New-fbi-photo-boston-suspects. The man in the right was killed by Police,the other one was captured

BOSTON — In a direct appeal for help from the public, the F.B.I. on Thursday released pictures and video of two young men who officials believe may be responsible for the explosions that killed three people and wounded more than 170 during the Boston Marathon.

Officials said they have images of one of the men putting a black backpack on the ground just minutes before two near-simultaneous blasts went off near the finish line of the marathon at 2:50 p.m. on Monday.READ MORE HERE

One suspect, seen in pictures released Thursday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation wearing a black hat, had been shot, said Timothy P. Alben of the Masschusetts State Police in a press conference early Friday morning.  READ MORE HERE

A day-long dragnet for the second of two brothers believed to be behind Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing ended Friday night, with police capturing the suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev covered in blood and hiding in a boat in the backyard of a man who called 911 after becoming suspicious of activity on his property.

“We got him,” Boston Mayor Tom Menino tweeted moments later, as neighbors gathered to form a gauntlet of cheers while a phalanx of police cars departed the scene.

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Authorities are investigating whether terrorists acted independently without international connections, or if the older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev (26) was a “sleeping cell”  acting for a foreign government or terrorist organization.

The Americas Security News.- President Fernandez de Kirchner in front of Falkland Malvinas Islands painted like the Argentine national flag

According to The Sunday Times, Argentina is developing missile technology that could threaten the Malvinas/Falkland Islands.

The british newspaper has learnt that military scientists in Argentina are building a rocket capable of being fired into space to an altitude of about 250 miles. Experts believe such technology could, in time, develop into a missile with a range of up to 372 miles.

This would put it easily within range of the Falklands, which are about 300 miles from the Argentine mainland, and could transform the balance of power in the south Atlantic.

Lord West, the former security minister and first sea lord, said he believed the only logical reason to develop such technology was to threaten the Malvinas/Falklands.

The announcement Friday by Undersecretary Eduardo Sánchez of the Interior Secretariat was another sign that President Enrique Peña Nieto is developing a whole different strategy against the cartels, and wants to distance itself from practices under the previous government, which left power Dec. 1.

Last week, Sánchez also told the press that police no longer would put suspected gangsters on display in “perp walks” before banks of television cameras, nor would authorities post “most-wanted” lists, allow news media to air raids in action or refer to gangsters by aliases.

“It is not acceptable, nor will it ever be under this government, that authorities conduct themselves in arbitrary ways that hurt society (or) lead to impunity and injustice,” Sánchez said at a news conference.READ MORE HERE

java logo

Computer users are being advised by security experts to disable Oracle Corp.’s widely used Java software after a security flaw was discovered that they say hackers are exploiting to attack computers.

“Java is a mess. It’s not secure,” said Jaime Blasco, Labs Manager with AlienVault Labs. “You have to disable it.”

Java, which is on hundreds of millions of PCs around the globe, is a computer language that lets programmers write software using just one set of code that will run on virtually any type of computer.

It lets Web developers make sites accessible from browsers running on Microsoft Corp. Windows PCs or Macs from Apple Inc.

Computer users access those programs through modules, or plug-ins, that run Java software on top of browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox. READ MORE HERE

The Americas Post - Cocaine in Spain is headed down the drain. Photo Credit: Spanish Interior Ministry

Spanish police and the FBI have reportedly blocked a major Mexican drug cartel from launching a European operation. Sinaloa cartel member Jesus Gutierrez Guzman was part of the operation. Guzman is alleged to be the cousin of Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman, known as “El Chapo,” the leader of the Sinaloa cartel.

The ministry said the cartel wanted to make Spain a gateway for operations in Europe, even carrying out test runs using shipping containers without drugs. But investigators managed to monitor many of the group’s activities and intercepted a container carrying 373 kilos (822 pounds) of cocaine in late July before moving in to make the arrests.

The Interior Ministry statement said Jesus Gutierrez Guzman, Rafael Humberto Celaya Valenzuela, Samuel Zazueta Valenzuela and Jesus Gonzalo Palazuelos Soto were arrested near their hotels in the Spanish capital. The statement did not say precisely when the arrests were made, and when called by phone ministry officials could not immediately give exact details of the dates.

Jesus Gutierrez Guzman is alleged to be the cousin of Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman, known as “El Chapo,” the leader of the cartel and Mexico’s most wanted man. Since escaping prison in 2001, Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman has run the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s two most powerful drug-organizations, from a series of hideouts and safe houses across Mexico.

