The Growing Islamic State threat to Israel: A Clear and Present Danger

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Attention has been  brought to bear by recent activities on Israel’s northern and southern frontier by ISIS in Syria and the Salafist affiliate in the Sinai, Ansar Beit al-Makdas (ABAM).  That is independent of the alleged ABAM involvement in the downing of the Russian Metrojet Airbus 321 on October 31, 2015 with a bomb secreted aboard the aircraft that killed 224 passengers and crew in the Sinai.

While ISIS allegedly fears only the Israeli Defense Force, at issue is Israel prepared to deal with these threats on both its Northern and Southern Frontiers.

Moreover, what the U.S. can do given its virtual abandonment of an alliance with Egypt, Israel and neighboring Jordan that collectively face the emboldened  self-declared Islamic State (IS). An Islamic state that has demonstrated its long arm reach planning and fomenting barbarous  terrorism in the Middle East, Europe and even here in the U.S. In the final days of 2015.

Note this Fox/Nation/Townhall  report by a former German Parliament member, now intrepid journalist,  Jürgen Todenhöfer, who with his son spent 10 days in the occupied  Syrian and Iraqi  precincts of the self-declared Caliphate, the Islamic State (ISIS), “Israel Defense Force only Army ISIS Fears”:

German reporter Jurgen Todenhofer went behind enemy lines to spend ten days with the Islamic State. He went with his son, Frederic, but not after spending nearly half a year ensuring that his safety would be guaranteed before venturing into this perilous region of the world. He plans on never going back (good idea), but noted that the only army these Islamic fanatics truly fear is the Israel Defense Forces.

They are confident that they can defeat soldiers from the West, namely British and American troops, but noted that the Israelis might be too tough for them. An aspect of their strategy is to lure Western troops into their territory in order to capture them. Oh, and they plan on killing every Shiite Muslim they can find, and view Muslims living in Western countries who vote as “top-priority enemies…as they give people rather than God the right to make laws.”

The claim from German reporter Jürgen Todenhöfer, a former member of the German Parliament, came after he spent 10 extraordinary days behind enemy lines in Iraq and Syria, accompanied by his son Frederic. He returned saying the group behind the Paris attacks was “preparing the largest religious cleansing in history” and with a “pessimistic” view on what can be done to combat it.

But the author of My 10 Days in the Islamic State told Jewish News: “The only country ISIS fears is Israel. They told me they know the Israeli army is too strong for them.”

Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot

From left: Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, Galilee Division Commander Brig. Gen. Amir Baram, and GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi on the northern border, Wednesday  Source: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

Today’s Israel Hayom edition had a follow up story about IDF preparing for possible ISUS attacks on the Golan Frontier, “IDF braces for Islamic State attack on northern border:”

Army on high alert for possible terrorist attacks by Shuhada al-Yarmouk Brigades, affiliated with Islamic State, or other jihadist groups such as Nusra Front, affiliated with al-Qaida.

[…]

Based on the modus operandi of the Nusra Front and Islamic State, the Israel Defense Forces examined several possible ways these groups could act against Israel. One scenario for an attack, according to the assessments, is smuggling explosives-laden vehicles into Israel. Additionally, officials were not negating the possibility of a terrorist ground force infiltrating Israel, firing anti-tank missiles at Israeli targets, planting explosive devices and launching rockets.

The Shuhada al-Yarmouk Brigades controls the border area shared by Jordan, Israel and Syria, extending over around 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). According to estimates, the organization comprises some 600 fighters who impose their will on some 40,000 locals. The organization itself is surrounded by numerous other rebel groups with which it is fighting, including the Nusra Front, and is “besieged” in a type of enclave in the southern Syrian Golan Heights.

ABAM ISIS affiliates beheading “Israeli spies” in Sinai

ABAM  ISIS affiliates beheading “Israeli spies” in Sinai.

However, Israel’s  Northern Frontier is not the only threat from ISIS.  Dr. Ronen Bergman, intelligence columnist for Israeli daily Yediot Ahranoth  had an extensive investigative article on the ISIS  affiliate, threat on the Southern Sinai frontier with Egypt, Ansar Beit al-Makdas (ABAM), “The Battle Over Sinai: ISIS’s Next Strong Force:”

As the world’s eyes are focused on the Islamic State in Syria and its activity in Europe, the organization’s branch in Sinai – Ansar Bait al-Maqdis – is gaining strength, and the Russian plane bombing may be just the beginning of its integration into ISIS’s international war. Bergman outlines the profile of one of the most threatening and intriguing challenges faced by the Israeli and international security community, only a few kilometers south of Eilat.

[…]

The Russian plane crash in Sinai on October 31st, which left 224 people dead, is still preoccupying intelligence organizations around the world. Updated intelligence received by Western intelligence agencies reveals that the few days before the attack saw a significant increase in the volume of written and spoken communication between senior members of the Ansar Bait al-Maqdis (ABAM – “Supporters of the Holy House”) terror organization, which has been calling itself Sinai Province in the past year after swearing allegiance to the Islamic State, who are active in the Sheikh Zuweid area in the northern part of the peninsula.

In addition, there has been a sharp increase in volume of communication between these activists and elements affiliated with ISIS’s Security and Intelligence Council in Iraq and Syria. This body is responsible for ISIS’s most important secret activities, including special operations and aiding organizations outside Syria and Iraq, where the organization’s power base is, including al-Maqdis.

Key Players in ABAM  Hamas origins and ISIS support:

The names of several key activists in this organization is repeatedly raised in the investigations into the matter: The widely mentioned name is Abdullah Mohammed Sayyid Kishta, a main force in improving ABAM’s abilities in the past two years, who served in the past as an operations officer in Hamas’ military wing. Kishta then left for Sinai, through one of the tunnels under the Philadelphi Route (which separates between Egypt and the Gaza Strip), and became head of instructions at ABAM in regards to the operation of antitank missiles and advanced explosive devices.

He is considered one of the senior antitank warfare experts in the region. Since he began his work in the organization, there appears to be an extremely significant increase in al-Maqdis’ use of antitank missiles and in their improvement. Up to two years ago, they mainly used RPGs, moving on to more advanced missiles like the Kornet.

Kishta is helping the organization improve its terror abilities in developing and assembling advanced bombs, including armor-piercing antitank explosives and explosive devices against roads and armored bunkers of the Egyptian army.

Intelligence groups in the West received information in March and April this year about ties between senior ISIS members in Iraq and members of al-Maqdis’ bomb units, including Kishta. A decoding of these messages revealed that ISIS’s R&D experts in Iraq are convinced that they have managed to develop a certain formula for putting together explosives with relatively low effectiveness, but which cannot be detected through regular means.

Israeli Intelligence on the origins of ABAM :

Israeli intelligence first heard the name Ansar Bair al-Maqdis in Gaza.

“In the early 2000s,” Haim Tomer recalls, “we heard there were radical Salafi cells in Gaza which go by that name. At the time, it was a local organization which attracted former activists from all kinds of other organizations who were discharged from them or found Hamas’ policy to be too moderate after different agreements signed with Israel.

ABAM was first comprised of a mixture of fragments of organizations and people and did not appear to be a big success. Israel’s security control and Hamas’ dominance made it impossible for the organization to really thrive and it didn’t leave a significant mark. But in 2002, its name emerged again in organizations of Bedouin in northern Sinai, and then in all of Sinai.

“We were confused for a moment,” says a senior source in the AMAN (Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate) research division. “We didn’t know if these were the same people we knew from Gaza or that they were just using the same name.”

But an examination conducted in Israel at the time revealed that global jihadist elements – mainly Egyptian, Libyan and Saudi – arrived in Sinai in order to take advantage of al-Qaeda’s international success at the time, after the September 11 attacks and the wave of attacks which washed through the world afterwards, and establish a terror organization there. These activists used a local infrastructure of Bedouins and Salafi Sunni activists who had escaped from Gaza.

