Scheuer: Only Osama Can Save Us
Imperial Hubris and Through Our Enemies' Eyes author Michael Scheuer, a former senior CIA official, tells Glenn Beck that the America's only hope is for Osama bin Laden to detonate "a major weapon" here to get a "grass roots movement" going. Words fail me.Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 1, 2009 15:23
Preventative Detention
Hilzoy pronounces herself "happy as a clam" with President Obama's speech yesterday on national security issues, with one glaring exception: But even when this process is complete, there may be a number of people who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, in some cases because evidence may be tainted, but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of the United ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 22, 2009 08:20
California Arrests al Qaeda Suspect Ahmadullah Sais Niazi
Rusty Shackleford is hot on the trail of an Afghani arrested in California for lying about his lack of association with terrorists. The indictment, unsealed this morning, alleges [34 year old Ahmadullah Sais] Niazi hid associations with "Specially Designated Global Terrorists," groups including Al Qaeda, Hizb-i-Islami and the Taliban, when he completed nationalization papers five years ago. During one visit, the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 20, 2009 16:55
Osama bin Laden Found by Geographers
A team of UCLA geographers have found Osama bin Laden. They've published an article in the MIT International Review scientifically narrowing his locations to one of three houses in North West Pakistan! Amazingly, this was not the journal's cover story.Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 18, 2009 13:17
Obama’s Afghanistan Plan
[caption id="attachment_27340" align="alignright" width="300" caption="German Bundeswehr army soldiers of the ISAF monitor a valley during a mission near Kunduz, Afghanistan on September 26, 2008. (REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch)"][/caption] Over at New Atlanticist, I discuss "Obama's Afghanistan Plan," noting that actually achieving results will prove far more difficult than criticizing the Bush administration. My main criticism is of his continued harping on catching Osama bin Laden: [I]t ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 11, 2008 08:04
Obama Wins DC
OTB projects that Obama has won the District of Columbia's 3 Electoral Votes. Osama bin Laden could run as a Democrat and win in DC, so it's not exactly news.Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 4, 2008 20:12
Hamdan’s Light Sentence
Salim Hamdan, the former driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden convicted by a U.S. military tribunal Wednesday, could be released from prison before President Bush leaves office. The U.S. military jury sentenced the Yemeni prisoner Thursday to just 5 1/2 years in prison, including five years and a month already served at Guantanamo Bay. U.S. authorities insist they could still ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 8, 2008 07:48
Hamdan and Military Tribunals
The most outrageous headline I've seen in quite some time, at least from a legitimate media outlet, is the one that accompanies this morning's NYT editorial on yesterday's verdict in the Hamdan case: "Guilty as Ordered." Now that was a real nail-biter. The court designed by the White House and its Congressional enablers to guarantee convictions of high-profile detainees in Guantánamo ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 7, 2008 10:52
Ayman al-Zawahiri Killed in Predator Strike?
Al Qaeda number 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri was severely wounded in a US predator strike earlier this week, CBS is reporting. Ayman al-Zawahiri - the second most powerful leader in al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden's No. 2 - may be critically wounded and possibly dead, CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan reports exclusively. CBS News has obtained a copy of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 2, 2008 06:17
Back to Batman Foreign Policy
Two things to follow up on my post on The Dark Knight and foreign/security policy. First, in thinking more about the movie, I will say that there are two scenes/actions by Batman that could be seen to mirror part of the GWoT debate (and I will be vague so as not to spoil anything). There is an interrogation scene and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 28, 2008 15:30
Comic Book Foreign Policy (or the Batman Theory of Foreign Policy)
Readers may be familiar with the Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics (short version: the US can do whatever it wants if it just has even willpower). Now, it appears we can add another member of the Justice League to our understanding of foreign policy. On Friday, author Andrew Klavan had a piece in the WSJ comparing Batman ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 27, 2008 17:47
McCain: Obama Wants to Lose War
John McCain trotted out a new sound byte yesterday: This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign. Here's the video, which provides ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 23, 2008 07:49
Biden: ‘Bad Guys’ Live in Afghanistan
Dean Barnett wins my Head Scratcher of the Day award for this: If we had a “Most Offensive Quote of the Day” every day, Joe Biden would probably come to own the prize. But even by the senator’s lofty standards of chronic obtuseness, he outdid himself this afternoon: “If John (McCain) wants to know where the bad guys live, come back ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 16, 2008 07:51
New Yorker Obama Terrorist Cover
The liberal blogs are in a tizzy about the cover of the July 21 New Yorker, an illustration by Barry Blitt which shows the Obamas in terrorist outfits, doing a fist bump with a big portrait of Osama bin Laden over their mantle with an American flag burning in the fireplace: Given that this is the liberal New Yorker and that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 14, 2008 07:18
Supreme Court: Gitmo Detainees Have Habeus Rights
Terrorist suspects detained at Guantánamo Bay (and presumably, anyplace else under American jurisdiction) have the right to file habeus corpus petitions in U.S. civilian courts the Supreme Court ruled today in a 5-4 decision. Further, Congress could not pass a law waiving these protections absent rebellion or invasion. Justices Rule Terror Suspects Can Appeal in Civilian Courts (David Stout, NYT) “The ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 12, 2008 12:32
