By Malou Innocent
President Obama’s arrival in Afghanistan and signing of the strategic partnership agreement with President Karzai supposedly represents yet another corner turned in our nearly eleven year (and counting) war. The commander-in-chief’s arrival in secrecy, under darkness, and without live coverage of the signing is reminiscent of Bush the Younger’s many trips to war-torn Iraq and [...]
Security Pact Ensures America’s Presence in Afghanistan is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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By Christopher Preble
President Obama’s surprise visit to Afghanistan shows that he is determined to use the bin Laden killing to his political advantage. He also hopes to win points for ending two unpopular wars. That is understandable. If nothing else, it allows him to draw distinctions between both his predecessor, who failed to find bin Laden, and the eventual GOP nominee, [...]
Obama Visits Afghanistan, Perpetuates Misguided Policy is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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The past week has been a bloody one for Nigeria. Attacks in the capital city of Abuja and across the north have strongly implicated the Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram. Yesterday, a suicide bomber targeted the police commissioner of Jalingo’s motorcade. Although the attacker missed the motorcade, 11 people were reportedly killed when the bomber exploded near a roadside market. Over the weekend, gunmen attacked a church service at Bayero University in Kano. The AFP reported that the attacks targeted Christian worshipers as they attended two services within the campus. … More
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By Malou Innocent
The killing of Osama bin Laden marked a significant achievement in America’s long war against al Qaeda. Yet, following last year’s Navy SEAL raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, it became clear that disrupting, dismantling, and defeating al Qaeda did not require the occupation of distant lands. Indeed, even in the absence of the terrorist leader’s death, the [...]
Bin Laden’s Death, One Year On is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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Last week, experts fired back at the assertion by an unnamed senior State Department official that “The war on terror is over.” Yet, according to a Rasmussen poll released today, it’s not just the experts who disagree. According to a telephone survey conducted by the well-known polling company, 79 percent of likely U.S. voters think the war on terror is not yet won. It’s good to see that while some Administration officials may have a skewed perspective, the vast majority of the American public has a firm grip on reality. … More
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In what the Associated Press and the Washington Post Online are calling a “shocking” revelation, the British Ministry of Defense was considering emplacing a surface-to-air missile system on the top of a civilian apartment complex as part of its defensive measures for the pending summer Olympics. One of the residents interviewed was quite put out that no one had even consulted him, let alone gotten his permission. Was this shocking overreach by paranoid security types? Hardly. First of all, this sort of measure is in fact, quite commonplace in major … More
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A recent assessment by senior U.S. intelligence officials shows that while the current threat associated to al-Qaeda central—i.e., Ayman al-Zawahiri and his immediate acolytes—has significantly diminished, the threat nonetheless remains. Richard Cardillo, an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, argues that a high-impact terrorist event emanating from al-Qaeda central is “unlikely in the next year.” While it is true that al-Qaeda central and its radical ideologies, as represented by Osama bin Laden and manifest in the tragic events of September 11, has been fractured, in many … More
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Nearly a year ago, America did the world a favor and killed Osama bin Laden. Now the Obama Administration is taking credit for al-Qaeda’s defeat. Not so fast! Since 9/11, the United States has foiled 50 terrorist plots on U.S. soil, including two so far this year. In January, Sami Oskazac, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Kosovo, was arrested on charges of planning attacks against night clubs, businesses, and a sheriff’s office. A month later, Amine El Khalifi, a Moroccan citizen illegally in the U.S., was arrested on charges of … More
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The National Association of Postmasters of the United States (NAPUS) recently registered an odd complaint in a letter to U.S. Senators this past Sunday. This body of national security experts attempted to claim that the U.S. should not open delivery of first-class mail to private carriers because it would “expose the mailbox and the entire postal system to potential sabotage and terrorism, by permitting entities other than the U.S. Postal Service to access the home mail box.” To be fair, terrorists have sought to use postal services to carry out … More
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By Malou Innocent
For years, my colleagues and I have been arguing that disrupting, dismantling, and defeating al Qaeda does not require the occupation of Afghanistan or anywhere else. Wars are incredibly wasteful and counterproductive to the goal of stopping terrorism. Would-be terrorists, moreover, have reduced their dependence on “base camps” and “physical havens” because they can plan, organize, and train from [...]
“…the American homeland is the planet” is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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