TERRORISM AND COUNTERTERRORISM
May 15, 2013
"Critics Quick to Attack Obama Administration, but its Inquiry into AP Was Justified"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"...[T]he leak wasn't just an inside-the-Beltway jab at political enemies, and the story that resulted wasn't about infighting in the national security staff. The information cut to the heart of how America fights its enemies and the resources it uses to do so. An agent of ours had infiltrated a terrorist cell. He is no longer in the inner circle. The leaker may be to blame. And the investigation that has everyone up in arms was completely justified."
Summer 2013
Belfer Center Newsletter Summer 2013
Newsletter
By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications
The Summer 2013 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features recent and upcoming activities, research, and analysis by members of the Center community on critical global issues. This edition highlights the Belfer Center’s expanding work on complex cybersecurity issues and Middle East challenges, offers reflections on the role of the U.S. in Iraq, and spotlights work being done by the Center and its affiliates on environment and energy issues.
Summer 2013
"From the Director"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
"The Boston Marathon is at the heart of a day rich in meaning for the Boston community...The marathon terror attack of April 15 cut into our community at its most vulnerable. That made the suffering of the victims even more intolerable for all Americans...As the dramatic events unfolded in Boston, I was proud not only of the resilient response of our city, but also of the support the Belfer Center community was able to offer."
Summer 2013
"Q&A with Juliette Kayyem"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
Juliette Kayyem is a Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School who served as Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the first Obama administration and headed homeland security efforts for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Currently a columnist for the Boston Globe and analyst for CNN, Kayyem provided extensive analysis of the situation following the Boston Marathon bombings. We asked for her views on Boston’s response to the attack.
Summer 2013
"Marisa Porges’ Journey from Naval Flight Officer to Counterterror Expert"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
By Wesley Nord
"Belfer Center Fellow Marisa Porges’ career has already spanned the worlds of academia and policymaking, the government and the military. As an undergraduate at Harvard, Porges earned honors with a degree in geophysics and, during senior year, commanded her Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps unit. After graduation, she commissioned as a naval flight officer in the U.S. Navy and managed the weapons systems aboard EA-6B Prowlers, a carrier-based electronic warfare jet.... [now] as a doctoral candidate in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and a research fellow with the Belfer Center’s International Security Program, she now combines scholarship and practice."
May 6, 2013
"Killing without a Script"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"No society as open as ours can promise perfect security. Thus, it makes sense that a strategy that resigns itself to some form of terrorism in our modern age would, naturally, concentrate on making sure that those who do harm us are stupid, disorganized, rushed, and fickle. Their violence is smaller scale and therefore more manageable, made even more so by the efforts of well-trained first responders."
May 2, 2013
"Are Chechen Immigrants a 'Threat'?"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
“There are still many questions left unanswered as America seeks to understand how the Tsarnaev brothers could have inflicted harm on the innocent people of the country that has granted them shelter, food and education.But there is one question that should not be asked at all, and that is whether the horrendous attacks in Boston should prompt the United States and other countries to consider immigrants a security threat just because they belong to a certain ethnic group.”
April 30, 2013
"Boston Bombing Puts Spotlight on Security Services' Failure to Cooperate"
Op-Ed, RIA Novosti
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Was the bombing of the Boston marathon the result of an intelligence failure? There seems to be no clear answer to that question yet. But it does seem to me that had there been a greater degree of trust between the US and Russian secret services, they would have been more willing to share information and act on each other’s warnings, preventing Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from allegedly bombing the Boston marathon's finish line on April 15."
April 29, 2013
"Diluting the Terror Watch Lists"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"...[T]he necessity to remove Cuba from the list is immediate. We need to rationalize these terror lists, whether they designate individuals or countries. The term 'state sponsor of terrorism' means nothing if Cuba is on the list: It simply says we kind of don't like you and will find any reason to make it hurt. An over-inclusive list, as we are seeing in the Boston case, can be as damaging as an under-inclusive one."
April 20, 2013
"Russia, US may face a shared threat"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
As evidence emerges, more is becoming known about Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon attacks, writes Simon Saradzhyan. "They were reportedly devout Muslims who were born into a family of ethnic Chechens, lived in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, and studied in Russia’s North Caucasus, before coming to the United States as children. Over time, the older brother, Tamerlan, became a more radical figure. Whatever his motivation, he was following a similar path to that of some insurgents in the North Caucasus, who once focused on achieving secular independence for their homeland, but went on to become intertwined in international jihadist networks that share a belief that their number one enemy is America."
