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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.

Boko Haram Seizes 50 Villages Near Nigerian Capital

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Categories: ASCF News Terrorism

Comments: 0

Nigerian-Army-640x480

Members of the Islamist terror group Boko Haram have forcibly seized at least 50 villages near the Nigerian national capital of Abuja over the past three weeks, the governor of Nigeria’s Niger State said Monday.

“In a brazen attack, 100 kilometers [62 miles] from Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, Boko Haram terrorists sacked 50 communities in Niger State and hoisted their flag in Kaure village,” Nigeria’s Leadership newspaper reported on April 26. Abuja is part of Nigeria’s federal capital territory, which is located in the center of the country a short distance east of Niger State.

The governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, confirmed Boko Haram’s recent insurgency near Abuja on Monday while visiting an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp at IBB Primary School in Minna, located 94 miles west of the national capital.

“I am confirming that there are Boko Haram elements around Kaure in [the] Shiroro local government [region] of Niger State,” Bello said. Shiroro is located 40 miles north of Minna.

“They have taken over the territory. They have installed their flag. I am confirming to you now that they have taken over the wives of the people by force,” the governor said, revealing that more than 3,000 people had been displaced by Boko Haram’s regional invasion so far.

Bello said Boko Haram’s recent infiltration of the Kaure area in Shiroro indicated the terror group was attempting to establish a new base closer to the Nigerian national capital, Abuja. Boko Haram has historically been based out of northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State, specifically in and around the state’s Sambisa Forest.

“Sambisa is several kilometers from Abuja but Kaure is just two kilometers from Abuja. So, nobody is safe anymore, not even those in Abuja,” Bello said Monday. Sambisa Forest is located about 530 miles northeast of Abuja.

The governor said he had requested the assistance of Nigeria’s federal government to fight off Boko Haram’s incursion into Niger State over the past month but had failed to receive support, according to the Nigerian news site Sahara Reporters.

“This is what I have been engaging the federal government on, unfortunately, it has now got to this level. If care is not taken, even Abuja is not safe,” Bello told reporters in Minna on April 26. “We have been saying this for long. All our efforts have been in vain.”

Leadership interviewed a man staying at Minna’s IDP camp on April 26 who said he was forced out of the Shiroro town of Kuchi by Boko Haram earlier this month along with all of the community’s residents.

“For three weeks now there is no person living in Kuchi town and there is no food for the fleeing villagers. The bandits have entered very deep into the area and have overrun several villages. They have occupied Kuchi where they now sleep as their homes,” Bulus Esu told the newspaper.

“Two weeks ago, the bandits demanded N5 million [about $13,000] ransom from the people of Kampana to bail themselves from being kidnapped,” Esu said. “The people did this to avoid being kidnapped. However, when they [Boko Haram] came back the next time, they asked the women to cook food for them after which they still raped the women.”

Photo: AUDU MARTE/AFP via Getty Images

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