Courtsey of Time (oddly enough): U.S. intelligence got its first inkling of the plot from the contents of a laptop computer belonging to a Bahraini jihadist captured in Saudi Arabia early in 2003. It contained plans for a gas-dispersal system dubbed “the mubtakkar” (Arabic for inventive). Fearing that al-Qaeda’s engineers had achieved the holy grail…

(H/T Bruce Schneier) Yet another disturbing story about DHS, the punch line being: Homeland Security, the $40-billion-a-year agency set up to combat terrorism after 9/11, has been given universal jurisdiction and can hold anyone on Earth for crimes unrelated to national security — even me for a court date I missed while I was in…

The U.S. FBI may have lost 400 pieces of equipment, National Journal’s Technology Daily reported Monday.The Federal Bureau of Investigation still has not told the Government Accountability Office what has happened to hundreds of pieces of equipment that were supposed to be part of a failed department-wide case-management system. “The FBI also has not provided…

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff no longer has a problem with spam. Not wanting to be deluged with lots of garbage, Chertoff no longer uses e-mail. His conversion to Luddism started after Hurricane Katrina last year, when a deluge of overnight messages about levee breaches flooded his e-mail account, according to a report in U.S.…

“John Doe,” late of the CIA, sounds off with his ideas on how to shake things up (via Washington Times): Why not reform the intelligence community to make core functions the centerpiece of a truly effective intelligence service? A small but efficient DNI office can manage the community and serve as the link to policy-makers.…

Iraq’s national security adviser said Thursday a “huge treasure” of documents and computer records was seized after the raid on terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s hideout, giving the Iraqi government the upper hand in its fight against al-Qaida in Iraq. […] When asked how he could be sure the information was authentic, al-Rubaie said “there…

Emphasis mine: U.S. immigration officials said on Wednesday they had arrested 55 illegal immigrants who were working at a construction site in the secure area at Dulles International Airport.

Dr. Hamre’s comments in Federal Times. The kicker: To date, most investments in new technology have not produced major productivity improvements because we have introduced new technology into unchanging organizations with inflexible operational concepts. Computers simply streamlined obsolete business practices. True productivity will come only when we break free of the current structure and let…

Incomprehensibly, there are reports that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has decided to oust fellow Rep. Jane Harman of California in January as the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Mrs. Pelosi intends to replace Mrs. Harman in her Intelligence Committee leadership role with Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida, who, depending…

Spooky86 sends out a Warning Report: From today’s Financial Times comes word that North Korea may be planning a test-launch of its Tapeo Dong 2 (TD-2) missile from a test site along its northeastern coast. A test launch of the missile’s medium-range predecessor (designated the TD-1) created an international incident in 1998, when the missile…