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• 9/11 Commission
  


• Ary News: Iran Will Enrich Uranium Further if Talks Fail
  TEHRAN: Iran warned Saturday it will enrich uranium to a higher level needed to power a research reactor if talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog and world powers fail to help Iran obtain the fuel from abroad.


• CENTCOM
  


• Council of Foreign Relations: Afghanistan's Troop Deficit Problem
  The size and scope of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan has stirred vigorous debate in Washington. As casualties mount and costs increase, some analysts are calling on President Barack Obama to scale back the U.S. commitment. But Kimberly Kagan, president of the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, says downsizing the U.S. force presence in Afghanistan would be a major mistake.


• Council on Foreign Relations: The Road Ahead for US-Iran Relations
  After thirty years of frosty relations, the United States and Iran appeared to make incremental progress during nuclear negotiations in Geneva on October 1. Marking the highest-level dialogue between Washington and Tehran in decades, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns sat down with Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, and Iran agreed to open a recently disclosed facility near Qom for inspection.


• Department of Defense
  


• Department of Defense: Detainees
  The Department of Defense has a compilation of research regarding detainees. This webpage contains Policies, Reviews, Investigations, Articles, and Military Commission Reports about detainees and Guantanamo Bay.


• Department of Homeland Security
  


• Detention of the Enemy During Wartime
  


• Foundation for Defense of Democracies
  


• Four Percent for Freedom
  


• GITMO Research Page
  


• House Armed Services Committee
  


• House Committee on Homeland Security
  


• Institute for Study of War: A Comprehensive Strategy for Afghanistan: Afghanistan Force Requirements
  This reports objectives are to create conditions in Afghanistan to prevent the re?establishment of safe havens for al Qaeda and other trans?national terrorist groups and to establish sufficient stability to ensure that these conditions can be sustained over time with foreign financial assistance but with very limited foreign military presence.


• Institute for Study of War: Order of Battle: Coalition Combat Forces in Afghanistan
  This order of battle includes only the ground combat forces of the U.S. and NATO commands in Afghanistan – the units, down to battalion level, that operate in the field as ground-owning battle groups or, in some cases, advisory forces. Other formations, such as provincial reconstruction teams, most advisory units, and aviation, engineering, artillery, and logistical units, are excluded. “White” special operations forces are described in general terms only, while “black” special operations forces are excluded entirely, for obvious reasons.


• Iran Briefing Room
  


• Joint Task Force: Guantanamo
  JTF Guantanamo conducts safe, humane, legal and transparent care and custody of detained enemy combatants, including those convicted by military commission and those ordered released. The JTF conducts intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination for the protection of detainees and personnel working in JTF Guantanamo facilities and in support of the Global War on Terror.


• Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance
  


• Missile Defense Agency
  


• National Security Legislative Calendar
  Council for a Livable World circulates a weekly summary of key national security legislation before Congress. It's the best way to track the many-ring circus on Capitol Hill, both Senate and House.


• New York Post: Biden's missile-defense missteps
  Vice President Joe Biden's trip last week to Poland and the Czech Republic may have helped soothe rattled allies after Team Obama pitched overboard the W-era, anti-Iran missile shield that was to be deployed in both countries. But the new missile-defense plan he pitched has problems.


• Presidential Management Initiative
  PARTNERSHIP FOR PUBLIC SERVICE aims to provide a framework for federal workforce management and recommendations for an effective transition to the next presidential administration.


• Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty: What Are Options for Tougher Sanctions Against Iran?
  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow that she did not ask the Kremlin to take any specific steps to pressure Iran over its disputed nuclear program.


• RAND Corporation: Publications by Angel Rabasa
  Dr. Angel M. Rabasa is a RAND Corporation Senior Policy Analyst. He is the lead author of The Muslim World After 9/11 (December 2004) and has just completed a project on the future of global terrorism: “Beyond Al Qaeda: Countering Terrorist and Other Non-Traditional Threats.” This page lists all of his published work with RAND.


• Right Web: United Against Nuclear Iran
  United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) claims to be “a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.” A program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization, UANI’s aims include informing “the public about the nature of the Iranian regime”; heightening “awareness nationally and internationally about the danger that a nuclear-armed Iran poses to the region and the world”; persuading “the regime in Tehran to desist from its quest for nuclear weapons, while striving not to punish the Iranian people”; and promoting “efforts that focus on vigorous national and international, social, economic, political, and diplomatic measures.” [1]


• Senate Armed Services Committee
  


• Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
  


• State Department
  


• The Heritage Foundation: 26 Foiled Terror Plots Show Success of Information Sharing
  Last week, the FBI, along with its state and local counterparts, announced arrests in three terror plots targeting several American cities. These foiled plots now make 26 publicly known terror plots that have been disrupted by law enforcement since September 11, 2001.


