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CNN Always Blames Conservatives for Terrorism

December 1, 2015/in Commentary, Culture War, Policy, Politics/by Jihad Watch

John Nolte tells the truth. But it isn’t just CNN: numerous people who are putatively on the right, including Donald Trump, Bill O’Reilly, Laura Ingraham and others who should know better but clearly don’t, lined up after our free speech event in Garland, Texas last May to blame us for the jihad terror attack on the event.

“Planned Parenthood & Pamela Geller: CNN Always Blames Conservatives for Terrorism,” by John Nolte, Breitbart, November 30, 2015:

Chris Cuomo: “Now we get into why did it happen? The man charged with Friday’s murderous attack on a Colorado Planned Parenthood is probably a crazy extremist who did something sick and negative and wrong. But isn’t killing babies primarily for purposes of convenience provocative?

Alisyn Camerota: “What people are saying is that the business you are in, aborting innocent unborn children primarily for convenience purposes, is incendiary and provocative.”

Erin Burnett: “Is being caught on video talking so cavalierly about dismembering innocent babies and selling their parts stoking the flames? Do you think on some level, Planned Parenthood relished this attack?”

Carol Costello: “Is Planned Parenthood’s belligerent insistence on taxpayer funding a deliberate attempt to provoke and taunt?”

The questions above are fabricated. Not a single one of CNN’s left-wing anchors raised anything close to the idea that Planned Parenthood’s horrific abortion practices provoked last week’s violence. Which is appropriate. What happened at a Colorado Planned Parenthood Friday afternoon was indefensible and evil. The only person responsible is the person who committed those three murders.

Throughout Monday, though, and on too many occasions to count, like the rest of the DC Media, CNN did attempt to blame conservative pro-lifers for provoking the Friday attack, this includes the Center for Medical Progress, a group that exposed Planned Parenthood’s ghoulish cottage industry involving the dismemberment of dead babies and the selling of those tiny body parts to the highest bidder.

And yet, if it means the left-wing network can blame conservatives, this very same CNN does see cartoons as a provocative taunt that makes the intended victim in some way responsible for the terrorism. (Donald Trump said the same thing, by the way).

Back in May, after Islamic terrorists tried to murder everyone at a Texas free speech event organized by Pamela Geller, CNN relentlessly attacked Geller for wearing a short free speech skirt. According to CNN, the bitch was begging for it.

Believe it or not, these quotes are real:

Chris Cuomo to Pam Geller: “Now, we get into, why did it happen? They’re crazy extremists. They bought into an ideology that is sick and negative and wrong, that’s fact. But what you did was calculated in a way that would be provocative.”

Alisyn Camerota to Pam Geller: “What people are saying is that there is that there is always this fine line of being intentionally incendiary and provocative.”

Erin Burnett to Pam Geller: “I mean, are you stoking the flames? Do you on some level relish being the target of these attacks?”

Carol Costello: “She can say whatever she wants but if this [cartoon] contest was set up to deliberately taunt or provoke, is that responsible?”

At CNN, no matter what happens, the political Right is always to blame.

Even for train crashes.

Today’s reminder of just how good Democrats got it … especially at CNN.

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CNN Fails to ‘Vet’ Radical Muslim Guest

November 25, 2015/in Immigration, Must Read, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Jihad Watch

Over at PJ Media today I discuss CNN “journalist” Christiane Amanpour’s manifest bias and hypocrisy:

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour believes “we can all afford to be human” regarding the Syrian refugees. Recently, she condemned the U.S. and other countries for not letting them enter the homeland, despite FBI Director James Comey’s testimony explaining that vetting this population is literally impossible.

Apparently, “discerning” does not qualify as a human trait to Amanpour. Because soon after she offered her ill-considered, slanderous logic equating “responsible” with “heartless,” she employed this advice in her own decision-making — and she was taken.

Amanpour demonstrated exactly how Islamic radicals have learned to take advantage of those bearing her viewpoint.

Last Thursday, Amanpour invited Dalil Boubakeur, chairman of the Grand Mosque of Paris, to a sit-down interview. During the interview, Boubakeur strongly denounced the Islamic State (ISIS) and called for military action against it. He then declared that the barbarous terror group behind the Paris attacks had nothing to do with Islam:

Our religion is not one of violence, of jihadism, of terrorism, of women who kill. In what page of Qur’an is that written that a woman must take bombs inside her body to explode and kill other people? In what part of Qur’an is that said? In what page of Qur’an is it said that we shall kill innocent people? Young people?

Boubakeur then lamented that “little by little,” the Islamic State had won over the young Muslims of Europe. He declared that it was a “great error … not only of Muslims, but of the world to accept this.”

Then, Boubakeur called on Muslims in France to assimilate:

[It is] very important [for] French Muslim people to express their French nationality, their French taste, their French values, their French [rejection] of what is the danger for them, France, and for our religion also.

Had Amanpour recognized vetting as rational behavior — and understood her own viewpoint as reckless and irresponsible — then she would have known that Boubakeur’s insistence on “assimilation” could be nothing but a preposterous, exploitative lie considering his past behavior.

Homeland security expert Patrick Poole reported on Boubakeur’s rejection of Islamic “assimilation” with Western values in PJ Media last January. Boubakeur certainly does not oppose ISIS’s — or, in general, Islam’s — embrace of violence when he isn’t on Amanpour’s set:

[I]n 2006 at the height of the Danish Cartoon crisis, Boubakeur had published an article denouncing the cartoons and concluded by issuing a warning to all those — including Charlie Hebdo — who would publish caricatures of Mohammed, saying: “He who sows the whirlwind shall reap the whirlwind.”

Stop drawing Muhammad, and start abiding by Sharia blasphemy laws … or else.

Boubakeur, rather than being the assimilation-supporting, violence-spurning moderate Amanpour wanted him to be, is guilty of fanning the violence that resulted in deadly riots across the globe and ended in the horrific slaughter at Charlie Hebdo’s offices.

Boubakeur’s interview answers were no doubt music to the ears of Amanpour, as they matched the narrative she pushed in her September op-ed published by CNN wherein she castigated the U.S. for not taking more Syrian refugees. In the op-ed, Amanpour described the following as “heartwarming”:

… ordinary citizens, the responsible media, and generous governments all opening their arms to welcome a modern, yet biblical tide of humanity, fleeing war and persecution to safety here in Europe.

She scolded the U.S. and Canada:

… countries with big hearts, deep pockets and a habit of projecting their humanitarian values [are] unwilling to actually help end the war that would stop this exodus.

The U.S., she lamented:

… has only accepted fewer than 1,500 Syrian asylum seekers over the course of the war.

Amanpour did not address in her piece the real reason why many in the U.S. and elsewhere are reluctant to take in large numbers of these refugees: the prospect of Islamic jihadis being among them.

The Islamic State boasted last February that they would soon inundate Europe with 500,000 refugees. The Lebanese education minister recently warned that there were 20,000 active jihadis among the Syrian refugees in camps in his country. An Islamic State operative boasted in September, shortly after the migrant influx into Europe began, that among the flood of refugees, 4,000 terrorists had already entered Europe.

None of that information made it into Amanpour’s piece. She likely is confident that Obama administration officials will be able to “vet” the refugees they admit into the U.S., as they have repeatedly promised to do….

She must understand now that to heed her call, to bring in those refugees in large numbers, might make her temporarily feel good about how tolerant and multicultural she is, but will be cold comfort to the rest of us when the bombs start exploding.

Read the rest here.

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The Islamic State poses a Global Airline Security Threat

November 6, 2015/in Featured, National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Jerry Gordon

Metrojet 9268 Flight Schedule, October 31, 2015.

Saturday morning, October 31st, Flight 9268 a Metrojet Airbus A321 with 224 largely Russian tourists, and crew aboard were bound on a course for St. Petersburg from Sharm el-Sheikh on Egypt’s Sinai Red Sea. The aircraft reached an altitude of 31,000 feet at 430 knots, when something catastrophic occurred at 23 minutes into the flight. Communications with the pilot abruptly ended, the plane struggled to gain altitude and just as suddenly plummeted earthward with the tail section broken off and the rest of fuselage sent crashing into the desert and mountains were a flash was seen via satellite.

All 224 passengers and crew aboard were killed. The crash occurred less than 300 miles from the resort area at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula at the mouth of the Red Sea. The passenger remains and aircraft debris were scattered over a wide area. All of this was recorded in real time on satellite flight status internet reports and satellite imagery. Forensic teams from Egyptian, Russian and Airbus air safety organizations were dispatched to retrieve the flight data recorders. Egyptian military and Red Crescent teams were engaged in recovery of the remains, personal effects and luggage of those killed in the crash.

Grief was overwhelming at funerals held in Russia this week with the arrival of the remains of the victims. The immediate questions were what caused the aviation catastrophe and who may have been behind it.

Watch this CNN video on “Did a Bomb take down Metrojet Flight 9268?”:

Metrojet Flight 9268 Tail section. Source: AFP

If the emerging facts surrounding the fate of Metrojet Flight 9268 are confirmed this aviation disaster, possibly perpetrated by Islamic terrorists, could well be Russia’s 9/11. Shoshana Bryen of the Washington, D.C.-based Jewish Policy Center suggested that in an American Thinker blog, “Could the destroyed Russian plane be jihadi payback?” The inference being that the bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 was a deadly rebuke to Russian President Putin for his entry in the Syria conflict attempting to bolster the faltering Assad Regime in alliance with Shia extremist Iran and its proxy Hezbollah. Boaz Bismuth writing in Israel Hayom penned an op ed about the alleged bombing with the prescient title, “ISIS aims for the global skies.”

A lot is at stake, as the Sinai had become a veritable Islamic terrorist venue with Al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS echelons attacking Egyptian security forces. Sharm el-Sheik is a major European tourist destination attracting millions of visitors annually from the EU, Russia and other countries. For the El-Sisi government, terrorist involvement in the aviation disaster in the Sinai would have a chilling effect on billions in income from tourism. For Russia it could be an un-reckoned threat arising from its entry in the Syrian conflict. It is seeking to keep at bay Caucasian and other Russian Muslims from flocking to join the self-declared Caliphate, the Islamic State. For the international airline industry it may have profound implications for assuring security for passengers and operations both at home and in destinations adjacent to jihadist conflict zones. If airport or airline servicing contractors were involved, then a major security gap would be opened by this latest aviation terrorism episode.