The Sinai has seen significant attacks  by ISIS affiliate  – Ansar Bait al-Maqdis on Egyptian security forces, despite Egyptian forces  engaged in destruction and flooding smuggling tunnels along the frontier with Hamas-controlled Gaza. Israel has built a 200 mile security fence and positioned IDF combat battalions.  Along its southern frontier.  Notwithstanding, the Eilat port and resort complex is still vulnerable to possible ISIS attack.  The Multilateral Force and Observers, set up to monitor the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, have been hit with IED attacks, prompting the US Army to send additional troops. This begs the question of why the MFO is not engaged in coordinating ISIS counterterrorism threats in the Sinai with both Israel and Egypt.  Moreover, ISIS presents a possible threat along the Israeli Jordanian border above the neighboring port of Aqaba where sympathetic groups have arisen and are allegedly under surveillance of Jordanian security forces.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

The Islamic State’s Chemical and Biological Threat to the West

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The Islamic State (IS) terrorism’s long arm reaches out from its self-declared Caliphate in Raqqa, Syria. It broke like a thunderclap in the waning days of 2015. There was the downing of a Russian Metrojet Airbus 321 flight in the Sinai with 224 passengers and crew with a bomb secreted aboard by possible ISIS operatives on October 31, 2015. A suicide bombing by ISIS-linked operatives in the south Beirut bastion of Iran’s proxy Hezbollah killed 43 on November 12th. The worst was yet to come the following evening with the bloody spectacles of Paris massacres on November 13th perpetrated by Belgian and French born Moroccan émigrés and  ISIS suicide bombers who entered Europe in the flood of more than 1 million Muslim refugees  using fraudulent Syrian passports.

The audacious plot by European ISIS operatives at a soccer stadium, outdoor cafés and the Bataclan music hall resulted in the deaths of 130 innocent civilians, more than 350 injured, 95 of the latter seriously. Five days later on November 18th, French police swat teams fought a pitched battle in the predominately Muslim banlieue of St. Denis in suburban Paris resulting in deaths of the mastermind of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the 28 year old Belgian born ISIS fighter, his French born cousin and other perpetrators.

The U.S. was not spared ISIS-inspired terrorism. On December 2nd, an American born Pakistani husband and his immigrant Pakistani wife, who entered the US under an unvetted K-1 fiancée visa, killed 14 innocent colleagues of the husband in a blaze of assault weapons fire at a holiday gathering in San Bernardino, California. The open borders of the European Schengen System and the vulnerable U.S. immigration control system were broken by these ISIS terrorist events against the backdrop of the massive Muslim refugee flight from Middle East and South Asian conflicts.

French Premier Manuel Valls at National Assembly, November 19, 2015.

On November 19th, French Premier Manuel Valls warned the French National Assembly about the possibility that ISIS may have the capabilities in Europe to inflict mass casualties through the use of deadly chemical and biological weapons. The Daily Mail reported:

France’s prime minister has warned his country to be prepared for chemical and biological attacks as he told MPs that the ‘macabre imagination’ of ISIS is ‘limitless’.

Manuel Valls made the ominous prediction while calling on French MPs to extend the country’s state of emergency for another three months, amid fears another attack is imminent.

The warning comes as U.S. security officials report that they have found proof that ISIS is developing bio-weapons with the help of Syrian and Iraqi scientists in the Middle East.

The French Premier’s allegations about ISIS’ resort to possible CBW attacks before the National Assembly were realized when two Syrian nationals were arrested in Geneva, Switzerland on December 12th after a search of their vehicle revealed explosives and toxic gas. Just prior to the Geneva arrests, the European Parliament Research Service released a report entitled, ISIL/Daesh and non- conventional weapons of terror. It noted:

Rob Wainwright, the head of Europol, the coordinating organization of EU countries’ police forces, confirmed during a hearing in the European Parliament on 19 November that Europe was likely to face new ISIL/Da’esh attacks after those in Paris the previous week. According to Wainwright:

We are dealing with a very serious, well resourced, determined international terrorist organization that is now active on the streets of Europe. This represents the most serious terrorist threat faced in Europe for 10 years.

Several experts have warned that there is a genuine risk of ISIL/Da’esh using chemical, biological, radiological or even nuclear materials in the context of future attacks on European targets. It has been suggested that the group’s next weapon of choice could, for example, be an improvised explosive device containing chemical or radioactive materials.

Jill Bellmay with Bio Protection gear.jpg

Dr. Jill Bellamy in Bio-Protection Gear.

Dr. Jill Bellamy, a member of the UN Counter Terrorism Task Force and noted biological warfare threat reduction expert, has been the Cassandra-like predictor that ISIS terrorists would open the Pandora’s Box of non-conventional chemical and biological weapons. We have interviewed Bellamy several times. Her prescience about the lurking threat of the Syrian bio-warfare complex in a Damascus suburb was reflected in our January 2013 NER interview, The Dangers of Syria’s Bio-Warfare Complex Should Assad Fall. Former Israeli Deputy Chief of Mission at the Washington, D.C. Embassy upon reviewing that interview called Bellamy’s revelations, “breathtaking” warning about the threat of terrorists overrunning the Syrian Scientific Research Center complex – a complex now under the security of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps.

In conversations with Dr. Bellamy she had raised the threat that the Islamic State with more than $1 billion in funding from smuggled oil sales, extortion and looted bank hard currency and gold reserves could acquire the professional staff of scientists and technicians and equip laboratories for production of leading edge synthetic biological weapons. She had also drawn concern over foreign ISIS fighters in Libya gaining control of Gaddafi-era chemical weapons caches sealed by the UN.

In two segments of the Lisa Benson Radio Show on National Security, on November 22nd and December 20, 2015, listen here and here, a panel composed of Ms. Benson, Advisory Board Member Richard Cutting and Jerry Gordon held a discussion with Dr. Bellamy about these non-conventional ISIS chemical and biological weapons threats to Europe and the West. What follows is the consolidated discussion from both programs.

Lisa Benson

Lisa Benson:  Welcome back, everyone. I would like to bring on Dr. Jill Bellamy.

Dr. Jill Bellamy

Dr. Jill Bellamy:  Thank you very much for having me.

Benson:  You are recognized as an international expert on biological warfare, a member of the United Nations Counter Terrorism Task Force. You previously developed and ran NATO-sponsored policy programs on biological terrorism. You have  published extensively in these related fields in papers such as the National Review, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Le Monde, Le Temps, New English Review, and the Jerusalem Post. It is my great honor to have you, Dr. Bellamy. I am going to turn this over to two of my colleagues and friends who know this subject much better than I do, Richard Cutting and Jerry Gordon.

Jerry Gordon

Jerry Gordon:  Jill, Premier Manuel Valls of France alerted the media by drawing attention to the possible chemical and biological threat from ISIS. What do we know about this?

Bellamy:  In my view that Premier Valls would come out and make such a statement is really quite an incredible thing to happen. It signals that they possibly have actionable intelligence they are working on. I believe that the Islamic State definitely possesses a chem-bio capability and it is amazing now to see Valls come out with this statement. They have also imposed an extended three-month time period of martial law which hopefully helps them utilize this intelligence that they have acquired. However, bio-chem weapons have frequently been left out of the picture. Here we have a major statement coming out on this. We need to discuss the chemical weapons side and separately the biological ones. In my personal view, France is at a slightly higher threat of chemical warfare than biological for the simple reason that we have seen IS’ capability of using chemical weapons. On several occasions, they have used mustard agents. They have also used sarin. This has been confirmed by the UN. We have a situation where they have already been using it in the Caliphate. The potential that they could bring this into Europe is extremely high. This is very easy using the refugee routes. Thus chemical weapons use in France could result in mass casualties. However, the other side of this is the biological threat. IS does possess, and has been training, in the use of biological weapons. They have set up labs. They have recruited scientists. For me the bio side is much more of a risk to everybody. I think it is an international public health security threat.

Benson:  That is astounding.

Bellamy:  We need to be looking at those refugee routes extremely closely. We have huge refugee camps between Turkey and the border of Turkey and Syria. Refugee populations always represent a public health risk because of the living conditions in these camps. When you start exposing certain people in these camps to biological pathogens, and when these people come into Europe through the Balkans, it becomes extremely dangerous. You start to expose more people to different types of diseases. That kind of threat is something that we have to take very seriously. Valls is to be applauded for coming out with this statement.

Richard Cutting

Richard Cutting:  Dr. Bellamy, thank you for your work. You mentioned in the past that we in the West cling to the concept that biological warfare is morally repugnant, as well we should. That may not be the case in the mindset of some of the players now in the Middle East. If we go on the premise that the mindset is somewhat of a predicate for actions that might be taken, can you tell us how these weapons are viewed in other people’s minds who aren’t Americans or Westerners. Is there a danger in us missing their intentions?

Bellamy:  Absolutely. I have to say when you see a Jordanian pilot being burned to death in a cage; these are not people who will hesitate at all to use chemical or biological warfare agents. They simply do not have that kind of moral capacity. For them, this is just another class of weapons, and they will use it. Whatever works the best, whatever is the cheapest, they will use it. Preventing them from attaining this capability is absolutely vital and whatever we need to do we should.

