Tag Archive for: Homeland Security

Tammy Nobles on the Border Crisis: ‘I Don’t Want Any Other Parent to Live the Nightmare I Am Living’

Illegal immigration is no longer an issue that only impacts people in border states. According to a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, it has passed inflation as the #1 issue facing the nation. Communities across the country are feeling the detrimental effects of migrant crossings on their schools and businesses, and it’s contributed to a tremendous increase in drug trafficking, human trafficking, and crime.

Last Thursday, two mothers spoke on Capitol Hill before the House Homeland Security Committee, sharing their heartbreaking stories about how they lost their daughters due to the actions of illegal immigrants — two criminals that, before 2021 when the Biden administration took over, most likely would have been stopped at the border and not allowed into the United States.

Tammy Nobles from Maryland and Josephine Dunn from Arizona testified at the committee’s impeachment hearing for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Both of these grieving mothers believe that their daughters’ deaths were the result of Secretary Mayorkas’s refusal to follow the laws and secure the border. While Mrs. Dunn took the long trip from Arizona to Washington, D.C. to share her story, Mayorkas did not even show up to the two days of hearings to listen to her or Mrs. Nobles or look them in the eye.

Tammy Nobles’s daughter, Kayla Hamilton, was brutally raped and murdered on July 27, 2022 by an MS-13 gang member who strangled her with her phone cord and robbed her of $6.00. Kayla’s life would have been spared if this known violent MS-13 gang member had been stopped at the southern border. But he was not. Instead, according to Nobles:

“Among other neglectful actions, DHS employees failed to visually inspect the assailant by lifting his shirt to check for gang-related tattoos. Had DHS employees performed a visual inspection of the assailant’s body, they would have seen MS-13 gang related tattoos on his body, disqualifying him from entering the U.S. DHS employees failed to make a simple phone call to the El Salvador government to verify if [the] assailant was on an MS-13 gang affiliation list. Had they done so, El Salvador government officials would have confirmed that the assailant was a known MS-13 gang member with a prior criminal history. DHS supervisors had failed to train and supervise DHS employees to properly screen minors attempting to enter U.S. soil from El Salvador.”

As Nobles told Fox News’s Harris Faulker, the detectives who were working on Kayla’s case asked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if they could hold the suspect, a minor, until the DNA evidence came back, and ICE refused to. So the detectives had Child Protective Services (CPS) hold him, and CPS told the detectives that they were going to put him in a secure location. They later found out that officials put him in an unsecured children’s home where he had issues with other children. Finally, CPS put him into a foster home.

Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Congressman Mark Green (R-Tenn.), joined Nobles for that FOX News interview. Astounded, Faulkner asked Green, “He’s still illegal right? … Why does he get the same rights of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ in this country? … This guy gets to roam and gets put into homes where there are children.”

Green shared her frustration replying, “It’s insane. In fact, this individual gets more rights than an American citizen. An American citizen, under the [Department of Justice] right now, if there’s a court hearing pending, they report that information. They’ll say when the court date is. For illegals, they don’t even advertise or tell us the court dates for these people. It’s insane. They get more rights than we do.”

Faulker asked, “If he’s part of a gang, doesn’t he get a special designation of terror? I just don’t get it.”

Green responded, “They’re supposed to.”

At the end of her heart-wrenching testimony at Mayorkas’s impeachment hearing, Nobles said:

“For me this not a political issue — this a safety issue for everyone living in the United States. This could have been anyone’s daughter. I don’t want any other parent to live the nightmare that I am living. I am her voice now, and I am going to fight with everything I have to get her story told and bring awareness of the issue at the border.

“If we had stricter border policies, my daughter would still be alive today. Nothing will bring my daughter back nor fix the pain of not having her here, but I want to prevent this from happening to someone else’s child. This isn’t about immigration, this is about protecting everyone in the United States.”

While Nobles lost her daughter to a rapist and murderer who should have been caught at the border, Mr. and Mrs. Dunn lost their daughter due to the actions of a drug dealer that DHS should have stopped from coming into our country. Dunn talked about her daughter, Ashley, who would have turned 29 on January 19 — the day she offered her testimony. Instead, Ashley died as a result of fentanyl poisoning when she was 26 years old. With deep emotion, Dunn tearfully explained:

“In the same five minutes that I get to share her story, someone else’s loved one in the United States will die from fentanyl. Over the next 24 hours, 190 loved ones will die. Today, in my state, the beautiful state of Arizona alone, five people will lose their lives to this weapon of mass destruction.”