Law-enforcement officials say he has earned billions of dollars moving tons of cocaine and other drugs north to the United States. In recent months, the Sinaloa cartel and its allies have been waging a brutal war against the paramilitary Zetas cartel across Mexico, often carrying out mass killings that have left hundreds of dismembered bodies dumped in public places.

Along with the alleged link to the cartel leader, the arrests in Spain have attracted a great deal of media interest in Mexico because a Facebook page in Celaya Valenzuela’s name appears to show a photograph of him alongside Mexico’s President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto. The photo was posted on Feb. 11. The presidential elections were held in July.

The operation against the Sinaloa cartel was made possible thanks to agents using “the most modern research techniques,” which had at all times been supervised by judges and prosecutors, the Interior Ministry statement said. It noted that “the bulk” of the investigation was carried out in the United States.

U.S. agents had learned that cartel members were planning to travel to Spain and were later able to confirm the trip, which took place in March 2011, the statement said. Thanks to the information provided by the FBI’s Boston division, Spanish police located the suspects and monitored them closely “to ensure their full identification,” the statement said.

The statement said FBI investigators had determined that the gang intended to begin large cocaine shipments by sea with the drugs concealed in cargo containers. The cartel used stringent security measures to try to ensure the success of the operation and did several test runs, initially shipping containers without any drugs in them.

When they sent a first drugs shipment to Spain on board a ship from Brazil in late July, officers intercepted it, the statement said.

The arrest of his alleged cousin could potentially lead to information about the whereabouts of the fugitive Mexican drug lord. Investigators working to bust Sinaloa’s operations thought in June that they had nabbed a son of Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman, but it turned out they got the wrong man.

The Americas Post - The Argentine government seems to have forgotten about these guys

British Prime Minister David Cameron warned Argentina on Thursday that his nation stands ”ready and willing” to defend the Falkland Islands, 30 years after Britain recaptured the South Atlantic archipelago from Argentine occupiers.

In a speech to commemorate the 1982 British victory over Argentina, Cameron accused Argentina’s government of “aggression” and said there would be “absolutely no negotiation” over sovereignty of the tiny islands, about 300 miles off the Argentine coast.

Tensions have grown between the two countries in recent months, especially since British companies started to carry out offshore oil exploration. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has reasserted claims to the scattered islands, known in Spanish as Las Malvinas.

“My message to the government of Argentina is this. The UK has no aggressive intentions towards you,” Cameron told an audience including British veterans of the two-month war to retake the Falklands, which resulted in the deaths of 255 British and about 650 Argentine soldiers.

“But do not underestimate our resolve. Threats will not work. Attempts to intimidate the islanders will not succeed. Because Britain stands ready and willing to stand up for the Falkland Islanders at any time.”

Britain says there could be talks on sovereignty only if the islanders wanted them. The islands’ government said on Tuesday it would hold a referendum, probably next year, of its 3,000 inhabitants to see if they wanted to stay part of Britain’s self-governing overseas territories.  Argentine Defense Minister Arturo Puricelli dismissed that idea out of hand.

“It’s a paradox to ask the usurpers to debate whether or not they want to continue usurping,” he said in a speech on Thursday marking the end of the war.  “Argentina has historic, legal and geographic arguments in favor of our sovereignty over the Malvinas,” he said.

Gavin Short, chairman of the Falklands Legislative Assembly, said he was certain the residents would back a continued link with London and Cameron said this would clarify the position “beyond any doubt”.

Argentina accuses Britain of colonialism over the archipelago London has controlled since 1833. Fernandez was due to attend a meeting of the U.N. Decolonisation Committee on Thursday to raise the issue and push for talks.

“Britain’s excuses for not negotiating are unfounded,” Alicia Castro, the Argentine ambassador to London, wrote in an article for the Independent newspaper.  ”They cannot hide behind the so-called self-determination of the islanders when no UN resolution has recognised such a right.”

In addition to stepping up its rhetoric, Argentina has been applying diplomatic and economic pressure.  In December, the South American trading bloc Mercosur – including associate member Chile – agreed that vessels sailing under a Falkland Islands flag would be banned from docking at any of its ports as an act of solidarity with Argentina.

Cameron said he wanted a sensible relationship with Buenos Aires and a partnership over issues such as fishing.

“There is only one shadow on the horizon. And that is the aggression from over the water,” Cameron said.  ”We’ve seen the (Argentine) president trying to restrict the movement of Falklands vessels, banning charter flights to and from Argentina and today, escalating the debate at the U.N.”

Yuri Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC, Director Gral of U.N. Office in Vienna and Under Secretary Gral of the United Nations.

