Heritage Foundation Backgrounder By Todd Bensman, October 8, 2026 Summary Before the U.S.–Iran war began in June 2025, the U.S. diplomatic and intelligence communities may have correctly viewed the Iran–Nicaragua relationship as a lower threat to U.S. citizens and interests than Iranian ties elsewhere in Latin America. That judgment merits urgent reconsideration, given the ongoing war between the United States and Iran, Iran’s new national … [Read More...] about NEW PAPER: Time to End the Long Iran–Nicaragua Relationship
Main Content
Securing America’s Borders
How to Know When a Mexican Migrant Caravan Really Threatens the Southern Border–a Day Sure to Come
As published October 6 in The Daily Signal Last week saw much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments among American voters and Trump administration officials watching the “Fey Esperanza” migrant caravan march out of Honduras into Mexico, reportedly en route to smash a hole through President Donald Trump’s mostly sealed … [Read more...] about How to Know When a Mexican Migrant Caravan Really Threatens the Southern Border–a Day Sure to Come
Terrorism and Homeland Security
Hezbollah Suspect in Forgotten ’94 Panama Suicide Bombing in Custody; Trial Could Inform U.S. of Fresh Backyard Threats
By Todd Bensman for The Heritage Foundation For more than three decades, the mystery of who blew Alas Chiricanas Flight 901 out of the Panama sky, killing all 21 aboard including 12 top Jewish business leaders and three U.S. citizens, remained unsolved and mostly forgotten by the outside world. The small commuter plane to Panama … [Read more...] about Hezbollah Suspect in Forgotten ’94 Panama Suicide Bombing in Custody; Trial Could Inform U.S. of Fresh Backyard Threats
DISPATCHES FROM A BORDER IN HISTORIC CRISIS
Front Line Field Reports from the Greatest Mass Migration Event in American History 2021-2025
In a series of written and video reports from both sides from the US-Mexico border during 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 Todd Bensman explores the causes, consequences, and experience of the mass-migration crisis he was first to predict in a November 2020 column titled "Will We See a 'Biden Effect' at the Border?" The crisis began several months before the 2020 presidential election, when … [Read more...] about Front Line Field Reports from the Greatest Mass Migration Event in American History 2021-2025
Dispatches From Europe’s New Mass Migration Crisis: What America Can Learn
From November 22 through December 22 of 2023, Bensman traveled extensively throughout Central Europe and the Balkan nations as a Visiting Fellow for the Budapest-based Mathias Corvinus Collegium's' Migration Research Institute. He traveled to Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Greece. The reason? Big human traffic was swelling again on the so-called "Balkan … [Read more...] about Dispatches From Europe’s New Mass Migration Crisis: What America Can Learn