Must Read Archives - Page 307 of 431

PODCAST: Is it Safe to Fly?

November 9, 2015/in Culture War, Must Read, National Security, Religion/by Jerry Gordon

Listen to this podcast of The Lisa Benson Show on National Security that aired Sunday, November 8, on KKNT 960 The Patriot and SMARTPHONE iHEART App: 960 the Patriot. Lisa Benson and New English Review Senior Editor Jerry Gordon co-hosted this show.

Our guests were:

Amb. R. James Woolsey, Chairman of the Washington, DC –based Leadership Council of Foundation for Defense of Democracies on Global aviation and airport insecurity with the ISIS terrorist bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and lax screening of refugee airport workers at 13 US airports revealed in a Lisa Benson National Security Task Force of America investigation as reported onFoxNews, CNN, MSNBC, NewsMax and The Blaze.

Dr. Raymond Stock, Shillman/Ginsburg Fellow at Middle East Forum and noted Egyptian expert on the aftermath of the security issues facing President el-Sisi in the Sinai from ISIS and Muslim Brotherhood terrorism in the wake of the downing of Metrojet Flight 9268.

Additional contributions on this broadcast were made by Board of Advisor members, Richard Cutting and Michael Weiser on calls for US Congressional heatings on airport security and refugee employees screenings, as well as Isareli airline and airport security. As a result of the broadcast interest has been expressed in doing a documentary of the issues raised arising from the terrorist bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 as well as an op ed for a major media publication. Stay tuned for further developments.

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

The Iranian Nuclear Threat in the Gulf of Mexico

November 8, 2015/in Must Read, National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Jerry Gordon

On the November 1, 2015 Lisa Benson Show we asked ex- CIA director, Ambassador R. James Woolsey how easy was it for Iran to launch an Electronic Magnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack on the US? He responded with the astounding revelation that the entire Gulf Coast of the U.S. had no X-band radar to detect a possible launch of a precision guiding missile with a nuclear warhead. Moreover, given Iranian threats to send naval vessels to the Gulf of Mexico, there would also be the threat of a cruise missile with a nuclear warhead that the U.S. Northern Defense Commander said in Congressional testimony was challenged to defend. Just refer to the stunning surprise of Russian vessels launching cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea that hit targets in Syria.

If Iranian nuclear weapons could be exploded at any altitude ranging from 30 to 300 miles, the EMP effect could take out the unprotected national electrical grid and 16 of the important infrastructures critical for running a modern technical economy. He suggested three means by which Iran could do this. One option was launching a weather balloon with a nuclear bomb in a gondola capable of exceeding the 30 mile altitude. The second was through the launch of a nuclear device in a satellite from a southerly direction that both North Korea and Iran are currently capable of doing. The third means is through a ship borne launch of a Scud missile with a nuclear warhead from a container vessel using the Russian K-Club system that our colleague Ilana Freedman has written about.

The question arises is does Iran, despite the U.S. acceptance of the JCPOA, allegedly have that capability, already. An August 2015 Washington Times article co-authored by Ambassador Woolsey and Dr. Peter Pry presented the view that Iran may already have several crude nuclear devices. Our colleagues Shoshana Bryen at the Jewish Policy Center and Ilana Freedman have also suggested that Iran could have evaded UN watchdog IAEA inspections by co-developing nuclear devices with North Korea.

emp attack gulf of mexico Ambassador Woolsey in response to this question said that a nuclear detonation over the central US heartland would be a “hideous prospect.” He said it would put the US back into the pre electrical agrarian era of the 1880s “with plowshares and seeds.” It could possibly resulting in millions of deaths from destruction of the electrical grid and disabling of our food production, distribution and health care delivery infrastructure systems. Listen to Ambassador Woolsey’s responses to these questions on the November 1st, 2015, Lisa Benson Radio Show beginning at the 30 minute mark.

Ambassador Hank Cooper, a recognized expert in both EMP, and Missile Defense . He is the Former Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative program . Cooper confirmed the absence of radar and anti-missile defenses on the vulnerable Gulf of Mexico coast in an email exchange with Lisa Benson, host of the National Security Radio Show. He wrote:

Aegis BMD ships that are usually operating near the East Coast are inherently capable of defending against off-shore launched ballistic (and cruise) missiles—if the crews train to do so. And if we had TPY-2 radar in Maine or somewhere in the Northeast, they also could defend against Iranian ICBMs—again if the crews were trained to do so.

Where we are absolutely naked is from launches from vessels in the Gulf of Mexico. That could be fixed by deploying Aegis Ashore sites (like we are doing in Romania—operational this year–and Poland—operational in 2018) at bases around the Gulf. I’d begin at Tyndall AFB near Panama City, the home for First Air Force, which is already responsible for the air defense of the entire continental USA and support for our TMD systems.

The difficulty of defending the Gulf Coast against a cruise missile threat followed from a 2013 missile defense exercise. A Global Security Newswire March 2014 report, “Could the U.S. Face a Cruise Missile Threat from the Gulf of Mexico?” noted US Senate Armed Services testimony of Gen. Charles Jacoby of the Northern Command:

A 2013 military exercise pitted systems such as Patriot interceptors, Aegis warships and combat aircraft against potential cruise-missile or short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Gulf. But the drill highlighted a particular vulnerability to cruise missiles lobbed from that region, U.S. Northern Command head Gen. Charles Jacoby indicated in congressional testimony.

He said the Pentagon has “some significant challenges” in countering these missiles, but is exploring “some opportunities to use existing systems more effectively to do that. Many detailed results of the Oct. 11th drill conducted near Key West, Fla., remain classified, Jacoby said.

“The cruise-missile threat portion of that we are working on very hard,” the general added at the March 13, 2014 Senate Armed Service Committee hearing, in response to a question from Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

The Global Security Newswire report underlined the difficulties of combating the cruise missile threat from Russia and Iran noting:

Cruise missiles can be particularly challenging to defend against, as they can be more difficult than aircraft to detect on radar and are sometimes tricky to shoot down, according to military experts.

A 2013 U.S. military intelligence report forecasted that cruise missiles would spread into more hands over the coming decade. The document also hints at the ability to evade defenses designed against ballistic missiles.

“Cruise missiles can fly at low altitudes to stay below enemy radar and, in some cases, hide behind terrain features. Newer missiles are incorporating stealth features to make them even less visible to radars and infrared detectors,” says the 2013 assessment by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.

