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April 2018

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

U.S., France and Britain Craft Broad Plans for Strike on Syria Trump confers with May and Macron; Mattis warns a mistake could broaden the conflict to Russia and IranBy Dion Nissenbaum and Gordon Lubold

By on April 13th, 2018

WASHINGTON—Britain, France and the U.S. united Thursday around broad plans for a military strike against Syria as they worked to bridge differences over the scope and purpose of a coordinated response to a suspected chemical weapons attack, U.S. officials said.

President Donald Trump met with his national security team on Thursday to weigh military options while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sought to limit the impact of an expected attack by moving warplanes under the protection of Russian air defenses.

While officials in all three countries said there now is definitive proof that Syria used chemical weapons last weekend to kill dozens of civilians, they had yet to finalize plans for a strike as the Pentagon warned about the risks of miscalculation.

Momentum had been building for a unified reprisal, especially after Mr. Trump suggested Wednesday on Twitter that a cruise missile strike was looming.

But Defense Secretary Jim Mattis injected a public note of caution into the discussion Thursday, suggesting that the U.S. and its allies had to carefully calibrate any strike to ensure that it didn’t trigger a broader conflict with Syria’s two biggest backers, Russia and Iran.

“We are trying to stop the murder of innocent people, but, on a strategic level, it’s how do we keep this from escalating out of control, if you get my drift on that,” he told U.S. lawmakers. CONTINUE AT SITE

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EDUCATION Comments turned off

The Women’s March Holds a One-Way ‘Discussion’ When its leaders came to my campus, photos and recording were barred, and questions were screened. By Kassy Dillon

By on April 13th, 2018

I’m a student at Mount Holyoke College, a women’s liberal-arts school, which last weekend hosted the 2018 Women of Color Trailblazers Leadership Conference. Keynote speakers included National Women’s March founders Tamika Mallory, Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour.

As president of the Mount Holyoke College Republicans, I was looking forward to this event, billed as a “discussion.” I was excited to engage the ideas presented by these far-left figures and cover the event on my online publication, Lone Conservative.

But outside the conference venue, I was greeted by signs prohibiting photography and recording. Audience members weren’t permitted to ask questions directly to the speakers. Instead, we had to write them on note cards, and only preapproved questions would be answered during the 15 minutes dedicated to Q&A. Some discussion.

As I walked in, I could feel my peers glaring at me—a familiar enough experience for an outspoken Republican on a campus full of leftist women. But I was surprised that only about 75 people showed up, in a room that can hold up to a thousand.

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HOMELAND SECURITY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Terror Plot? There’s an App for That Encrypted messaging systems pose a real threat, and Western leaders need to engage their creators. By Steven Stalinsky

By on April 13th, 2018

Right now Islamic State and its followers around the world are using mobile devices to choose targets, discuss methods and timing, and even raise funds. With the aid of encrypted messaging apps—most of which are developed by Western companies—these terrorists can communicate fully out of sight of intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. The murders of countless innocent people have been planned this way, and most Western leaders seem unsure about how to stop it.

Counterterrorism officials are overwhelmed by the sheer number of potential terrorists using these apps on mobile devices. They are further handicapped by their inability to access the encrypted information, which could help them stop attacks. In a January speech at the International Conference on Cyber Security, FBI Director Christopher Wray called the threat from terrorist use of encrypted apps “an urgent public safety issue.” He revealed that, as part of lawful investigations, the FBI had tried and failed to access encrypted information on nearly 8,000 devices in 2017. Appealing to the technology sector for help, Mr. Wray said: “I’m open to all kinds of ideas, because I reject this notion that there could be such a place that no matter what kind of lawful authority you have, it’s utterly beyond reach to protect innocent citizens.”

In response, Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) wrote a highly critical letter. He called Mr. Wray’s speech “ill-informed” and damaging to America’s security, economy and freedom: “Building secure software is extremely difficult . . . and introducing vulnerabilities would likely create catastrophic unintended consequences that could debilitate software functionality and security entirely.”

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