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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries Tagged as 'Homeland Security'

Most support full body scanners.

November 24th, 2010 · Accountability, Homeland Security, National Security, Terrorist Threat, War on Terrorism

By Jon Cohen and Ashley Halsey III Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Nearly two-thirds of Americans support the new full-body security-screening machines at the country’s airports, as most say they put a higher priority on combating terrorism than protecting personal privacy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

But half of all those polled say enhanced pat-down searches go too far.

The uproar over the new generation of security technology, and the frisking of those who refuse it, continued Monday with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano saying the new measures are necessary for public safety.

“There is a continued threat against aviation involving those who seek to smuggle powders and gels that can be used as explosives on airplanes,” she said. “The new technology is designed to help us identify those individuals.”

According to the Transportation Security Administration, less than 3 percent of travelers receive the pat-downs.

But Napolitano said the TSA would “listen to concerns. Of course we will make adjustments or changes when called upon, but not changes or adjustments that will affect the basic operational capability that we need to have to make sure that air travel remains safe.”

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White House undeterred after Ghailani terror case verdict: Serving Terrorist Interest not US

November 22nd, 2010 · Accountability, Deception, Democrats, Dissention, Homeland Security, National Security, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Threat, Treason

By Anne E. Kornblut and Peter Finn Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, November 18, 2010; 4:17 PM

White House officials said Thursday that the acquittal of Ahmed Ghailani on all but one of more than 280 criminal charges in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa would not undermine their effort to try former Guantanamo detainees in civilian court, even as the mixed verdict reignited debate over that policy.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Ghailani – the first former detainee to be tried in federal court – will receive a lengthy prison sentence for his conviction on one count of conspiracy.

“In the case of Mr. Ghailani, there was a guilty verdict, a minimum sentence of 20 years that incapacitated somebody that has committed a terrorist act and because of that incapacitation is not going to threaten American lives,” Gibbs told reporters.

Gibbs deflected questions about where future trials will be held but said President Obama “remains committed to closing Guantanamo Bay,” a process that would require trying detainees in civilian courts or in the military commissions established during the Bush administration.

Republican lawmakers, however, said the verdict should force the administration to abandon the civilian trials. “I am disgusted at the total miscarriage of justice today in Manhattan’s federal civilian court,” said Rep. Peter T. King (N.Y.), the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee. “This tragic verdict demonstrates the absolute insanity of the Obama administration’s decision to try al-Qaeda terrorists in civilian courts.”

After deliberating for five days, a jury found Ghailani, 36, guilty of conspiracy to damage or destroy U.S. property but acquitted him of multiple murder and attempted-murder charges for his role in the bombings.

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Homeland Security tightens rules for air cargo

November 9th, 2010 · Accountability, Homeland Security, National Security, Terrorist Threat, War on Terrorism

By Derek Kravitz and Ashley Halsey III Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 9, 2010; 12:24 AM

The U.S. tightened security on cargo shipments flown from abroad Monday, banning “high-risk” cargo from flying on passenger planes after last month’s discovery of a plot that originated in Yemen to send bombs in shipped packages.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also extended last week’s ban on all air cargo from Yemen to include Somalia as well. And she limited to less than 16 ounces the size of toner or ink cartridges that can travel in checked or carry-on baggage, a response to the discovery of a bomb disguised as a toner cartridge and shipped as cargo at a London airport.

“The threats of terrorism we face are serious and evolving,” Napolitano said in a statement, “And these security measures reflect our commitment to using current intelligence to stay ahead of adversaries.”

The new rules also affect items deemed high-risk that are shipped on cargo planes. Napolitano said such cargo will go through additional screening before it is loaded. A spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) declined to define “high-risk” cargo, other than to say it isn’t limited to that shipped from countries that have been linked to terrorist activity.

‘A delicate balance’

Millions of tons of crates and packages fly into the United States from abroad every day, filling the holds of passenger airliners and cargo planes. Those millions of tons break down into millions of pieces bound for tens of thousands of addresses.

