Today, TSA announced a new round of security checks for international flights. Extra security in the wake of the failed underwear bound bomb for Detroit made sense as a measure of over abundance of caution. A rash of new permanent procedures, however, appears more like a knee-jerk response than anything else. Requiring one hundred percent inspections on travelers from 14 “terrorist” countries is a kind of feel good, but useless idea. Terrorists route their attacks through the international air hubs that are not the most suspicious. Nor is geography an indicator …
According to the LA Times, John Brennan, the senior Obama counterterrorism official, declared there was “no smoking gun” in the Christmas Day Detroit bound bombing. Putting aside the frantic phone calls from the father — pardon me, Mr. Brennan, but that’s a big deal. There was no smoking gun found after Pearl Harbor or 9/11. There is almost never a smoking gun. There was no smoking gun in 26 of the 28 terrorist attacks foiled by the US since 9/11 (Abdulmutallab and Richard Reid were stopped by dumb luck). We …
On New Year’s Eve, the House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) sent a letter to President Barack Obama reading in part: I understand that there were failures across the government and the international community that quite frankly, eight years after the attacks on 9-11, should not have happened. Failures, to include proper information sharing across all agencies, continue to challenge our ability to identify potential extremists poised to strike. Given the technologies available and the high quality personnel serving in our government, there is no excuse for the …
Earlier this month President Obama announced his plans for a new way forward in Afghanistan. He laid out clear objectives for a troop level increase, underscored the importance of strengthening Afghan security forces and outlined the strategic necessity of success in the region. I believe the President made a very compelling case for why it is absolutely critical that America defeat al Qaeda and prevent its capacity to threaten America and our allies. The most significant aspect of the President’s announcement was his call for a deployment of 30,000 additional …
As President Obama pondered anew his strategy for winning the war on terror in Afghanistan, the antiwar crowd unleashed an odd new tactic to force a retreat: a tax. Not a new tax on the terrorists which, while obviously uncollectible, would at least be properly targeted. And, thankfully not a new tax on the men and women leading the fight. The far left, as explained by Senator Levin in a November 20 interview on Bloomberg Television, is targeting Americans making more than $250,000 with a new surtax. As with most …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQiTMnt4ebw[/youtube] America’s Air Reserve Component has shifted to an operational reserve engaged around the world and essential to today’s fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the pace of combat operations continues unabated, Pentagon resources are rapidly declining. Unfortunately, defense budget cuts tend to disproportionately affect the National Guard and Reserves. Pentagon leaders often overlook the tremendous capabilities provided by these men and women at a relative bargain to the nation. For example,
The Chief of the Indonesian Police has confirmed that murderer Noordin Top, Indonesia’s and Southeast Asia’s most wanted terrorist, was killed yesterday during a police raid in Central Java, Indonesia. Noordin was the mastermind behind the July 17 attacks on the Jakarta JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton that killed 7 people and wounded 53. He has also been implicated in every major terrorist attack in Indonesia beginning with the first Bali bombing in 2002 that killed 202 innocents. The Islamist terrorist network in Indonesia will be severely damaged by this loss. …
After taking office earlier this year, President Obama issued an executive order to close the detention facilities by the end of the year, without a plan for the relocation of over 200 detainees currently housed at the base. One option that I do not support is bringing the detainees here to the States for trial and placing them in our federal prisons. Many of the detainees pose a serious threat to our national security. The Pentagon just released a report stating that one in seven of the detainees that have been released …
This Sunday, April 5 at 9 p.m. EST, the National Geographic Channel is premiering a new documentary as part of their award winning Explorer series entitled “Inside Guantanamo.” Charles “Cully” Stimson, Senior Legal Fellow in the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation was instrumental in granting National Geographic the access they needed to produce this one-of-a-kind documentary when he was Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for Detainee Affairs prior to joining Heritage. He told The Foundry how this project came about: On my first day heading the …
