Congress is holding hearings today about the September terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya that claimed the lives of four Americans. Heritage Foundation experts have identified several questions that remain unanswered and how to anticipate and mitigate similar threats in the future.
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In the wake of this week’s tragic attacks, including the Boston bombing and the ricin-laced letters sent to , policymakers need to refocus on effective homeland security solutions.
The first purpose of federal government is to protect its citizens. For this reason, The Heritage Foundation has long been focused on developing homeland security policies that keep the U.S. safe and prosperous, as seen in the following reports.
Eight Heritage reports summarized on Heritage.org can serve as a guide to future reforms: Continue Reading »
Heritage Foundation experts have been hitting the airwaves to provide insights into the tragedy in Boston and the ongoing investigation into Monday’s bombing.
A full list of media appearances is below.
For Heritage’s take on the attacks, please read today’s Morning Bell. Continue Reading »
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“America is at its best when it faces adversity with courage, confidence, and determination,” Heritage Foundation homeland security expert James Carafano writes in today’s Morning Bell.
He continues:
A security professional knows what to do first: Take care of the injured, protect the responders and bystanders who are racing to the scene to help (who can often be the target of follow-on attacks), and preserve the evidence available at the scene. Those efforts appear well underway. We should be proud of the responders and the citizens of Boston.
Our assessments and speculation on what to do next should not outpace what we know. Even very authoritative-sounding reports issued from the scene or shared by on-scene reporters or witnesses may turn out to be inaccurate. That has already proven the case in Boston with conflicting reports on the number of explosions, claims of suspects in custody, and statements about unexploded devices being recovered.
In cases such as this, officials often can garner a tremendous amount of evidence from the crime scene in the first 72 hours. In such investigations, you start with the evidence and that leads to suspects, not the other way around.
While we should boost security at future events like this upcoming marathon in Pittsburgh, we should also be aware that no measures are foolproof, Carafano argues. “The best security, if this is confirmed as a coordinated, predetermined act, is to stop the perpetrators before they undertake their attacks.”
More importantly, we should show our love and support for the victims of this cowardly act.
“For now, we should all stand with Boston,” Carafano says. “We should all show the world that today we will get up unafraid, and America will step forward into the day.”
Michael Crabtree/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom
Over the weekend, three terrorists in Britain were convicted of plotting to kills hundreds of people. Their motive? “[R]evenge for everything, another 9/11.” While this plot was thwarted, it is a stark reminder that terrorism remains a very real threat that President Obama needs to address.
Britain is very fortunate her secret service was able to shut down these terrorists before they were able to accomplish their goal. But it’s worrisome that these terrorists were trained for terrorism in Pakistan, Heritage Foundation expert Ted Bromund explains:
Unbeknownst to the police, the plotters travelled to Pakistan in 2009 and stayed for eight months, receiving eight days of terror training. They returned in December 2010 and spent up to three months in the ungoverned area of North Waziristan, where they had another 40 days of training in how to make bombs and poison and use guns.
It’s all too easy for terrorists to take advantage of the ties between Britain and Pakistan, Bromund argues: Continue Reading »
Wednesday’s hearings with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the September Benghazi attacks were disappointing, Heritage Foundation experts maintain. First, the hearings highlighted the administration’s grievous security ineptitude. Second, the administration lacks any sort of plan either to prevent future security failures or to contain North African terrorism.
Congress failed to draw real answers from Clinton. As Heritage expert Morgan Roach notes, ”Rather than provide new insight into the attack, Secretary Clinton simply reiterated what previous Administration witnesses had testified to in previous hearings. ”
In addition to explaining its failures surrounding the Benghazi disaster, the Obama administration needs to explain what happened during last week’s terrorist attack against a gas facility in western Libya, in which three Americans were killed. Continue Reading »
Wednesday’s hearings gave us no new insights into what happened in Benghazi, Heritage Foundation expert Peter Brookes said Wednesday on CNBC’s Kudlow Report
In a segment about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s testimony, Brookes called on the Obama administration to explain what really happened at the consulate, where four Americans died in a terrorist attack.
Over the last five days, Hamas militants in Gaza have fired over 800 rockets at Israel. These rockets have reached the outer limits of the densely populated cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The rockets are believed to have been smuggled into Gaza from Iran, and as The Heritage Foundation’s James Phillips explains, “the increasing range and sophistication of Palestinian rockets has expanded the reach of terrorists, who now can threaten up to half of Israel’s population.”
So far, Israel has successfully intercepted 302 of the rockets fired at the nation through the use of their missile defense system, Iron Dome:
Iron Dome, on which the U.S. has collaborated, has proven its worth and underscored the importance of missile defense in future U.S. military budgets.
While Israel and Hamas engage in military conflict, Iran is believed to be expanding its nuclear program:
A leaked International Atomic Energy Agency report indicates that Iran could soon double the number of centrifuges at its Fordo facility from 700 to 1,400.
In a statement earlier this week, President Obama said Israel has the right to defend its citizens, but cautioned Israel from engaging in a ground assault in Gaza. Phillips explains how this public statement was detrimental to the future of peace in the Middle East:
This public statement will only strengthen Hamas’s determination to continue its rocket terrorism and reap the propaganda benefits from Israeli retaliatory air strikes, because the President’s statement lowers the perceived risks of an Israeli ground intervention. Moreover, it is continued Palestinian terrorism that is the chief barrier to peace, not Israel’s legitimate efforts to protect its own citizens from indiscriminate Palestinian terrorist attacks.
Egypt, Turkey, and the Arab League have heavily criticized Israel and called for a halt of air strikes. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and hopes to pull in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-dominated regime to tilt the balance against Israel. Egypt’s government will seek to have its cake and eat it, too, in the sense that it will use the crisis to denounce Israel, support Hamas, and play to anti-Israeli sentiments at home while trying to mediate a ceasefire behind the scenes that enhances its influence and justifies continued U.S. and Western aid.
If they genuinely wanted to stop the bloodshed, then these leaders should pressure Hamas to stop the bombardment, which triggered the crisis.
The United States needs to show it will stand with its Israeli ally against terrorism, and President Obama should speak to restraining Hamas, not Israel.
Do you think President Obama should show more support for Israel?
Two days before the election, CBS finally decided to post additional segments of a September 12 60 Minutes interview with President Obama. As the Congressional hearings about the Benghazi attacks get underway, these excerpts provide a revealing look into the administration’s thinking. It’s not pretty.
According to the newly released excerpts of the interview, President Obama neglected to label the Benghazi consulate attack as an act or terrorism during the statement he made in the White House’s Rose Garden earlier on September 12.
Heritage Foundation national security expert James Carafano testified today before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the September 11 attacks on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi.
He said investigators need to focus on four key questions:
- What counterterrorism and early warning measures were in place to proactively address security threats?
- What risk assessments were performed and what risk mitigation measures were adopted prior to the attack?
- What contingency planning was undertaken and exercised to respond to armed assaults against U.S. facilities in Benghazi?
- How is the interagency response to the incident organized and managed?