“Cyber is really becoming, if it’s not already, probably the number one threat in our county today,” Cole said. “It takes a number of different forms and it knows no borders.”

The country’s infrastructure is most susceptible to cyber attacks because they are controlled by computer systems, Cole said.

“It’s inevitable [attacks] will come,” he said.

According to Cole, the government can only go so far in protecting industries. He said corporations must master areas of prevention to make accessing their systems more challenging.

Additionally, Cole said it is crucial for corporations to have a comprehensive response plan in place.

“These procedures need to be developed before a cyber attack occurs,” Cole said. “After an attack has started it’s usually too late to figure out what to do or have any hope that what you’re going to do is going to be effective.”

Cole said once attacks occur companies should immediately inform law enforcement agencies to help stop future attacks from affecting other companies, he said.

“The truth of the matter is unless we work together, we’re not going to be able to address the cyber threat.”

Cole warned companies that if they do not trust the Department of Justice and report instances more attacks will come and other companies will be targeted.

“We have the tools to help you and to help others who’ve been victims of these attacks and we can use your attack information to help prevent future attacks,” he said.

Cole concluded his speech calling for congressional action to give law enforcement officers better means to stop cyber crime and the ability to punish foreign offenders.

“We have been and we need to continue to engage our allies and our partners worldwide to fight this and to solidify norms of behavior to help ensure that the Internet remains secure and stable,” Cole said.

“It’s also crucial for us to maintain a meaningful dialogue with the world’s largest cyber actors and work together to develop an understanding of what is acceptable behavior in cyber space and what is not.”

MARTIN BASHIR: What was your reaction to when the president actually said that the war of terror must end?

CHRIS HAYES: Incredibly

BASHIR: Because given the circumstances in which we’re living, yesterday in London, two lunatics out of nowhere. With no connection to any terrorist nexus or organization decide to hack a British soldier to death in the name of Allah, as they said. Where does the war end?

HAYES: Well, this I thought that was such an important point. He says at one point, we cannot allow any group of thugs that calls itself Al Qaeda to bait us into an endless war. The point is, the Tsarnaev brothers who the Vice President called knockoff jihadist. These two suspects, I mean, hard to say suspects when you see them killing someone on camera, in London, they may say that they’re some affiliate of something. These are just murderers. These are murderers.

Rumsfeld discussed the book, Rumsfeld’s Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life, in a talk at the Heritage Foundation.

The book by the two-time secretary of defense features a collection of almost 400 aphorisms chronicled from his career as a naval aviator, White House staffer, and corporate executive.

Rumsfeld attributed the White House’s struggles to deal with a “perfect storm” of controversies—the shifting account of the embassy attack in Benghazi, heightened scrutiny of conservative groups by the IRS, and the seizure of Associated Press phone records by the Justice Department—to a lack of decisiveness among those in Obama’s administration.

“Make a decision as early as you can, because every day someone either above or below you is limiting your options,” he said. “If decisions are delayed, they start getting debated in the press.”

But if action is delayed in favor of more deliberation, administration staffers become less believable, he said.

“Trust leaves on horseback and returns on foot,” he said. “It’s easier to lose credibility than it is to restore.”

Rumsfeld originally recorded the rules on three-by-five notecards and kept them in a shoebox, but President Gerald Ford asked him to type them out and distribute them to staffers when he was serving as chief of staff in 1974. Many of the adages do not come from Rumsfeld himself, but from the military officers and politicians he met throughout his career.

He recounted meeting former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the early ’80s after President Ronald Reagan asked him to persuade world leaders to oppose the Law of the Sea Treaty.

The treaty, which has not been ratified by the Senate and continues to be debated today, would establish a set of international rules for governing the oceans, including technology and wealth transfers to undeveloped nations and pollution controls.

After describing the treaty’s administration of the rules as “Orwellian” to Thatcher, she replied: “Well, Mr. Ambassador, the way you described it sounds like the international nationalization of two-thirds of the earth’s surface. You know what I think of nationalization.”

Rumsfeld also discussed his second stint as secretary of defense during George W. Bush’s presidency, pushing back against the notion that the 9/11 attacks inhibited the “goal of bringing the Pentagon to the 21st century.”

