Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-16

• RT @ntarc Suspicious White Powder Sent to 3 U.N. Missions : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2j8TIr #
• House Passes Terrorist-Proof Chemicals Legislation : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1OeWo8 #
• Homeland Security May Expand Preparedness In Virtual World : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/DqniE #
• DHS Urged To Explore FM Alert System For Cell Phones : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/31wa1F #
• Thx @alonis- Possible Hostage Situation in Jefferson City : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2vSnxt #
• Just curious… Are any of our followers at #pubcon ? #
• @GirlLuvzSciFi They are if the read our site regularly. in reply to GirlLuvzSciFi #
• John Allen Muhammad, Beltway Sniper Executed : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2NtjP0 #
• Please RT Man Charged With Terrorist Threats In Mall Incident : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/3VZMOM #
• India Warns of Possible Terror Attacks In 5 Cities : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1Zbebg #
• Safe Banking Systems ID’s Terror Suspects : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/7i7AF #
• Man Arrested At B.C. Border With Terrorist Resources : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/Gumyg #
• Please RT Live – World Response Conference on Global Outbreak #h1n1 http://bit.ly/XNMgC #
• Homeland Security To Investigate Sewer Smuggling : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/rchUP #
• Authorities To Seize Properties Of Group With Alleged Iran Ties : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2iqUMq #
• L.A. Port Launches Surprise Inspections http://bit.ly/3YJgeC #
• Five Sept. 11 Suspects to Face Trial in New York : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1oENCV #
• Man Runs Down Pedestrians In Rochester : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2BV4SV #
• How To Survive A Dirty Bomb Attack – Tonight On National Geographic Channel : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/4zfnaK #
• How To Survive A Dirty Bomb Attack – Tonight On National Geographic Channel : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/4zfnaK #
• Is American The Missing Link In Mumbai Terror Attack? : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/zvo2W #
• How To Survive A Pandemic or Chemical Attack – Surviving Disaster : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/15qisv #
• Terror In Mumbai Documentary To Premiere On HBO : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/W1gBh #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-09

• Soldier Arrested After C4 Military Explosives Found At Home : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/21e1gd #
• Drive-by Shooting Apparently Targeted Seattle Police : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/3hUtYQ #
• Seaports Still At Risk of Biological and Chemical Threats : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2el9eN #
• Report Suggests U.S. Needs Hit Squads : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2vgJ5k #
• Fort Hood Shooting Several Dead And Injured : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/3bDQnz #
• Thx! @alonis – Fort Hood Shooting Several Dead Suspect Identified http://tinyurl.com/ybpvwgw #
• Malik Nadal Hasan Fort Hood Shooter Still Alive : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/FNScV #
• Legions Place Office Shooting 2 Dead, 8 Injured – Orlando : Homeland Security News http://cli.gs/jQRyM #
• Suspect In Seattle Officer Slaying Lone Domestic Terrorist : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/28wKkc #
• Mexican mayor announces rival's death hours before body is found http://j.mp/3FkB38 #
• @ntarc Israel Planning Cell Phone Rocket Alerts : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1XGT8w #
• Lieberman Suggests Army Shooter Was Home-Grown Terrorist : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/qEuJC #
• Are Pakistans Nuclear Weapons Safe? : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/42PXbL #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-02

• Second Life Raises Awareness With Disaster Zone Project : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1ApCtw #
• 2 Chicago Men Charged in Terror Plot Over Muhammad Cartoons : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/3iaFb1 #
• Beltway Sniper John Allen Muhammad Scheduled for Execution : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1nX9zf #
• Security Checks Friday for MARC Commuter Train Stations : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/436Ln0 #
• FBI Lacks Translators For Terror Intelligence : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1xYgOk #
• TSA Viper Training Exercise Held at CBBT : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/coLmM #
• Queens Man Is One of Two Accused of Trying to Supply Hezbollah : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/28KJRE #
• Growing Up Bin Laden, Osama’s Son Omar Speaks : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/4wlb9K #
• Detroit Imam Killed During FBI Raid : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/4ANmn5 #
• Alleged Assault of News Photographer Outside Detroit Mosque : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/IDcAv #
• Is Osama Bin Laden Accidentally In New Al Qaeda Video? See pics and you decide… http://bit.ly/3QjaRl #
• PhoneSnoop – DHS Warns Blackbnerry Users About App http://tinyurl.com/yl5hl6t #
• Passport of al Qaeda 9/11 Plotter Said Bahaji Found http://tinyurl.com/yjppm62 #
• Terrorists Using Blogs To Engage Counter-terrorist Experts Online : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/46C6PS #
• Modern Warfare 2 Terrorism Footage Stirs Controversy : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1VA2VF #
• 6 Passengers Faint on British Airways Flight : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1goASu #
• Small Scale Terrorism Plots Pose New Threat : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2qJR6F #
• Deadline Looming – How Will Airline Cargo Get Screened : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/4oRHyv #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-26

