2012 Top 10 Security Stories

waltky · Dec 31, 2012

Top 10 security stories for the year...

Taken down: The top terrorist threats killed or indicted in 2012
December 31st, 2012 - One of the most wanted terrorists in Yemen. A son of the Haqqani Network founder. A man whose capture was worth $5 million to the FBI: The United States and its allies took out some of these key terror leaders throughout 2012.

Take a look at those top leaders and more who were killed or indicted in the past year:

1. Abu Yahya al-Libi
Al-Libi was second in command of al Qaeda under Ayman al-Zawahiri and a senior leader of the terror groups external operations against the West. Al-Libi was also an Islamic scholar who appeared in many recruitment videos. The U.S. State Department offered a $1 million reward for his capture. He was killed on June 4 in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan.

2. Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso
A senior al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operative, al-Quso was wanted for his role in the USS Cole bombing in 2000, which killed 17 U.S. sailors. The U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for his capture. Al-Quso was killed on May 6 in a U.S. drone strike in Shabwa province, Yemen.

3. Badr Mansoor
Described as the most senior Pakistani in al Qaeda, Mansoor was the predecessor of Ilyas Kashmiri and one of the Americans' main targets. U.S. officials said he was a coordinator for the Taliban and al Qaedas shura council. Reports say Mansoor was killed on February 9 in a U.S. missile strike in Miranshah, Pakistan.

4. Badruddin Haqqani
Haqqani was a commander in the Taliban-aligned Haqqani Network and son of the group's founder. He was responsible for many high profile attacks in Afghanistan including assaults on the U.S. Embassy and Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul in 2011. The U.S. State Department had designated him a terrorist under an executive order. Haqqani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan, Pakistan, in August 2012.

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Top 10 Security Clearance stories of 2012
December 26th, 2012 - 2012 has been a busy year at Security Clearance. From the U.S. diplomatic facility attack in Benghazi, Libya to the Petraeus sex scandal to the future of Afghanistan and the Pentagon preparing(or not) to fall off the fiscal cliff.

But there have been numerous other stories that have caught your eye this year. Top 10 Security Clearance stories you, the readers, made the most popular in 2012:

10. Navy detects Russian sub off U.S. East Coast
The U.S. Navy detected and tracked a Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine less than 300 miles from the southern U.S. East Coast last November, U.S. Defense officials said. While the submarine did not enter U.S. territorial waters or follow any U.S. Navy ships, its arrival came while a Navy carrier strike group was training off Florida, according to the defense officials.

9. Imagine flying from New York to London in under an hour
Perhaps Han Solo said it best in Star Wars when, describing his hyper-fast smuggling spaceship the Millennium Falcon, he said, "It may not look like much, but shes got it where it counts." While the Air Force might take exception to being likened to the Falcon, in reality the platypus-nosed X-51A Waverider hypersonic flight test vehicle really doesn't look like much. But it definitely has it where it counts. The unmanned 25-foot-long vehicle was dropped off of the wing of a converted B-52 bomber off the California coast and tried to fly for 300 seconds at science fiction-like speeds of Mach 6, over 4,500 mph fast enough to fly from New York to London in less than an hour. It is the Pentagon's latest test as it studies the possibilities of hypersonic flight, defined as moving at speeds of Mach 5 (about 3,400 mph) and above without leaving the atmosphere. The technology could eventually bring missiles or airplanes to the other side of the planet in minutes instead of hours.

8. Army to Congress: Thanks, but no tanks
If you need an example of why it is hard to cut the budget in Washington look no further than this Army depot in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada range. CNN was allowed rare access to what amounts to a parking lot for more than 2,000 M-1 Abrams tanks. About an hour's drive north of Reno, Nevada, the tanks have been collecting dust in the hot California desert because of a tiff between the Army and Congress. The U.S. has more than enough combat tanks in the field to meet the nation's defense needs so there's no sense in making repairs to these now, the Army's chief of staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno told Congress earlier this year. If the Pentagon holds off repairing, refurbishing or making new tanks for three years until new technologies are developed, the Army says it can save taxpayers as much as $3 billion.

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protectionist · Mar 2, 2013

waltky said: ↑

Top 10 security stories for the year...

Taken down: The top terrorist threats killed or indicted in 2012
December 31st, 2012 - One of the most wanted terrorists in Yemen. A son of the Haqqani Network founder. A man whose capture was worth $5 million to the FBI: The United States and its allies took out some of these key terror leaders throughout 2012.
Click to expand...

They live by the sword, they die by the sword. Good riddance to them.

waltky · Oct 6, 2013

Abu Anas el-Liby nabbed in Libya...

