Open Source Homeland

Interesting unclassified reports below…

The review of our security and intelligence systems following the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day has been completed. The President spoke two days ago about “the urgency of getting this right,” and the identification of failures in this review, along with the immediate ordering of reforms and corrective steps both today and in the days since this incident, are a recognition of that urgency. This review is also a recognition that while there is no place for partisanship and the old Washington blame game in dealing with Al Qaeda and the threat they represent, keeping American safe depends on honest and direct accountability.

• Read the summary of the security review (pdf).
• Read the President’s Directive on corrective actions (pdf).

Release of the Security Review Conducted After the Failed Christmas Terrorist Attack | The White House.

We need more of this. All you need is the right language skills, some rudimentary technology, and a desire to make money.

S.C. mom scoops al-Qaida with its videos - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON - Once her son is off to school, Laura Mansfield settles in at her dining room table with her laptop and begins trolling Arabic-language message boards and chat rooms popular with jihadists.

Fluent in Arabic, the self-employed terror analyst often hacks into the sites, translates the material, puts it together and sends her analysis via a subscription service to intelligence agencies, law enforcement and academics.

Occasionally she comes across a gem, such as when she found a recent Osama bin Laden video — before al-Qaida had announced it.

“I realized, oh my gosh, I’m sitting here, I’m a fat 50-year-old mom and I’ve managed to scoop al-Qaida,” said Mansfield, who uses that name as a pseudonym because she receives death threats.

 Chock-full of details on how al Qadeda uses cell phone video, hundreds of websites, and web-based forums to spread propaganda.

Capital Sources: Keeping an Eye on Al Qaeda - Newsweek: World News - MSNBC.com
Where are most of these sites hosted?
I guess your question is about what kind of ISPs [Internet service providers] they use. Many of them use American ISPs. Where are the physical locations of the individuals running them? That is a different question. Some of their people appear to reside in the West, from the U.K. and Europe to the United States. Others are in the Middle East: Jordan, UAE [United Arab Emirates], Saudi Arabia and other places. The beauty of their system is that it’s a virtual network, embodied in a virtual Al Qaeda propaganda organization called “al Fajr Center.” Because the Internet can put together people from all over the world in a meeting place on a specific URL, the geographic differences don’t play a role.