The Aspen Institute Announces 2013 Aspen Security Forum

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Aspen Institute Homeland Security Program announces the 2013 Aspen Security Forum, its fourth annual forum on national security, homeland security, and counterterrorism issues and policies. More than 80 top-level current and former government officials, industry leaders, noted print and broadcast journalists, and leading thinkers will discuss and debate the key issues in homeland security and counterterrorism. The forum will take place July 17–20 at the Institute's signature Aspen Meadows campus in Aspen, Colorado. The New York Times and CNN's Security Clearance blog are this year's forum media co-presenters.

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"This summer's forum will explore the tension in a time of budget austerity and war weariness, between focusing on 'traditional' threats from nation-states and the continuing threat of terrorism at home and abroad," said Clark Ervin, director of the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Program. "The discussions at the forum will focus on current international issues facing the homeland security community including the prospect of a nuclear Iran, the civil war in Syria, saber rattling on the Korean peninsula, the geopolitical implications of the rise of China, and the rise of Al Qaeda in Africa. Additionally, in the wake of Boston, another focus will be on the newly stimulated concerns about 'homegrown terrorism' and the vulnerability of 'soft targets.'"

Confirmed speakers for the 2013 Forum include Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Ashton Carter; Chief of Staff of the US Air Force General Mark Welsh; Commander of US Special Operations Command Admiral William McRaven; National Security Agency Director General Keith Alexander; Transportation Security Administration Administrator John Pistole; National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew Olsen; Counselor for the National Intelligence Council Dr. Mathew Burrows; Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen; General Counsel of the National Security Agency Raj De; Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin; US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil MacBride; former Commander of US Africa Command General Carter Ham; Former Commander of International Security Assistance Force and US Forces Afghanistan General John Allen; the European Union's Counterterrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove; former Commander of the US Pacific Fleet Admiral Patrick Walsh; former General Counsel of the Department of Defense Jeh Johnson; former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff; former National Security Advisor  Stephen Hadley; former Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair; former Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency Director General Michael Hayden; former National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter; former Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director William Webster; former Director of National Intelligence Ambassador John Negroponte; former Central Intelligence Agency Acting and Deputy Director John McLaughlin; former Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis Charles Allen; former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Ambassador Christopher Hill; former Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer.

Forum moderators include CNN's Wolf Blitzer; the AP's Kimberly Dozier; The New York Times' David Sanger and Eric Schmitt; The Wall Street Journal's Siobhan Gorman; TIME Magazine's Massimo Calabresi; Fox News' Catherine Herridge; The Washington Post's Robert O'Harrow; POLITICO's Josh Gerstein; The Economist's Edward McBride; Foreign Policy's Susan Glasser; CBS News' Lesley Stahl from "60 Minutes," Chris Isham, and Dan Raviv; ABC News' Brian Ross; NPR's Dina Temple-Raston; and NBC News' Pete Williams and Mike Isikoff.

Additionally, the HBO documentary, Manhunt, an Official Selection of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, will be screened. A panel with Manhunt Director and Producer Greg Barker, and Peter Bergen, CNN national security analyst and author of Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad, on which the film is based, will discuss bin Laden and Al Qaeda, other national security challenges, and how these challenges are portrayed in Hollywood, with CBS News' Dan Raviv as moderator.

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/aspeninstitute. The event hashtag is #ASF2013.

For a complete list of currently confirmed speakers, registration information, and sponsorship details, please visit www.aspensecurityforum.org. Sponsors for the 2013 Aspen Security Forum to date are Academi, IBM, Microsoft, Raytheon, Target, and The Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

About The Aspen Institute

The Aspen Institute's Homeland Security Program works to heighten public awareness as to the nation's continued vulnerability to terrorism, and to persuade the nation to take the necessary steps to close the gap between how secure we should be and how secure we actually are. For more information, please visit www.aspeninstitute.org/security.

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

SOURCE The Aspen Institute