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Homeland Security
Americans must recommit themselves to living the principles that made this nation safe, free, and prosperous while defending them against attack. The surest way to reduce America’s vulnerability is to provide persistent, sensible homeland security; the broad national effort by all levels of government - federal, state, and local - to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur.
INFORMATION SHARING
Information is a crucial tool in securing the nation’s borders against crimes and potential terrorist threats, with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the FBI, having key information sharing roles.
Al Qaeda and Affiliates: Historical Perspective, Global Presence, and Implications for U.S. Policy
Al Qaeda (AQ) has evolved into a significantly different terrorist organization than the one that perpetrated the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The Foundry: Maybe Closing Gitmo is not in the Cards
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 …
The Attorney and the General
Michael Hayden, the former CIA director, penned a superb op-ed in the Washington Post on Sunday. Succinctly, he tallies the wages of having Attorney General Eric Holder make national-security decisions.
Obama admnistration takes several wrong paths in dealing with terrorism
In the war on terrorism, this country faces an enemy whose theory of warfare ends the hard-won distinction in modern thought between combatant and noncombatant.
The Foundry: Escape From New York: Obama Retreats On KSM Trial
Today, the Obama White House asked Eric Holder’s Justice Department to look for an alternative site to hold the federal trial of KSM and his co-conspirators.
The Foundry: Connecting the Dots and the Christmas Plot
"We slipped up." That’s what Patrick F. Kennedy the Undersecretary of State for Management said at a Senate hearing last week about the Christmas Day bomb plot and the arrest of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Gibbs Refuses to Say If KSM Will Be Tried in NYC
This morning on Fox and Friends, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs refused to answer the question of where KSM will be tried.
Saudi Government Extremism and the U.S. Response
Terrorists are not born, they're made. Extremist indoctrination is the first step in this process, an indisputable fact accepted by security experts and terror cell leaders alike.
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
Potential terrorist attacks and the possibility of naturally occurring disease outbreaks have raised concerns about the “surge capacity” of the nation’s health care systems to respond to mass casualty events.
Guantanamo Bay: No case for closure
As a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, I recently joined Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) on a congressional delegation to the terrorist detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Past the Deadline on Guantánamo
The one-year deadline for closing Guantánamo came and went last week, with 196 men still detained at the U.S. facility. The interagency task force reviewing the Guantánamo detainees' files has now finished its work.
Al Qaeda's Pursuit of Weapons of Mass Destruction
In 1998, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared that acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was his Islamic duty -- an integral part of his jihad.
The Heritage Foundation: Biometric Exit Programs Show Need for New Strategy to Reduce Visa Overstays
Despite Congress's mandate in 2007 that the Department of Homeland Security track all foreign visitors biometrically by June 2009, DHS missed the deadline, and biometric exit, as opposed to the current biographic approach, has proved costly without adding much additional security.
Terrorist Attacks on Commercial Airlines: Federal Criminal Prohibitions
Federal authorities can and have prosecuted terrorist attacks on commercial airlines under a wide variety of federal statutes.
Will Washington Pay for the Terror Trials?
The plan to put five terrorists on trial in Manhattan (and possibly to put other terrorists on trial in neighboring Brooklyn) has raised profound questions.
The Emerging Law of Detention: The Guantánamo Habeas Cases as Lawmaking
President Obama’s decision not to seek additional legislative authority for detentions at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba—combined with Congress’s lack of interest in the task—means that, for good or for ill, judges must write the rules governing military detention of terrorist suspects.
Would Body Scanners Make Us Safer?
Ever since 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed attempt to blow up his Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day, the country has been engaged in a fierce debate over whether to significantly increase the use of whole-body screeners in U.S. airports.
Man charged in Arkansas shooting claims Yemen Al Qaeda ties
A Memphis man accused of shooting two soldiers outside a military recruiting station in Arkansas last June has written the judge that he is affiliated with Al Qaeda in Yemen, the New York Times reports.
Terrrorism's Victory
As George Orwell noted the first duty of intelligent people is “the restatement of the obvious.” It is obvious or should be obvious that the goal of terrorists is terrorism. What that means precisely is not clear based on recent news accounts.
Should Guantanamo Bay Be Closed?
On January 22, 2009, President Obama ordered the controversial prison camp at Guantanamo Bay closed within a year. But much has changed since the president set this self-imposed deadline.
