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By Alan Green, HSO Contributor
The attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Delta passenger jet has shifted the world's attention to Yemen, which apparently has become the newest al Qaeda stronghold and a base for training the next generation of terrorists. This seems to have taken everyone entirely by surprise, even though in late December of 1999, media reports about Osama bin Laden noted that the world's most wanted man was quite familiar with the land of his father's birth. As Scotland's The Herald noted, young Muslims recruited in the UK "received basic survival and unarmed combat training in Britain, and were then flown to various camps in Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to be instructed in the use of firearms and explosives."
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By Alan Green, HSO Contributor
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano recently warned the nation about "home-grown terrorism," and for good reason: in addition to the Fort Hood shootings, authorities have uncovered a string of extremist plots, and a quartet of misfits from Northern Virginia were nabbed in Pakistan after allegedly attempting to find their way into a terrorist training camp.
By Alan Green, HSO Contributor
When five young American Muslim men were detained in Pakistan last week after allegedly planning to train in terrorist camps, then wage holy war against US troops in Afghanistan, the news media glommed onto one fact in the case and wouldn't let go: the Washington, DC-area quintet had supposedly used Facebook to connect with an extremist recruiter. "I think that the Internet was correctly seen by Al Qaeda and its fellow jihadis as a vacuum they could fill and they have filled it very well," NPR quoted one terrorism expert as saying. "And we are just now, unfortunately, paying increased attention to this particular new threat."
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By Alan Green, HSO Contributor
Last weekend, a team of researchers from the Department of Homeland Security launched a six-day test at 20 Boston subway stations designed to examine the behavior of airborne contaminants released into rail cars. According to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, the study is just one of many efforts the department is undertaking to aid its emergency-response planning in preparation for chemical or biological terrorist attacks.
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By Alan Green, HSO Contributor
In Detroit last week, the CIA screened a pair of 30-second TV spots designed to help recruit Arab- and Iranian-Americans to the agency's not-quite-as-diverse-as-they'd-like ranks. The commercials, which are slated to begin airing over the next few months on TV stations and websites, are part of the spy agency's five-year plan to ramp up its fluency in Arabic and other languages.
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