• The Heritage Foundation: 33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age
  33 Minutes is a thrilling, one-hour documentary that tells the story of the very real threat foreign enemies, like Iran and North Korea, pose to every one of us. The truth is brutal – no matter where on Earth from which a missile is launched, it would take 33 minutes or less to hit the U.S. target it was programmed to destroy. Despite the present and growing danger, our government has failed to deploy a comprehensive missile defense system capable of defending us against any attack. Featuring rare footage and in-depth interviews with leading experts in the field, 33 Minutes explains just how vulnerable every citizen really is and what they can do about it.


• The Heritage Foundation: A Flawed Approach to Arms Control: START Negotiations Will Not Serve U.S. Interests
  When President Obama announced on September 17 that he had decided to cancel a plan for putting missile defense systems in the Czech Republic and Poland, he ignored repeated warnings from Members of Congress not to permit negotiations with Russia over strategic nuclear weapon reductions to also limit U.S. missile defense options. Now, he is sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Moscow to discuss arms control issues with the Russian government.


• The Heritage Foundation: Afghan Elections Offer Hope for the Future
  Yesterday's presidential elections in Afghanistan went relatively smoothly despite sporadic Taliban attacks aimed at disrupting the vote. There was no large-scale dramatic attack as many Afghan and U.S. officials feared. While voter turnout appears to have been respectable, it was lower than in the last election, especially in southern areas, where the Taliban is strongest and best-positioned to make good on their threats to kill or maim Afghans who dared to cast a vote.


• The Heritage Foundation: Afghanistan's war, election challenge Obama
  President Obama this week called the war in Afghanistan one of "necessity," not choice. It is, he proclaimed, the "central front in the war on terrorism ... where the Taliban is gaining strength. ..." He solemnly concluded, "This is a war that we have to win." All this is true. But keeping his promise to win the "good" war in Afghanistan won't be easy. The president will face many tests along the way. Starting now.


• The Heritage Foundation: Another Terror Plot Foiled: 27 Since 9/11
  An arrest on Wednesday of Boston resident Tarek Mehanna brings the latest number of known terrorist plots foiled since 9/11 to 27. Following closely on the heals of three terrorist-related arrests last month, Mehanna's arrest is a stark reminder of the danger still posed by terrorists seeking to kill Americans in the name of extremism.


• The Heritage Foundation: Birthed In Blood, Somali Terror Group Goes Global
  In the summer of 2008, a battle raged about 300 miles south of Mogadishu. There, along the banks of the Jubba River, rival militias fought for control of a port city.


• The Heritage Foundation: Endangering America And Our Allies: Obama's Missile Defense Plans Don't Add Up
  Appeasing Russia, Ignoring Our Allies: President Obama's decision to abandon plans for basing elements of the U.S. global missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic (the "third site") is entirely political, designed to appease Russia, but it will leave the U.S. more vulnerable to the threat of ballistic missile attack.


• The Heritage Foundation: Freezing Telecom Immunity Would Chill Counterterrorism Efforts
  On September 17, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), along with several other Senators, introduced the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools in Counterterrorism Efforts Act of 2009, which would remove immunity for telecommunications providers that have given federal law enforcement access to their systems under the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance program.


• The Heritage Foundation: Iran: The Rising Threat
  When Undersecretary of State William Burns meets with Iranian officials today in Geneva, the clock will start ticking on the Obama Administration's strategy regarding Iran. Despite last week's damning revelations about Iran's clandestine construction of a second uranium enrichment facility and Tehran's continued duplicity on the nuclear issue, the Obama Administration remains wedded to engaging Iran, which has broken numerous attempts at engagement in the past.


• The Heritage Foundation: Iran's Nuclear Threat: The Day After
  The Islamic Republic of Iran, which has pursued policies hostile to the United States since its founding in 1979, is now on the brink of attaining a nuclear weapons capability. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair testified before Congress on March 10 that "We assess Iran has the scientific, technical, and industrial capacity to eventually produce nuclear weapons."


• The Heritage Foundation: Patriot Act: A Chance to Commit to National Security
  On September 22-23, the House and Senate Judiciary Committees held hearings to examine reauthorization of key provisions of the Patriot Act, which helps law enforcement fight terrorism through more flexible surveillance and investigation methods and easier information sharing. Key provisions of the act will expire on December 31 if Congress does not reauthorize them.


• The Heritage Foundation: President Obama Must Not Surrender to Russia on Missile Defense
  Reports in the Polish media strongly suggest that the Obama Administration is about to abandon its plans for "third site" missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic. Abandoning the third site would represent a huge turnaround in American strategic thinking on a global missile defense system and a massive betrayal of two key U.S. allies in Eastern and Central Europe. Such a move would also significantly weaken America's ability to combat the growing threat posed by Iran's ballistic missile program and would hand a major propaganda victory to Moscow.


• The Heritage Foundation: Progress in Iraq
  The debate over the war in Iraq has increasingly divided Americans. The purpose of this website is to help forge a national consensus on the continued need for patient American assistance to help the Iraqi people build a broad-based democratic government that will be an ally in the war against terrorism. This website is a clearinghouse for accessing information on U.S. Iraq policy from the publications, commentary, and events archive of The Heritage Foundation, as well as links to a wide variety of other sources of information on Iraq.


