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During an interview with Active Shooter Prevention Project founder Chris Grollnek that took place during CNN’s coverage of the shooting in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday, host Laura Coates noted that one spot that the shooter targeted was a bowling alley with children in it and that the shooter was “not going to a gun range. This is not going to a place where perhaps he would believe he could encounter people who could respond.” And that he picked “soft targets.” Coates said, “And I’m looking — of course, in the photo that we’re seeing, he’s at a bowling alley. We’ve...

The threat of gun violence in public spaces across our nation is disconcerting. Indeed, ideologically driven, lethal-shooter attacks represent a considerate threat to national security. Since 1970, more Americans have been killed on U.S. soil due to gun violence than all wars combined. A community need not overreact to security threats, but just hoping that Charlotte escapes gun violence is not a viable strategy. Consider this: While most banks, hospitals, and schools rehearse tornado and fire drills, few bankers, doctors, and students have died from tornadoes or fires in the past decade. Contrastingly, scant resources are devoted to preparing to...

In a speech at Stanford University in California on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton mentioned specific lessons that could be drawn from the Brussels attacks, including a need to reevaluate the way that soft targets could be protected from similar attacks in the future. “We need to take a harder look at security protocols at airports and other sensitive so-called soft sites — especially areas outside guarded perimeters,” she said.That call was puzzling to some security experts, who said that the specific challenge of protecting soft sites was difficult to isolate from the larger problem of foiling terrorist attacks. “If you sort...

A majority of Americans oppose banning assault weapons for the first time in more than 20 years of ABC News/Washington Post polls, with the public expressing vast doubt that the authorities can prevent “lone wolf” terrorist attacks and a substantial sense that armed citizens can help. Just 45 percent in this national survey favor an assault weapons ban, down 11 percentage points from an ABC/Post poll in 2013 and down from a peak of 80 percent in 1994. Fifty-three percent oppose such a ban, the most on record. See PDF with full results here.

During the November 25 airing of Fox News’ Special Report, French Ambassador to the United States Gerard Araud countered Donald Trump’s emphasis on the importance of an armed citizenry by claiming that armed citizens succeed in defending themselves “only in the movies.” Araud was specifically reacting to a tweet sent after the January 7 Charlie Hebdo attacks in which Trump wrote, “Isn’t it interesting that the tragedy in Paris took place in one of the toughest gun control countries in the world?” Talking Points Memo reported that Araud responded to the tweet by calling Trump a “vulture,” then deleted the...

Two of the suicide bombers who caused carnage in the Paris massacre are thought to have sneaked into France by posing as refugees from Syria. The disclosure, which came amid claims of French intelligence failures, inevitably raised new security concerns about Europe’s borders. Police said the two men, who arrived in Greece last month, were among seven attackers, one as young as 15. One of the attackers was last night named by French media as Mostefai Ismaël Omar, 29, from Courcouronnes, in Essonne. Serbian media last night reported that one of the terrorists was named as Ahmed Almuhamed. The newspaper,...

They intend on surprising us and seeing how far our collective heads are up our asses, I am sure they will succeed. Al Qaeda Targets Our Schoolchildren American Thinker Marc Sheppard While Democrats prepare witless campaign slogans blaming Republicans for millions of children not protected by health insurance, al Qaeda's blatant threat to exterminate 2 million American kids remains unheeded. And it will likely continue to be, notwithstanding mounting evidence that there exists no peril on Earth our young need greater protection from today than merciless jihadist monsters. Not lack of a national insurance plan. Not global warming. Not racial...

'Nothing short of armed teachers will protect children' At Sandy Hook Elementary, 26 people were killed, including 20 schoolchildren aged 6 and 7, by a lone 20-year-old assailant. Soft targets are far easier to attack than a “hard” target that may be under heavy guard. As a consequence, would-be perpetrators will go where it will be easier to make their violent statement for maximum effect, experts say. In addition to schools and shopping malls, other soft targets include high-profile businesses, hotels, casinos, transportation facilities, airports and venues where there may be large audiences, such as theaters. John Farnam, a nationally...

In a new video message released on the internet Friday, American-born al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn calls on Muslims living in America to carry out deadly one-man terrorist acts using fully automatic weapons purchased at gun shows, and to target major institutions and public figures. "What are you waiting for?" asks Gadahn in English, and then adds that jihadis shouldn't worry about getting caught, since so many have been released. "Over these past few years, I've seen the release of many, many Mujahideen whom I had never even dreamed would regain their freedom." The two-part, two hour video appeared on...

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - Olympic organisers are "very alive" to the threat of a cyber attack on the London 2012 Olympics, made more challenging because of its evolving nature, senior Interior Ministry officials said on Tuesday. Ticketing systems, the transport network and hotel bookings as well as security are among potential targets. Olympic security officials are also planning for the possible diversion of aircraft to protect airspace around the venues from terrorist attacks, the officials said. The greatest threat to security at the Games is international terrorism, the government's latest "Safety and Security Strategy" report said.

