Cybersecurity
by Jessica Herrera-Flanigan
HLS Watch
August 10, 2009
On Friday, I wrote a quick blurb noting that Mischel Kwon, the director of the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had announced her departure. Her exit from the government cybersecurity realm marked the second in a week, following the highly-covered resignation of Melissa Hathaway, the White House’s Cybersecurity Advisor/Coordinator, earlier in the week.
In both cases, many politicos and pundits have pondered why our federal cybersecurity efforts seem to be in such disarray. Kwon was the fourth director of US CERT in five years. Hathaway was the acting “cyber czar,” though the Administration prefers to call it “coordinator,” a position announced by the President eight weeks ago that few cybersecurity gurus have been interested in taking.
Homeland in a Haiku
by Jessica Herrera-Flanigan
HLS Watch
August 4, 2009
Earlier this summer, the Department of Homeland Security made a push to be high-tech and connected with the American people through the use of social media and Web 2.0. Indeed, yesterday I wrote of how the agency was gathering opinions and thoughts on the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review through its website, http://www.homelandsecuritydialogue.org. DHS also has created RSS and Atom feeds for those who want to get the latest going-ons at DHS, online journal and blogs for Leadership- both at headquarters and at components, podcasts, and widgets. Not to be left out of the social networking craze, the agency has also set up sites and pages on outside sites, as noted below.
Central Asia’s Northern Exposure
By Andrew C. Kuchins and Thomas Sanderson
New York Times
August 4, 2009
Russian agreement to allow U.S. military over-flight rights to ferry lethal goods to Afghanistan was one of the signal achievements of the recent meetings in Moscow between Presidents Barack Obama and Dimtri Medvedev.
Security not a good argument for cap-and-trade
by James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
Energy Publisher
August 04, 2009
The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill has engendered tremendous controversy. Concerns abound about the legislation's adverse economic consequences as well as skepticism of its affects on world climate trends. Faced with mounting opposition, the bill's supporters are increasingly making the case that creating a new law is a national security imperative. They are wrong.
How the war in Iraq has shaped a new US military mind-set
Christian Science Monitor
August 2, 2009
But ironically, trying to develop a curriculum that teaches the kind of creativity required in a counterinsurgency only succeeds in creating a new doctrine just as rigid as those from the cold war, says James Carafano, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel and former West Point professor.
"[Secretary of Defense Robert Gates] is going to institutionalize what he thinks is creativity and innovation and actually what he's going to be doing is killing creativity and innovation," says Mr. Carafano, currently a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "He's focusing on, 'I need people who can really understand counterinsurgency' ... [when] you need people who can be adaptive and creative and can be critical thinkers and decisionmakers."
Minimizing Potential Threats from Iran: Assessing Economic Sanctions
By Matthew Levitt
Counterterrorism Blog
July 31, 2009
Yesterday I had the opportunity to testify before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on the subject of "Minimizing Potential Threats from Iran: Assessing Economic Sanctions and Other Policy Options." Senator Lieberman addressed the committee first, followed by Ambassador Nick Burns, myself, Suzanne Maloney, and Danielle Pletka.
As I noted in my testimony, while some question the wisdom of employing sanctions when the administration is actively seeking to pursue engagement with Iran, and others question the wisdom of employing sanctions that might give the regime a straw man and scapegoat to blame for all of Iran's ills, my own conclusion is just the opposite. This is exactly the time to use financial tools to build leverage for diplomacy.
An EMP attack: Thinking the unthinkable
By James Carafano
Examiner Columnist
July 27, 2009
When the 9/11 Commission issued its report, it complained that federal agencies had a colossal "failure of imagination." Nobody could accuse Newt Gingrich from suffering that shortfall.
When he delivered a major address on national security last week, the former Speaker of the House went after Defense Secretary Robert Gates for planning for the future the Pentagon wants, rather than dealing with the many serious problems it may actually face. Gingrich mentioned one challenge that many find too terrible to contemplate -- which is why our government should spend a lot more time doing exactly that.
Napolitano to Unveil New Antiterror Plans
Wall Street Journal
July 29, 2009
"While things are quiet, she does actually have an opportunity to do some forceful leadership and get things done," said James Carafano, the report's co-author. "It's much harder the day after a big terrorist attack, because then everyone wants to be in charge."
Source: North Carolina Terror Suspect May be in Pakistan
WJLA
July 28, 2009
Still, Matt Levitt of the Washington Institute said, "No we shouldn't be suprised. Perhaps the biggest thing this cell indicates is you don't have to be a card-carrying member of a terrorist organization to be dangerous. There are dangerous ideas floating out there."