Addressing today the Security Council in New York, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UNODC Mr. Yury Fedotov today called for coordinated and concerted efforts to address the threat of transnational organized crime.

Mr. Fedotov said to the Security Council that transnational organized crime TOC and drug trafficking are undermining security in many regions and evolving into major threats to political and social stability, the rule of law, human rights and economic development..

Giving more details about the particular threat to security posed by drugs, Mr. Fedotov noted..READ MORE HERE

The Americas Post - Mexicans appreciate fine German workmanship

The factory of German arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch was raided on Thursday by some 300 German agents, on suspicion of bribery related to the sale of weapons to Mexico in 2005.

Authorities in Stuttgart confirmed that the search, which included the homes of some employees, was for evidence of bribes paid to Mexican officials for approval of arms contracts over several years.  The accusations include some German officials who prosecutors allege were also bribed.

For years investigators have suspected the German company of exporting arms to four states in Mexico “with violent internal conflicts”, in violation of German law.  Authorities did not specify who the recipients of the weapons were.  In January the Economics Ministry suspended all exports from that factory to Mexico.

Heckler & Koch was previously accused of violating an embargo on arms exports to Libya.  The company has always denied any role in illegal sales, but declined to comment on the latest accusations.

Other current customers include the German police and military, as well as other NATO countries.

Security: Joe Parry from Cambridge Intelligence and Victor Bjorgan, CEO og Global Security Services LLC and Publisher of TheAmericasPost.com, during the EISIC 2011 Conference.

How should we communicate the results of our analysis to decision-makers? How to visualize key information for decision makers?  The talk of Joe Parry argued that visualisations and infographics play a very important role, not only for analytical processes of data analysts, but also for explaining the analytical results to decision-makers at the highest of levels.

Some care must be taken to avoid various common pitfalls when designing such visuals: the talk will cover bad examples as well as good in order to uncover design guidelines and practical advice for those wishing to pursue a more visual approach.

in that sense, Joe Parry initiated his keynote that these visualization tools are specially important for law enforcement and National Security. In that sense he recalled an old saying ” a good sketch is better than a long speech”.

What is visualitation? asked Parry to the conferencists. Well , a good visualitation does not consist in just good pictures.

About graphs and numbers, Parry said that the use of interactive data and vissualy representation of data is used to amplify cognition. Parry briefly described how a good visualization helps in the Intel analysis. Described some common pitfalls in data visualization. he recommend the reading of the book written by Westell, Duncan and Weeks on visualization in Intel analyIntel analysissis.

Parry also described a model of intelligence analyzing processes. The final product of such analysis is a report.

In the reports, he does not recommend the use of colours to describe the visual variables. He recommend the use of Kinley Visual variables.

To start the visualization of the Analysis in its low phase, Parry mentioned the visualization of pattern of life, but said this is a analytical tool, not a decission tool. He also said that this analysis must be simplified, not use numbers.

During his keynote speech, Joe Parry showed a photograph of former President George Bush looking a wall full of sketches with the networks and interrelations of all individual terrorists participants in the attacks of September 9/11. It was a very confusing material, President Bush was looking at in this photo. Not the best intelligence visualization report.  President Bush was not looking in the photo at a screen with the three followings ingredients that are important in any report: geovisualization, timeline visualization and network visualization.

Parry said, that if only using that photo, it was impossible for former President Bush tot ake any intelligence decission, because there is no report, but only information.

In things not to do, Joe Parry also told participants that it is no good to put pies in the reports, neither 3D presentations. The intelligence reports for decission makers must avoid the use of colour since there is often a color blind among the public. He recommends not to use labels, simplicity instead  of complexity, no use of black backgrounds, no use of pie charts, not use of misleading scales.

Joe Parry showed enthusiasm while talking about the infographics reports of the New York Times NYT. He said the NYT infographics show all needed info to understand what is happening.

Summarizing, Parry described some of what he called as ” design guidelines” for any Intel report, like  first an overview, always  aim for clarity, show context, show how the situation has changed, make comparison easy, all visual elements must be backed by data, and that the report should be so clear and convincing that the decission makers will act backed by the report.

To know more about the subject, Joe Parry from Cambridge Intelligence mentioned some sites that can be of interest like:

flowingdata.com

infosthetics.com (slow uploading, be patient..)

visualcomplexity.com

nytgraphics.com

stamen.com

visualization.org

Finally, Joe Parry ended his keynote speech saying to all participants: “Back Up everything you say!”

