Tag Archive for: national security

U.S. at Second-Highest Threat Level for Terrorist Attack: Expert

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American soldiers abroad and U.S. citizens at home face perilously high odds of suffering a terrorist attack caused by the Biden administration’s policies, a national security expert has revealed. In his estimation, the American homeland stands at the second-highest level of terrorist alert.

His estimation comes days after U.S. European Command (EUCOM), which oversees 83,000 U.S. soldiers across the continent, raised the threat of a terrorist attack over the next week to “Force Protection Charlie,” the second-highest level.

“There are a host of issues that might be at play,” said retired Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis on “Washington Watch” Monday. “Certainly, the Olympics come to mind,” as they start later this month, as well as possible Russian activity in response to U.S. sponsorship of Ukraine. On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the Biden administration would give an additional $2.3 billion in taxpayer funding to Ukraine. That comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked President Biden for permission to use U.S.-donated Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles to strike deep into the interior of Russia, significantly widening the war.

But, Maginnis warned, the potential to suffer from some form of terrorist attack is far from confined to Americans overseas — and the primary danger comes from uncontrolled illegal immigration.

“Where would you suspect we are right here in the homeland?” asked guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice.

“Probably Charlie trending to Delta,” replied Maginnis.

The force protection levels, from lowest to highest, are: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta.

“We are at a very heightened level, even though it’s not acknowledged by Homeland Security,” said Maginnis, senior fellow for National Security at Family Research Council and author of the book “Kings of the East: China’s Plan to Eliminate America and Impose a Communist World Order.”

“The risk is high,” he said.

“The southern border has been wide open for a long time. Millions of people have come in” during the Biden administration — an estimated 10 million illegal border crossings, not including unknown gotaways. That includes “many thousands of military-age communist Chinese, many from the Middle East, many from northern Africa — where we don’t have any real friends — and then, of course an odd lot from Eastern Europe that we could very well have bad characters in sleeper cells posted around this country near our critical infrastructure.”

“As we saw on September 11, 2001, it only takes 19 bad dudes to disrupt the entire United States,” said Maginnis.

Potential terrorists continue to swarm over the southern border, a problem that has intensified with each passing month of the Biden administration. Last month, ICE agents arrested eight illegal immigrants from Tajikistan with ties to ISIS in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York City. At least two of the potential terrorists had background checks conducted at the southern border by agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), but nothing alerted CBP to the men’s nefarious connections — so they were released into the interior of the United States, in accordance with the Biden administration’s standard operating procedure. Another of the men used the CBP One App, created by the Biden administration to expedite the importation of illegal aliens into the U.S., to schedule a smooth entry into the U.S.

“The arrest of eight men affiliated with ISIS in the interior of the United States is enough proof to show that terrorist organizations are, in fact, exploiting our border to possibly carry out an attack on American soil,” wrote a group of Republican congressmen led by House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green (R-Tenn.) to the now-impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Unfortunately, the unacceptable security failures that have allowed individuals with terrorist ties to enter the United States through the Southwest [b]order have become an alarming pattern under this administration.” In addition to the eight Tajikis:

  • An ISIS-affiliated human smuggling ring reportedly brought 400 illegal immigrants into the United States. Only 150 had been arrested as of last week. The whereabouts of 50 of them remained unknown.
  • 48-year-old Mohammad Kharwin, a native of Afghanistan and a suspected member of the terrorist group Hezb-e-Islami (HIG), illegally entered the United States last March 10 near San Ysidro, California. Although he was on the U.S. terrorist watchlist, the information reportedly did not show up on his background check, so agents released him two days later, only to track him down and take him into custody this February.
  • A 2022 George Washington University report on Hezbollah activity inside the United States identified 128 individuals carrying out Hezbollah -related illegal activity in Michigan (55 cases), California (19 cases), North Carolina (16 cases), and New York (15 cases). Of those, 19 offered operational support for Hezbollah, “including as human smugglers, weapons procurers, pre-operational surveillance, and travelers who sought to join the group.”
  • U.S. Customs and Border Protection has encountered 1,703 people on the U.S. terrorist watchlist since the beginning of the 2021 fiscal year (which began in October 2020): 173 in 2021, 478 in 2022, 736 in 2023, and 316 people so far this fiscal year.
  • Robert Lee, CEO of the energy cybersecurity company Dragos, testified before the Senate last March that it is “a very reasonable assumption” to believe Chinese and Russian sleeper cells have already penetrated the U.S. energy grid in preparation for a future attack. “If they’re not already in key parts of it, I don’t think they’re doing the job very well,” said Lee.

