John Brennan’s Counterterrorism Vision vs. American Muslim Reality

John Brennan, President Obama’s chief counterterrorism, intelligence and homeland security adviser, is probably the foremost advocate of the proposition that domestic counterterrorism efforts will fail if they don’t treat American Muslims as partners. That attitude informed the National Security Strategy’s pledge to “clearly communicate our policies and intentions, listening More…

Obama Administration Looks for ‘Root Causes’ of Terrorism

Speaking at the Center for a New American Security’s annual Washington policy conference, Michele Flournoy, the undersecretary of defense for policy (and CNAS co-founder), made some news: The Obama administration is taking a new look at just why it is that the U.S. faces a challenge from terrorism.

“We are More…

The Real Intelligence Chief Is John Brennan

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New Study Suggests Drone Strikes Don’t Kill as Many Pakistani Civilians as Claimed

It’s the most controversial counterterrorism program there is. The CIA’s remotely piloted aircraft, operating with the tacit consent of the Pakistani government, fire missiles at suspected militants in the Pakistani tribal areas where U.S. ground troops are prohibited from operating and where the Pakistani military is often hesitant to tread. More…

Treating American Muslims Like Citizens vs. Treating Them Like Threats

If ever you want a distillation of the differences between Obama’s conception of how to handle the emerging problem of domestic extremism and how his right-wing critics view it, check out the National Security Strategy’s take on what intelligent domestic counterterrorism looks like:

Several recent incidences of violent extremists in

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Brennan: U.S. Faces a ‘New Phase’ of Terrorism

“We will destroy al-Qaeda.”

That’s how John Brennan capped his presentation Wednesday morning on counterterrorism’s role in the forthcoming National Security Strategy, and the often intense White House senior counterterrorism adviser smiled a bit as he said it. His exploration of the administration’s pathway for getting there was mostly familiar. More…

White House to Unveil ‘Grand Strategy’ on National Security

John Brennan has a tough rhetorical job ahead of him Wednesday morning. Speaking to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Brennan, President Obama’s most influential terrorism and intelligence adviser, will attempt to reconcile the harder edges of Obama’s escalation in Afghanistan and his enthusiastic embrace of drone-enabled assassinations of More…

Post’s Stein Thinks National Counterterrorism Center Director Should Resign

I didn’t get a substantive response from the National Counterterrorism Center or its director, Michael Leiter, to yesterday’s Senate report singling it out for failure in the Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab case. Instead, I got pointed to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair’s Wheatena-flavored reply. That might reflect the More…

Intel Report: al-Qaeda in Yemen Determined to Strike in U.S.

Mark Hosenball gets a hold of a report from a northern California-based “fusion center” of federal, state and local homeland security and law enforcement organizations. Looking at al-Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate, which provided the training for failed Christmas bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the fusion center views the threat from More…

Will Obama Really Give Up on KSM Trial Without a Fight?

The Washington Post is pretty sure that Obama’s advisers are congealing around abandoning Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court. Apparently President Obama has yet to make a decision. If he goes back to the military commissions for KSM and the other 9/11 conspirators — military charges More…