National Security Council
Iran, a Rising Star That’s Now Too Powerful to Ignore
In his new book, Robert Baer paints a picture of Iran as a disciplined, strategic, monolithic “police state” and military power driven by imperial ambitions. |
After Bombing, Pakistan’s President Is Pressured
The deadly truck bomb attack complicates efforts by the new president, Asif Ali Zardari, to fight militants in the tribal areas and cooperate with the United States. |
Real Heroes, Fake Stories
Many stories about 9/11 are as close to truth as the myth of the Trojan Horse. We must not allow the real heroism of that day to be diminished by self-serving agendas. |
In Areas Under Russian Control, Limits for Western Media Journalists’ inability to visit villages routed in the conflict make a public accounting of the aftermath of the violence in South Ossetia and northern Georgia all but impossible. |
William Hyland, Who Guided Foreign Policy, Dies at 79
Mr. Hyland helped shape United States foreign policy, particularly toward the Soviet Union, and later became editor of Foreign Affairs. |
Global Strategy or Grand Illusion?
What sets Fred Kaplan’s “Daydream Believers” apart is his emphasis on the Bush administration’s failure to come to terms with a post-cold-war paradigm. |
Politeness of China Talks Can’t Disguise the Discord U.S. relations with China are going through a difficult phase, as disputes are sometimes crowding out areas of agreement between the two nations. |
Bio-terrorism / Terrorism News
Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:00:00 PST Bio-terrorism / Terrorism Final World Trade Center 7 Investigation Report Released By NIST The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released its final report on the Sept. 11, 2001, collapse of the 47-story World Trade Center building 7 (WTC 7) in New York City. The final report is strengthened by clarifications and supplemental text suggested by organizations and individuals worldwide in response to the draft WTC 7 report, released for public comment on Aug. |
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:00:00 PST Bio-terrorism / Terrorism Investigations Following A Death From Anthrax Following the announcement of the death of a patient from inhalation anthrax the Health Protection Agency have been carrying out testing at the patient's workshop in Hackney, where animal skin drums were made. Testing was carried out to see whether there were traces of anthrax at the property and if any specialist cleaning was needed before it could be used again. |
Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:00:00 PST Biology / Biochemistry "Powerhouses" From Living Cells Power New Explosives Detector - Journal Of The American Chemical Society Researchers in Missouri have borrowed the technology that living cells use to produce energy to develop a tiny, self-powered sensor for rapid detection of hidden explosives. The experimental sensor, about the size of a postage stamp, represents the first of its kind to be powered by mitochondria, the microscopic "powerhouses" that provide energy to living cells, the researchers say. Their study is scheduled for the November 26 issue of the weekly Journal of the American Chemical Society. |
Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:00:00 PST Flu / Cold / SARS Molecule That Stops SARS Invented By Purdue Researcher A Purdue University researcher has created a compound that prevents replication of the virus that causes SARS and could lead to a treatment for the disease. "The outbreak of SARS in 2003 led to hundreds of deaths and thousands of illnesses, and there is currently no treatment," said Arun Ghosh, the Purdue professor that led the molecular design team. "Although it is not currently a threat, there is the concern that SARS could return or be used as a biological weapon. |
Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:00:00 PST Bio-terrorism / Terrorism MAIL DEFENDER Now Available To Combat "White Powder" And Fake Anthrax Bio-Chemical Assaults BioDefense Corporation, producers of the new MAIL DEFENDER complete mailroom security solution, is on the front lines of combating bio-chemical assaults. "Incoming mail containing white powder discovered on October 30, 2008 at the Boston Herald, Christian Science Monitor and more than 100 media offices across the country are not 'hoaxes. |
Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:00:00 PST Public Health Pitt Researchers Receive $2.7 Million To Develop Drug That Counters Radiation Exposure Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have been awarded $2.7 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to develop a radiation mitigator drug that could counter the effects of radiation exposure in case of large-scale public exposure. |
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 PST Bio-terrorism / Terrorism Medarex And PharmAthene Announce New Therapeutic Data For Anthrax Anti-Toxin, Valortim(R) Medarex, Inc. (Nasdaq: MEDX), a leading monoclonal antibody company, and PharmAthene, Inc. (NYSE: PIP), a biodefense company developing medical countermeasures against biological and chemical threats, announced results from a pilot study showing that the anthrax anti-toxin, Valortim(R) (MDX-1303), enhanced survival as compared to a control group in a therapeutic animal model known as the New Zealand White (NZW) rabbit model. |
Yahoo Terrorism Feed
Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:47:24 GMT Diabetes Obama moves to pick Geithner for Treasury
(Reuters)
Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama on Friday moved toward nominating Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary and charging the respected head of the New York Federal Reserve with helping pull the United States out of an economic nosedive.
