Aspen Security Forum

WASHINGTON, April 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Aspen Institute Homeland Security Program announces its first annual forum on homeland security and counterterrorism, the 2010 Aspen Security Forum. From June 28 – June 30, at the Institute’s signature campus in Aspen, Colorado, more than 50 top-level government officials, industry leaders, and leading thinkers will discuss and debate key issues regarding aviation security; maritime security; border security; mass transit security; terrorism preparedness; intelligence; counterterrorism strategy; “soft targets” security; and critical infrastructure protection (with a particular emphasis on cyber-terror).

Notable speakers confirmed to date include Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen; National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter; former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; former White House Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend; New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly; former Los Angeles Police Commissioner Bill Bratton; the United Nations’ “Monitor” for the Taliban/Al Qaeda, Richard Barrett; the State Department’s Coordinator-for-Counterterrorism, Ambassador Daniel Benjamin; Pakistani Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani; former Senator and Chairman of the “Hart-Rudman Commission” Gary Hart; former 9/11 Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste; and former Senator and Vice-Chairman of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism Jim Talent.

Leading journalists such as The New York Times‘ David Sanger; CNN’s Jeanne Meserve; ABC’s Brian Ross; NPR’s Robert Siegel; USA Today’s Thomas Frank; and Newsweek’s Mike Isikoff,  will lead most of the conversations and moderate the speakers’ engagement with the audience. Recent HBO film about the 2008 terror attacks in India, “Terror in Mumbai,” will be screened, and a panel of terrorism experts (namely, CFR’s Steven Simon; CNN’s Peter Bergen; and former CIA official and Georgetown‘s Paul Pillar) will discuss those attacks’ implications for security here at home. AP’s (formerly CBS’) Kimberly Dozier will moderate the “Terror in Mumbai” panel.

“There’s never been anything quite like the Aspen Security Forum, and with the threat of terrorism rising, there’s never been more of a need for something like it,” says Clark Kent Ervin, Director, Homeland Security Program at the Aspen Institute. “For two and a half days, some of the leading thinkers in the field of homeland security and counterterrorism, from government, industry, academia and think tanks, and media, will gather in one of the nation’s most beautiful and thought-provoking meeting places to discuss and debate pressing questions and to try to find common ground on controversial and divisive issues.”

Daily video highlights from the Security Forum will be posted at www.aspensecurityforum.org, and event updates will be featured at www.twitter.com/aspeninstitute and www.facebook.com/pages/The-Aspen-Institute/34493700340. For more information on the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Program, please visit www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/homeland-security.

“It is clear that terrorists remain determined to strike the homeland,” says Ervin, who formerly served as the first Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security. “What’s unclear is what we can do about it. The Aspen Security Forum will provide answers.”

For a list of currently confirmed speakers, registration information, and sponsorship details, please visit www.aspensecurityforum.org. Sponsors for the 2010 Aspen Security Forum to date are AGT International, Boeing, IBM, and the Ford Foundation.

About The Aspen Institute

The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen Institute does this primarily in four ways: seminars, young-leader fellowships around the globe, policy programs, and public conferences and events. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland‘s Eastern Shore. It also has an international network of partners.

SOURCE The Aspen Institute

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