Iran-tied terror group Hezbollah may be colluding with drug cartels along the U.S.-Mexico border, a Republican congresswoman warned, calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to establish a special task force to figure out how to “clamp down” on this “national security” threat. The Lebanon-based group has long-standing and documented ties to South America and This story comes to us via Homeland Security –... 

Dozens of Americans have joined terrorist groups and are posing a threat to the United States and its interests abroad, the president’s most senior adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security said Thursday. “There are, in my mind, dozens of U.S. persons who are in different parts of the world, and they are very concerning to This story comes to us via Homeland Security – National  Read More →

Fighting homegrown terrorism by monitoring Internet communications is a civil liberties trade-off the U.S. government must make to beef up national security, the nation’s homeland security chief said Friday. As terrorists increasingly recruit U.S. citizens, the government needs to constantly balance Americans’ civil rights and privacy with the need to keep people safe, said Homeland This story comes to us via Homeland Security –... 

Federal Bureau of Investigation officials in New York are increasingly employing tools and techniques used to hunt terrorists to take aim at a different kind of criminal: white-collar con artists and inside traders. At a time when the public has grown suspicious of Wall Street and lost confidence in the government’s ability to police it, investigators This story comes  Read More →

By Jenni Hesterman – What if the bad guys are somehow able to defeat us and set off a nuclear weapon in downtown LA? Not a dirty bomb, but an actual 10 kiloton nuclear device that results in the stereotypical mushroom cloud over the city. How should first responders plan for this attack? What are This story comes to us via Homeland Security – National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America’s trusted source for homeland... 

The UK’s Guardian reports Britain’s counter-terrorism strategy was thrown into turmoil today when a judge ruled that two Pakistani students posed a serious threat to national security but could not be deported because of the risk they would be tortured or killed in their own country. Video Report from BBC A special immigration court ruled that This story comes to us via Homeland Security – National Terror Alert. National Terror... 

The United States again reasserted itself as the world’s police last week, leading the way to secure thousands of pounds of fissile materials that could be used to build nuclear weapons such as dirty bombs. Countries around the world have agreed to identify, secure and covert this material before it falls into the hands of This story comes to us via Homeland Security – National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America’s trusted... 

Please welcome one of my personal favorite writers/bloggers to National Terror Alert, Ret. Col. Jenni Hesterman. Jenni Hesterman is a retired Air Force colonel. She is a contributing editor for The Counter Terrorist magazine, a full professor of counter terrorism studies at American Military University and a senior Analyst for the MASY Group, a global This story comes to us via Homeland Security – National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert... 

Interagency interrogation teams have started to question key terrorism suspects under a classified charter approved last week, but authorities have been slower to resolve pressing issues that emerged since Christmas — including how to draw the line between gathering intelligence and building a legal case, according to federal officials and experts following the process. The High-Value This story comes to us via Homeland Security – National... 

KUALA LUMPUR – Police last week acted quickly to forestall a serious threat to national security when they nabbed 10 terror suspects with links to international terrorist organizations. The nine foreigners and a Malaysian were also believed to be linked to a Nigerian student who attempted to blow up a US-bound flight on Christmas Day. This story comes to us via  Read More →

The past decade was defined by terrorism, starting with the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 that led to two wars and big changes in the way Americans travel and live. What could the next decade hold? To find out, USA TODAY reporters sat down with some of the nation’s top officials who deal with terrorism and intelligence This story comes to us via Homeland Security – National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America’s trusted source... 

The Transportation Security Administration, attempting to squelch nefarious rumors, has asserted on its web site under a “Mythbuster” feature that “No 8-year-old is on a T.S.A. watch list.” Unfortunately for the TSA, the New York Times found an 8-year-old on its list. Mikey Hicks, a Cub Scout in Camden, New Jersey, is a frequent flyer who can’t seem to get a break because…  Read More →

The underwear bomber’s Christmas Day attack has prompted calls for the increased use of full-body scanners at airports that would strip-search passengers down to their naked bodies. So to protest the use of the so-called “nacktscanner” (naked scanners), members of the Pirate Party in Germany stripped down to their skivvies last Sunday and converged on the Berlin-Tegal airport. They…  Read More →

Contrary to previous public statements made by the Transportation Security Administration about fully-body airport scanners, the devices do have the ability to store and transmit images, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union. The documents, which include technical specifications and vendor contracts, indicate that the TSA requires vendors to provide equipment that can store and send images of screened passengers... 

The government has lowered the criteria for putting someone on a watch list or no-fly list and has so far revoked several U.S. visas as a result of the reduced threshold, according to CNN. The action will result in more people being grounded from flights or undergoing secondary screening at airports, though officials wouldn’t indicate how many people might be affected. The terrorist watchlist has about 400,000 names on it, according to the...