Authorities have arrested and deported dozens of young Israelis since early last year who represented themselves as art students in efforts to gain access to sensitive federal office buildings and the homes of government employees, U.S. officials said. A draft report from the Drug Enforcement Administration – which first characterized the activities as suspicious –…

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has strongly criticised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as Israel launched more attacks against Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Full Story

Bush administration officials have concluded that the same walls erected to keep terrorists out of the country and off commercial airplanes could also stem the steady flow of illegal drugs into the United States. Full Story

A southern Philippine mayor said Wednesday that his followers seized eight relatives of Muslim extremist rebels in a bid to force them to swap an American couple and a Filipino nurse they hold hostage. Full Story

Jerusalem police are trying to determine who placed the medium-sized bomb that went off in the courtyard of a high school in the southeastern Jerusalem village of Sur Bahir yesterday morning, lightly wounding seven students and a teacher. A heretofore unknown Jewish group calling itself “The Avengers of the Oppressed” took responsibility in pager messages…

At least seven Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers have been killed amid an intensified Israeli military offensive in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces carried out one of the most extensive assaults on Gaza since the current intifada began, after a rocket fired by Palestinians hit an Israeli town for the first time…

At least 32 people, including 22 suspected Islamic guerrillas, were killed in clashes as separatist violence gathered momentum in India`s troubled Kashmir state, a police spokesman said. Three people were killed Tuesday as Muslim separatists holed-up in civilian homes exchanged heavy gunfire with Indian troops in northern Kashmir, the spokesman said. Full Story

The White House is launching a review of its policy toward Cuba which will assess the communist country’s threat to U.S. interests, and examine the possibility of seeking an indictment against President Fidel Castro for the 1996 shootdown of two Miami-based private planes, U.S. officials said. The evaluation may well lead to a tougher stance…

Despite its losses on the battlefield, Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida is still attempting to communicate, and U.S. officials say they have indications that the group is using most, if not all, of their original high-tech means to do so. Ironically, al-Qaida has taken advantage of Internet and security technology developed by American companies. Here’s a…

Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the eastern Afghanistan mountains are “taking a beating” at the hands of U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces, U.S. operation commander Maj. Gen. Frank Hagenbeck said Wednesday in Afghanistan. But U.S. officials in Washington cautioned that they have indications that al Qaeda and Taliban fighters were regrouping across the border…

Security experts demonstrated today just how effectively determined attackers can use freely and openly available information on the internet to gather intelligence about a target organisation. Security firm Matta this week released a white paper on internet-based counter intelligence using the CIA as the target. According to the firm, the results were “surprising”. Full Story

Newly detected Internet traffic among Al Qaeda followers, including intercepted e-mail messages, indicates that elements of the terror network may be trying to regroup in remote sanctuaries in Pakistan near the Afghan border, government officials say.United States officials said they had discovered the existence of new Web sites and Internet communications that appeared to be…

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta opposes pilots’ demands for firearms to defend the cockpit against hijackers but would support stun guns that use an electric current to temporarily incapacitate an attacker, Saturday’s Los Angeles Times reports. Full Story

A Canadian Senate report released on Friday said poor security in the country’s ports makes them easy targets for terrorists trying to travel or transport illicit materials, in part because the ports are infested by organized crime. One concern is that terrorists will use the port environment to stage an attack on the United States,…

Nine of the hijackers who commandeered jetliners on Sept. 11 were selected for special security screenings that morning, including two who were singled out because of irregularities in their identification documents, U.S. officials said this week. Full Story

Police in Italy are investigating whether six men arrested last week, including some alleged members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network, were plotting a bio-terrorist attack involving cyanide, judicial sources said on Sunday. The arrests apparently foiled the second such threat in less than a month. Full Story

Despite miles of new concrete barriers, towering walls, bomb-residue tests, metal detectors, gas masks and tight restrictions on diplomats’ travel, a recent tunnel found near the U.S. Embassy in Rome makes clear that America’s overseas missions remain strikingly vulnerable. Full Story

Afghanistan, the Philippines, Georgia and now Yemen — the latest front in the U.S. war on terrorism will be the mostly desert nation on the Arabian Peninsula. On Friday, the Yemeni government confirmed reports that U.S. forces will train and advise the army in what would become the fourth stage in the U.S. campaign. The…

Alarmed by growing hints of al Qaeda’s progress toward obtaining a nuclear or radiological weapon, the Bush administration has deployed hundreds of sophisticated sensors since November to U.S. borders, overseas facilities and choke points around Washington. It has placed the Delta Force, the nation’s elite commando unit, on a new standby alert to seize control…

The FBI is investigating the possibility that a power outage on the last day of the Winter Olympics was caused by a bomb, The Associated Press has learned. Electricity was cut to 33,000 customers — including the airport and the main media center downtown — for up to two hours Sunday morning when a circuit…

