The US military has ordered security at bases nationwide to the highest level in nearly four years, Pentagon spokesman US Army Colonel Steve Warren said on Friday.
He characterized the threat level as low to low-middle.
The heightened security level covered recruiting stations, National Guard posts and camps in the continental US, Alaska and US territory in the Caribbean.
The general climate, including last weekend’s killing of two men who opened fire outside a Texas exhibit of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, spurred the upgraded security stance, Warren said.
A US official speaking on condition of anonymity said the government received specific information that the two men might inspire others to attempt an attack.
Social media posts indicate that the Garland, Texas, suspects had contact shortly before the attack with at least two militants, including a British man officials linked to Syria-based Islamic State rebels.
Investigators believe the Garland attackers principally radicalized themselves through Internet contacts, and were not directly ordered or encouraged to carry out the attack by Islamic State leaders.
Warren said the heightened security level would require more bag checks at US military bases and posts, possibly leading to longer queues and traffic backups in some places.
The decision to increase security at US bases was made by Admiral Bill Gortney, commander of the US Northern Command, responsible for troops in North America, Warren said. The decision did not affect bases outside his region.
Warren said the last time security was raised to an elevated level at bases across the US was on Sept. 11, 2011, the anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center towers.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion