In this op-ed piece, Edward M. Roche, Ph.D., J.D., writes about the intelligence implications of evolving virtual world platforms, and their connections to crime and terrorism.

For the past four decades, the United States has given only passing attention to the growing instability in Latin America. Today, this ignorance has resulted in a threat to our national security that is greater than that posed by bin Laden. Hugo Chavez, with the assistance of Cuba, Iran and Russia, now possesses the ability to do what bin Laden has been threatening, that is, destroy the U.S.

In this feature the International Association for Counterterrorism and Security Professionals (IACSP) asks New Jersey Homeland Security Director Richard L. Cañas a number of questions about, among other subjects, his office's mission, the role of intelligence in counterterrorism, and the role of police officers in homeland security and counterterrorism.

By analyzing how the linguistic roots of the term "al-Qaeda" are used in the Quran, Ayman Wasfy, who among his other accomplishments is an expert Arabic linguist, has determined a fundamentally easy way to defeat Al-Qaeda around the globe. And that is, tell people what the term really means.

In this article, Admiral Thad W. Allen, Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard, examines the potential exploitation of small vessels by terrorists, and smugglers of weapons of mass destruction, narcotics, illegal aliens and other contraband. The article was cited by Mr. M. Robert Gauvin, Technical Advisor in the USCG Office of Vessel Activities during his featured presentation, "Implementing the Small Vessel Security Strategy", at the IDGA 7th Annual Maritime Homeland Security Summit in April 2009.

This is reprinted here from U.S. Naval Institute (USNI) Proceedings with permission; Copyright © 2008 U.S. Naval Institute at www.usni.org.

In this article from HomelandDefenseStocks.com, Lisa Springer CFA, equity research analyst and financial writer takes a look at how defense contractors are impacted by the 2010 defense budget presented in April by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

In this article from the latest Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International, James Casey, who is the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Jacksonville Field Office, briefly reviews the pros and cons of the United States establishing a domestic security and intelligence service along the lines of Great Britain's MI-5.

Frankfurt, November 11th 2008: German Federal Office of Defense Technology and Procurement assigned UAV manufacturer EMT with testing of the MicroBAT 275, Bental's latest development of a stabilized camera system for light weight UAVs. The intention of the tests is to equip close range UAVs in the field with Bental's stabilized camera system.

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), the practice of grouping functionality around business processes and packaging them as interoperable services is the subject of Bridging the SOA Divide for Deployed Assets. Cameron Matthews, CTO of Sentek Consulting, writes about the strategies behind using SOA in forward-deployed operations.

In this piece, Rear Admiral Hamlin Tallent, USN (Ret.), writes about the opportunities and challenges presented by the Department of Defense's new African Command (AFRICOM). Tallent explores how enhancing the capability to gather, analyze and share information and intelligence at the local, nation-state and regional levels can help AFRICOM enable sovereignty and therefore security for the continent and its many nations.