terrorism.openDemocracy daily security briefs can be accessed below.
Politics and human rights come to a head in Burma, Jessica Loudis
Junta tightens political grip in Burma
A language sea change?, Jessica Loudis
According to documents recently published by the National Counter-Terrorism Center, a US agency responsible for coordinating the government response to terrorism, officials are now being asked to stop using terminology that could "unintentionally legitimate terrorism," and reorient their vocabulary away from language that might frame radicals in a sympathetic light.
Bali bomber detained, Nikolaj Nielsen
Indonesian authorities have detained a militant suspected of involvement in the 2005 triple suicide Bali bombing that killed more than 200 people. Faiz Fauzan of the Jemaah Islamiah militant group denies the charges. Authorities claim he attended the planning stage meetings and had met with Azahari Husin who constructed the bombs. Read the rest of this post...
Gaza "stipped", Nikolaj Nielsen
Palestinian donor nations are meeting today in London to discuss the current humanitarian crisis affecting 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip. Washington is mounting pressure on Arab League nations to fulfill their Palestinian donor promise of $717.1 million of which only $153.2 has been collected. Three-quarters of residents of the Gaza Strip are registered refugees. Only a bare minimum of medicine and food are allowed in while petrol and diesel have ceased altogether since June 10.
Karzai’s Damocles sword, Nikolaj Nielsen
During a procession to mark the end of Soviet occupation, Taliban insurgents fired rockets and automatic weapons in Kabul yesterday. Their target was Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai. Karzai escaped injury along with other officials and visiting dignitaries. However, a Shia leader, a ten-year old boy, and a lawmaker were killed.
Malaysia's Guantanamo, Nikolaj Nielsen
Men suspected of belonging to the Jemaah Islamiyah militant Islamist group are currently being held in "preventative" detention in Malaysia. The Jemaah Islamiyah is responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed over 200 people. An estimated 70 people are being held without charge at Malaysia's Kamunting Detention Center. Some are accused of mundane crimes like forgery, and others have been held for six years without charge.
Pentagon plants "surrogates" in US TV, Jessica Loudis
Pentagon wages war on American public
Clash between Iran and Al-Qaida?, Mamun Ahmed
The domestic threat, Mamun Ahmed
A comprehensive FBI report published recently has highlighted the threat from domestic, home-grown extremists from a variety of groups, including those on the "extreme fringes" of social movements such as the "Animal Liberation Front" (classified as "special-interest terrorism") to far right groups which often take "racist and racial supremacy and embrace antigovernment, antiregulatory" platforms.