American Security Council Foundation (ASCF)

FEATURED NEWS POST

US Special Forces Rescue Hostages in Somalia

By American Security Council Foundation ASCF January 25, 2012 @ 7:46am

A U.S. military operation has freed two aid workers – an American woman and a Danish man – who were kidnapped by gunmen three months ago in central Somalia.

In a statement Wednesday, President Barack Obama praised U.S. special operations forces who hours earlier freed Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted during a daring pre-dawn raid.

Islamist Named Speaker of Egypt House

By American Security Council Foundation ASCF January 25, 2012 @ 7:39am

Egypt’s lower house of parliament convened Monday for the first time since democratic elections ushered in a new crop of lawmakers, many of them representing Islamist parties.

Following his nomination last week, Mohamed Saad el-Katatni, who previously served as Secretary General of the Freedom and Justice party, was voted in as speaker of Egypt's lower house with 399 votes on Monday.

 

Obama’s America: A tired old mare

By American Security Council Foundation ASCF January 25, 2012 @ 7:36am

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama tried to make the case that he has been one of the most successful chief executives in American history when it comes to foreign affairs. “Anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned,” he said, “doesn’t know what they’re talking about.” But it takes more than being briefed on the Osama bin Laden takedown to make a great leader. The vast gulf between Mr. Obama’s promises and his results argues against him.

The Obama foreign-policy team came to town with visions of creating a new and more perfect world. It envisaged a break with the policies of the George W. Bush administration, a resurrection of U.S. prestige and a new age of global cooperation and peace. Mr. Obama hoped his pledges to close the terrorist detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; extend full constitutional protection to foreign terrorists; and end the Bush-era enhanced-interrogation techniques - which he called torture - would signal this clean break and immediately establish his credibility.

State of the Union 2012: Losing the future

By American Security Council Foundation ASCF January 25, 2012 @ 7:34am

In 2011, President Obama pledged to help the United States win the future. Now that the future has arrived, Mr. Obama will have a hard time explaining why we are losing it.

Foreign-policy and national-security affairs occupied about 15 percent of Mr. Obama’s speech last year. He waxed about a world in which “America’s moral example must always shine for all who yearn for freedom and justice and dignity” and in which “American leadership has been renewed and America’s standing has been restored.” Another year of Mr. Obama’s stewardship has not moved the United States measurably closer to the future he described.

NATO: Too Early to Determine Taliban Involvement in French Attack

By American Security Council Foundation ASCF January 24, 2012 @ 8:43am

Officials with the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan say it is too early to tell if the Taliban were behind last week's killing of four French troops by an Afghan soldier.

A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force said Tuesday that past investigations into similar events have found many different reasons for them.