Report: Sanctions part of Syrian solution
United Press International
July 27, 2009
Eliminating the network of insurgents requires the severing of financial and material support, but sanctions alone will not be enough, notes Matthew Levitt with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Levitt notes that support for foreign insurgents is beneficial to Damascus as it uses various insurgent networks as a proxy for pursuing domestic and foreign policy initiatives.
Counter-terrorism investigators find alleged identity theft ring
Los Angeles Times
July 26, 2009
The LAPD, FBI, DMV and district attorney's office teamed up to track a Pakistan native in L.A. and 13 accomplices who allegedly paid DMV workers in several states to provide fraudulent documents.
For years, however, the 44-year-old Pakistan native has offered customers a startling menu of illegal services as the architect of an extensive fraud ring involving several DMV employees she regularly paid to produce licenses and other documents, according to Los Angeles police and federal officials. The names of at least some of her alleged clients have surfaced in ongoing federal investigations into national security issues, said LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Downing.
Court to Hear New Reports on Pakistani Scientist’s Fitness for Trial
New York Times
July 5, 2009
But a government expert, Dr. Gregory B. Saathoff, a psychiatry professor at the University of Virginia, said because of Ms. Siddiqui’s desire to return to Pakistan and her interest in avoiding prosecution, she “has had a strong motivation to appear incompetent.”
“She has most likely fabricated reported psychiatric symptoms,” he wrote.
Treasury seizes assets of extremist organization
Guardian
July 3, 2009
"This is a continuation of something that had been working effectively in the previous administration," said Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury Department official and a counterterrorism expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
What Americans Need to Know About Missile Defense: We're Not There Yet
by Kim R. Holmes, Ph.D., James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Peter Brookes and Baker Spring
Heritage Foundation
June 30, 2009
In 33 minutes or less, life as we know it in America could end. That's how long it would take for an enemy ballistic missile launched from the other side of the world to hit the United States. If it carried and detonated a nuclear weapon high over the center of the country, the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) would literally fry the nation's electrical grid and all of the circuitry that powers our homes, businesses, hospitals, phones, cars, planes, traffic lights, ATMs, water supplies, and anything else not "hardened" against such attacks. The EMP Commission chairman has testified that, within just one year of such an attack, 70 percent to 90 percent of Americans would be dead from starvation and disease.
Iran election: Tehran backs Hizbollah operations around world
The Daily Telegraph
June 26, 2009
Homeland spy satellites shelved: DHS
Swamppolitics.com
June 23, 2009
Michael P. Downing, the LAPD's deputy chief for counter-terrorism and criminal intelligence, participated in the recent discussions with Homeland Security as the chiefs' association representative of police intelligence commanders. He said using the satellites to collect intelligence would have been extremely complicated, and rife with privacy and civil liberties concerns. "What we're saying is that we'd like you to hold off. We have all these other issues that we need to get fixed," Downing said in an interview. "It's not dead, but de-prioritized, and we support that."
Next-up in the terrorist-batter’s box
By James Carafano
Washington Examiner
June 22, 2009
The experts don’t all agree on what terrorist networks, after al Qaeda, we should worry about most. But near the top of many experts’ lists are groups bent on spreading Islamist radicalization in U.S. prisons.
Military strives to understand social media
Medill Reports, Northwestern University
June 22, 2009
“We have to remember the government is a different participant than other people in social media,” said James Carafano, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation who recently published Social Networking and National Security: How to Harness Web 2.0 to Protect the Country. “We also have to remember that there are downsides to the technology just like anything else.” Carafano says there is the issue of classified information being leaked in a sort-of “social media experiment gone wrong” as well as concern that all information on the social networking sites isn’t accurate.
Role of Religion in Iran Election
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
June 19, 2009
Geneive Abdo: If you watch television you’d think that society is sharply divided between secularists supporting Moussavi, religious people supporting Ahmadinejad. The reality is much more complicated than that. Those supporting Moussavi are also religious. It’s not they don’t want clerics involved in politics, they don’t want clerics involved in their lives, it’s just certain clerics.
Defiant Smugglers Ply Egypt Gaza Border
Intellsecuworld.com
June 19, 2009
Matthew Levitt, a security expert with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says the stepped-up Egyptian security presence is in the government's interest. "Egyptians have been doing much more than they had been, whether it's rotating senior officials in and out of the area to reduce the opportunity for bribery, shutting down a lot more tunnels, trying to do things farther into Sinai," he says. "But this is something that is in the Egyptian national interest. And I think they see it that way. "When it comes to Gaza, Egypt's national interest has been tested more by Iran than by Israel, Levitt says. In April, the Egyptian government announced it had rounded-up a weapons smuggling cell organized by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which receives support from Iran. Cairo accused the arrested men of plotting to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak in a conspiracy backed by Iran. Egypt has been aggressive in challenging Iran's rising influence in the region. This is one factor in Egypt's vigilance on the border, Levitt says, "as highlighted by the Hezbollah cell that was rounded up [and] engaged in operations both supporting and arming Hamas in the Gaza Strip and, according to the Egyptians, maybe even plotting attacks in Egypt."