Several theories were developed as to what caused the aircraft to go through violent maneuvers. The aircraft may have been hit by a shoulder held air defense heat seeker missile or MANPAD, it might have suffered a high altitude structural failure which caused it to break apart or the aircraft could have suffered an internal bomb explosion. Both the MANPAD and structural failure explanations were dismissed in view of the altitude at which the incident occurred, 31,000 feet , exceeding the maximum altitude of MANPADs, 15,000 feet. Moreover the high altitude structure failure possibility was obviated by the service record of the Metrojet aircraft indicating that it had undergone structural repairs after a 2001 incident that occurred on a rough landing. The bombing possibility, while initially dismissed, became a palpably plausible on Wednesday, November 4th. Both UK and U.S. intelligence suggested they had intercepted electronic information indicating that an explosive device may have been secreted on board Metrojet Flight 9268 by possible operatives of ISIS groups active in the Sinai Peninsula. Perhaps they were posing as local catering and cleaning contractors with access to the aircraft. Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood or ISIS operatives could have secreted a bomb in the rear lavatories or rear luggage holds on the Metrojet A321.

Evidence is mounting to the ultimate conclusion that this might have been a bombing. Shoshana Bryen indicated that photographs of the aircraft wreckage in British media “show some of the holes in the wreckage. They are outward-facing – meaning something inside the plane moved out. A blown fuel tank – which is on the outside – would have caused inward-facing holes.” Then there were reported forensic evidence of metal shards among the clothing and effects of the victims. Bryen also cited reports “indicating that security at Sharm el-Sheikh was totally lax; which helps make the case that someone inside did the job. Since Egyptian tourism and Russia are targets of the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS respectively, and since ISIS came from the MB root, collaboration here is a twisted “win-win” for them.”

‘UK PM Cameron underlined the increasing evidence of a bomb plot to destroy, Metrojet Flight 9268, saying, “It is ‘more likely than not” that a bomb brought down the Metrojet over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula”. He took extraordinary measures grounding all UK charters for a security sweep at Sharm el Sheikh airport leaving more than 3,500 British passengers delayed until given clearance. CNN cited Cameron’s office issuing a statement saying, “Outbound flights from the UK to Sharm el-Sheikh remain suspended and the Foreign Office continues to advise against all but essential travel by air to or from Sharm el-Sheikh airport, but we are continuing to work with the Egyptians to get back to normal service as soon as possible.” Similar announcements came from Irish authorities and Lufthansa. Sharm el-Sheikh is visited by more than 1 million tourists, annually.

The Israeli resort of Eilat at the head of the Red Seas also is a major European and international tourist destination. ISIS Sinai affiliate formerly known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis has targeted Eilat for a possible bombing attack. The possible ISIS terror bombing of the Metrojet could have rippling effects there to assure the usual tight security arrangements of Israel international carrier, El Al, and domestic ones like Arkia. El Al aircraft are already equipped with electronic counter measures like the Elbit C-Music anti- missile system to foil possible MANPAD attacks. Doubtless, the Israelis may also have better security clearances for aircraft maintenance, catering and cleaning employees, as well as barriers and surveillance of the Egyptian border to thwart infiltration of MB and ISIS terrorists.

ISS Facility Services Receives State of Utah Refugee Services Employer of the Year 2009.

ISS Facility Services Receives State of Utah Refugee Services Employer of the Year 2009

The downing of the Metrojet with its innocent Russian victims has more than just Russian, Egyptian and Israeli concerns. From investigations by the Wall Street Journal, CNN and others, security clearances for baggage handlers, catering, and cleaning personnel with access to the tarmac and aircraft here in the U.S. is lax.

Further investigations by the Lisa Benson Radio Show National Security Task Force of America have revealed employment of Somali refugees by major international groups like ISS Worldwide A/S headquartered in Copenhagen. The US subsidiary ISS Facility Services, Inc. is based in San Antonio. ISS Worldwide employs over a half million through their outsourced network of airport and commercial facilities maintenance contracts. ISS specializes in a broad range of facility management services including janitorial services, especially for airport authorities and major manufacturing companies.

The Somali Muslim émigré population has been the source of both Al Shabaab and increasingly ISIS recruitment in the U.S. One illustration of the inherent ISIS risk among U.S. Somalis employed at US airports was the reported death in September 2014 of American Somali Émigré ISIS Jihadi

The late ISIS Fighter a former Twin Cities airport cleaner.

The late ISIS Fighter a former Twin Cities airport cleaner

Abdirahmaan Muhumed, 29. That revealed his employment as a cleaner for Delta Global Services, Inc. that gave him security access to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Muhumed left behind 9 children in the Twin Cities to become an ISIS jihadi, before his death in Syria. Muhumed had unfettered access to jetliners at the airport, which handles 90,000 passengers a day. He also had access to the tarmac and special security clearance to other parts of the airport. Muhumed had no criminal record in the United States that would have prevented him from getting a job at the airport.

This revelation following the death of Somali émigré ISIS fighter Muhumed, should raise the concerns of both the TSA and Homeland Security regarding screening of airport and aircraft maintenance personnel at U.S. Many of who have contracts with groups like ISS Worldwide A/S and Delta Global Services, Inc. Moreover, without active community policing programs in the major U.S. communities recruitment of Muhumed and other ISIS recruits could not have been detected. Thus, the downing of the Metrojet in Egypt by alleged ISIS perpetrators reverberates here in the U.S. FBI Direct James Combey has warned that ISIS jihadis lurk among us in all 50 states.

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

CNN Poll: 29% of Americans think President Obama is a Muslim

September 15, 2015/in Must Read, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Jihad Watch

This story doesn’t persist because Americans are “racist” or “Islamophobic.” This story persists because of Obama’s behavior: his fulsome praise of Islam, his refusal to call Islamic jihad terrorism by name, his statements such as “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam,” his aiding the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and al-Qaeda in Syria; and so much more.

“Misperceptions persist about Obama’s faith, but aren’t so widespread,” by Jennifer Agiesta, CNN, September 14, 2015:

Washington (CNN) A new CNN/ORC poll finds that although misperceptions about Barack Obama’s religious beliefs and background persist, they are not as widespread as some recent polling has suggested. Obama was born in Hawaii and is a Christian.

Overall, when asked “Where was Obama born, as far as you know?” 80% of adults said they believe Obama was born in the United States. The other 20% said that he was born outside the country, including 9% who believe there is solid evidence of that and 11% who say it is just their suspicion.

Misperceptions about Obama’s religious beliefs are more common than those about his birth, particularly among Republicans. Overall, 29% of Americans say they think the President is a Muslim, including 43% of Republicans….

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Donald Trump to CNN: ‘People Don’t Trust You!’ [Video]

July 23, 2015/in Elections, Must Read, Politics, Video/by Dr. Rich Swier

Donald Trump fired back at CNN’s Anderson Cooper for citing not-so-good polls about him, and told him, “The people don’t trust you.”

You First News reports:

Trump is leading in the polls, but complained to Cooper that he cited a less-than-flattering poll “I didn’t even know existed.” He said, “You only want to talk about the negative. Why don’t you bring up the positive?”

And Trump kept on this for a while, continuing to air his grievances to Cooper, before telling him, “The people don’t trust you, and the people don’t trust the media.”
Trump said that the media used to cover him “accurately,” but now he’s discovered that most of the political media “is really, really dishonest.”

Lindsey Graham: Trump Made Up Story About Begging Him to Mention Me on Fox News
Donald Trump was so offended by Lindsey Graham calling him a “jackass” that he gave out Graham’s personal cell number during a campaign event yesterday (https://youtu.be/u1sku13JYlo). Trump claimed that a few years ago, Graham reached out to him to ask him help him out with a mention on Fox News.

When Graham appeared on CNN today, he just laughed and told Brianna Keilar, “I don’t need his help to get on Fox News, and he’s just making that story up.”
He said that he met Trump a while back to talk about his China currency manipulation legislation––legislation that Trump supported––and again slammed The Donald for his comments about illegal immigrants and John McCain.

Graham also described Trump as a “political car wreck”; people will stop to gaze at it for a while, but eventually they’ll move on.

Donald Trump Full Speech in South Carolina 7/21/2015 – 2016 Presidential Campaign Rally https://youtu.be/kj9xsrhJKOQ

Lindsey Graham: Donald Trump Makes Up Story About Begging Him to Mention Me on Fox News

FULL SPEECH: https://youtu.be/kj9xsrhJKOQ

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gives out his rival Lindsey Graham’s cell phone number Tuesday.
Donald Trump gave Lindsey Graham’s cell phone numbers to millions of his supporters.
update: Sen. Lindsey Graham posts satirical video about destroying his phone after Donald Trump gives out phone number on TV
Speaking at a campaign event in South Carolina, Trump blasted the senator — and then proceeded to give out his fellow presidential hopeful’s digits.

Trump explained that the Graham gave him the cell phone number “three or four years ago.”

Graham called Trump, hoping the bussiness mogel could help him get on Fox News. Trump said he would try to talk to his friends at ‘Fox and Friends,” and then took down the senator’s number on a Post-It note

On Tuesday, Trump showed off the yellow note — and then proceeded to read the number to the crowd, twice.

The phone number went straight to voicemail but a recorded message said it was the inbox for Lindsay Graham.

“He doesn’t seem like a very bright guy,” Trump said of Graham.

The phone number went straight to voicemail but a recorded message said it was the inbox for Lindsay Graham. CBS News confirmed that the number is Graham’s cell.

Graham wasn’t Trump’s only target during the Tuesday event, which was broadcast live. He also claimed presidential candidate Rick Perry wears glasses “to look smart” and blasted Macy’s for cutting business ties with him.