Ashley’s murderer is a convicted, repeat drug distribution offender, a 44-year-old career drug dealer and trafficker. She has 14 prior convictions for drug sales. Dunn stated that one half of one pill that contained five milligrams of fentanyl killed Ashley. She went on to explain:

“Her dealer cannot be prosecuted for Ashley’s death. Nor can she even be charged. Ashley’s son, her father, and I are not even considered victims of ‘Dawn the Dealers’ actions. We do not even have the ability to provide a victim impact statement in Ashley’s trafficker’s case. The evidence is clear in Ashley’s phone. Toxicology report states five milligrams of fentanyl. Nothing can be done. She knowingly sold poison to our daughter which caused her death. Yet she will not be charged.”

According to The Heritage Foundation, fentanyl is often disguised as other medication. It kills before the victim even realizes what is happening to them. In addition, most illicit fentanyl today is manufactured in Mexico and brought across our southern border.

Heritage explains, “The American public needs to understand these fentanyl deaths aren’t classic overdoses among addicts. These aren’t broken kids with ‘substance use disorder.’ The overwhelming majority aren’t actively seeking fentanyl at all. Rather, in an age where medication is advertised wall-to-wall on our TVs, radio and social media, kids (like adults) think they can take a pill to fix anything, including stress and anxiety — conditions rampant among young people.”

Opioids, largely fentanyl, are now the number one killer of Americans aged 18-45 years old. Secretary Mayorkas and the Department of Homeland Security should do everything it can to put a stop to this epidemic and secure our borders immediately. And yet, Mayorkas didn’t even show up to listen to Dunn’s testimony, where she said:

“I understand that the mission of [the] Department of Homeland Security is to secure our nation’s air, land, sea, and borders to prevent illegal activity while facilitating lawful travel and trade. In my humble opinion, Mr. Mayorkas is partially responsible for my daughter’s death. His wide-open border policy allows massive quantities of poisonous fentanyl into our country. Arizona is the fentanyl superhighway into the United States. I personally feel Mr. Mayorkas is guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy who uses 10 million illegal border crossings since February 2021 to supply fentanyl, the weapon of mass destruction that has killed over 100,000 Americans on our soil for two years in a row.

“This is an invasion, a weapon of mass destruction, and unimaginable death and damage to our country [has been] facilitated by Mr. Mayorkas. His participation in all of this, what I believe is a war, is clearly intentional support of the enemy, which disqualifies him from his position. Our country deserves a secure border. We need to close the fentanyl superhighway. Thank you.”

AUTHOR

Kathy Athearn

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council. 


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

DHS Awards Anti-Terror Grant for LGBTQ Group to Indoctrinate 6-Year-Olds

The Biden administration has awarded an anti-terrorism grant worth more than half-a-million dollars to an LGBTQ activist group, which distributes condoms and “sex education” material, to expand its “in-school support for LGBTQ+ youth” as young as age 6. The manifesto of its school-based group — which is based on the Black Panthers — calls for the “abolition” of the police, the erasure of the U.S. border, and the “reclamation” of all “stolen lands” by indigenous people.

Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL) had received a $530,000 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) grant late this week. Although the TVTP grant is intended “to prevent targeted violence and terrorism,” the grant synopsis explains that the SMYAL “will provide in-school support for LGBTQ+ youth, training for school staff and youth service providers, [and] resilience programming for LGBTQ+ youth ages 6-24.” The grant will address both “the risk of violence and negative mental health outcomes faced by LGBTQ+ youth” in Washington, D.C., and nearby Montgomery County, Maryland.

GSA Networks Seek to Abolish the Police, Borders, and ‘Cisgender Heterosexual Patriarchy’

SMYAL’s latest 990 form states that its members run the “DC Regional GSA,” or Genders & Sexualities Alliance (GSA) Network clubs, which aims to “lead the charge for LGBTQ rights and social justice.” Formerly the “Gay-Straight Alliance,” the group renamed itself the Gender & Sexualities Alliances Network in 2015 to signal that its leaders “have moved beyond the labels of gay and straight, and the limits of a binary gender system.” GSA boasts of 4,000student-run clubs operated by 40 state chapters.

