and Japan are meeting at a US navy base in Yokosuka, near Tokyo, on Wednesday and Thursday to plan the exercises, a navy and a diplomatic...

  By Jacqueline Klimas - The Washington Times ArmyGen. Mark Milley joined other top military brass Tuesday in naming Russia as the top threat the U.S. faces today, as lawmakers questioned the wisdom of cutting an Army base in Alaska. “Russia is the only country on earth that contains a nuclear capability that could destroy the United States,” Gen. Milley told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing to consider his nomination to serve as the next Army chief of staff. “It’s an existential threat to the United States, so it has capability. Intent, I don’t know; but the activity of Russia since 2008 has been very, very aggressive.” Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula in February 2014, annexing the Ukrainian territory as part of Russia, and have supported ethnic-Russian rebels in the eastern part of its neighbor. Other spheres in which Russians have acted aggressively include their jets...

\ By Michael Pearson, Gul Tuysuz and Nimet Kirac, CNN CNN)An apparent suicide bombing ripped through a rally Monday in the Turkish border town of Suruc, leaving at least 28 people dead and wounding 100 others, provincial Gov. Izzettin Kucuk told Turkish media. The explosion occurred at midday at the Amara Cultural Park in Suruc, where a group had gathered calling for more help to rebuild the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani, CNN Turk reported. Suruc is about 6 miles from the border and Kobani, the Syrian city that was the scene of intense fighting between Syrian rebels and Kurdish forces and ISIS. Photos and video taken from the scene show bodies strewn around a park and dazed people at the blast site while emergency teams rush to aid victims. "Kids were screaming, everyone was screaming and running," eyewitness Erhan Subasi told CNN. "Everyone was in a panic but trying to...

By Barbara Opall-Rome 5:01 p.m. EDT July 16, 2015 WASHINGTON — A former top adviser to US President Barack Obama is calling on Washington to provide bunker-busting B-52 bombers to Israel as a means of bolstering Israeli deterrence and the credibility of its so-called military option should Iran opt out of commitments codified in Tuesday's deal with world powers. "To have a credible military option, it's not enough to say all options are on the table. We have to be much more blunt," said Ambassador Dennis Ross, a longtime diplomat and former special adviser to Obama on Iran. In an interview Thursday, Ross said he favors the transfer of an unspecified quantity of B-52 Stratofortress bombers outfitted to deliver 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators as one of the means of shoring up deterrence vis a vis Iran. "Deterrence becomes a very important question as we move toward implementation," Ross told Defense...

BY: Adam Kredo    July 13, 2015 2:21 pmAn Iranian court on Monday issued a ruling fining the United States $50 billion for purported damages against the Islamic Republic and its citizens, according to an announcement by Iran’s Judiciary.Iran claims that the United States is guilty of inflicting “heavy loss and damage” on the country, as well as “killing the Iranian nationals by assisting their enemies,” such as former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, according to Iran’s state-controlled Fars News Agency.The ruling charges “the U.S. administration with the payment of a total 50-billion-dollar fine for the losses it has incurred on real and legal entities,” according to Fars.A spokesman for Iran’s Judiciary was quoted as saying during a press conference in Tehran that “those who had filed a lawsuit against the U.S., their complaints have been processed.”Specific names of those leveling these charges were not released.Following a supposed court hearing and judicial review,...

By: homelandsecuritynewswire.comWe accept lengthy queues in airport security as a small price to pay for a couple of weeks in the sun. Could the latest threat to air travel, however, be something that cannot be picked up by metal detectors and X-ray machines? Is cyberjacking — hacking into a plane’s computer systems — a possibility? Researchers warn that it is possible. There is no need to cancel that holiday just yet, however.When Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished en route to Beijing in March 2014, the horror and mystery of the story captivated the public. And as with any mystery, the lack of a definitive answer left a void for speculation and conspiracy theories. Was the aircraft shot down? Was it hijacked and flown to an unknown location? Was the plane’s computer system somehow hacked allowing it to be controlled remotely?A City release reports that it was this latter theory that most...