Lisa Benson during the November 1st Radio Show asked Woolsey if states should sue President Obama and U.S. companies doing business with Iran under existing sanctions laws authorized by the Federal 2010 Comprehensive Iran Sanctions Law. Woolsey said that if sanctions are illegally lifted by the President on Compliance Day, December 15, 2015, members of the plaintiffs bar might be “licking their chops “at the prospects of suing U.S. companies. We have written extensively about the ability of States with enabling sanctions laws bringing such a cause of action in the Federal Courts based on the professional assessments of noted Constitutional litigator, David B. Rivkin, Jr. of the Washington Law Firm of Baker Hostetler. See: Can States Prevent Release of Iran Sanctions Through Federal Litigation?

We launched a twitter campaign directed at the 27 Attorneys General of the Republican Attorneys General Association headed by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Ms. Bondi could file such an action with the Attorneys General of Alabama, Mississippi and Texas against the President. It could be filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Pensacola, Florida presided over by Senior U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson.

The Dallas Chapter of the National Security Task Force of America (NSTFA) undertook a twitter campaign in October 2015 following the October 18th JCOPA Acceptance Date signing by President Obama. Pam Brown and the Dallas Chapter NSTFA team tweeted information on the ability to sue the President Obama to Texas Governor Abbott, Attorney General Paxton and 125 members of the Texas Legislature. She posted on the NSTFA Facebook this weekend of the continuing effort to contact Gov. Abbott at a meeting of the Texas Republican Women’s Conference in Lubbock:

Elena Blake, one of the team members, is in Lubbock at the Texas Republican Women Conference and Governor Abbott, our Texas governor, is in attendance. We produced a document that she hand carried with plans to present to Governor Abbott or his scheduler, whom she had just met at a meeting in Dallas on Wednesday. This is an example of jumping on opportunity that presents itself. The background story to our Twitter surge is that Governor Abbott and fourteen other governors signed a letter to President Obama [on September 8, 2015] about their opposition to the Iran Deal: “we intend to ensure that the various state-level sanctions that are now in effect remain in effect. These state-level sanctions are critically important and must be maintained. “. The other governors who signed this letter are from the states of Oklahoma, S. Carolina, S. Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Dakota and Ohio. The letter that Elena Blake took to Lubbock for Governor Abbott urges him to rally six other governors to sue Obama. (NSTFA has determined we only need six or seven to sue.)

An appeal to Gov. Abbott could be the spark to enlist Attorneys Generals in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida to file an action in the Northern District US Court in Florida to halt lifting of sanctions by Obama. There is still time remaining to file such an action. The prod to do so are the revelations of Ambassadors Woolsey and Cooper revealing how unprotected these Gulf Coast States and indeed all of America is against an EMP attack by a nuclear armed Iran.

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

Iran: U.S. must pay reparations to the Islamic Republic

November 7, 2015/in Must Read, National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Jihad Watch

The billions in sanctions relief weren’t enough. The Islamic Republic sees the weakness of the Obama Administration, and is pressing forward with more demands.

“Iran: U.S. Must Pay Reparations to Islamic Republic,” by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, November 5, 2015:

An Iranian military leader is demanding that the United States pay Tehran reparations for the deaths of more than 250,000 Iranians at the hands of U.S. affiliates, according to regional reports.

Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a brigadier general in Iran’s volunteer Basij Force, said on Thursday that the Obama administration “should pay ransom” for its supposed role in killing Iranians during the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought hardline extremists into power.

The demand for a ransom comes just a day after Iranians across the country took to the streets to rally against America and Israel. They burned U.S. flags and chanted, “Death to America.”

It was disclosed on Wednesday that Iran has been found to be directly responsible for the deaths of nearly 200 U.S. troops in Iraq and the wounding of nearly 1,000 others. The Obama administration has been hesitant to prosecute Iran under U.S. terrorism laws for these killings.

Naqdi said Iran has “irrefutable” evidence that America is responsible for the deaths of more than 250,000 Iranians.

“In the days when the Islamic Revolution was underway and after that and during the holy defense (the Iraqi-imposed war against Iran 1980-1988), over 250,000 Iranians were massacred directly by the U.S. or by its proxies at Washington’s order, and these US crimes can be proved based on undeniable and irrefutable proofs and documents,” the military figure was quoted as saying by Iran’s state-controlled Fars News Agency.

Because of this, Iran “should receive compensation money from the U.S. for the death of their children and beloved ones at the hands of the merciless Washington,” the report stated.

The report goes on to claim that Iranian officials have evidence that the United States worked with former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein, providing him weapons during his war against Iran.

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Alabama: Marine Combat Veteran Announces Candidacy for U.S. Senate

November 7, 2015/in Elections, Must Read, Politics/by Dr. Rich Swier

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. /PRNewswire/ — Conservative Jonathan McConnell, a Marine, Iraq War Veteran and small business owner, today announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in Alabama’s Republican primary race.

“Washington is broken. But instead of leaders who are focused on solving the problem, our politicians are focused on profiting from the work we send them to do in Washington. That’s why I’m running – because its time to put an end to politicians who profit while we pay,” said McConnell.

McConnell filed the formal paperwork to qualify and followed with his official announcement.

“As a Marine, I know what it means to take on the tough battles, win the tough fights and put service and sacrifice ahead of personal gain. And, as a small business owner, I know what it means to build a business, make a payroll, help veterans get back to work and get things moving again,” said McConnell.

“We need that kind of bold, conservative leadership in Washington. The insiders and politicians are ruining this country, and we need to take it back from them before they do any more damage,” said McConnell.

A graduate of Auburn University and currently the President and CEO of Meridian.us, Captain McConnell served in the Marines from 2005 – 2008, where he was stationed on the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq in 2006 and was then redeployed to the Syrian Border in 2007 where he commanded the Second Mobile Assault Platoon and was Executive Officer of Weapons Company.

Upon returning, McConnell earned his law degree at the University of Alabama. While a law student, he founded Meridian.us, a global maritime security company which combats the Somali Piracy threat against merchant vessels.

“We can’t fix Washington by electing the same people who broke it. And 44-year career politicians can’t fix it. They just don’t know how. My experience as a Marine, veteran and small business owner who has created jobs is exactly what we need to fix what’s broken in Washington,” said McConnell.

Alabama Primary voting will occur on Tuesday, March 1, 2016. Further information about Jonathan McConnell, to donate to the campaign and to sign up for campaign emails can be found at www.McConnell2016.com.

The Global Trade in Child Rape by Lori Handrahan

November 6, 2015/in Culture War, Must Read, Policy, Politics/by Dr. Judith Reisman

Last Thursday The Guardian reported on a United Nations publication, released in September, that described four U.N. staff fired for trading in images and/or videos of child sex abuse on their work computers. Journalists from Agence France-Presse to Al Arabiya followed this story and referenced that U.N. work computers were involved. The trade in child rape, aka child pornography, in the workplace is an all too common problem that few employers, the U.N. included, are handling properly.

