Tag Archive for: Clare Lopez

SEE NO SHARIA: How Our First Lines of Defense Have Been Disarmed

see_no_sharia_thumb-683x1024For much of the past fifteen years, the United States government has failed to understand, let alone decisively defeat, the enemy that, under the banner of its al Qaeda franchise, murderously attacked our country on September 11, 2001.  The reason why that has been so – notwithstanding the bravery and skill of our men and women in uniform and the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars – has been unclear to most Americans, including some in government.  Until now.

With the publication by the Center for Security Policy of a new book by two of its leaders, President Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. and Vice President Clare Lopez, See No Sharia: “Countering Violent Extremism” and the Disarming of America’s First Lines of Defense, the case has been forcefully made that this sorry state of affairs is a product of a sustained and highly successful influence operation by Islamic supremacists. Under both Republican and Democratic administrations, Islamists in general and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular have gained access to and considerable sway over policymakers in the White House, the FBI and the Departments of State, Justice, Defense and Homeland Security.

President and CEO Frank Gaffney outlines the failures of the ‘Countering Violent Extremism’ program:

See No Sharia describes the trajectory that has flowed from such penetration and subversion.  It traces how fact-based counterterrorism and law enforcement have inexorably been supplanted by an approach defined by accommodations demanded by Islamists – purged lexicons and training programs, limitations on surveillance, case-making and rules of engagement and above all, eschewing anything that gives “offense” to Muslims.

In addition to showing the perils associated with such policies and practices as America faces the growing threat of global jihad and its animating doctrine of sharia, this book provides specific recommendations as to how to restore our first lines of defense – the FBI and other law enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, the military and the intelligence community – whose effective service is needed today more than ever.

Frank Gaffney noted,

“Americans expect government officials to fulfill their oaths of office by protecting the Constitution, the Republic it established and its people from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  The vast majority of our public servants yearn to do their duty. Yet, as See No Sharia makes plain, for at least a decade and a half, they have been obliged to conform to policies that greatly diminish their chances for success.  We simply cannot afford to disarm those in our first lines of defense against Islamic supremacism and its jihad – both the violent kind and the stealthy sort the Muslim Brotherhood calls ‘civilization jihad.’”

Clare Lopez added,

“As a career intelligence professional, the extent to which our policy making apparatus has been penetrated and subverted by Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist operatives is deeply problematic.  This book is meant to expose their handiwork – and to impel the urgently needed and long-overdue policy course-correction.”

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY

The Center for Security Policy is a non-profit, non-partisan national security organization that specializes in identifying policies, actions, and resource needs that are vital to American security and then ensures that such issues are the subject of both focused, principled examination and effective action by recognized policy experts, appropriate officials, opinion leaders, and the general public. For more information visit www.securefreedom.org.

The Center for Security Policy/Secure Freedom is proud to present this monograph as a superb addition to its Civilization Jihad Reader Series.  “The Gulen Movement: Turkey’s Islamic Supremacist Cult and Its Contribution to Civilization Jihad in America” is available for purchase in kindle and paperback format on Amazon.com.

Click here for a full PDF of the newly released monograph.

VIDEO: Six Patriots explain why the Iran Nuke Deal is a ‘Bad Deal’ for U.S.

The United West video taped six American patriots on the Iran nuclear deal. These six distinguished individuals include: a Rabbi, a former Iranian prisoner and dissident, a gold star father, a wounded warrior veteran of Iraq, a retired Army Lieutenant General and a former CIA operations officer.

A statement by William Kristol, Chairman of the Emergency Committee for Israel, on the potential vote in Congress on the Iran deal reads:

“The Obama Administration has not complied with the legal requirement that it provide Congress ‘any additional materials’ related to the Iran deal, including ‘side agreements, implementing materials, documents, and guidance, technical or other understandings, and any related agreements, whether entered into or implemented prior to the agreement or to be entered into or implemented in the future.’ The Administration has not given Congress a key side agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency, one which describes how key questions about the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program will be resolved, as well as how the verification regime will work.

“Congress should not accept this evasion of the law by the Obama Administration. Congress should insist on the text of this and any other side agreements. Lacking this, Congress can and should take the position that the Iran deal has not been properly submitted to Congress to review, and therefore that the president has no authority to waive or suspend sanctions.

“We understand the temptation of leadership to get to a vote on a resolution of disapproval and then to move on to other votes. But the Iran deal isn’t just another legislative issue where some corner-cutting by the Administration is to be accepted with a brief expression of discontent followed by a weary sigh of resignation.