Pentagon: Kurds “Reliable and Effective” Partners in War Against Islamic State

July 7, 2015/in National Security, Policy, Politics, Religion/by Jerry Gordon

Monday, July 6, 2015 was a red letter day in Washington with Pentagon officials acknowledging the critical role of Kurdish YPG and Peshmerga forces successfully fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq. President Obama appeared at the Pentagon to give an update on the campaign to “degrade and destroy the Islamic state”. It wasn’t a great score card since his declaration made on national television on September 10, 2014. He suggested that winning the war was going to a “generational conflict’. “This will not be quick. This is a long-term campaign. (ISIS) is opportunistic and it is nimble,” Obama said. As usual he reiterated that the ISIS campaign was “not a war against Islam”. This despite that ISIS practices pure Salafist Islam that has attracted tens of thousands of foreign fighters from across the Muslim ummah. The President still hasn’t addressed a coherent strategy except to commit minimal numbers of U.S. trainers to develop combat cadres in both Iraq and Syria and conduct air assaults against ISIS targets. During his remarks he pointed to more than 5,000 air strikes in Iraq, Syria and North Africa equivalent to just three days of air operations during the Gulf Wars.

According to CNN, President Obama suggested that the ‘coalition’ was going after “the heart” of the Islamic State. He exhorted Congress to confirm the replacement head of the Treasury Department, Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Adam Szubin. He suggested that U.S. Trained forces had some successes on the ground in both Iraq and Syria backed up by air support, without naming them. They are the Kurdish YPG (Popular Resistance Forces) in Syria and the Peshmerga in Iraq. In our July New English Review (NER) Article, “Empowering Kurdistan”, those front line Kurdish forces have been the only forces capable of rolling back ISIS forces. Obama and his national security staff had met with President Barzani and aides of the Kurdish Regional Government in early May 2015 during the latter’s meetings in Washington seeking quality weapons and support in the war against ISIS. We noted in our NER article that both KRG and Syrian Kurdish leaders had met separately with Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) in the House and Senate Armed Forces Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ). That resulted in amendments to the National Defense Appropriate Act authorizing military assistance for Kurdish fighting units in both Syria and Iraq.

Watch this C-Span video of President Obama’s Pentagon Conference on the ISIS War, July 6, 2015:

Secretary Ashton Carter and French Defese Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian Pentaon, July 6, 2019 Source Carolyn Kaster AP

Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, The Pentagon, July 6, 2015. Source: Carolyn Kaster/AP.

A few hours before President Obama and military leaders briefings on the War against ISIS, there was another Pentagon meeting with a more positive message. This one featured Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter and French Defense Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian to specifically discuss military aid for the Kurds. McClatchey had a definitive report on that more substantive meeting recognizing the Kurds as “reliable and effective allies” in the war against ISIS, “Kurdish militia proving to be reliable partner against Islamic State in Syria.” The McClatchey report noted:

In comments Monday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged that Kurdish fighters from the YPG militia are identifying bombing targets for U.S.-led airstrikes. He referred to the militia as “capable,” hailed its “effective action,” and said because of the Kurds’ actions, U.S. forces had been able to “support them tactically.”

It was the first public description by a senior Obama administration official detailing the cooperation that has been unfolding for months between the United States and the militia, which has drawn the ire of key NATO ally Turkey.

The militia’s success is one of the reasons the United States is intensifying its bombing campaign against the Islamic State in Syria, Carter said.

“That’s what we were doing over the weekend north of Raqqa, which is conducting airstrikes that limit ISIL’s freedom of movement and ability to counter those capable Kurdish forces,” Carter said, referring to the Islamic State by a common acronym.

Carter’s singling out of the YPG, or the People’s Protection Units, comes after months in which U.S. officials have said they were putting off a more concerted campaign in Syria in favor of pressing against the Islamic State in Iraq because the U.S. lacked a capable ground partner in Syria. As long ago as October, then Pentagon spokesman John Kirby was blunt about why U.S. activities there were lagging: “We don’t have a willing, capable, effective partner on the ground inside Syria. It’s just a fact.”

Secretary Carter went on to commend the YPG, ironically an offshoot of the Turkish Kurdish resistance PKK, still listed as a terrorist organization. The YPG successes have unnerved Islamist Turkish President Erdogan that he has suggested invading Syria to establish a 100 x 30 mile buffer zone to forestall further Kurdish advances to the west of Kobani on the Turkish frontier at Suruc. Turkish military leaders are less supportive of that incursion. Moreover, Erdogan’s agenda may have been effectively eclipsed despite an agreement to form a working coalition with the Turkish National Party, HNP. The latter was one of three minority parties, including the Kemalist CHP and the upstart Kurdish HDP that won a plurality of seats in the Ankara Parliamentary elections of June 7, 2015.

Carter went to site the YPG contributions in Syria:

Backed by U.S. air power, he said, YPG forces have advanced in the past weeks to within 18 miles of Raqqa, the main stronghold of the Islamic State in Syria.

“That’s the manner in which effective and lasting defeat of ISIL will occur, when there are effective local forces on the ground that we can support and enable so that they can take territory, hold territory and make sure that good governance comes in behind it,” Carter said.

How far the YPG will push its offensive is uncertain. Raqqa is not traditionally a Kurdish area, and Kurdish forces, which are said to number an estimated 16,000 troops, are not expected to try to take the city alone.

But the YPG offers a much more robust anti-Islamic State force inside Syria than does the training program the United States has undertaken: so far, only about 190 so-called moderate rebels have been enlisted in the program, which is intended to train 5,000 anti-Islamic State fighters a year.

The United States last month also expanded its airstrikes to northern Aleppo, another key northern Syria city about 100 miles west of Raqqa, putting the Islamic State on notice that a new drive to remove them from what is called the Marea front could be in the offing.

[…]

Carter made it clear that U.S. and allied warplanes are increasingly depending on the Kurdish forces as part of the Pentagon’s broader campaign to defeat the Islamic State.

“We are doing more in Syria from the air,” Carter said. “I think you saw some of that in recent days. And the opportunity to do that effectively is provided in the case of the last few days by the effective action on the ground of Kurdish forces, which gives us the opportunity to support them tactically.”

What has not been addressed publicly is the delivery of quality military weapons and training of YPG and Peshmerga forces who have fought with Soviet era weaponry against U.Sl arms and equipment obtained by ISIS from fleeing Iraqi national forces routed from Mosul in June 2014 and Ramadi in late May 2015. That may soon be coming given the presence of French Defense Minister Le Drian. You may recall Secretary Carter upon learning of the fall of Ramadi accused Iraqi national forces of having” no will to fight”. The Kurds exemplify military valor and have a proven record.

Secretary Carter should move expeditiously to release weapons and equipment from the US War Reserve Stock pre-positioned in Israel to the YPG, KURDNAS forces in Syria and Peshmerga in Iraq. Moreover, Gen. James Allen who heads the U.S.-led coalition force should ramp up aerial sorties beyond the paltry 40 sorties used to provide close air support to the YPG this past weekend. President Obama, unfortunately, has yet to recognize the pure Salafist form of Islam that is embodied in the barbaric violence perpetrated by ISIS on women, children, ancient religious minorities and Syrian and Iraqi military prisoners. Yes, Mr. President this is a war against Salafist Islam that the secular Muslim Kurds recognize must be destroyed.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The featured image is of a female Kurdish fighter known as ‘Rehana’ (Image from Twitter user / @PawanDurani).

French Foreign Minister Fabius Questions P5+1 Deal with Iran

March 7, 2015/in Must Read, National Security, News/by Jerry Gordon

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius is convening a meeting in Paris Saturday with Western and EU members of the P5+1 raising questions about the elements of the bi-lateral discussions between Secretary of State Kerry and Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif in Switzerland. The U.S. and Iran have under discussion a proposed 10-year phased ‘verifiable’ deal to allegedly prevent Iran from nuclear breakout in less than a year. This follows Israeli PM Netanyahu’s address before a Joint Meeting of Congress on Wednesday, March 3rd during which he called the emerging deal a “very bad deal”. President Obama suggested that Netanyahu had not offered anything new in his address and that PM Netanyahu had not offered “viable alternatives.” Back in November 2013, we wrote about M. Fabius with regard to the then proposed interim agreement noting:

The Local in France reported on Iranian Parliamentary members objecting to Fabius allegedly representing Israel’s PM Netanyahu’s emphatic position that the deal on the table was a bad one, “a very bad one”.

Note in retrospect M. Fabius’ concerns in November 2013:

Fabius, in Geneva for what is now a third day of intensive negotiations, said earlier in the day there was “no certainty” a deal could be reached and that Israel’s “concerns” need to be taken into consideration.

Fabius told France Inter radio that “there is an initial draft that we do not accept… As we speak, I have no certainty that we can finish up.”

“There are some points on which we are not satisfied,” he said, citing the “extremely prolific” Arak nuclear reactor and the question of uranium enrichment.

Fabius also expressed concerns over Iran’s stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium.

Is this a case of déjà vu ‘all over again’ according to baseball great Yogi Berra? Note Fabius’ remarks in a Reuters article requesting tomorrow’s ministerial meeting:

Fabius said he had invited U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and the foreign ministers of Germany and Britain to Paris on Saturday to review the state of the Iran nuclear negotiations.

“We are in favor of a solid agreement … for now there remain difficulties,” he told reporters in Riga where he was taking part in a European Union foreign ministers’ meeting.

“There has been progress but as far as the volume, checks and duration of the envisaged commitments are concerned, the situation is still insufficient, so there is more work to be done,” he said.

[…]

Fabius took a more downbeat view of the Iran talks than Mogherini, who said earlier in the Latvian capital that a good deal was at hand in the negotiations.

“I also believe that there is not going to be any deal if it is not going to be a good deal. And this is something we have to pass as a message to all our friends and partners,” Mogherini said in apparent reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criticism of the nuclear deal under negotiation.

