Weird one ... I was living in the old house in Grand Rapids that i went by yesterday, it was night, and I was talking to a next-door neighbor (now I think in my driveway here, or maybe in the house I grew up in. I think all of them at times). My neighbor had somehow either bought some stuff online at the same time as me, or piggybacked on my order ( Read more... )

Terrorism laws are generally lacking, historical parallels suggest using piracy laws ... The Dread Pirate Bin Laden (legalaffairs.com)

The story of Able Danger, a classified group formed in the late '90s, originally tasked with using non-classified data to search for links and therefore uncover espionage rings and terrorist cells  -- told through news summaries, etc. Nearly shut down when it identified such greats as Condeleeza Rice as having connections to Chinese espionage, the ( Read more... )

The liquid explosives airline ban looks to be overwrought: "Mass Murder in the Skies: Was the Plot Feasible?" (register.co.uk).

The upshot: there was no feasible way to put together the explosive the terrorists were planning on trying to use to blow up the planes, either by bringing the ingredients on board and mixing them up there, nor by bringing ( Read more... )