The Political Conundrum!

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EXPAND FOCUS FROM COUNTERTERRORISM TO COUNTERRADICALIZATION,
TASK FORCE URGES

"As the U.S. government has come slowly to the realization that military force alone cannot defeat radical Islamist extremism, a precise strategy to effectively counter this extremism and empower mainstream alternatives has proved challenging."

A strong investment in counterradicalization -- with special focus on helping mainstream Muslims provide hopeful and practical alternatives to jihadist ideology -- should be a critical element of the Obama administration's counterterrorism strategy, a high-level Washington Institute task force urged today.

Rewriting the Narrative: An Integrated Strategy for Counterradicalization is the final report of the Task Force on Confronting the Ideology of Radical Extremism, a bipartisan, blue-ribbon commission of diplomats, legislators, strategists, scholars, and experts. A joint project of two Institute programs -- Project FIKRA and the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence -- the task force has been meeting since June 2008 to devise a comprehensive strategy to counter the growing radicalization of Muslim populations, particularly youth, worldwide.

The report provides analysis and recommendations on a spectrum of discrete policy issues -- democracy promotion, political reform, public diplomacy, strategic communications, and counterradicalization -- offering an integrated approach to staunching the spread of Islamist extremism. The extensive recommendations suggest an array of policy instruments, from creating a Counterradicalization Forum that draws on "best practices" of friends and partners in Europe and the Middle East, to infusing with renewed mission, urgency, and creativity U.S. international broadcasting to Arab and Muslim societies.

Rewriting the Narrative is endorsed by a distinguished group of policy practitioners: members of Congress Jane Harman (D-CA); Sue Myrick (R-NC), and Adam Smith (D-WA); former 9/11 commissioner Timothy J. Roemer; former U.S. ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg; former deputy assistant to the president for homeland security Frank J. Cilluffo; the presidents of the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute Kenneth Wollack and Lorne W. Craner, respectively; prominent scholars Bruce Hoffman and Mohammed M. Hafez; former Kennedy School dean and Clinton administration official Joseph S. Nye, Jr.; former Bush administration officials Randa Fahmy Hudome and M. C. Andrews; president of the Henry L. Stimson Center Ellen Laipson; Freedom House executive director Jennifer Windsor; Hudson Institute vice president S. Enders Wimbush; president of the Progressive Policy Institute Will Marshall; Johns Hopkins SAIS adjunct professor Joshua Muravchik; and Washington Institute executive director Robert Satloff.

J. Scott Carpenter, Michael Jacobson, and Matthew Levitt of The Washington Institute convened the task force.

A free PDF version of the full report is available here.

President Barack Obama presented a three-phase plan to end the war in Iraq to a packed room of Marines and invited guests gathered in the Goettge Memorial Field House at Camp Lejeune today. His plan focused on ending combat in Iraq, removing all combat brigades and following combat operations with diplomacy.

A new site has been created called the Center for Military Readiness has been created. According to the About page on the site;

The Center for Military Readiness is an independent, non-partisan 501(c)(3) educational organization formed to take a leadership role in promoting sound military personnel policies in the armed forces. CMR is a unique alliance of civilian, active duty and retired military people in all 50 states, and is the only organization that concentrates on military personnel issues full-time.

The Center for Military Readiness endorses the following principles:

* The purpose of the military is to deter aggression or, if necessary, fight and win our nation’s wars with as few casualties as possible.
* Equal opportunity is an important consideration in the making of personnel policies, but if there is a conflict between career considerations and military necessity, the needs of the military — and the nation — must come first.
* The armed forces should not be used for political purposes or social experiments that needlessly elevate risks, detract from readiness, or degrade American cultural values.
* Sound personnel policies are as crucial as advanced weapons systems in preserving readiness and a strong national defense.
* Decisions to deploy troops must be made not by international authorities, but by the Congress of the United States and public officials who are accountable to the American people.
* Essential elements of military culture, such as discipline, efficiency, and high standards in training, must not be compromised or degraded in order to advance sociological goals at the expense of readiness.

You can check out the site at http://cmrlink.org/

Through careful study of terrorist incidents and investigations and study of the histories of the terrorist groups, U.S. law enforcement officers, security officials, and intelligence analysts have developed an understanding of the tactics, techniques and procedures used by terrorists preparing for and conducting attacks. Professionals can usually distinguish between a truly suspicious incident and benign behavior. However, there is a third category of non-violent activities that is more difficult to identify, which we will refer to as "acts of staged controversy."

There are some cases where witnesses describe actors' behavior as "odd" yet very overt—behavior apparently designed to attract attention. Viewed under differing prisms, the behavior could be classified as either benign or as some type of terrorist activity. Decision makers and practitioners should consider the possibility that certain incidents are staged or that they are escalated by manipulation of the media and the legal system to create controversy and to provoke a response to serve strategic purposes.

It is very difficult to prove ulterior intentions behind what we are referring to as "acts of staged controversy." Perhaps these acts are deliberately provocative. Or, it is possible these are innocent events that may be seized upon by advocacy groups for political gain. We present this hypothesis to provide an alternative way of analyzing these types of incidents.

Full article available on the Investigative Project on Terrorism web site.

Sorry for the late notice, but I am about to be interviewed on SkyNews in approx. 30 min. We will be talking about the surge in Afghanistan.

You can check out their site at http://news.sky.com/skynews

I think you can watch live at http://news.sky.com/skynews/Sky-Live-TV ( but I am not 100% sure).

Anecdotes, news reports and even the many times "24" agent Jack Bauer has saved the country on TV aren't enough to convince the Senate Intelligence Committee that the CIA's harsh interrogation methods actually work.

The military now says enemy fire caused two U.S. Army helicopters to collide in Iraq last month, killing four American pilots.

Federal authorities are on track to launch a multi-billion dollar student aid program for military veterans this summer, the official overseeing the effort told lawmakers Thursday.

Jonathan Laureles transferred to the Washington National Guard in 2003 to experience battlefield medicine. He's still in Iraq five years later.