Iran's protests do not a revolution make
By Geneive Abdo
The Christian Science Monitor
June 15, 2009
Ahmadinejad's reelection signals an end to an internal power struggle that has been under way for 20 years.
The Battle for Qom's Hearts and Minds
By Geneive Abdo
Foreign Policy
June 2009
The center of gravity in Iran's political crisis is not in Tehran, but miles away, in a dusty center of religious learning.
After Afghanistan, will we squander the victory?
By James Jay Carafano
San Francisco Examiner
June 15, 2009
It is not too soon, however, to be looking to the future beyond the war’s end. Already there are signs that Washington, D.C., is squandering it away. After attending a regional security summit in Singapore, Defense Secretary Robert Gates had to ground his own plane because of mechanical difficulties. That incident may be a metaphor for what Gates is doing to today’s military. The defense secretary is funneling resources to Iraq and Afghanistan, but cutting back elsewhere to keep defense spending down. In the long run, the readiness of the force will suffer for this trade-off.
Recruiter shootings spark homegrown terror fears
Associated Press
June 15, 2009
"One of the scariest things is that we don't have a profile for how someone becomes radicalized," said counterterrorism expert Matthew Levitt. "It's different for everybody. It can happen on the Internet. It can happen in prison. It can happen in a mosque," said Levitt, who formerly worked with the FBI and Treasury Department. "There are different ways it manifests itself and that demonstrates how serious a problem it is."
3 foreign women dead in Yemen, al-Qaida suspected
Associated Press
June 15, 2009
Analyzing Obama's Speech to the Muslim World
Muslim Community Lobby: Letters and Comments
June 14, 2009
Geneive Abdo characterized Obama's approach as "evasive" and devoid of any real policy prescriptions. And while he addressed buzzwords such as colonialism and occupation, she argued Obama's approach was not nearly expansive enough. She continued by noting how Obama's rhetorical brilliance raised expectation so high that Iran and al-Qaeda had preemptively issued statements responding to his speech. She continued by critiquing Obama's use of extremism as a foil in his speech.
She argued that the debate was already well beyond this dichotomy and that Obama should have used his speech to address the political, economic and social reasons for extremism's regional constituency. She also noted the originality of using the affluence and freedom of America's Muslim community as an argument in the US's favor. She did not think this argument would be particularly persuasive given the divergence of circumstances among Muslims in the United States and the Middle East.
On the War in Iraq, Abdo criticized the president for not apologizing for the invasion and not offering concrete plans for the country. She did admit, however, that he at least repudiated the Bush notion that Iraq was a war of necessity and not one of choice. Abdo also believed that Obama criticized the Palestinians far more than the Israelis in his speech, but did note how the president's tough rhetoric revealed a burgeoning rift between the US and Israel. In summation, she graded the presentation of his remarks highly but felt the substance of the speech was mediocre and that the conflict between the two sides was rooted in policy and not a lack of respect.
Ahmadinejad Campaigns for Iran Election One Handout at a Time
Bloomberg News
June 8, 2009
“The West identifies with the more educated part of the Iranian population,” said Geneive Abdo, an Iran analyst at the Century Foundation, a New York-based research group. “They overestimate its influence, versus the more traditional, religious part of the electorate that backs Ahmadinejad.”
Cyber Security “Facts”
Cato Institute
June 9, 2009
In another comment — not taking umbrage at mine, but culturally similar to Jackson’s — Ron Marks, Senior Vice President for Government Relations at Oxford-Analytica, says, “Cyberterrorism is here to stay and will grow bigger.” The same can be said of the bogeyman, but the bogeyman isn’t real either.
What Scoop Jackson knew
By James Carafano
Washington Examiner
June 8, 2009
There may never be another Scoop. Once upon a time Washington had many leaders who put national security before their politics. Henry “Scoop” Jackson stood at the top of the class.
Osama bin Laden tape makes bid to undercut Obama’s speech
Chicago Tribune
June 3, 2009
“This guy (Obama) sends chills up their spine,” said Tom Sanderson, deputy director of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank. “Obama is laying a groundwork for relations with Muslim countries. Here’s someone who really pulls the carpet out from under them.”
Homeland Gaming
by Jessica Herrera-Flanigan
HLS Watch
June 3, 2009
For example, the Washington Post ran a story in late March entitled “Sober Games for First Responders”that detailed the efforts of the National Emergency Medical Services Preparedness Initiative at George Washington University to develop a video game that will allow emergency workers to hone their skills on the virtual scene of large-scale crises. The “Disaster Gaming” Initiative received a $4.8 million grant for the game, called Zero Hour: America’s Medic.