Homeland Security News

Army Maj. Nidal Hasan was convicted Friday in the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, a shocking assault against American troops at home by one of their own who said he opened fire on fellow soldiers to protect Muslim insurgents abroad.

The Army psychiatrist acknowledged carrying out the attack in a crowded waiting room where unarmed troops were making final preparations to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq. Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 wounded.

A jury of 13 high-ranking military officers reached a unanimous guilty verdict in about seven hours on all 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

Hasan requested to wait a day for the sentencing phase of the trial, which comes next, CBS News' Paula Reid reports from court. Prosecutors said they were ready to proceed and were expected to present 16 witnesses after calling 89 witnesses during the trial phase.

Read more: CBS News

The nature of terrorism has changed in Robert Mueller’s dozen years as FBI director, but his concerns for the future are much the same as when terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001, merely a week after he'd taken over the bureau. As he wraps up his FBI tenure, Mueller worries that terrorists will once again target planes or finally pull off an attack using a weapon of mass destruction.

Mueller sees terrorism as a shifting landscape, evolving from Osama bin Laden’s global brand in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks to the splintering threats arising in the fallout from the Arab Spring across the Middle East.

‘‘Every one of these countries now has cadres of individuals who you would put in the category of extremists, violent extremists, and that will present threats down the road,’’ Mueller said.  Mueller, the architect of the bureau’s transformation into a terrorism-fighting agency, spoke to reporters at FBI headquarters this week.

Read more: Boston Globe

At least 29 people have been killed and more than 350 injured by two blasts in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, health officials say.  As Friday prayers ended, a blast hit the al-Taqwa mosque, usually attended by prominent Sunni cleric Sheikh Salem Rafii. He was unharmed.

A second blast five minutes later hit the al-Salam mosque. War in neighbouring Syria has raised sectarian tensions between the city's Sunni Muslim and Alawite communities.  Sheikh Salem Rafii is one of the most prominent Sunni leaders in Lebanon, BBC Arabic reports from Beirut, and is believed to be a possible target.

Read more: BBC News