BBC By Gordon Corera Security correspondent Coronavirus: How will it change national security and spying? The pandemic has raised questions about whether global health should be a more central part of national security. A senior intelligence officer rushes in to a meeting with the latest report and places it in front of anxious politicians and policymakers.In the past, it might have contained details about a planned terrorist attack - perhaps a cell in the Middle East looking at a new way of taking down an airline. This would lead to the well-practised national security machine cranking into gear.But in the future, that report may instead be about an outbreak of a virus in a far-off country which was being concealed by its government.Since the 9/11 attacks nearly 20 years ago, national security has been dominated by terrorism. But there have been voices over the years who have argued the notion...

Los Angeles Times FBI Looks For Ties To Extremist Groups In Train Derailment Near Hospital Ship Mercy By Richard Winton, Staff Writer The FBI is examining whether a man accused of intentionally derailing a freight train near the Navy hospital ship Mercy, which is docked in San Pedro to help with the coronavirus crisis, had any ties to extremist groups, and agents are digging into his social media background.Eduardo Moreno, 44, of San Pedro was charged with deliberately wrecking a train during the incident Tuesday, which led to a derailment and fuel leak, according to the charges.“Moreno is the only person charged in the case. While the government has made no allegations linking Moreno to an extremist ideology, our investigation is continuing,” the FBI said in a statement to The Times.Prosecutors allege that Moreno derailed the train and deliberately crashed through barriers designed to stop engines before grinding to a...

ABC News Terrorist Groups Spin COVID-19 As God's “Smallest Soldier” Attacking West Bleeding the U.S. economy dry has always been a goal of terrorist groups. By James Gordon Meek While much of the United States and Europe has been staying home to avoid COVID-19 as it kills thousands, terrorist groups are blasting online propaganda messages toward followers and potential recruits which hail the calamity of the disease as divine retribution.In propaganda communiques this week, ISIS and al-Qaeda have each claimed that the highly contagious and deadly coronavirus is God's wrath upon the West, and the disease itself is a "soldier of Allah," as one ISIS supporter recently said in an online chatroom, according to the private SITE Intelligence Group."Allah, the Creator, has revealed the brittleness and vulnerability of your material strength. It is now clear for all to see that it was but a deception that could not stand the...

  CBS 12 News Georgia Man Pleads Guilty To Planning Terrorist Attacks On White House, Other DC Monuments by STEFANIE DYGA, Sinclair Broadcast Group WASHINGTON (SBG) – The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday a Georgia man has pleaded guilty to planning a terrorist attack on the White House.23-year-old Hasher Jallal Taheb, of Cumming, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to destroy, by fire or an explosive, a building owned by or leased to the United States, according to the press release. Officials say he had planned an attack on the White House using weapons and explosives.Back in March of 2018, a member of the Atlanta community reported concerns to local law officials who then got in touch with the FBI, officials say.    “Taheb hatched a dangerous plan that would have resulted in unimaginable injury,” said Byung J. “BJay” Pak, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. “We...

  California engineer ran train 'off the end of rail tracks' in attempted attack on USNS Mercy in Los Angeles, DOJ saysJordan Culver, USA TODAY A California man faces federal charges after officials allege he ran a train "at full speed off the end of rail tracks" near the U.S. Naval Ship Mercy, the 1,000-bed floating hospital that arrived in the Port of Los Angeles last week amid the coronavirus pandemic.Eduardo Moreno, 44, of San Pedro, was charged Wednesday with one count of train wrecking after the Tuesday incident, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. Moreno told police that he believed the Mercy had "an alternate purpose related to COVID-19 or a government takeover," according to the DOJ.Moreno told law enforcement officers he "intentionally derailed and crashed the train near the Mercy." The train Moreno was conducting crashed through several barriers and came to a rest nearly...

China Concealed Extent of Virus Outbreak, U.S. Intelligence Says By Nick Wadhams and Jennifer Jacobs China has concealed the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in its country, under-reporting both total cases and deaths it’s suffered from the disease, the U.S. intelligence community concluded in a classified report to the White House, according to three U.S. officials.The officials asked not to be identified because the report is secret, and they declined to detail its contents. But the thrust, they said, is that China’s public reporting on cases and deaths is intentionally incomplete. Two of the officials said the report concludes that China’s numbers are fake.The report was received by the White House last week, one of the officials said.The outbreak began in China’s Hubei province in late 2019, but the country has publicly reported only about 82,000 cases and 3,300 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That compares...

Foreign Policy The battle against jihadi terrorism in Africa takes one of its deadliest turns yet, with consequences far beyond the region. By Will Brown As The World Is Distracted, Boko Haram Terrorists Strike A Key Western Ally s the world’s attention turns almost completely to the coronavirus pandemic, the battle against jihadi terrorism in Africa’s vast Sahel region has taken one of its deadliest turns yet. On March 23, Boko Haram terrorists ambushed a military encampment of Chadian soldiers on the Boma Peninsula, in the Lake Chad region. Over seven hours, the militants—whose group’s name roughly means “non-Islamic education is a sin”—killed at least 92 heavily armed troops with machine guns and bombs and injured dozens of others.It is the deadliest attack the Chadian military has ever suffered. Chad’s ruler of 30 years—President Idriss Déby Itno—visited the site of the attack the next day and picked through the burned-out...

