In a new Heritage in Focus, Heritage visiting fellow Paul Rosenzweig discusses cyber warfare. Click here to listen. Cyber attacks now constitute an act of war. Computer infrastructure plays an ever-larger part of our lives, from power grids to defense systems. Sabotaging it is unacceptable, as the recent revelation by the Pentagon declares. But when is a cyber attack serious enough to constitute an act of war? And does cyber warfare appear to be the future of warfare? Listen to the answers to these questions and more. For the full …
Last week, Waad Ramadan Alwan and his cousin Mohanad Shareef Hammadi were arrested in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The men, both Iraqi refugees, had been allegedly picking up machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades from a nearby storage facility and delivering them to be shipped to al-Qaeda. It seems that the men never had any plans to attack targets in the United States, keeping them from being added to the ranks of the 39 publically known terrorist plots against the United States since 9/11. However, the incident does serve as a chilling …
The fiscal year (FY) 2012 homeland security appropriations bill is on the floor today. One would assume that this would be an opportunity for House members to get rid of wasteful programs while maintaining funding for the ones that make us safer. Instead, they are avoiding the hard choices that come with reallocating resources in a smart way, instead offering a simple amendment that would cut appropriations to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by 10 percent (except border security funding). This is a mistake for a number of reasons. …
A warning to Californians: dangerous convicted criminals are coming soon to a neighborhood near you. That’s because last week, in the case of Brown v. Plata, the Supreme Court ordered the State of California to release approximately 46,000 convicted criminals onto the streets. That decision was issued just days before a scathing report was issued by the Inspector General for the California Department of Corrections which found that prison officials in that state failed to supervise 1500 California parolees, including 450 who were a “high risk for violence.” Worst of …
President Obama spent weeks marshalling support from foreign governments for a military intervention in Libya but virtually no time consulting with the U.S. Congress or trying to explain to the American people why intervention served our national interests. Almost three months later, coalition forces are involved in a costly stalemate and we still have no clear sense why our forces are engaged. It is time for Congress to assert itself, but it should not do so in a way that squanders its authority or ends in an empty gesture. President …
On May 28, former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returned home nearly two years after the June 2009 actions that removed him from office for violations of the national constitution. Accompanied by Venezuela’s foreign minister Nicholas Maduro and delivered via Air Hugo Chavez, Zelaya was greeted by thousands of cheering admirers. He returned under a deal struck with current Honduran President Porfirio Lobo on May 22. The agreement was brokered with the assistance of the unlikely combination of democratic Colombia and authoritarian Venezuela, and it enjoys the blessing of U.S. Secretary …
According to unconfirmed reports, two missile warheads capable of being armed with a nuclear weapon have been acquired by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Reza Kahlili, a former member of the Revolutionary Guards who became a spy for the CIA before defecting to the United States, charged in an article posted on FoxNews.com that the missile warheads were produced by a “joint military-industrial project” that included Iran, Pakistan, China, and Ukraine. According to Kahlili, “The Ukrainians provided the design for the warheads, while the Chinese and Pakistanis delivered the technology, …
Tucked into the 232 pages of the May 31 Federal Register—the daily catalog of new regulation—was glaring evidence that the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will exercise nearly unlimited power over how Americans obtain credit and loans and manage their money. That it will do so absent accountability to Congress or virtually anyone else is an invitation to regulatory overkill. Creation of the bureau was among the hundreds of new financing constraints imposed by the Dodd–Frank statute. It will assume policymaking and enforcement powers over credit cards, mortgages, …
American military action in foreign wars shouldn’t be taken cavalierly. But President Obama took it that way when he thrust American troops aimlessly into an undefined war in Libya. Not only did the President fail to address Congress for approval; he gave the American people little information about his goals for the endeavor. After three months of conflict, Congress is carefully assessing the situation in Libya and forcing the President to confront the issue head on. Last night, House Republican leadership postponed a vote on a measure to withdraw troops …
“We have a budget crisis. We’ve got a $1.5 trillion deficit. We’ve got a debt that is getting out of our control. And what do you do when you have a problem like that? You pass a budget,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) Wednesday from the House floor. His remarks came hours after a meeting between House Republicans and President Barack Obama, where Ryan reportedly took the President to task over the continued demagoguery from the left over Ryan’s plan to reform Medicare. The Washington Post reports …
