Terrorism

Reuters reports: British police are to start operational use of live facial recognition (LFR) cameras in London, despite warnings over privacy from rights groups and concerns expressed by the government’s own surveillance watchdog. First used in the capital at the Notting Hill carnival in 2016, the cameras will alert police when they spot anyone on “wanted” lists. “The use of …

The San Jose Mercury News reports: A pastor at a Lutheran church in San Mateo was arrested after allegedly delivering letters full of shooting threats to a San Carlos church where he was formerly a congregation member, authorities said. In four separate instances between Jan. 7 and Jan. 16, Paul Michaelson, 79, dropped off letters to the Holy Trinity Church …

The New York Times reports: Attorney General William P. Barr declared on Monday that a deadly shooting last month at a naval air station in Pensacola, Fla., was an act of terrorism, and he asked Apple in an unusually high-profile request to provide access to two phones used by the gunman. Mr. Barr’s appeal was an escalation of an ongoing …

The Washington Post reports: A California woman has been charged with allegedly leaving voice-mail messages threatening to bomb, burn and kill people at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, after the private, Catholic all-girls high school announced plans to include information about same-sex weddings in its alumnae magazine, according to court filings. Sonia Tabizada pleaded not guilty Jan. 3 to federal charges …

The Guardian reports: Law enforcement agencies in several major US cities have issued alerts advising residents to be vigilant in the wake of the US strike against Iran’s top general as officials said they were stepping up security efforts at sensitive locations. Chad Wolf [photo], acting secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, said his agency was working with …

Via press release from the State Department: Do not travel to Iraq due to terrorism, kidnapping, and armed conflict. U.S. citizens in Iraq are at high risk for violence and kidnapping. Numerous terrorist and insurgent groups are active in Iraq and regularly attack both Iraqi security forces and civilians. Anti-U.S. sectarian militias may also threaten U.S. citizens and Western companies …

NPR reports: Federal prosecutors in New York have filed hate crime charges against the man accused of carrying out a stabbing rampage north of New York City over the weekend that wounded five people as they celebrated Hanukkah. According to the FBI, the suspect, Grafton E. Thomas, 37, appears to have been driven by anti-Semitism, citing journals written by Thomas …

The New York Times reports: A suspect involved in a prolonged firefight in Jersey City, N.J., that left six people dead, including one police officer, had published anti-Semitic and anti-police posts online and investigators believe the attack was motivated by those sentiments, a law enforcement official familiar with the case said on Wednesday. The Jersey City mayor said surveillance footage …

Mediaite reports: Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, appeared to claim that mass shooter Dylann Roof “hijacked” the Confederate flag, and that it was seen as “service, and sacrifice, and heritage” before the 2015 Charleston Church Shooting, during an interview with the Blaze’s Glenn Beck this week. “There is this guy that comes out with this manifesto, …

NBC News reports: A number of people were injured in a stabbing near London Bridge in the center of the British capital on Friday afternoon, police said. One man has been arrested amid a major police incident that has cordoned off the busy surrounding area and closed local bus, subway stations and train stations. The incident on London Bridge was …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday dealt a blow to the firearms industry, rejecting Remington Arms Co’s bid to escape a lawsuit by families of victims aiming to hold the gun maker liable for its marketing of the assault-style rifle used in the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre that killed 20 children and six adults. The justices turned …

The San Francisco Chronicle reports: The National Rifle Association on Thursday backed away from a lawsuit against San Francisco for labeling the gun group as a “domestic terrorist organization,” after city officials made it clear they were only expressing an opinion and not ordering an economic boycott. The dismissal was far from harmonious, though. The NRA said it had forced …

The Denver Post reports: A 27-year-old man is accused in federal court of domestic terrorism for plotting an attack on Temple Emanuel in Pueblo and spreading white supremacist views encouraging acts of violence, according to federal court documents. Richard Holzer allegedly met an undercover agent on Friday at a motel with explosives he intended to use on the synagogue. He …

Springfield, Missouri’s CBS News affiliate reports: A Battlefield, Mo. man charged with making a terroristic threat at a south Springfield Walmart in August pleaded guilty to an amended charge. Dmitriy Andreychenko, 20, pleaded guilty in a Greene County courtroom Friday to an amended charge of making a false report. A judge sentenced him to a 180 day suspended jail sentence, …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump has abandoned the idea of releasing proposals to combat gun violence that his White House debated for months following mass shootings in August, according to White House officials and lawmakers, a reversal from the summer when the president insisted he would offer policies to curb firearm deaths. Trump has been counseled by political advisers, …

NBC News reports: The world’s most wanted terrorist, Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was the target of a deadly U.S.-led raid in northwestern Syria, sources told NBC News early Sunday. Forensic testing is underway, but officials believe al-Baghdadi is among the dead, the sources said. A U.S. Special Ops mission targeted the ISIS leader near Barisha, in northwestern …

The New York Times reports: A video depicting a macabre scene of a fake President Trump shooting, stabbing and brutally assaulting members of the news media and his political opponents was shown at a conference for his supporters at his Miami resort last week, according to footage obtained by The New York Times. Several of Mr. Trump’s top surrogates — …

The Sacramento Bee reports: Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed new gun control laws that expand the availability of gun violence restraining orders and place stricter limits on the number of firearms Californians can buy each month. Starting in July 2021, Californians will be allowed to purchase one long gun per month. People younger than age 21 won’t be allowed …

Vice News reports: The gunman who killed two people near a synagogue in Halle, Germany, on Wednesday appears to have filmed his attack, and the footage was uploaded to Twitch, a platform popular with video game users. The video shows the alleged suspect, a young white male, driving to his chosen location, alone. He speaks to a camera, positioned on …

Heavy.com reports: Joseph Schumacher is a North Dakota man accused of making terroristic threats against a woman for political reasons. According to the Moorhead Police Department, Schumacher threatened another driver with a gun after seeing a political bumper sticker on her vehicle that indicated she held different views than him. The incident happened in Moorhead, Minnesota, on October 7, 2019. …