The Aspen Institute Homeland Security Group Announces Its Launch

Event to feature Secretary Janet Napolitano and co-chairs Michael Chertoff and Jane Harman

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Aspen Institute's Homeland Security Program announces the launch of the "Aspen Homeland Security Group" this Thursday, September 15, 2011, from 12:00-1:30 p.m. at our One Dupont Circle offices in Washington, DC.  The event will feature Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, and Aspen Homeland Security Group co-chairs, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Director, President, and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars and former Congresswoman Jane Harman, in a conversation moderated by The Washington Post's David Ignatius. Also attending the event and participating in the discussion will be various members of the Aspen Homeland Security Group.  (The complete membership list can be found below and online at http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/homeland-security/Aspen%20Homeland%20Security%20Group.)

"I am honored to serve as co-chair of the Aspen Homeland Security Group.  This group of dedicated and experienced homeland security and counterterrorism veterans provides a unique forum to make recommendations and raise awareness to the ongoing and ever evolving security challenges of our time," said Chertoff, now Co-Founder and Managing Principal of The Chertoff Group.  

Modeled on the longstanding foreign policy-focused Aspen Strategy Group, the Aspen Homeland Security Group is a bipartisan group of former government officials and policy experts in the field of homeland security/counterterrorism who will provide recommendations to Secretary Napolitano and other relevant policymakers.

"With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 now behind us, it is a time to look ahead to the homeland security/counterterrorism challenges of the future.  How will the terror threat change? What new vulnerabilities might lie around the corner?  Is the government yet optimally organized to address these threats and vulnerabilities? And, recognizing government's limitations, especially in these times of budget austerity, are private institutions and individual citizens yet fully empowered to provide maximum support?  The Aspen Homeland Security Group is intended to help Secretary Napolitano and other policymakers think through these critical issues in the post-bin Laden era," said Clark Ervin, the group's executive director; Director of the Institute's Homeland Security Program; and the first Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security.

Co-Chairs

Michael Chertoff
Former Secretary
Department of Homeland Security
Chairman and Co-founder
The Chertoff Group

Jane Harman
Former Representative
36th Congressional District of California
Director, President, & CEO
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Members

Madeleine Albright
Former Secretary
Department of State
Chair
Albright Stonebridge Group

Charlie Allen
Former Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis
Department of Homeland Security
Principal
The Chertoff Group

Zoe Baird
Former Member
Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
President
Markle Foundation

Stewart Baker
Former Assistant Secretary for Policy
Department of Homeland Security
Partner
Steptoe & Johnson LLP

Richard Ben-Veniste
Former Commissioner
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
Partner
Mayer Brown LLP

Peter Bergen
Director, National Security Studies Program
New America Foundation
Terrorism Analyst
CNN

Samuel Berger
Former National Security Advisor
Chair, Albright Stonebridge Group

Dennis Blair
Former Director of National Intelligence

William Bratton
Former Commissioner
New York Police Department
Former Chief
Los Angeles Police Department
Chairman
Kroll

Richard Clarke
Former National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism
Former Special Advisor to the President for Cyber Security
Partner
Good Harbor Consulting

P.J. Crowley
Former Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs
Department of State
Former Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
General Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership
Dickinson School of Law, Penn State University

Jack Goldsmith
Former Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel
Department of Justice
Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Law
Harvard Law School

Stephen Hadley
Former National Security Adviser
Co-Founder
Rice Hadley Group LLC

Michael Hayden
Former Director
National Security Agency; Central Intelligence Agency
Principal
The Chertoff Group

Brian Jenkins
Former Adviser
National Commission on Terrorism
Senior Adviser
RAND Corporation

Michael Leiter
Former Director
National Counterterrorism Center

Stuart Levey
Former Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
Department of the Treasury
Senior Fellow for National Security and Financial Integrity, Council on Foreign Relations

James Loy
Former Deputy and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security
Former Administrator
Transportation Security Administration
Former Commandant
Coast Guard
Senior Counselor
The Cohen Group

Paul McHale
Former Representative
15th Congressional District of Pennsylvania
Former Assistant Secretary for Homeland Defense
Department of Defense
President, Civil Support International, LLC

John McLaughlin
Former Deputy and Acting Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence, Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Jeanne Meserve
Former Homeland Security Correspondent
CNN
Senior Fellow
George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute

Philip Mudd
Former Deputy Director of National Security
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Former Deputy Director, Counterterrorist Center
Central Intelligence Agency
Senior Research Fellow, Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative
New America Foundation

Marc Nathanson
Co-Chair
Homeland Security Advisory Council, Los Angeles County
Trustee
The Aspen Institute
Chairman
Mapleton Investments

Daniel Prieto
Former Professional Staff Member
Homeland Security Committee
House of Representatives
Vice President and Practice Lead
Public Sector Strategy & Innovation
IBM Global Business Services

Suzanne Spaulding
Former Assistant General Counsel
Central Intelligence Agency
Former Executive Director
National Commission on Terrorism
Former Executive Director
Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction
Principal
Bingham Consulting Group LLC

Marin Strmecki
Former Special Advisor on Afghanistan
Office of the Secretary of Defense
Former Staff Member
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Senior Vice President, Director of Programs
Smith Richardson Foundation

Guy C. Swann III
Lieutenant General, US Army Commanding General
US Army North (Fifth Army)

Fran Townsend
Former Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
Senior Vice President
Worldwide Government, Legal, and Business Affairs, MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc.

Juan Zarate
Former Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for Combating Terrorism
Senior Adviser
Transnational Threats Project and Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Philip Zelikow
Former Executive Director
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of History
University of Virginia

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/policy-work/homeland-security.

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 offices in New York City and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

SOURCE The Aspen Institute