Morning Security Brief: Pirate's Court, Terrorism, NYPD Analytic Software, Police-Community Relations, & Terrorism Insurance

♦ The special court created to try pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden has opened in Kenya. "The new court in the Shimo la Tewa prison in Mombasa is being funded by several donors, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the European Union, Australia and Canada," reports the BBC. So far 18 pirates have been convicted as another 100 await trial.

♦ China says it crushed an Islamic terrorist organization last year planning attacks in retribution for ethnic clashes in northwestern region of Xinjiang. "Public Security Ministry spokesman Wu Heping said the 'hard-core terrorists' had gathered pipe bombs, molotov cocktails, knives and other weapons to carry out attacks in southern Xinjiang cities between July and October 2009," reports the Associated Press. "He said the plot was discovered and more than 10 gang members were arrested, while others fled to different parts of China and overseas."

♦ NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly showed off new analytic software that can search through security footage for minor details, like the color of a hat. "With that software, we can conduct detailed searches. We can pull up any camera, scroll back in time for as long as the data is stored, which in our case is generally 30 days, and do this from any terminal on the network," said Kelly, according to NY1. The software is part of the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative.

♦ The Illinois State Police revoked the appointment of the force's first Muslim chaplain because of information revealed during a background check. But the Associated Press reports the chaplainship could have been revoked because of Kifah Mustapha's connections to radical Islam. "The appointment came under criticism from the Investigative Project on Terrorism, a Washington-based think tank," reports the AP. "The group alleged that Mustapha was linked to the Palestine Committee of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, a popular movement in the Muslim world that advocates the formation of Islamic governments in the Middle East. It also alleged he raised money for the Holy Land Foundation, a now-defunct Islamic charity whose founders were sentenced last year for funneling money to the Palestinian militant group Hamas." Initially, Mustapha's appointment garnered praise from community groups. Now the mood has soured with The Council of American-Islamic Relations calling the rescission Islamophobia.

♦ A new survey finds that a greater percentage of U.S.-based companies continue to purchase terrorism insurance year after year. "Sixty-one percent of firms surveyed by Marsh purchased property terrorism insurance in 2009, an increase from 57 percent in 2008 and representing a steady climb from 27 percent in 2003, according to The Marsh Report: Terrorism Risk Insurance 2010," according to a Marsh press release on Business Wire.