Logo

American Security Council Foundation

Back to main site

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.

Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez Begins Third Week in Jail, Still Without Charges

Friday, September 2, 2022

Categories: ASCF News National Preparedness

Comments: 0

Source: https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2022/09/02/nicaraguan-bishop-begins-third-week-in-jail-still-without-charges/

STR/AFP via Getty Images

ROME — Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez began his third week in captivity without charges Friday following his arrest by the government of dictator Daniel Ortega.

Álvarez, bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa in northern Nicaragua, was abducted by police in a dawn raid on Friday, August 19, at his episcopal residence along with four priests, two seminarians, and a cameraman, after having undergone unofficial house arrest for 15 days.

The National Police, led by Ortega’s brother-in-law Francisco Díaz, accused the prelate of trying to “organize violent groups,” allegedly “for the purpose of destabilizing the State of Nicaragua and attacking the constitutional authorities,” although no evidence has been brought forward to substantiate this claim.

So far, neither the Public Ministry nor the National Police have presented a formal accusation against Álvarez, who will soon turn 56 and is the first bishop arrested since Ortega returned to power in Nicaragua in 2007.

“The Ortega-Murillo regime is not going to distract our attention,” declared the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights Thursday. “We continue to ask where Bishop Rolando Álvarez is and what they are doing with the priests, seminarians, and cameraman arrested in El Chipote.

The rights group, which has repeatedly accused the government of torture, also called for “immediate freedom for all political prisoners” in a message on Twitter.

While the Diocese of Matagalpa as well as Nicaraguan Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes have called for the release of the detained bishop, Pope Francis has remained strangely silent on the matter, to the consternation of many Nicaraguans.

Francis has limited his interventions on the matter to a single statement on August 21 that he was following Nicaragua’s situation “with concern and sorrow,” while also appealing for “an open and sincere dialogue” in order to attain “a respectful and peaceful co-existence” between the Church and the Ortega regime.

In response, exiled Nicaraguan Bishop Silvio José Báez said that Nicaragua needs freedom and not dialogue with dictator Daniel Ortega.

“We must ask for freedom. We must not negotiate for people. We must ask for freedom, because they are innocent,” Bishop Báez said in a Mass celebrated at Saint Agatha parish in Miami later that same day.

Earlier this year, the Ortega government expelled the papal nuncio, Archbishop Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, as well as 18 nuns of the Missionaries of Charity order founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

It has also imprisoned seven priests, shut down nine Catholic radio stations, and pulled three Catholic channels from subscription television programming.

Catholics make up some 58.5 percent of the 6.6 million inhabitants of Nicaragua according to the latest national census.

Comments RSS feed for comments on this page

There are no comments yet. Be the first to add a comment by using the form below.