Investigation Into Alleged NYC Bomb Plot Includes Nearly All of the Bureau's U.S. Field OfficesCriminal Complaint Suggests Cops May Have Tipped-Off Zazi By Questioning New York Imam, Seizing CarThe FBI is expanding its investigation into an alleged terror plot targeting New York City, and nearly every one of the FBI's 57 field offices in the country and several overseas are now in on the case, working along with local police. On Wednesday, the NYPD was showing a new training video in precincts citywide detailing the intelligence from the agencies. Bomb Squad Commander Lt. Marc Torre narrates the video, giving regular...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's chief ally in Iraq, may be planning attacks on "soft targets" in the United States including movie theaters, restaurants and schools, Time magazine reported on Sunday. White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley would not discuss the specific warning, which Time said was circulated among U.S. security agencies last week in a restricted bulletin. But he said the administration was concerned about reports -- "which we think are very credible" -- that Zarqawi is working more closely with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization. Hadley said movie theaters, restaurants and schools "are...

An accented, angry voice comes over the intercom system: "Attention, attention teachers. You must move your students to the auditorium immediately." There are screams and confusion in the hallways.... Another teacher, sensing the spreading danger, closes and locks her classroom door, quickly she yells to open the windows and tells the children to climb out and run away. A driver passing by sees a group of children rolling off the school's window ledges and darting across the athletic field.

VIENNA, Austria - In Iraq, they've sawed off people's heads in grisly executions shown on the Internet. In Israel, they've blown themselves up inside packed buses. Now, in Russia, they've turned a school into a slaughterhouse. Extremists have become chillingly brazen in singling out so-called "soft targets" — and counterterrorism experts say they fear nothing is off-limits anymore to those intent on achieving maximum punch, publicity and paranoia. This week's bloody school standoff in southern Russia, which culminated Friday in a commando raid and scores of civilian casualties that included children, shattered whatever might have remained of the notion that...

After the first two conventional military victories in Afghanistan of November 2001 and this spring in Iraq, the recent bombings suggest that we are now entering a third phase: A desperate last-ditch war of attrition in which our enemies feel that bombing, suicide murdering, assassination, and general terrorism against Westerners the world over might still achieve what conventional military operations did not. The idea is to make life so miserable for Iraqis, and so dangerous for foreigners, that the United States will withdraw, thus allowing either a fascist autocracy or terrorist theocracy — in the manner of the Taliban or...

UN's Annan blasts U.S. over lack of security in Iraq Second Canadian dies from injuries sustained in Tuesday's bomb attack   Steven Edwards and Adrian Humphreys CanWest News Service Thursday, August 21, 2003 CREDIT: Manish Swarup, Associated Press   U.S. soldiers take a break against the tire of their vehicle after all-night efforts to rescue trapped victims at the site of Tuesday's United Nations' headquarters bombing.   ADVERTISEMENT UNITED NATIONS -- As a second Canadian aid worker -- a woman who was an outspoken advocate for the welfare of children in war zones -- died from injuries sustained in Tuesday's bomb...

<p>The bombing of Baghdad's Canal Hotel, headquarters of United Nations operations in Iraq, is an attack on all ordinary Iraqis, the end of any surviving perception that the U.S.-led coalition's efforts to stabilize Iraq are working, and the death of innocence for relief workers world-wide. The U.N. Special Representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and the building's other dead or injured civilian workers had come together from around the world and within Iraq with the goal of improving life for all Iraqis. For their protection in the conflict zone, they relied primarily on an invisible shield forged from tradition -- and from the laws of war, which state that noncombatants, and particularly relief workers, are never legitimate military targets.</p>

<p>August 21, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Some United Nations staffers in Iraq demanded to leave over safety fears yesterday, a diplomatic source said as the organization's presence in Baghdad was plunged into confusion.</p> <p>U.N. officials were trying to figure out how to protect workers while keeping a presence in Iraq the day after a truck bomb demolished the organization's Baghdad offices, killing at least 20 - including chief U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.</p>

US warned a week ago about Baghdad UN bomb Death toll from suicide bombing is expected to rise By Karl Ritter, AP 20 August 2003 US authorities in Iraq were warned last week that a large-scale terrorist attack on a 'soft' target in Baghdad was being planned. The warning emerged as rescue teams searched the wreckage of the bombed UN headquarters where at least 20 people, including the senior UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, died in yesterday's suicide truck bombing. The death toll is expected to rise - some reports said a further four bodies had been found today....

Some of the Nine Dwarves are trying to spice up their foundering presidential campaigns by blaming President Bush for the deadly bombing at the U.N.'s headquarters in Baghdad. "Had the president pursued the war on terrorism prior to initiating military action against Saddam Hussein, as I advocated last year, it is likely that al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks would not have been able to take advantage of the chaos that now exists in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq," said Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla. "It is becoming increasingly clear each day that the administration misread the situation on the...