Mind Over Martyr
Is it possible to deradicalize terrorists? The success of a rehabilitation program for extremists in Saudi Arabia suggests that it is -- so long as the motivations that drive terrorists to violence are clearly understood and squarely addressed.
Constitutionality of Excluding Aliens from the Census for Apportionment and Redistricting Purposes
In the 2010 decennial census, the Census Bureau will attempt to count the total population of the United States.
Temporary Protected Status: Current Immigration Policy and Issues
When civil unrest, violence, or natural disasters erupt in spots around the world, concerns arise over the safety of foreign nationals from these troubled places who are in the United States.
http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR664/?ref=homepage&key=t_travel_security
The Obama administration's mea culpa over the failure to prevent the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day is understandable but misses the point.
A Good Thing for Guantánamo
The coincidental overlap of three recent events — the thwarted Christmas Day airliner attack, the return of six Yemeni detainees from Guantánamo, and two airstrikes targeting Al Qaeda in Yemen — has put a spotlight on Guantánamo transfers even more than usual.
Amid the Hysteria, a Look at What al-Qaeda Can't Do
Here's a fact about the underwear attack that you might have missed in the media shoutfest: it failed. It failed, first of all, because Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was just one terrorist.
U.S. Immigration Policy on Haitian Migrants
The environmental, social, and political conditions in Haiti have long prompted congressional interest in U.S. policy on Haitian migrants, particularly those attempting to reach the United States by boat.
The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)--Responsibilities and Potential Congressional Concerns
The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) was established in 2004 to ensure that information from any source about potential terrorist acts against the U.S. could be made available to analysts and that appropriate responses could be planned.
How to Apply "Smart Power" in Yemen
President Barack Obama has made it clear that he does not intend to send American ground forces into Yemen, and rightly so. But American policy toward Yemen, even after the Christmas terrorist attempt, remains focused on limited counterterrorist approaches that failed in Afghanistan in the 1990s and have created tension in Pakistan since 2001.
The Status Report: Obama's Challenges in the Middle East
Martin Indyk and Kenneth M. Pollack give the president an overall grade of B for confronting big challenges in a region that includes Iraq, Iran, terrorism in Yemen, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. That reflects an A for effort, they say, and a C for results that have so far not matched the promise of the administration’s ambitious agenda.
Congress Must Re-Examine Its Role on Security Matters
In the wake of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253, more attention needs to be given to Congress' role and responsibility in implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 commission. The government ought to draw on companies like Google and FedEx for help in improving national security information technology infrastructure.
The Cargo-Screening Clog: Why the Maritime Mandate Needs to Be Re-examined
Cargo must be checked--but it is impossible to screen 11.6 million containers every year without bringing the global economy to its knees. How to avoid the paralyzing cargo clog of the Department of Homeland Security's mandate for 100 percent cargo screening? Heritage Foundation homeland security policy analysts Jena Baker McNeill and Jessica Zuckerman lay out a smart plan for risk-based screening--which can keep the country safe and prosperous at the same time.
Unauthorized Alien Students, Higher Education, and In-State Tuition Rates: A Legal Analysis
Currently, federal law prohibits states from granting unauthorized aliens certain postsecondary educational benefits on the basis of state residence, unless equal benefits are made available to all U.S. citizens.
Yemen: Background and U.S. Relations
With limited natural resources, a crippling illiteracy rate, and high population growth, Yemen faces an array of daunting development challenges that some observers believe make it at risk for becoming a failed state.
Cuba: Issues for the 111th Congress
Cuba remains a hard-line communist state with a poor record on human rights. The country's political succession from the long-ruling Fidel Castro to his brother Raúl was characterized by a remarkable degree of stability.
Immigration: Terrorist Grounds for Exclusion and Removal of Aliens
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) spells out a strict set of admissions criteria and exclusion rules for all foreign nationals who come permanently to the United States as immigrants (i.e., legal permanent residents) or temporarily as nonimmigrants.
Benefits of a Near Disaster
It's never good when a terrorist boards a plane filled with Americans and tries to blow it up. But the attempted Christmas attack has inadvertently helped the United States on multiple national security fronts.
2/09/2010 3:11:43 PM
2/09/2010 11:42:31 AM
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