• Men Abandon Car At Border, Flee To US – Bomb Squad Called : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/3l9CL8 #
• U.S. Space Researcher Arrested on Spy Charges : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/vxuXQ #
• U.S. Intelligence Investing In Social Media Monitoring : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/lbBS5 #
• Terror Threats Closes Pakistan Schools : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/4aHYr4 #
• Hezbollah May Be Planning Attacks On U.S. and Israeli Targets : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/27vI51 #
• Federal Agents Seize Property Nuclear Critic : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2pAP8p #
• FBI Raids Slaughterhouse In Ongoing Investigation : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/4ocotK #
• Senator Calls For Tighter Restrictions on Peroxide : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2Hfhu6 #
• Terror-Related Arrest Began in Las Vegas : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2mRWx9 #
• Shopping Mall Terror Plot Alleged In Boston Area Arrest : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/3nbzB2 #
• Security Guard Allegedly Threatened President Obama : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1T8P1u #
• Surviving Disaster – How To Survive A Nuclear Attack : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/24QuX4 #
• DHS Urged to Implement Ammonium Nitrate Regulations : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/3fwzLe #
• TSA Hopes To Keep Terrorists Off-Guard With Security Checks : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/3e0fE3 #
• Brother Defends Alleged Terror Suspect On Facebook : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2zq7Uv #
• Facebook, Twitter To Message Disaster Warnings in Australia : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1KFqMp #
• Terror Attack Warnings Issued in Pakistan : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/3ZFemE #
• Puerto Rico – Feds Launch Probe Into Massive Fuel Depot Fire : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1hhcCH #
• iWatchLA – PSA And Training Video Available Online : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/2bB3oh #
• Coffee Poisoning Struck 6 at Harvard : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/1emFIM #
• NEFA Report – The New York, Denver Terror Plot Arrests : Homeland Security News http://bit.ly/3X1vhd #

U.S. Food Supply Seen As Vulnerable To Terrorism

For years, security experts have been warning that the nations food supply, often taken for granted, could be among the most significant risks for a terrorist attack.

Imported food makes up a substantial and growing portion of the U.S. food supply and, considering the health and safety concerns of keeping American’s safe, Washington insiders seem oblivious to that part of protecting American citizens.

To ensure imported food safety, federal agencies must focus their resources on high risk foods and coordinate efforts, according to a report released last week by the Government Accountability Office.

The report, submitted to the US Congress and obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, assesses how the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection, the Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service are addressing challenges in overseeing the safety of imported food.

Read Full Article

Shopping Mall Terror Plot Alleged In Boston Area Arrest

An alleged shopping mall terror plot on U.S. shopping malls has resulted in the arrest of A 27-year-old Massachusetts man according to early reports this morning. The man has been charged with conspiring with others to support and plan terror attacks in and outside the United States according to the reports.

From the Boston Herald

A 27-year-old man from Sudbury has been arrested on charges he planned terrorism attacks inside and outside the United States, including a plot to use automatic weapons to open fire at shoppers and emergency responders in shopping mall attacks, federal prosecutors said today.

Tarek Mehanna, is accused of conspiring with Ahmad Abousamra and others to obtain the automatic weapons needed to carry out a mall ambush in which they planned to open fire at random, said Acting U.S. Attorney Michael K. Loucks.

The plot included plans to fire at emergency responders, but was abandoned because the men could not obtain the weapons, authorities said.

Source – Read Full Article

If this story and the names involved sound familiar …. This may be why.

