High Senior Arrested; School Bomb Threat Alleged

Sign On Diego reports that a senior at Ramona High School who told friends and others that he was going to blow up the school with homemade bombs made of C-4 explosive and hand grenades was arrested early Sunday.

Korey Flad, 19, faces charges that include threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction, threatening a school and making criminal threats, the department said.

Ramona sheriff’s Detective Mike McNeill said no explosives or grenades were found at Flad’s home.

It was all talk, McNeill said. As far as investigators can tell, he did not have any access to C-4 or grenades. “He was remorseful, cooperative, forthcoming, honest and compliant,” McNeill said.

Flad does not have any history of trouble with authorities, McNeill said, adding that he comes from “a regular middle-class home. There were no family problems.”

via Ramona High senior arrested; school threat alleged – SignOnSanDiego.com.

Man Arrested On Terrorism Charges

A Maggie Valley man is behind bars facing terrorism charges. 48-year-old David Hicks is accused of going armed to the terror of the public and manufacturing and possessing weapons of mass destruction.

Police say they found all of the ingredients needed to commit a terrorist act, right inside Hicks’ home. Among them was a grenade and grenade detonators, 71 boxes of ammunition, and eight different firearms.

Detectives also found an email Hicks had recently written, saying that because of the outcome of the November election, he’d soon be leaving Maggie Valley to head for the Texas-Mexico border.

The email says he plans to help “protect our nation against illegal immigrants.” Hicks remains behind bars on $21-thousand bond.

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• Five Years (Updated) (outsidethebeltway.com)

Terror Threats to Target Economic Losses

The terrorism threat to the United States over the next five years will be driven by instability in the Middle East and Africa, persistent challenges to border security and increasing Internet savvy, says a new intelligence assessment.

Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks are considered the most dangerous threats that could be carried out against the U.S. But those threats are also the most unlikely because it is so difficult for Al Qaeda and similar groups to acquire the materials needed to carry out such plots, according to the internal Homeland Security Threat Assessment for the years 2008-2013. Read more

Strategic Shock – Report Warns Unexpected Crisis Could Lead To Massive Unrest

The United States could be sleep-walking into its next crisis, a military report said.

The report by the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Institute, said that a defense community paralyzed by conventional thinking could be unprepared to help the United States cope with a series of unexpected crises that would rival the Al Qaida strikes in 2001, termed a “strategic shock.”

The report cited the prospect of the collapse of a nuclear state leading to massive unrest in the United States.

“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” the report, authored by [Ret.] Lt. Col. Nathan Freir, said.

“Deliberate employment of weapons of mass destruction or other catastrophic capabilities, unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters are all paths to disruptive domestic shock.”

Titled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development,” the report warned that the U.S. military and intelligence community remain mired in the past as well as the need to accommodate government policy. Freier, a former Pentagon official, said that despite the Al Qaida surprise in 2001 U.S. defense strategy and planning remain trapped by “excessive convention.”

“The current administration confronted a game-changing ’strategic shock’ inside its first eight months in office,” the report said. “The next administration would be well-advised to expect the same during the course of its first term. Indeed, the odds are very high against any of the challenges routinely at the top of the traditional defense agenda triggering the next watershed inside DoD [Department of Defense].”

The report cited the collapse of what Freier termed “a large capable state that results in a nuclear civil war.” Such a prospect could lead to uncontrolled weapons of mass destruction proliferation as well as a nuclear war.

The report cited the prospect of a breakdown of order in the United States. Freier said the Pentagon could be suddenly forced to recall troops from abroad to fight domestic unrest.

“An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home,” the report said.

The report said the United States could also come under pressure from a hostile state with control over insurgency groups. The hostile state could force American decision-makers into a desperate response.

World Tribune

Panel Fears Use of Biological, Nuclear or Other Unconventional Weapon By 2013

An independent commission has concluded that terrorists will most likely carry out an attack with biological, nuclear or other unconventional weapons somewhere in the world in the next five years unless the United States and its allies act urgently to prevent that.

In a report to be released this week, the Congressionally mandated panel found that with countries like Iran and North Korea pursuing nuclear weapons programs, and with the risk of poorly secured biological pathogens growing, unconventional threats are fast outpacing the defenses arrayed to confront them. Read more