al-Qa'ida's Foreign Fighters in Iraq

The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point has released its second report about al-Qa'ida's foreign fighters in Iraq. Entitled Bombers, Bank Accounts, and Bleedout: al-Qa`ida's Road in and Out of Iraq, the report expands on the analysis contained in the first report and introduces "a host of new data" about suicide bombers, fighters, funding sources and expenditures, and ties to other groups.

Major new findings summarized by Professor Sawyer of West Point (GovDoc-L 28 Jul 2008) include:

Foreign Fighters were an important source of funds for AQI; Saudi Fighters contributed far more money than any other nationality.

Far more Syrians and Egyptians are held at Camp Bucca than were listed in the Sinjar Records, which likely reflects the demographic shift away from those nationalities.

Approximately 75% of suicide bombings in Iraq between August 2006 and August 2007 can be attributed to fighters listed in the Sinjar Records.

"Bleedout" of fighters from Iraq is occurring, but in relatively small numbers. Nonetheless, these individual fighters will likely be well-trained and very dangerous. The primary threat from these fighters is to Arab states, Af-Pak, and perhaps Somalia.

Smuggling of all kinds across the Syrian/Iraqi border has long been linked to corruption in both Syria and Iraq, which limits both government's ability to crackdown.

Fighters that contributed money to AQI were more likely to become suicide bombers.

Nuclear Threat to Electronic Communications Sytems

The Commission to Assess the Threat to United States from
Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack has released its latest report entitled Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack: Critical National Infrastructure. According to the report:

The electromagnetic pulse generated by a high altitude nuclear explosion is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences. The increasingly pervasive use of electronics of all forms represents the greatest source of vulnerability to attack by EMP. Electronics are used to control, communicate, compute, store, manage, and implement nearly every aspect of United States (U.S.) civilian systems. When a nuclear explosion occurs at high altitude, the EMP signal it produces will cover the wide geographic region within the line of sight of the detonation.¹ This broad band, high amplitude EMP, when coupled into sensitive electronics, has the capability to produce widespread and long lasting disruption and damage to the critical infrastructures that underpin the fabric of U.S. society.

Minimum Wage Increase

According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 2007, the minimum wage increases to $6.55 an hour effective today, July 24, 2008. On July 24, 2009, the minimum wage will rise to $7.25 an hour, the third and final increase dictated by FLSA.

For more information, see Compliance Assistance - Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Social Security Estimator

The Social Security Administration released a new easier online calculator on July 21, 2008. According to the news release, the Retirement Estimator is tied to a person's Social Security record, thus eliminating the need to type earnings information from past years. A person can print up to three different scenarios at a time to see what payments would be for retiring, for example, at age 62, full retirement age, or age 70. The system is secure since it only provides retirement benefit estimates while not revealing earnings records or personal information.

The calculator works best for those approaching retirement since it requires predicting future earnings which is harder to do for younger workers who are a long way from retirement. However, it does give younger workers valuable information to help in planning and saving for eventual retirement.

The Social Security Administration is also planning to introduce another time-saving feature in the fall, a new online application form that will reduce filing time from 45 minutes to about 15 minutes.

According to a July 10, 2008 press release, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs held a seventh hearing on Islamist radicalization and homegrown terrorism. Witnesses including Maajid Nawaz, a former leader of the United Kingdom's Hizb uut-Tahrir now working as a counterterrorist, "outlined steps that should be taken to identify, isolate and ultimately eliminate the threat of homegrown terrorism and the ideology that supports it." Committee Chairman, Joe Liberman, said, "We must better understand the roots of Islamist ideology so we can better guide our international, national and local efforts to counter its spread under its many different names, whether it is Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hizb ut-Tharir, the Muslim Brotherhood, or other splinter groups that promote the ideology."

The House also addressed this topic in its Rept. 110-384 Pt. 1, Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (Oct. 16, 2007). One of the nine points made in the report addresses who might be a terrorist: "Individuals prone to violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence span all races, ethnicities, and religious beliefs, and individuals should not be targeted based solely on race, ethnicity, or religion."

The act recommends establishing a National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Ideologically Based Violence. First among the Commission's charges is to "Examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States, including United States connections to non-United States persons and networks, violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in prison, individual or `lone wolf' violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence, and other faces of the phenomena of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence that the Commission considers important." View the latest status on the progress of the act through Congress.

National War Powers Commission Report

The National War Powers Commission co-chaired by former Secretaries of State James A. Baker, III and Warren Christopher recommended in a report released on July 8, 2008 that Congress repeal the War Powers Resolution of 1973 "and substitute a new statute that would provide for more meaningful consultation between the president and Congress on matters of war."

Two Iraq Reports Now Available

The Rand Corporation just released a report analyzing the planning and execution of combat and stability operations in Iraq. Conducted for the U.S. Army, the report begins with prewar planning, revealing that while many government agencies and organizations "identified a range of potential postwar challenges and suggested strategies for addressing them" before the invasion of Iraq, two sets of assumptions by officials in the highest levels of government undermined those suggestions: 1. many senior government policymakers were optimistic about "conditions that would emerge after major combat concluded" and overrode counterarguments, and 2. senior military commanders thought that civilians would be responsible for the postwar period. The report also looks at the role of U.S. military forces after initial combat ended on May 1, 2003 through June 2004, and civilian reconstruction efforts. Both the June 30, 2008 press release and the report entitled After Saddam: Postwar Planning and the Occupation of Iraq are available online. (The report is also available in paper.) This report is one of an eight-volume set analyzing combat and stability planning and execution in Iraq. Six of the volumes are classified; a seventh volume, in process, will be unclassified.

The conduct of the war in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein is the subject of another report just released by the Combat Studies Institute Press at Fort Leavenworth. Entitled The United States Army in Operation Iraqi Freedom, May 2003-January 2005: On Point II: Transition to the New Campaign, the report "examines both the high-level decisions that shaped military operations after May 2003 as well as the effects of those decisions on units and Soldiers who became responsible for conducting those operations." A print copy is also available from the Government Printing Office. A review of the report is available from History News.