The background of President-elect Barack Obama’s pick to head the Department of Homeland Security will reveal a lot about how his nascent administration views the future of the troubled agency, according to Washington insiders. “There are any number of excellently qualified candidates,” P.J. Crowley ...
The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a new audio recording from the Amir al-Mumineen (“Commander of the Faithful”) of Al-Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. According to al-Baghdadi, the purpose of the audio recording addressed to the “new rulers in the White House” ...
Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, might as well be from a different planet. The actions seen from him over the years have caused confusion among those following the news from South America, but the world has grown accustomed to this demeanor. So when he popped into the news again it was of little s ...
U.S. and international efforts to combat terrorist financing are a little understood—and often unappreciated—aspect of the global counterterrorism campaign. With this in mind, soon after rejoining The Washington Institute after serving in the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial I ...
In the day-to-day discussions and actions to combat terrorism, particularly radical Islamist terrorism, we generally agree that it will be a long struggle that could last generations. I agree. But it is useful to step back and realize there is a powerful weapon that we CAN use to great effect. Both ...
I just wrote an article for the Middle East Times looking at the possibility of a Syrian invasion of Lebanon. You can read the full article here. Here is an excerpt: President-elect Obama should be careful in his dealings with the Syrian regime. In fact, quite possibly, Assad might be pondering if h ...
The NEFA Foundation has transcribed and translated a highly controversial new interview with Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, the leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq. During the interview, produced by the official media wing of Al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Hamza pointedly accused various other Sunni insurgent groups—including ...
The three Bali bombers, Imam Samudra, and Mukhlas were executed today by firing squad. To their last day, they were unrepentant, showed no remorse for the bombings that killed 202 people, and expressed their desire to be martyrs. Sentenced in 2003, the three convicted bombers appealed their verdict ...
The Bush administration is rejecting FBI pleas for more agents to investigate crimes that helped trigger the global financial meltdown, bureau sources said this week. “They are bogged down big-time or there would be some indictments by now,” said a recently retired bureau official who played a pivot ...
My new book, Knowledge Discovery for Counterterrorism and Law Enforcement, is out. You can buy a copy from: The publisher’s website Amazon. (Despite what these pages say, the book is available or will be within a day or two.) As the holiday season approaches, perhaps you have a relative who’s in law ...