• The Heritage Foundation: Seven Things to Note on Iran
  What a shock: Iran has another undeclared nuclear facility that is likely supporting a nuclear weapons program!


• The Heritage Foundation: Shortsighted U.S. Policies on Afghanistan to Bring Long-Term Problems
  It is difficult to overstate the importance of the outcome of the current White House debate on Afghanistan to the future of vital U.S. national security interests. Early discussions have been characterized by wishful thinking about the U.S.'s ability to negotiate a political solution in the near term and confusion about the relationship between al-Qaeda and the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. A shortsighted view of the long-entrenched problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan risks plunging the region into deeper instability, thus reversing recent gains against al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.


• The Heritage Foundation: Success in Afghanistan Requires Firm Presidential Leadership, Not Half-Measures
  President Obama soon must make one of his most important national security decisions: how to proceed in Afghanistan, a crucial theater in the war against al-Qaeda. This week the President received an assessment of the war from General Stanley McChrystal, his recently appointed commander in Afghanistan.


• The Heritage Foundation: The ICC Investigation in Afghanistan Vindicates U.S. Policy Toward the ICC
  Last week, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) stated that investigations into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan may result in the prosecution of U.S. policymakers or servicemen. The potential prosecution of U.S. persons by the court over incidents that the U.S. deems lawful is one of the prime reasons why the Bush Administration did not seek U.S. ratification of the treaty creating the court, rejected ICC claims of authority over U.S. persons, and sought to negotiate agreements with countries to protect U.S. persons from being arrested and turned over to the ICC.


• The Heritage Foundation: The War in Afghanistan: Why Britain, America, and NATO Must Fight to Win
  It is an unavoidable fact that we are in Afghanistan out of necessity, not choice. Were we to lose and be forced out of Afghanistan against our will, it would be a shot in the arm for every jihadist globally; would send out the signal that we did not have the moral fortitude to see through what we believe to be a national security emergency; and would suggest that NATO, in its first great challenge since the end of the Cold War, did not have what it takes to see a difficult challenge through.


• The Heritage Foundation: Time for Tougher Sanctions on Iran's Terrorist Regime
  There is growing bipartisan momentum in Congress to impose further sanctions on Iran. This long-overdue action, which would strengthen U.S. diplomatic leverage over Tehran, should be welcomed by the Obama Administration and integrated into its dual-track strategy for Iran.


• The Heritage Foundation: Too much at stake to abandon Afghanistan
  There's certainly a lot of hand-wringing these days on both the left and right over the war in Afghanistan. Among Americans, support for the fight is slipping, almost eight years after U.S. forces entered the country.


• The Heritage Foundation: Two Plus Two Equals Five: The Obama Administration's Missile Defense Plans Do Not Add Up
  Last week, President Obama announced that the U.S. would end the "third site" missile defense program to field interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic. Obama declared he will instead pursue a new "phased, adaptive approach" to provide protection for U.S. territory and allies in Europe. The Administration argues this changed approach, which focuses on making use of sea-based and Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) technology, is better suited to the new threat environment and more capable, flexible, and cost-effective.


• The Heritage Foundation: What is Next on Iran?
  The opposition movement that spontaneously rose up against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has lost momentum in the aftermath of the regime's crackdown on popular protests over the disputed results of the presidential election. Faced with intensifying violence from the regime's security forces, the opposition has been forced to abandon mass rallies and is preparing for a protracted campaign of civil disobedience.


• The Heritage Foundation: White House Fact Sheet on Missile Defense Raises More Questions Than It Answers
  On September 17, President Obama announced that the United States would not honor its commitment to field missile defense interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic.[1] At the same time, he announced that the U.S. would pursue a new "phased, adaptive approach" for missile defense to provide protection to U.S. territory and America's friends and allies in Europe.


• The Huffington Post: Obama Versus Obama on the Patriot Act
  Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to reauthorize three expiring provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act. While the bill they passed strengthened civil liberties in several small ways, the Committee failed to make any meaningful improvements to the Patriot provisions that are most prone to abuse. Disturbingly, Obama Administration officials played a significant behind the scene role in opposing stronger civil liberties protections, directly contradicting


• The Washington Post: Clinton urges support for U.S.-Russian arms-control treaty
  With a congressional battle looming, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday defended the administration's broad arms-control agenda and said that reducing U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles would be a critical first step in preventing the spread of the deadly weapons to other countries.


• The Washington Post: McChrystal: More Forces or 'Mission Failure': Top U.S. Commander For Afghan War Calls Next 12 Months Decisive
  The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict "will likely result in failure," according to a copy of the 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post


• The Washington Post: Partial Patriot Act Extension Is Approved by Senate Panel
  The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday that would renew portions of the USA Patriot Act in an effort to address administration concerns about protecting terrorism investigations.


• The White House
  


• Wartime Detention