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 City exploded July 19, 1994, shortly after takeoff from Colon, leaving only one body in the wreckage not positively … [Read More...] about Hezbollah Suspect in Forgotten ’94 Panama Suicide Bombing in Custody; Trial to Remind US of Fresh Backyard Threats
Main Content
Securing America’s Borders
James Talarico’s Border Policies Would Spark Another Biden-Level Migrant Crisis
No one is calling out the Texas Democrat for using fake tough talk to mask intentions to restore Joe Biden’s disastrous open border. By Todd Bensman as published August 13, 2026 by The Federalist James Talarico, the left-wing Democrat ahead in some polls in the Texas U.S. Senate race against Republican Ken Paxton, has staked … [Read more...] about James Talarico’s Border Policies Would Spark Another Biden-Level Migrant Crisis
Terrorism and Homeland Security
‘First Blood’: A 3-Part Series on a Border-Crosser’s Terror Attack Against Chicago’s Jewish Community
Washington, D.C. (January 9, 2025) – Todd Bensman's new three-part investigative series, along with a companion podcast (his media interviews and full stories here), document the first known charged terror attack in the United States committed by an illegal border-crosser, on October 26, 2024 in Chicago. The series, titled “First … [Read more...] about ‘First Blood’: A 3-Part Series on a Border-Crosser’s Terror Attack Against Chicago’s Jewish Community
DISPATCHES FROM A BORDER IN HISTORIC CRISIS
Bensman Departs Trump Administration, Joins The Heritage Foundation Border Security and Immigration Center as Senior Fellow
PRESS RELEASE JUNE 30, 2026: Heritage Foundation Welcomes New Senior Research Fellow for Heritage Border Security and Immigration Center WASHINGTON—The Heritage Foundation welcomes Todd Bensman as a new Senior Research Fellow for the Heritage Foundation Border Security and Immigration Center, where he will support Heritage’s mission to defend American national security and the rule of … [Read more...] about Bensman Departs Trump Administration, Joins The Heritage Foundation Border Security and Immigration Center as Senior Fellow
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