Finding a bomb among them – before the Chilean grapes rot, the Colombian flowers wilt and without delaying a vital replacement widget needed to get an assembly line moving – is a hectic security challenge in a global economy that moves at hyper speed.

“We have a delicate balance to strike,” TSA Administrator ohn S. Pistole said after the bomb plot was discovered. “The flow of global commerce is key to economic recovery. Security cannot bring business to a standstill.”

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U.S. deploying drones in Yemen to hunt for Al-Qaeda, has yet to fire missiles

November 8th, 2010 · Defense, Homeland Security, National Security, War on Terrorism

By Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe and Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 7, 2010; 12:48 AM

The United States has deployed Predator drones to hunt for al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen for the first time in years but has not fired missiles from the unmanned aircraft because it lacks solid intelligence on the insurgents’ whereabouts, senior U.S. officials said.

The use of the drones is part of a campaign against an al-Qaeda branch that has claimed responsibility for near-miss attacks on U.S. targets that could have had catastrophic results, including the recent plot to place parcels packed with explosives on cargo planes.

U.S. officials said the Predators have been patrolling the skies over Yemen for several months in search of leaders and operatives of the group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. After withstanding a flurry of attacks involving Yemeni forces and U.S. cruise missiles earlier this year, AQAP’s leaders “went to ground,” a senior Obama administration official said.

The use of U.S. drones in Yemen underscores the deep U.S. reliance on what has become a signature weapon against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

The deployment also represents an attempt by the Obama administration to reinvigorate a campaign that has gone without a visible U.S. strike for nearly six months. Officials praised Yemeni cooperation and said they have been given wide latitude. Pressed on whether the drones would be free to shoot, a second administration official said, “The only thing that does fall into the ‘no’ category right now is boots on the ground.”

The officials and others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military and intelligence operations.

Yemeni officials said the United States had not yet pushed for the use of Predator-fired missiles and indicated that they had deep reservations about weapons they said could prove counterproductive.

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Fort Hood marks massacre anniversary

November 6th, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Homeland Security, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Attack, Treason

Victims, heroes remembered at Fort Hood.

By Ann GerhartWashington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 6, 2010; 1:02 AM

Until Friday, there was only one outward symbol at Fort Hood of the chaos and carnage that erupted there on Nov. 5, 2009. The wreaths of ribbons and flowers hung on a fence surrounding Building 42003 at the massive Army post in Texas. They were placed there by a wife who became a widow that day.

Now there is a 6-foot-tall granite memorial, unveiled at a ceremony on the one-year anniversary of the massacre, the worst at a U.S. military installation. Inscribed with the names of the 13 slain when a soldier opened fire as they waited to do paperwork before a deployment, the marker has taken its place near the post’s memorials to those killed in war – more than 500 in the past five years.

“Our home was attacked . . . not in a distant battlefield but right here . . . and American heroes sacrificed their lives,” Gen. William Grimsley, Fort Hood’s commanding general, told about 1,000 people gathered Friday morning for the ceremony, according to the Associated Press.

Grimsley and Army Secretary John M. McHugh presented awards to more than 50 soldiers and civilians – some of whom had been shot themselves – who rushed to aid the wounded. Some recently relived the horror, when they testified at a hearing for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged with multiple counts of murder. Some spent much of the past year in Afghanistan and Iraq, returning a few weeks ago.

“It’s a chapter in this Army that no matter how many tears may fall, [they] will never, ever be washed away and will be part of our history forever,” McHugh said, the wire service reported.

While military officials kept their remarks focused on sacrifice and resilience, others used the shooting anniversary to renew their criticism of a Defense Department they say still is not adequately alert to extremists developing in its ranks.