“In a strange way it provided an impetus to do things we otherwise probably would not have been able to do,” he said.

He noted reforms such as increasing the number of special operations forces by 80 percent as necessary for fighting a different type of enemy in the war on terror. Still, not all of his ideas for reform were met with enthusiasm, he said.

Some Army officers were incensed after his decision to cancel the Crusader artillery program because it was too costly and inefficient, he said.

“There’s enormous resistance in the Iron Triangle—Congress, the Pentagon, and the defense industry—[to change],” he said.

“If you’re going to sin, sin against God; God will forgive you. Never sin against the bureaucracy. They’ll get you one way or another.”

The last maxim in Rumsfeld’s book of almost 400 rules?

“If you develop rules, never have more than 10.”

DONALD RUMSFELD: [...] The space that we occupied for example during the Cold War, where we competed against the ideas of communism, to my knowledge our government is not competing in that space at all.

JAKE TAPPER: Have we ever? Did we during the Bush years?

DONALD RUMSFELD: No. I was asked in the press and I gave us a D minus and I’m an easy grader. I’d give this administration an F because they won’t even use the words. Until today I haven’t heard people use the word jihad. I haven’t heard the people in the Obama administration talk about the fact that there are people that are determined to kill innocent men, women, and children that are attacking the whole concept of the nation state. They avoid those words.

The economy may be stagnated, but knowing Mia can rattle off the different Infinity Gems and the origin of Captain America’s shield reminds that the foundation of this country remains mighty.

JOHN MCCAIN: I am dumbfounded that the president would say we must strengthen the opposition in Syria when again we are banking on the goodwill of the Russians and some kind of peace conference that may take place, may or may not take place next month. There’s a number of other comments about the president lost speech that I would be glad to go into, but maybe it is better addressed in the question and answer period. The Middle East is in turmoil. The Middle East crisis out for American leadership. American leadership is absent in the Middle East, and that is the price, that is the price we have paid in Iraq, that’s price we have paid in Libya, that’s price we are paying in Syria and other countries today. I asked the president to lead, be involved, be engaged, and that does not mean troops on the ground, but it means an exercise of leadership including providing a safe zone for the people who are struggling against Bashar Al- Assad and taking out Assad’s assets and giving the resistance the weapons that they need.

NIAMEY (Reuters) – Islamist suicide bombers struck an army barracks and a French-run uranium mine in Niger on Thursday, officials said, killing 21 people and wounding dozens more in attacks that showed militant violence spreading in West Africa.

The coordinated dawn assaults on Areva’s mine at Arlit and the military base in Agadez were claimed by the MUJWA militant group in retaliation for a French-led offensive this year against Islamist insurgents in neighboring Mali.

The attacks suggested Malian groups, despite the French campaign, remained capable of complex strikes against high-profile targets in remote parts of the vast Sahara.

In Agadez, the largest town in Niger’s desert north, at least 20 soldiers were killed and 16 injured when suicide bombers attacked the barracks, Defense Minister Mahamadou Karidjo told state radio. Three Islamists were also killed.

After a fierce gunbattle, security forces restored calm but, more than 12 hours after the raid, one Islamist was still holding several military cadets hostage inside the barracks.

“The situation is under control,” Karidjo told state radio. “The armed forces reaffirm their commitment to defend Niger and its people, whatever the price.”

Further north in Arlit, at least 14 civilians were injured and two Islamists killed in a car bomb attack at Areva’s Somair mine, the largest in the country, the minister said. Areva later said one of its injured staff had died in the assault.

Niger officials said the grinding unit had been badly damaged at the Somair mine, which is an important part of France’s energy supply chain. Niger provides around one-fifth of the uranium for France’s nuclear reactors.

MUJWA and al Qaeda’s north African wing AQIM had pledged to strike at French interests across the region after Paris launched a ground and air campaign in January which broke their 10-month grip over the northern two-thirds of Mali.

President Francois Hollande said France would do everything in its power to defend its interests in Niger.

“We will let nothing pass and will support Niger’s authorities to end the hostage-taking and to annihilate the group that carried out these attacks,” he told reporters.

