Fifteen Years Later:
Are We Any Safer?

September 8, 2016
Washington, DC

It all started on September 11, 2001. The very thought that we at home were vulnerable to a terrorist attack was born that day. Fifteen years later, Homeland Security is a department, an enterprise and a way of life. But the threat posed to the homeland has evolved. Osama bin Laden is dead, yet the threat of terrorism remains. The homeland has been struck again, not by hijacked airplanes but by individuals taking up arms against their fellow Americans. The terrorists behind those acts never set foot in a training camp or came here from far off lands; they simply adopted jihad on their own.

At The Atlantic’s Fifteen Years Later: Are We Any Safer?, we dove into the nation’s homeland security—from office buildings to airports and computer systems to power plants—to examine the strengths and remaining vulnerabilities of our security apparatus and our ability to prevent the next terrorist attack—or recover from it.

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Atlantic Live

Speakers

Agenda

Note: All times are ET

  • Thursday, September 08
  • 8:30 a.m.WelcomeMargaret Low, AtlanticLIVE
  • 8:35 a.m.The SecretariesSecretary Jeh Johnson, Department of Homeland Security
    Former Secretary Tom Ridge, Department of Homeland Security, and Chairman, Ridge Global
    With Steven Brill, Author, "Are We Any Safer?" The Atlantic’s September Cover Story
  • 9:00 a.m.ISIS and Radicalization in the USFarah Pandith, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
    Lorenzo Vidino, Director of the Program on Extremism, Center for Cyber & Homeland Security, George Washington University
    Joby Warrick, Author of Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS and Reporter, The Washington Post
    With Mary Louise Kelly, NPR
  • 9:25 a.m.The State of the ThreatMichèle Flournoy, Co-Founder and CEO, Center for a New American Security
    Mary Louise Kelly, National Security Correspondent, NPR
  • 9:40 a.m.The New Threats: CyberSusan Landau, Professor of Cybersecurity Policy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
    Matthew Olsen, President, Consulting, IronNet Cybersecurity and Former Director, National Counterterrorism Center
    Suzanne Spaulding, Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, Department of Homeland Security
    With Steve Clemons, Washington Editor at Large, The Atlantic
  • 10:05 a.m.Are We Any Safer?Former Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT), Senior Advisor, Counter Extremism Project
    Former Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI), Host, Something to Think About
    With Mary Louise Kelly, NPR
  • 10:25 a.m.Privacy and Liberty in the Age of SecurityKaren Greenberg, Director, Center on National Security, Fordham University School of Law
    Hina Shamsi, Director, ACLU National Security Project
    With Steve Clemons, The Atlantic
  • 10:45 a.m.The New Old ThreatsAndrew Bieniawski, Vice President, Material Security and Minimization, Nuclear Threat  Initiative
    Brian A. Jackson, Senior Physical Scientist, RAND Corporation
    With Steven Brill
  • 11:10 a.m.The ChairmanRepresentative Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chairman, House Committee on Homeland Security
    With     Jeff Pegues, Justice and Homeland Security Correspondent, CBS News
  • 11:35 a.m.Prosecuting the Terrorist ThreatJohn Carlin, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, Department of Justice
    With Steve Clemons, The Atlantic
  • 12:00 p.m.The Presidential Daily BriefLisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, The White House
    With Mary Louise Kelly, NPR
  • 12:20 p.m.Closing Thoughts-

Underwriter

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