While the full details of the awful events in Woolwich remain unclear, the attack has already revived heated debates about the risk of terror at home.
When building a profile of someone who allegedly…
Inspire’s writer, Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed in a US drone strike in November 2011.
By Magharebi via Wikipedia Commons
The influence of globally available jihadist propaganda on the web is well established. But we know less about how and to what extent word-of-mouth and other more local channels of communication contribute…
Inmates at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Does the prison do the US more harm than good?
EPA/Scott Applewhite
US president Barack Obama has renewed his promise to close the controversial US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
The prison camp is currently the scene of a hunger strike by numerous inmates, some…
Bombings at the site of the Boston Marathon have killed at least three people.
EPA/Stuart Cahill/The Boston Herald
The terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon calls up a number of questions that have no easy answers.
As someone who once lived next to the scene of the attack and who experienced terrorist attacks while…
Australian links to political violence in Lebanon run deeper than a single attack.
AAP/Stringer
An Australian has been linked to the July 18, 2012 Bulgarian bus bombing, that killed five Israeli tourists, the driver of a bus and a man carrying a bomb.
Several of those responsible for the attack…
Vice President Joe Biden is spear-heading the Obama administration’s efforts to tackle gun control.
EPA/Michael Reynolds
The gun control debate in the United States has been reawakened for the new year, with Vice President Joe Biden providing President Barack Obama with 19 recommendations for action on guns. As The Economist…
The remains of a Real IRA car bomb after an attack on a British Army base in 2010. Terrorists or ‘freedom fighters’?
EPA/Paul McErlene
Terrorism defies definition. We all know one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter; or in some cases, one man’s terrorist is another’s recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. The use of the word…
Is possessing jihadi literature enough to be prosecuted on terrorism charges?
Terrorism image from www.shutterstock.com
Jihadist activity has been a primary source of concern for security agencies in the Western world for longer than a decade.
When contrasted against other broadly comparable countries, the threat to Australia…
David Hicks could have his criminal charges overturned.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
On Monday the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia handed down a decision which invalidated one of the charges against Salim Hamdan – Osama bin Laden’s driver. Hamdan was convicted of the crime…
Part of the Kuta tourist strip that was destroyed by the 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people – including 88 Australians – were killed.
AAP/Dean Lewins
This week marks the tenth anniversary of the 2002 Bali bombings. Although more than 120 Australian civilians have been killed by terrorists overseas since 2000, and the embassies in Jakarta, Iraq and Phnom…
The scene after two popular bars at Kuta Beach in Bali were bombed by Islamic militants in 2002.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Ten years ago, the Bali bombings unleashed a torrent of grief. Alongside the dreadful toll of dead and injured, Australians mourned the loss of Bali as a holiday idyll. Journalists turned to the image…
Al-Furqan Islamic Bookshop in Melbourne’s East was raided by police early Wednesday morning.
AAP/Julian Smith
A man arrested yesterday in anti-terror raids in Melbourne has been charged by Federal Police with four counts of making a document likely to facilitate terrorist acts.
But this does not mean there is…
Suicide bomb attacks, such as this one in Afghanistan last week, continue to wrack the Middle East.
EPA/Abdul Mueed
The day will come when 11 September is just another date on the calendar. But that time is still some way off.
Eleven years after the horrible spectacle of the World Trade Center towers being struck by…
The aftermath of the 7/7 attacks in London.
Wikicommons
What does one billion Pounds Sterling of Olympics security get you? Rapier surface-to-air missiles in Blackheath common, the Royal Navy’s largest battleship moored in the Thames (complete with eight Lynx…
Muslim women pass bombed Christian shops in Nigeria: researchers and policymakers are developing complex views of organised violence.
AAP/EPA/Ruth McDowall
In part 10 of the multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Alex Burns argues that we are getting more sophisticated in our approach to global threats and conflict.
Global challenge 10: How can shared…
Green groups have been accused of taking their protests too far, but does this mean ASIO should spy on them?
AAP Image/Greenpeace
Environmental activists and mining protesters are now being labelled as terrorists, with reports security agency ASIO is spying on conservation groups protesting at coal mines.