The Biden administration’s soft-on-crime “prioritization of catch, process, and release” at the southern border “presents a grave danger to national security,” the congressmen wrote.

Sleeper cells, which may lay dormant for months or years before engaging in deadly activity, have proven their lethality in every corner of the globe. Last week, a Russian official revealed that “sleeper cells” had carried out the June 23 Islamist terrorist attack on churches and synagogues in Dagestan, which left 22 people dead, including 66-year-old priest Fr. Nikolai Kotelnikov. The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church condemned the attacks as having “diabolic” origins.

“This is a dangerous time,” Maginnis told Hice.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

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

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.

Biden Admin. Is Treating China with Kid Gloves while Bullying Developing Countries, Experts Say

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In the wake of a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday examining the influence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has gained within U.S. federal agencies, Republican lawmakers and experts are warning that the Biden administration has failed to confront China’s aggression while simultaneously pushing unwanted social policies on developing countries, which has driven them into the financial arms of the communist regime.

Witnesses at the hearing charged the Biden administration with failing to treat the CCP as an adversary for decades, leading to the unprecedented rise of China on the world stage. “The U.S. is now in a new Cold War,” argued James Fanell, a former U.S. Navy captain. “Over three decades, the U.S. had ample time to prevent [China’s] rise and to retard its growth, even to support the overthrow of the CCP, but it did not. Those strategic choices must be explained. Why did the U.S. assist, not prevent, the rise of its peer challenger? Was it entirely the result of a masterful, protracted political warfare campaign by the masters of deception, the CCP?”

Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas), a member of the House Oversight Committee, agreed with Fanell’s assessment during Thursday’s edition of “Washington with Tony Perkins.”

“[W]hat we have to recognize is that they’re [engaging in] unrestricted warfare … against the United States,” he emphasized. “… [W]e keep talking of them as competitors. We need to recognize that they’re an enemy, and they do not have the best intentions for our nation. … [T]hem replacing us as the preeminent force on the world stage would certainly not be good for humanity as well. And so we have to stand up strong. We have to recognize the situation that we’re in, and we have to be willing to make the tough decisions to push back on this communist agenda that they’re trying to foist upon the whole world.”

As Mary Kissel, a former senior advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State, noted during the hearing, one way the CCP engages in this warfare is by conducting seemingly “innocuous and even friendly exchanges” with U.S. diplomats through “sister city agreements, business chamber meetings, think tank conferences, and ‘interviews’ with Chinese propaganda outlets.”

Kissel went on to issue a warning to American businesses regarding China’s infiltration efforts. “Educating Americans on grey zone Chinese influence operations is also deeply important for our business community,” she contended. “I serve as a director of two publicly traded companies. Few American executives and directors are aware that they, like our diplomats, are prime targets of Chinese influence operations, which aim to identify prominent Americans who may now, or in the future, be convinced to aid Beijing in some form or fashion.”

Erik Bethel, former U.S. Executive Director at the World Bank, further detailed how the communist regime is attempting to shape “global development, rules, regulations, and standards” through its involvement in the International Telecommunication Union, which “impacts global telecommunications standards, with significant ramifications for technology and innovation worldwide.” Bethel also revealed how a CCP member ran the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) for eight years and “seamlessly integrated it” into China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a program that has saddled massive debts on developing countries in financial distress.

As Congressman Cloud observed, the Biden administration’s penchant for pushing controversial social policies onto developing nations has ended up helping China’s BRI.

