The Latest from National Terror Alert Response Center

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• North Korea Sentences US Journalists To 12 Years
  Labor
  
  
• Ethiopian Stowaway Found Among Dulles Airport
  Baggage
  
  
• Sensitive Military Technology Easily Puchased,
  Exported
  
  
• Group Linked to Al Qaeda May Have Killed
  Minnesota Man
  
  
• Hacker, Defcon Founder Joins Homeland Secuirty
  Advisory Council

North Korea Sentences US Journalists To 12 Years Labor Posted: 07 Jun 2009 09:16 PM PDT North Korea’s state news agency says the country’s top court has convicted two U.S. journalists, one of whom grew up in the Sacramento area, and sentenced them to 12 years in labor prison. The Korean Central News Agency says the Central Court tried American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee from June 4 to 8. It said Monday the trial confirmed an unspecified “grave crime” against the nation, and of illegally crossing into North Korea. The report says the court “sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor.” More Details This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information.

Ethiopian Stowaway Found Among Dulles Airport Baggage Posted: 07 Jun 2009 07:25 PM PDT Federal authorities say they’ve discovered a stowaway who arrived at a Washington-area airport in the cargo hold of a flight from Ethiopia. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Steve Sapp says ground personnel at Dulles International Airport were pulling baggage from Ethiopian Airlines Flight 500 when they noticed an arm sticking out. Sapp says the stowaway was an Ethiopian man who was exhausted and dehydrated. He was taken to Reston Hospital Center and is now being held at a federal detention center. Sapp says the man has been charged with being a stowaway and will be deported, but is not a security threat. He says the flight departed from Addis Ababa and stopped in Rome before landing at Dulles shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday. Source This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information.

Sensitive Military Technology Easily Puchased, Exported Posted: 07 Jun 2009 07:06 PM PDT An undercover investigation by a federal watchdog group showed how ineffective laws and poor enforcement of procurement regulations allow companies to purchase sensitive military technologies for export to possible terrorist groups and foreign governments. Auditors from the Government Accountability Office, who posed as representatives from a fictitious company, were able to purchase sensitive technology equipment such as night-vision scopes that U.S. soldiers use in Iraq and Afghanistan, hardware to detonate nuclear weapons, sensors used in improvised explosive devices, and gyro chips for guided missiles and military aircraft. During its investigation from May 2008 to June 2009, GAO also was able to purchase an F-16 engine-monitoring system computer, which the Air Force uses in single-engine aircraft to monitor engine performance, said Gregory Kutz, managing director of forensic audits and special investigations at GAO, in his testimony before the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Thursday. “The only thing more surprising than the ease with which GAO acquired this sensitive equipment is that fact that it was apparently entirely legal,” said subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., in his opening testimony. “There is no requirement for them to conduct any background checks or due diligence on the buyers, much less submit the proposed sale to the government for a license to purchase. This is obviously not satisfactory.” via Read Full Article This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information.

Group Linked to Al Qaeda May Have Killed Minnesota Man Posted: 07 Jun 2009 06:58 PM PDT A Minnesota man recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group overseas may have been assassinated in Somalia by the very terrorist group he went there to help. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been investigating for several months at least 20 Somali-American men from the Minneapolis area who recently traveled to Somalia to train with the terrorist group al-Shabaab. One of those men — 17-year-old Burhan Hassan — was killed in Mogadishu on Friday, his uncle, Osman Ahmed, told FOX News. “Someone who claimed to be a member of al-Shabaab called Burhan’s mom Friday afternoon and said Burhan died Friday morning,” Ahmed said. “Burhan’s mom got shocked and threw the phone when she heard the story.” “Al-Shabaab assassinated Burhan and shot him in the head,” the individual said, according to Ahmed. A law enforcement official told FOX News on Sunday that one of the Somali-American men was recently killed in Somalia by artillery fire, but the official declined to release the mans name. Read Full Article This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information.

Hacker, Defcon Founder Joins Homeland Secuirty Advisory Council Posted: 07 Jun 2009 06:51 PM PDT Forget the new cyber security czar position that President Barack Obama announced last week. The real sign that the White House might be finally taking cyber security seriously came in an announcement on Friday that Jeff Moss, aka “Dark Tangent” and the former hacker behind the annual DefCon hacker confab in Las Vegas, has been appointed to the Department of Homeland Security’s Advisory Council (HSAC). He was among 16 people (.pdf) sworn in to the council by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Former CIA Director WIlliam Webster and former FBI Director Louis Freeh are also on the council, which provides advice and recommendations to the secretary. Webster is the council chair. Moss, who lives in Seattle, says he was really surprised when he got a call about three weeks ago inviting him to join. “I always figured that because of my associations in the past that I would be kind of out of the running for anything like this,” he told Threat Level. “DefCon started as a hacking conference . . . and I just figured that that past, in a nontraditional beginning, people wouldn’t know how to relate to that. To me it shows that they’re really looking for fresh perspectives.” Moss, who’s 39, was a phreaker in high school — someone who cracks into phone systems to make calls on the telecom’s dime. Read Full Article This story comes to us via Homeland Security - National Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information.

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