Post-9-11 crackdowns on funding streams for Islamic and other terrorist groups worldwide have led these networks to turn to criminal rackets, with cigarette smuggling offering low risks and high returns. Cigarettes are easy to buy, easy to bootleg and offer lucrative returns. Among the groups controlling black market cigarettes -- a multi-billion-dollar trade -- are al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an Algeria-based terrorist organization widely believed to have been backed by Osama Bin Laden; Hezbollah; the Taliban; the Real Irish Republican Army ("Real IRA") and the Kurdistan Workers Party. The most commonly-smuggled brand is Marlboro, followed closely by Gauloises and American Legend. "Drug dogs don't alert on if your car is full of Camels," explained former FBI counterterrorism agent David Cid. "The other advantage is you don't go to jail for 50 years" for smuggling cigarettes, since they are a legal product. In Colombia, established drug-smuggling routes are used for cigarette smuggling. U.S.-made cigarettes, particularly Marlboros, Kents and Lucky Strikes, make up a large portion of the goods smuggled into Colombia, with drug cartels, left-wing guerrilla groups and brutal right-wing paramilitary groups all jostling for market share. The profits from tobacco smuggling can rival those from narcotics: a shipping container of 10 million cigarettes made in China costs as little as $100,000, but can bring as much as $2 million in the U.S. A little money can go a long way with terrorist groups, too -- Al Qaeda's entire 9/11 operation was estimated to have cost between $400,000 and $500,000, according to the final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

Bayer CropScience has invoked the specter of terrorism in a bid to limit what information the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board can release at a public hearing into a chemical plant explosion in West Virginia that killed two employees. Bayer is claiming that "because it has a dock for barge shipments on the adjacent Kanawha River, its entire 400-acre site qualifies under the 2002 federal Maritime Transportation Security Act," reports Sean D. Hamill. "It has asked the Coast Guard, which has jurisdiction under the act, to review the public release of 'sensitive security information.'" Bayer appears to want to limit discussion of the potential hazards of methyl isocyanate, the same chemical made at Bhopal, India, notes Hamill. On its website, Bayer CropScience states that one of its core values is "integrity, openness and honesty" and that it is committed to "having the courage to tell the truth" and "presenting the unvarnished truth in an appropriate and helpful manner."

ProPublica notes that "the Bush administration's 'war on terror' -- including its controversial policies on detentions, interrogations and warrantless wiretapping -- were all underpinned by legal memoranda. While some of those memos have been released ... the former administration chose to keep many others secret, citing security and confidentiality concerns. The decision to release them now lies with President Obama. To help inform the debate -- and inject an extra dose of accountability -- we're posting a list of the relevant memos, both public and secret." Memo authors include John C. Yoo, Steven G. Bradbury, Jay Bybee, James B. Comey, Robert J. Delahunty, Jack Goldsmith, James Ho, Daniel Levin, Patrick Philbin, the legal architects (and some critics) of the Bush Administration's use of torture and detention policies now under review or reversal by the Obama Administration.

In November 2005, activists from the Chesapeake Climate Action Network peacefully protested against the failure by then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr to significantly curb pollution from coal-fired power stations in Maryland. After their protest, Maryland police categorized them as terrorists and added them to a federal database of people to be monitored. Lisa Rein and Josh White report that other groups spied on by an undercover police operation included those opposing the death penalty, the Iraq war, "the manufacture of cluster munitions, globalization and the government's expansion of biodefense research at Fort Detrick." The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, which has been acting for some of those spied on, commented that records made public so far reveal the "infiltration of activist meetings, dossiers on activists’ political affiliations ... and more spying on individuals who have never committed any crime and were never suspected of committing any crimes."

Soldiers guarding pallets of money in IraqOver $13 billion that the U.S. sent to Iraq to pay for reconstruction projects has been wasted, stolen or diverted to al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to Salam Adhoob, a former chief investigator for Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity. Adhoob worked for the Commission for three years, where he oversaw 200 employees. He testified about the waste, fraud and diversion of U.S. funds before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. He told the panel that some of the investigations his and other agencies conducted uncovered "ghost projects" that never existed, or instances in which Iraqi and U.S. contractors did poor-quality work. In one case, Adhoob said that the U.S. had spent $24.4 million on an electricity project in Nineveh province, but that an oversight agency found that it "existed only on paper." He reported that he had a "firsthand, up-close look at corruption" and waste of U.S. funds, and that he eventually was forced to flee Iraq because of death threats.

In an attempt to "taint the al-Qaida brand," a British counter-terrorism unit has targeted the BBC and other domestic media outlets. A report from the UK research, information and communications unit described efforts to discredit al-Qaida (AQ) by promoting messages that the terrorist group is losing support, that "they are not heroes and don't have answers," and that "they harm you, your country and your livelihood." The unit is mostly sending information to "overseas communicators" such as British embassy and consulate staffers and others "working with overseas influencers and opinion formers." But the counter-terrorism report adds: "We are pushing this material to UK media channels, eg, a BBC radio programme exposing tensions between AQ leadership and supporters. And a restricted working group will communicate niche messages through media and non-media." The report also advocates using new media to "channel messages through volunteers in internet forums." The counter-terrorism unit's material "is a mixture of recent news reports and articles from Arabic, Middle Eastern and North African news sources illustrating the theme of 'AQ is in decline' as well as articles from the New York Times, the Observer, Newsweek and American websites," reports Alan Travis.