Bloomberg recently profiled a Swedish software, NetClean, that scans workplace computers and reports child porn use to law enforcement. NetClean’s experts estimate one in every 1,000 people trade in child sex abuse images/videos at work. My research suggests this may be a conservative estimate. From pediatric oncologists, police chiefs, senior military staff, daycare and preschool teachers to professors, my research shows that those arrested for child porn in America almost always commit the crime at work.

In August and September, an average of two professors per week in America were arrested, arraigned or sentenced for child porn crimes almost all committed on university and college computers. One example: University of Minnesota professor Christopher DeZutter told law enforcement officers who arrived at his home to arrest him for child pornography, “You are not going find a lot of this at home. I do most of this at the office.” Investigators said his university laptop was “full” of child sex abuse files. This included, as is common, the rape of infants.

Drug Overdoses Killed More Americans Than Car Crashes or Guns

November 5, 2015/in Culture War, Healthcare, Must Read, Policy, Politics, Science/by Dr. Rich Swier

Susan Jones from CNS News reports:

“Drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury death in the United States, ahead of motor vehicle deaths and firearms (deaths),” the Drug Enforcement Agency announced on Wednesday.

In 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, 46,471 people in the United States died from drug overdoses, and more than half of those deaths were caused by prescription painkillers and heroin.

That compares with the 35,369 who died in motor vehicle crashes and 33,636 who died from firearms, as tallied by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Sadly this report confirms what we’ve known for some time: drug abuse is ending too many lives while destroying families and communities,” Acting DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said as he released the 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment.

“We must stop drug abuse before it begins by teaching young people at an even earlier age about its many dangers and horrors.”

Election Fraud in Turkey: Erdogan’s Ballot Stuffing ‘Victory’

November 5, 2015/in Elections, Must Read, Policy, Politics, Religion, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Jerry Gordon

Turkish President Erdogan was handed an electoral defeat on June 1st, losing his AKP super majority in the Ankara parliament offset by seats won by the opposition, notably the 13 percent assumed by the Kurdish led-HDP. The question was what he would do after he stiff armed opposition participation in a possible ruling coalition, opting instead for a care taker government. That and calling for a snap election on November 1st hoping that things would improve. In the interim Erdogan attacked the Kurdish PKK inside Turkey, bombed allied PKK forces in Iraq and Syria and declared virtual martial law in largely Kurdish southeastern Turkey. October 10th witnessed twin blasts at a peace rally in Ankara with HDP leadership killing over 102 and injuring several hundred. A rally notably without the usual heavy security details. PM Davutoglu declared it an act by ISIS; others suggested it may have been the work of Turkish intelligence. The polls taking over the run up to the election showed that the opposition would possible block an AKP resurgence. The answer came on November 1st with what some observed as a ‘surprise victory’ for this Islamist regime seeking to create a neo-Ottoman Caliphate. It was an apparent victory built on evident ballot fraud.

My usual astute European observer of things in Turkey sent me this comment in an email on Sunday, November 1st:

The election results were a shock to many and although the election authority was giving partial results for a while at about 19.30 Turkish time they closed the site and might have manipulated the outcome of the votes to bring out the actual results. Of course, this is a supposition among many others.

P.M. Davutoglu has already come out with a declaration that they have to change the constitution to a executive presidential one. Time will tell us how extremist the country will become.

Picture of Istanbul vote count November 1, 2015.

That was followed by an email from “Erdogan Failure” presenting evidence in the accompanying picture of what could be ballot stuffing in Erdogan’s stronghold of Istanbul:

It seems that by 1030 PM last night, each individual Turkish voter in Istanbul cast 1.66 votes. (Meaning: 10,316,871 voters cast 17,104,607 votes in Istanbul.)

How interesting! Where did the additional 6,787,736 come from and from whom did they vote? Maybe some dead people might have voted as well.

Or maybe just that our schools have flunked teaching math to our government’s employees.

Now, we are also attaching another image from the official Turkish government website. It appears that the government realized it was caught lying and then wrote:

25. The election results website is temporarily out of service.

26. Once the election results are finalized, we will publish these results on this site.

How stupid does our government think our people and our foreign friends think we and they are? Will our foreign friends realize that the published results were fraud? Or maybe this is what has happened to our democracy. We have become like our neighbors to the south. God must not love us, because he is humiliating us with this disgrace.

Daniel Pipes posted this on National Review’s The Corner with the apt title, “Turkey’s Election Results Stink of Fraud”

The AKP’s huge increase gave it back the parliamentary majority it had lost in the June 2015 elections, promising President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a semi-legal path to the dictatorial powers he aspires to. But, to me, the results stink of fraud. It defies reason, for example, that the AKP’s war on Kurds would prompt about a quarter of Turkey’s Kurds to abandon the pro-Kurdish party and switch their votes to the AKP. As news of irregularities comes in, Michael Rubin of AEI summed up the problems at Commentary, “Erdogan steals an Election:”

[Something’s rotten in Anatolia. While some Western journalists are describing as “a surprise landslide victory” the decisive win by President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Sunday’s election parliamentary election in Turkey, nothing in Turkey today happens by chance. Institutions are so thoroughly corrupted that anyone who considers the results to accurately represent the will of Turks is foolish.]

Back in March 2014 when the AKP appeared to dominate local election results, Rubin wrote, “Did Fraud Sway the Turkish Election:”

Turkish political analysts attribute Erdo?an’s cheating quotient at around 5 percent — that takes into account stuffed ballots, shenanigans on the state-run Turkish Airlines as it transports ballots from abroad, disappeared ballot boxes from opposition-run towns and districts, and pretty much everything involving the mayor of Ankara. In the case of Sunday’s elections, it appears that Erdo?an’s AKP won the votes of hundreds of thousands of dead people.

Given the history of fraud in Turkey’s elections, that this one was rigged comes as no shock, especially as rumors swirled in advance about sophisticated efforts to manipulate the results. The citizens of Turkey now face the decisive question of whether to accept or reject the results of this election. Which will prevail — fear of Erdogan’s ruthlessness or anger at his swindle? Sadly, because his electoral coup d’état has blocked the path of democracy, should Turks resist, they are compelled to do so in non-democratic ways.

