Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is unlikely to go free. The onetime al Qaeda operative has confessed on multiple occasions to organizing the worst terrorist attacks in modern times. If anything, he’s prone to overstating his own importance in the terrorist organization behind the plot. But the Obama administration’s decision to try Mohammed and four others in civilian court has critics outraged at the possibility that KSM, as he is known, will get off scot-free. Read the rest of this entry »

Haymarket, va.-More than two dozen professional hackers have set up operations in exurban Virginia beside a mock military headquarters made of plywood. Huddled over laptops, they are preparing to launch a vicious barrage of cyberattacks. Once they break into their targets’ computer networks, the nefarious possibilities are myriad: shutting off phone lines, overloading citywide emergency response systems, or simply slinking around to pilfer passwords. Read the rest of this entry »

Government authorities had long suspected that the Alavi charitable foundation, associated with the late shah of Iran, was linked to the country’s current ruling theocracy. But it was not until last week that federal prosecutors in New York began legal action against the foundation, seizing its ownership share of the Piaget Building, a 36-story Fifth Avenue skyscraper in Manhattan situated not far from Rockefeller Center and the Museum of Modern Art. The Justice Department also moved to take over bank accounts, four mosques, and other properties across the country allegedly connected to the foundation, according to court papers. Read the rest of this entry »