    Over the past three years, the Obama administration has delineated the criteria that any final nuclear agreement between the P5+1 and Iran must meet. In speeches, congressional testimony, press conferences, and media interviews, administration officials have also articulated their expectations from Tehran with repeated declarations: “No deal is better than a bad deal.” This FPI Analysis, which updates an earlier publication from January 2015, compiles many of the administration’s own statements on nuclear negotiations with Iran over the past three years, and compares them with current U.S. positions. It also examines U.S. statements on a range of other issues related to U.S. policy toward Tehran, and assesses whether subsequent events have validated them.   CONTENTS I. Requirements for a Good Deal II. Dismantling Sanctions III. Iran's Ballistic Missile and Terrorist Threats IV. U.S. Credibility and the Role of Congress       I. REQUIREMENTS FOR A GOOD DEAL  ...

  By Rachel Middleton London's largest ever counter-terrorism exercise will take place today and tomorrow and will involve 1,000 police officers at various locations across the capital, as well as soldiers, emergency services and intelligence officers. The exercise, code named Strong Tower, is not based on any specific intelligence but is part of a long-term strategy of planning and preparing for all possible types of terrorist attacks, the BBC reported. Planning for the two day exercise started in January, and only a dozen people know the full script to ensure that the officers and other services participating face the maximum challenge. While much of the exercise will be hidden from view, senior officers have cautioned that there may be times when the public may hear loud noises or see areas being cordoned off. Scotland Yard will be posting updates about the exercise on Twitter, using the hashtag #999exercise. BBC said the...

  PARIS | BY BRIAN LOVE A man who beheaded his boss, pinned the head on a fence and tried to blow up an industrial gas plant will be investigated on terrorism charges, France's chief public prosecutor said on Tuesday, dismissing the suspect's claim that his act was not motivated by connections with Islamist militants. Prosecutor Francois Molins announced the news at the end of a 96-hour custody period following the arrest of Yassin Salhi, 35, at the scene of the crime near the southern city of Lyon. The attack last Friday came five months after 17 people were killed in Paris by Islamist militants who targeted the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical journal and a Jewish shop. Molins said 120 investigators had spent four days combing through phone messages and quizzing Salhi, who worked as a delivery man, and his relatives. They discovered he had sent two photos of his act to...

With seven arrests in the last few weeks of ISIS inspired Jihadists, and with grave concerns from Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson about the July 4th Holiday, it took the New York Times just minutes to use the tragic deaths in Charleston to trumpet “Homegrown Extremists Tied to Deadlier Toll than Jihadists in the US since 9/11.” Really?  They seem to have had this one in their drawer, ready to go, perhaps since Obama’s “Extremist violence” conference back in February.  Ready for some nut to kill innocent people. Are they really ready to stoop this low to serve as the mouthpiece for the protect Radical Islam party that now governs us? It appears they are. They found some second rate academics  named Kurzman and Schanzer who did some research asking 382 police and sheriff’s departments to rank the 3 biggest threats from “Violent Extremism – there goes that euphemism again. Surprise,...

                 Hook a brother up and you can win a MACBOOK PRO at our Conference! We will have the very best speakers in Homeland Security at our 10th Annual Homeland Security Professionals Conference, November 3-4th in Orlando Florida. We know this is important to you as a First Responder. This year's theme is "The State of our Counter Terrorism".   Now, with budget cuts for Police Training, First Responders and the anti-Police sentiment, it feels to us as though this is a policy that needs to be reversed. Our Nation’s First Responders are required more than ever. The FBI says attacks by ISIS inspired Islamists are on their way. And yet it feels as though the only increase in budgets is for the Muslim Brotherhood.      If you feel like we do, get this mail (see below) out to at least 50 of your friends and ask them to do...

    From biosecurity to geospatial intelligence, learn how Penn State World Campus homeland security students are working hard to keep America safe, secure, and resilient against threats to our national security. Click here to learn more about Penn State World Campus Homeland Security Program Master of Professional Studies in Homeland Security. Learn more!