Foundation for Defense, non-resident Senior Fellow, a former CHP Republican Former Turkish Parliamentarian, Aykan Erdemir wrote a Politico. EU analysis with the headline, “A defiant Erdogan rides back to power on a wave of violence. Erdemir had six takeaways from Erdogan’s latest dictatorial grab for power:

Violence wins – a reference to Erodgan’s war against the PKK internally, in Iraq and Syria. Then there is the yet to be disclosed who were behind the October 10th twin blasts in Ankara that killed over 102 and injured more than 400 hundred with no security present at the peace rally led by the Kurdish HDP and trade union allies.
Turkey descends further into competitive authoritarianism – a score settling crackdown by Erdogan looms against media, businesses and NGO’s denying democratic rights.
The Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) is here to stay – HDP claimed slightly over 10 percent of the 550 parliamentary seats, despite AKP stuffing 1 million ballots switch in Kurdish districts.
Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP) has committed suicide – “they lost a quarter of their votes. This, however, was a disaster in the making. Since the June elections, the MHP refused to enter into any coalition, failed to undertake proactive policies and purged most of its competent members from candidate lists.”
A Pyrrhic victory for the AKP – “If the elections end up highlighting Turkey’s image as a grudgingly democratic authoritarian regime, it could turn into a Pyrrhic victory for the AKP as it suffers the economic costs and political consequences of Turkey’s drift away from the transatlantic world.”
This could be the beginning of the end for Davitoglu Erodogan duo –“These elections failed to provide Erdo?an with the super-majority he needed to bestow upon himself the executive presidential powers he covets. Prime minister Davuto?lu, however, has won a significant victory, proving his leadership skills and strengthening his credentials within the AKP. If the two fail to arrive at a modus vivendi about the future parameters of power sharing, election celebrations could soon lead to brutal infighting in the AKP ranks, adding further fuel to Turkey’s political chaos and conflict.”

Erdogan received a congratulatory phone call from Chancellor Angela Merkel hoping they can cut a deal for EU funding of Syrian refugee camps and get a sweet Visa deal for Turkish Nationals. The Turkish bourse and Lira foreign exchange may have had a brief spike. However, with a mountain of external debt and rampant inflation, Erdogan may find that foreign investors may not have an appetite for funding his growing autocracy after this election.

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

George Soros: National Borders Are The Enemy

November 4, 2015/in Culture War, Immigration, Must Read, National Security, Policy, Politics/by Robert Heller

Multi Billionaire Soros a major financial supporter and benefactor of Obama and Hillary Clinton believes National Borders should be eliminated in total disregard of the fact that Europe and its culture is being over-run by massive and practically uncontrollable emigration from Muslim countries by people who will not assimilate and intend to set up their ‘Islamic Sharia’ laws.These immigrants intend to set up a ‘parallel’ society until they become a majority and ultimately will displace Christianity and European culture.They also expect the host population to support them in this endeavor. So far this is what’s happening.

It is unlikely Europe will remain a Western civilization in 25 to 50 years from now.

Soros anti border philosophy has been adopted by Obama and his Democrat followers including Hillary Clinton as evidenced by Obama’s executive immigration actions to change U.S. demographics. Obama has demonstrated his disregard for U.S. immigration laws by adopting much of Soros philosophy. Clinton is also a follower of the Obama and Soros philosophy.

President Ronald Regan said , “A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.”

Soros, Obama’s and Clinton’s benefactor are proving Reagan was right.

SOROS: NATIONAL BORDERS ARE THE ENEMY

The radical billionaire denounces his native Hungary for protecting its borders and culture.

By Matthew Vadum

The preeminent funder of border-busting campaigns in the U.S. and overseas now openly admits his efforts in Europe are aimed at destroying national borders on that continent.

The unusually frank statement from frequent coup kingpin George Soros comes after Hungary’s prime minister accused him of helping to orchestrate the ongoing invasion of the landlocked nation and the rest of Europe by illegal aliens. Soros is arguably the biggest mass migration-promoting coyote on the planet. He is also an admitted Nazi collaborator, described by David Horowitz as a “deracinated Jew,” who argues that Muslims are treated so badly in the West that they are the new Jews. Soros doesn’t care that these migrants and Syrian war refugees are largely Muslim men and that intelligence agencies fear that many of the new arrivals have connections to Islamic terrorism.

Besieged Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán said the ongoing invasion of his country is “driven, on the one hand, by people smugglers, and on the other by those [human rights] activists who support everything that weakens the nation-state.”

“This Western mindset and this activist network is perhaps best represented by George Soros.”

George Soros: Europe Must Take in One Million Muslim Migrants a Year

November 3, 2015/in Culture War, Immigration, Must Read, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Ann Corcoran

We told you about the role of Hillary pal George Soros here the other day. But, since everyone is talking about it, be sure to see Soros’ manifesto on how to bring down European borders forever.

Out of his own mouth (hat tip: Skip). The asylum seekers are the victims!

The European Union needs to accept responsibility for the lack of a common asylum policy, which has transformed this year’s growing influx of refugees from a manageable problem into yet another political crisis. Each member state has selfishly focused on its own interests, often acting against the interests of others. This precipitated panic among asylum seekers, the general public, and the authorities responsible for law and order. Asylum seekers have been the main victims.

[….]

First, the EU has to accept at least a million asylum-seekers annually for the foreseeable future. And, to do that, it must share the burden fairly – a principle that a qualified majority finally established at last Wednesday’s summit.

Adequate financing is critical. The EU should provide €15,000 ($16,800) per asylum-seeker for each of the first two years to help cover housing, health care, and education costs – and to make accepting refugees more appealing to member states.

By the way, for those of you thinking that Soros is an old man and we don’t have to deal with him for much longer, remember he has children who I am told are ready to continue his ‘legacy.’

Go here to see a 2013 post we wrote and see Soros, son Jonathan and David Miliband (former British Foreign Secretary who heads one of our nine major resettlement contractors) at awards ceremony for Soros. You (the American taxpayer) give over $300 million to the International Rescue Committee which honors Soros who works day and night to destroy borders around the world!

George Soros is a Hungarian-born American business magnate, investor, author, and philanthropist. He is chairman of Soros Fund Management. Wikipedia:

Born: August 12, 1930 (age 85), Budapest, Hungary

Spouse: Tamiko Bolton (m. 2013), Susan Weber Soros (m. 1983–2005), Annaliese Witschak (m. 1960–1983)

Children: Alexander Soros, Andrea Soros, Jonathan Soros, Gregory Soros, Robert Soros

Organizations founded: Open Society Foundations, More

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China’s Crazy New Five-Year Plan by Richard Lorenc

November 3, 2015/in Culture War, Economy, Must Read, Policy, Politics/by Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)

Earlier this week, the Chinese Communist Party rolled back one of the most egregiously illiberal vestiges of its bloody recent past by replacing the one-child policy with a new and improved limit of two children. Going forward, urban Chinese are permitted legally to grow their families slightly larger than before, even if their first child is a boy. (Rural Chinese were previously allowed to “try again” if their first child was a girl.)

