Senate committee approves reauthorization of expiring Patriot Act provisions, Supreme Court to review provisons

The US Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-8 at Thursday’s executive business meeting to approve legislation [S 1692] reauthorizing three provisions of the USA Patriot Act set to expire at the end of the year. The portions of the act to be renewed allow federal authorities to conduct “roving” wiretaps, compel the production of business, medical [...]

Zazi pleads not guilty on conspiracy charges in US homegrown terrorism case

Najibullah Zazi, a legal permanent resident of the United States from Afghanistan, was indicted in the Eastern District of New York on a charge of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction (explosive bombs) against persons or property in the United States. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. Zazi is currently detained without bail.
That [...]

Ninth Circuit denies challenge to ban on providing services to terrorist organizations

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday ruled against a Humanitarian Law Project (HLP) challenge to former President George W. Bush’s Executive Order 13224, which prohibits unlicensed US groups and individuals from providing services to certain terrorist organizations designated by the government. The HLP wanted to aid the Kurdistan Worker’s [...]

Pakistan government focuses on militants, but hard line charities exhort refugees to jihad

Ahmed Rashid says in the LA Times that while Pakistan’s army has begun a decisive military offensive, to drive the Pakistani Taliban and other extremist groups out of South Waziristan, it remains to be seen whether the government will be able to overturn the army’s longtime support for the Taliban.
In the meantime the New York [...]

Ali soufan on ‘defeating al-Qaeda and neutralizing its support network’

Read his piece for the Washington Institute here.
Against a foe like al Qaeda which operates in the shadows, it’s intelligence that is crucial to defeating them. It is therefore crucial that we use the best and most effective intelligence-collection methods, and that our key counterterrorism agencies work seamlessly together.(…)The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 [...]

U.S. files appeal on terrorism support in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project

(Scotus) The Obama Administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to revive key parts of a federal law, nullified by a federal appeals court, that make it a crime to provide support to foreign groups deemed to be terrorists.  The Supreme Court turned down an earlier government appeal in the case in 2001, but Congress [...]

Germany lower house passes measure to criminalize terrorist training camps

[JURIST] German legislators in the lower house of the Bundestag Thursday approved a bill that criminalizes training in terrorist camps, among other provisions.
Under existing law, prosecution of an individual for involvement in a suspected terrorist organization requires membership in the organization or support of it. The proposed legislation seeks to broaden the definition of [...]

Two-thirds of UK terror suspects released without charge

Only 340 of 1,471 people arrested between 2001 and 2008 were charged with terrorism-related offences, Home Office says. So far, the courts have convicted only 196 of those charged with such offences.
The statistics also show that as of March 2008 there were 125 people in prison in England and Wales for terrorist-related offences and a [...]

Italy probes terrorism suspects

Police in Bari added warrants on Tuesday for criminal association for international terrorism  to the charges of human trafficking of Bassam Ayachi, 62, a Syrian imam with French nationality, and Raphael Gendron, 33, a French citizen.In November 2008 both men were caught in the act when they tried to smuggle five people – three Palestinians [...]

British Court Clears 3 Men on Terrorism Charges

A British court on Tuesday acquitted three men on charges of helping to plan London’s deadliest terrorist attack in July 2005, when four suicide bombers killed 52 people during the morning rush hour in attacks on subway trains and a double-decker bus.Prosecutors had accused the men — Mohammed Shakil, 32, Sadeer Saleem, 28, and Waheed [...]