Was it legal for the United States to enter Pakistan, without their consent, to kill or capture Osama bin Laden? The successful raid by the SEALs on May 2, 2011, which apparently occurred without the express or implied permission of Pakistan, has kicked off a debate in policy and legal circles. The short answer is, under these circumstances, yes. There are, to be sure, several legal and policy issues surrounding this operation. The broad legal question, however, as succinctly put by former State Department Legal Advisor Ashley Deeks, is this: …
Washington is reveling this week in one of its oldest traditions – dissecting a Bob Woodward book that analyzes the sitting president. While much focus will be given to what one senior official said about another senior official, there is real news that deserves the bulk of the attention. Specifically, President Barack Obama’s shocking statement to Woodward that “we [America] can absorb another terrorist attack.” He goes on to say: “We’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever…we absorbed it and …
In the three months since President Barack Obama released his first National Security Strategy (NSS), the news has been dominated by his responses to domestic problems—from the economy to the Gulf oil spill to more stimulus spending. And that focus on traditionally domestic issues is reflected in the 2010 National Security Strategy. At 34,314 words, the document is nearly twice as long as Bush’s 2006 edition (19,731 words) and nearly three times as long as Bush’s 2002 edition (12,745 words). The 2010 NSS is notable in that it dramatically changes …
Earlier this week, Representative Peter King (R-NY), the ranking minority member on the House’s Committee on Counterterrorism, gave a public lecture at Heritage titled, “Keeping America Free, Safe And Prosperous: Counterterrorism in the Obama Administration“. In his speech, King highlighted our current problems with counterterrorism and the future of homeland security. Afterwards, he sat down with us for a short interview to discuss some of these issues in greater detail. He stressed the importance of understanding the enemy. As he said, “The enemy is Islamic terrorism. … [The Obama Administration …
The artificial Afghanistan withdrawal deadline has obviously caused some of our military leaders to question our strategy in Afghanistan. That deadline, which President Barack Obama announced to the American people, the military, our allies and our enemies on December 1, 2009, has provoked many — including the government in Kabul, the Afghan people, the military in Pakistan, and our enemies the terrorists – to question America’s resolve to win the War in Afghanistan. More disconcerting for the American people is that the timeline appears to be putting tremendous unnecessary pressure …
Since coming into office the Obama administration has insisted on approaching all terrorist attacks as a law-enforcement-only problem. For purely ideological reasons, Attorney General Eric Holder has refused to learn what the rest of the country already learned from the 1990s and 9/11: that this unconventional enemy requires the government to use all lawful tools at its disposal, including holding some terrorists captured in the U.S. as enemy combatants. But now that he is in power and has some actual responsibility, Holder is beginning to learn the limits of the …
Last week, someone tried to detonate a roadside car bomb in Times Square. And while investigators were searching for the guilty terrorist, some liberals in this country had already found a culprit – you. That’s right. We’ve entered an era where some on the left expressly hope that when terrorist attacks occur, the guilty parties are their fellow Americans, not Islamic jihadists. It’s crazy, but true. After Times Square attack, a narrative quickly emerged that the bomber was a lone wolf and may be a conservative, probably a tea partier. …
Following weeks of strong bipartisan criticism of their handling of terror trials and detainees, Attorney General Eric Holder released a letter yesterday defending the Obama administration’s criminal justice system approach to prosecuting the war against al-Qaeda. Defending his administration’s handling of the Flight 253 terrorist, Holder wrote: “I made the decision to charge Mr. Abdulmutallab with federal crimes, and to seek his detention in connection with those charges, wtih the knowledge of, and with no objection from, all other relevant departments of the government.” First, this statement directly contradicts the sworn Congressional …
Following his speech, Senator McConnell sat down with us In The Green Room, where he discussed how the Administration should be handling Guantanamo Bay detainees and reflected upon how the Administration’s “wrong-headed” approach to terrorism led to the mishandling of the case of Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
