The FBI confirmed they are joining the search for a missing University of Virginia student.
Hannah Elizabeth Graham disappeared after leaving an off-campus apartment complex in Charlottesville before midnight on Sunday. Friends and family say there has been no trace of the 18-year-old Graham since that night.
Authorities have told Fox News the search is officially a “search and rescue” effort.
“Last night we expanded our search about 25 to 30 blocks Right now we are focusing on another five to six block area which is outside of the zone we looked at last night,” Capt. Guy Williams, of the Albemarle County Sheriff’s Office, told WDBJ7.com.
Police are asking anyone with information about the missing girl to call. She is described as 5 feet, 11 inches tall. She was last seen wearing a silvery crop top and black stretch pants.
A second American in two days has been reported killed while fighting with the Islamic extremist group ISIS.
Abdirahmaan Muhumed of Minneapolis reportedly died in the same battle as Douglas McArthur McCain whose death was announced yesterday. Muhumed’s family says they’ve received a photo of the 29-year-old’s body but that the State Department has not confirmed it.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said they were working to confirm the man’s death.
The U.S. military has been striking ISIS locations in Iraq as part of a campaign to assist Iraqi and Kurdish forces who are trying to drive the terrorists out of the northern part of Iraq.
Muhumed, who is confirmed to be the father of at least 9 children, told Minnesota Public Radio earlier this year that he was fighting for the terrorists.
A Muslim has to stand up for [what’s] right,” Muhumed wrote in a Jan. 2 message. “I give up this worldly life for Allah.”
He said he was “happy” that people considered him a terrorist.
The FBI reports up to 100 Americans have been confirmed to be fighting for the terrorist group.
A Seattle strip club that was once a center for prostitution and routinely the subject of FBI stings is being born again.
Bethany Community Church bought Sugars, the infamous strip club, and is turning it into their central offices and a coffee shop.
“When we first entered the building it had a very dark feeling; smoke filled carpets, black painted ceilings and walls, and mirrors everywhere,” associate pastor Scott Sund told The Christian Post. “Before we started demolition, we met on Easter weekend and prayed and sang in the space to usher in the new story God was going to write through this place. It’s God’s story, we just get to play a small part.”
The church had been initially looking for a permanent location for services because they meet in a gym for weekly services. Then the children’s director, who serves children in the neighborhood of the club, approached the leadership about buying the building.
The church’s volunteers have stripped the inside of the club by getting rid of the carpets and wall mirrors that defined the club. The church hopes to have their community center open in the fall.
A makeshift bomb exploded at a Nogales, Arizona power substation Wednesday morning, destroying a diesel fuel tank and causing a massive federal investigation.
Agents from the FBI and ATF that specialize in bombings quickly reached the site after the blast at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. The explosion was strong enough to damage the tank and cause a diesel fuel spill but fortunately the bomb did not ignite the fuel.
Officials say had the fuel ignited it would have likely destroyed the substation.
Nogales police Lt. Carlos Jimenez said that the plant was critical for the area and had it been destroyed over 30,000 people would have been without power for days.
“The whole city of Nogales could have been compromised,” Jimenez said.
The blast did not cause any power disruptions and repairs should not cause the station to be off-line.
The FBI is trying to downplay fears after a photo of San Francisco’s International Airport was found inside an al-Qaeda produced magazine.
The spring issue of “Inspire” has a picture of the AirTrain at San Francisco Airport. The AirTrain connects all the airport terminals with the Bay Area Regional Transit.
A caption with the photo written in Arabic says to “stand up, pack your tools of destruction. Assemble your bomb, ready for detonation.”
“The San Francisco area is depicted in this al-Qaida publication,” Congressman Eric Swalwell said in a Homeland Security committee hearing. “What we believe from what senior law enforcement officials have told us is that this is AirTrain from San Francisco’s airport, and that the translation from the Arabic message encourages al-Qaida members to detonate explosive devices.”
Former FBI agent Rick Smith told CBS San Francisco that there should be some concern but he wouldn’t change travel plans. However, he said the magazine is appealing to wanna-be terrorists who could be much more dangerous than actual al-Qaeda operatives.