New York Post Brooklyn man arrested for hoarding masks, coughing on FBI agents By Carl Campanile A Brooklyn man claiming to be infected with the coronavirus coughed on FBI agents who were investigating him for hoarding medical supplies, the US Attorney’s Office said Monday.Baruch Feldheim, 43, is facing charges of assault and making false statements to the feds on Sunday outside his Borough Park home where he allegedly peddled and stored massive amounts of N95 respirator masks, federal officials said.Feldheim is also accused of price-gouging. On March 18, he’s suspected of selling a New Jersey doctor about 1,000 of the masks for $12,000, a markup of roughly 700 percent, authorities said.The accused fraudster also directed another doctor to an Irvington, NJ, auto repair shop to pick up another order. There, the doctor reported to investigators that Feldheim was allegedly hoarding enough medical supplies “to outfit an entire hospital.”The materials included...

  The Diplomat The Islamic State’s Increasing Focus On India Amid religious polarization in India, Islamic State is renewing efforts to expand its presence in the country. By Saurav Sarkar On March 25, a lone terrorist affiliated with Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) carried out an attack on a Sikh place of worship, the Gurudwara Har Rai Sahib, in Kabul, Afghanistan killing 25 worshipers. Some reports mentioned the presence of three attackers, including suicide bombers, in an attack that lasted for hours holding some 80 people hostage. The terrorist behind the Kabul gurudwara attack has been identified as Abu Khalid al-Hindi (real name Mohammed Mohsin) from the Indian state of Kerala. A statement by the Islamic State’s (IS) Amaq media claims the attack was “revenge for the Muslims in Kashmir” who were facing alleged atrocities at the hands of the Indian government.The recent attack, scattered violence in Jammu and Kashmir...

Homeland Security Today DHS Releases Fiscal Year 2020 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program Notice of Funding Opportunity The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday released a Notice of Funding Opportunity for the FY20 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program. Congress provided $10 million in the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2020 (P.L. 116-93) for this grant program in December. DHS has designed the program to implement the objectives of Goal 3 of its Strategic Framework to Counter Terrorism and Targeted Violence: Strengthen societal resistance against the drivers of violent extremism and ensure broad awareness of the threat of terrorism and targeted violence. Counter terrorists and violent extremists’ influence online. Develop prevention frameworks with SLTT partners to enhance their ability to identify and respond to individuals at risk of mobilizing to violence. Develop and implement recidivism reduction programming to address individuals convicted of crimes related...

Foreign Policy How An Iranian Airline Tied To Terrorism Likely Spread The Virus (And Lied About It) Why is Iran the flaming epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East? One of the primary suspects is Mahan Air. By Kevjn Lim There are many reasons why Iran has become the Middle East’s flaming epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. They include the government trying to hide the outbreak; insufficient testing capacity; refusal to cordon off cities and Shiite shrines; superstition, politicization, and propaganda blaming Iran’s usual enemies; and the lack of seriousness in dealing with the crisis.All these factors undoubtedly play a role, but there is another, far less public suspect for bringing the disease to Iran and worsening its spread among the population: a private Iranian airline tied to the regime’s ideological army and sanctioned by the United States, which continued uninterrupted flights to and from China, including Wuhan,...

American Military News by Ryan Morgan Police in Chula Vista, Calif. plan to use Chinese-made aerial drones to surveil and enforce the state’s coronavirus “stay at home” orders, and to disperse crowds violating the orders.The police department has doubled its drone fleet, adding two additional DJI drones to help with its lockdown enforcement efforts, the Washington Examiner reported. U.S. officials have warned against using Chinese drones domestically. Chula Vista’s drones would reportedly be outfitted with night-vision and loudspeakers.“We have not traditionally mounted speakers to our drones, but … if we need to cover a large area to get an announcement out, or if there were a crowd somewhere that we needed to disperse, we could do it without getting police officers involved,” Capt. Vern Sallee said in comments to the Financial Times. Read more: https://americanmilitarynews.com/2020/03/ca-city-to-use-chinese-night-vision-drones-banned-by-us-army-to-enforce-coronavirus-lockdown/...

Department of JusticeU.S. Attorney’s OfficeWestern District of New York FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASENiagara Falls Man Who Forced The Closure Of The New York State Thruway Charged With Possessing Multiple BombsBUFFALO, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. announced today that Jose M. Gandia, 47, of Niagara Falls, NY, was charged by complaint with unlawful possession of a destructive device and unlawful possession of a shortened shotgun. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth T. Molisani, who is handling the case, stated that according to the complaint, on March 25, 2020, the New York State Police received a report of an individual pointing a shotgun with a red laser out of a red pickup truck on the New York State Thruway. A trooper located the vehicle stopped behind the traffic cones of an active work zone near the Town of Hanover. The trooper approached...