From The Boston Globe 2008

Statements that Tarek Mehanna allegedly made to the FBI two years ago in the midst of a terrorism investigation came back to haunt him last weekend, when the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy graduate was arrested as he was about to board a Boston flight to start a new job overseas.

Read Full Article

Additional details are available at My Pet Jawa, who also covered the story here.

Terror-Related Arrest Began in Las Vegas

Last week we linked to a story on Fox News about a a Somali man on the U.S. government’s terrorist watch list who was stopped  outside Las Vegas along with four other men. The man was released because the officer had no legal authority to detain him. As we stated in the post, the story didn’t end there.Two days after the vehicle was pulled over outside Las Vegas, two of the passengers appeared at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in San Ysidro, Calif.

So is that the end of the story?  Apparently not.

The Channel 8 I-Team in Las Vegas has additional details as well as pdfs of a Criminal Complaint and Criminal Indictment

Read The Full Article

Senator Calls For Tighter Restrictions on Peroxide

I agree withe Sen. Schumer on this one. Sen. Schumer (D-NY) is calling for a nationwide “awareness” program of sales of peroxide, a chemical widely used in over-the-counter hair dye formulas but also used by terrorists to make explosives.

You may recall, this was one of our suggestions in the recent National Homeland Security Dialogue (QHSR)

A recipe to make a homemade liquid bomb using concentrated peroxide, known as TATP, was found in Zazi’s computer, law enforcement officials say. It was said to be the same recipe used by terrorists in the London transit bombings that killed 56 and wounded more than 700 commuters on July 7, 2005

Read Full Article

FBI Raids Slaughterhouse In Ongoing Investigation

Several news reports are circulating in regards to an FBI raid on a Illinois slaughterhouse. Although details are sketchy, there is no indication the raids are in any way connected to terrorism.

We’ve included links to a few of the reports.

Authorities Confirm Raid, No One Taken Into Custody

Federal agents conducted a raid Sunday afternoon at a goat meat processing plant near Morris, Illinois. The secretive operation was led by the Chicago FBI office. CBS 2’s Mike Puccinelli reports that on Monday, the Feds are being very tight-lipped on what they found and why they were even there.

Spokesman Ross Rice confirms agents were at 6260 Kinsman Road, in Kinsman, Illinois. The business is called First World Management. Rice would not say why agents were there but said nobody was taken into custody.

The FBI said the raid began Sunday morning and ended in the late afternoon. They were at the plant about nine hours total.

Read Full Article

From WBBM 780

Federal agents conducted a raid Sunday afternoon at a goat meat processing plant near Morris, Illinois.

The operation was led by the Chicago FBI office.  An agent confirmed for Newsradio 780 they were executing a search warrant at the First World Management plant in Kinsman, Illinois.

Why is a mystery.  A call to the plant was met largely with silence.  We did get confirmation that some items — possibly computers — were seized and that there were no arrests.

Neighbors who saw the raid tell CBS 2 News it was a huge operation, involving more than 100 agents, police officers and even what one believed to be National Guard troops.

One witness said she saw troops carrying M-16 rifles that were trained on a group of men sitting on the ground outside the facility.

Read Full Article

From the Chicago Tribune

Federal agents investigating possible Immigration irregularities conducted raids at a Grundy County meatpacking business and several Chicago locations over the weekend, sources familiar with the probe said Monday.

The FBI’s Chicago office confirmed agents took part in the execution of a search warrant Sunday at a First World Management Services plant in Kinsman, northwest of Dwight. FBI spokesman Ross Rice said no arrests were made there.

But a source said the owner of the plant, which processes lamb and goat, was taken into custody at his home in Chicago.

Documents and records were taken from the plant and from a Chicago travel agency on West Devon Avenue, also owned by the same person, the source said.

Read Full Article

Federal Agents Seize Property of Nuclear Critic

The New York times is reporting that Federal agents have seized six computers, two cameras, two cellphones and hundreds of files from a Los Alamos, N.M., physicist.

In the report, an FBI spokesman in Albuquerque, states that the action on Monday was part of “an ongoing federal investigation” and that he could provide no details.

