Alexander Ryking

White House counterterror chief John Brennan has seized the lead in guiding the debate on which terror leaders will be targeted for drone attacks or raids, establishing a new procedure to vet both military and CIA targets.

The move concentrates power over the use of lethal U.S. force outside war zones at the White House.

The process, which is about a month old, means Brennan’s staff consults the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies as to who should go on the list, making a previous military-run review process in place since 2009 less relevant, according to two current and three former U.S. officials aware of the evolution in how the government targets terrorists…

One senior administration official argues that Brennan’s move adds another layer of review that augments rather than detracts from the Pentagon’s role. The official says that in fact there will be more people at the table making the decisions, including representatives from every agency involved in counterterrorism, before they are reviewed by senior officials and ultimately the president.

A British citizen played a central role in foiling the latest “underwear” bomb plot hatched in Yemen to attack a US-bound plane, as well as in the assassination of a top al-Qaida operative at the weekend, according to various sources in Washington on Thursday.

CNN reported that the agent involved was a British citizen of Saudi origin who had been recruited about a year ago by Saudi intelligence.

MSNBC, which also reported that the agent was a British passport holder, said that British intelligence was “heavily involved”. Other US media outlets gave the Saudi intelligence service most of the credit for the successful running of the operation. The Guardian independently confirmed British involvement.

The neo-Nazi founder of an anti-immigrant border militia was already the subject of an FBI domestic terrorism probe before he went on a shooting rampage and killed four people, officials and news reports said on Saturday…

The FBI’s domestic-terrorism investigation dated to when Ready was a member of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement and continued into his activities with the U.S. Border Guard border-vigilante group, the [Arizona Republic] newspaper reported.

The probe was based on tips of criminal activity that Turgal declined to specify, but was unrelated to the shooting rampage on Wednesday, the newspaper reported.

Manuel Johnson, a spokesman for the FBI’s Phoenix field office, confirmed to Reuters that Ready, was the subject of a federal domestic terrorism investigation prior to his death.

But he declined to provide further details “due to the ongoing investigation.”

Al Qaeda terrorists are calling on followers to ignite wildfires in the U.S., which could make California a target.

Californians have seen their share of devastating wildfires, some large enough to wipe out whole neighborhoods in a matter of minutes. It is the kind of destruction terrorists are now hoping to take advantage of. An al Qaeda-linked website is now calling on extremists to set fires in remote areas.

The websites even provide instructions on how to make fire bombs and firefighters are taking it seriously.