National Security Online Resource Center

Thomas Sowell, an economics professor and syndicated columnist, has a distinct ability to discuss complex ideas using very clear and concise language. This is a skill that many columnists and most professors lack.

In this column, he rightfully denounces the UK’s decision to release the Lockerbie Bomber, citing it as one of many examples of how the West has become more tolerant toward Islamic extremism. He also objects to the notion that the Geneva Convention covers enemy combatants, and notes that Attorney General Eric Holder’s investigation of the CIA will prevent it from protecting the US from Islamist terrorism.

A Washington Post article suggests that enhanced interrogation techniques caused 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed to divulge useful information regarding al-Qaeda. However, Mohammed claims the information he provided was false, and groups such as Amnesty International continue to denounce the interrogation techniques regardless of their outcome.

It’s been a pretty hectic week around here, but here are a couple quick stories of interest some of you might have missed:

1) The Obama administration has raised a firestorm of controversy with their recent implication that some lawyers who wrote memoranda authorizing enhanced interrogation techniques could be prosecuted for their work.  This has returned a core part of the debate on torture to the forefront: does torture actually work?  A recent confirmation from the CIA says… well, actually, yes it does.  The CIA  has reportedly confirmed that enhanced interrogations of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (including waterboarding) did in fact help foil an apparent plot to attack the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles. 

2) The Pentagon is once again facing very real concerns that security breaches by hackers could materially compromise US combat effectiveness.  Theft of technical data, whether via cyber-attack or old-fashioned espionage, isn’t new and some US adversaries (notably China, the likely perpetrator here) are exceptionally proficient at it.  What is new is an enemy breaching USAF air-traffic control systems and discovering the locations of US military aircraft.  In war, the entire point of military intelligence is to determine the dispositions and movements of enemy forces.  The possibility of a potential enemy uncovering such information over the Internet, with comparative ease, is more than a bit alarming.