The GSA Network’s “Truth Nine Point Platform” calls for “the Abolition of the Police, ICE, Borders and the Judicial System”; “an End of the Cisgender Heterosexual Patriarchy”; “Reparations for all Indigenous and Black Peoples,” including “Indigenous reclamation of stolen lands”; and “free and non-compulsory education for all ages.”

“The manifesto was inspired by and builds upon the Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program, the Young Lord’s 12 Point Program and Platform, and the Third World Gay Revolution,” GSA Network states, as it promises “to bravely and ferociously fight for our communal liberation.” The Black Panther Party “advocated the use of violence and guerilla tactics to overthrow the U.S. government,” according to the FBI.

“We invite our comrades in struggle who align with our principles, including those who have yet to self-determine their relationship to the struggle, to join us in solidarity, coalition, and liberation — remembering the revolution is a relationship,” the GSA Network platform concludes.

SMYAL activists “connect with and provide assistance to teachers, staff, administrators, community members and partners to start and grow local GSAs,” according to its tax filings.

SMYAL Distributes Condoms, Gives LGBT Adults Access to Children without Parental Supervision

The first item listed on SMYAL’s “sexual health” program is “condom distribution.” SMYAL operates a “Peer Health Fellowship” for children ages 13-24: “Fellows serve their their [sic] schools and communities as health educators. Fellows serve their community as role models, leaders, and trusted friends by distributing condoms and safer-sex information,” according to the group’s most recent tax filings.

SMYAL operates numerous youth groups for children who identify as LGBT or “who are exploring or questioning their identities.” The youngest group, known as Little SMYAL, combines children from 6 to 12, although teens may opt to continue attending. The next level includes programs for children from early adolescence through their mid-20s.

“Little SMYAL’s is a group for queer and trans 6-12 year olds to provide young people a safe(r) space hang out [sic] and meet new people,” its website states. “To best meet the needs of our youth, we have programs that are designed for 6 to 9-year-olds (who we call Unicorns) or 10 to 13-year-olds (who we call Rainbows),” the group explains. “If your child is 13, they may choose to continue attending Little SMYALs programs or age up into SMYAL’s drop-in programs for youth ages 13+.”

“Some programs are open to all youth within this 13-24 age range,” SMYAL notes.

SMYAL actively seeks to separate children or adolescents from their parents, asking for access to young children without parental supervision. “We invite caregivers to attend a ‘Welcome to Little SMYALs’ session to make sure their child is ready to participate in future programming. We then encourage caregivers to give their child some space to allow them to meet new friends and participate fully in this environment,” SMYAL’s website states. “[S]ome parents/caregivers have enjoyed getting coffee down the street together during in-person programs.”

SMYAL also offers “clinical services to LGBTQ youth ages 6-24,” including “trauma-enforced yoga, sound healing, and mindfulness.” Its Youth Leadership Development program holds workshops on topics ranging from “allyship” to “gender and sexuality 101.”

‘Beyond Ridiculous’

Giving an anti-terrorism grant to a child-focused LGBTQ activist group is “beyond ridiculous,” Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. “Anti-terrorism and violence prevention money from DHS is supposed to prevent another 9/11 bombing — actual violent terrorism. It’s not supposed to impose sexual ideologies on children or adults. That’s child abuse and taxpayer abuse.”

“When people say they want to close agencies like the FBI, CIA, or DHS, programs like this one are part of the reason for that sentiment,” she said.

The taxpayer-funded DHS grant will greatly enhance SYMAL’s budget. The $530,000 TVTP grant represents 15% of the $3.6 million in revenue the group reported in 2021. (In all $2,061,623 of its $3,632,170 came from government grants.) SYMAL spent $351,123 promoting the GSA Networks’ agenda. It also spent $350,363 on its Peer Health Fellowship and $302,248 on its Youth Leadership Development Program.

Awarding SMYAL and other politically polarizing organizations DHS grants shows that “the national security industrial complex is too big and too focused on perceived threats to government from American citizens rather than on actual national security threats: cyberattacks on public schools and other organizations; lawlessness at the border; child trafficking rings; drug trafficking rings — all with international ties,” Kilgannon said.

“It’s not the job of DHS to make people feel good about their own sex lives and enforce societal endorsement of sex acts,” she concluded.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. ©2023 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Democrats Join GOP in Alarm at Treatment of Unaccompanied Minors by Becerra’s HHS

As the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S. border reaches unprecedented highs, concerns are growing that the ongoing border crisis is fueling a rise in the abuse of minors through sex trafficking, forced labor, and other forms of exploitation. On Wednesday, during a House Oversight Committee hearing to address the issue, both Republicans and Democrats expressed alarm at the job performance of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and his agency in handling unaccompanied minors and how sponsors for the minors are vetted.

