After last year’s bin Laden raid I wrote a few of posts about the operation’s original intent–namely, whether the objective had always been to kill the al-Qaeda leader, or whether capture had ever been a viable option. The White House gave unclear and shifting answers on this point, but nothing I’ve seen since last May suggests that …
National Security
The Last Days of Osama bin Laden
As U.S. Navy Seals burst into his fortress-like compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, nearly one year ago, Osama bin Laden turned to the youngest of his four wives and said his last words: “Don’t turn on the light.”
Good Luck Trying to Get People to Care About Nuclear Security
Here’s an excerpt from a White House briefing at the Nuclear Security Summit. I found the description by NSC spokesman Ben Rhodes of a nuclear excavation program in Kazakhstan are really interesting, but feel free to skim down to the first press question that follows. You’d think preventing nuclear terrorism–the core subject of the …
The Bush-Obama Pre-Emption Doctrine
Writing at CNN.com, former CIA Director Michael Hayden, an adviser to Mitt Romney, makes a provocative point. If Barack Obama’s threat of military action to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon is serious, doesn’t that amount to a policy of… pre-emption?
GOP Candidates Forget That Iran Is Not the Only Nuclear Threat
In their speeches to AIPAC today, the Republican presidential candidates made clear that they consider an Iranian nuclear weapon a nightmare that must be stopped at all costs. Yet however potentially dangerous Iran may be, there’s something askew about the emphasis on its nuclear program to the near-exclusion of the many other nuclear …
Crunch Time for Defense Authorization and Military Detention
The Senate and House conferees on the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act issued their compromise version of the bill late Monday night. That means it’s crunch time for the controversial law and its provision requiring the military detention of terrorism suspects. The White House and liberal Senate Democrats are battling a coalition …
Why Obama Is Threatening to Veto a Defense Bill Over Detention Policy
The White House is threatening to veto a long-awaited defense funding bill over a perennial policy dispute: whether the President can prosecute terrorists in civilian courts, or must transfer them to military custody. The battle has raged since the very first day of Barack Obama’s presidency, but this time Obama’s opponent is not the …
Will the Underwear Bomber’s Plea Unblock the Gitmo Trial Logjam?
Last week Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty in a Michigan court to conspiring to blow up Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas Day 2009 using a bomb sewn into his underpants.
The plea, which came on …
What the Alleged Iran Assassination Plot Means for 2012
Confronted with a President who has killed Osama bin Laden and an almost comically long list of his deputies and associates–being al Qaeda’s military commander is like being the Spinal Tap drummer–the Republican presidential …
Iran’s Alleged Assassination Plot and Its Political Fallout
The Justice Department on Tuesday unsealed a complaint against two Iranians alleging a state-sponsored terrorist plot by members of Iran’s Quds Force against the Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir. The complaint alleges that Manssor Arbabsiar, a U.S.-Iranian dual citizen, and his al Quds handler, Gholam Shakuri, …
Was Killing American al Qaeda Cleric Anwar al-Awlaki Legal?
The killing of al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki is another big counter-terrorism triumph for a President once derided for “palling around with terrorists.” Even by the time SEAL Team Six dispatched Osama bin Laden, the notion …
al Qaeda’s al-Awlaki Reportedly Killed in Yemen
The top English-speaking member of al Qaeda — New Mexican-born Anwar al-Awlaki — was killed Friday, the Yemen government announced, a death quickly confirmed by U.S. officials. It’s yet another key indication that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s recent claim that the defeat of al Qaeda is “within reach” may be getting closer.
Ten Years After 9/11, the Politics of Terrorism Have Quieted
Residents of New York and Washington are fretting over reports that al-Qaeda may want to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, in its own deranged fashion. But our political system remains calm. And it’s worth …