Cutting:  If we put that together with your concept in the prior statement about possibly using refugees themselves as vectors and, an absolute lack of hesitation to use these weapons, you have something of a whole system there. Is that valid?

Bellamy:  Yes, absolutely. First of all, they want to get rid of the refugees as well. These are people that they do not want coming back into the Caliphate. If they spread disease, it’s not going to make any difference to them whatsoever. It would be a plus for them. However, we have something that could spawn into major pandemics. We need to be very aware of that.

Benson:  We have just reminded America that the refugee movements can be used as vectors for spreading biological weapons.

Cutting:  Dr. Bellamy, the streaming of refugees into various European countries with documentation that can’t be sourced back to adequate database information in the countries of origin is my understanding of the problem. Is that true? How does that relate to the potential of ISIS using them as weaponized human beings?

Bellamy:  One of the things that we need to be really careful about is that most of the refugees are not going to be terrorists. However, there are already ISIS operatives in Europe who have used those routes, and who have been in Europe for months. Thus we need to be careful. A lot of the refugees go into detention centers. Those detention centers, are the perfect opportunity to conduct social network analysis of them and find out who they know. It would be the ideal situation to be able to talk to them and find out: “Who do you know and what are the connections there?” We have very powerful social network analysis that we can use. In the United States, they have it. They use it less so in Europe. More needs to be done using these tools to assess, who among the refugee streams are potential terrorists. We need to be connecting those dots to make sure that we screen people who are going to be causing problems in our communities and might spread disease.

Gordon:  Dr. Bellamy could you assess for us the top silent killers that have been developed by Syria and partners such as North Korea and even Iran? And let’s start off with anthrax. We know about that because of an incident that occurred just after 9/11 in Washington DC and across the country. We had 22 diagnosed cases, five of whom died and tens of thousands of federal postal and other employees innoculated. We spent over $300 million to clear government facilities. How can we deal with that threat?

Bellamy:  I think that we need to start looking at the Syrian Scientific Research Center (SSRC), which is the main research center in Syria. It is now guarded by IRGC forces from Iran. We need to make sure that bio-weapons are not handed over to IS should they overrun the SSRC. The SSRC is where Assad had most of his biological and chemical weapons programs. We absolutely have to protect that and make sure that no command and control is lost over that research facility. Otherwise the loss of it to IS would be huge. In terms of protecting the United States, we know about the 2001 attack. It has been in the news. However, anthrax is treatable with Cipro. Thus, we have good counter measures for anthrax. However, I wouldn’t rule out that IS could use it in a territory-deni­al situation. From my perspective, what I’m very concerned about is that Syria possesses smallpox. I think it was very wise for the United States government to increase their stockpile against smallpox. If the SSRC were to be overrun, I would be very worried about that. They also possess a number of synthetic biologicals which could be an issue. I think IS possesses the scientific capability to be able to deploy that type of weaponized biological agent. I think we need to be looking at their scientists. I absolutely believe that the United States’ cutting back on its threat-reduction programs was a mistake. We need to increase those biological threat reduction programs. It is a very dangerous situation that you have in Syria. Now is not the time to drop the ball. We need to beef up our threat reduction programs.

Benson:  We have to think about whether our antibiotics and vaccine stockpiles can meet these biological threats from Syria; especially if their biological programs are in danger of being over taking by IS. We have to speak to our lawmakers about bolstering the biological threat reduction programs to deal with this threat. Right after the Paris attack both France and Belgium were on high alert for a  biochemical attack. Jerry Gordon and you have been discussing that and the potential of ISIS using sarin gas and other toxic agents from Libya. Why does post-Gaddafi Libya represent a possible ISIS CBW threat to the European Union, Israel, and potentially the United States?

Bellamy:  I think that one of the big problems with Libya at the moment is an ISIS group called Katibat al-Battar al-Libi comprised mainly European fighters. They are mostly from Holland and Belgium. Gaddafi constructed his CW programs so they were spread throughout Libya. They weren’t consolidated in one place. They were sealed up by the UN, but were not processed the way that Assad’s chemical weapons were destroyed. So they are basically sitting there. The problem would be how viable they still are if the sites have been overrun, which we think they have been. How viable are these chemical weapons? I would think that they probably still are. This is an extreme threat to Europe. However, we also believe that ISIS already has some chemical, biological, and possibly nuclear material in Europe. This is extremely serious. You see statements being made by the European Commission, and Premier Valls in France and Europe gearing up for a CBW and possibly nuclear attack.

Benson:  Are they prepared for this?

Bellamy:  For the most part Europe is absolutely not prepared for it at all. The exception is France, which routinely has national plans in place and conducts exercises. They are very prepared, because they are one of the highest targets of Daesh (ISIS). When you’re looking at biological weapons, in terms of other European countries, it doesn’t really matter if the French are prepared. Because if something happens in another European country and they use bio weapons, it will spread to other countries, so it doesn’t really matter how prepared are the French. It will not protect the rest of Europe. I think we need to see major changes in how we prepare. We need to be doing what Israel does. Israel annually runs Orange Flame, which is a bio-preparedness civilian and military two day exercise. They routinely have done this every year since 2005. They train on different types of Category A biological warfare agents like smallpox and anthrax. This is what we really need to have happening in Europe now. It’s now time for Europe and America to do this. We need to prepare our children and the school system to handle this type of attack, and it’s just not being done.

Benson:  This is frightening information, and, we don’t hear our lawmakers talking about this. The Pentagon has altered our intelligence reports. We don’t even  know if they are  getting this information.

Bellamy:  Let’s hope they are. However, I don’t know, either.

Benson:  What are you hearing about sarin gas coming out of Libya?

Bellamy:  Yes, I think sarin and possibly VX. However, that is a little bit on the fringe. I wouldn’t want to say that they have VX yet. What was sealed up by the UN, I would be very worried about Daesh obtaining. I think that they have. It is very concerning.

Benson:  Dr. Bellamy, that is horrifying. Sarin gas is not easy to transport because it’s so lethal in small amounts. We have to find out how to prepare our communities for this potential attack. We have no civil defense in America for this threat.

Gordon:  Just as we were starting this discussion, there was a flash announcement about a possible bomb aboard an Air France flight out of Africa. That raises a question about airport security. In light of your comment, I wonder if you could give us an illustration of how vulnerable airports are in Europe to a possible CBW attack.

Cutting:  It’s a matter of logistics, transport, financing, and getting the weapons in theater are the essential first steps. The vulnerable locations are clearly available in Europe. Any place where there’s a high intersection of people moving through airports, train stations, theaters – large groups of people where these chemical or bio weapons can be used. They can be dispersed in aerosol or any vector format. It is the volume and movement of people in these areas that creates the weapon’s asymmetrical geometric, impact. As those infected move and spread.

Bellamy:  European transportation networks and systems are extremely vulnerable. If we look at a country like the Netherlands, their airports are very vulnerable. I don’t believe that they lack resources. However, they don’t seem to be able to put into place the types of systems that are needed to protect their airports, specifically from biological and chemical attacks. Something as simple as having atomizers in their airport bathroom toilets, that could easily be filled with biological or chemical agents. The Dutch designed these floor to ceiling toilets at Schipol outside of the airport where you would go through screening, so the general public can go in there. You can’t see who is up at the ceiling putting anything into this type of system. You could be releasing that every 15 – 20 minutes. I don’t know how often the atomizers go off, but, you could  probably get a pretty good bio hit by using those atomizers.

Gordon:  After the anthrax incident following 9/11 in October 2001, the U.S. government really got concerned and invested something in excess of $12 billion to protect major airports against a biological warfare threat here in the United States. The obvious question is: Was that money well spent, or are we, frankly, still in danger?

Bellamy:  I think that it is impossible to test for every single biological agent that could be developed, especially when you’re getting into synthetic biological areas, which both Iran and Syria have worked on. It is very difficult to protect against all of that. You’re going to catch the major ones. You might detect anthrax, perhaps botulism, and smallpox if they were ever released. However, we are now at a stage where they are developing things that I don’t believe we have good countermeasures for or even for detection purposes. Life sciences have moved way beyond what our capabilities are for detection.

Benson:  What do we do?

