Iran’s foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington underscores the thuggish nature of Iran’s predatory regime, its willingness to accept high risks to punish its enemies, and its contempt for the United States as well as for international law. The plot was apparently hatched by the top officers within the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Named after Jerusalem (al-Quds), this elite unit made up of approximately 2,000 personnel plays a leading role in covert operations to advance Iran’s Islamic revolution. The Quds Force combines the …
A persistent threat scenario against the U.S. has been foreign terrorist organizations—acting independently or in cooperation with violent transnational criminal organizations, and perhaps backed by anti-American regimes in the region—launching a terrorist attack from across our southern border. It is a scenario the Obama Administration has recognized but generally minimized. For example, the U.S. State Department’s 2010 Country Reports on Terrorism reported: The threat of a transnational terrorist attack remained low for most countries in the Western Hemisphere. There were no known operational cells of either al-Qa’ida- or Hizballah-related groups …
Yesterday, America learned that Iran conspired to launch a terrorist attack in Washington, D.C., with a planned assassination of the Saudi ambassador and bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies. U.S. authorities disrupted the plot and have brought charges against the men who planned to carry out the attack, but the audacity of Iran’s actions highlights a disturbing truth: The Obama Administration has done far too little to deter state-sponsored terrorism, and it has utterly failed to confront the Iranian threat. Not one month ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stood before the …
U.S. authorities announced today that they disrupted an Iranian plan to commit a “significant terrorist act in the United States,” making it the forty-second thwarted terrorist attack against the homeland. The federal government has filed criminal charges against two Iranians with conspiracy to murder the Saudi ambassador to Washington and conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism, among other charges. In addition to the assassination of the Saudi ambassador, the men planned bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington. It us no surprise that the indictment …
According to media reports, Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American Islamist radical who played an increasingly influential role in the al-Qaeda network, was killed in a CIA drone strike earlier today in Yemen. Awlaki was reported to have been killed at least twice before, and one of his brothers reportedly already has denied today’s report of his death, but U.S. government officials and Yemeni officials appear to be certain of his death this time. An ultra-radical Islamist ideologue, Awlaki had played an important role in promulgating al-Qaeda’s violent ideology, recruiting young Muslims, …
The recent arrest of Rezwan Ferdaus marked yet another turn in the ever-shifting struggle to protect the American homeland from Islamist-inspired acts of terrorism. The 26-year-old from Ashland, Massachusetts, is accused of plotting to fly explosives-laden remote-controlled airplanes into the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol. His arrest came after a lengthy investigation by the FBI in which Ferdaus had attempted to purchase and transmit weapons to individuals he believed to have been members of al-Qaeda but were in fact undercover agents with the FBI. According to a federal affidavit, between …
The Office of Military Commissions quietly launched a new website this past Monday that was a year in the making. Located at www.mc.mil, it is an invaluable informational site loaded with court documents, historical information, Supreme Court cases dealing with military commissions, and other pertinent and helpful information. In a week when the buzz around Washington was that the case against al Nashiri (the USS Cole bomber held at Gitmo) would be referred to a military commission, the website is a long overdue and potent symbol of transparency in the …
Osama bin Laden was disposed of last April, but al-Qaeda’s intention to commit acts of terrorism against the U.S. and its allies is undeterred. In his testimony this week to the joint congressional intelligence hearing, CIA director David Petraeus warned, “Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, the United States continues to face a serious threat from al Qaeda and its worldwide affiliates and sympathizers.” Al-Qaeda’s top operatives may be dead and its core weakened, but the organization is finding strength in its African affiliates. According to U.S. Africa Command head …
Earlier this week at Heritage, a Bush-era deputy assistant attorney general shared the stage with a former president of the American Civil Liberties Union. It’s not exactly the type of combination you might expect talking about terrorism 10 years after 9/11. But for John Yoo and Nadine Strossen, it was an opportunity to discuss the future of national security. Yoo is the co-editor of a new book with Dean Reuter that features essays from 22 contributors spanning the ideological spectrum. The compilation, “Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American …
The counterterrorism strategy published by the Obama Administration in June was not exactly a hard-hitting document, turning counterterrorism into a law enforcement issue and generally containing few details and little new thinking. When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the subject on September 9, the subject took on more life. As a Senator from New York, she had spent time at Ground Zero and met with the victims and their families, which made her grasp of the subject at least instinctive and immediate. Yet the great and unacknowledged irony in …
