This man would like to blow up your plane by turning anyone’s clothes into a bomb

By devising an ingenious series of possibly undetectable airline bombs, a wiry Saudi named Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri has become the latest personification of the ever-changing al Qaeda threat. You can thank him and his tradecraft for much of the frenzy of counterterrorism activity in recent days. That includes pretty much every country shutting down its embassy in Sana’a, Yemen and evacuating government personnel, and dire warnings of a possibly large-scale imminent attack in North Africa or the Middle East—or possibly somewhere else.

The global war on terrorism has never lacked a face of evil to embody the threat; Osama bin Laden, of course, as well as Ayman Zawahiri, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and others. But authorities are now pursuing Asiri with an especially high level of urgency and concern. The reason: not only is he a bomb-maker for the terror network’s most dangerous affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), he’s apparently a very capable and creative one who has trained other al Qaeda operatives. Continue reading →

The jury’s still out on the Justice Department’s new rules for ‘protecting’ the news media

I guess it’s good news that Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. has rolled out new rules for protecting the news media from overly aggressive leak investigations and prosecutions, but forgive me for being a bit skeptical.

Holder only did so after igniting a firestorm of criticism (actually, several of them) for the way he and his boss, President Obama, went after journalists and the government officials who talked to them.

Most egregious was the secret effort to get a wide array of phone records from Associated Press reporters that the administration thought had revealed sources and methods and other classified information about counter-terrorism operations in Yemen and elsewhere. Also noteworthy: the administration’s attempts at criminalizing the behavior of Fox News’ James Rosen (a Medill alum) for working a source at the State Department for classified information about North Korea. Continue reading →

Unsettling advice from the former top US cyberspook about protecting humanity

As the only person to ever head both the US National Security Agency and the US Central Intelligence Agency, retired Air Force General Michael V. Hayden has a lot of experience in seeing around corners. He’s now a global security consultant, helping companies and governments to protect themselves against cyber threats and other dangers.

Last week, Hayden, also a director of Motorola Solutions and a distinguished visiting professor at the George Mason University School of Public Policy, said in a rare extended interview that Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies shared sensitive US information with the Beijing government. In a brief aside, he added that he’s undecided as to whether corporations should be allowed to go on the cyber-offensive, even in the absence of government intervention and protection.

Quartz talked to Hayden about the threats private companies face and whether they’re well-positioned to address those threats for themselves, and for humanity. Continue reading →

UN gets closer to establishing the law of the sea — but for space

Say you’re minding your own business in outer space, and all of a sudden, one of your multibillion-dollar satellites gets blown up. Or the signals it sends to Earth go haywire and fly-by-wire planes start crashing. Or, worse, those signals … Continue reading →

How the US government uses information from spying on foreign companies

There’s no longer doubt that the US government spies on foreign multinational corporations as well as governments, thanks to the disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor turned international fugitive Edward Snowden.  The NSA vacuums up mountains of classified information from a rich array of sources. The CIA assists by launching digital “black bag” operations aimed at manually penetrating the computer systems of some of the world’s largest foreign multinationals.

Washington isn’t alone, of course; dozens of other governments do the same, in collaboration with each other and individually. But one thing that US officials insist they won’t do is use the information gleaned from industrial espionage to help US corporations, like the Chinese do with their state-run defense, oil and other companies. Continue reading →

Why the mafia is so excited about eco-friendly businesses

Italy’s ambitious organized crime syndicates are still killing people and trafficking drugs and weapons, but their latest bet is eco-friendly businesses. The cash-heavy groups are tapping into corporate cost-cutting in Europe’s crisis-torn economy, including the often exorbitant expenses required to properly … Continue reading →

Why Israel dominates global drone exports

The biggest exporter of unmanned aerial vehicles, which are fast becoming essential to governments worldwide for both military and civilian uses, isn’t the United States, China or other major power. The big winner in this booming global market is Israel. And that … Continue reading →

Why the US is going after piracy in the Caribbean, where it hasn’t existed for 200 years

The US State Department announced yesterday that it will send a senior official, Tom Kelly, to the Bahamas this coming week to formally strengthen bi-lateral cooperation on global counter-piracy efforts. This might seem a bit odd, seeing as Blackbeard and the other … Continue reading →

The Sochi Winter Olympics just got a lot more expensive—and dicey

Olympic officials are downplaying this week’s call to arms by a top Chechen rebel, who released a videotape urging Islamist militants to disrupt the upcoming Winter Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Doku Umarov, leader of the Caucasus Emirate, told his … Continue reading →

Why mobsters and terrorists should fear President Obama’s new plan to curb illegal wildlife trafficking in Africa

    On July 1, while wrapping up his trip to Africa, US president Barack Obama announced that he wants to get serious about thwarting black market trafficking in elephant tusks, rhinoceros horns and body parts of other endangered species. The added bonus, … Continue reading →