Bellamy:  I think  what we really need to do is start having the types of drills that they do in Israel. I’m very envious of the Israelis and how they completely involve their citizenry in these types of exercises. That is what needs to be happening. We need to be prepared. You can’t prevent every kind of attack that could happen. If you have good intelligence, that’s definitely a step in the right direction. If you willfully ignore certain types of intelligence you are reducing how protective you can be of your citizens. So this is a very difficult situation. In Europe, we have very limited resources in terms of intelligence. The United States obviously has more, and they have more assets available. Still it is, very concerning.

Cutting:  Dr. Bellamy, when offered the opportunity by a credible source why didn’t U.S. intelligence acquire what seemed to be a veritable treasure trove of information on Syrian and Iranian biological warfare developments?

Bellamy:  It really was quite surprising and very worrying to me that they did not. We had somebody who presented us with over 1,000 photos that he had been able to take over a several year period, within Iranian and Syrian laboratories. He was part of a scientific exchange program with these different laboratories. He photographed himself with staff. Some of the photographs were taken under the radar; however most of them were taken in the open. He came to us and said, “Look, I’ve been doing this for seven to ten years. I’ve been visiting these different scientists. I have good contacts with them,” and showed photographs that were sent to the U.S. government. This was never followed up on. This person who did this is a NATO member state’s national. We are not talking about a source that’s off in the clouds. This person was in the defense establishment of one of the countries here in Europe and a scientist able to do this. Long before we had trouble with Syria or there were tensions and problems with Iran, at least in terms of Europe, this person had been invited regularly to Iran and to different laboratories. In these photos it looked like there was some offensive research going on. When offered to US intelligence this was never followed up on.

Gordon:  Is this attitude indicative of not only the U.S. intelligence community, but some national security echelons in Europe? What is behind their inability to come to terms with this threat, as against the so-called terrorist threat that we saw in Paris in November 13, 2015?  What is in the mindset of these folks when they are confronted with the opportunity, as my colleague Richard Cutting just said, to gain a treasure trove of information about what our enemies are doing to prepare offensive weapons?

Bellamy:  I think maybe a year and a half ago or so this person came to me. At that time in Europe they were really seriously trying not to focus on CBW threats. I don’t know about the United States, but they wanted to literally sink this opportunity. I don’t think that they wanted anybody looking at it very closely. In Europe we always have this kind of tension where they think they are going to panic the public if they prepare them. My view on this is a prepared public is not going to be panicked. That iswhat we need to be doing. Why the U.S. didn’t pick up on it, perhaps it’s the attitude of the current Administration. I think that our greatest offense is preparing the public and doing it through civil-military exercises, and conducting periodic  drills. That is one of the major keys to protecting our societies. We really need to do this to reduce the bio warfare threat against vulnerable countries in the West.

Gordon:  This is an illustration of why this discussion is invaluable, imparting information that you could not obtain elsewhere in the media.

Benson:  Dr. Jill Bellamy, thank you. We value your insight, and on behalf of Richard Cutting, Jerry Gordon, and myself, keep it up and report back to us often.

Bellamy:  Thank you very much for having me, Lisa.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Growing anti-Government protests in Iranian towns of Mashhad and Shandiz

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Complimentary reports from Mashhad city, in Northeastern Iran, indicate that more people are joining the Town of Shandiz protest against the government plundering of the people.

Reliable reports say that at this hour (1600 local time) Thursday, December 31, 2015, the number of protesters has reached 2,000.

They are chanting slogans including: “we have heard thousands of empty pledges”, “Shandiz shareholders have been lied to”, “the incompetent governor must resign”, and “we are mourning today, because our lives are up in smoke.”

iran protest signs

Mashhad residents say we only can rely on God, and nobody in the government.

One protester plead to God saying, “Oh Lord, please relieve us from this misery.”

iran protest people in street

Another angry protester said “I have lost everything. I gave all my livelihood for this project. My children are sick and I have nothing to care for them.”

iran protester in street

Yet another angry protester condemned the government for his poor state of life saying, “This government would not do anything until a number of these people die.”

RELATED ARTICLE: Canada’s Spy Agency Disputes Idea That Personality And Terrorism Aren’t Linked

“We All Declare for Liberty, But We Do Not All Mean the Same Thing” by Eugene Volokh

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A comment on my freedom and hypocrisy post reminded me of one of my favorite quotes, from Abraham Lincoln, in his Address at a Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Apr. 18, 1864:

The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.

With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name — liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names — liberty and tyranny.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails today among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the processes by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage, hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty.

I’ve long found this to be a thought-provoking piece, and a useful reminder that “liberty” in the abstract is not self-defining. Most rhetoric that simply refers to “liberty” — whether in the context of slavery, where Lincoln said this, or abortion rights, or national sovereignty, and so on — rests on the assertion about the proper definition of people’s or institutions’ rights; and it’s that definition that should often be at the heart of the debate.

Of course, this analysis doesn’t itself tell us what the proper result is in any debate (such as the debate about abortion). But it should remind us that many questions can’t be resolved by just talking about “liberty” in the abstract, or “not imposing one’s beliefs on others” in the abstract.

If liberty means freedom to do things that don’t violate the rights of others, the important questions are (1) what constitutes those “rights,” (2) what counts as violation, and (3) in some contexts (e.g., abortion, animal rights, slavery), who counts as “others.”

This post first appeared at the Volokh Conspiracy.

Eugene VolokhEugene Volokh

Eugene Volokh teaches free speech law, religious freedom law, church-state relations law, a First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic, and tort law, at UCLA School of Law, where he has also often taught copyright law, criminal law, and a seminar on firearms regulation policy.

FEE’s Top 10 Articles of 2015 by Jeffrey A. Tucker & Daniel Bier

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FEE was founded in 1946 to be a voice for liberty in our world, and today FEE makes ideas on freedom, markets, and ethical principles familiar and credible to the rising generation.

This year FEE’s outreach broke all records in achieving that goal. You can see the progress in programs, publications, and media appearances by FEE faculty and staff. This has coincided with major progress in how we reach the world through FEE.org.

Here is a roundup of activities on FEE.org this year.

Top Ten Articles

FEE has been a leading commentary on current affairs, using everything from technological trends to popular culture to politics as a way to illustrating the usefulness of good economics backed by evolved norms.

Hundreds of articles, blog posts, books, and other resources have been published on FEE.org this year, all contributing to record-breaking traffic performance. Here are our top 15 performers of 2015:

10) New York’s Taxi Cartel Is Collapsing. Now They Want a Bailout.

Ride sharing apps are fundamentally changing transportation, dethroning taxi monopolies and replacing them with human choice. Note that this isn’t happening through any political reform. Innovation is the force that is making the difference.

9) The Economics of a Toddler and the Ethics of a Thug

This headline neatly sums up so much of the “progressive” political mindset, particularly socialist supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders. They scream about the need to plunder the rich, using massive police-state power, without a thought given to where new wealth is going to come from.

8) “Jesus Christ Was a Progressive Because He Advocated Income Redistribution to Help the Poor”

This piece by FEE president Larry Reed dealt squarely with an intellectual confusion that dates nearly to the beginning of Christianity itself. He shows that Jesus did not advocate income redistribution. “One can scour the Scriptures with a fine-tooth comb and find nary a word from Christ that endorses the forcible redistribution of wealth by political authorities.”

7) How Policing Works in a Privatized City

We are fortunate to have examples of the success of liberty all around us. Many cities today are carving out areas that are purchased by private developers. The results are spectacular, and Atlanta’s “Atlantic Station” is one such case: private streets, private policing, private housing. Surprise: these places are not walled gardens but rather hugely welcoming to all.

6) Supreme Court to DoJ: Fourth Amendment Is Not a “Useless Piece of Paper”

When the Supreme Court actually does something right, it’s worth noting. A sound opinion from the Court said that police can’t use a traffic stop to do search missions that are completely unrelated, without having some reasonable and specific suspicions. It’s a good start.

5) Alabama Senate Votes to End State Marriage Licenses

This article covered a possible solution to the marriage debate: get rid of licenses completely and replace them with regular contracts. Opponents of same-sex marriage favored the bill too, but, ironically, such a step would help de-politicize the entire subject. Sadly, the bill died in the House.

4) The Eugenics Plot of the Minimum Wage

How many times have you heard that a higher minimum wage will help the poor? The original architects of wage floors actually knew the truth. They favored the laws in order to exclude the poor, whom they wanted swept out of the population. This is chilling material and completely forgotten history.

