Analysis & Commentary
Watch the Islamists
An estimated three dozen Islamist militants reportedly escaped from an Egyptian prison on Sunday amid the chaos that has enveloped the country. This did little to quiet the raging debate over the possibility of an Islamist takeover in Egypt if the thirty-year-old regime of Hosni Mubarak crumbles.
Watching al-Manar
The long war against radical Islam is a war of ideas as much as a war of arms. For decades, America, Israel, and other democracies have ignored the incitement and violent propaganda emanating from extremist regimes and organizations in the Middle East. Now democracies are starting to fight back.
Watching the News
A discussion of a multi-national force in Lebanon.
Waterboarding Not Over The Top
It is strongly suspected that we will soon see released more CIA documents -- including actual interrogation logs and at least one document from the CIA's Directorate of Operations -- that will provide further direct evidence of the high utility of information gained from waterboarding and sleep-deprivation techniques. (Hat tip for foregoing confirming information to Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.)
Read the full article here.
We Abhor Torture: What of Our Enemies?
The first reason we do not approve of torture is out of respect for prisoners, even if they are guilty -- even if they are heinous criminals. Timothy McVeigh was dispatched by lethal injection; the worst of the Nuremberg offenders were hanged. They were not torn apart by wild dogs.
We Have Met the Enemy . . .
Speaking publicly about the role of Iran in Afghanistan--which is substantial, and about which we have considerable information--seems to be taboo for our current leaders.
We Have Other Priorities’ - Why Won’t the U.N. Answer Questions About its Iraq Scandal?
The harder the United Nations tries to keep a lid on Oil for Food, the more the scandal keeps boiling over. This past Sunday Secretary-General Kofi Annan appeared on "Meet the Press," rejecting as "outrageous" allegations that this graft-ridden U.N. relief program for Iraq had helped prop up Saddam Hussein's regime, and denying that the U.N. has made any attempt at a coverup. Asked by host Tim Russert why only a portion of the documentation requested of the U.N. by the U.S. General Accounting Office had been turned over, Mr. Annan protested: "We are open. We are transparent."
We Have Ways To Make You Talk
Abu Ghraib was a travesty and a tragedy. It tarnished America's reputation and credibility. It gave ammunition to America's enemies and critics. It set back progress in Iraq.
We Link, You Decide
The Defense Department’s Michele Flournoy and Ashton B. Carter argue here that missile defense is essential and that the Obama administration is not negotiating with Russia to limit our options.
Investigative reporter Bill Gertz suggests here that the reality is rather different.
By the way, my column on NRO today argues that it will not be possible to "contain" a nuclear-armed Iran.
We Must Face a Connected World’s ‘Butterfly Effect’
Woolsey, director of the CIA from 1993 to 1995, is a vice president at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where he focuses on national and international security. Rachel K. Belton is a senior consultant at the same firm.
We Need a National Security Court
In this 2006 white paper, which will be incorporated in a forthcoming AEI book on Outsourcing American Law, Andrew McCarthy, director of FDD’s Center for Law & Counterterrorism, explores the reasons why a National Security Court is an important tool in the global war on terror.
We Need a New Base?
An always thoughtful reader writes...
We Need Action,Not Words, On North Korea
President Barack Obama's hollow response to North Korea's April 5 illicit missile test amounts to another score for North Korea's Kim Jong Il.
We Saw It Coming
The resignation of Hezbollah and its allies from the Lebanese government was, in many ways, foreseeable. Hezbollah and Prime Minister Saad Hariri's respective positions on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) were clearly irreconcilable. That is why the hype behind the so-called Syrian-Saudi “initiative” that would ostensibly hammer out a compromise was always unrealistic, if not surreal. Hezbollah is now likely to ratchet up pressure on Hariri to force him and his regional allies to capitulate. Meanwhile, Syria will try to opportunistically take advantage of Hezbollah's escalation to bring the Saudis and other suitors back to its doorstep.