Hasan, 40, an Army psychiatrist, alarmed colleagues with talk of whether his patients could be prosecuted for war crimes. He sent more than a dozen e-mails in the months before the shooting to radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, an American citizen now targeted by the United States for assassination.

The department “still refuses to even use the words ‘radical Islam’ in their report on the attack or recommendations on how to prevent future attacks,” said Rep. John Carter, the Texas Republican whose district includes Fort Hood. “That does not instill confidence in Congress that the DoD is taking the necessary steps to protect our troops.”

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Judge questions Justice Department’s lawsuit against Arizona immigration law

November 2nd, 2010 · Accountability, Democrats, Dissention, Homeland Security, Immigration, Immigration, National Security, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Threat

By Jerry Markon Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 1, 2010; 6:27 PM

A federal appellate judge expressed deep skepticism Monday about a Justice Department lawsuit challenging Arizona’s new immigration law, leaving uncertain the Obama administration’s chances of stopping the law from taking effect.

Judge John T. Noonan Jr. grilled administration lawyers at a hearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. He took aim at the core of the Justice Department’s argument: that the Arizona statute is “preempted” by federal law and is especially troublesome because it requires mandatory immigration status checks in certain circumstances.

“I’ve read your brief, I’ve read the District Court opinion, I’ve heard your interchange with my two colleagues, and I don’t understand your argument,” Noonan told deputy solicitor general Edwin S. Kneedler. “We are dependent as a court on counsel being responsive. . . . You keep saying the problem is that a state officer is told to do something. That’s not a matter of preemption. . . . I would think the proper thing to do is to concede that this is a point where you don’t have an argument.”

“With respect, I do believe we have an argument,” said Kneedler, who asserts that the Arizona law is unconstitutional and threatens civil liberties by subjecting lawful immigrants to “interrogation and police surveillance.”

The exchange came at a hearing on efforts by the Justice Department to overturn the Arizona law, which empowers police to question people they suspect are in the country illegally and has triggered a fierce national debate. A federal judge in Phoenix issued a July injunction blocking the law’s most contested provisions from taking effect. Arizona appealed, leading to the Monday hearing.

With Noonan, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, so bluntly stating his views, legal experts said the government’s chances of having the injunction upheld may rest with the other two judges on Monday’s panel: Carlos T. Bea and Richard A. Paez.

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Internet helped Muslim convert from Northern Virginia embrace extremism at warp speed

November 2nd, 2010 · Homeland Security, National Security, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Threat

By Tara Bahrampour Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 2, 2010; 12:49 AM

For months, the radical young Muslim convert had been waging war online, championing violent jihad from his computer in Northern Virginia.

Zachary Adam Chesser often wrote scathingly about people who voiced support for the mujaheddin but who made no move to join them. The fact that he remained safely in the United States clearly troubled him as 2009 gave way to 2010.

In March, Chesser begged the fighters already abroad to “not forget those of us who have lagged behind.”

“Your fingers glide over cold steel whilst mine merely grace the empty plastic of my keyboard,” the 20-year-old white suburbanite posted to his Web site, themujihadblog. “If I die in this land then what will I say to Allah? ‘O Allah I was just going to wait until the mujahideen reached America. I swear I would have joined them, but they took too long.’ ”

Chesser, who pleaded guilty in federal court Oct. 20 to supporting Somali terrorists and threatening the creators of “South Park” for mocking the prophet Muhammad, hadn’t been a Muslim long. He converted to Islam in 2008, soon after graduating from Oakton High School in Fairfax County.

His emergence online as a Muslim extremist followed at warp speed. By the time federal agents arrested him in July for trying to travel to Somalia and join the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabab, he’d gone from breakdancing high school kid to bearded radical in little more than two years.

For Chesser, it was the latest – and perhaps most unlikely – in a series of identities he’d experimented with, then discarded.

