Free Republic

OCALA - New details emerged in court Tuesday about an Ocala man charged with illegal possession of ricin, a deadly toxin that can be used for bioterrorism. A search of Steven Michael Ekberg's home computer turned up terrorism-related materials, an FBI agent testified at a preliminary hearing in Ocala. Ekberg, 22, was arrested Jan. 13 and charged with illegal possession of ricin, a toxin with no known antidote and so lethal that an amount the size of pinhead can kill. FBI Special Agent Pamela Piersanti testified Tuesday that investigators seized Ekberg's computer at the time of his arrest. They found...

The plan to upgrade the United Nations complex at Turtle Bay involves putting a 35-story building on top of what is listed as a major terrorist target: the Queens Midtown Tunnel. That raised concerns that the tunnel would become an even more appealing target for terrorists, who might bomb the tunnel to collapse it, bringing down with it the U.N. building - perhaps while it housed the offices of the secretary-general and other high-profile U.N. figures during the renovation of the Secretariat. The proposed edifice is a 900,000-square-foot "swing space" that would accommodate Secretariat offices during the renovation of the...

Recently there have been reported sightings of al-Qaeda operatives in Honduras. According to some observers, their alleged presence in that country conforms to their desire to secure land routes to the United States, through collaboration with Central American gangs. This report, compiled with the assistance of Central American diplomats, promotes the view that cooperation between al-Qaeda and Central American gangs while theoretically possible is unlikely. To better understand why al-Qaeda could be interested in contacting these loose criminal networks, and to appreciate why these contacts are unlikely to develop into sustained relationships, it is necessary to explore the background of...