The one-child policy was implemented in 1979, nominally, to allay social and environmental concerns that would supposedly be caused by “overpopulation.” China’s population had reached a level just shy of 1 billion. One of the policy’s originators calculated China’s optimal population to be 700 million; he estimated that a one-child policy would reduce the number of Chinese to that level by 2080 without famine or genocide.

It was an abrupt reversal of Mao’s decades-long encouragement to grow the Chinese labor force by having as many children as possible.

As times changed, so did the trendy Communist policies. By the time Deng Xiaoping took over as China’s dictator, he opened China to foreign trade, dismantled the farm commune system, and permitted greater freedom for peasants to bring their goods to market.

Beijing wanted to plan economic growth, so it expanded freedom in the market and drastically reduced freedom in the family. Reducing the birthrate, they thought, would automatically increase per capita GDP as previous generations faded.

Of course, the Chinese economy during Deng’s time did grow dramatically, thanks to its opening to the world and economic liberalization, setting the stage for the Chinese economic powerhouse of today.

The Futile Hamster Wheel of Planning

Despite implementing market-oriented reforms, Deng remained a central planner at heart. His policies were part of a new kind of five-year plan used by China for decades and modeled after Stalin’s controlled-economy approach in the Soviet Union. Five years at a time, the government would announce its economic goals and how it planned to reach them.

Soviet five-year plans were infamous for their ludicrous precision, including setting quotas for output of nails. When evaluated by quantity, Soviet factories would produce minuscule nails. When evaluated by weight, they would produce gigantic, heavy nails. Both varieties were useless to people who needed nails, but that was irrelevant to the economic planners seeking to reach their arbitrary goals, and the bureaucrats who sought to appease them.

The five-year-plan approach remains a mainstay of China’s government’s policies, and at the Communist Party conference this week, the state announced the 13^th five-year plan — the shi san wu, literally meaning “13 five.”

No one outside of the Chinese Communist Party really knows what the 13^thfive-year plan contains (another unveiling is scheduled for March 2016), but speculation is that it will focus on welfare-state reforms, environmental policies, and subsidies for local government spending.

To generate buzz for the plan outside of China, the government commissioned a flashy video that extols the virtues of experts and planning.

One of the most revealing parts of the video is its focus on experts and consultation. A segment of dialogue highlights this approach.

But how do they make all the plans?

First there’s research, views collected. Then discussion and views projected.

Reports get written and passed around. Then there’s…there’s actually more research, and more discussion, more research, and more discussion. Like, at every level! Over and over, like, through hundreds of rounds.

Like, through hundreds of rounds!

Ok, we got it! Hundreds of rounds!

Oh, my God.

Crazy, right?

Yes, crazy.

Just ask F.A. Hayek.

The Curious Task of Economics

Hayek understood the market as a process for gathering all of the tiny bits of constantly changing information dispersed among all the individuals in an economy. He saw experts as overly confident in their information and completely unequipped to make decisions on behalf of people they don’t even know.

In his great book The Fatal Conceit, Hayek articulated one of the most blistering critiques of those who would plan the lives of others: “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”

He expounded on this provocative idea by explaining how economic order is not so much a state to be reached as a constantly evolving flow, changing by the moment as it responds to the needs, wants, and desires of individuals.

To the naive mind that can conceive of order only as the product of deliberate arrangement, it may seem absurd that in complex conditions order, and adaptation to the unknown, can be achieved more effectively by decentralizing decisions and that a division of authority will actually extend the possibility of overall order. Yet that decentralization actually leads to more information being taken into account.

Instead of five-year plans (or central, top-down plans of any duration), Hayek argued the only way to “plan” an economy would be to decentralize economic decision making to the lowest possible level. In most cases, that would mean permitting individual decisions to accumulate into an emergent economic order, moment by moment.

Despite the best-laid plans of Chinese Communist Party leaders, an unplanned order emerges, based on what individual Chinese people value. A five-year plan doesn’t prevent market forces from acting, but it does make them less effective in serving people well.

When fully announced, the shi san wu will probably include some good market-based ideas, but it continues the Chinese Communist Party’s admittedly crazy notion that it can forcibly design an economy for normal people based on the ideas of experts.

Richard Lorenc

Richard N. Lorenc is the Chief Operating Officer of FEE and Publisher of the Freeman.

VIDEO: Hillary Supporters Want Muslim Shariah Law in America

November 2, 2015/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Must Read, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Dr. Rich Swier

Hillary Clinton supporters in California mindlessly agree with anything and everything Hillary supposedly says. In an experiment, media analyst Mark Dice tells Hillary fans that one of her primary campaign promises is to implement Muslim Sharia Law in America.

Discover the Networks defines Sharia Law as:

Shari’a tries to describe in detail all possible human acts, dividing them into permitted (halal) and prohibited (haram). It subdivides them into various degrees of good or evil such as obligatory, recommended, neutral, objectionable or forbidden. This vast compendium of rules regulates all matters of devotional life, worship, ritual purity, marriage and inheritance, criminal offenses, commerce and personal conduct. It also regulates the governing of the Islamic state and its relations to non-Muslims within the state as well as to enemies outside the state. Shari’a influences the behavior and worldview of most Muslims, even in secular states where it forms no part of the law of the land.

Islam teaches that shari’a, as God’s revealed law, perfect and eternal, is binding on individuals, society and state in all its details. By logical extension, any criticism of shari’a is heresy. Muslims who deny the validity of shari’a in any way are labeled as non-Muslims (infidels) or apostates (those who convert to another religion) by traditionalists and Islamists. As such, they face the threat of being prosecuted for apostasy, a crime that carries the death penalty in shari’a.

Read more.

Mark Dice’s shocking Man on the Street Monday series continues.

Please follow Mark Dice on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Florida: Pensacola Yacht Club Embraces former Cuban Communist Naval Officer

November 1, 2015/in Must Read, Policy, Politics/by Geoff Ross

This week the Communist sympathizers from the Pensacola Yacht Club set sail from Pensacola, Florida (imagine that) to meet up with Commodore Jose M. Diaz Escrich, a former member of Fidel Castro’s Communist Navy and leader in his Communist Maritime forces.

The Pensacola News Journal on writing about this wonderful send off did not include the former Communist Navy Captains last name, but that’s okay nobody hides from the Senior Chief……I found it.

Escrich, one of Fidel Castro’ s closest military friends, was born on December 21, 1946 in the port city of Santiago de Cuba. He entered into the formerly free Naval Academy of Cuba when he was 16 and worked for more than 25 years in the Communist Cuban Navy.

His duties included tracking down and arresting people trying to flee to Key West, Miami and other Florida cities to free themselves from the chains and bondage of Communism.

When the sailors from the Pensacola Yacht Club Show up in Havana Cuba the Castro – Communist Cuban Ministry of Tourism, will be on hand to recognize the participants’ efforts with gifts of flowers flown in from North Korea.

