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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.

Mahmoud Abbas Consoles Palestinian Terrorists’ Families: Heroes Who Sacrificed Themselves

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Categories: ASCF News Terrorism

Comments: 0

Source: https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2022/07/26/abbas-consoles-terrorists-families-they-were-heroes-who-sacrificed-themselves/

Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hailed two terrorists who were killed by Israeli troops a few days ago as “heroes,” telling their families in a phone call this week the nation of “Palestine” was in mourning for them.

In a video circulating on social media, Abbas is heard assuring the fathers of Abderahman Jamal Sobah and Mohammed al-Azizi that their sons “will reach heaven together with the other martyrs.”

Sobah and al-Azizi, who recently carried out a string of shooting attacks against Israelis, were killed during a shootout with IDF troops in the West Bank city of Nablus.

“We are all mourning,” Abbas told the fathers. “That is our fate and we can’t escape it. We must make sacrifices for the homeland.”

“May God bless all martyrs.”

The aging Palestinian leader also sent his senior aide and rumored successor, Hussein Al-Sheikh, to pay a condolence visit to the families in person.

The IDF raid in Nablus was targeting a terror cell that had been planning additional attacks, Israeli media reported. One of the cell’s chief masterminds was Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade member Ibrahim Nabalsi, who managed to escape the raid but later attended the funerals of Sobah and al-Azizi. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is the armed wing of Abbas’ ruling Fatah faction.

Abbas and the PA have lost control of many parts of the northern West Bank, Arab affairs analyst Khaled Abu Toameh wrote in The Jerusalem Post.

He writes:

The presence of the gunmen on the streets in the Nablus and Jenin areas underscores the weakness of the PA, whose leaders are aware that there’s little they can do to disarm the armed groups and individuals.

The Palestinian public, meanwhile, continues to view the gunmen as “heroes” who are ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause. They are regarded as the defenders of the people, while the PA leaders and security forces are denounced as corrupt “traitors” and “collaborators” with Israel.

Abu Toameh goes on to note Abbas and the PA may be intentionally allowing them to carry out acts of terror so his declining popularity doesn’t suffer any further.

Following the shootout on Sunday, the PA again threatened to stop the security coordination with Israel.

The shootout, and Abbas’ subsequent praise for the terrorists, comes after meetings with President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron.

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