“The Iran deal is the most important foreign policy issue this Congress will have before it. Congress should rise to the occasion and insist on its prerogative — and the American people’s prerogative — to see the whole deal. The first resolution the House should consider when it returns tomorrow should be one stating that Congress has not been provided the material it needs, that the Iran deal has not been properly submitted to Congress, and therefore that the president has no authority to waive or suspend sanctions on Iran.”

Please take the time to watch all the videos or one that interests you the most. It is important to keep the pressure on those 34 Democrat U.S. Senators who have decided that the interests of Iran far outweigh the interests of the American people.

Thanks for taking the time to watch, share and send this compilation to your U.S. Senators and member of Congress.

VIDEO #1: Billy Vaughn and Staff Sargent Robert Bartlett. Gold Star father Billy Vaughn and U.S. Army Staff Sergeant (Ret.) Robert Bartlett urge everyone to call their Congressman and Senators to vote NO on the Iran Deal. Our soldiers died and sacrificed for your freedoms, pay them back by simply making your voice heard.

VIDEO #2: LTG Jerry Boykin. Retired U.S. Army General Jerry Boykin is one of America’s most significant leaders on national security issues, including Iran’s march to Atomic weapons. Moreover, Boykin is an ordained Minister serving as the Executive Vice President at the Family Research Council in Washington DC. Listen to this his critically important and insightful analysis of the Obama/Iran Nuclear Deal.

VIDEO #3: Amir Fakhravar. Amir Abbas Fakhravar, (Siavash) is an Iranian jailed dissident and award winning writer. Amir exposes the Blindfolded inspection procedure under the current Iran deal. Currently Fakhravar serves as Research Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at the Institute of World Politics.

VIDEO #4: Clare Lopez. Clare Lopez is a retired CIA Operations Officer, currently VP of Research & Analysis at Center for Security Policy. Recently in Montecito California she presented an amazing, short, insightful deconstruction of this horrendous deal that President Obama has made with the Iranian Ayatollah.

VIDEO #5: Rabbi Efrem Goldberg. Unedited footage of Efrem Goldberg protesting Joe Biden on the Iran deal in Broward County FL, at a Jewish Community Center.

VIDEO #6: Rabbi Efrem Goldberg at his Boca Raton synagogue. Senior Rabbi at the prestigious Boca Raton Synagogue in Florida delivers a powerful, on-point message against the Obama Iran Nuclear deal. Please listen to this very brave man!

VIDEO #7: Ryan Mauro, Research Analyst for the Clarion Project, producers of award-winning documentaries on national security issues presents a powerful deconstruction of the Iran/Obama Nuke Deal at the Montecito Luncheon Briefing.

VIDEO: ‘Freedom Isn’t Free’ Security Briefing

The Hausman Memorial Speaker Series is proud to host three extraordinary individuals for the “Freedom Isn’t Free” Security Briefing, at Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton, MA.

Frank Gaffney, president and founder of The Center for Security Policy, Clare Lopez, former CIA operations officer and current VP of Research and Analysis at The Center, and Admiral James “Ace” Lyons, former Commander of the USN Pacific Fleet and current President and CEO of Lions Associates LLC offer their insights on topics including jihad, the Islamic State and the dangers and consequences of a bad Iranian nuclear deal.

This straight forward presentation will undoubtedly reveal aspects of the Obama Administration’s policies that will leave you shaking your head!

Henry Jackson Society’s Attempt to Refute Jihadism is flawed

When the Henry Jackson Society (HJS)  on February 4, 2014 issued a monograph, A Guide to Refuting Jihadism:  Critiquing radical Islamist claims to theological authenticity (HJS Jihadism Guide) I shared it with a colleague, Clare Lopez. I posed a question to her whether given the HJS authors and Muslim commentators,  this effort was tantamount to Da’wa, especially given an endorsement by a bevy of Sunni Muslim scholars.   Lopez did not think that the HJS  monograph was helpful.

The HJS Jihadism Guide propounded these conclusions:

Al-Qa’ida, Hamas and Lashkar-e-Ta’iba claim that their violent actions are supported within the four traditional schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence and that traditional Islam itself mandates a jihadist view of scripture.  [The Guide] counters these theological claims by demonstrating that their arguments are not based on Islamic consensus or traditionally recognized interpretations of classical Islamic sources. Part I examines the division of the world into Dar al-Islam (‘lands of Islam’) and Dar al-Harb (‘lands of war’).  By demonstrating that the Islamist understanding of the former is much narrower than that of classical scholars, the report counters key jihadist tenets, including the requirements to re-conquer Islamic lands; to reject peaceful relations with illegitimate states; and to re-establish an expansionist ‘Islamic’ state, known as the Caliphate. Part II demonstrates that the jihadist groups’ rendering of the rules of Islamic warfare – particularly who can declare  jihad (‘religiously sanctioned warfare’) and when, as well as who can be targeted, whether suicide operations are religiously lawful and who should fight – diverges from both classical and contemporary sources of Islamic law.