FRENCH INTERESTS AT RISK

Niger’s president, Mahamadou Issoufou, who has emerged as a strong ally of France and the United States against Islamists in the region, cancelled a trip to an African Union summit in Ethiopia. He has declared a 72-hour period of mourning.

The United States has stationed drone surveillance aircraft in Niger and deployed military personnel there to train West African forces before their deployment in Mali.

Niger has played a leading role in the African regional mission in Mali, sending 650 troops. Its barracks in the Malian town of Menaka was unsuccessfully targeted this month by a suicide bomber, part of a wave of recent attacks.

France’s intervention in Mali has sparked threats to its interests in Africa. Last month, its embassy in Tripoli was car bombed and a French family was kidnapped in Cameroon in February by Islamist sect Boko Haram, which cited the war in Mali. The seven hostages were released last month.

At least 37 foreigners were also killed during a mass hostage taking by al Qaeda militants in January at the giant In Amenas gas plant in Algeria in response to the French offensive.

“The most recent attack will probably prompt France to bolster the security of its industrial assets and civilians in the Sahel region, bringing with it financial concerns,” global risk consultancy Stratfor wrote in a report on Thursday.

Niger itself is no stranger to Islamist raids. Seven workers, including five French nationals, were kidnapped in 2010 by AQIM in remote Arlit, which lies 1,200 km (750 miles) north of the capital Niamey. AQIM still holds four of the Frenchmen.

But Thursday’s bold attacks were the first in Niger since the French-led offensive drove Islamist insurgents across borders into neighboring Sahel states, stirring fears of a radicalization of the traditionally moderate region.

NANCY PELOSI: The president doesn’t know about everything that is going on in every agency in government. Should Mr. Boehner have known because this is his neighboring district where the IRS office is? I don’t think you can hold him accountable for what happened in that IRS office. But obviously the public will make its decision about it but that’s it. It’s a Bush appointee under his leadership this happened. It was wrong. Let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Taking a closer look, Chillin’ the Most is only one themed cruise out of an entire cottage industry of themed festivals out at sea. Traditionally, there have been fan cruises in the past more akin to floating prisons, er…conventions!

I’m sure the Star Trek cruise could shore up any other times the Enterprise has blown up.

Radio stations have hosted concerts on cruises as well, often hosted by their DJs. Hot 97 out New York City has purchased the domain name “hiphopcruise.net,” but the site appears to be abandoned, considering it’s advertising a cruise scheduled for July 4th weekend, 2009. That cruise’s host was Mister Cee, who recently was arrested for soliciting male prostitutes, so it makes sense why the hip-hop station hasn’t been able to put together a follow-up. At least their cruises had one thing going for it: Free buffet!

Free Buffet!

Sixthman, the company that organizes Chillin’ the Most and its cruise brethren, actually runs a number of these cruises. They find the kind of acts who invoke passion in their fans, the kind of passion that puts ya back about a grand just for the room alone. They’ve organized cruises with John Mayer, KISS, and Alabama to go along with branded cruises partnered with vh1 and Turner Classic Movies. Their list of artists they’ve gotten to jam on a boat is as impressive as the boat itself. Check out this bad boy:

And that’s just the boat. These cruises head to an island in the Bahamas that is customized to the theme of the cruise. Redneck Paradise one week becomes Great Stirrup Cay the next.

The roster of artists, while impressive, definitely is lacking some musical diversity. Namely, their only rapper on their site is YelaWolf, a skilled MC on his own merits, but who could use some company. Currently, YelaWolf’s presence is a certifiable game of “Which one of these is unlike the other?”

I suggested his name yesterday when it comes to conservative rap, so it’s only fair: The next artist that needs a themed cruise is the one and only Killer Mike.

Killa Kill matches Kid Rock in his accessibility to his fans and their mutual affinity for a strong Second Amendment. Let Mike Bigga set it off with “Ready Set Go” and make sure there’s enough weed for my dude. If we’re going to theme a cruise after Killer Mike, we might as well expand it to a themed cruise for larger-set rappers who weave social messages into their bangers, so let’s add Bun B and David Banner.