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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gunned down while giving speech

Friday, July 8, 2022

Categories: ASCF News Terrorism

Comments: 0

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/former-japanese-prime-minister-shinzo-abe-gunned-down-while-giving-speech/ar-AAZlkNa?cvid=cf2a456ebf144f6d9e3450664258f8ee

© Kyodo News via AP People react after gunshots in Nara, western Japan Friday, July 8, 2022. Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in heart failure after apparently being shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan, NHK public television said Friday.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and killed during a campaign speech in western Japan on Friday, hospital officials said.

Abe, 67, was just minutes into his speech on a street in Nara when he was shot from behind. He was airlifted to Nara Medical University Hospital for emergency treatment, but his heart had already stopped and he had no vital signs. He was later pronounced dead, hospital officials said at a press conference Friday.

Abe sustained two gunshot wounds to the right side of his neck. Doctors tried to stop the bleeding but the bullet had travelled to Abe's heart and they could not resuscitate him. Abe's wife was by his side at the hospital when he died, according to hospital officials.

Nara prefectural police arrested the alleged gunman identified as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami and recovered a weapon described as a handmade shotgun at the scene of the attack on Friday, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, a partner of ABC News.

Citing Japanese defense sources, NHK reported that Yamagami served in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force for three years in the 2000s.

The attack and a motive remains under investigation, but police said the suspect told investigators that he was dissatisfied with the former prime minister and intended to kill him, according to NHK.

Abe was in Nara campaigning for his party's candidates in the upcoming elections for the upper house of Japan's bicameral legislature when he was gunned down. Despite no longer being Japan's prime minister, Abe wheeled great influence on national security and economic policies and is the longest-serving premier in the country's history.

The deadly shooting shocked many in Japan and around the globe. Japan is one of the world's safest countries and has some of the strictest gun control laws.

In an emotional speech from Tokyo on Friday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he was "lost for words" upon learning of Abe's death. He said Abe had led the country "with great leadership" was his "personal friend," someone he has "spent a lot of time with."

"I have great respect for the legacy Shinzo Abe left behind and I pay the deepest condolences to him," Kishida said.

The prime minister called Abe's killing a "heinous act."

"It is barbaric and malicious and it cannot be tolerated," he added. "We will do everything we can, and I would like to use the most extreme words available to condemn this act."

Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel took to Twitter to express his condolences.

"We are all saddened and shocked by the shooting of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo," Emanuel tweeted Friday. "Abe-san has been an outstanding leader of Japan and unwavering ally of the U.S."

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