Before we jump to any conclusions about whether Fabius’ call for stronger terms could forestall the proposed agreement to be reached by March 31st, we must recall that despite M. Fabius’ objections on November 10, 2013, an interim Plan of Action agreement was agreed to by the P5+1 14 days later in Geneva. Israeli PM Netanyahu commented on the interim deal:

What was concluded in Geneva last night is not a historic agreement, it’s a historic mistake. It’s not made the world a safer place. Like the agreement with North Korea in 2005, this agreement has made the world a much more dangerous place.

For years the international community has demanded that Iran cease all uranium enrichment. Now, for the first time, the international community has formally consented that Iran continue its enrichment of uranium.

Secretary Kerry replied:

We believe very strongly that because the Iranian nuclear program is actually set backwards and is actually locked into place in critical places, that that is better for Israel than if you were just continuing to go down the road and they rush towards a nuclear weapon.

Perhaps, this time M. Fabius might convince his Western peers that Netanyahu’s original objections to the interim deal in November 2013 were reflected in his March 3, 2015 address to the Joint Meeting of Congress. This might put the brakes on P5+1 negotiations headed towards a disastrous deal with Iran.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The featured image is of French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Quai d’Orsay, Feb. 24, 2015. Source: Reuters.

Netanyahu Addresses Iran Nuclear Threat at AIPAC — Obama Administration Criticizes

March 3, 2015/in Featured, National Security, News, Policy, Politics/by Jerry Gordon

An audience of 16,000 at the AIPAC Washington Policy Conference enthusiastically welcomed Israeli PM Netanyahu’s appearance, today. Netanyahu’s speech was a prelude to his appearance before a joint Session of Congress tomorrow at 10:45AM EST. It will be televised by Fox-News and C-SPAN. Fox will have commentary from a panel both prior to and following Netanyahu’s Congressional speech. The Voice of Israel will broadcast it live via the internet with following commentary.

Some likened today’s remarks as a warm up to the main event on Tuesday, March 3rd. For many of us his AIPAC Conference remarks today were punctuated by his eloquent Churchillian cadences. Other lines echoed Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s 1938 Tish B’Av “Ihr Kommt” (they’re coming) speech to Jews in Poland warning them of their impending destruction during Hitler’s Final Solution, the Holocaust. Other lines were reminiscent of Churchill’s caustic Parliamentary remarks on the Munich 1938 appeasement by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Premier Eduard Daladier acceding to Hitler’s demand that Czech President Eduard Benes unilaterally cede Sudetenland thus dismembering Czechoslovakia. All while Chamberlain waved that scrap of paper upon arrival at Heston aerodrome saying that he had achieved “peace for our times”. That imagery was captured in Netanyahu’s lavish praise heaped on Czech President Zeman who was on the dais at the AIPAC conference. Netanyahu thanked Zeman for the country’s enduring support for Zionism espoused by Czech Republic founder Thomas Masyrk and the material support the Czechs provided post WWII to Israel during the 1948-1949 War for Independence. That was captured in Netanyahu’s reference in his speech to the Czech rifle he trained with as an IDF Sayeret Matkal member.

Netanyahu paid copious respects to AIPAC officials, noted “no disrespect to President Obama”, and pledged fealty to the long enduring bi-partisan US relations with ally Israel. An Israel, as he pointed out, that shared common Western values of freedom, liberty, civil and human rights for the Jewish nation’s citizens. He noted as one example prominent women jurists on its High Court and as CEOs of Israeli companies.

Screen shot of Global Map of Iran Terror used by PM Netanyahu at 2015 AIPAC. For a larger view click on the map.

He spoke clearly about why he was in Washington:

The purpose of my address to Congress tomorrow is to speak up about a potential deal with Iran that could threaten the survival of Israel. Iran is the foremost state sponsor of terrorism in the world. Look at that graph. Look at that map. And you see on the wall, it shows Iran training, arming, dispatching terrorists on five continents. Iran envelopes the entire world with its tentacles of terror. This is what Iran is doing now without nuclear weapons. Imagine what Iran would do with nuclear weapons.

And this same Iran vows to annihilate Israel. If it develops nuclear weapons, it would have the means to achieve that goal. We must not let that happen.

And as prime minister of Israel, I have a moral obligation to speak up in the face of these dangers while there’s still time to avert them. For 2,000 years, my people, the Jewish people, were stateless, defenseless, voiceless. We were utterly powerless against our enemies who swore to destroy us. We suffered relentless persecution and horrific attacks. We could never speak on our own behalf, and we could not defend ourselves.

Well, no more, no more.

The days when the Jewish people are passive in the face of threats to annihilate us, those days are over. Today in our sovereign state of Israel, we defend ourselves. And being able to defend ourselves, we ally with others, most importantly, the United States of America, to defend our common civilization against common threats.

In our part of the world and increasingly, in every part of the world, no one makes alliances with the weak. You seek out those who have strength, those who have resolve, those who have the determination to fight for themselves. That’s how alliances are formed.

Watch this C-span video of Israeli PM Netanyahu’s remarks at the 2015 AIPAC Conference.

U.S. UN Ambassador Power, speaking at AIPAC today, accorded respect for the enduring US-Israel alliance. She also said that the Administration would stop Iran from achieving a nuclear breakthrough:

The United States of America will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, Period.

We believe diplomacy is the preferred route to secure our shared aim. But if diplomacy fails, we know the stakes of a nuclear-armed Iran as well as everyone here. We will not let it happen. There will never be a sunset on America’s commitment to Israel’s security. Never.

However, she tossed a barb at both Netanyahu and House Speaker Boehner for engaging in partisan politics with her remarks:

This partnership should never be politicized, and it cannot and will not be tarnished or broken. Debating the merits of a deal with Iran is legitimate. Politicizing that process is not. The stakes are too high for that.

For her appearance as an Administration senior official, she received a standing ovation from the 16,000 attendees at the Washington Convention Center site of the Conference.

Watch this C-Span video of US UN Ambassador Power’s remarks at the 2015 AIPAC conference.

More of the same followed from another Administration senior official, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, when she mounted the podium at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center to deliver her remarks. Rice appeared to be toeing the Administration line saying, “sound bites won’t stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.” Rice essentially denied the possibility of ending Iran’s nuclear enrichment saying:

[ getting Iran to] forego its domestic enrichment capacity entirely… as desirable as that would be … is neither realistic nor achievable. The plain fact is no one can make Iran unlearn the scientific and nuclear expertise it already possesses.

She cautioned that it wasn’t a “viable negotiating position” to attempt to block Iran from using its nuclear capacity for domestic energy reasons.

Now I want to be very clear: a bad deal is worse than no deal,

We have Israel’s back come hell or high water.

Given Iran’s support for terrorism, the risk of a nuclear arms race in the region, and the danger to the entire global non-proliferation regime, Iran with a nuclear weapon would not just be a threat to Israel, it’s also an unacceptable threat to the United States of America.

Given Iran’s support for terrorism, the risk of a nuclear arms race in the region, and the danger to the entire global non-proliferation regime, Iran with a nuclear weapon would not just be a threat to Israel, it’s also an unacceptable threat to the United States of America.

We have Israel’s back come hell or high water.

On sanctions, Rice made it abundantly clear why the Administration opposed any new legislation, saying:

We cannot let a totally unachievable ideal stand in the way of a good deal [with Iran]. Sanctions, have never stopped Iran from advancing its [nuclear] program. New sanctions would blow up the talks, divide the international community, and cause the U.S. to be blamed for causing negotiations with Iran to fail.

Not unlike Power, Rice received a standing ovation ironically for policies that she opposes. Note what blog Twitchy reported:

The highlight of her speech was undoubtedly the standing ovation she received for acknowledging the desire for a complete halt to Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. The look on her face while waiting for the cheers to die down so she could add “but” and finish her sentence: priceless.

Watch this You Tube video of the AIPAC audience applauding her and her befuddled expression:

That effectively shot down the faint hopes of many of the 16,000 in the Convention Center.

Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), co-author of the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2015 with new sanctions, stormed up to the podium at AIPAC to rebut Rice. He said:

Iran needs to understand that there are consequences to an impasse and those consequences are additional consequential sanctions.

As long as I have an ounce of fight left in me… Iran will never have a pathway to a weapon.

It will never threaten Israel or its neighbors, and it will never be in a position to star a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Not on my watch.

Secretary of State Kerry, speaking from Geneva, Switzerland earlier today in the midst of discussions with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif, voiced concerns that ‘leaks’ by Israel might jeopardize the phased deal. Kerry said:

We are concerned by reports that suggest selective details of the ongoing negotiations will be discussed publicly in the coming days. Doing so would make it more difficult to reach the goal that Israel and others say they share in order to get to a good deal. Israel’s security is absolutely at the forefront of all of our minds, but frankly so is the security of all of the other countries in the region. So is our security.

Kerry made a brief appearance at the UN Human Rights Commission today in Geneva voicing concerns about the panel’s pre-occupation with isolating Israel, saying:

We will oppose any effort by any group or participant in the U.N. system to arbitrarily and regularly delegitimize or isolate, Israel. No country should be free from scrutiny on human rights, but no country should be subjected to unfair or unfounded bias.

President Obama in a Reuters interview several hours after Netanyahu’s speech at AIPAC expressed the view that the current discord would not seriously disrupt relations with Israel. Nevertheless he harshly criticized Netanyahu’s refrain about a bad deal emerging from the bi-lateral diplomatic discussions with Iran. He suggested the emerging 10 year deal with verifications was:

Far more effective in controlling their nuclear program than any military action we could take, any military action Israel could take and far more effective than sanctions will be.

He then took exception to Netanyahu’s criticism of the 2013 interim agreement with Iran:

Netanyahu made all sorts of claims. This was going to be a terrible deal. This was going to result in Iran getting $50 billion worth of relief. Iran would not abide by the agreement. None of that has come true. It has turned out that in fact, during this period we’ve seen Iran not advance its program. In many ways, it’s rolled back elements of its program.

Watch this video of the Reuters interview with President Obama on March 2, 2015.