A Palestinian sniper opened fire on Israeli soldiers and civilian cars at an army checkpoint in the West Bank, killing 10 people, officials said. Israel responded with a series of strikes against Palestinian security installations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that killed at least four policemen. Full Story

Indian troops and police appeared to have brought most of Gujarat state under control Sunday after hundreds people died in the nation`s worst Hindu-Muslim bloodshed in a decade. Full Story

Pledging to “put the brakes on terror,” Israel said it would exert constant military pressure on the Palestinian Authority and militant groups after a rash of deadly attacks that stunned the country. Full Story

The Israeli army kept up its unprecedented assault on two Palestinian refugee camps on Friday despite U.S. calls for restraint and fears that the upsurge in violence could derail a new peace initiative. Full Story

case of mistaken identity sparked an international air furor that raised the specter of Sept. 11 on Thursday as Canadian and U.S. jet fighters accompanied an Air India flight into New York believed to be carrying a suspicious passenger. The passenger, who authorities did not identify except to say he was British, was released by…

Addressing a gathering of over 1800 delegates from over 55 countries at the 2002 World Congress on Information Technology, former U.S. president Bill Clinton called for developed nations to use IT to bridge the digital divide, and use technology to make partners–not terrorists–of developing nations. “You can make a compelling argument for technology having created…

The threat of biological weapons is growing and states have a vital national security role to play in preparing against such actions, several health experts said at the National Governors Association winter meeting this week. “We have been very complacent about bioweapons and we have been very complacent about infectious diseases,” Dr. Donald Henderson, director…

At a hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Technology and Procurement, chief information officers from federal agencies said turf wars and “stovepipes” of information created by incompatible computer programs are frustrating efforts to bolster homeland security. Full Story

The U.S. government`s so-called war on terror has prompted a new focus for federal chief information officers, according to a new study by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). The ITAA study said the focus for federal CIOs before Sept. 11 was on implementing the Bush administration`s “Quicksilver” plan to design and approve e-government…

The computers that control the electric power system around the nation have been probed from the Middle East, and terrorists may have inspected the physical equipment, said experts at a conference on the security of the electric system. Government experts identified nuclear power plants as perhaps the most attractive targets but said dams, gas pipelines…

The death of a Tennessee driver`s license examiner accused of helping six illegal immigrants get false drivers` licenses was no accident, the FBI said Friday. Katherine Smith was found burned to death in her car early Sunday, a day before she was to be arraigned on federal charges she helped five men and one juvenile…

The shaky transitional government in Somalia — a possible target of the U.S. war on terrorism — has called for urgent international help in combatting terrorist activity. In a report circulated Wednesday, the government said the United Nations has two choices: watch the country slide back into anarchy and chaos or lend active support to…

On the home front in the war on terror, the Bush administration moved this week to tighten security at the nation`s 103 nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ordered more rigorous employee screening and guard training, as well as the stopping of any vehicles on approach roads to nuclear power plants. Full Story

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday it is ordering nuclear power plant operators to adopt new security measures and to formalize two dozen other advisories issued since Sept. 11. The agency did not cite a specific threat, but the order is part of its ongoing top-to-bottom security review ordered after the attacks on the United…

Iran has arrested 150 suspected Taliban and al-Qaida members near its border with Afghanistan, the country’s Islamic Republic News Agency reported Thursday, citing an “informed source.” The detainees, some of them women and children, are from Arab, African and European countries and some carried French, British, Belgian, Dutch and Spanish passports, according to the report,…

The Transportation Department plans to replace all Argenbright Security units at U.S. airports within several weeks of taking over baggage and passenger screening contracts from the airlines next week following security breaches after the Sept. 11 attacks, a senior agency official said Thursday. Full Story

The family phone of an al-Qaida suspect who killed himself Wednesday to avoid capture by Yemen’s security police had been used to relay orders to the Sept. 11 hijackers and the terrorist cells responsible for the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa and the USS Cole, U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News on…

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center caused a significant amount of damage to America`s telecommunications infrastructure. According to a new study, protecting the network has become a high priority in the months following the attacks. The study, by research firm Cahners In-Stat/MDR, called Sept. 11 the “biggest catastrophe” ever to hit…

The Bush administration`s top cyberdefense official said today there is evidence that the terrorist group al-Qaeda was using the Internet to gather intelligence about critical facilities in the U.S., and other terrorist groups and nations may be doing the same. But so far, said Richard Clarke, the head of the White House`s Office of Cyberdefenses,…

A 30-year-old Palestinian has become Al Qaeda`s new chief of operations and is believed to be organizing remnants of the network to carry out new attacks against the United States, The New York Times reported on Thursday. Full Story