Joe Parry´s email address is joe@cambridge-intelligence.com

His twitter is @parry_joe

Phone nr: 07973 787 233

His address is:

idea Space

The Entrepreneurship Centre

3 Charles Babbage Road

Cambridge CB 3 OGT

Biographical Details:
Joe Parry has worked on visualization and graphics systems for intelligence work for the last thirteen years.
During that time he has done software development, design, systems architecture and more experimental
research projects. He has worked with the intelligence communities of the UK, US and other countries. His
recent professional interests include social network analysis and web-based visualisation systems. This year he started his own software company which is producing what he hopes will be part of a new wave of
investigation software.

Dr.Nasrullah Memon, Program Chair of EISIC 2011 in exclusive interview with TheAmericasPost.com

On the occasion of the EISIC (September 12-14,2011) held in Athens, we interviewed the Program Chair of the event Dr. Nasrullah Memon, professor at the University of Southern Denmark and member of the Steering Committee of the European Intelligence & Security Informatics Conference EISIC on Counterterrorism and Criminology. The event was organized jointly with The International Symposium on Open Source Intelligence and Web Mining (OSINT-WM 2011), and having as Academic Sponsors The University of Arizona, University of Southern Denmark,  and The Hellenic American University, as technical co-sponsor the IEEE Computer Society, as local organizer the Hellenic American University and SPRINGER as the Industry Sponsor.

During the interview, Dr. Memon gave details about EISIC (past, present and future plans) , how the Intelligence Community can take advantage of the Intelligence & Security Informatics discipline, the relationship between counterterrorism and computational criminology, the role of Higher Education, as well as differents kinds of Crime involving information and communication technologies. The privacy problem was also analized during the conversation.

Here is an excerpt of a very interesting interview with one of the world´s most brilliant minds in Defense, Counterterrorism and Security Informatics, Dr. Nasrullah Memon.

Dear Dr. Memon, could you please tell us what is EISIC 2011? Please elaborate on its creation, mission, objectives and members.

EISIC is the European chapter of Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI) series of conferences. The conference is dynamic and allows academicians, researchers and practitioners to keep abreast of new tools and methodologies in the area of Intelligence Security and Informatics. It is also a venue that fosters networking opportunities for people working in this scientific area.

After my graduation (PhD Defense), Professor Hsinchun Chen, Director, Artificial Lab, University of Arizona, the founder of ISI series of conferences encouraged us to organize the European chapter of ISI. In this context, the first event was organized under the name of EUROISI 2008 at Esbjerg, Denmark.  That event was organized more as a workshop than a conference and it was not very well attended.

In September 2010, while Professor Hsinchun Chen visited University of Southern Denmark, we discussed how to re-organize the European chapter of ISI as an annual event in order to create a consortium involving academic researchers in information technologies, computer science, public policy, criminology, and social and behavior studies as well as local, national, and European law enforcement and intelligence experts, and information technology industry consultants and practitioners to support counterterrorism and national/international security missions of anticipation, interdiction, prevention, preparedness and response to terrorist acts. In other words the mission and objectives for the organization of EISIC series of conferences that came out from the discussions with Prof. Chen are to provide opportunities to establish a European network in the area of Intelligence and Security Informatics.

The organization of the conference was a very difficult task and we started working for the success of the event from September 2010 with the collaboration of Hellenic American University, University of Southern Denmark and University of Arizona. We formed a team from the above mentioned academic institutes and Hellenic American University accepted to host EISIC 2011 in Athens, Greece while University of Southern Denmark accepted to host EISIC 2012 in Odense, Denmark.  As per program chairs, Daniel Zeng and me invited around 100 researchers from academia and industry to work as program committee members. We received 111 submissions for EISIC 2011 and we accepted 27% of high quality papers as LONG papers based on the peer-review process.  The research articles were received from 41 countries from all sub-continents.

The founding members of EISIC 2011 are: Prof. Hsinchun Chen, Prof. George J. Hagerty, Professor Uffe Kock Wiil, Professor Triant Flouris, Dr. Panagiotis Karampelas and myself.

What is your assessment of the conference in Athens?

As per feedback from the audience we found it was a very successful event. The keynote speeches as well as the paper presentations were very well attended by the participants and there were a lot of positive comments on the quality of the presentations. There were also a lot of opportunities for networking between the participants and we witnessed several discussions about future collaborations between the participants. I would like to mention at this point that the host organization played a vital role in the success of the conference sponsoring the expenses of keynote speakers and finding alternatives of certain problems we faced because of unforeseen incidents such as strikes, etc.

What activities does EISIC plan to carry out in the near future?