Officials: '98 US Embassy Bomber in Custody
October 05, 2013 ~ U.S. officials say American forces have captured an al-Qaida leader facing federal charges for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Officials say the suspect, known as Abu Anas el-Liby, was captured alive Saturday near Tripoli in a joint operation by a U.S. military force and intelligence operatives. The accounts of U.S. involvement came a short while after relatives of Abu Anas said the 49-year-old suspect had been kidnapped in the Libyan capital. The Associated Press quoted the suspect's brother as saying Abu Anas was abducted while parking his car outside his house early Saturday after dawn prayers. He said three cars encircled the suspect, smashed his car window and disarmed him before fleeing with him. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation had offered a $5 million bounty for information leading to Abu Anas' capture, after a federal court in New York indicted him in 2000 for planning the embassy attacks. More than 250 people were killed and thousands wounded in the Nairobi and Dar es Salaam blasts on August 7, 1998.

Somalia Raid

A United States Navy SEAL team has targeted a senior leader of the al-Qaida-linked militant group al- Shabab in a daring predawn raid in Barawe, Somalia. U.S. Defense Department officials say the commandos conducted an operation "aimed at capturing a high value al-Shabab terrorist leader," but they failed to capture him. Sources told VOA a top al-Qaida militant working with al-Shabab was the target of the attack, but did not name him. Several al-Shabab militants were killed in the firefight but it was not clear if the targeted militant was among them. U.S. officials said no American troops were hurt. The raid was in response to an attack on a shopping mall two weeks ago in neighboring Kenya. Al-Shabab, a militant Islamist group, has claimed responsibility for the action, which killed at least 67 people. The mission, first reported by The New York Times, marks the boldest strike on Somali soil since U.S. commandos killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an al-Qaida mastermind, near the same town four years ago.

In notice offering rewards for information leading to the capture of most wanted terrorists, Anas al Liby is bottom row, second from left.

Witnesses in the al-Shabab controlled town of Barawe told VOA Somali foreign forces attacked the militant safe house around 2:30 a.m. Saturday. They report some of the soldiers descended from helicopters while others may have arrived on boats. Al-Shabab spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab confirmed the incident in a recorded statement. “Last night a group of fighters docked at Barawe sea port and stormed at one of the safe house occupied by some of our fighters,” he said. “Our fighters saw these troops, fighting broke out and we repelled them.” Musab said one militant was killed in the attack, and compared the raid to a failed attempt by French special forces to free a hostage in the town of Bula Marer in January. At least one French soldier was killed in that operation. Under pressure from regional military forces, al-Shabab has been driven out of major cities in Somalia, but it still controls towns and territory, mostly in the south central regions.

The Islamist group has claimed responsibility for a four-day attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya’s capital Nairobi last month that killed more than 60 people. Kenya's military spokesman on Saturday named four men — including a Sudanese, a Kenyan Arab and a Somali — took part in the attack, giving their names as Abu Baara al-Sudani, Omar Nabhan, Khattab al-Kene and Umayr. Al-Shabab’s leaders said the attack was retaliation for Kenya’s ongoing military operations targeting the group in southern Somalia. Al-Shabab has vowed to carry out other acts of violence against Kenya, unless Kenya withdraws its forces from Somalia. Kenyan forces entered Somalia two years ago to help battle the militant group, which has been fighting to turn Somalia into a strict Islamic state.

http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-...nia-embassy-bomber-in-us-custody/1763844.html
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US Forces Conduct Two Major Anti-Terrorist Operations in Africa
October 06, 2013 WASHINGTON — U.S. special forces have launched major anti-terror operations in Libya and Somalia.

Defense Department spokesman George Little, in a written statement, confirmed U.S. forces have captured Abu Anas el-Liby, an al-Qaida leader indicted in the United States for the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salam, Tanzania. The attacks 15 years ago killed more than 200 people and injured thousands. Little said Abu Anas is currently detained by the U.S. military in what he described only as a secure location outside Libya.

News reports earlier quoted members of Abu Anas's family as saying foreign troops arrested him outside his home in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on Saturday. In a separate development, U.S. officials on Saturday said U.S. Navy SEALs were involved in an operation in southern Somalia Friday that targeted a leader of al-Shabab, the group responsible for the recent attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping center. The Pentagon did not release the name of the individual they were seeking, but a U.S. official described that person as a “high value al-Shabab terrorist leader.”

Reports say the U.S. commandos withdrew after coming under heavy gunfire. A U.S. official says no American personnel were killed or injured. The official says U.S. forces did inflict an undisclosed number of casualties among al-Shabab members. It was not immediately clear if the individual the U.S. forces were targeting was among the dead or wounded.

http://www.voanews.com/content/us-anti-terrorism-africa/1763886.html
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2012 Top 10 Security Stories

waltky Well-Known Member

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