Dr. Mark Durie posted on his blog yesterday the comments about the HJS Jihadism Guide by Andrew Brown on his blog at The Guardian:

It doesn’t really matter whether the fundamentalists are right about the nature of Islam – it’s loyalties and peer pressure that drive them. How much of what jihadis do is religiously motivated? At one extreme are those who claim their beliefs are entirely explained by oppression and reaction to social circumstances; at the other is the view that the Qur’an is a kind of brain parasite, compelling its victims to slaughter. This latter view is still quite popular on the fringes of the right. I’d like to think the view that religion doesn’t matter at all has been abandoned entirely but there is bound to be some groupuscule or cult that still clings to it. More sophisticated versions of the argument continue, though, and there was a fascinating outbreak … when the Henry Jackson Society published a pamphlet organized by a former jihadi giving theological reasons why jihadi violence is as unjustified as terrorism, and a counterblast saying this would persuade no one, as Muhammad himself had clearly done indiscriminately violent things and the fanatics we are dealing with use only the text of the Qur’an. Both sides in this dispute know what they are talking about. The Henry Jackson pamphlet comes with a foreword by the remarkable Usama Hasan, who himself fought in Afghanistan in the 1990s; the Christian counterblast comes from an experienced watcher of the jihadi scene.

The Christian counterblast was from Dr. Durie  published by Lapidomedia.com.  Here are Durie’s criticisms of the HJS Jihadism Guide:

This project is also helpful because it acknowledges what is often denied – that the credibility of radical jihadism relies upon religious, theological claims.  It claims Islamic legitimacy and this is how, in practice, it gains converts.  To counter this religious legitimacy it is also necessary to use theological arguments.

However there are some dangers here for Western governments.  One is that there will be a cost to adopting theological positions on Islam.  Is a secular state really in a position to make an announcement that one particular form of Islam is ‘correct’ over others? This is like saying that Catholicism is correct, but the Baptist faith is not.  And if the state does canonize a “theologically correct” view on Islam, would it really be persuasive to the minds of young radically inclined Muslims that a secular government is teaching Islam to them, or would it just incite suspicion, and detract from the credibility of voices of moderation within the Muslim community?  Also where does combating radicalism start and promoting Islam start? (The al-Azhar Sheikh in his introduction [in Arabic] to the report sees the report as an exercise in spreading Islam, not just in combating radicalism.)

The great weakness in the arguments offered is that they appear to be opportunistic, often ignoring conflicting evidence. For example on the subject of suicide bombing, a wide range of modern Muslim scholars have endorsed martyrdom operations against Israel, and to counter these means a more whole-hearted acknowledgement of the weight of the opposing voices.  It is not just al-Qaradawi or Al-Qaida ideologues who say this.

Also there is a tendency to cherry pick texts.  For example Al-Ghazali is cited to support an argument against killing women and children, but his justification of collateral damage against civilians is not cited:

[O]ne must go on jihad at least once a year… one may use a catapult against them when they are in a fortress, even if among them are women and children. One may set fire to them and/or drown them.

Another example is the discussion of ‘perfidy’ or ‘subterfuge’ in warfare.  It is argued on the basis of a hadith from  Sahih Muslim’s Hadith Collection  that Islam forbids the use of deception in warfare, a key point in the theology of martyrdom operations / suicide bombing.  However the hadith is cited from a secondary source and the translation is not accurate.  The actual Arabic in Sahih Muslim (translated more accurately here) forbids stealing booty and a Muslim is not supposed to break his ‘pledge’.  This is not about ‘cheating’ in general.  Also the authors ignore the well-known hadith which supports deceit in which Muhammad said: ‘War is deceit’.   This approach runs the risk of setting up a straw man only to knock it down. In Islam, support for deception in warfare is more resistant to re-analysis than this.

In the discussion on citizenship – which is a very important issue in Islamic law: can Muslims be loyal citizens? – the authors overlook important rulings collected by the International Fiqh Academy on this issue, which goes against their position.

Yet as soon as one raises such objections, one runs the risk of being accused of supporting the jihadis.  My overall view is that the jihadis have more support than this document would acknowledge, and the arguments used against them would not be convincing to many.

The question I ask is whether these arguments will be convincing to a well-trained Muslim scholar. I am not convinced.