One Phoenix police officer killed, two injured in shooting By KTAR.com PHOENIX — One police officer was killed and two were injured in a Phoenix shooting on Sunday night, the police department announced.Commander Greg Carnicle was shot and killed in a domestic violence call in a neighborhood near 40th Avenue and Pinnacle Peak Road.Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said she knew Carnicle for 30 years.“Tonight, we lost a true hero,” Williams said. “I knew him for 30 years. He and I worked together in Maryvale precinct and used to enjoy way too much Church’s Chicken on duty. To be able to stand here today and say that one of my good friends is lost is troubling.” Read more: https://ktar.com/story/3051701/three-phoenix-police-officers-injured-in-shooting-taken-to-hospital/...

Lessons from History: The Reagan Legacyby Peter Huessy  •  Gatestone Institute Even if Reagan believed the Soviets would never fire a long-range missile at the US -- which he certainly did not believe -- what about the long-range missile threats against the United States from China? Certainly, given such threats, the United States had the right to build strategic missile defenses, making any deal to forgo missile defenses with the Soviets an absurd proposition. Even worse, what was described as "arms control" in the SALT 1 and 2 treaties was just an agreement between the Soviets and the United States largely to build-up US nuclear arsenals as it was already planning to do even without the arms treaties. Reagan left an open window of consensus to 1) modernize the US nuclear deterrent, 2) seek future arms control that includes limiting all nuclear weapons, including China's, and 3) deploy more robust...

The Washington Free Beacon Trump Admin Sanctions Vast Iranian Terror Network In Iraq by Adam Kredo The Trump administration on Thursday designated a vast network of front companies and entities tied to Iran's terrorism operations in Iraq, where U.S. personnel have been under near-constant attack by militia groups armed and funded by Tehran.The new designations target "Iraq-based front companies, senior officials, and business associates that provide support to, or act for or on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), in addition to transferring lethal aid to Iranian-backed terrorist militias in Iraq, such as Kata'ib Hizballah (KH) and Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH)," according to the Treasury Department.The companies and terror groups have organized a series of rocket attacks and bombing on U.S. positions in Iraq, including one earlier this month that killed two American troops and one British soldier. At least two rockets struck inside Baghdad's Green Zone...

The Cipher Brief The National Security Implications of the Coronavirus Pandemic This creates glaring blind spots for ongoing counterterrorism and law enforcement cases. Transnational criminal and terrorist groups are not ... ABC News Bottom Line Up Front   Threats to national security have not receded as a result of the coronavirus and many have only grown more acute with resources now shifted to respond to the pandemic. ‘Social Distancing,’ while a necessary medical mitigation tactic intended to slow the rate of infection, is anathema to security missions such as cultivating HUMINT sources, maintaining troop readiness, or handling emergency response calls.   As more businesses move their operations online, there could be an uptick in cybercrime or ransomware attacks with terrorists and criminals seeking to exploit the coronavirus crisis. The intelligence community was aware of the pandemic months ago and repeated warnings went unheeded; it will be critical for the United...

NBC News Federal Prisons Aren't Properly Monitoring Terrorist Inmates, Report Says According to the Justice Department inspector general, the volume of inmate email was found to be especially challenging.By Pete WilliamsWASHINGTON — The U.S. Bureau of Prisons is not adequately keeping tabs on inmates with terrorism connections, and wasn't even aware of more than two dozen of them in its own facilities, according to an audit report released Wednesday.The Justice Department inspector general, Michael Horowitz, said his team identified 28 inmates who met the federal definition of an international or domestic terrorist who were not on prison lists as requiring special monitoring. The report said in most of those cases, courts or law enforcement agencies didn't provide sufficient information about them. Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/federal-prisons-aren-t-properly-monitoring-terrorist-inmates-report-says-n1168616...

ABC News Domestic terror suspect allegedly plotted to use car bomb on hospital during coronavirus outbreak The suspect was killed in the planning phase of the attack. By Pierre Thomas, Jack Date, Mike Levine and Luke Barr  The FBI announced on Wednesday night that a domestic terrorism suspect who was allegedly planning to use a car bomb at a local medical facility was killed during an attempt to apprehend him just outside of Kansas City, Missouri.Timothy Wilson, 36, was "actively planning to commit an act of domestic terrorism -- a bombing -- and over the course of several months had considered several targets," according to the FBI. He had recently decided to target a hospital as news surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic picked up, sources familiar worth the investigation told ABC News. Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/domestic-terrorist-allegedly-plotted-car-bomb-hospital-coronavirus/story?id=69803480...

Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Thursday, March 26, 2020 Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Narco-Terrorism Charges Against Nicolas Maduro, Current And Former Venezuelan Officials, And Farc LeadershipVenezuela’s Vice President for the Economy and Others Separately Charged with Evading OFAC Sanctions In Connection With Maduro’s 2018 Presidential CampaignWilliam Barr, the Attorney General of the United States, Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Brian Benczkowski, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, Uttam Dhillon, Acting Administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), and Alysa D. Erichs, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Acting Executive Associate Director for Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), announced the unsealing of two separate indictments charging current and former Venezuelan officials and FARC leadership.  One Superseding Indictment includes narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, and weapons charges against NICOLÁS...