In February, a New York Times investigation revealed that 250,000 unaccompanied minors had entered the U.S. in the last two years alone, at a rate that was three times higher than it was five years ago. It has fallen to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide a “sponsor” to these children who are supposed to provide for and protect them from exploitation. But as a result of the massive influx, the Times noted that “the Biden White House has ramped up demands on staffers to move the children quickly out of shelters and release them to adults.” This has led to caseworkers “rush[ing] through vetting sponsors.”

Alarmingly, the Times went on to report that “over the last two years, the agency could not reach more than 85,000 children” after it attempted to contact them a month after they were placed with their sponsor. “Overall, the agency lost immediate contact with a third of migrant children.”

The Times report further detailed how many children were forced to work low-paying, hard-labor jobs by their sponsors as repayment for taking them in. Still, Becerra pressured staffers to quickly discharge children to sponsors. “If Henry Ford had seen this in his plants, he would have never become famous and rich. This is not the way you do an assembly line,” he said during a staff meeting in 2022. In March, Becerra threatened to find someone to replace Cindy Huang, the director of HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), unless she could increase the number of discharges. She resigned a month later.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) asked Becerra if his agency inspected the homes of 100% of the prospective sponsors before granting them the sponsorship of a minor. He replied, “We will often do home studies of sponsors” instead of answering the question directly. “I guess that’s a ‘no,’” Lesko observed. She went on to point out that a family in Austin, Texas “had more than 100 children sent to it by ORR. Another Texas address had 44 children, a third had 25. … I do not think you are doing an adequate job.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) further pressed Becerra on if his agency allowed 17-year-old unaccompanied males who identify as female into the private facilities of unaccompanied girls, based on HHS’s stated policy of affirming the chosen identities of transgender youth. “We make sure that we provide all the children in our care with the human rights protections and freedom from discrimination and abuse that they’re entitled to,” Becerra responded. “It should not work that way,” Crenshaw firmly replied. “It puts girls in danger, and I bet a lot of the girls are younger in age.”

Later, after Becerra refused to directly answer what his definition of a “thorough” background check was of adults who come across the border with small children claiming that they are in fact their children, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) pointed out that HHS only uses a DNA test to verify that the child is theirs in 9% of the cases and only employs a background check in 23% of the cases.

Even Democrats expressed alarm at Becerra’s job performance. Rep. Ann Eshoo (D-Calif.) was visibly disturbed after Becerra appeared to wash his hands of minors who were vetted for placement through his agency and ended up illegally working overnight shifts at construction sites, slaughterhouses, and factories, according to a New York Times report.

“This is so unsettling, this is so unsettling,” Eshoo lamented. “These are … the innocents of the world. This is really terrible. … Reports of trafficking and abuse of immigrant children has more than doubled from 2021 to 2022. At the end of the day, as HHS secretary, the buck stops with you. So, I can hope, I can pray, I can press. … This is something that needs to be totally removed from taking place in our country. Really, I think that God’s going to hold all of us responsible if this is not addressed, and addressed the way it should be.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Death Toll Rises in Chattanooga Islamic Terror Attack

Saturday brought more somber news of a fifth victim of the Islamic terror massacre perpetrated by 24 year old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez. He was killed by Chattanooga police in the rampage at a Naval/Marine Recruiting Center on Thursday, July 17, 2015.  The Wall Street Journal reported:

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith was a reservist serving on active duty in Chattanooga. Officials said he died early Saturday morning. Mr. Smith, 26 years old, joined the Navy because he was inspired by the service of his late grandfather, said his step-grandmother, Darlene Proxmire. Mr. Smith was a married father of three girls and grew up in Paulding, Ohio, she said.

The other victims were four Marines:

Along with Mr. Smith, four Marines were killed in the attacks. U.S. official and family members on Friday confirmed the identities of the deceased Marines: Thomas Sullivan, of Springfield, Mass.; Skip Wells, from Marietta, Ga.; David Wyatt, of Hixson, Tenn.; and Carson Holmquist, of Grantsburg, Wis.