“(O)ne of the very first eye-opening conversations I had as a brand new member was with an ambassador from another country,” he recounted. “They came in and said, ‘Hey, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for the aid your country sends our country.’ And then after some time of talking, he said, ‘Can I take my ambassador hat off for a moment? … Every dollar you send our country goes against Christian values and family values. And frankly, our country would be better off if we didn’t receive any.’ And I’ve heard that same situation from a number of countries where they say, ‘We appreciate what America has stood for, and we don’t want to align ourselves with China, but China [is] working to give us ports, bridges, and roads. We know that’s a debt trap.’”

Cloud continued, “But from our State Department, they get a lecture, and it’s things that undermine the society and values that they hold dear [and] not what they want to be involved with. And so it puts them in a difficult situation. … This is not advancing any sort of strategic interest of the United States at all. It’s frankly a false religion that they’ve decided to try to foist on the world. And we’ve got to make sure that we stop their efforts to do so.”

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. ©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.

Terror Threat on U.S. Soil Has Risen Dramatically under Biden, Experts Say

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Amid a rise in terrorist attacks across the globe in the wake of the October 7 massacre in Israel, national security experts are warning that the threat of attacks on U.S. soil has risen dramatically even as the Biden administration enacts policies that exacerbate the danger.

In December, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, remarking that before October 7, “we were already in a heightened threat environment.” But since the Hamas attack, he went on, “we’ve seen the threat from foreign terrorists rise to a whole other level.” Wray also highlighted the porous southern border as a primary security risk to the country, drawing attention to “a particular network [operating on the southern border]” with “ISIS ties that we are very concerned about.”

In the weeks following President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, he signed an executive order that reversed many of his predecessor Donald Trump’s policies that had tightened the flow of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. As a result, an unprecedented 1.7 million unvetted individuals have crossed into the U.S. interior undetected since then, which is more than were able to sneak in in the entire previous decade.

As Todd Bensman, a senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, explained during Tuesday’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins,” this breach could have devastating consequences for national security, especially in light of the security hole left by Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021.

“[T]here are foreign terrorist organizations like ISIS-K in Afghanistan and Pakistan that have been able to take advantage of ungoverned territories in that area, and … the U.S. is not striking them as much [so] that they’ve been able to grow,” he observed. “Chechens and Tajikistanis … in Muslim majority regions of Russia are free to attack. We’ve been seeing the Russian people victimized by some of these groups. They’re on the rise. … [T]he ideology of global jihad and Islamist supremacy under Sharia law isn’t going anywhere.”

Bensman continued, “[W]e’ve had tens of thousands of people from those regions crossing our southern border with very minimal vetting. And that is a significant issue to the homeland because we did kind of crack down on airport traffic and people coming in on legal visas after 9/11 quite a bit. But we haven’t done that much on the southern border for the last three years. And these Tajikistanis — [the] FBI rolled up eight of them in early June — who crossed the southern border … were planning some sort of a bombing attack. That would be the very first time that a group of terrorists — they caught them in three different cities — crossed the southern border to access their American targets on U.S. soil.”

Other senior U.S. officials besides Wray have also raised serious concerns over rising threats. General Erik Kurilla, commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM) has highlighted the growing capabilities of Middle Eastern and South Asian terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, the Islamic State (ISIS), and affiliates like ISIS-K. Former National Counterterrorism Center director Christine Abizaid illustrated “an elevated global threat environment” while speaking in Doha recently. In addition, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland acknowledged that the “threat level … has gone up enormously” during testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last week.

The recent Islamist attacks in Africa that have left dozens of Christians dead in Congo and thousands more massacred in Nigeria have also raised the ire of experts, who say that the Biden administration’s lack of focus on combatting terrorism abroad not only has deadly consequences for innocent civilians in foreign lands but will also allow terrorist activity to intensify overseas, which will only increase the danger of that activity eventually filtering into the U.S.

Bensman went on to note that the anti-terrorism policies put in place in the country since 9/11 have proven to be effective, but dangers remain.

“[W]e haven’t been immune from terror attacks … since 9/11,” he acknowledged. “San Bernardino, Boston, New York — there was a truck attack on a bike path there. … They’re not on the scale of 9/11, but the reason that we haven’t had them … is because over 20 years, we got pretty good at counterterrorism. We built up our FBI. We built up all of our federal law enforcement agencies. We started sharing intelligence between agencies. [T]he number of terror plots that we’ve thwarted … are far greater than the successful ones. The threat is not diminished. It’s just that we have stopped an awful lot of them over the last 20 years, and we will probably continue to do that. But they’re still going to get through every now and again.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins further contended that the Biden administration’s “two-tiered system of justice” has caused the American people to lose confidence and trust in the Intel community.

