Secret Service’s job: secure political conventions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Every day the Secret Service thinks: Today could be THE day.

That’s the sober mind-set going into the presidential conventions — both of which present special security challenges for this legendary agency in the throes of the longest political campaign in history.

These will be the second set of conventions since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But, perhaps surprisingly to outsiders, al-Qaida is not the leading concern.

Not that the terrorism potential is being overlooked. But the Secret Service and FBI are giving special attention to the possibility of action by other extremists — radicals from the left or right, anarchists, lone wolf crazies — who might be attracted to the conventions because of the significance and high visibility.

This year, the significance of Obama’s race is not lost on anyone either.

The Secret Service and FBI said they did not have any specific threats with racist overtones. And there has been only low-level chatter on white supremacist blogs and nothing aimed at the convention, according to Mark Potok, who regularly monitors these blogs for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala.

Potok said what he sees is a “constant low level barrage of angst and misery over the prospect of a black president in America.” A message that was sent to his organization’s blog in April but never posted said: “ATTENTION, IF OBAMA BECOMES PRESEDANT I WILL KILL HIM MYSELF MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT.” Potok said he reported that to the Homeland Security Department.

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Doc among six of city in SIMI cell, say police

The Mumbai Police Crime Branch and the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) have identified six youths from Pune who are part of the sleeper cell of the banned Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) or the Indian Mujahideen (IM). Of the six, one is believed to be a practising doctor in the city.
“We have identified six persons from Pune who are active SIMI members. But I cannot disclose their details because the investigations are at a crucial stage,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Mumbai Crime Branch) Rakesh Maria said.

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Attacks rise as Taliban close in on Kabul

THE Taliban ambush that killed 10 French soldiers is the latest in a series of deadly attacks near Kabul that show the rebels are gaining on the Afghan capital, say analysts.

The Taliban have mounted their most serious attacks in six years of fighting in Afghanistan this week, including a co-ordinated assault by at least 10 suicide bombers against one of the largest American military bases in the country, launched just before midnight on Monday.

That attack, on Camp Salerno in the eastern province of Khost, wounded three American soldiers and six members of the Afghan Special Forces.

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Brown plays down Taliban resurgence

LONDON (AFP) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown played down Wednesday the threat of a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, saying the recent wave of violence that killed 10 French soldiers had always been expected.

He also stressed the importance of close ties between Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan, which he said was facing a “period of political uncertainty” after the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf.

“We’ll be pressing on the Pakistanis themselves to be involved with us in fighting terrorism and making sure the number of terrorists coming into Afghanistan from Pakistan is limited,” he said.

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Terrorist watch list issues continue

Despite promises of a solution, many passengers are still waiting for years to get their names off the government’s terrorist watch list. James Robinson, a commercial airline pilot licensed to carry a gun on board, still can’t use kiosk or curbside check-in because his name is on the list. “I’m carrying a weapon, flying a multimillion-dollar jet with passengers, but I’m still screened as, you know, on the terrorist watch list,” he said. The airlines and TSA say they are working together to streamline the system for innocent passengers.

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Masked ‘students’ echo Taliban

What began as an organisation to educate people about the true spirit of Islam is now busy developing itself into a high-class “brand” in the world of Islamic terror. This is not what SIMI’s founder-president wanted it to be.

When “students” start wearing masks, it is time for the nation to be worried. Of late, members of the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) have been operating wearing the “mask of terror”.

Over the years, SIMI has been developing itself into “a fist of fury” with the aim of creating Islamic terror. Fears exist in government circles that the SIMI has been penetrated by Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida through Taliban-trained cadres.

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Military 2.0: Web technologies are changing the way DoD works

Writing new policies for the Pentagon can be a tedious and time-consuming process.
Drafts must be written and circulated. Comments on the drafts are written and sent back to the author. Changes are made and then recirculated for additional comment. And so on.
It can take 18 months. Or you could do it Robert Carey’s way in about 60 days.

Wiki.

That’s a piece of collaborative software that enables multiple authors to jointly write and edit a document more or less simultaneously.
When Carey, who is chief information officer of the Navy, needed a new policy on enterprise interoperability, he wrote a draft, posted it as a wiki, and told his Navy colleagues who needed to review it to do so online.
And please don’t send your comments, Carey said, just edit the policy.
“I tell people to write it the way you want it,” Carey said in an address to a conference on the military’s use of Web 2.0 technology.
“Wikis allow for real-time collaboration on the generation of a document,” Carey explained in his blog.
Blogs are another Web 2.0 innovation. Back when he started his in January, Carey was the only government CIO to have one.

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Russian leader condemns Algeria terrorist blasts

MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian president expressed his condolences on Wednesday to relatives of at least 65 people killed in a series of terrorist blasts in Algeria over the past two days.

A double car bombing on Wednesday, targeting a hotel and military barracks in Bouira, 150 km (90 miles) to the east of the capital Algiers, killed 11 civilians and wounded 31 people, including four servicemen.

On Tuesday a suicide car bombing at a police academy in the Les Issers district of Boumerdes, about 55 km (35 miles) east of Algiers, killed 43 and wounded 45 people. Earlier in the day, 11 servicemen and one civilian were killed in an ambush by armed militants 350 km (220 miles) to the east of the capital.

“I am deeply appalled by the terrorist attacks committed on August

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Accused Canadian terrorist never targeted British civilians: lawyer

OTTAWA (AFP) — The first person to be tried in Canada for terrorism undeniably wanted to wage jihad in Afghanistan, but never aimed to bomb civilians in Britain as prosecutors allege, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Accused Momin Khawaja trained to become a “frontline jihad soldier” to fight alongside Islamists against Western forces in Afghanistan, his defense lawyer Lawrence Greenspon said in court, citing “ample evidence.”

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Blast highlights Pakistan tensions

A suicide blast outside the emergency ward of a hospital crowded with Shia Muslim mourners in Pakistan’s volatile northwest has left at least 27 people dead.

The Taliban in Pakistan claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s blast in Dera Ismail Khan, saying it was targeting security forces.

The attack highlighted the country’s instability a day after Pervez Musharraf stepped down as president, adding to uncertainty about the new government’s approach to tackling violence.

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