Terrorism’s New Target: Econo-Jihad
Jihadist terror organizations have set economic terrorism as their new target, intending to harm and paralyze Western economies, the United Sates in particular, claims Prof. Gabriel Weimann, expert researcher of terrorism over the Internet at the University of Haifa. Prof. Weimann monitored websites hosted by terrorist and terrorism-supporting organizations and concludes: “For the Jihadists, the present economic crisis signifies an ideal opportunity and platform to leverage a economic terrorist campaign.”
In the course of a study that was carried out over a number of years, Prof. Weimann surveyed public and encoded websites run by Islamic terrorist organizations, forums, video clips, and practically all the information related to Islamic Jihad terrorism that is flowing through the network.
According to Prof. Weimann, the focus on economic terrorism was set in motion with the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers, when Osama bin Laden stated on the video tapes that he sent out that these attacks mostly damaged the United States’ economic base and that these attacks, which cost $500,000 to carry out, cost the U.S. $500 billion. (more…)
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IAEA Removes Dangerous Radioactive Sources from Lebanon
An IAEA mission to get powerful radioactive sources out of Lebanon was completed 30 August 2009, after a plane carrying the high-activity cargo safely touched down in Russia, where the sources are now securely and safely stored.
They comprised 36 Cobalt-60 sources, with a combined activity of 3.500 curies. A single source is powerful enough to kill a person within minutes, if directly exposed.
Mr. Robin Heard, an IAEA radioactive source specialist, oversaw the mission.
“Given the political situation in the Middle East and particularly in Lebanon we saw this source as vulnerable to malicious acts. If it was stolen it could cause a lot of damage to people,” Mr. Heard said.
The Cobalt-60 sources were from an irradiator that was once used for an agricultural project. But that was 10 years ago. The project ceased, and the staff that had the knowledge to properly look after the irradiation had left the organization. (more…)
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Underground Radar To Provide “Tunnel Vision”
Agents discovered this tunnel in Nogales, Arizona. It ended up on the Mexican side of the U.S. -- Mexico border. Five drug trafficking suspects were arrested and the tunnel destroyed.
Criminals of all kinds are digging tunnels along the U.S. border at a fast and furious pace. Of every tunnel ever discovered by U.S. border patrol agents, 60 percent have been found in the last three years. Agents spot a new one every month.
“All of them have been found by accident or human intelligence,” said Ed Turner, a project manager with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). “None by technology.”
To battle these secret burrows in the 21st century, S&T thinks this will have to change. (more…)
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Enhanced Video Technology Will Aid Crime and Terror Investigations
Professor Leonid Yaroslavsky is a researcher at Tel Aviv University. (Credit: AFTAU)
It’s a frequent scene in television crime dramas: Clever police technicians zoom in on a security camera video to read a license plate or capture the face of a hold-up artist. But in real life, enhancing this low-quality video to focus in on important clues hasn’t been an easy task. Until now.
Prof. Leonid Yaroslavsky of Tel Aviv University and his colleagues have developed a new video “perfection tool” to help investigators enhance raw video images and identify suspects. Commissioned by a defense-related company to improve what the naked eye cannot see, the tool can be used with live video or with recordings, in color or black-and-white.
“This enhancement of resolution can be a critical factor in locating terrorists or identifying criminal suspects,” says Prof. Yaroslavsky. His team’s findings were recently published in Optical Letters and the Journal of Real Time Image Processing. (more…)
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Columbine Shootings and the Manufacture of Fear
David Altheide, Arizona State University regents' professor in the School of Social Transformation, speaking on "Creating, Framing and Amplifying Fear" at the World Social Summit in September 2008.(World Social Summit photo)
Decades spent studying mass media messages of fear led noted Arizona State University scholar David Altheide to examine how the Columbine High School shootings on April 20, 1999, were originally portrayed in the media and how those messages changed after 9/11 and leading up to the war in Iraq.
Altheide, a Regents’ Professor of justice and social inquiry in ASU’s School of Social Transformation, describes his findings in “The Columbine Shootings and the Discourse of Fear.” His article will appear, along with others by noted scholars in the field, in a special two-part edition of the journal American Behavioral Scientist this April and May with the theme “Lessons of Columbine.” (more…)
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Beyond the War on Terrorism: The 21st Century’s Dilemma
by Blake Harris
Originally published in Visions magazine several years ago.
The dark side of the 21st century erupted into broad view on September 11. The unthinkable happened. And in a very real sense, our golden age of technological innocence ended.
In the kind of lesson that can only be gleaned from raw tragedy, we rediscovered that technology in human hands is a two-edged sword. What technology builds, it can also destroy. That which brings order can also create chaos. A growing power to help also unleashes increasing power to harm in the hands of the hate-filled fanatic. (more…)
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