National Security

FBI Director Robert Mueller had been on the job just a week before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. On Sept. 12, he took questions from reporters with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft about the investigation.

National

Outgoing FBI Boss On His Legacy And What Kept Him Up At Night

7:25am August 23, 2013

by Carrie Johnson

For nearly a dozen years now, FBI Director Robert Mueller has started his morning — every morning — with a secret threat briefing. On the eve of his departure, he talks to NPR about what leading the bureau has been like in an age of al-Qaida and more.

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Hackers attend the 2011 Def Con conference in Las Vegas. The 2013 conference as well as the Black Hat hacker conference kicks off this week.

National

What We're Watching As World's Big Hackers Meet In Las Vegas

2:24pm August 22, 2013

by Steve Henn

Each summer, thousands of security researchers, hacktivists, black hats, white hats and feds descend on Las Vegas for Black Hat and Def Con. A look at the stories and trends we're keeping an eye on.

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National

FISA Court: NSA Surveillance Program Was Unconstitutional

12:43pm August 22, 2013

by Tom Gjelten

The National Security Agency illegally collected emails of tens of thousands of Americans. The numbers are revealed in a newly declassified secret court opinion. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court found the collection of those emails unconstitutional and ordered the NSA to fix the problem.

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Amid Struggle For 'Soul' Of GOP, Libertarians Take Limelight

8:16am August 19, 2013

by NPR Staff

Tensions between the traditional wings of the Republican Party and its libertarians have been brewing for years. Leaks of government surveillance information have helped exacerbate the conflict, pushing forward libertarians' stance on civil liberties.

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How much can you actually do to keep your email secure?

National

Cracking The Code: Just How Does Encrypted Email Work?

5:47pm August 17, 2013

by NPR Staff

NSA leaker Edward Snowden's revelations have left us all grappling with questions of privacy. One way to keep some of our information private is through email encryption. But, how does that work?

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Part of the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant in Lewiston, N.Y., is seen from the air on Aug. 14, 2003, during a massive power outage that stretched from New York to Detroit and into Canada.

National

The Next Disaster Scenario Power Companies Are Preparing For

8:49am August 15, 2013

by Tom Gjelten

Ten years after a cascading power outage across a broad section of the U.S. and Canada, utility operators and regulators are concerned about another blackout scenario: a massive cyberattack that could threaten the U.S. electric grid.

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Kerry, Hagel Aim To Ease U.S.-Russian Tensions

7:43am August 11, 2013

by Michele Kelemen

The U.S. secretaries of state and defense met their Russian counterparts for a day of talks in Washington on Friday. They hope to find common ground despite U.S.-Russian friction over the Edward Snowden asylum case.

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Romeo Orlando Vasquez Velasquez took a combat arms course at the School of the Americas at Georgia's Fort Benning in 1976 and another on small unit training in 1984. As a general in 2009, Vasquez overthrew the democratically elected president of Honduras.

Egypt's Top General And His U.S. Lessons In Democracy

6:56pm August 08, 2013

by Tom Bowman

Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi led the recent ouster of Egypt's democratically elected president. Seven years earlier, he was a student at the U.S. Army War College and wrote a paper called "Democracy in the Middle East." He's the latest in a series of U.S.-trained military officers to topple a civilian government.

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Maj. Nidal Hasan faces 13 charges of murder and 32 of attempted murder for the November 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, Texas.

National

Court-Martial To Begin Tuesday In Fort Hood Shooting Rampage

10:59am August 06, 2013

by Doreen McCallister

Former Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan is charged with opening fire in a troop processing center at Fort Hood, Texas, and killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others in 2009.

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National

Intercepted Al-Qaida Communication Prompts Warnings

6:06am August 06, 2013

The State Department on Tuesday advised all U.S. citizens to leave Yemen because of "extremely high" danger there. This comes as 19 U.S. embassies and consulates remain closed across much of the Middle East and Africa because of a security threat. Al-Qaida chatter picked up by intelligence sources suggested a major attack was in the works.

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