A man who had been scheduled to report to basic training next week is now on the run after the FBI claims he was planning an Islamic terrorist attack on U.S. troops.
Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, who goes by the alias “Booker,” had been recruited into the U.S. Army in Kansas City, Missouri February 2014. Military officials discharged him last week after his plot was discovered by law enforcement.
Friends of Hassan who claimed he was bragging about his upcoming attack had reportedly contacted the FBI.
The FBI is working with the 902d Military Intelligence Group in attempting to track down Hassan.
The Fort Hood attack which is being used as inspiration by Hassan happened November 5, 2009 when Army Major Nidal Hasan, a radical Muslim, killed 13 people and injured dozens at Fort Hood, Texas. He was sentenced to death after his trial last August.
Law enforcement sources say that Hassan might not be the only one plotting a similar attack.
The FBI continues to deny the attack on a Pacific Gas and Electric substation in Santa Clara County, California was the work of terrorists despite the slow leaks of more disturbing details about the April 16th attack surface in various news outlets.
The Los Angeles Times reports the attack was “military style” and that whoever conducted the assault knew the layout of the area, locations of security devices and how to avoid being identified on camera.
At least two of the attackers knew exactly which manhole covers to remove to access an underground vault where they used heavy wire cutters to disconnect fiber optic cables.
Also, the snipers used rounds that caused the transformers to only leak oil and be disabled without exploding, avoiding unnecessary attention to the site until they were done disabling 17 transformers. Video of the shooters, stationed 40 yards away from the site, showed only muzzle flashes and at no point did it show any attacker’s face.
The attack was also the night after the Boston Marathon bombings, leading some to wonder if there was a connection between the two incidents.
One legislator is saying what the FBI is not. Representative Zoe Lofgren of San Jose told Fox News that the attack on the station was performed by “pros.”
The attack happened in April, 2013. Until the Wall Street Journal broke details of the event this week, hardly anyone knew of a sniper attack on a power substation in California.
Now, former federal officials are saying the attack looks like a test run for terrorists.
The attack on a Pacific Gas and Electric substation involved someone breaking into an underground vault and cutting all phone lines while snipers fired over 100 shots into the station destroying 17 transformers. While PG&E was able to avoid a major blackout as a result of the attack, it took the company 27 days to repair all the damage.
Jon Wellinghoff, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission when the attack happened, believes the incident was a terror attack despite FBI claims otherwise.
Wellinghoff called the attack “the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the U.S. power grid that has ever occurred.”
Wellinghoff says he bases his view on the evidence the scene. Shell casings from the sniper’s rifles had no fingerprints. The shooting positions had obviously been pre-arranged.
Wellinghoff said that most electrical grid sites don’t have nearly adequate protection to stop a terrorist team.
The FBI has quietly changed their primary mission.
The FBI Fact Sheet has declared for decades the primary function of the FBI was “law enforcement.” A Washington-based National Security lawyer noticed earlier this year that the Fact Sheet has changed to say the primary function is “national security.”
An FBI spokesman would not confirm the day the change to the FBI’s Fact Sheet was made but said the change is more accurate.
“When our mission changed after 9/11, our fact sheet changed to reflect that,” FBI spokesman Paul Bresson told Foreign Policy online. He pointed out that counter-terrorism is the agency’s biggest mission right now so it’s proper to say their primary function is national security.
The FBI doubled the amount of agents working on counter-terrorism between 2001 and 2009 according to a 2010 Inspector General report.
A Kansas man is under arrest after plotting to blow up Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.
Terry Loewen, an aviation tech at the airport, reportedly spent months planning the attack to destroy the airport. The plot involved using his access card to drive a vehicle loaded with explosives to a terminal and then planned to die in the attack.
FBI agents arrested Loewen was arrested early Friday morning while trying to gain access to a tarmac with the vehicle he thought was loaded with explosives. Authorities said that the car had been filled with fake explosives and the public was never in danger.
He faces life in prison on federal charges including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Loewen was under investigation since summer after making statements he wanted to commit an act of violent jihad against the United States.