3) America Isn’t Getting More Liberal — It’s Getting More Libertarian

This piece documents public polling on a range of issues: immigration, drugs, taxes, gay rights, guns, environment, the draft, and federal power. In most cases, it finds that people are becoming more libertarian over time. It’s another case where mainstream narrative is completely wrong.

2) How Many Children Are You Required to Save?

Just when you think only current news goes viral, this serious philosophical piece rocked the traffic hard. The post showed how the popular argument by Peter Singer relies on false intuitions and casuistry.

1) 6 Reasons to Welcome Refugees after Paris

Our most popular piece of the year! The more you look at the arguments over immigration and refugees, the more you realize that so much of what people think they know is wrong. There is no evidence that vetted US refugees are likely to become terrorists. In fact, refugees tend to become more successful in America than economic immigrants. ISIS sees Syrian refugees as traitors to their cause, so there’s every reason to welcome them as a part of stopping violent extremism.

Other big hits this year included “7 Habits of Highly Effective Libertarians,” “Millions in Brazil Follow a Teen Leader to Freedom,” “Handcuffed and Helpless,” and “Bernie Sanders’ Anti-Immigration Crankery.”

And don’t forget, you can also check out the beautiful and completely redesigned quarterly Freeman magazines online.

Best Books on FEE.org in 2015

The entire book Liberalism by Ludwig von Mises is online at FEE.org. Also, a lost work, Interventionism: An Economic Analysis, is now available. Planned Chaos also made its first online appearance this year.

The first book that FEE ever published, Essays on Liberty, is available as an ePub.

The classic by Henry Hazlitt, What You Should Know About Inflation, is now free to download. FEE also has the full text of Henry Hazlitt’s classic Economics in One Lesson online.

Our five most popular books are available on iTunes and Amazon.

In the physical world, FEE’s edition of Economics in One Lesson is still one of our most popular among young adults — 70 years after its first publication.

Web Development

FEE.org went through dramatic redesign and restructuring this year, and part of this included the building of a platform for leveraging content from like-minded institutions. This has multiplied the reach of great content many times over.

2015 was also the first year that FEE.org became part of the “Creative Commons”, allowing anyone to repost, republish, remix, adapt, sell, or do anything else with FEE’s original content. This move has enormously increased the reach and impact of FEE’s content, which has been published in many new outlets, such as Newsweek.com.

We also took steps to move all web development in house, using the best talent to make FEE.org an ever greater platform. You can look forward to a more comprehensive front page, a member center, tools for finding related material, online learning, and much more.

We’ve also released a major new program for networking: the FEE Faculty Network!

One more thing: we are now distributing some awesome swag in our fancy store. Have a look!

Thank you for an amazing year. Let’s continue to build a freer world in 2016.

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey A. Tucker

Jeffrey Tucker is Director of Digital Development at FEE, CLO of the startup Liberty.me, and editor at Laissez Faire Books. Author of five books, he speaks at FEE summer seminars and other events. His latest book is Bit by Bit: How P2P Is Freeing the World.  Follow on Twitter and Like on Facebook.

Daniel BierDaniel Bier

Daniel Bier is the editor of Anything Peaceful. He writes on issues relating to science, civil liberties, and economic freedom.

Open Letter to the Greek Ambassador in Washington, D.C.

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Dear Ambassador of Greece, Ελληνική Δημοκρατία
The Honorable Christos P. Panagopoulos,
and the people of the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Elliniki Dimokratia)
Greek Embassy Washington D.C.

I understand that your brave fighter pilots in the Greek air force engaged the wanna-bees of the Turkish Air Force (the same group of miscreants that sucker punched a Russian fighter jet over Syria).

In a superior display of Greek military flying your jets engaged in a dogfight with the Turkish aircraft who just keep on violating your Greek air space.

greek airforce logo

Greek Air-forces logo.

With superior flying skills your jets engaged these Turkish pilots over the Aegean Sea after six of these, flanked by two others, violated your Greek national air space. I think nine times, according to your news Greek media.

The eight Turkish jets, of which two were armed, were chased away by your brave and honorable pilots in their Greek interceptors. OUTSTANDING JOB !!

I love your country. I spent many happy days in Corfu while your government graciously hosted us as members of the United States Navy in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993.

My second visit we had just conducted a massive weapons move in operation Desert Storm with SEAL Team ** (redacted) and a fast attack submarine USS (redacted).

You gave me a place to call home and we felt most welcome. Thank you.

I went parasailing in 1992 in Corfu and ate some of your finest cuisine at Paleokastro Heraklio. I did not see one Muslim and no mosques. It was – is an awesome place.

I do apologize for dropping the top of my ice-cream cone on the back of the nude sunbather on the beach in 1993. Did not mean to do it…. She was very understanding as she sat up. Oppps.

My recommendation to you sir would be the next time you see any Turkish jets in your air space would be to shoot the sons of bitches down …….

I wish you a happy 2016 and a Happy Independence Day on March 25th.

Kind regards,

Geoff Ross

Why Is the Middle Class Shrinking? 2 Arguments in Favor of Economic Inequality by Steven Horwitz

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Economic inequality continues to be a major political issue even as the headlines scream about terrorism and climate change. Bernie Sanders has made it a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, and other candidates have addressed it along the way. And a recent study by the Pew Research Center has added new, though misplaced, fuel to the fire of those concerned about inequality.

The Pew study has been discussed in the media, and one key point has been grossly misunderstood. Among other things, the study found that the American middle class is shrinking and is now just under half of the population. Commentators quickly began to refer to the “hollowing out” of the middle class and to tie this study to the concerns about growing inequality.

However, a close look at the data shows that the middle class has shrunk since 1971 because more members of the middle class have moved up the income ladder than down it.

Don’t believe me? Look for yourself at the terrific graphic that the Financial Times created to illustrate the data:

You can watch as the folks on the left slowly slide to the right over 44 years. When you compare the 1971 distribution with the 2015 one, what do you see? A growth in households earning around $80,000 or above, adjusted for inflation, since 1971 and a significant decline in those making less than that amount (with the exception of the folks right around $0). It’s true that there’s not a fat middle class anymore, but why should that trouble us if there are more high-income households and fewer low-income households overall?

The funny part of this is that if you read the story in the Financial Times that accompanies this graphic, it’s as if they never actually looked at the graphic they produced. Their narrative is at odds with it, as the narrative proclaims the doom-and-gloom story that the graphic actually refutes. As they say, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

This growth in household income may, to some extent, be a by-product of the same economic processes that have produced the concerns about inequality, illustrated in this graphic by the significant growth of the ultra-rich.

There are far more very rich people today than there were 44 years ago, but the growth of the upper class has gone hand in hand with the enrichment of a large number of less-well-off households. Are there ways in which economic inequality is good, then? I think the answer to that question is yes. If so, then, what are they? Here are two defenses of economic inequality that proponents of the free market could make.

First is the more obvious one: growing inequality is good because it might be a consequence of economic institutions that produce all kinds of results that we think are desirable. For example, if competitive markets lead to peace and rising prosperity for all but also create inequality along the way by allowing some folks to get very rich, then we should at least tolerate that inequality because the things that produce it also produce other things we like.

This is the usual defense libertarians invoke, and it’s a good argument. The critic, however, might say that even if the defense is true, it doesn’t prove that inequality is necessary for that result. There’s a difference between saying, “Good economic institutions will produce inequality while creating good economic outcomes for all,” and saying, “Good economic outcomes for all can’t be produced without inequality.” The critic would likely ask how reducing the inequality that markets produce will harm their ability to produce those good results.

And here is where we come back to the Pew study and get a second defense of inequality. One way the middle class (and all of us) has become richer in the last generation is that the cost of so many goods and services has dropped in terms of the number of hours we have to work at the average wage in order to purchase them. The lower price of basic goods has enabled more and more people to afford things like large TVs, smartphones, and new, cheaper medications.

One thing that has made this process happen is inequality. In The Constitution of Liberty, F.A. Hayek argued,

A large part of the expenditure of the rich, though not intended for that end, thus serves to defray the cost of the experimentation with the new things that, as a result, can later be made available to the poor.… Even the poorest today owe their relative material well-being to the results of past inequality.

Having a group of very rich people is what enables yesterday’s luxuries to become today’s basics.

There are two parts to this process: cost bearing and discovery. The very rich are able to afford the high prices of new technologies, thereby providing an incentive for firms to market new and expensive products. Once the rich pay the high initial price and cover the fixed costs of research and development, sellers can begin to price closer to the much lower marginal cost of producing additional units, making the good much more affordable to more people.