More emerges on the shooter-Abdulazeez and his family

The shooter, Abdulazeez, was a Kuwait-born naturalized U.S. citizen. He was a 2012 graduate the University of Tennessee –Chattanooga with a degree in electrical engineering who lived with his parents in nearby Hixson, Tennessee. He had just started a position with a local cable and wire firm.  The parents may have been among several hundred thousand Palestinians expelled from Kuwait following the First Gulf War in 1991, many of whom fled to Jordan. These Palestinians, unlike those who fled Israel during the 1948-1949 War, were not covered by the UNWAR refugee program. Rather they were eligible for refugee and asylum status under the UNHCR program.  The New York Times reported:

Born in Kuwait in 1990, Mr. Abdulazeez became an American citizen in 2003 through the naturalization of his mother, federal officials said; his father was also naturalized. Because he was a minor, he did not have to apply separately for citizenship. A divorce complaint filed by his mother in 2009 and then withdrawn, said the parents were from “the State of Palestine.”

Counterterrorism officials had not been investigating Mr. Abdulazeez before Thursday’s shootings. His father had been investigated about seven years ago for giving money to an organization that apparently had ties to Hamas. … The investigation did not result in charges. But the father was placed on a watch list for a while. A similar investigation was conducted in the 1990s and it, too, did not lead to charges.

Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said the watch list had for a time prevented the elder Mr. Abdulazeez from flying. “I believe there was a preliminary investigation, but there was no derogatory information, and he was taken off the list,” he said.

The shooter appears to have been heavily armed in the rampage, equipped with an assault weapon and two other long guns. It is reported that he purchased on-line some of the weapons for the rampage including an AK-47, AR 15, Saiga 12. He had also purchased two 7mm and 22 caliber side arms. He had a history of interest in guns, trained in using them at a local range and firing BBs at targets in the backyard of family’s home in Hixson. He also had a history of alcohol and drug related problems.  Following his graduation from UT-Chattanooga he received an offer of employment at a nuclear plant operated by Cleveland-based First Energy. Abdulazeez had been an intern at a TVA nuclear facility during his undergraduate career. A mandatory First Energy employment drug test in 2013 resulted in the loss of his job.  Notwithstanding, Islamic prohibitions against alcohol and drugs, Abdulazeez sought counseling for the problem in 2012 and 2013. Nevertheless the problem persisted as attested by his being arrest   in April 2015 on a DUI charge by Chattanooga police. A New York Times article noted the circumstances:

The only run-in Mr. Abdulazeez had with the law in the Chattanooga area appears to have been an April 20 arrest on a charge of driving while intoxicated; he posted a $2,000 bond.

According to a police affidavit, officers spotted him weaving through downtown Chattanooga after 2 a.m., in a gray 2001 Toyota Camry, and when they pulled him over, they smelled alcohol and marijuana, and he failed a sobriety test. They said his eyes were bloodshot, his speech was slurred, he was “unsteady on his feet,” and he had “irritated nostrils” and white powder under his nose, which Mr. Abdulazeez said came from snorting, crushed caffeine pills. He was scheduled to appear in court on July 30.

Those trips to Jordan

Abdulazeez, who held a US passport, made several trips to Jordan beginning in 2003 to visit a maternal uncle and family. He also made a side trip to Kuwait during a 2008 trip to Jordan. His father accompanied him on a trip in 2010 to Jordan after his no fly status had been lifted.  He made a 2013 trip to Jordan that returned home via Canada.   In April 2014, he purchased a one way ticket to Jordan, finally returning home via Doha, Qatar. What he did and where he went on that trip has yet to be determined, by law enforcement, FBI and foreign intelligence sources.  At issue is whether he made contact with the Al Nusra front or Muslim Brotherhood affiliate, the Islamic Action Front, or possibly ISIS via social media and whether he made a possible trip to either Iraq or Syria.  A WSJ report commented on the final trip to Jordan by Abdulazeez:

Mr. Abdulazeez wasn’t a familiar figure among jihadists in Jordan, according to Mohammad Shaabi, known as Abu Sayyaf, who sympathizes with the al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra. He said it is still possible Mr. Abdulazeez could have contacted extremists through means such as social media.

A few ISIS sympathizers on Twitter referred to Mr. Abdulazeez after the shooting as “a soldier of the Islamic State” and “an individual lion.”