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Explosive found in Dubai, part of US terror probe

October 29th, 2010 · Homeland Security, National Security, Terrorist Attack, Terrorist Threat

By EILEEN SULLIVAN and MATT APUZZO – The Associated Press
Friday, October 29, 2010; 4:37 PM

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama declared Friday that authorities had uncovered a “credible terrorist threat” against the United States following the overseas discovery of U.S.-bound packages containing explosives aboard cargo jets.

Obama said both had been addressed to Jewish organizations in the Chicago area.

The events “underscore the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism,” the president said. The packages both originated in Yemen, but Obama did not assign blame to al-Qaida, which is active in the Arab nation and long has made clear its goal of attacking the United States.

The events unfolded four days before national elections in which discussion of terrorism has played almost no role

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Suspicious packages bound for the US possibly linked to al-Qaeda

October 29th, 2010 · Homeland Security, National Security, Obama's Scheme, Terrorist Attack, Terrorist Threat

By Greg Miller and Peter Finn Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 29, 2010; 3:36 PM

U.S. counterterrorism officials said that two suspicious packages removed from cargo planes en route to the United States on Friday did not contain explosives but may have been part of an attempt by an al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen to test cargo screening systems for vulnerabilities.

“That’s one of the theories – that they are testing the system and probing for weaknesses,” said a U.S. counterterrorism official. “Rehearsals get you closer to the game.”

The official said that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or AQAP, as the Yemen-based al-Qaeda offshoot is known, is suspected of being involved in the plot. “They’re on the short list,” the official said.

The White House said that intelligence and law enforcement agencies had “discovered potential suspicious packages on two planes in transit to the United States.”

The discovery led officials to search a United Parcel Service plane at the East Midlands airport near Nottingham in England, which is a UPS hub, and a FedEx plane in Dubai.

The package in Britain contained a printer toner cartridge – an item so commonplace that authorities questioned why someone would pay to ship it such a distance.

Although it tested negative for explosives, the cartridge contained protruding wires and white powder, heightening suspicions that terrorists might be attempting a dry run.

The packages found in Dubai and Britain came from the same address in Yemen and reportedly were addressed to Chicago synagogues.

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Despite successful U.S. attacks on Taliban leaders in Afghanistan’s northwest, insurgency remains in control

October 25th, 2010 · Deception, Defense, Democrats, Federal Spending, Foreign Policy, Government Control, Homeland Security, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Threat, Treason, War on Terrorism

By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 24, 2010; 1:34 AM

MAQUR, AFGHANISTAN – October has been a calamitous month for the Taliban guerrillas waging war from sandy mountains and pistachio forests in this corner of northwestern Afghanistan.

The first to die was their leader, Mullah Ismail, hunted down and killled by U.S. Special Operations troops. Next came the heir apparent, Mullah Jamaluddin, even before he could take over as Taliban “shadow” governor. Within a week, several other top commanders were dead, a new governor had been captured and the most powerful among the remaining insurgents had lit out for the Turkmenistan border – all casualties of the secretive, midnight work of American commandos.

And yet what has happened here in Badghis province also shows how large a gap remains between killing commanders and dismantling an insurgency. Nearly half of the province remains under insurgent control, an Afghan intelligence official estimated. A new Taliban governor has already been dispatched to the province, Afghan officials say, even though NATO portrayed Mullah Ismail’s killing as a “huge blow” that would “significantly reduce Taliban influence throughout the region.”

“Fighting in Afghanistan is like hitting coals with a stick, it just spreads to other places,” said Delbar Jan Arman, who as provincial governor is trying to stave off the Taliban advances. “It will continue.”

The barrage launched against the Taliban by Special Operations forces here in recent weeks is part of a broader American effort that is clearly succeeding. As other U.S. goals in Afghanistan have faltered – reforming the government, winning hearts and minds – Gen. David H. Petraeus and his new troops have so far succeeded at killing their enemies. American officials have held up the example of the onslaught against the Taliban leadership as a clear sign of progress, a development sure to factor into President Obama’s December review of the Afghan campaign.

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