But the rich are also an economic canary in the coal mine that informs producers whether they are getting it right.

For example, a critic of inequality might complain that no one “really needs” a $100,000 luxury car with all kinds of new high-tech gadgets on it. But the fact that some can afford it and want to buy it helps the car companies figure out which new features might be popular. Rear-view cameras were once only available on top-end cars, but they have slowly become a standard feature. The same may soon be true of collision warning systems now available on high-end models of some cars.

In fact, everything we think of as basics today was once the province of only the well-off. The first microwaves were expensive and bought mostly by the rich. I can remember my parents paying about $900 for a VCR in the late 1970s. VCRs, of course, fetch a price close to zero these days. The rich who bought the early LCD TVs helped manufacturers defray the fixed production costs and figure out what people wanted, and now these TVs are in the vast majority of houses at a more affordable price.

The inequality at any point in time is a key part of the process that creates wealth for the rest of society over the years to follow. The very rich enable producers to experiment and cover their costs, and that makes more goods more affordable for the rest of us, from fun toys to life-saving necessities.

The inequality produced by the market is a key part of how the market moves forward, enriching all of us in the process. And that’s why the middle class is shrinking: the rich, through the competitive market, have helped make the middle class richer.

Steven HorwitzSteven Horwitz

Steven Horwitz is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics at St. Lawrence University and the author of Hayek’s Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Institutions.

He is a member of the FEE Faculty Network.

On the ‘White Privilege’ movement

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We close out the year with more protests and demands than ever, as our intellectuals engage in more and more “conversations” about race.

The protests spilled over to restaurants and shopping venues, even as Americans celebrated Christmas.  The incubators are the schools and college campuses, where students are taught about injustices invisible to the common man.  Textbooks offering lessons for deep classroom discussion include the sociology textbook, Color Lines and Racial Angles, published by Norton.  It includes such thought-provoking gems as “Asian American Exceptionalism and ‘Stereotype Promise,'” “The Fascination and Frustration with Native American Mascots,” “White Trash: The Social Origins of a Stigmatype,” and “Thinking about Trayvon [Martin, of course]: Privileged Responses and Media Discourse.”

Another gem from the once esteemed textbook publisher is Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century, with offerings from professors in various fields, such as biology, history, anthropology, sociology…and education, with a contribution by Bill Ayers’ choice for Obama’s Secretary of Education, Linda Darling-Hammond.  The Obama education transition team leader and developer of one of the two national Common Core tests offers her thoughts on education in an essay titled, “Structured for Failure: Race, Resources, and Student Achievement.”

At the K-12 level, materials for sensitizing students to oppression abound.  There is  (Re)Teaching Trayvon: Education for Racial Justice.  Curriculum materials on “teaching the ongoing murders of black men” are also readily available at Rethinking Schools.The George Soros-funded Teaching for Change also has some incendiary curriculum materials for the tykes.

White Privilege: All these materials are intended to instill an understanding of “white privilege,” which arose as more obvious methods such as slurs and discrimination disappeared.  White privilege is a kind of unconscious superiority that must be reviewed constantly–replacing the Puritan scouring for sin.  To gain an understanding, students can read “Beyond the Big, Bad Racist: Shared Meanings of White Identity and Supremacy” in theirColor Lines textbook.

The common wisdom in academe is that all white people are racist because they have white privilege.  An exponent of this theory, George Yancy, was recently hired by Emory University to teach philosophy.  His letter to “White America” appeared on Christmas Eve in the New York Times. Following in the footsteps of Ta-Nehisi Coates, a MacArthur Genius Grant winner and National Book Award winner for his stream-of-consciousness racial complaint in the style of James Baldwin, Yancy invoked James Baldwin.

“Dear White America,” wrote Yancy, as he set out to berate her,

I have a weighty request. As you read this letter, I want you to listen with love, a sort of love that demands that you look at parts of yourself that might cause pain and terror, as James Baldwin would say. Did you hear that? You may have missed it. I repeat: I want you to listen with love. Well, at least try.

Yancy, here, managed to combine demand and insult.  No doubt, millions of white masochistic Americans did just that: they tried very, very, very hard to listen, with love (as difficult as it is for them to grasp the concept).

This man who occupies an office once occupied by a real philosopher, continued,

We don’t talk much about the urgency of love these days, especially within the public sphere. Much of our discourse these days is about revenge, name calling, hate, and divisiveness. I have yet to hear it from our presidential hopefuls, or our political pundits. I don’t mean the Hollywood type of love, but the scary kind, the kind that risks not being reciprocated, the kind that refuses to flee in the face of danger. To make it a bit easier for you, I’ve decided to model, as best as I can, what I’m asking of you. Let me demonstrate the vulnerability that I wish you to show. As a child of Socrates, James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, let me speak the truth, refuse to err on the side of caution.

Now, the Dissident Prof has taken some classes in philosophy, but never has she heard a professor declare himself a “child of” any historical figure, much less of such a disparate triad as Socrates, James Baldwin, and Audre Lorde.  Furthermore, they told their students that philosophy is the love of wisdom and that according to Socrates, the beginning of wisdom comes with the admission of ignorance.

Professor Yancy, however, declares that he speaks the truth, or at least a truth that does not hold back, has no doubt.

Lest anyone get the impression that Professor Yancy feels himself in any way superior to White America, or to anyone else, he confesses his own sin of sexism, or male privilege.  But then again that must mean he is superior because he confessed his privilege.  So unless you, White America, confess the privilege that Professor Yancy says you enjoy (because he knows), you are guilty.

Richard WrightRichard Wright I will not claim to be a child of Richard Wright, just someone who, in spite of her white privilege, read and taught (at Emory) his autobiographical account of a show trial put on by the American Communists in the 1930s.  Wright got entangled with them in his efforts to break into writing.  The poor soul who is the target, his friend Ross, is NOT a privileged white American, but a black American, one of many targeted and exploited by the communists.

Wright is asked to come to the trial so that he might “learn what happened to ‘enemies of the working class.'”

The following day, a Sunday, Ross is confronted by his accusers.  Over the course of three hours, the accusers describe “Fascism’s aggression in Germany, Italy, and Japan,” “the role of the Soviet Union as the world’s lone workers’ state,” and the “suffering and handicaps” of the Negro population on Chicago’s South Side and the relation to “world struggle.” The direct charges against Ross are made, with dates, conversations, and scenes.

Then it is time for Ross to defend himself:

He stood trembling; he tried to talk and his words would not come.  The hall was as still as death.  Guilt was written in every pore of his black skin.  His hands shook.  He held on to the edge of the table to keep on his feet. . . .

“Comrades,” he said in a low, charged voice.  “I’m guilty of all the charges, all of them.”

"TheGodThatFailed" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia“TheGodThatFailed” by Source. Licensed under Fair use via WikipediaIn a similar manner, those of us benefiting from “privilege,” must confess as we are blamed for such things as the “school to prison pipeline” and the deplorable conditions on the South Side of Chicago.  Those who wish to be in the good graces of those like Professor Yancy must confess these over and over and over.

Fortunately, there are still a few legitimate philosophy professors around, such as Jack Kerwick, one of the contributors to the Dissident Prof collection, Exiled.  Kerwick, who keeps a very busy schedule teaching, also is a frequent contributor to such sites as Townhall and American Thinker.  Those who have enjoyed his application of logic to the issues of the day can now enjoy his razor sharp analyses in a new collection, The American Offensive: Dispatches from the Front, where he tackles such topics as Immigration, Academia, Religion, and Race.  As a matter of fact, I think George Yancy should read it.  I cannot think of anyone who would benefit more.

A couple reminders: The deadline for public comment on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s “family engagement” plan is Jan.4.  The deadline for 2015 charitable contributions is Dec. 31.

Best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Impeachment Resolution Introduced at the RNC

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Seven long and disastrous years into the criminal reign over the nation by America’s first dictator, Barack Hussein Obama, five years after Republicans gained control of the House and a year after Republicans seized control of the US Senate, Obama remains in power, on track to destroy the USA and unaccountable for his many crimes…

The GOP touts a beautiful set of principles and values that they never live up to… The Michigan GOP has even posted those principles in Arabic, as Michigan is fast becoming the Mecca of America under Republican leadership.

