The Uzbek refugee has ties to Islamic Jihad Union. He has been blamed for attacks in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. more ›

A downstate Illinois town may turn out to be the Pearl Harbor of America’s burgeoning cyber war after Russian hackers blew out part of its water system. Should we worry in Chicago? more ›

Police have charged one suspect after a suspicious package caused the evacuation The Bean and the shutdown of Michigan Avenue. more ›

Opening arguments begin today in the trial of Tahawwur Rana, one of two local men accused of conspiring in the 2008 Mumbai terrorism attacks that killed 160 people, including a Chicagoan. more ›

Fulfilling a promise he made during the 2008 presidential campaign, President Obama announced around 10:30 CST that al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden had been killed in a raid. A crowd of people gathered outside the White House while the President made his remarks in celebration. bin Laden's death comes nearly ten years after the September 2001 terrorist attacks catapulted him to the ranks of one of the world's most wanted men and a political bogeyman in America. The body of bin Laden was later buried at sea. more ›

September 11th architect Khalid Sheikh Muhammad met with former Chicago gang member Jose Padilla in 2002, according to DOD memo released by Wikileaks in the latest round of documents released by the organization. more ›

Olivier Assayas' Carlos was too big of a miniseries for the small screen and too long of a film for most of the big screens. Before offering the "feature-length" cut next week, the Music Box has the film showing in the Road Show Edition, meaning the entire epic in its original length and format. That's 332 minutes of one of the most-anticipated, best-reviewed films of the year on tap for one weekend only. more ›

Former President George W. Bush, in town to promote his book Decision Points, said that Sears Tower was "a genuine target" of terrorists on September 11, 2001 and praised Mayor Daley for his response in evacuating downtown the day of the attacks. more ›

Yesterday, nearly 1,500 people massed at the Thompson Center to protest the killing of more than 60 people in a church in central Baghdad. more ›

"This film understands jihadists as human beings and understands human beings as innately ridiculous," Morris said in a recent interview. "Within that context, terrorism is about ideology, but it's also about imbeciles." more ›

Yemeni officials announced yesterday the arrests of a woman and her mother in connection with Friday's suspected bomb plot against Jewish synagogues and community centers in Chicago. The two women have not been identified, but a defense lawyer who was in contact with the family identified the 22-year-old woman as an engineering student. more ›

More details are slowly trickling out regarding the discovery of possible explosive materials discovered on cargo planes; at least two packages were earmarked for Chicago-area Jewish facilities. more ›

British transportation security officials found two suspicious packages, one a tampered toner cartridge with wires and white powder during a inspection. The packages were headed for synagogues in Chicago. more ›

A Lebanese citizen was arrested over the weekend and charged with plotting a bombing attack outside of a night club in Wrigleyville. Sami Samir Hassoun, of the 4700 block of North Kedzie Ave., was arrested after having gone through with an attempted bombing on Saturday night. Two problems: his accomplice was an undercover FBI agents and what Hassoun thought were explosives in the backpack given to him but the undercover agent were actually fake. The incident happened just south of Wrigley Field, near Eddy & Clark. According to the Tribune, while Hassoun will be charged with just this incident, he's also talked about "a biological attack on the city, poisoning Lake Michigan, attacking police officers, bombing the Willis Tower and assassinating Mayor Richard Daley." more ›

Ahmed Mohammed Nasser al Soofi and Hezam al Musri, the two men arrested Monday in Amsterdam for having "suspicious items" in their luggage on a flight from O'Hare, will not be charged with plotting a future terror attack, sources close to the FBI investigation told the Associated Press yesterday. The FBI investigation into the two men found that they do not know each other, the suspicious items found in al Soofi's luggage were not being used for a "dry bomb run," and that al Soofi's and al Musri's change of flight plans to catch direct flights from Chicago to Amsterdam was coincidental. more ›

In a press blast earlier this week, which Chicagoist gets but doesn't generally read very closely since they're usually just partisan talking points, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Mark Kirk took a swing at his Democratic opponent Alexi Giannoulias, attempting to tie loans from his families failed Broadway Bank to the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The email, (the substance of which is also on a website paid for by Kirk for Senate) sent by the Illinois Republican Party tried to link Giannoulias to Hussein a la Kevin Bacon, through various degrees of separation via Nadhmi Auchi (and Tony Rezko). more ›

• The FDA is looking into Walgreens' plan to sell genetic testing kits.
• UConn President Michael Hogan is the top choice to become the new president at the University of Illinois. Related: a 9.5 percent tuition hike at the school is on the way.
• A tentative start date of November 1 has been set for Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana's terrorism trial. Related: Fox does us all an alarmist favor by listing the top 10 terror targets in town.

Chicago man David Headley, one of two arrested last fall on terrorism charges, is expected to plead guilty tomorrow to helping plan the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India. Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana were arrested in October 2009 for alleged terror plots against sites in Western Europe including the Danish newspaper that caused an international incident a few years back by printing a cartoon featuring the prophet Muhammad. A Justice Dept. spokesman said he had no comment until the plea was officially entered. Rana has previously pleaded not guilty and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is still set to lead the prosecution in his trial. more ›

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) appeared on CNN's State of the Union this weekend and made some strong statements in regards to shutting down Guantanamo Bay and moving federal prisoners to a refurbished Thomson Correctional Center in Northwest Illinois. How strong? "I wouldn't vote for this [Thomson] if you put a gun to my head." Yeah, that strong. Boehner also echoed worries expressed previously by U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk that moving prisoners here would increase the terrorist threat level to the U.S. and making Thomson sound like a keg party, saying, "There's no reason to bring these terrorists into the United States, no reason to increase the threat level here because they're here and their friends may want to come." Check out an excerpt below. more ›

Located amongst the various restaurants and shops on Devon Avenue in West Rogers Park is First World Immigration Services Inc., a walk-in center for recently arrived immigrants, providing help with visas and citizenship applications. Recently though, U.S. authorities have begun to investigate the agency for possible acts of immigration fraud, saying that the agency served as a front in a Chicago-based terror plot to bomb a Danish newspaper that outraged Muslims when it published unflattering caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005. First World's owner, Tahawwur Hussain Rana, also knew in advance of plans for the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India, federal prosecutors allege. more ›

Five men accused of plotting to team up with al-Qaida and blow up the Sears Tower, as well as federal buildings in Miami, were found guilty today while another was acquitted; a seventh man originally charged, Lyglenson Lemorin, was acquitted in 2007. It was the third trial for the group, the previous two having fallen apart due to dead-locked juries. According to the Miami Herald: more ›

A group of men labeled the "Liberty City Six" began their third trial today on four terrorism-related charges including scheming to blow up the Sears Tower; two previous trials have ended in mistrials when the juries couldn't reach a verdict. Ana Jhones, defense attorney for one of the men - Narseal Batiste-, claims it was a set-up by FBI informants who were manipulating the six men for money. Batiste testified at one the earlier trials that he never intended to act on any threat and was simply playing along with the informant in hopes of receiving up to $50,000. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Arango countered, "What's relevant is their intention - what they wanted to do...They all agreed to sell out their country for money," Arango said. "The fact that they did so for the mighty U.S. dollar is no excuse." more ›

Should the need arise, evacuating Chicago—due to a terrorism or a natural disaster, say—via mass transit could be tough, according to a new report. more ›

Police are still investigating what they think is a drug-related triple homicide that occurred last night in the 7800 block of South Kingston Avenue. [Trib, S-T, CBS2] more ›