The new Transportation Security Administration plans to incorporate biometrics into pilot programs at airports nationwide, according to Rick Lazarick, an integration lead for airport security technology with the Federal Aviation Administration. “We`re going to spread it out and get a look at a lot of different things,” Lazarick said at the Biometric Consortium Conference Feb.…

The White House plans to set up a central office to coordinate the government`s response to cybersecurity attacks, said Richard Clarke, President Bush`s cyberspace security adviser, speaking to Congress on Feb. 13. The Cybersecurity Information Coordination Center will be modeled on a similar operation that coordinated the government`s response to the Year 2000 computer crisis…

The Transportation Security Administration must find new ways to screen checked baggage for explosives, or it will miss a key deadline in the 2001 Aviation and Transportation Security Act, Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead told a House panel on Wednesday. The agency will not be able to install enough explosive-detection machines in the nation’s airports…

The nation`s homeland security chief on Wednesday highlighted new ways that technology is helping the United States meet its long-term goals for better security along borders and within transportation systems, while not suffocating commercial industry and economic growth. Full Story

After months of criticism that they do not work well together, the CIA and FBI have begun jointly developing a new supercomputer system designed to improve their ability to both cull and share information, White House and other U.S. officials told Global Security Newswire yesterday. Under a directive issued by President Bush, and overseen by…

It was an odd moment in a kidnapping, as one of the captors felt a pang of discomfort. The American backpacker had climbed willingly into the conspirators` van, lured by the false promise of dinner with a local Delhi family. Now it was time to tell him he was a hostage. The crisis of conscience…

Hollywood couple Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon are to make a film about the 11 September attacks in New York, focusing on the bravery of a British security officer. Robbins and Sarandon are to base their film on the bravery of Rick Rescorla, a Cornwall-born war hero, who died in the attacks saving thousands of…

The CIA Hellfire missile attack in eastern Afghanistan that killed three men believed to be senior al Qaida leaders came as Afghan forces planned to raid a nearby village where Osama bin Laden was thought to be holed up, United Press International has learned. Controversy still surrounds the Feb. 3 missile attack, launched remotely by…

A randy, drug-fueled romp in a New York-bound jet`s rest room sparked a midair terror scare that sent a pair of F-16 fighter jets scrambling, authorities revealed yesterday. But the red alert aboard American Airlines Flight 101 from London on Friday gave way to red faces when authorities discovered all the fuss was over two…

The United States might retaliate militarily if foreign countries or terrorist groups abroad try to strike this country through the Internet, the White House technology adviser said Wednesday. “We reserve the right to respond in any way appropriate: through covert action, through military action, any one of the tools available to the president,” Richard Clarke…

US aircraft carriers and spy planes will be deployed around the Korean peninsula during this year`s World Cup finals and Asian Games, a South Korean report said. The deployment was requested by South Korea, and the United States agreed to position AWACS surveillance planes over the peninsula, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said Thursday. US military…

Washington police are building what will be the nation`s biggest network of surveillance cameras to monitor shopping areas, streets, monuments and other public places in the U.S. capital, a move that worries civil liberties groups, The Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday. The system would eventually include hundreds of cameras, linking existing devices in Metro…

His beard was more grunge goatee than a flowing symbol of religious devotion, and his portable CD player pumped out American pop music more frequently than Koranic lectures. Yet Fathur Roman al-Ghozi was the man Al Qaeda trusted to get things done in Southeast Asia, intelligence officials here say. Full Story

Two men were in federal custody Wednesday after they were arrested this week in a tow truck carrying fake identification near the Pentagon, law enforcement officials said. Law enforcement officials said one of the men had previously been interviewed as part of the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks and claimed to have known one…

The FBI has asked police and the public to be on the lookout for red-and-white teddy bears, made for Valentine’s Day, that could be used to conceal a bomb. Full Story

suspected al-Qaida member who blew himself up after being cornered by security forces was related to one of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers, Yemeni security officials said Thursday. Sameer Mohammed Ahmed al-Hada, who died in the confrontation with police Wednesday, was a brother-in-law of Khalid Almihdar, the officials said on condition of anonymity. Full Story

The reputed leader of a feared paramilitary army is forecasting an even bloodier chapter in Colombia`s civil war, saying he plans to nearly double his forces in the next year. In a rare interview under the watch of armed guards, Salvatore Mancuso said the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, has already swelled…

American John Walker Lindh, who fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a 10-count indictment that includes charges he conspired to kill Americans abroad. Full Story

President Bush, speaking as his administration considered ways to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said on Wednesday he reserved all his options to act but he would not disclose them at this time. `I will reserve whatever options I have. I`ll keep them close to my vest. Saddam Hussein needs to understand that I`m serious…

The commander in chief of U.S. special forces met his troops in the southern Philippines Thursday, 72 hours before the United States opens a second front in its global war on terror. Full Story