A New Counterterrorism Agenda for the New Congress
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 | 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
-
-
Email Event
-
-
Video
About This Event
Online registration for this event is closed. Walk-in registrations may be accepted.
Video of this event will be livestreamed online at http://www.american.com/watch/aei-livestream
In the past two years, America has narrowly averted two terrorist attacks by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and it faces
Listen to Audio
play pause
Download Audio as MP3 a growing threat from al Qaeda's affiliate in East Africa. Yet we still know little about these terror networks or their plans for the American homeland. The United States has increased the use of unmanned drones to target terrorist leaders, but the country lacks a coherent detention and interrogation policy. And the Obama administration's approach to trying terrorists in civilian courts has been set back by the acquittal of East Africa embassy bomber Ahmed Ghailani on 284 of 285 counts. What changes to US counterterrorism policy should the new Congress pursue? Speakers will provide an overview on the state of the war on terror and discuss new directions for military and intelligence policy in the battle against al Qaeda.
Video of this event will be livestreamed online at http://www.american.com/watch/aei-livestream
In the past two years, America has narrowly averted two terrorist attacks by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and it faces
Listen to Audioplay pause
Download Audio as MP3 a growing threat from al Qaeda's affiliate in East Africa. Yet we still know little about these terror networks or their plans for the American homeland. The United States has increased the use of unmanned drones to target terrorist leaders, but the country lacks a coherent detention and interrogation policy. And the Obama administration's approach to trying terrorists in civilian courts has been set back by the acquittal of East Africa embassy bomber Ahmed Ghailani on 284 of 285 counts. What changes to US counterterrorism policy should the new Congress pursue? Speakers will provide an overview on the state of the war on terror and discuss new directions for military and intelligence policy in the battle against al Qaeda.
Agenda
10:15 a.m.
Registration
10:30
Panelists:
GENERAL MICHAEL HAYDEN, Former Director of the CIA and National Security Agency
CAPTAIN GLENN SULMASY, US Coast Guard Academy
MARC A. THIESSEN, AEI
Moderator:
JOHN YOO, AEI
Question and Answer
12:00 p.m.
Adjournment
Registration
10:30
Panelists:
GENERAL MICHAEL HAYDEN, Former Director of the CIA and National Security Agency
CAPTAIN GLENN SULMASY, US Coast Guard Academy
MARC A. THIESSEN, AEI
Moderator:
JOHN YOO, AEI
Question and Answer
12:00 p.m.
Adjournment
Event Contact Information
Katherine Zimmerman
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-828-6023
E-mail: katherine.zimmerman@aei.org
Media Contact Information
Veronique Rodman
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-862-4870
E-mail: VRodman@aei.org
Event Summary
WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 23, 2011--Interrogation provides valuable intelligence that protects the United States from terrorist attacks, panelists agreed Wednesday at an American Enterprise Institute event. General Michael Hayden emphasized that the war on terror is intelligence-driven and that the United States' current policy makes it too risky and politically difficult to capture, rather than kill, an individual. Captain Glenn Sulmasy examined whether the detainee dilemma is a law enforcement issue or an armed conflict. He concluded that because it is a hybrid conflict, a new, hybrid military-civilian court system would best serve justice to those detained. AEI's Marc Thiessen noted that there is a dearth of new intelligence on al Qaeda because high-value al Qaeda leaders are not being captured and interrogated. Congress should revise US military and intelligence policy that inhibits the interrogation of detainees, recognizing the importance of interrogation to the fight against al Qaeda.
--KATHERINE ZIMMERMAN
Speaker Biographies
General Michael Hayden is a principal at the Chertoff Group. He was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency between 2006 and 2009. Before that, General Hayden served as the country’s first principal deputy director of national intelligence and was the highest-ranking intelligence officer in the armed forces. He also served as commander of the Air Intelligence Agency, director of the Joint Command and Control Warfare Center, director of the National Security Agency, and chief of the Central Security Service.
Captain Glenn Sulmasy is a professor of law and the chair of the humanities department at the US Coast Guard Academy. He has been on the faculty of the US Coast Guard Academy since July 2001. He has also served on the faculty of the International Law Department at the US Naval War College and has been an adjunct faculty member at the Roger Williams University School of Law. Captain Sulmasy publishes and lectures widely on the law of armed conflict, international law, and national security matters. He provides media commentary on national security matters to numerous outlets, including National Public Radio, the Associated Press, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of The National Security Court System: A Natural Evolution of Justice in an Age of Terror (Oxford University Press, 2009) and coeditor of International Law Challenges: Homeland Security and Combating Terrorism (Naval War College, 2006).
Marc Thiessen is a visiting fellow at AEI. A member of the White House senior staff under President George W. Bush, Mr. Thiessen served as chief speechwriter to the president and to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Before joining the Bush administration, Mr. Thiessen spent more than six years as spokesman and senior policy adviser to Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms (R-NC). His book on the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation program, Courting Disaster (Regnery Press, 2010), is a New York Times bestseller. At AEI, Mr. Thiessen writes about US foreign and defense policy issues for American.com and the Enterprise Blog. He is a weekly columnist for the Washington Post, and his articles can be found in many major publications.
John Yoo is a visiting scholar at AEI. Mr. Yoo has been a professor of law at the University of California–Berkeley School of Law since 1993. From 2001 to 2003, he served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of the Legal Counsel of the US Department of Justice, where he worked on issues involving foreign affairs, national security, and the separation of powers. He was also general counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 1996. He is the author of Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George W. Bush (Kaplan Publishing, 2010), War by Other Means: An Insider’s Account of the War on Terror (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006), and The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11 (University of Chicago Press, 2005).
Captain Glenn Sulmasy is a professor of law and the chair of the humanities department at the US Coast Guard Academy. He has been on the faculty of the US Coast Guard Academy since July 2001. He has also served on the faculty of the International Law Department at the US Naval War College and has been an adjunct faculty member at the Roger Williams University School of Law. Captain Sulmasy publishes and lectures widely on the law of armed conflict, international law, and national security matters. He provides media commentary on national security matters to numerous outlets, including National Public Radio, the Associated Press, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of The National Security Court System: A Natural Evolution of Justice in an Age of Terror (Oxford University Press, 2009) and coeditor of International Law Challenges: Homeland Security and Combating Terrorism (Naval War College, 2006).
Marc Thiessen is a visiting fellow at AEI. A member of the White House senior staff under President George W. Bush, Mr. Thiessen served as chief speechwriter to the president and to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Before joining the Bush administration, Mr. Thiessen spent more than six years as spokesman and senior policy adviser to Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms (R-NC). His book on the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation program, Courting Disaster (Regnery Press, 2010), is a New York Times bestseller. At AEI, Mr. Thiessen writes about US foreign and defense policy issues for American.com and the Enterprise Blog. He is a weekly columnist for the Washington Post, and his articles can be found in many major publications.
John Yoo is a visiting scholar at AEI. Mr. Yoo has been a professor of law at the University of California–Berkeley School of Law since 1993. From 2001 to 2003, he served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of the Legal Counsel of the US Department of Justice, where he worked on issues involving foreign affairs, national security, and the separation of powers. He was also general counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 1996. He is the author of Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George W. Bush (Kaplan Publishing, 2010), War by Other Means: An Insider’s Account of the War on Terror (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006), and The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11 (University of Chicago Press, 2005).