Evidence of Family Problems – Bankruptcy and a Divorce Filing

The Abdulazeez family went through a spate of difficulties.  The father Youssuf filed for bankruptcy in 2002 which was completed by 2005. More troubling was a divorce filing by his wife Rasmieh I. Abdulazeez in 2009.  The Times reported:

Mrs. Abdulazeez said that her husband, Youssef S. Abdulazeez, had “repeatedly beaten” her and had “on occasion” abused the children by “striking and berating them without provocation or justification.”

The complaint also accused Mr. Abdulazeez of sexual and verbal abuse, and of declaring his intentions “to take a second wife, as permitted under certain circumstances under [Sharia] Islamic law.”

Evidence of Anti-Israel, US Animus and Salafism in final text message

Abdulazeez had evidenced concerns about IDF actions during the 2014 summer rocket war by Hamas.  According to a Reuters report, friends noted that following the 2014 trip he became increasingly concerned about Middle East conflicts. It was after the final trip that he went on-line and purchased weapons and went to practice using them at a gun range.  Friends said:

Abdulazeez’s friends, who asked not to be identified for fear of a backlash, said he was upset about the 2014 Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza and the civil war in Syria.

“He felt Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia were not doing enough to help, and that they were heavily influenced by the United States,” said the friend who received the text message.

Another friend said, “He had always talked about it, but I’d say his level of understanding and awareness really rose after he came back.”

A text message containing a Hadith sent the night before the attack may have indicated his adoption of fundamentalist Islam:

“Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of mine, and then I have declared war against him”.

An Islamic expert explained:

For jihadists and ultraconservative Salafist Sunni Muslims, the Hadith “is usually understood within the context of al-wala wa-l-bara (or) love for Islam and hatred for its enemies,” said David Cook, an associate professor who specializes in Islam in the department of religion at Rice University in Texas.

Pew Trust Islamic Extremism chart

Conclusion

The nationwide outpouring of mourning and grief at the wanton killing of five US service personnel in this Islamic inspired jihad at the Chattanooga Naval/Marine Recruiting Center was palpable.   The immediate national reaction to the tragic attack by troubled Abdullazeez was reflected in an offer by Governor Rick Scott in Florida to provide security by moving military recruitment centers in Florida to local National Guard armories.  There were also calls for lifting state laws barring US military uniformed personnel from carrying side arms.

There was still the conundrum of how federal and state law enforcement and homeland security agencies can prevent another Islamic inspired homeland jihad and acknowledge the threat.  Ultimately, it will require a new more responsive and clear eyed Administration. An Administration that appreciates what a recent Pew Trust poll has found: a surge to 53% of Americans concerned over domestic Islamic extremism.  Concern over ISIS is even higher at 73% of those polled by the Pew Trust.

The Chattanooga Recruitment Center massacre has another poignant side effect. It took six years for the Pentagon to award Purple Hearts to the service victims of both the  June 2009 Little Rock Army Recruitment Center attack and the November 2009 Fort Hood Massacre perpetrated by domestic Jihadis. We hope that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and incoming Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford, Jr. will waste no time in making suitable posthumous awards to the grieving families and loved ones recognizing these valiant service personnel who died in combat against domestic Islamic terrorism in our midst.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The featured image is courtesy of the Miami-Herald.

Why the US Accusations Against Israeli Intelligence are Wrong

For the past two days there are have been a spate of articles triggered by  Newsweek contributing editor, Jeff Stein, who wrote a Spy Talk column with accusations alleging that Israeli Intelligence are operating in the US is at “alarming levels,” “Israel won’t stop spying on the US”. Stein’s accusations:

U.S. intelligence officials are saying—albeit very quietly, behind closed doors on Capitol Hill—that our Israeli “friends” have gone too far with their spying operations here.

According to classified briefings on legislation that would lower visa restrictions on Israeli citizens, Jerusalem’s efforts to steal U.S. secrets under the cover of trade missions and joint defense technology contracts have “crossed red lines.”

This despite a long term valued collaboration by US defense intelligence agencies with Israel. Stein’s anonymous sources appear to paint all Israelis as potential spies.

Stein’s allegations were immediately slammed by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and an Israeli Embassy official in Washington. The Jewish Press noted:

First of all, these are malicious accusations. . . I would not agree to any spying on the United States, not in any form, directly or indirectly.

Israeli Embassy spokesperson Aaron Sagui also flatly denied the charges, telling Newsweek, “Israel doesn’t conduct espionage operations in the United States, period. We condemn the fact that such outrageous, false allegations are being directed against Israel.

