Each year, The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center hosts the B.C. Lee lecture featuring a prominent guest speaker on international affairs. This year’s guest was Stephen J. Hadley, a former National Security Advisor for President George W. Bush from 2005–2009.
Before his lecture, Hadley sat down to discuss whether the Obama Administration was doing enough to keep America safe and his take on Attorney General Holder’s recent comments about changing Miranda laws. Hadley explained the importance of taking the threat of terrorism seriously, saying “We’ve been lucky with the Christmas Day and now Times Square incidents that did not result in any loss of life because the devices did not work. I hope this has been a wake-up call for the Administration.”
He also cautioned against a law enforcement model of fighting terror:
“After 9/11, the priority for law enforcement really became different—to get the intelligence so that we can disrupt terror incidents before they occur. The law enforcement model says that if you catch people who break the law and put them in jail, that has a deterrent effect. We know the sort of terrorists we are talking about—people who are willing to become suicide bombers—you cannot deter. Your only real option is to protect and disrupt and I think the Administration needs to give a priority to doing everything that we can to get intelligence about potential incidents early and take steps to disrupt [them].”