As of October 31st 2015 the number of political prisoners held in Cuba without due process or trial has climbed to 114, the opposition Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) noted.

I wish the Pensacola Yacht Club leadership much success with their mission to bring American dollars to the Communist Island to aid and assist in the continued efforts of Fidel and Raul Castro to oppress their people.

If you would like to contact the Cuban Ministry of Tourism and ask about all the tourists that have disappeared over the years the contact information is listed below. I called them up and they got irritated when I asked if I could speak to Fidel.

I am now on the Cuban Communist Party leadership most wanted list of not welcome with a potential shot at becoming a political prisoner for free speech.

Happy Trails…… The Pensacola Yacht Club is not too happy with me either but they can kiss my free, red blooded, American, flag waving, hamburger eating, apple pie filled you know what.

For those readers wishing to contact the Cuban Ministry you may do so using these links;

National Tourism Organization HAVANA CUBA

Plaza de la Revolucion Calle 3ra. N? 6 entre G y F. El vedado HAVANA,CUBA

Tel.: 0053 7 8327535, 8345283, 8365269

UPDATE: Who sponsored the Pensacola Yacht Club sail boat race to Communist Cuba?

The Pensacola Yacht Club have almost concluded their sail boat race to the port of Havana in the Communist controlled island of Cuba.

The trophies will be presented to the winner’s of this race by Commodore José Miguel Díaz Escrich of the Communist Cuban Navy (retired) .

Commodore Escrich worked his way up through the ranks to Commander in Castro’s Communist Navy working with anti-submarine ships and maritime legal issues…. rounding up dissidents trying to flee Cuba to freedom.

The Commodore then returned to the classroom in Cuba, first as a professor at the Communist Naval academy, then as a master’s degree student-candidate at the highest level in the naval academy of the former Soviet Union. How sweet is that ?

Returning to Cuba after four years, he worked in Naval Base Operations on the General Staff, focusing on international maritime and legal issues otherwise known as “Arresting and hunting down Cubans trying to flee the country”.

After 25 years in the Communist Cuban Navy, Commander Escrich then created the Club Náutico Internacional Hemingway de Cuba (Hemingway International Yacht Club of Cuba)

The Pensacola Yacht Clubs latest port of call.

Fidel Castro and Ernest Hemingway met and fished together in a 1960 Hemingway game fishing tournament, celebrated at the Barlovento Tourist Residence, later named Marina Hemingway. Thus the name of the Marina.

This is also where the American – Communist and author Hemingway presented the Communist Cuban dictator with several trophies. Three photographs of Ernest Hemingway hang in the yacht club’s office today, including one of Hemingway and his boat, Pilar, dated 27 May 1950.

Perhaps the Pensacola Yacht Club sailors will get a tour and pose for pictures also with the new crowd of Communists running the marina.

So the Pensacola Yacht Club have sanctioned, embraced and met with a former member of Castro’s Communist maritime forces whose job it was to capture and arrest fellow Cubans fleeing to safety in Florida. They are soon meeting this Communist to receive trophies and break bread with people that have to date arrested and imprisoned 114 political prisoners for wanting only to be free.

To ensure this event was a success (excluding the bad storm that blew in the following start of the sail boat race) the following companies are listed as sponsors to the Pensacola Yacht Club’s sail boat race to Communist Cuba:

There are currently 114 political prisoners held in Cuban prisons for speaking out against oppression and servitude. Some of which are in jail because of the Cuban naval forces led by Commodore Escrish the new friend of the Pensacola Yacht Club and its leadership.

Perhaps the companies I listed above would now like to offer sponsorship to the political prisoners held in Castro’s gulags next time around and now disassociate itself from the Pensacola Yacht Club, a team that affords hospitality and salutations to a member of Fidel Castro’s Communist Naval forces to satisfy what ? Who knows the answer to that…perhaps they can figure it out.

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is courtesy of CookImages.com.

Oklahoma: Muslim Brotherhood float in Veterans Day parade

November 1, 2015/in Must Read, National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Lyle J. Rapacki, Ph.D.

Tulsa, Oklahoma has allowed a float sponsored by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to be entered in the Veterans Day Parade in downtown Tulsa. U.S. Military veterans are appalled and up in arms.

Oklahoma growing Muslim community continues to infiltrate this Bible-belt state, and continues to push its’ agenda by coming after long-held and traditional venues. Encouraged by the Obama Administration, smaller communities across America such as Twin Falls, Idaho; Dodge City, Kansas; Spartanburg, South Carolina; Bowling Green, Kentucky, and now Tulsa, Oklahoma are under tremendous pressures as thousands of Muslims continue to be sent by the U.S. State Department for integration into American society and culture. The Muslim Brotherhood, and its’ many affiliate organizations, coordinate a sophisticated marketing program to convince Americans that relocating Muslims from Mid-eastern countries will be loyal Americans, and supporters of the U.S. Military.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) was created by the Muslim Brotherhood to be a Hamas entity here in America. CAIR’s Founder, Omar Ahmad stated on July 4th, 1998, in Fremont, California at interview with the Argus Newspaper:

“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant…the Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”

Larry Williamson, a member of the Tulsa 912 Project, a conservative organization, stated for news media: “…to ask veterans to march alongside people who represent our enemies in a current war is atrocious.”

Williamson further stated:

“I believe all American entrants who the parade is intended to honor should be made aware as soon as possible that they are to share their honor with the Muslim Brotherhood, sworn enemy of the United States and our ally Israel and an enemy in our current war on the Islamic jihad in which American soldiers are fighting and dying.”

The Bible-belt of America is under direct assault by the Islamic Movement. The clear and stated intent is to collapse the Bible-belt, implement division within the church community at-large, and ultimately collapse the Christian Heritage and principles by which America was founded. And the church is asleep, or uninterested.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Pittsburgh, PA Mayor Peduto: Bring us Syrian Muslims!

OKLAHOMA: Tulsa’s Veterans Day Parade participant calls designated Muslim terrorist group’s participation in parade ‘atrocious’

Tulsa’s Veterans Day Parade participant calls Muslim group’s involvement ‘atrocious’ – Tulsa World: Religion

Vets appalled at ‘Muslim Brotherhood float’

EDITORS NOTE: According to Discover the Networks CAIR has strong ties to the terrorist group Hamas:

“[CAIR] was formed not by Muslim religious leaders throughout the country, but as an offshoot of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP). Incorporated in Texas, the IAP has close ties to Hamas and has trumpeted its support for terrorist activities.”[6] Former chief of the FBI’s counter terrorism section, Oliver Revell, called the IAP “a front organization for Hamas that engages in propaganda for Islamic militants.”[7]

CAIR’s head, Nihad Awad asserted at a 1994 meeting at Barry University, “I am a supporter of the Hamas movement.”[8]

Former FBI counter terrorism chief, Steven Pomerantz, stated publicly that, “CAIR, its leaders and its activities effectively give aid to international terrorist groups.”[9]

END NOTES:

[6] Emerson, Steve. “Foreign Terrorists in America: Five Years After the World Trade Center Bombing.” Testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information, 24 February 1998.

