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The Counter Terrorist Your bi-monthly update on Homeland Security
SSI- Security Solutions International wishes every one of the nearly 100,000 that receive our e-mail newsletter, a joyous holiday season. May it be healthy, happy and safe. We also wish you a Happy New Year and will return in the first few days of 2008.
The SSI staff.
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Judge: Imam Can't be Deported -- for Now
A Miami federal judge gave a local imam some protection from detention and deportation Thursday in a case that has drawn the attention of a national Muslim civil rights organization.
Foad Farahi said he was coerced into accepting voluntary deportation by U.S. immigration officials -- a claim emphatically denied by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
On Thursday, Judge Marcia Cooke prohibited immigration officials from arresting or deporting Farahi without first consulting the federal court.
Farahi's lawyer, Ira Kurzban, said he had feared Farahi would be quickly deported to Iran -- a country he has never lived in -- if the imam's appeals in immigration courts failed before a federal judge could take up the matter.
''I think this is a very positive result because it means our client cannot be removed or detained until the judge can determine whether or not she can rule on these issues,'' Kurzban said.
Judge's Decision Enables Al-Arian To Finish Prison Term, Lawyer Says By Thomas W. Krause
A federal judge in Virginia today released former University of South Florida computer science professor Sami Al-Arian from contempt of court status, according to a statement by Al-Arian's lawyer.
The decision paves the way for Al-Arian to complete the final six months of his prison sentence and move to Egypt where he is expected to rejoin his family.
In February 2003, Al-Arian was arrested, accused of being a fundraiser for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
On Dec. 6, 2005, a federal jury in Tampa acquitted Al-Arian on eight charges and dead-locked on the remaining nine. In an agreement with federal prosecutors, Al-Arian pleaded guilty to a charge that he conspired to aid the jihad. The government agreed not to re-try him on the nine deadlocked charges.
An official who is a close observer of the Al Qaeda network believes that the organization has begun to shift its activities to Yemen, in addition to its strong presence in Iraq. The movement's migration from Afghanistan is practically aiming to surround the Gulf region, which Al Qaeda considers its first and last goal.
The recent thwarted operations in Saudi Arabia and the arrests of terrorist cells is primary evidence that Al Qaeda has expanded, and perhaps shifted, its activities, which indicates that we are about to enter a third stage of the war on terror. The battle began early in Saudi Arabia but Al Qaeda suffered successive defeats and was thus forced to spread its wings abroad. It seems that after having been restricted, it has decided upon a change in strategy.
The aforementioned official believes that Yemen may replace Afghanistan as the incubator to breed, rally and train [terrorists]. In practice, Yemen could become the new Al Qaeda base a label once reserved for Afghanistan. The official's assumptions were confirmed by new activity carried out in the rugged mountains of Yemen that proved to be testing even for the skilled Yemeni forces that best knew their land.
Viewed from the ocean on a beautiful, crisp winter afternoon, Tijuana looks peaceful. Across the gold-tinted blue of the water, whitecaps break against a rickety fence that stretches out incongruously into the ocean and marks the division between two worlds.
On board a U.S. Coast Guard 33-foot special purpose craft, guardsman Dustin Busse raises his binoculars and scans the long strip of beach that stretches south from the border fence into Mexico, past the oceanfront homes of Playas de Tijuana and the shadow of the Tijuana bullring. He's looking for swimmers, kayakers, jetskiers and boats packed with would-be illegal border crossers who might be gearing up for a nautical dash north into the waters owned by the United States.
"There's always a few there, waiting for the right moment," he says.
The Bishop, a Time Domain Reduction System, is a unique directed energy platform designed specifically for EOD operations and bomb technicians. The high-frequency generator produces a continuous electromagnetic wave which is focused on the target circuitry. The Bishop serves as a front line tool in Render Safe operations.
CELL PHONE JAMMERS FOR SWAT and Special Operations Available!
Bomb-making materials found at Newport Beach school
Police say the components were brought to the campus by a 12-year-old boy, who was arrested.
Authorities on Tuesday arrested a 12-year-old boy who they said brought bomb-making materials to his Newport Beach school, stowing some of the items in his locker.
Students at Horace Ensign Intermediate School were evacuated to an athletic field as a bomb squad swept the campus and anxious parents gathered outside the school.
"He had the equipment to manufacture a type of acid bomb that was not put together but could obviously cause serious injury," said Evan Sailor, a spokesman for the Newport Beach Police Department.
Prosecutors in Terrorism Cases Need a New Narrative, Say Experts By Matt Korade
Prosecutors thought it was an open and shut case.
The largest Muslim charity in the United States was a front group that funneled millions in charitable donations to organizations in the Middle East with ties to Hamas, a terrorist group which killed U.S. civilians, the government alleged.
The problem was, after sifting through a nearly 200-count indictment and testimony from witnesses that included an Israeli intelligence agent, a Texas jury couldn't bring itself to find the charity guilty. After hours of deliberation, jurors deadlocked over one of the charges and the judge declared a mistrial.
The collapse of the Department of Justice's case against the Holy Land Foundation in October was deemed an exoneration by the defendants and a challenge to a key legal stratagem in the war on terrorism by some in academia and the media.
ETC Delivers School Violence Simulation Trainer to Pennsylvania Counter Terrorism Task Force
SOUTHAMPTON, Pa., Dec. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Environmental Tectonics Corporation's ("ETC" or the "Company") Simulation Division today announced the delivery of a new training scenario to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Regional Counterterrorism Task Force (CTTF) for their Advanced Disaster Management Simulator, ADMS-COMMAND.
Originally delivered in 2006 with the ability to train multi-disciplinary first responder teams in dealing with many types of transportation-related accidents, HAZMAT (hazardous materials) releases and CBRNE (chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear and explosive) disasters, the CTTF's ADMS- COMMAND system has now been upgraded with the ability to train SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) personnel in mitigating a hostage situation at a suburban high school.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff highlighted the department's 2007 achievements Wednesday, also naming four key areas that he plans to focus on in the coming year: border security and immigration, secure identity, cybersecurity, and operations.
Chertoff also said the department will spend the next year looking internally to improve the way it functions as a single, unified institution. He said one of the obstacles is excessive congressional oversight. While insisting that he believes monitoring is good for the department, he said DHS is dealing with "oversight run amok." In 2007, DHS officials testified before Congress 224 times. In the five-year history of the agency, officials have provided 7,800 written reports and answered 13,000 questions for the record.
Water-boarding Abu Zubaydah as a last resort to find out what he knew about pending terrorist plots was a justifiable act of self-defense.
Two weeks before the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to the 9/11 Commission, a foreign intelligence service issued a report on the following topic: "Consideration by Abu Zubaydah to Attack Targets in the United States."
That threat should have been taken more seriously.
The commission described Abu Zubaydah as a "sympathetic peer" of Osama bin Laden. In the years before 9/11, he operated the Khaldan and Derunta terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. "While the camps were not al Qaeda facilities," the 9/11 Commission said, "Abu Zubaydah had an agreement with bin Laden to conduct reciprocal recruiting efforts whereby promising trainees at the camps could be invited to join al Qaeda."
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