Attorney General Michael Mukasey speaking at the American Enterprise Institute [AEI] today called on Congress to act on detainees at Guantanamo Bay possibly trying to usurp the court system. Under the rules of habeas corpus, the 270 detainees at Guantanamo Bay have a constitutional right to challenge their detentions. The overriding issue facing the judicial system at the moment is when they are allowed to pursue legal action under habeas corpus. Mukasey called on Congress to draft legislation that would “act to resolve these difficult questions that have been left unanswered.” (more…)

Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) says that if the United States wants to see a transformed Middle East with Iraq and Lebanon as “pillars of that transformed Middle East” then the U.S. must be “in the game every single day.” He said the U.S. has had a policy of giving pronouncements which are rarely followed by action, but that Iran is “in the game every single day.” (1:49)

 

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The American enterprise Institute (AEI) held a conference today discussing the future of Medicare. The speakers present were Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, Richard S. Foster, chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS), Robert B. Helms, resident scholar in health policy studies at AEI and Gail Wilensky, senior fellow at Project HOPE, which is an international health organization.

The panel discussed the importance of letting the Congress aware of the Medicare social security and urging them to act upon it. The panel also touched upon the disagreements of Democrats and Republicans upon the previously mentioned social security. They suggested a bipartisan solution to this problem, and that it will only be solved when both parties arrange a single conference discussing and planning the future of Medicare, by using more competitive elements.

Another important issue, which was brought up by Gail Wilensky, was the retirement age
of the population. As the average death age has increased, 65 is too early to retire and all benefits that the Medicare brings is more costly. Thus a new retirement age should be discussed in order to solve this problem.

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid occupy a 42 per cent ($1.3 trillion) of the Federal budget, whereas 58 per cent ($1.6 trillion) is spent on other Federal issues

At the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) Discussion on “Iranian Influence in the Middle East and Beyond,” Kimberly Kagan, President of the Institute for the Study of War, says Iran has been a force of tremendous instability in Iraq since 2003, and has been involved in establishing groups that are hostile to the Maliki government, to the democratic government, and to the U.S. Government.

 

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At the The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) discussion on “Iranian Influence in the Middle East and Beyond,” Danielle Pletka of AEI said looking at the Iranian “reach” from the past helps us gets some insight into the regime’s intent in Iraq. There are a lot of telling signs of change, she said, using as an example the economy in Syria, and how Iran is becoming a dominant role there. Iran imports weapons from Russia, and then provides them to Syria, she said. In regards to Iran’s relationship with Hezbollah, they provide diplomatic, military, and economic support. They have taken a ‘very prominent role’ in the re-armament of the Lebanese.
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Speaking through an interpreter at an American Enterprise Institute panel on bloggers in the Middle East, Iranian blogger Arash Sigarchi says that it is easier to acquire narcotics than it is to access information. (0:28)

 

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Speaking at an American Enterprise Institute panel on bloggers in the Middle East, Lebanese blogger Tony Badran says that blogs can be used both for dissent against regimes and also tools for disinformation by regimes. (0:30)

 

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