[7] http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33582

[8] Steve, Emerson. “Foreign Terrorists in America: Five Years After the World Trade Center Bombing.” Testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Government Information, 24 February 1998.

[9] http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32242

Lawfare: The Crucifixion of Geert Wilders

October 30, 2015/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Must Read, National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Jerry Gordon

Geert Wilders has, once again, been accused, of violating hate laws in The Netherlands over a remark he made during a March 19, 2014 Freedom Party (PVV) campaign rally for the European Parliament elections that occurred in May of last year: “fewer and fewer Moroccans”. Complaints were filed by alleged aggrieved Dutch Moroccans on the grounds that his remarks were racist and violated hate laws in The Netherlands. These remarks in the U.S. would be protected under our First Amendment to the Constitution. No such protections currently exist under the laws in The Netherlands, let alone the EU. We noted this in a December 2014 Iconoclast post about a statement Wilders made before his interrogation by Dutch police in The Hague:

The words Orwellian, Kafkaesque appear inadequate to describe the trammeling of the Hon. Geert Wilders’ free speech by Dutch prosecutors at the Hague in The Netherlands. We write this with the imagery of the fictional victim of Kafka’s posthumously published novel, The Trial. Joseph K was arrested by police inspectors for unknown reasons and every word of his scrutinized before his climactic death.

What Wilders is going through is not fiction, but a living nightmare. All because he spoke his mind during a local elections Freedom Party (PVV) campaign rally last spring about “fewer Moroccans”. That was a reference to his platform of controlling mass immigration of Muslims who have exhibited substantial criminal behavior incited by Islamic doctrine and preaching by Imams in Dutch Mosques.

We thought his exoneration in the May 2011 Amsterdam District Court trial on alleged hate speech law violations would end his nightmare of prosecution for what we in the US take for granted as protected speech under the First Amendment of our Constitution.

Public Prosecutors in The Hague are preparing for a trial on these trumped up charges in 2016. Wilders was exonerated from similar charges in a well publicized 2011 trial in the Amsterdam district court. Wilders’ has retained one of the best known defense attorneys Geert-Jan Knoops. However, the trial judge remarks and denial of what we in US trial procedure would consider customary discovery requests would lead one to believe that The Hague court proceedings on these charges are politicized and biased this bolstering of both Knoops and his client Wilders that a fair trial would not be possible. Those are the contention of this front page interview with Wilders and his defense counsel, Knoops in this De Telegraaf article by Messrs. Wouter de Winther and Rudd Mikkers. Wilders says, if that is the case then why show up at the trial, as the decision has already been made and the prosecution would be a proverbial media circus.

What follows is an English translation of the De Telegraaf interview article,”Wilders awaits unfair trial”.

Wilders awaits unfair trial
by Wouter de Winther and Ruud Mikkers
The Hague

PVV leader Geert Wilders awaits an unfair trial if he stands trial next year for stating that he wants “fewer Moroccans”. That is what his lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops says.

The lawyer is upset about the fact that the judge has allocated only 1 percent of the investigation requests of Wilders’ defense. “These include doing further research by experts. The defense has serious concerns about whether Mr. Wilders in his criminal case can adequately defend himself,” Knoops says in a statement. “When all reasonable requests are rejected, they apparently want to convict me at all costs,” the PVV leader concludes. Wilders is expected to appear in court sometime in 2016. “A correct picture of the context of the alleged statements of Mr. Wilders is essential,” says Knoops. “In order to present this picture to the judge, Wilders should get the chance that he gets the investigation he has asked for.” The lawyer says that Wilders is seriously harmed in his defense. “This way, Mr. Wilders does not get a fair trial.”

PVV leader Wilders feels provoked. He says he will not get a fair chance to defend himself in the trial in which he is being sued for group insult and incitement to hatred and discrimination. Almost all his requests to hear experts or to examine whether there has been tampered with declarations against him have been dismissed. He has appealed, because this way the chance of a fair trial would be reduced to nil.

What are the indications that suggest that you will not get a fair chance at a defense? “I notice that the judicial authorities get more intransigent as we rise in the polls. At the first meetings, the magistrate still said to me, ‘You are entitled to a fair chance; the law will be interpreted broadly. But the opposite has happened. The magistrate uncritically follows the prosecutor. If all reasonable requests are rejected, then they apparently want to convict me at all costs.”

Why would Lady Justice suddenly take off her blindfold for Geert Wilders? “For months, we have been working on the defense and therefore you suggest that further investigations be conducted. For example, what about government ministers who already declared me guilty before the trial had begun, such as [Justice Minister] Opstelten? And we also want to know what has happened with all the pre-printed complaint forms. We have discovered that various forms have same signatures on them! We also want to hear experts, for example about the accusations of racism. A nationality is not a race, so how can I be guilty of racism? I am convinced that if today I ask “Do you want more or fewer Syrians,” no one would take offense at that, let alone that there would be complaints would be filled.”

But then we are dealing with refugees without a residence permit. Not Dutch citizens who have already been here for thirty or forty years. “Yes, but I’m talking about the concept of nationality versus race. That is what everyone objected to, while I think that would now no longer be the case. If I would ask, ‘Do you want more or fewer Belgians; I do not believe that many people would feel offended. I want to hear the opinion of experts about this. I want to defend myself, but I must also be able to defend myself. The frustrating thing is that we have made 39 requests and zero have been granted. One of them has been kept in deliberation.”

During your previous trial, you had you done serious and less serious requests, you asked to hear Gaddafi or invite the Iranian president as a witness. What requests did you do this time? “I have noticed that the director of a mosque filed several complaints with different handwritings but the same signature. Hundreds of complaints were done on forms delivered in that mosque. About such matters I would want to hear the opinion of experts, because this cannot be allowed. I cannot give you all the names, because that information is not public. For example, Tom Zwart, professor at the University of Amsterdam, and Professor Paul Cliteur were willing to testify. But they have been rejected. “

What is behind all this? I do not know. However, I have seen on television there are people in the judiciary who say that PVV members cannot become judges. In the newspaper I read that the Public Prosecutor had already appointed two media judges even before the decision to prosecute had been taken. And as we rise in the polls, the rejections from the judicial authorities become more blunt and unfriendly. If this continues, then it seems as if the verdict has already been written. Then I will have to consider whether I need to attend. Perhaps they should just rule in absentia. For me, it makes little sense to come. If this persists, it will be a political trial and a PVV-hate trial.”