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Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:07:51 GMT Diabetes Obama eyes Arizona governor for Homeland Security
(Reuters)
Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama is considering Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to be U.S. Homeland Security secretary, heading a sprawling agency formed to bolster civil defense in the wake of the September 11 attacks, a senior Democrat said.
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Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:34:05 GMT Diabetes ACLU denounces Gitmo judge's replacement
(AP) AP - The American Civil Liberties Union is criticizing a decision by the U.S. military to assign a new judge to handle the cases against the alleged Sept. 11 conspirators held at Guantanamo Bay. |
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:47:14 GMT Diabetes Chief military judge in Guantanamo to retire early
(Reuters) Reuters - The U.S. military judge in the case of the accused mastermind of the September 11 attacks has decided to retire rather than continue to oversee the complex proceedings, defense officials said on Monday. |
Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:10:21 GMT Diabetes Military judge in 9/11 case replaced
(AFP)
AFP - A new military judge has been named to the trial of accused September 11 mastermined Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other defendants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a Pentagon official said Monday.
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Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:59:37 GMT Diabetes How the Al Qaeda Terrorism Threat is Mutating
(U.S. News & World Report) U.S. News & World Report - Terrorist chieftain Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding in one of the world's most remote areas--the tribal territories between Pakistan and Afghanistan--but tracking him down remains a priority for the CIA,
seven years after the 9/11 attacks. At the moment, bin Laden "appears
to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the
organization he leads," CIA Director Michael Hayden told a group in Washington. |
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:00:00 GMT Diabetes Morgan Keegan invests in resilience
(InfoWorld) InfoWorld - For Morgan Keegan, the dire events of Sept. 11 drove home the importance of resiliency in advance of disaster. Inspired by those who rallied toward recovery in the immediate aftermath, and aware of the importance of operational continuity in the financial services sector, the regional investment firm began its project to build greater reliability into its systems the very next day. |
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency homeland security research Web site
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NEWS
BLAST!
SKOWHEGAN - Two teenage boys from Skowhegan were arrested over the weekend after two homemade acid bombs were set off Saturday inside a Wal-Mart filled with holiday shoppers.
Global Terrorism Statistics Released
Clearinghouse Data Show Sharp Rise
By Susan B. Glasser
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 28, 2005; Page A07
The U.S. government released statistics yesterday documenting a dramatic increase in terrorist attacks last year and a death toll of close to 2,000 people around the globe, a disclosure made a week after the State Department said it would publish its congressionally mandated annual survey of international terrorism without the statistical portrait it has always included.
The numbers were provided instead by the government's new clearinghouse for terrorism-related information, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and included statistics documenting a sharp surge in significant terrorist acts from 175 incidents that killed 625 in 2003 to 651 such attacks that killed 1,907 in 2004. But senior officials said the threefold increase was a result of changes in methodology and urged reporters at a hastily called briefing not to compare this year's terrorism numbers with previous ones. Congressional aides already had disclosed the increase in terrorist incidents to reporters Tuesday after a private briefing.
Read the whole article
Lessons on how to deal with terrorism
By MARGARET
COSTELLO
Star-Gazette
Article Reference:
http://www.stargazettenews.com
At the end of the day, what matters most
is being able to go home.
Just ask Timothy
Culbert, whose primary
responsibility at work is to find, remove and
detonate explosives.
Unfortunately, he said his skills are being
requested more frequently.
Family members of deceased World War II
veterans are uncovering "souvenir"
grenades and explosives that have become more
unstable with age, international
terrorists are planting explosive packages in
high-traffic areas and teen-agers
are creating pipe bombs and other homemade
explosives from Internet recipes.