The Administration still hasn’t fully understood the import of the Gallup poll of Americans, 84% of whom expressed distrust of Iran, while 77% believed Iran should be denied becoming a nuclear threshold state. As one audience member said at a presentation in Northwest Florida, Iran’s possession of a nuclear weapon was a threat not only to Israel, but America as well.

An expectant Israel and the world awaits Netanyahu’s address before a joint session of Congress tomorrow.

Listen to this Voice of Israel Sound Cloud of Netanyahu’s speech at AIPAC. The full text of Netanyahu’s AIPAC remarks can be found in this release by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The featured image is of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu at AIPAC Washington Policy Conference taken on March 2, 2015. Source: GPO/Amos Ben Gershom.

Did Alabama’s Chief Justice Moore Clean CNN Host’s Clock in Same-Sex Marriage Debate? (ONLINE POLL)

February 14, 2015/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Featured, News/by Dr. Rich Swier

In what CNN billed as an epic “debate,” Alabama’s Chief Justice Roy Moore, gave CNN’s host of “New Day” Chris Cuomo a lesson in the law.

Obviously acting as a stalking horse for the same-sex marriage crowd, Cuomo attempted to embarrass Justice Moore with his questions, but, to his apparent chagrin Justice Moore continued to calmly correct him on the facts and the law. Realizing he was losing the “debate,” Cuomo kept on changing the questions, and Justice Moore continued to school Cuomo in Constitutional law.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, MI, said, “As the law currently stands, Justice Moore is right. And I applaud him for his courageous and dignified stand for both the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Alabama.”

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in Epic 25 Minute Interview on Gay Marriage from Thomas More Law Center on Vimeo.

POLL: How do you feel Justice Moore did in the “debate?”

Reply to this e-mail with your thoughts and comments on this video.

To get a full understanding of Justice Moore’s legal reasoning, read the legal memorandum he sent to Alabama Probate Judges, dated February 3, 2015.

This is the legal memo Justice Moore sent to the Probate Judges.

In a letter dated January 27, 2015 to Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, Justice Moore stated that, “As of this date, 44 federal courts have imposed by judicial fiat same-sex marriages in 21 states of the Union, overturning the express will of the people in those states. If we are to preserve that ‘reverent morality which is our source of all beneficent progress in social and political improvement,’ then we must act to oppose such tyranny!”

During the televised interview, Cuomo demanded to know whether Justice Moore would follow a federal court decision that legalized same-sex marriages. However, Cuomo himself refused to answer the question posed to him several times throughout the debate: whether or not he would follow the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision which held that people of African ancestry were not entitled to citizenship or constitutional protections. Chief Justice Moore makes it clear that according to the US Constitution, the definition of marriage belongs to the states and should be left to the people of each state to decide.

Proving that Justice Moore’s analysis that the original preliminary injunction against the state attorney general was ineffective because he had no jurisdiction over marriages in Alabama, yesterday, the federal district judge allowed plaintiffs to amend their complaint and add probate judge Don Davis as a defendant so that the court’s injunction could temporarily allow gay marriages to take place.

The Thomas More Law Center has launched a national strategy for the protection of traditional marriage headed by TMLC senior trial counsel Erin Mersino. As a part of that strategy, TMLC has submitted numerous amicus briefs in key same-sex marriage cases on behalf of the National Coalition of Black Pastors and Christian Leaders. One of the purposes of these briefs is to negate the homosexual community’s fallacious argument that discrimination because of one’s sexual preference is the same as racial discrimination. To date, TMLC has filed four briefs with the Supreme Court, as well as with the 5th and 6th Circuit Courts in support of traditional marriage.

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Qatar Deports Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Meshaal?

January 7, 2015/in Must Read, National Security, News/by Jerry Gordon

Just before year end, on December 30, 2014, we posted on pronouncements from Qatar about abandoning support for the Muslim Brotherhood and opening up dialogue with Egypt’s President El-Sisi. El-Sisi , then Defense Chief ousted President Morsi , a former Muslim Brotherhood leader in a coup on July 2013, Has Qatar turned Away from Islamist Support in the Middle East? Earlier on December 6, 2014, we reported that the Qatari Ambassador to the US, H.E. Mohammed Jaham Al-Kuwari at a presentation before the Pensacola, Florida Tiger Bay Club proclaimed, “We do not support Hamas”. He astounded some in the audience. In retrospect, given today’s news about Qatar expelling, Hamas Politburo leader, that may have been a scoop. If confirmed, that would end Meshall’s three year sojourn in the gas rich Gulf state. However, denials by Senior Hamas leader and the lack of confirmation from Qatar raise questions. CNN reported:

Senior Hamas official Izzat Risheq denied reports Monday that the group’s political leader Khaled Meshaal has been expelled from Qatar.

Earlier Monday, sources close to Hamas told CNN that Meshaal and members of the Muslim Brotherhood were expelled from Qatar, and were most likely on the way to Turkey.

The Qatari government has not commented.

Saudi Arabia has been working to improve relations between Qatar and Egypt.

Israel’s reaction to this development was what you might expect as reported by AP:

The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it “welcomes Qatar’s decision to expel the head of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, to Turkey.” It said the Qatari decision came after heavy diplomatic pressure from Israel.

“We expect the Turkish government to act responsibly in a similar way,” it added.

Hardly, likely. Meshaal traveled to Ankara on December 25, 2014 and met with Islamist AKP President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Meshaal then showed up on December 27, 2014 at the annual convention of AKP Party of President Erdogan held at the hometown of AKP Premier Dovutoglu in Konor. Al-Monitor reported his reception and remarks:

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu appeared on Dec. 27 with Meshaal in Davutoglu hometown, Konya, for the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) annual assembly. Known for being conservative, Konya residents jubilantly greeted Meshaal, as reported by Islamist news network Takva Haber: “The democratic and secular Hamas leader reminded Konya residents of their protests in the 1980s in solidarity with Jerusalem.”

Turkish mainstream media reported Meshaal’s appearance in Konya as a surprise visit. Meshaal gave a brief but potent speech in which he praised Erdogan and Davutoglu multiple times as the crowd waived Turkish and Palestinian flags, passionately cheering “Allahu akbar” (God is great) and “Down with Israel.” Meshaal said: “A strong Turkey means a strong Jerusalem and a strong Palestine. … Inshallah [God willing], we will liberate Jerusalem together. A strong Turkey is a source of power for all Muslims.”

Erdogan has gone out of his way to support Hamas as fellow Brothers. That included the infamous exiled Egyptian Brotherhood preacher, the anti-American and anti-Semitic Yusuf al Qaradawi, head of the US Global terror financing conduit, Union of Good. In our December 6th post we drew attention to an Interpol Red Tag Warrant issued for the arrest of al-Qaradawi sought for extradition “to serve a sentence” for crimes including “incitement and assistance to commit intentional murder” in El-Sisi’s Egypt. Al Monitor in a December 12, 2014 report on the Arrest Warrant noted Erdogan saying:

His resentment publicly at the Fifth Religious Council in Ankara Dec. 8, Erdogan said: “Look, a person who came to power through a coup is giving instructions to Interpol. Based on this instruction a step is being taken for the arrest of Youssef al-Qaradawi, president of the [International] Union of Muslim Scholars. What kind of a business is this?”

The Qatari Ambassador’s presentation on December 6th in Pensacola was eclipsed by the Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani’s appearance at a GCC summit in Doha three days later on December 9^th that marked the start of a lowering of Qatar’s profile internationally reflected in a Wall Street Journal op by Yaroslav Trofimov’, “Qatar Scales Back Role in Middle East Conflicts.” The Qatari Ambassador to Washington comments about Meshaal at the Pensacola Tiger Bay Club meeting in response to his status may have been cover for what may have happened yesterday when H.E. Ambassador Al-Kuwari said, “Better to have Khaled Meshaal in Qatar than across the Gulf in Iran”. Meshaal, the political leader of Hamas is said to live in luxury and control funds estimated at over $2.0 billion.

Now it is likely that Khaled Meshaal, and possibly MB Preacher Al Qaradawi and others in the Hamas Politburo entourage in Doha may have also found new refuge and safe haven for their ill-gotten billions in Turkey. Meanwhile Hamas leaders in Gaza are complaining bitterly that less than $100 million out of the $5.4 billion pledged to rebuild the enclave have been received since the Cairo conference with Arab states following the cease fire that ended the 50 day war with Israel in the summer of 2014. Trofimov in his WSJ analysis noted the turnabout following the Emir al-Thani appearance at the Doha Gulf Cooperation Council meeting on December 9th:

Trofimov in his WSJ analysis noted the turnabout:

After their threats to boycott a summit of Gulf monarchies in Doha this month, Qatar revised its stance on the critical point of disagreement—how to treat the Muslim Brotherhood and the current Egyptian leadership, which ousted the Islamist group from power last year.

Having expelled several Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders ahead of the summit, Qatar sent a senior envoy to Egypt on Dec. 20 to seek a rapprochement with President Abdel Fattah El -Sisi.

Two days later, Qatar shut down the Egyptian channel of its Al Jazeera TV network, an outlet for the Brotherhood and other opponents of Egypt’s current leadership.

“The security of Egypt is important for the security of Qatar,” Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said.

Our conclusion from our December 30th post is worth repeating:

Thus, tiny Qatar has been forced to rein in its support of the Islamist jihadist causes because of geo-political realities, leaving Turkey’s President Erdogan as the lone supporter of Hamas in the region. That has been fueled by the US energy revolution producing a glut in the weakened demand for oil and gas that precipitated the plummeting oil and gas prices.

We shall see if Qatar makes the transition away from being a Frenemy dropping its support for the Brotherhood in the region and in Gaza. Backing Egypt’s security was likely a show of good faith to be brought back into the fold of the Gulf Cooperation Council. If Qatar can clean up its problems with the construction of the FIFA 2022 World Cup including alleged human rights violations of foreign workers, it may be on the path to rehabilitation in the world community. Still Qatar is not a budding democracy as it tries to portray itself. Rather it an Arab autocracy granting little to no human rights to its 280,000 citizens and nearly 1.8 million foreign workers.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The featured image is of Khaled Meshaal, Hamas Politburo chief, at a Doha 7-23-14 news conference. Source: Reuters.