The Stein accusations come amidst strains in the relations between the Administration and Israel over the collapse of the failed final status agreements with the Palestinian Authority. This was reflected in Ynet interviews with an unidentified “senior US official” many believe to be former US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk. The Ynet reports suggested that the US might impose its own terms on both the PA newly unified with Hamas and Israel.

Moreover, tensions between Washington and Jerusalem have increased over the latter’s criticism of the P5+1 talks with Iran over curtailment of its nuclear program. That may be part of the agenda that National Security Advisor Susan Rice brought yesterday for discussions with the Netanyahu government. Those intelligence red line accusations may be behind the tightening of visas for visiting Israelis. This sudden swirl triggered by the Stein  piece in Newsweek has led to an unidentified senior Israeli diplomatic official suggesting in a Ynereport that the accusation may have been “tainted by a whiff of anti-Semitism.” That is reflected in Stein’s Newsweek Spy Talk column interviews with former CIA officials resurrecting the rogue Israeli intelligence operation involving imprisoned American spy Jonathan Pollard.

Jeff Stein appears to be touting a line perpetrated by a former FBI intelligence director, David Szady, back in the middle part of the last decade that there was an Israeli mole or moles borrowing into our national security establishment based on the Pollard conviction for spying. Just recall the FBI sting operation against former Defense analyst Larry Franklin at DoD used against the two former AIPAC senior staffers. Rosen and Weissman were falsely accused. A Federal Judge dismissed the wrongful prosecution brought as a result of Szady’s false accusations. I wrote about this eight years ago in an Israpundit article: “Are we all Jonathan Pollards, now?”

An AFP article, based on Stein’s Newsweek column cites unidentified former Congressional aides in his report said:

. . .  a congressional staffer familiar with a briefing last January called the testimony “very sobering … alarming … even terrifying”, and quoted another as saying the behavior was “damaging.”

“No other country close to the United States continues to cross the line on espionage like the Israelis do,” said a former congressional staffer who attended another classified briefing in late 2013, according to Newsweek.

It said that briefing was one of several in recent months given by the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the FBI and the National Counterintelligence Directorate.

The former congressional staffer said the intelligence agencies did not give specifics, but cited “industrial espionage—folks coming over here on trade missions or with Israeli companies working in collaboration with American companies, [or] intelligence operatives being run directly by the government, which I assume meant out of the [Israeli] Embassy.”

Israel’s espionage activities in America are unrivaled and go far beyond activities by other close allies, such as Germany, France, Britain and Japan, counter-intelligence agents told members of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees,.

“I don’t think anyone was surprised by these revelations,” the former aide was quoted as saying.

“But when you step back and hear … that there are no other countries taking advantage of our security relationship the way the Israelis are for espionage purposes, it is quite shocking”.

A 2011 Los Angeles Times op-ed by Robert D. Blackwill and Walter B. Slocombe, “Israel: A True Ally in the Middle East” noted:

Counter-terrorism and intelligence cooperation is deep and extensive, with the United States and Israel working to advance their common interest in defeating the terrorism of Hamas, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda and its affiliate groups, and preventing nuclear proliferation in the region. There are joint Special Forces training and exercises and collaboration on shared targets.

This intimate relationship reinforces overall U.S. intelligence efforts by providing Washington with access to Israel’s unique set of capabilities for information collection and assessments on key countries and issues in the region. Such was the case, for example, when Israel passed to the United States conclusive photographic evidence in 2007 that Syria, with North Korean assistance, had made enormous strides toward “going hot” with a plutonium-producing reactor.

Slocombe was Undersecretary for Defense Policy at the Pentagon during the Clinton era, while Blackwill served as a diplomat during several Republican Administrations. Their comments in the Los Angeles Times report was drawn from a paper published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. A Tablet article cited  the authors’ views  in the paper at the time on the extensive Israeli contributions to US national security:

The paper offers chapter and verse on Israeli contributions to the U.S. national interest. They include: Israeli counter-proliferation efforts, such as the 1981 bombing of Iraq’s Osirak nuclear facility and the 2007 attack on Syria’s secret nuclear facility at al-Kibar; joint military training exercises, as well as exchanges on military doctrine; Israeli technology, like unmanned aerial systems, armored vehicle protection, defense against short-range rocket threats, and robotics; missile defense cooperation; counterterrorism and intelligence cooperation; and cyber defense. Blackwill and Slocombe conclude that the alliance is in fact so central to U.S. national interests that U.S. policymakers should find ways to further enhance cooperation with Jerusalem.