Are you saying that the judiciary in the Netherlands is not independent? “I want to talk about my case. If this persists, it will not be a fair trial. Obviously, I am also referring to the statement by the judge who said that PVV members should not be allowed to become judges. That is the atmosphere in which this is all happening.”

You are again seeking the role of the underdog, you and the PVV fighting the established order on your own. Is that not becoming a bit déjà-vu? “I would rather not have been prosecuted, because I think I’ve done nothing wrong. I do not seek the role of the victim here because I would rather have preferred that I could defend myself. But if all requests are rejected, then it is no use. Let them then quickly sentence me in absentia. I hope it does not come to that. Because it will be a circus.”

What consequences will a conviction have for you? “I will always continue to say what I have to say. However, with the difference that I would only be able to express certain messages in the microphone of parliament. Because there I have immunity. If freedom of expression is curtailed, I can no longer express certain opinions anywhere.”

Virtually nowhere you get what you want. But when you do think your trial will actually be fair? “That depends on which requests are granted and in what way. Knoops also needs to have the impression that he can truly defend me. If such a person, the best criminal lawyer in the Netherlands says it is not fair … that’s quite something. Knoops is not someone whom you can abuse politically.”

Given all the hassle afterwards, don’t you regret having made the statements about “fewer Moroccans”? “I think an excuse to make it harder for the PVV will always be found. We are under more scrutiny than politicians of D66 or the Green Left because we are very outspoken. I understand that. We also oppose the establishment and do not mince our words. If you do that you do not make it easy for yourself.”

Ultimately, this trial is about the freedom of expression. You always draw the line very clearly at calling to violence, but should everything else be said? “I think you should be able to say if you want fewer Mexicans or Syrians. That is not discriminatory and certainly no call to violence. I will always continue. Nothing will stop me to express my opinion. Not a hundred judges, not a thousand verdicts or fatwas will be able to change that.”

Can you imagine that Moroccan Dutch people feel excluded by such a fewer Moroccans statement? “I do not really care what they feel or don’t feel. The point is whether it is illegal or not and I do not think that I have done anything wrong. If people feel hurt they should address a psychologist or someone similar.”

Today or tomorrow you would as easily say “fewer, fewer, fewer Syrians”? “I’m not saying I will do that, but if I would, it would in my opinion no longer cause a lot of commotion.”

Yet you do not say it so explicitly today. Has this reluctance to do with the
upcoming trial? “We are calling for fewer Syrians that is absolutely true. But today or tomorrow, I will not be holding such a speech as last year. But if I would, and if I would say it… then I think that nothing would happen. In America, any politician can advocate fewer Mexicans. No-one would object.”

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

CNBC’s GOP Debate Mute About National Security by Ryan Mauro

October 29, 2015/in Elections, Must Read, National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Clarion Project

Foreign policy and national security was disappointingly absent from last night’s Republican presidential debate. The event focused on financial issues because it was hosted by the CNBC business news channel, but the economy is intertwined with important debates about foreign policy, energy independence and global instability. At one point, an incredulous Gov. Chris Christie mocked how more time was spent discussing fantasy football than the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) threat.

The following is a summary of the statements related to national security that were made by the candidates.

George Pataki

The most impressive national answers in my judgment were given by George Pataki during the first debate amongst the four lowest polling candidates. He pointed out that his two sons served in the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. The impact of cyber attacks on the economy were discussed in the undercard debate but were shockingly left out of the main event, even though Iran and North Korea (and others) have waged cyber warfare on the U.S.

Pataki said that the U.S. should sanction any company that engages in hacking and bar them from trade with the American market, including those of Chinese origin. He said that the U.S. should follow Israel’s example in establishing a single federal agency dedicated to cyber defense. He then linked the issue to the controversy over Hillary Clinton’s unsecured email server at her home and the likelihood that its contents was hacked by Iran, Russia, China and others.

Pataki is currently in 15^th place among the 16 Republican contenders with an average of less than 1% nationally and less than 1% for the New Hampshire primary that is the focus of his campaign. You can read our factsheet on his stances related to Islamist extremism here.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s answers related to national security earned the most applause. He said that the U.S. is too predictable and shouldn’t be constantly talking about how it will handle enemies like the Islamic State. The audience roared when he said that servicemen at military installations should be trusted to be armed, referring to the Islamist shooting at two sites in Chattanooga, Tennessee in July that killed five people.

Trump is the frontrunner nationally with 27%; is in second place with 21% in Iowa (behind Ben Carson); first place in New Hampshire with 30% and first place in South Carolina with 33%. You can read our factsheet on his stances related to Islamist extremism here.

Chris Christie

Chris Christie was also received very positively when he talked about national security, particularly when he lambasted the extremely condescending CNBC moderators (as other candidates did) and pointed out how fantasy football was talked about more than the Islamic State.

Christie warned of foreign policy isolationists that would leave behind fewer democracies around the world and criticized the Obama Administration’s record on promoting freedom. He also cited the FBI director’s statement that the stigmatizing of law enforcement is increasing crime and decreasing safety.

Christie is currently in 10th place nationally with 2% and 9th place in New Hampshire with 3%. You can read our factsheet on his stances related to Islamist extremism here.

Lindsey Graham

Lindsey Graham emphasized national security during the undercard debate and was met with thunderous applause when he said that he’d let dictators know that the “party is over” and “this crap stops” if he becomes president.

He warned of the danger of cuts to the defense budget and claimed that the Army will shrink to its smallest size since 1940. On the issue of cyber warfare, he said he’d tell China and others involved in hacking that the U.S. has a clenched fist and an open hand and their behavior will decide which one is used.

Graham is currently in 11th place nationally with 1%, 12th in New Hampshire with 1% and 7th in South Carolina with 3%. You can read our factsheet on his stances related to Islamist extremism here.

Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio’s only comments related to national security were about the hearings regarding the Islamist terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya in 2012 and Hillary Clinton’s testimony. He said that Clinton privately wrote emails stating that the violence was a terrorist attack linked to Al-Qaeda but that she and the administration blamed it on an out-of-control protest against a video criticizing Islam.

Rubio is currently in third place nationally with 9%; third in Iowa with 10%; fourth in New Hampshire with 8% and third in South Carolina with 8%. You can read out factsheet on his stances related to Islamist extremism here.

ABOUT RYAN MAURO

Ryan Mauro is ClarionProject.org’s national security analyst, a fellow with Clarion Project and an adjunct professor of homeland security. Mauro is frequently interviewed on top-tier television and radio. Read more, contact or arrange a speaking engagement.