Resources and Energy Minister…
Should Breivik’s hateful diatribe be made public?
AAP/Hakon Mosvold Larsen
The trial of Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik for the murder of 77 people has a special significance for journalists in Australia, and not just because Breivik summoned the names of John Howard, Peter…
It’s time for the government to review our national security laws.
Flickr/another_activist
More than ten years ago, the Australian public and policymakers overreacted to 9/11 and created a set of laws that went beyond what was needed to protect us against terrorism.
With the recent release…
The UK and Australia have both looked at reforming their counter-terrorism laws, but which country has been more rigorous?
Flickr/neeravbhatt
Within a couple of weeks of each other, the independent monitors of counter-terrorism laws in both the UK and Australia have delivered their reports assessing the operation of national security legislation…
The aftermath of a car bombing in Mogadishu in February, blamed on Al-Shabab.
EPA/Elyas Ahmed
Al Qaeda’s recent acquisition of the Somali militant group al Shabab as its newest franchise has been dismissed in some circles as a propaganda ploy, and a play for relevance by two groups on the decline…
A rooftop ‘E-bomb’ could wreak havoc on critical infrastructure and electronic devices nearby.
Shane Brennan Productions
In tonight’s episode of NCIS: Los Angeles airing on Channel Ten, the program’s protagonists try to locate a stolen electromagnetic bomb before detonation. I know this, because I was the scientific advisor…
Spy agencies in Australia have a big job, but does the job match the budget?
Flickr/ocularinvasion
In an era of evolving threats, judgment calls will continue to rely on the provision of accurate, timely intelligence. But this intelligence does not come cheap.
In order to be well-prepared and well…
People in Libya are desperate for change and the new government will have to manage expectations carefully.
AFP/Abdullah Doma
The relegation of Moammar Gaddafi to the meat-locker of history is a significant exorcism of Libya’s past.
Whether it would have been better for him to face trial is a moot point. It’s doubtful that too…
Some groups in Karachi have demanded the army takes to the streets to restore law and order.
EPA/Rehan Khan
There is a threat to Nato forces in Afghanistan which the world is ignoring. Violent gangs have been killing indiscriminately in Karachi, the Pakistani city vital to the supply chain which sustains ISAF…
Mourners at the New York 9/11 memorial on tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
AAP
This past weekend, whole sections of the United States community felt something like a duty or desire to attend sites linked with the events of 11 September 2001.
The public memory ceremonies at these…
Mourners will gather on the site of the Twin Towers to remember 9/11 victims today.
AFP/Alex Fuchs
Ten years ago today, on September 11th 2001, al-Qaida terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. Passengers on a fourth jet overpowered hijackers, bringing…
Right-wing extremism is threatening multiculturalism in Europe EPA/JON ARE BERG JACOBSEN/AFTENPOSTE
The recent massacres by Anders Breivik in Norway drew the attention of the world to a growing reactionary element in Europe who resent the three Ms – Muslims, multiculturalism and Marxism.
So how do these…
The suspected killer, Anders Behring Breivik’s extreme views motivated his twin attacks on Norway AFP/Facebook.
As the self-confessed perpetrator of the Norway attacks, Anders Behring Breivik is due to face court today, The Conversation spoke with Dr Binoy Kampmark, lecturer in Global Studies at RMIT about whether…
aapone topshots australia norway attacks original.
By Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
When injustice is done, when the innocent are threatened, a common expression of sympathy is “I am one of you”.
So, as the famous movie line goes, “I am Spartacus,” or a little more recently, “Ich bin…
Abu Bakar Bashir is driven away from court after being sentenced to 15 years in jail.
AAP
Radical Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was yesterday sentenced to 15 years in jail for supporting and sponsoring terrorism.
RMIT Associate Professor Jeff Lewis, an Indonesia expert, tells The…
Osama bin Laden masterminded the 9/11 attacks, but his death won’t mean an end to the terror threat.
AFP/Doug Kanter
The US military’s assassination of Osama bin Laden in North Pakistan is an important landmark in the “war on terror”. As the leader of al Qaeda he was the primary target of the military campaign to defeat…