I believe the strongest Islamic argument of all against jihadi theology is the ‘necessity’ argument: it will harm Islam by causing its reputation to be destroyed, as we see already in Egypt.

What about the Al-Azhar Sheikh’s support?  Well this is political.  Al-Azhar must support the anti-jihadi cause, because the Brotherhood are being killed and wiped out due to their views. The wind is blowing against the jihadi position.  Also I note that the Sheikh does not endorse specific arguments, just the general thrust of the project.

We asked  both Clare Lopez and Dr. Durie for their  concluding comments.  Lopez wrote:

In the end it doesn’t really matter whether jihadis accurately or properly understand and follow the doctrine, law and scriptures of their faith. The point for the rest of us, who are their targets for conquest, is that they believe they do.  As Stephen Coughlin has pointed out that becomes the enemy threat doctrine. It is not for us to pontificate, we must accept them at their word and try to counter them  effectively and in a timely way before it is too late.

Durie  responded:

The HJS monograph is both misleading and inaccurate of how persuasive the jihadi position is. To ignore the jihadi’s arguments will cause authorities to waste money on projects which will do no good at al.

Durie  and Lopez  have ably criticized  the HJS  document  as both misleading and  inaccurate.  As Durie states it would appear that the HJS instead of providing an exegesis of jihadist doctrinal has delivered a dangerously opaque document that will not serve their cause well.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.

UPDATED 10/28: HE KNEW – HE LIED – HE DENIED – OUR PEOPLE DIED

UPDATED: October 28, 2012

NEW EXPLOSIVE BENGHAZI ALLEGATIONS: CIA OPERATORS TOLD TO ‘STAND DOWN’ DURING ATTACK AS 3 URGENT REQUESTS FOR MILITARY BACK-UP WERE DENIED

Libyan witnesses recount organized Benghazi attack – Washington Times


UPDATED: October 26, 2012

AC-130 U Gunship Was On-Scene In Benghazi,Obama Admin Refused to Let It Fire

Benghazi Exclusive: CIA Operators Were Denied Request For Help During Benghazi Attack, Sources Say

Reuters Contradicts Itself On Benghazi Attacks

Multiple news outlets are reporting on emails sent to the White House about the Benghazi attack. The emails clearly show it was a terrorist attack and named Ansar al-Sharia as the al Qaeda affiliate claiming responsibility.

Lars Larson interview with Charles Woods, father of former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods who gave his life in Benghazi:

CBS News report on released email exchanges during the Benghazi attack:

Clare Lopez, former CIA Agent and Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy, talks with Glenn Beck about Benghazi:

Watchdog Wire Radio Guest Lineup: July 30-August 3, 2012

This week’s Watchdog Wire – Florida Radio Guest Lineup for the Dr. Rich Show on WWPR AM 1490 or listen live via the Internet at www.DrRichShow.com:

Monday, July 30 – Interview with Charter Review Board candidates Pay Wayman and Paul A. Cajka. There are five Sarasota charter review board seats open in 2012. The primary is being held on August 14th. Sarasota is one of 20 charter counties in Florida. We will learn why these candidates are so important to the future of our home rule style of government. Host: Dr. Rich Swier

Tuesday, July 31 – WHO IS HUMA? Tom Trento will clear up all the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s “body-girl,” Huma Abedin and whether or not she may be a threat to our national security. Host: Tom Trento

Wednesday, August 1 – A live interview with Ronna Romney. As her former brother-in-law, Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, is traveling on a national security visit to key allies like Israel we will learn more about the man and his family during this exclusive live interview with Ronna. Dr. Rich Swier

Thursday, August 2 – “FEARLESS,” The Unbelievable story of SEAL Team Six fallen warrior, Adam Brown. His life and times are an incredible journey of a true American hero. This show is a must listen and the book is a must read. Host: Tom Trento

Every Friday is FREE SPEECH FRIDAY!  – This is “You The People” Talk Radio. Giving local citizens concerned about local issues a voice to air their grievances and petition their elected representatives via the Dr. Rich Show is our mission each and every Friday. A citizen volunteer from Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee and Sarasota Counties will be talking about local issues of importance to you. What is happening at the local City/County Commission, School Board and events planned in each county will be presented to inform and educate our listeners. The last segment  on FSF is the “Voice of the Observer” with Rod Thomson, Editor-at-Large for the Observer Group Newspapers. Host: Dr. Rich Swier

Tune in every Saturday is “Righting the Right” with Glenn Pav – NEW! The Glenn Pav Show: Righting the Right on WTIS AM 1110 every Saturday from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. EST. Visit Glenn’s website by clicking here.

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