Posts Byadmin - 12/856 - Terrorism.com
Security basics
January 30, 2003 | adminDuring the past several years, federal agencies have spent immense amounts of time and money trying to make their computer systems safe and secure from unauthorized use or intentional damage. These efforts are laudable, and much progress has been made to protect the national information technology infrastructure from malefactors of various sorts. There is, however, one significant area in which substantially more progress is needed: encouraging government contractors to establish and maintain meaningful computer security procedures. Full Story
The BlackBerry Thicket
January 30, 2003 | adminCongress worries that legal hassles may shut down the wireless e-mail service that it now depends on. Should the government seize the technologies necessary for public safety? As if members of Congress didn’t have enough trouble communicating with each other, a lawsuit now threatens to shut down their handheld e-mailing system. In November, a federal court ruled that Research in Motion, the Canadian company that makes BlackBerrys, infringed on a patent held by NTP, of Arlington, Virginia. The jury awarded NTP $23 million, but the Virginia company wants more, including an injunction that could force BlackBerry to go dark. Congress, evidently, is afraid of that dark. Full Story
American Taliban moved from Virginia to California prison
January 30, 2003 | adminJohn Walker Lindh, the American serving a 20-year sentence for helping the Taliban, has been transferred to a federal prison in this desert community northeast of Los Angeles. Lindh, 21, arrived at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in Victorville on Saturday, under guard by federal marshals, authorities said. He had been held at a federal lockup in Virginia. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison last October after pleading guilty to supplying services to the Taliban during the war in Afghanistan and carrying explosives in commission of a felony. Full Story
Global Ship Piracy Up Again, Terrorism Feared-IMB
January 30, 2003 | adminActs of piracy are rising sharply and global shipping is increasingly prone to “terrorist” attack, an ocean crime watchdog said on Thursday. In its 2002 annual report the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which monitors crime on the high seas, said the attacks on shipping worldwide rose steeply to 370 incidents last year compared to 335 in 2001. The IMB highlighted the dangers of a new and disturbing trend: attacks by militant groups like al Qaeda on tankers and merchant ships using small boats packed with explosives. In direct reference to the attack on the French tanker the Limburg, rammed by an explosive-laden boat in the Gulf of Aden last October, it said such acts would be difficult to stop. Full Story
Russia Expels US Woman
January 30, 2003 | adminRussia has deported an American woman who allegedly tried to contact Islamic extremists to give them advice on terrorism. Officials from the FSB security service accused Megan McRee of using the internet to get in touch with groups including al-Qaeda, according to reports from Moscow. She had offered suggestions on how and where to carry out attacks, officials said. Ms McRee, however, was deported for failing to register her visa. Full Story
Indonesian Muslim Militia Head Cleared
January 30, 2003 | adminA court in Indonesia has cleared the leader of a former Islamic militia of inciting violence between Muslims and Christians. ” I hope this is an attempt by the judge to uphold freedom of speech in defence of the state and its people ” Jafar Umar Thalib. The cleric, Jafar Umar Thalib, was accused of the offence while he led the Laskar Jihad militia on the religiously-divided Moluccan Islands. Full Story
Hundreds of Recruits Ready to Retaliate, Europe Warns
January 30, 2003 | adminSpanish police arrest an alleged al-Qaeda member in Barcelona last Friday. European investigators have evidence that over the past six months Islamic militants have been recruiting hundreds of Muslims to carry out attacks in the event of a war against Iraq. A French anti-terrorism expert, who requested anonymity, said one threat to Europe came from radical groups that have links with Chechnya and have learned how to make chemical weapons at training camps in Afghanistan or while serving in the Soviet army. He said Chechnya was a kind of “neo-Afghanistan”, a new training ground and staging area for anti-Western terrorists. His thesis, he said, has been validated by new information about intense recruiting and training and a focus on chemical weapons. Spanish and British police reported finding chemical protection suits during raids last week in Barcelona and London. Full Story
Colombia Rebels Plan Handoff of US, UK Journalists
January 30, 2003 | adminMarxist Colombian rebels called on Wednesday for an official commission to receive a U.S. photographer and British reporter kidnapped last week in a violent stretch of eastern Colombia, and reiterated plans to release the journalists “safe and sound.” “We are requesting a commission from the public prosecutor’s office and the (government’s) human rights office … to receive the journalists,” the Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army, or ELN, said in a statement obtained by Reuters. British reporter Ruth Morris and U.S. photographer Scott Dalton were abducted while traveling on freelance assignment for the Los Angeles Times along a rural road on Jan. 21 in the province of Arauca, where U.S. Special Forces this month started training local troops in counterinsurgency techniques. Full Story
Missing Algerian MP Found Murdered
January 30, 2003 | adminThe decomposing body of a missing Algerian MP has been found in the boot of his car in Paris. Abdelmalek Benbara, a member of the prime minister’s party, had been missing for nearly three weeks when his body was discovered on Wednesday, police sources said. He was taken to a Paris morgue, where an autopsy was to be carried out on Thursday. The politician’s ankles had been bound together. Mr Benbara “appeared to have died on the day of his disappearance”, a police source said. He was reported missing on 9 January after he failed to meet an appointment in Paris with a friend. His car was found to be unlocked. Police discovered Mr Benbara’s identity papers among his belongings. Mr Benbara, of the National Liberation Front, was elected to Algeria’s National Assembly last May. Full Story
Three Held in Kabul on Anti-US Bomb Plot Suspicion
January 30, 2003 | adminThree men were detained in the Afghan capital of Kabul on suspicion of plotting to bomb U.S. targets in the city, the U.S. military said Thursday. “Afghan intelligence forces working with U.S. special forces and U.S. Marines from the (U.S.) embassy detained three men last night in Kabul who were suspected of planning to bomb U.S. and coalition facilities there,” a military spokesman said. He told reporters at Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan just north of Kabul, that an explosive device had been found on the premises where the men were detained. Full Story