Was it Terrorism or “Senseless Violence” that occurred in Canada?

October 23, 2014/in Must Read, National Security, News/by Jerry Gordon

At 9:52 AM EDT in Ottawa long haired 32 year old Michael Zehaf Bibeau wearing a black and white scarf and dressed in black equipped with a double-barreled shot gun, stormed Canada’s War Memorial on Capitol Hill in Ottawa. He shot and fatally wounded a member of The Honor Guard , 24 year old Pvt. Nathan Cirllio , a reservist with the Argyll and Sutherland Regiment who was on duty with a companion who was wounded in the attack. According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, Zehaf-Bibeau was considered to have been “a high risk traveller and had his passport revoked”.

Michael Zehaf Bibeau : Source ISIS Tweet. For a larger view click on the image.

Kevin Vickers, Sergeant at Arms, Ottawa Parliament.

Bibeau then drove to the Parliament building in a stolen black automobile with no license tags. He ran with weapon in hand into the Parliamentary center complex apparently running past a room where Canadian PM Harper was speaking. In the ensuing gun battle Bibeau was shot dead at approximately 10:30AM by Kevin Vickers, the Sergeant at Arms before he could barge into the Caucus room filled with various party delegation members. Wednesdays are busy days in Canada’s parliament as there are also tours for visitors. While the Sergeant at Arms is an honorific post at the Canadian Parliament, Vickers is in charge of protection for the Parliamentary Center complex. He was appointed to this post in 2005. In 2009, Vickers was given an award by a Canadian Progressive Muslim group for his unbiased multicultural security practices. He was a trained law enforcement officer, former member of the famed Royal Canadian Mounted Police who served 25 years including stints in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

MPs gathered for the Wednesday caucus overheard 20 to 30 shots fired. The entire parliamentary district, several embassies , including the US , and the nearby Rideau Mall Center remained locked down, while police comb the area in search for rumored accomplices. Prime Minister Harper was escorted to safety. However, his trip to Toronto to attend a ceremony conferring an honorary Canadian Citizenship on Pakistani teenage Noble Laureate Malala Yousafzai was unavoidably cancelled.

Upon hearing the news, social media in Ottawa and Canada lit up with expressions of thoughts and prayers for the family of Pvt. Cirillo and concerns for the safety of those in Ottawa under lockdown.

ISIS immediately sent out a picture of Zehaf Bibeau. Bibeau, has had a troubled family life and number of convictions for possession and distribution of drug s and parole violations. In 2011, he was arrested in Vancouver on assault and robbery charges. In 2012 he was arrested on additional charges of making threats in Vancouver. The ferocity of the attack in Ottawa by Bibeau indicates he was highly motivated and aggrieved. Bibeau’s murderous actions may have been Jihadist inspired by ISIS given his use of the terrorist group’s Twitter site.

Martin Couture-Rouleau from his Facebook page.

Then is the similar case of 25 year old Martin Couture-Rouleau, who flouted his newly adopted Islamic Jihadist faith and its doctrine of hate towards Jews, Christians and other unbelievers in posts on his Facebook page . As a result of his new found faith he succumbed to the excesses of murderous and barbaric ISIS. What is interesting in Couture-Rouleau’s case was that the anti-terrorism unit of the RCMP had been monitoring his social media and chatter focusing on his intention to leave to join ISIS. That was prompted by his parents’ calls to the police concerned about his newly adopted views espoused at the local mosque he attended near Montreal. Apparently under Canadian law there wasn’t enough evidence to connect him to a terrorist group after his arrest In July, 2014, before boarding a flight to Turkey to join ISIS. He was subsequently released to regularly meet with Police until just before he perpetrated Monday’s vehicular murder. Like Bibeau, following his arrest, he had his passport removed as “a high risk traveller”. Superintendent Martine Fontaine of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at a televised news conference:

It’s very difficult to know exactly what an individual is planning to do before a crime is committed,” Superintendent Fontaine said. “We cannot arrest someone for thinking radical thoughts; it is not a crime in Canada.

Prime Minister Harper announced Canada’s joining the US led Operation Inherent Resolve with a Canadian Air Force F-18 squadron to conduct air operations against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. That triggered a spike in social media by the Islamic State calling for Jihadist wannabees to attack Canadian and US military. Couture-Rouleau’s jihadist attack culminated Monday, October 20, 2014 in his running down two Canada Force soldiers at a strip mall in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. He killed 53 year old Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and wounded the other serviceman. Police shot and apprehended Couture-Rouleau. Following today’s Ottawa attack, the Canadian federal government issued a temporary ban on use of many public places to prevent a repetition. Ironically, Canadian Public Safety Minister Blaney raised the Canadian national terrorism threat level to “medium” on Tuesday , just prior to today’s attack in Ottawa.

In the U.S., today’s attack that killed a member of the Canadian Honor Guard at the Ottawa National War Memorial ,prompted the Administration to bolster security at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers in Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery. The U.S. is concerned about the emergence of self-actualized jihadist supporters in our midst. An example is the prison convert to Islam who beheaded a fellow woman employee in Moore, Oklahoma. Then this week there was the apprehension of three underage Denver area girls from Sudan and Somali émigré families who left unannounced, boarding a flight in Colorado only to be apprehended by German police when they arrived in Frankfurt before they could board a connecting flight to Turkey. Their ultimate destination was Syria to join ISIS. Both the Canadian attacks and US one raises the policy question about how to combat the jihadist theocratic message of ISIS. That message is anchored in the Qur’anic canon of foundational documents and codified under Shariah law in the ‘sacred manual’, The Reliance of the Traveler.

President Obama was interviewed in the Oval Office following a phone conversation with Canadian PM Harper. He conveyed the collective thoughts and concerns of this country for what Canada has endured this week. Choosing his language carefully to avoid any controversy over what motivates such actions , he condemned what he termed “senseless violence”. PM Harper said that “a terrorist murdered the soldier in cold blood”.

Mark Steyn, American-Canadian commentator and author of the recently released book Undocumented, was interviewed on Neal Cavuto’s Fox News program today. He said, “violence against the state isn’t “senseless”. Steyn thought the President’s “senseless violence” comment brought to mind the equivocating term “ workplace violence”, as in the Moore, Oklahoma beheading and Maj. Nidal Hassan‘s murderous jihad rampage at Fort Hood in 2009. Steyn instead put the blame for this week’s Montreal and Ottawa attacks squarely on Canada’s policy of multi-culturalism that tolerates Islamic theocratic doctrine supporting the barbarity of ISIS and similar Jihadist, Salafist groups. He noted that while ISIS beheads captive unbelievers and violators of Sharia, so does Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, an ally of the U.S. in the coalition of Operation Inherent Resolve.

David B. Harris, former planning director for the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) and columnist on counterterrorism, spoke by phone with Cavuto about Canada’s dilemma. He was asked if he thought the Ottawa event was a terrorist attack? He suggested that, while it required confirmation, it certainly had the appearance of one. However, Harris said that Canada may be unprepared for more such attacks in view of the significant number of Canadians who have left to join up with ISIS. They include some who have become prominent ISIS spokespersons, who may return to foster such domestic terrorism. He drew attention to a Canadian Senate testimony by Michel Coulombe the current head of CSIS, who indicated that Canada could be overwhelmed by such ISIS inspired homegrown terrorist threats lacking the resources and legal means to combat them.

Watch this Fox News report video report on the shootout today inside the Canadian Parliament:

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on the New English Review. The featured image is of police officers take cover near Parliament Hill following a shooting incident in Ottawa October 22, 2014. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Hamas Manual: How to use human shields against the IDF

August 5, 2014/in Must Read, National Security, News, Policy, Politics/by Jerry Gordon

Much has been made by Israeli PM Netanyahu of Hamas’ use of human shields as a means of exploiting the IDF rules of engagement. CNN noted in a report on Gaza civilian deaths in Israel’s war with Hamas:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on CNN that it was difficult to measure the bloodshed of the conflict because “Hamas is using them, Palestinians, as human shields.”

“We develop anti-missile systems to protect, we use anti-missile systems to protect our civilians,” he said. “They use their civilians to protect their missiles. That’s the difference.”

The IDF said Monday it found a “Hamas combat manual” that IDF says proves the group uses its people as human shields. A CNN translation of the two pages posted by the IDF did not find specific statements that Hamas uses its own civilian population as human shields, but one section discusses the benefits for Hamas when civilian homes are destroyed. CNN could not confirm the authenticity of the manual, and neither the IDF nor Hamas could be reached for comment.

Hamas “Urban Warfare” Combat Manual Cover.

The IDF blog published its review of Hamas Combat Manual captured in the battle for Shuja’iya, “Captured Hamas Combat Manual Explains Benefits of Human Shields”.

The IDF blog post noted how the purported Hamas combat manual exploits IDF rules of engagement in urban warfare:

IDF forces in the Gaza Strip found a Hamas manual on “Urban Warfare,” which belonged to the Shuja’iya Brigade of Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. The manual explains how the civilian population can be used against IDF forces and reveals that Hamas knows the IDF is committed to minimizing harm to civilians.

It further emphasized:

This Hamas urban warfare manual exposes two truths: (1) The terror group knows full well that the IDF will do what it can to limit civilian casualties. (2) The terror group exploits these efforts by using civilians as human shields against advancing IDF forces.

In a portion entitled “Limiting the Use of Weapons,” the manual explains that:

The soldiers and commanders (of the IDF) must limit their use of weapons and tactics that lead to the harm and unnecessary loss of people and [destruction of] civilian facilities. It is difficult for them to get the most use out of their firearms, especially of supporting fire [e.g. artillery].

For a larger view click on the map.

Clearly Hamas knows the IDF will limit its use of weapons in order to avoid harming civilians, including refraining from using larger firepower to support for infantry.

The manual espouses basic urban warfare directed at using civilian population in concentrated areas to impede IDF advances:

The manual goes on to explain that the “presence of civilians are pockets of resistance” that cause three major problems for advancing troops: Problems with opening fire; Problems in controlling the civilian population during operations and afterward; and Assurance of supplying medical care to civilians who need it.