The GOP web site asks all GOP voters to sign a petition, to “take the oath to defend the Constitution” by signing a pledge posted on the GOP site… an oath that every Republican member of Congress has taken upon entering office… That GOP call to action reads as follows:

“When Members of Congress are sworn into office, they take an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. “

Stand up and take the oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion . . . So help me God.”

Yet as of today, not one Republican in Congress has stood up to keep their oath.

Since 2009, millions of American conservatives have been actively working in Tea Party and Patriot groups to force federal government back towards conservative constitutional foundations, based on the same principles and values espoused by the do-nothing GOP. But no matter how many Republicans they elect and send to DC, nothing changes, Obama’s crimes continue unabated.

The people have had enough at this point… and they are finally ready to take matters into their own hands and force their elected servants to keep their oath, to hold Obama accountable and turn this country around, or be held accountable themselves for failing to do so.

In July of 2014, The North American Law Center (TNALC.org) made public their proposed Articles of Impeachment against Barack Hussein Obama, a combined 48 criminal charges under three Articles…

  • ARTICLE I – Usurpation of the Oval Office via criminal identity fraud
  • ARTICLE II – Malfeasance, misconduct and abuse of the Oval Office
  • ARTICLE III – Aiding and Abetting known enemies of the United States

Since then, House Republicans who have publicly stated their support for Impeachment, and even some who have directly committed to advance TNALC Articles of Impeachment, like Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee, have done absolutely nothing to hold Obama accountable for the many impeachable crimes of his administration.

The Constitutional Accountability Coalition (CAC) in 29 states, focused entirely upon advancing the TNALC Articles, has been hosting a weekly BTR event to muster support for the Impeachment of Obama.

Now, Republican National Committee member David Agema from Michigan has introduced the linked  Resolution in Support of Proper Articles of Impeachment at the national level, similar to a GOP Resolution currently traveling at the county and district level through CAC groups in 29 states.

Agema, a former Air Force fighter pilot, has become as fed up with do-nothing Republicans in a party he has supported all his life, just like millions of Americans in mass exodus from their beloved GOP after the past six years of incompetence and cowardice demonstrated by every Congressional Republican in office today.

The first response from fellow RNC members came from an Arizona RNC Member who immediately advised Agema that he will not support any action to hold Obama accountable without marching orders from Reince Priebus and Speaker Paul Ryan. He would not keep his oath unless ordered to do so by Priebus and Ryan, who have long demonstrated a lack of constitutional decency and courage themselves… and then, “he might…”

This is exactly the type of cowardice that has allowed Obama & Co. to destroy America unchallenged for the past seven years, no matter how many Republicans are elected to stop it. It is also a prime example of why millions of Americans are defecting from a feckless GOP… including Rev. Franklin Graham who recently announced he was leaving a party that no longer represents Republican voters, principles or values.

Agema’s Resolution in Support of Impeachment will be a center point of the next RNC meeting on January 13, 2016. The people cannot sit back and allow this true patriot to fight this battle alone in the RNC, facing stiff opposition from both Priebus and Ryan, who remain committed to the path of Boehner and McConnell…. As the party is in free fall.

It isn’t any Democrat who is blocking the proper impeachment of the most impeachable administration in US history…. IT IS REPUBLICANS, ALL OF THEM!

People who want to support the Agema Resolution need to contact their own State GOP RNC Representatives between now and January 13 to make certain that Agema is not left standing alone in the ongoing battle for constitutional accountability.

Nothing good is going to happen in this country until “the people” take action and make it happen. Left to their own devices, Congressional Republicans are going to do the same as they have done for the past seven years, NOTHING THAT MATTERS, while they beg for your money and votes in yet another worthless election cycle.

Until we hold someone accountable, no one is accountable for anything! Until we uphold and enforce the US Constitution, we don’t have a Constitution worthy of mention…

CONTEST: Best tip jar ideas for the People’s Cube donations

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How many of you think nothing about leaving a $10 tip after a dinner at a restaurant?

Why not tip the host after visiting the People’s Cube?

Maybe not every day, but tipping once a month or even once a year is better than not tipping, unless you’re a cow.

Remember: every time you don’t tip The People’s Cube, Hillary acquires another superpower.

Long story short, we wanted to send out a picture of a tip jar with a persuasive label asking for donations. For example, ask money for Mrs. Red Square’s arm reattachment surgery so that she would stop nagging about her right to keep and bear arms around the house.

But then not many remember our discussions about her missing arms.

So we decided to run this “Best tipping jar picture” contest with this transparent PNG image of a tip jar. Those who submit pictures and ideas, won’t have to tip. Everyone else please click here.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The Peoples Cube.

Devout Muslim charged with setting fire to his own mosque

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At the time the fire was set, it garnered much attention as a “hate crime”: “The Houston chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on authorities to investigate a possible bias motive in the case, citing what it called a ‘recent spike in hate incidents targeting mosques nationwide.’”

But it turns out to have been yet another fake hate crime. Islamic supremacist groups such as the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) want and need hate crimes against Muslims, because they’re the currency they use to buy power and influence in our victimhood-oriented society, and to deflect attention away from jihad terror and onto Muslims as putative victims.

Hamas-linked CAIR, designated a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates, and other Muslims have on many occasions not hesitated to stoop even to fabricating “hate crimes,” including attacks on mosques. Most notably, in February, a New Jersey Muslim was found guilty of murder that he tried to portray as an “Islamophobic” attack, and in 2014 in California, a Muslim was found guilty of killing his wife, after first blaming her murder on “Islamophobia.”

Gary Nathaniel Moore

“Man charged with setting Houston mosque fire was a devout attendee,” by Carol Christian and Leah Binkowitz, Houston Chronicle, December 30, 2015 (thanks to Steve):

A Houston man has been arrested in connection with a suspected arson at a mosque on Christmas Day.

A spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed that the man was arrested early Wednesday, sometime after midnight, and appeared in court 7 a.m. Wednesday.

The suspect, Gary Nathaniel Moore, 37, of Houston, appeared in court at 7 a.m., spokeswoman Nicole Strong said.

According to a charging instrument released by the Harris County District Clerk, Moore told investigators at the scene that he has attended the mosque for five years, coming five times per day to pray seven days per week.

Moore told investigators he had been at the mosque earlier on Dec. 25 to pray, and had left at about 2 p.m. to go home. Moore told investigators he was the last person to leave the mosque and saw no smoke or other signs of fire when he left. He had returned to the scene after hearing about the fire from a friend.

Though the suspect said he was a regular at the mosque, MJ Khan, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, which operates the mosque, said he was unfamiliar with Moore.

Of course. No doubt MJ Khan is shocked! Shocked!

“We are just looking into it ourselves,” he said Wednesday morning after learning of the arrest.

“We are really very surprised and saddened by this whole thing,” said Khan.

Using surveillance video from multiple businesses nearby, investigators were able to identify Moore, according to records. A search warrant of his home was conducted, in which investigators recovered a backpack and clothing that seemingly matched that which was seen in surveillance footage, as well as one half of a two-pack of charcoal lighter fluid bottles that seemed to match another lighter fluid bottle found inside the mosque….

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New York Lawyer in terrorism case: ‘Finding unbiased jurors will be tough because of Trump’s comments’

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New York City? This unnamed lawyer thinks that New York City has become a seething hotbed of frothing Islamophobia because of Donald Trump? 9/11 didn’t do it, but a few remarks from The Blowhard-In-Chief, and they’re building a concentration camp on Roosevelt Island?

This lawyer shows the utterly ridiculous lengths to which the Muslim victimhood industry is willing to go in order to deflect attention away from the grim reality of jihad terror. Minh Quang Pham, a convert to Islam, is accused of supporting al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and his lawyer is whining about Donald Trump. If this legal eagle really wants to know who is responsible for “inciting public fear of Muslims,” if there really is any such fear, the names Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Syed Rizwan Farook, Tashfeen Malik, Nidal Malik Hasan, and a host of others like them spring to mind. But talking about them won’t get Minh Quang Pham sprung.

Minh-Quang-Pham_74

Minh Quang Pham

“Lawyer in terrorism case says finding unbiased jurors will be hard because of Trump’s comments,” Associated Press, December 30, 2015:

NEW YORK – A lawyer for a man accused in a New York terrorism case is arguing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim immigration into the United States will make it difficult to find unbiased jurors.

