French raid kills top terrorist leader in Mali

A French army raid in Mali eliminated numerous terrorists including Amadou Koufa, a top Jihadist leader. Although the French military didn’t state it, such a precision raid would have to involve special operations forces. The French army announced that more than 30 terrorists were put out of action as a result of the operation, which […]

This map shows how the US is fighting terrorism in 76 countries around the world

“This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while,” former President George W. Bush said on the White House South Lawn on Sept. 16, 2001. “And the American people must be patient. I’m going to be patient.” Bush was right that a war on an abstract noun like “terror” would take awhile. It began […]

Movie Review: American Assassin

Initially this film looked like what may have been an entertaining revenge flick. A man, his fiancé killed by a terrorist cell, rises from the depths of despair to lay waste to those vile faces that haunt him. Self-determined in acquiring the necessary skills to exact brutal revenge, the dark hero is intercepted by the […]

French leader Macron proposes big expansion of his counterterrorism powers

PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron’s government on Thursday proposed a significant expansion of authorities’ powers to fight terrorism, alarming civil liberties advocates even as defenders said the plans would help keep French citizens safe. The draft law was introduced after a series of attempted terrorist strikes in Paris and Brussels in recent weeks and several bloody attacks in Britain that […]

War Stories: Big Mama, a lot of woman

We have been sitting inside this hot and smelly van for almost six hours, we were waiting for the green light to go into one of the towns in the West Bank and snatch a leader from a local terrorist cell. All of us were ready to explode, summers in Israel are hot. 110+ hot […]

Australia, Indonesia restore full military ties, see progress on trade

Australia and Indonesia said on Sunday that full military ties between the two countries had been restored, after Indonesia’s military suspended cooperation in January because of “insulting” teaching material found at an Australian base. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made the announcement alongside Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who arrived in Australia on Saturday for his first […]

German authorities ‘lose sight’ of three Islamists flagged as threats

Already under fire for the handling of the Anis Amri case that resulted in the Berlin market attack, the German government is now under added pressure because three individuals who are considered dangerous are nowhere to be found. -Vasilis Chronopoulos   Burkhard Lischka, a parliamentary spokesman for the Social Democrats, said three of the nearly 550 individuals identified […]

Targeted killings necessary … just don’t tell anyone’, say French leftist candidates

The French left abandons its peaceful ways for the needs of realpolitik and hard choices that accompany the fight against terrorism; keeping in line with the European point of view that such business is not for the public eye. -Vasilis Chronopoulos     “We are at war, we must protect the French people,” said former prime minister Manuel Valls at the first […]

If terrorists attacked in the Midwest (Pt. 2)

The following is part two of a two-part Red Team exercise on a hypothetical, multi-pronged ISIS attack on the Midwest—in Kansas City, Missouri. You can read part one here. H-Day, H-Hour Assailant #1, flying in a tourist charter helicopter over Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, attacks and kills the helicopter’s pilot while the […]

If terrorists attacked in the Midwest (Pt. 1)

The following is a Red Team case study of a hypothetical terrorist attack on Kansas City, Missouri. It is an attempt to highlight what an ISIS-inspired attack might look like on a mid-size American city, located not in the Northeast Corridor, nor on the West Coast, but in the middle of the United States. The […]

Obama celebrates counter-terrorism achievments, pushes back against Trump proposals

Washington, D.C. – In what was billed as the final major national security address of his administration, President Barack Obama took a victory lap for his counterterrorism achievements in remarks made to Special Operations and Central Command officials at MacDill Air Force Base. The Dec. 6 speech also doubled a thinly veiled rebuttal to the […]

What if terrorists got their hands on explosives and a drone?

Our air traffic control system successfully monitors thousands of aircraft per day. Yet, no such system for monitoring drones exists, yet. And UAVs are not required to report their location, as aircraft does. Even so, drones are quickly becoming ubiquitous in our society, making it less likely for us to know if the flier has ill intentions, until it’s too late. A group of no-goodniks could easily fly an explosive-laden drone, or half a dozen of them, into an office building, a park, city square, or even a stadium full of spectators.