We Will Never Forget This Day - Election Day in Iraq
A few weeks ago the election season opened with a bang in Baquba, a city of 280,000 people located on the eastern edge of the Sunni Triangle. On the evening of January 16th several mortars suddenly slammed into our Army compound, known as the CMOC, or Civil-Military Operations Center. After seeing the blue flashes of exploding shells outside the window of the small, cement, Iraqi-style bungalow we were working in, and being covered by a thin film of dust that filtered down from the ceiling, my fellow soldiers and I said, "Phew, those were CLOSE!" We immediately knew the terrorists in town were sending a message, firing a shot across the bow of the impending elections.
We’re Engaged In a Terror War—And New York Is the Prime Target
New York's Governor David Patterson labeled Saturday night's foiled car bomb attack in Times Square an "act of terror." Janet Napolitano, our secretary of Homeland Security is treating it as "potential act of terror." Fair enough. If the three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components found in the back of the Nissan Pathfinder, had they exploded would have -in the words of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly "caused a significant ball of fire." New York's Mayor Bloomberg said the explosion could have caused "huge damage on a block of Broadway theaters and restaurants teeming with tourists." In short, federal and local officials understand clearly that the SUV-bomb was aimed at killing a large group of New Yorkers and visitors, causing severe damage to the area and a shock to the public (who would be traumatized by the sight of such pictures), had, God forbid, the "act of terror" been successful.
Bravo to the watchful citizen who alerted authorities: he emerges as the hero in this counter- terrorism act. And also a high-five to the men and women of New York law enforcement who rushed to secure the area and disable the device. In that sense it was a success story for New York, one of the cities targeted most by terrorists in the Western world.
What follow will be intense investigations and many questions on two tracks: Technical inquiries and identity reconstruction. On the one hand officials will have to figure out why didn't the bomb explode and how was it assembled and where? This line of investigation will tell us more about the capacity of terrorists to copycat this attempt, to move material of the same sort across city limits, or worse, build such a weapon inside Manhattan or any other U.S. city. There's no doubt that the findings will be sobering. The capacity of potential terrorists to build urban-laden bombs, move them through cities, and choose their strategic targets easily would mean that such "acts of terror" can be repeated and launched again in the same city or in other locations across the nation. If the perpetrators did it in New York City, they could do it anywhere.
On the other hand authorities will have to determine the identity of the terrorists. And we're not just talking about any social security or other identification numbers belonging to the terrorist(s) but their affiliation, their motives and their organization. The public has already received several confusing messages in the past year and a half regarding government's quick reactions to previous terror attempts. In the most recent cases of the deadly attack at Ft. Hood and the unsuccessful Christmas Day "underwear bombing" attempt, administration officials rushed to call these acts "isolated extremists" only to discover there was more to the attacks in terms of links to a greater circle of terror. That's why it is important to be cautious and move from evidence to evidence. "Amateurish" or not, as Bloomberg described the attempted terrorist attack, it was designed to have devastating effects. It was indeed an "act of terror." Now comes the next part. We'll need to know more about the minds behind it Saturday night's fatal plan. Was it designed by a domestic extremist(s), homegrown jihadist(s) or was internationally coordinated? These are the questions as we search for answers in the days ahead.
In any of these scenarios, we're talking about another "terror act" taking place on U.S. soil, it's about the fifteenth since the beginning of 2009. By empirical methods multiple terror acts are a "terror war" waged against this country - and New York City is its prime target.
We’re Not Addicts!
People say we’re addicted to oil but that’s imprecise and unfair. Our automobiles are addicted to oil. And America has been designed around the automobile.
We’re Safer But Danger Still Exists
Three years since the devastating terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on New York City and Washington, D.C. the nation is safer, but they warn that terrorists could still strike - possibly before the presidential elections in November.
We’re Taking the Right Approach
The fighting in Fallujah, and daily terrorist attacks by Saddam Hussein's loyalists and Islamist extremists, paint a grim picture of today's Iraq. While nobody doubts U.S. resolve, nor the skill and courage of U.S. forces, everybody understands that fighting is not the same as winning.
