Patrick deHahn
I'm a "rising star in journalism," as seen in HuffPo.
Have a question or a tip? Please submit here.
I'd love to work for you. Email me.
I also tweet a lot. Tweet tweet.
From reuters:
Obama gives major foreign policy speech: President Barack Obama plans to limit the use of U.S. drone strikes and close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Obama also asked the Attorney General to report on how the Department of Justice investigates the media. The report is due by July 12, 2013.
Photo: REUTERS/Larry Downing
‘But as U.S. president for the last 4-1/2 years,Barack Obama has faced accusation after accusation of impinging on civil liberties, disappointing his liberal Democratic base and providing fodder for rival Republicans as he deals with the realities of office.
News in the past week of the federal seizure of phone records from the Associated Press news agency and the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative Tea Party groups, has intensified criticism already simmering over the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and aerial drone strikes abroad.
Asked at a news conference on Tuesday why the administration had not done more for civil liberties, Attorney General Eric Holder said: “I’m proud of what we have done” and emphasized the administration’s shift from Bush era harsh interrogation practices of terrorism suspects that had drawn international criticism.
When he took office in 2009, Obama promised to close the Guantanamo camp for foreign terrorism suspects, but it remains open with 166 detainees, many on hunger strikes in protest at indefinite detentions. Obama said last month he would revisit that pledge and blamed Congress for blocking his plan to close the camp, partly through restrictions on transfers of detainees.
The administration has defended its aerial drone strikes abroad, which have included targeting a U.S.-born terrorism suspect, as essential to the fight against al Qaeda and other militants in places such as Pakistan and Yemen.’
(Reuters)
Cyber attacks and cyber espionage have supplanted terrorism as the top threats to the United States in an annual “worldwide threat” assessment released on Tuesday by the U.S. intelligence community.
However, in testimony prepared for a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, played down the likelihood of catastrophic attacks on the United States by either cyber attackers or foreign or domestic militants in the immediate future.
In what has become an annual ritual, Clapper presented to the Senate panel a 34-page paper that ran through a wide variety of threats covered by U.S. intelligence agencies.
Writer hipsterlibertarian shares her research on the costs of U.S. wars since 2001 on money ($300 million: One day of war in Afghanistan), freedom (1.7 billion of our emails read daily) and human lives (50 civilians killed for every one terrorist).
This is, in fact, true. As an international journalist, I am fascinated by the stories coming out of the continent of Africa. This piece covers the ongoing counterterrorism projects in Africa as many militant, terrorist groups now operate there. To name some, al-Qaida, M23, al-Shabaab, rebel groups and all the while conflicts brew with weak and developing governments.
Quite a story. I try to keep Africa on my radar.
September 11th, 2012 - Lower Manhattan, 10:07 PM
Today marked 11 years since the United States suffered a terrorist attack in New York City, resulting in thousands of deaths, on September 11th, 2001.
The above photo is a photo that was found on an Al Qaeda related site by the NYPD Intelligence Division’s cyber unit. The New York City government and the FBI is currently investigating this matter.
The graphic shows the city skyline and has wording on it saying “Al Qaeda, Coming Soon Again in New York”
NY Daily News also shares additional information:
It was posted in the “artwork and design” section on that particular web page, Browne said.
He added that while there has been no intercepted chatter or intel to suggest that a plot is in the works, the “obvious implications” of the logo raised concerns.
The NYPD Intelligence Division’s cyber unit is working to find the origin of the photo and if it is considered to be a credible threat.
“It’s something we’re looking into,” Browne said. “We’re trying to determine the origins of it. We take all things like this seriously.”
Reuters also has more.