The physicist, P. Leonardo Mascheroni, said he was told that the seizures were part of a criminal investigation into possible nuclear espionage. Dr. Mascheroni also declared his innocence.

“If I were a real spy,” he said Tuesday in a telephone interview, “I would have left the country a long time ago.”

Dr. Mascheroni was laid off from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1988 and has ever since championed an innovative type of laser fusion, which seeks to harness the energy that powers the sun, the stars and hydrogen bombs.

Read Full Article

Terror Threats Closes Pakistan Schools

In the southern Sindh province, which is home to Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi, 50 000 schools and colleges have shut down until Sunday according to several news reports.

Pakistani schools and colleges have closed because of fears about militant attacks after twin suicide bombings at a university campus on Tuesday, officials said.
The federal government and armed forces already announced that they were closing their schools as a precaution against terrorism.

Two suicide bombers attacked the International Islamic University in Islamabad on Tuesday, killing four students and wounding at least 18 others. The bombers struck at mid-afternoon inside a women’s cafeteria and a faculty office in the Islamic law department at the school, which is popular with foreign students.
Source

“This is an internal security lapse. We have already advised the educational institutions to tighten their security,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters after the Islamabad university blasts on Tuesday.

Source

Hezbollah May Be Planning Attacks On U.S. and Israeli Targets

According to a leading Turkish news website, Hezbollah is planning attacks against possible targets that include American, Israeli institutions, synagogues and tourist destinations. The planned attacks are said to be in retaliation for assassination of a senior Hezbollah member in 2008.

Intelligence agencies warn against terror attacks planned by Hezbollah  against Israeli and American targets in Turkey, according to a report published on the Turkish news website “Haberturk”.

According to the report, Hezbollah is looking to attack Israeli tourists, Israeli vessels and airplanes, as well as synagogues in Turkey. Citizens are asked to take the necessary precautions.

In addition, Turkish police warned its units in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, saying Hezbollah might have already gathered intelligence ahead of a possible attack on Israeli and American institutions in the three major cities.

Read Full Article

Western Terror Recruits Are On The Rise

A rising number of Western recruits including Americans are traveling to Afghanistan and Pakistan to attend paramilitary terrorist training camps.

Midway through a propaganda video released last month by a group calling itself the German Taliban, a surprise guest made an appearance: a cleanshaven, muscular gunman sporting the alias Abu Ibrahim the American.

The gunman did not speak but wore military fatigues and waved his rifle as subtitles identified him as an American. The video contained a stream of threats against Germany if it did not withdraw its troops from the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan. Although the American’s part in the film lasted only a few seconds, it has alarmed German and U.S. intelligence officials, who are still puzzling over his background, his real identity and how he became involved with the terrorist group.

U.S. and European counterterrorism officials say a rising number of Western recruits including Americans are traveling to Afghanistan and Pakistan to attend paramilitary training camps. The flow of recruits has continued unabated, officials said, in spite of an intensified campaign over the past year by the CIA to eliminate al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders in drone missile attacks.

via Read Article.

U.S. Intelligence Investing In Social Media Monitoring

The Danger Room has an interesting article you’ll want to read. According to the exclusive report, In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is investing in Visible Technologies, a software firm that is developing cutting edge technologies to monitor social media. I know many will cite privacy concerns however I believe if done correctly and with oversight, this could be an extremely effective tool.

America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates even check out your book reviews on Amazon.

In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.

Visible crawls over half a million web 2.0 sites a day, scraping more than a million posts and conversations taking place on blogs, online forums, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. (It doesn’t touch closed social networks, like Facebook, at the moment.) Customers get customized, real-time feeds of what’s being said on these sites, based on a series of keywords.

“That’s kind of the basic step — get in and monitor,” says company senior vice president Blake Cahill.

Then Visible “scores” each post, labeling it as positive or negative, mixed or neutral. It examines how influential a conversation or an author is. (”Trying to determine who really matters,” as Cahill puts it.) Finally, Visible gives users a chance to tag posts, forward them to colleagues and allow them to response through a web interface.

In-Q-Tel says it wants Visible to keep track of foreign social media, and give spooks “early warning detection on how issues are playing internationally,” spokesperson Donald Tighe tells Danger Room.

Read Full Article.

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