GOP continues to slam new Obama war approach

Republicans keep slamming President Barack Obama's push to move the government away from a war footing and refine and recalibrate counterterrorism strategy.

Capitol Hill Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina say Obama is projecting weakness at a time when the United States needs to show resolve against terror networks like al-Qaida.

The South Carolina Republican said Sunday that "at a time when we need resolve the most, we're sounding retreat."

Obama gave a major speech Thursday in which he said al-Qaida is "on the path to defeat" and he's signaling that he's reluctant to commit troops overseas to conflicts like Syria or other countries struggling with instability in the uncertain aftermath of the Arab Spring. He's also modifying policies on the use of unmanned drone aircraft to try to limit civilian casualties and is redoubling his longstanding — but so far unfulfilled — promise to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where many terrorism suspects are being held without formal charges.

Obama is trying to recast the image of terrorists from enemy warriors to cowardly thugs and move the United States away a state of perpetual war.

Police in Australia issue warning on 3-D printed gun

The DIY 3-D gun may not be quite ready for prime time.

According to Techworld, the police commissioner in Australia’s New South Wales, Andrew Scipione, has issued a warning after his officers tested one of the firearms—dubbed the "Liberator"—and experienced a “catastrophic misfire” (no one was seriously injured).

According to the website, the NSW police used blueprints created by Defense Distributed to make two pistols that took 27 hours to create from start to finish. The cost for materials was $35 (the desktop 3-D printer costs some $1,700). Except for the firing pin and the pistol cartridge, all the pieces were plastic.

Despite the technical glitches, the NSW police force sees the printable gun as a potentially big problem, with Scipione calling the Liberator "truly undetectable, untraceable, cheap and easy to make."

Defense Distributed's plans, reports Techworld, were downloaded 100,000 times before the company took them down under pressure from the U.S. State Department. However, it's believed that the instructions will continue to circulate.

In the U.S., the Atlantic Wire also investigated the possibility of making a 3-D gun and discovered that "this gun is not easy to make as it's been portrayed, nor as cheap, nor very legal, and the weapon itself is terrible—if you're not too terrified to pull the trigger.”