Najibullah Zazi, the Afghan-American believed to be an al-Qaeda asset in the U.S., pleaded guilty today to conspiring to attack the New York City subway system with a chemical explosive. “The combined efforts of the law enforcement and intelligence communities disrupted a major plot, and there is no doubt that More…
I’m late on this, but Politico has a piece today about Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) 2010 legislative/political strategy, and it involves taking a forceful stand on terrorism against the Obama administration. This must be something like the administration’s dream come true: The guy not only has absolutely no experience More…
If President Obama didn’t have enough headaches after the loss of the Democrats’ filibuster-proof Senate majority on Tuesday night, another one emerged for him at a Senate hearing on Wednesday morning: Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence.
During the first in a battery of congressional hearings about the failed More…
John Brennan, the White House counterterrorism adviser, has completed his review of the November shootings at Fort Hood. The White House has just released a public version of his findings, all of which are about improving information sharing across the government — a stark contrast with Brennan’s Flight 253 More…
In a rare win for the government in a Guantanamo Bay detainee case, a federal judge ruled Monday that it can continue to hold a 28-year-old Yemeni at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Musa’ab Al-Madhwani has been imprisoned at Guantanamo since October 2002. More…
Speaking of counterterrorism, here’s Amb. Daniel Benjamin, the State Department counterterrorism chief, speaking today to a Jamestown Foundation conference. (Via Marc Lynch.) Benjamin, who was a fervent critic of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism record, basically sees al-Qaeda in disarray, under pressure in Afghanistan-Pakistan and ideologically discredited. Its More…
In October, The New York Times reported that “Eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country.”
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano today confirmed that More…
Reports yesterday of a massive security breach by the Transportation Security Administration, which accidentally posted online extremely sensitive information about its airport screening procedures, is coming up repeatedly in today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Included among the information TSA posted were the limitations of x-ray machines at airports More…
When Attorney General Eric Holder announced earlier this month that the suspected plotters of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would be tried in civilian court, he also promised to seek the death penalty for all of them. But the heated debate that followed over the supposed dangers of trying “the More…
Since Attorney General Eric Holder announced the alleged masterminds of the 9/11 attacks would be tried in New York, there’s been much speculation about whether they’ll plead guilty, as some have suggested they would before military commissions, or insist on a trial and put on a defense.
Scott Fenstermaker, a More…
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