We have a number of long and short term plans in the area of Intelligence and Security Informatics.  We have established the Counterterrorism Research Lab at University of Southern Denmark in October 2009.  Behind the lab there is a small group of researchers (around 10, one Professor, one Associate Professor and several PhD students) working in the area of ISI. We are publishing our research articles in the area in various conferences and journals and we try to establish connections with various law enforcement bodies and intelligence services providing them with our cutting edge technology and experience. Concerning EISIC, we plan to organize EISIC 2012 at our University at Odense on August 22-24, 2012. We also received a number of informal proposals for the organization of collocated events. As soon as we receive formal proposals, we’ll decide accordingly. We have also received informal proposals for the organization of EISIC 2013 and EISIC 2014 in Italy and Sweden respectively. The steering committee will decide as soon as we receive formal proposals for the organization of EISIC and related events in future.

In regard to the Intel discipline, where do you classify the Intelligence Security Informatics ISI? Is it a separate intelligence discipline in and of itself, or part of other intel disciplines like HUMINT, SIGINT, IMINT, etc.?

ISI is a discipline where INTEL disciplines could be benefited. Let us take an example; we are working on a research project (sponsored by the Faculty of Engineering, University of Southern Denmark): Developing an Early Warning System to predict Terrorist Threats. Mostly we use OSINT (Open Source Intelligence), but there is room for counterterrorism experts/INTEL to work. We do not have yet a formal collaboration with INTEL agencies, but I’m sure INTEL people could be benefited as well from ISI research.

What role does higher education play in ISI?

As this is a new inter-disciplinary area, higher education can play a vital role in encouraging students from Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Criminology, Computer Science, and Applied Mathematics to adopt research in the area of ISI in order to educate experts to help us in building a SAFE AND SECURE WORLD. It is also a need of the hour to train INTEL people with this emerging area of research.

What is the relationship between counter-terrorism and computational criminology?

Computational criminology like Countering terrorism is an emerging blend of criminology, anthropology, social computing, computer science and applied mathematics. Modern concerns about public safety and security include a focus on a range of events from less serious everyday crimes like shoplifting to personal violent crimes like homicide and ultimately terrorism. Underlying all of these events is a decision process or a chain of steps in target identification, steps that focus first on rough and vague decisions and move towards the precise plot. The fields of counterterrorism and computational criminology involves the use of computational power to identify: (1) crime patterns and emerging patterns; (2) crime generators and attractors; (3) terrorism, organized crime and gang social and spatial networks as well as co-offending networks; and, (4) cybercrime/cyber terrorism. Algorithms are developed using computational topology, hyper-graphs, Social Network Analysis (SNA), Knowledge Discovery and Data-mining (KDD), agent based simulations, dynamic information systems analysis and more for detecting organized crime and predicting terrorist threats.

The methods and models used for counter terrorism and computational criminology can provide information about pattern theory and identification. In short, we treat terrorism as an organized crime, and therefore, it would be possible to use some of the traditional methods to detect terrorism evidences, but also new models can be developed looking into the new type of terrorism of 21^st century.

What is cybercrime and what current challenges does it pose?

Crime involving information and communication technologies (ICT), for example:

·        ICT as an instrument, where ICT can be used as primary tool to commit the offence (Identity theft, Internet scams and Fraud-misappropriation of funds are some of the examples)

·        ICT as target, where ICT is the target of the offence (Hacking, Misuse of  ICT resources, Denial of service, Stealing information)

·        ICT as Ancillary Resource, where conventional crime can be assisted by ICT; in other words technology can be used to commit conventional crime or technology can be used to store information about crime (Fraud, Money laundering, etc., are known examples)

As the cybercrime has border-less and transnational reach, therefore, there is urgent need to establish competency in predictive cyber analysis and to develop trusted relationships to encourage information sharing among the INTEL agencies.  There are number of challenges in cybercrime, for example

·        Enforcing extraterritorial/ trans-border law enforcement activity

·        Many offences are never detected

·        Many detected offences are never reported

·        Difficult to quantify the offence

·        Difficult to “Police” the cyber space

·        Evidence can be intangible

·        Issuing warrant without knowledge of the precise location of data (evidence) can be problematic

·        Evidence can be destroyed during search

·        Encryption and other concealment technologies are available to offenders

·        Human rights and privacy issue, etc.

How can the right to individual privacy be balanced against the need for protection from cybercrime?

It is a very difficult question; I think security is more important than privacy of individual person in some cases.  But according to the laws of each country, the privacy problem should be dealt in treating with cyber criminals.