Fast forward to 2014. Stein’s Spy Talk column indicates that something sinister is going on in the Washington intelligence community. That Israel, globally recognized  as an acknowledged leader in high tech in both civilian and military applications, needed  to spy on US industrial developments. Doesn’t square. Stein’s anonymous sources on Capitol Hill and in the FBI, CIA, State Department and Homeland Security may be reflecting the Administration’s pique at Israel’s asserting its sovereign right to defend the Jewish nation. A Jewish nation with Jihadist threats ranging on all of its borders seeking its destruction.

RELATED STORIES: 

American Intelligence in Disarray
Report of Israeli spying shows depth of incompetence

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

Department of Homeland Security Targets Orlando and St. Louis TEA Party IRS protests

DHS vehicle is visible on the right side of this photo courtesy of BizPac Review.

Tom Tillison of BizPac Review reports:

The protest was held in Maitland, Florida, a short drive north of Orlando and not surprisingly, North Lake Tea Party, long the standard bearer of the Central Florida tea party movement, was on hand.

The tea party was acting on a call to action by Tea Party Patriots Inc., which bills itself as the nation’s largest tea party organization, in response to recent admissions by IRS officials that the agency had intentionally targeted tea party and conservative groups.

A scandal that continues to grow in scope with each passing day.

Under the watchful eye of Homeland Security — yes, they were present — protesters carried signs that read “We Do Not Consent to Tyranny,” “Abolish the IRS” and “Don’t Target me Bro!,” making it clear they do not condone the use of the IRS as a political weapon.

As one protester noted, it’s insulting that Homeland Security felt the need to be present as American citizens exercise their first amendment right, but decide to look away when suspected Islamic terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev travels back and forth to his home country.

Patti DiBella, who was at the Melbourne, FL  protest, in an email to WDW states, “I wanted to go & thank Homeland Security for being there ‘to protect US from TERRORISTS’!…that’s why they were there (with the K-9’s)…right? But it was raining like a monsoon & they never got out of their cars.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not show up at all Florida protests. The one in Sarasota, FL was held peacefully with no DHS presence.

Gateway Pundit reports, “Residents of St. Louis County, MO met in front of the IRS offices on May 21, 2013 to protest the IRS’ practice of targeting and harassing conservatives, patriots and Tea Party supporters. There were no city or county police there, ONLY DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY POLICE.”

Given that officers from the Department of Homeland Security were at TEA Party IRS protests in both St. Louis, MO, Melbourne and Orlando, FL but not in Sarasota, FL indicates targeting? It should be noted that the IRS offices are federal buildings and the DHS has a role in protecting federal buildings in the US.

If any other groups noticed the same presence of DHS officers at their protest or the lack thereof please contact WDW.

RELATED COLUMN:

Whoa!! ARMED DHS GUARDS Meet Tea Party Protesters Outside IRS Rally in St. Louis (Video)

IRS demanded names of conservative college interns from 2008 election cycle
TOP IRS OFFICIAL TO TAKE THE FIFTH…
Chain of Command Suggests Scandal Not Limited to ‘Low-Level Employees’…

PODCAST: How Government Is Killing Businesses In FL

Allen Fugler, Executive Vice President Florida Pest Management Association in Orlando, FL and Tim Southerland from Southern Wood Producers Association and the American Loggers Council – Florida in Panama City, FL join Watchdog Wire Radio. Mr. Fugler and Mr. Southerland explain how government at every level is destroying small businesses in Florida and across America. Today it appears the business of government is to destroy small businesses according to Mr. Fugler and Mr. Southerland. Over regulation is keeping Florida small businesses from expanding and growing.

Listen to the podcast of this show and learn how government at every level is putting small businesses out of business from these two industry experts.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST INTERVIEW BY CLICKING HERE

The next four years could bring a tidal wave of more than 4,100 regulations for the American economy. Regulations in the pipeline are estimated to cost the economy more than half a trillion dollars. To view a sampling of regulations, that will cost the economy $515 billion, click here.

Small Businesses for Sensible Regulations launched a nine-state campaign to raise awareness on the several thousand regulations that could go into effect if President Barack Obama is reelected. To learn more about the Small Businesses for Sensible Regulation coalition go to – http://stopthetidalwave.org.