It also justified the destruction civilian houses arousing hatred of IDF forces:

It is clear that Hamas actually desires the destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, knowing it will increase hatred for the IDF and support their fighters.

Destruction of civilian residences does something else. The rubble from the destroyed structures provides covered firing positions for defending Hamas fighters. The IDF should reflect on classic examples of that the fierce fighting during WWII in Stalingrad, the Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of April to May 1943, the Polish resistance in the Warsaw uprising of August –September 1944.

The IDF recognized that in this comment on the intense battle for Shuja’iya:

The IDF fought a major battle in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shuja’iya, which had been turned into a terrorist stronghold. The discovery of this manual suggests that the destruction in Shuja’iya was always part of Hamas’ plan.

A companion map by The IDF of the Shuja’iya district of Gaza City annotated command posts, tunnels, rocket firings and launching sites, tunnels and weapons caches,

Former British Army Col. Richard Kemp in his Gatestone Institute article analyzing civilian casualties observed:

By definition Israeli soldiers’ lives are placed at greater risk by restrictive rules of engagement intended to minimize civilian casualties. But commanders in the field must balance their concern for civilians with the preservation of their own men’s lives and fighting effectiveness.

These realities aside, all Palestinian civilian casualties in this conflict result ultimately from Gaza terrorists’ aggression against Israel, and Hamas’s use of human shields – the most important plank of Hamas’s war-fighting policy.

Storing and firing weapons within densely populated areas, compelling civilians to stay put when warned to leave, luring Israeli forces to attack and kill their own people, the Palestinian body count is vital to Hamas’s propaganda war that aims to bring international pressure on Israel and incite anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic hatred around the world.

This sickening exploitation of their own people’s suffering, and media’s complicity in it, is nowhere more cynically demonstrated than in the operating theaters of the Gaza Strip. Without the slightest regard for life-saving hygiene, or for the care, privacy or dignity of the wounded, Palestinian officials enthusiastically hustle camera crews in to the emergency room as desperate surgeons’ battle for a bleeding and broken child’s life.

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

Israel, the TEA Party and the Media

August 1, 2014/in Must Read, National Security, News, Policy, Politics/by Lloyd Marcus

I am probably not alone in noticing that the mainstream media’s deplorable and unfair treatment of Israel is strikingly similar to how it treats the TEA Party. In both cases, the MSM has chosen a side, spinning its reporting to brand the victims intolerant, racist and hate-filled aggressors.

Israel was minding its own business when it was attacked by Hamas, showering Israeli towns with thousands of rockets. Hamas seeks the total destruction of Israel. If it were not for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, millions of Israelis would be dead.

Now get this folks. It does not get more cold, calculating and satanically evil than this. Hamas stores and launches its rockets from civilian sites, schools, hospitals, mosques and more.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the situation perfectly when he said Israel is using its Iron Dome to defend its people from missiles launched by Hamas who use their people to shield their missiles. So when Palestinian civilian casualties obviously far exceeded those of the Israelis, the MSM went postal on Israel; machine-gunning Israel with negative stories.

The truth is Israel has shown remarkable compassion and restraint, going above and beyond to avoid harming civilians.

Before bombing a Hamas target, Israel texts, makes phone calls and even fires warning firecrackers to alert civilians, begging them to evacuate the premises. Who in the world fights a war in such a humane manner?

Still, the MSM flooded the worldwide airways with images of suffering and dying Palestinian women and children, purposely deleting crucial facts to misrepresent the truth to shape public opinion against Israel. This is exactly what the MSM has done to the TEA Party.

By the way, Israel’s lifesaving Iron Dome system is the same technology launched by Ronald Reagan (Strategic Defense Initiative) that was heavily mocked by liberals and the Democrats. Senator Ted Kennedy laughed at Reagan describing his initiative as a misleading Red-Scare tactic and reckless Star Wars scheme.

The TEA Party which consist of mostly middle-aged adults, seniors, parents and grandparents was birthed in response to Obama’s shock-and-awe attacks on our freedoms and unprecedented unlawful power grabs.

Obama’s desire to fundamentally transform America was hidden in plain sight before his historic election. The millions of white voters who put the first black man in the White House were blinded by MSM hype and their desire to make amends for America’s sin of slavery.

Because the MSM is in favor of Obama’s transformation of America, MSM fellow “transformers” demonized the millions of white former Obama supporters in the TEA Party.

The MSM’s goal is to brand all opposition to Obama’s socialist/progressive agenda hatred for a black president. Blatantly and shamelessly the MSM is shaping public opinion against the TEA Party, instilling division and racial hate.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

I pray that our TEA Party leaders will take a cue from Israel’s strong, brave and courageous Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Regardless of worldwide public opinion and slings and arrows launched by the MSM, Netanyahu will not be intimidated into not defending, protecting and making decisions in the best interest of his people.

We do have a hand full of character driven leaders who have consistently displayed the same backbone as Netanyahu. My list of TEA Party conservative all stars include Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Ken Cuccinelli, Steve Lonegan, Mike Sullivan, Trey Gowdy and Joe Carr to name a few.

These people are human beings. They need our encouragement and support to remain strong; keeping their heads down to avoid the Left’s punches while landing right hooks to the head of our evil relentless Nemesis.

The MSM obviously seeks the destruction of Israel and the TEA Party. Like He is with Israel, God is on the side of the TEA Party. I thank God for giving Israel Netanyahu.

With great anticipation, I await the emergence of our charismatic conservative leader who will boldly articulate conservatism; someone who will lead the charge to restore our great nation to a new day of American Exceptional-ism.

Why Bowe Bergdahl is not an American “Gilad Shalit”

June 3, 2014/in Must Read, National Security, News, Politics/by Jerry Gordon

http://www.timesofisrael.com/last-us-soldier-freed-from-captivity-in-afghanistan/

Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak, PM Netnayhau, Gilad Shalit, IDF COS Benn Gantz October 18, 2011

The Times of Israel published a story endeavoring to equate the five year kidnapping and captivity of IDF solider Gilad Shalit with US Army enlisted man Bowe Bergdahl who went AWOL and subsequently was held captive for five years by the Haqqani Taliban, “American ‘Gilad Shalit’ freed from captivity in Afghanistan”.

The time span may have been the same for both soldiers. However, the circumstances and outcomes were not the same.

Both were imprisoned by terrorist groups, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists in Shalit’s case, the Taliban in Bergdahl’s instance. Both prisoner releases involved intermediaries, Germany and Egypt in the case of Shalit; Qatar in the instance of Bergdahl. The numbers of prisoners exchanged for the release of Shalit were lopsided, over 1,027 Palestinian prisoners to secure Shalit’s release. Those released had been responsible for the deaths of several hundred Israeli citizens.

Contrast that with the five Afghan Taliban commanders in the prisoner exchange for Bergdahl. Few in number, however, they were involved in the one of the worst genocides committed in Afghanistan by the Taliban in 1998 involving the massacre of more than 8,000 Hazara Shia men, women and children in Marar- I- Sharif. The release of five Taliban commanders and war criminals, who perpetrated that genocide, has raised considerable questions by Chairmen and Ranking members of both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and other Members of Congress. There have been calls for investigations of the circumstances behind Bergdahl’s actions in 2009, as well as, whether the President’s actions may have violated the law regarding negotiations with terrorists. Then there are possible repercussions in Afghanistan and the Muslim Ummah for these Taliban commanders who are veritable rock stars in international Jihadism. They may pose a serious threat when released from a year’s detention in Qatar. Oatar, whose Emir had acted as an intermediary in the prisoner exchange that released Sgt. Bergdahl.

Shalit’s kidnapping and release

Shalit was kidnapped at gun point on June 25, 2006 after an attack by terrorists from the Palestine Resistance Committee using underground tunnels on his tank unit stationed at the Keren Shalom crossing on the southern Israel Gaza frontier. He was released on October 18, 2011 after an agreement had been reached by German and Egyptian negotiators for an exchange with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Hamas initially denied International Red Cross requests for confirmation, instead directly contacting his parents six days later indicating that he was a prisoner and would be treated in accordance with Islamic law. Repeated Israeli and French government and international requests were made for IRC visits in accordance with the Geneva Convention. The only contact with the outside world during Shalit’s incarceration in Gaza were three letters, an audio tape, and a DVD that Israel received in return for releasing 20 female Palestinian prisoners. Shalit’s parents petitioned both Israel President Peres and PM Netanyahu and mounted rallies for rescue of their son in both Israel and abroad. Because of the family’s dual Israeli French citizenship they had the support of then French President Nicolas Sarkozy endeavoring to pressure Hamas for release of their son.

PM Netanyahu’s Remarks upon Shalit’s Release

Shalit, when freed was greeted by the IDF Chief of Staff, Benny Gantz, then Defense Minister Ehud Barak and PM Netanyahu. There were no questions about Shalit’s loyalties. Shalit’s parents were grateful despite disagreements with PM Netanyahu over tough negotiations involving problematic release of Palestinian prisoners, many with blood on their hands. Most Israelis approved the exchange to secure Shalit’s release. PM Netanyahu noted in his remarks at the time of Shalit’s release:

Two-and-a-half years ago, I returned to the Prime Minister’s Office. One of the principal and most complicated missions that I found on my desk, and which I set my heart to, was to bring our abducted soldier Gilad Shalit back home, alive and well. Today, that mission has been completed.

It entailed a very difficult decision. I saw the need to return home someone whom the State of Israel had sent to the battlefield. As an IDF soldier and commander, I went out on dangerous missions many times. But I always knew that if I or one of my comrades fell captive, the Government of Israel would do its utmost to return us home, and as Prime Minister, I have now carried this out. As a leader who daily sends out soldiers to defend Israeli citizens, I believe that mutual responsibility is no mere slogan – it is a cornerstone of our existence here.

