As a friend from one of the Commonwealth nations points out, “Nice job by the domestic intelligence service,” which is his subtle but well-meaning dig at both our FBI and larger intelligence apparatus. Domestic tip-off; foreign intelligence supplement; and allied intel cooperation all operationalized for the door-kickers inside of a year. Were this a US…

As I alluded to earlier, it is a little hard to accurately assess things if you’re not prepared to use accurate if un-PC language. US and UK media might have an aversion to mentioning the Muslim connection, but the Italian media apparently does not. Ethnic and religious descriptions are hardly immaterial in situations like this,…

Bloody day job . . . Surveillance, electronic or otherwise, works:  By late 2005, the probe had expanded to involve several hundred investigators on three continents. They kept dozens of suspects under close surveillance for months, even as some of the plotters traveled between Britain and Pakistan to raise money, find recruits and refine their…

As a guy who knows a thing or two about warning systems, I watched again with dismay the misuse and abuse of the homeland security advisory system today. Granted, it isn’t really a “warning” system per se, but the general concept is the same: give people a quick way to assess the threat. The problem…

This by Evan Kohlmann on the CT Blog yesterday 8/9: Participants on key Arabic-language Al-Qaida chat forums on the Internet have announced their intent to launch collective cyberterrorist attacks tomorrow, August 10, aimed at interrupting or denying service to other pro-Israeli websites–namely the “Internet Haganah” cyberterror watchdog site run by Aaron Weisburd. […] . .…

What a day to sleep in. Some quick hits before I descend into the seventh level of teleconference hell: In the words of Secretary Chertoff this latest plot is “suggestive” of al-Qaida because it is essentially a dusting off of the plans for Operation Bojinka; funded by al-Qaida and put together by two guys whose…

. . . about everything covered in the MSM – especially war – is suspect. Some of you didn’t need confirmation, but since I have a nice side-bar going with former info ops colleagues a post seemed appropriate. Army of Analysts Experts people, Army of Experts . . .

It is so easy to get worked up over pieces like this after reading a piece like this. I have watched so many sharing efforts come and go, each purporting to do what the previous efforts were unable to do. Technology is usually a major factor in each effort, but as the second article points…

A US Navy sailor, Ariel J. Weinmann, is suspected of spying for Israel and has been held in prison for four months, according to an article published Monday in the Saudi daily Al-Watan. It reported that Weinmann is being held at a military base in Virginia on suspicion of espionage and desertion. According to the…

There is something unseemly about breaking the risk of terrorism down into a numbers game, but when you have to make decisions about finite funds and resources there is no avoiding it. Having said that I think the author (pdf) has done a fine job pointing out both the cold mathematical facts as well as…