Fighting terrorism in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley start-up Palantir makes news with the WSJ (click to view video) as it contracts with the CIA and other agencies. Recently their data analysis software was used to expose a network of suicide bombers.

H/T: Rhetorican.com

Al Qaeda: terrorism’s equivalent of a fast food franchise!

AP (via MSNBC) reports that Al Qaeda continues to form allegiances with homegrown groups sharing similar goals e.g. the al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM or AQLIM) in Algeria. Put simply, Al Qaeda trains them and lends them their brand name, and in return the ubiquitous group gets more members at their disposal and a greater reach across areas like northern and western Africa and Europe.

Note: some of you might remember that AQLIM was the group whose training camp was decimated by the bubonic plague this past January. Click here for my post.

Ironic that their business model is based on one of the Western concepts they most despise.  One could argue the joke is meant to be on us, but I thought the point was to find culturally non-Western, Islamic ways of doing things and prove they work better than Western concepts? What do I know, I’m just an infidel.

ICE targets #2 threat to U.S.: violent transnational gangs

In the upcoming June/July issue of The CounterTerrorist, Jennifer Hesterman writes:

The previous director of the CIA surprised many when he stated that the violence in Mexico presents the number-two threat to U.S. national security, just behind al-Qaeda.

In that vein, Stratfor reports that local Chicago ICE, working closely with local law enforcement,  “made 17 arrests and lodged two detainers in a two-day operation targeting illegal aliens with ties to violent street gangs in Chicago’s northern and northwest suburbs last week.”

This is the latest joint local action of an ongoing national ICE effort to target foreign-born gang members. These arrests were made under an ongoing national ICE initiative called “Operation Community Shield,” in which ICE partners with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to target the significant public safety threat posed by transnational street gangs. “Street gangs pose a growing public safety threat to communities throughout this area,” said Gary Hartwig, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Chicago.