While the release of Shalit in exchange for over 1,027 Palestinian prisoners was controversial PM Netanyahu noted the precautions Israel took in his remarks at Gilad’s release:

But I also see an additional need, that of minimizing the danger to the security of Israel’s citizens. To this end, I enunciated two clear demands. First, that senior Hamas leaders, including arch-murderers, remain in prison. Second, that the overwhelming majority of those designated for release either be expelled or remain outside Judea and Samaria, in order to impede their ability to attack our citizens.

For years, Hamas strongly opposed these demands. But several months ago, we received clear signs that it was prepared to back down from this opposition. Tough negotiations were carried out, night and day, in Cairo, with the mediation of the Egyptian government. We stood our ground, and when our main demands were met – I had to make a decision.

And today, now Gilad has returned home, to his family, his people and his country. This is a very moving moment. A short time ago, I embraced him as he came off the helicopter and escorted him to his parents, Aviva and Noam, and I said, ‘I have brought your son back home.’ But this is also a hard day; even if the price had been smaller, it would still have been heavy.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/bowe-bergdahl-released/gop-lawmakers-blast-deal-freed-bowe-bergdahl-taliban-n119991

Bergdahl’s Alleged AWOL led to his capture by the Taliban.

On June 25, 2009 Sgt. Bergdahl walked away from his forward operational base in Afghanistan with only water, a knife, a compass, a digital camera, notebook and knapsack with some clothes only to be captured by Taliban forces. He went Absent without Leave (AWOL) an action punishable, if proven, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. These roving Taliban fighters passed him along to captivity at a Haqqani base along the Afghanistan Pakistan frontier. There are indications he may have been moved into a Taliban safe haven inside Pakistan. Unlike Shalit, Bergdahl emailed his parents indicating that he had effectively deserted. The Christian Science Monitor cites a 2012 Rolling Stones article containing these email exchanges with his father by Bowe Bergdahl:

The US army is the biggest joke the world has to laugh at. It is the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies. The few good SGTs are getting out as soon as they can, and they are telling us privates to do the same.”

I am sorry for everything here. These people need help, yet what they get is the most conceited country in the world telling them that they are nothing and that they are stupid, that they have no idea how to live.”

In his final message, Bergdahl refers to having mailed home boxes with his uniforms and books.

“Feel free to open them, and use them,” he wrote.

Later that night, Bowe Bergdahl’s father Bob Bergdahl, a UPS truck driver, sent his son an email from their home in Hailey, Idaho, with the subject line: OBEY YOUR CONSCIENCE!

Bergdahl, while he lived in confinement participated in making several proof of life ideas beseeching the US government to rescue him, while accusing American coalition forces of human rights violations of the Afghan people.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/freed-soldiers-parents-proud-son-23950288

Robert Bergdhal at Boise News Confererence. Source: ABC news

The Senior Bergdahl’s Bizarre White House Invocation and Tweets

On June 1, 2014 a tearful Robert Bergdahl at a Boise news conference proclaimed in a video that he was proud of what his son Bowe had done for the Afghan people:

But most of all, I’m proud of how much you wanted to help the Afghan people, and what you were willing to do to go to that length,” Bob Bergdahl said, fighting back tears during a press conference in Boise. “I’ll say it again: I’m so proud of how far you were willing to go to help the Afghan people. And I think you have succeeded.

The Tuesday before the past weekend release of Sgt. Bergdahl, the senior Bergdahl exchanged Tweets with the Taliban spokesperson using a graphic of him against the backdrop of the Muslim profession of faith, the Shahada, with the demand to “Free All Guantanamo Prisoners”. He subsequently took down that exchange of Tweets. Moreover, at the conclusion of Saturday Rose Garden announcement of Sgt. Bergdahl’s release, the father invoked a frequently recited Qur’anic ayah. Note this email from a colleague, Clare Lopez cited in a post by former Florida Congressman, Allen B. West on his blog, Steadfast and Loyal:

What none of these media is reporting is that the father’s (SGT Bowe Bergdahl’s father Bob) first words at the White House were in Arabic – those words were “bism allah alrahman alraheem” – which means “in the name of Allah the most gracious and most merciful” – these are the opening words of every chapter of the Qur’an except one (the chapter of the sword – the 9th) – by uttering these words on the grounds of the WH, Bergdahl (the father) sanctified the WH and claimed it for Islam. There is no question but POTUS knows this.

Loyalty of Bergdahl Questioned by Army vets in Same Unit

CNN’s Jake Tapper in an article noted that members of Sgt. Bergdahl’s platoon were aggrieved over the loss of comrades in the search after he went missing, “Fellow soldiers call Bowe Bergdahl a deserter, not a hero”.

Note these comments from the Tapper CNN article of his former Army platoon members of the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, and 25th Infantry Division:

At least six soldiers were killed in subsequent searches for Bergdahl, and many soldiers in his platoon said attacks seemed to increase against the United States in Paktika province in the days and weeks following his disappearance.

“Any of us would have died for him while he was with us, and then for him to just leave us like that, it was a very big betrayal,” said former U.S. Army Sgt. Josh Korder, who has the name of three soldiers who died while searching for Bergdahl tattooed on his back.

“I don’t think I could have continued to go on without being able to share with you and the people the true things that happened in this situation,” Korder said Monday. “Because if you guys aren’t made aware of it, it will just go on, and he’ll be a hero, and nobody will be able to know the truth.”

Then there is Bowe. Bergdahl’s admission of why he took off that fateful day in June 2009:

E-mails reported by the late Michael Hastings in Rolling Stone in 2012 reveal what Bergdahl’s fellow infantrymen learned within days of his disappearance: He told people that he no longer supported the U.S. effort in Afghanistan.

“The future is too good to waste on lies,” he wrote to his parents. “And life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. I have seen their ideas and I am ashamed to even be American. The horror of the self-righteous arrogance that they thrive in. It is all revolting.”

Bergdahl wrote to them, “I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting.”

Concluding Comments

Notwithstanding these email remarks from Bergdahl, some believe that five years captivity under the Taliban may be more than enough punishment and that he deserves to receive treatment and rehabilitation. After he has recovered then conduct of possible investigations and military tribunals may be another matter. Only time will tell.

By contrast Gilad Shalit today is a sports columnist for Israeli daily Yediot Ahronoth, a welcomed public figure at sporting events in Israel. He also suffered five years of imprisonment. Unlike Bergdahl he was loyal to his IDF buddies and did not betray his country. Bergdahl’s actions and those of his father are both questionable and disturbing. Their actions are compounded by President Obama’s release of Taliban Jihad commanders arranged by international Muslim Brotherhood supporter, the Emir of Qatar.

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

French Syrian War Jihadi Arrested in Brussels Jewish Museum Attack

June 1, 2014/in Must Read, National Security, News/by Jerry Gordon

Brussels Jewish Museum Suspect French Syrian war jihadi Mehdi Nemouche.

Reuters reported French authorities have arrested a Muslim émigré Jihadi in Marseilles with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and another weapon in his possession. The suspect 29 year old Mehdi Nemouche was arrested yesterday and identified as a returning Jihadi from Syria. Nemouche lived in the northern French city of Roubaix,

Reuters noted the following:

French media reported that he was suspected of having stayed in Syria with jihadist groups in 2013.

An Israeli couple and a French woman were killed on May 24 when a man entered the Jewish Museum in busy central Brussels and opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle. A Belgian man remains in critical condition in hospital.

French President Francois Hollande confirmed a suspect had been arrested and said France was determined to do all it could to stop radicalized youths from carrying out attacks.

“We will monitor those jihadists and make sure that when they come back from a fight that is not theirs, and that is definitely not ours … to make sure that when they come back they cannot do any harm,” Hollande told reporters.

The message “to these jihadists is that we will fight them, we will fight them and we will fight them”, he said.

Hollande has said previously the attack was motivated by anti-Semitism.

A spokeswoman for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office confirmed a suspect had been arrested in Marseille but declined to give further details. Prosecutors scheduled a news conference in Brussels for 3 p.m. (1300 GMT).

“This is a relief,” Joel Rubinfeld, head of the Belgian League against Anti-Semitism, told BFM TV.

“But this is also worrying us … it is crucial that countries who have citizens who have gone to Syria take all necessary measures to make sure this does not happen again.”

Police released a 30-second video clip from the museum’s security cameras showing a man wearing a dark cap, sunglasses and a blue jacket enter the building, take a rifle out of a bag and shoot into a room before calmly walking out.

Belgian officials have said the shooting was probably a terrorist attack. Some security experts suggested it may have been the work of a hitman rather than an anti-Semitic “lone wolf”.

One of the Israeli victims, Emmanuel Riva, had previously worked for Nativ, a government agency that played a covert role in Jewish migration from the former Soviet Union, an Israeli official said.

Miriam Riva, his wife, had also worked in the past for the prime minister’s office, the official said.

Dr. Jill Bellamy van Aalst had posted recently on concerns in Holland regarding returning Syrian Jihadis and bio warfare threats to public health in the EU. Just yesterday, we learned the identify of an American Jihadi suicide truck bomber killed in Syria, was a resident in Florida, Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha.who went by the name of Abu Hurayra Al-Amriki, “the American”. Abu Huraya was a companion of the prophet Mohammed. The American was killed in a massive Al Nusra suicide truck bombing operation in Idlib, Syria. Al Nusra is the ‘official’ Al Qaeda resistance group active in the Syria Civil war opposition.

Syrian war American al Qaeda Suicide Bomber, Floridian Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha

FBI Director Comey said in a CNN report, “There’s going to be a diaspora out of Syria”. “And we are determined not to let lines be drawn from Syria today to a future 9/11.” With the arrest of the French suspect in the Belgian Jewish Museum attack and disclosure of the American AQ martyr, the Syrian civil war has generated international concerns about the threat of returning jihadi veterans posing domestic threats as trained home grown terrorists.

As witnessed by the events in both Syria and Belgium, those threats pose a clear and present danger in both the EU and here in the US. In retrospect, President Obama’s declaration during the 2012 campaign that “bin Laden is dead and Al Qaeda is on the run” appears premature, at best, if not dangerously myopic.

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