Taking down Osama bin Laden was an achievement resulting from a culmination of a decade of national security policy. Soft power and diplomacy helped along the way, but it was hard power and military might that made it possible. President George W. Bush put the correct policies in place, including the PATRIOT Act, Gitmo and increased intelligence gathering. President Barack Obama was wise to continue executing many of the same strategies. Here are the main reasons we were able to take him out. #1. We Invaded Afghanistan. Anyone who is …
WikiLeaks, which has been sitting on an enormous cache of classified U.S. government documents, released another batch of materials to U.S. and European news “partners” including The New York Times. According to press reports, the documents include “intelligence assessments of nearly every one of the 779 individuals who have been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2002. In them, analysts have created detailed portraits of detainees based on raw intelligence, including material gleaned from interrogations.” A Pentagon official stated, “[i]t is unfortunate that several news organizations have made the decision …
Following Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement Monday that the United States would try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-conspirators in military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, The Heritage Foundation’s Senior Legal Fellow, Cully Stimson, testified at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday on the 9/11 trials. Stimson’s message? The right decision on military commissions has finally been made; now Congress and the White House must stand by it and fully resource them to ensure their success: [T]he administration and Congress must take every reasonable step to ensure that the trial …
Bowing to political realities, the Obama administration reversed itself and announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM), the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, would be tried at Guantanamo in a military commission, instead of in a federal court in the United States. The decision comes as the 10-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks is months away, and on the eve of a House Judiciary hearing on military commissions and the 9/11 case. The victims of 9/11 deserve justice, and it was high time for the administration to make a decision. …
It’s been 9 years since the 9/11 attacks. America is still being attacked—the Times Square and Christmas Day plots are the most recent examples. Congress, however, continues to act like it is still September 10, 2001. For instance: It continues to ignore key 9/11 Commission recommendations—the Commission emphasized that Congress needed to reform its oversight process for homeland security. Instead of doing so, the problem just got worse. Now 108 committees, subcommittees and commissions have oversight over the Department of Homeland Security—creating a big headache for homeland security and a …
During this past Wednesday’s mark-up of the Fiscal Year 2011 National Defense Authorization Act my fellow conservatives on the House Armed Services Committee stood strongly on the side of the American people, vociferously fighting for security, liberty, and freedom through our Defend America First platform. One of the issues debated on Wednesday, which many of us have deemed most detrimental to our Republic, is the disgraceful actions apparently undertaken by the disloyal defense lawyers involved in the John Adams Project. We have called for an immediate and thorough investigation of …
At last week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, after Attorney General Eric Holder again refused to rule out a civilian trial for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) shot back: “We know the administration is not going to hold the trial in New York. They should just say it already.” But the Obama administration will fight reality on this issue for as long as politically possible because the far left and Attorney General Holder still believe military tribunals for KSM and other terrorists are inconsistent with the Geneva Convention. Holder, …
Yesterday Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Obama Justice Department would appeal a U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson’s order to release 9/11 terrorist operative Mohamedou Ould Slahi. This is a good decision by Holder. Our nation would be less safe if Slahi was released from U.S. custody. But the very need for the appeal underscores how the Obama administration’s larger approach to detainee treatment is seriously undermining our national security. Former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and current National Review Institute senior …
Politico reported yesterday that “The second-ranking House Democrat signaled Tuesday that the White House is reconsidering a plan to move Guantanamo detainees to a prison in northwest Illinois … Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he agrees that the Obama administration should reassess the plan to move terrorist suspects from the Cuba military base to Thomson Correctional Facility in the state’s northwest corner.” If Hoyer is sincere and his assessment of the White House is accurate … well, that it is almost too much to hope for. Could the president actually be …
In Senator-elect Scott Brown’s victory speech on Tuesday, he boldy stated that “our Constitution and laws exist to protect this nation – they do not grant rights and privileges to enemies in wartime … In dealing with terrorists, our tax dollars should pay for weapons to stop them, not lawyers to defend them.” Politico’s Josh Gerstein today reported on how Brown’s victory — and views on terrorism — may impact President Barack Obama’s anti-terrorism agenda, which to date has included plans to shut-down Guantanamo Bay, moving those prisoners to the …