Minh Quang Pham is expected to go on trial in federal court in February. The Vietnamese man has pleaded not guilty to supporting al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

A 2012 indictment accuses him of traveling from the United Kingdom to Yemen in 2010 and receiving training from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Pham’s lawyer argues in court papers Trump’s statements have become “a rallying cry inciting public fear of Muslims.”…

RELATED ARTICLE: Survey shows Jew-hatred rises with Muslim religiosity

Bill Clinton and Bill Cosby co-author book ‘The Art of Schlonging’ — Trump responds

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art of schlonging book coverAt a joint press conference former President Bill Clinton and comedian Bill Cosby announced they will co-author a new tell all book. The title of the book is The Art of Schlonging.

This announcement comes as Mr. Cosby has been formally charged with drugging and sexually assaulting Temple University employee Andrea Constand. The new book will be published by Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini “Bob” Guccione, the founder of the adult magazine Penthouse. Mr. Guccione in a press release said:

This book will revolutionize sex in America. It is time for all sexual perverts to come out of the closet and be proud of their unique gifts. We will begin to tell the real story of the two Bills. Trust me, you will not be able to put the book down.

We are on the cusp of a second sexual revolution. Schlongers of the world unite!

Anthony Wiener, American politician and former U.S. representative who served New York’s 9th District, and his wife Huma Abedin, former senior aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have agreed to do the forward to The Art of Schlonging. Wiener and Abedin noted, “We are proud of Bill and Hillary Clinton, our mentors in so many ways. We are honored to be asked by President Clinton to do the forward to his and Bill Cosby’s new book. We have patterned our marriage after theirs and wish Bill and Bill well.”

Mr. Cosby stated:

I am happy to partner, pun intended, with my best friend and sexual mentor Bill Clinton on The Art of Schlonging. Bill has always been my idol when it comes to schlonging. We first learned about our mutual interest at a White House dinner when I happened to walk in to the Oval Office to find Miss Lewinsky on her knees in front of the President.

I initially thought that Monica was doing what other Clinton supporters did, bowing down to America’s first black president, no offence to Barack. I then realized that Bill and I shared something much deeper, pun intended, than our first names. I am sure Monica knows what I mean.

clinton monicaFormer President Clinton noted:

It is a great pleasure to write a book about my pleasures, LOL. Bill Cosby is one of the great actors of our time. I can appreciate that because I acted like the good husband to Hillary for 50 years.  Bill and I have been discussing doing this joint, LOL, project for some time.

We finally decided to do it now to help get the word out that schlonging isn’t a bad thing, so long as you don’t get caught. We will show other young actors and up and coming, LOL, politicians how to get it, without getting caught at it.

Bill and I have agreed that all the proceeds from our book will go to the Bill and Hillary Clinton Foundation.

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Alex Amouyel

Alex Amouyel, Director of Programs for the Clinton Foundation, said, “The money will be used to help young women addicted to powerful men and those who would accept a drink from Bill Cosby.”

Monica Lewinsky gave a short statement, “I did not have sex with that man.”

The Walt Disney Company has bought the movie rights to The Art of Schlonging. The working title for the movie is Fifty Shades of Bill and Bill. Rumor has it that Quentin Tarantino, known for his non-linear story-lines, satirical subject matter, and anesthetization of violence, will produce and Oscar winning pedophile Roman Polanski will direct Fifty Shades of Bill and Bill. The Islamic State has agreed to provide Christian women as extras in the new film.

Robert Allen “Bob” Iger, chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company, stated, “We are taking Disney in a new direction, one that will allow inclusion and tolerance for those men who suffer from passions beyond their control. We are considering an animated young adult version of Fifty Shades of Bill and Bill. It will take those who grew up with Cinderella and their children to a new level of self-awareness.”

Heidi Fleiss, known as “The Hollywood Madam” and the daughter of a prominent Los Angeles doctor, is being cast to play the part of Monica Lewinsky. Bill Clinton will be played by Bill Murray, who has been accused by his ex-wife of repeated, brutal physical abuse. Bill Cosby will be played by convicted rapist Mike Tyson, who now stars as a loveable cartoon TV detective.

The Hillary Clinton campaign in a press release stated, “The book will put to rest the notion that Hillary ever had sex with that man.” Chelsea Victoria Clinton, the alleged only child of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was not available for comment.

Donald Trump said during a campaign stop in North Carolina, “Finally, we will get to the bottom of the Clinton’s ‘war against women’. It is time for the truth to come out, no pun intended. Hillary and Bill are complicit in silencing the women whom Bill didn’t have sex with. Perhaps we need to redefine what sex really is? I am glad that I am not the only one using a derivative of the word ‘schlong.’ I will wait to see how NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox covers this announcement. Maybe now schlonged will become mainstream?”

UPDATE: Bill Clinton has announced that he will follow the Islamic State’s Rules for Rape. At a campaign stop for Hillary for President, former President Clinton said, “I have embrace the January 2015 Islamic State fatwa that outlines the Rules for Rape.” Clinton noted that the Rules for Rape are “much like our friend Bill Ayer’s Rules for Radicals but with a twist.”

Bill Cosby has not responded to inquiries on if he will follow the Islamic State’s Rules for Rape at this time. Crosby has sequestered himself from all media appearances.

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Heartbreaking: Photos of Drowned Yezidi Refugee Children

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As Canada and other countries make their claims that they are helping refugees, there are those who have lost their lives who remain unseen, unreported and forgotten.

The plights of Yezidis have been forgotten and ignored by the United States, the United Nations, the Liberal government of Canada, the Main Stream Media and the rest of the free world when Alan Kurdi’s photos went viral to help the Liberal government of Canada win the election by landslide which prompted the acceptance of over 50.000 Sunni Muslim Syrians to this country which according to experts vetting would be impossible.

Please see the photos below provided by Khaled Khalaf​, a Yezidi activist. WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES:

Shabnam Assadollahi's photo.
Shabnam Assadollahi's photo.
Shabnam Assadollahi's photo.

Mr. Khalaf told us: “These are all Yezidi children who were drowned but no media gave any attention to them because they were from the Yezidi faith.”

Khalaf continues: “These picture were taken a couple weeks ago. These kids and their family were fleeing from Turkey to Greece for a safer, better and more promising life but no media has given any publicity to this horrifying news..”

The Kurds, Christians and Yizidis are facing massacres and yet are being ignored. Did the Liberals and their media including the Islamic State had an agenda showing Alan Kurdi, the drowned Syrian boy?

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Five Housing Market Predictions for 2016

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aei housing risk center logoMy predictions for 2016:

  1. The National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI), particularly for First-Time Buyers (FTBs), will continue its upward trend that is now nearly 3 years old.
  2. Demand pressure resulting from continuing moderate economic growth combined with increasing leverage and limited housing supply growth will extend the seller’s market that is now over 3 years old.
  3. This will cause home prices to once again grow faster than inflation and incomes; expectation is for nominal home prices to increase about 5% in 2016.
  4. Expect the FHA to further decrease its premium sometime in 2016.
  5. If mortgage rates increase moderately in 2016, debt ratios will grow to accommodate the impact on monthly payments.

Also, the key findings in this month’s National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI) release for Agency purchase loans:

  • Mortgage credit has continued to loosen, especially for first-time buyers
    • The NMRI for first-time buyers hit 15.81%, a new series high; the November level is up 1.0 percentage point from a year earlier and is well above the Repeat Primary Homebuyer NMRI of 9.83%.
  • The pace of homebuying continued to be strong, with loan volume in November up 15% from a year earlier. The overall volume was buoyed by strengthening demand from first-time buyers, driven by looser lending and an improving job market.
    • About 135,000 purchase loans for first-time buyers were added in November, up 19% from a year earlier, bringing the total in the NMRI to 3.6 million since April 2013.
  • Fueled by historically low mortgage rates and high and growing leverage, a seller’s market has now prevailed for 38 straight months.
    • As a result, real home prices are up 14.2 percent since 2012:Q2 trough, far outstripping real income growth and crimping affordability
  • Credit standards for first-time home buyers are not tight.
    • In November, 70% had down payments less than or equal to 5%, 27% had DTIs greater than the QM limit of 43%, and the median FICO score was 706, a bit below the median for all individuals in the U.S.
  • The cut in FHA’s annual insurance premium early this year boosted its market share to 29.3% in November from 22.9% in March.
    • This increase has come largely at the expense of Fannie Mae and the Rural Housing Service.
  • The seismic shift in market share from large banks to nonbanks continued in November, boosting overall risk as nonbanks have a much higher MRI.
    • In November, the large bank share was 27%, down from more than 60% three years earlier.

Link to December 2015 Mortgage Risk Index briefing presentation.