Then there was the tragedy at Columbine High
School in Littleton, Colo., on
April 20, 1999. Two students planned an assault
on the high school and used guns
and explosives to kill 12 students, two teachers
and themselves.
"After Columbine, I realized I was not getting
the word out fast enough,"
Culbert said.
Now Culbert, President of New England Chemical
& Explosive Disposal Co.
Inc. in Winthrop, Maine, shares his knowledge of
explosives with law
enforcement, fire school and emergency response
officials. He will launch online
training on identifying and responding to
explosives Friday at
www.bombthreats.com.
Culbert was one of the featured speakers
Friday at a two-day seminar,
"Terrorism and You," that continues today at the
Holiday Inn-Riverview in
Elmira.
More than 180 school, fire and police
officials from across New York and
Pennsylvania attended the first day of the
seminar, which is sponsored by the
West Elmira Fire Department.
Culbert focused his presentation on what he
called the three R's: recognize a
bomb, respect the dangers associated with it and
remove people from its
destructive range.
He brought many examples of explosives,
ranging from military weapons to
dynamite sticks to more creative homemade bombs.
He showed a video of how much
damage small amounts of explosives can cause,
then brought the message home.
Culbert escorted participants outside to an
empty field adjacent to the
hotel, where he had put a small piece of
detonation cord inside a cardboard box.
"Fire in the hole," Culbert yelled three times.
Then boom!
A puff of smoke and a spattering of cardboard
shreds filled the air.
Again.
"Fire in the hole," Culbert yelled.
A louder boom that shook everyone's sternum. A
child's knapsack had exploded
into partially recognizable bits: a zipper here,
a torn strap there and scraps
of plastic everywhere.
When the participants returned inside, Culbert
provided practical advice on
how to search a school or other building to help
speed the process and ensure
the safety of everyone involved.
About a third of the participants at the
seminar represented a school
district, said West Elmira Deputy Chief Mark
Miles, who organized the event.
"I think it's great that there are so many
educators here," said another
participant, Andy Hall, who works for the New
York State Office of Fire
Prevention and Control in Albany.
"A lot of times in the past, these people have
been left out of the
training," Hall said. "It's great that they're
learning because they're going to
be there. They're going to call us."
The Southern Tier was plagued with a series of
copycat bomb threats following
the Columbine incident.
Ernie Davis Middle School teacher Doug
Stadelmaier said he will share what he
learns at the seminar with other members of the
school's crisis team.
Stadelmaier, who is also a lieutenant with the
Pine City Volunteer Fire
Department, said he learned that every bomb
threat must be taken seriously.
He also said he learned why parents should not
be allowed to take their
children from the school during a bomb threat and
how the schools can educate
parents and the students about these issues.
Culbert explained that when a student leaves
during a bomb threat, school
officials have no way of knowing where those
students are and can waste time
looking for them and wondering if they are still
in danger. Dealing with parents
and other concerned parties during the crisis
delays the school and police
response, Culbert said.
Some fire officials said the training on
explosives is becoming more
important for them as well.
Capt. Richard Philling of the Troy Volunteer
Fire Department said
firefighters never know what they're going to
encounter when they respond to a
scene. He recounted a recent incident in a
neighboring town that involved
explosive materials that put the volunteer
firefighters at risk, Philling said.
Richard Garrison, another member of the Troy
fire department and the safety
director for a lumber company, said rural
communities such as Troy are not
immune to terrorist acts normally associated with
large cities.
"It's becoming a more real threat everywhere,"
Garrison said.
More people are expected to participate in the
seminar today to hear the
presentations of two key players in the Columbine
incident: Chuck Burdick,
division chief of operations with the Littleton
Fire Department, and Jefferson
County (Colo.) Sheriff John P. Stone.
"Unfortunately, more people need to have a
basic understanding on how to deal
with explosives," Culbert said. "If it looks like
a bomb, treat it like one. If
it turns out to be nothing, that's fine. Everyone
goes home at 5 p.m. That's
what we want."
This page was
last updated 3/1/2001 11:30:18 AM.
This page was last updated 9/24/2006 4:58:27 PM.