“I think that’s something that we always should be concerned about,” Bensman responded. “When I was in the intelligence business, we underwent a lot of training about what you can and can’t do to make sure that we can maintain the trust of the people we served. I think that there’s still a lot of that going on, but you always have had a mistrust of government power, especially law enforcement power [and] especially surveillance authorities. I think that’s a healthy thing.”

He added, “I hope that they just don’t get sidetracked by political whims, such as, ‘Hey, we need to back off of Islamic terror threats and move all of it over to white supremacy’ and that sort of thing. We can do two things at once. The country’s perfectly capable of juggling several balls at the same time like that.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

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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.

Comer: Biden’s Intelligence Agencies ‘Have No Plan’ to Counter CCP’s Infiltration Program

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The chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee is warning that despite the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) unprecedented level of infiltration of U.S. institutions, intelligence agencies under the Biden administration appear to be unprepared, with “no government plan” to counter the threat.

“[W]e’ve known for years [that] they’re stealing our patents, they’re stealing our intellectual property,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) pointed out during Thursday’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” “They’ve engaged in creating spy centers all across America, not just at our public universities. By the way, China, we have learned, is funding anonymously a lot of our most liberal research universities, the ones which just so happen to be having all the campus protests against Israel.”

A report released Wednesday by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) confirmed that radical left-wing organizations heavily involved in the anti-Israel protests and encampments that have spread to numerous universities across the country have received considerable funding from a network with ties to the CCP. The report details how the Shut It Down for Palestine (SID4P) movement, which includes a coalition of three other left-wing organizations, “are linked through financial, personal, and ideological ties to CCP associates Neville Roy Singham and his wife, Jodie Evans.” Singham, who formerly served as a consultant to Huawei, a Chinese tech conglomerate, “is known for funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into pro-China progressive advocacy through his network.”

The report concludes that the CCP’s “foreign influence efforts” seek to support U.S.-based groups with a “revolutionary, anti-government, and anti-capitalist agenda” in order to “incit[e] unrest throughout the summer of 2024 and in the lead-up to the U.S. Presidential election.”

Comer went on to describe what his committee is doing to combat China’s infiltration efforts.

“[W]e also know that they’re spying on our military bases, and we’ve launched an investigation,” he explained. “We’re trying to learn every detail of how deep their spy rings go, how deep their theft rings go, as well as passing legislation. [O]ur committee yesterday [passed] the BIOSECURE Act, which targeted five Chinese companies that the United States can no longer do business with because they take our genetic data and our health care data and use it against us.”

As reported by the South China Morning Post, the bill was passed out of committee with almost unanimous bipartisan support. The legislation would restrict federal agencies from contracting with the Chinese biotech companies BGI Group, MGI, Complete Genomics, Wuxi AppTec, and Wuxi Biologics. As noted by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), BGI has been accused of “using DNA from millions around the world without their consent on genomic projects conducted by the Chinese military.” In addition, Wuxi AppTec allegedly stole the intellectual property of U.S. companies and ran genetic testing centers “in cooperation with the Chinese military.”

Despite the increasingly malicious activity directed at the U.S. by the CCP, Comer expressed profound disappointment in the performance and lack of initiative of the intelligence agencies under the Biden administration with regard to the threat.

“Right now, I have absolutely no confidence in our intelligence community whatsoever,” he emphasized. “… [W]hen they give a classified briefing to Congress, if you write that down and wait, their predictions never seem to happen. They’re always wrong in a lot of big things. … [W]ith respect to China, there’s no government plan right now to educate the heads of government cabinets, much less the heads of government departments and divisions as to what to look for, to realize when China has infiltrated your data system or when China has hacked into some type of computer program, or where China may have some employees that are there spying and taking sensitive or even classified information back to the CCP for China.”

Comer further highlighted the dangers of the U.S.’s growing financial dependence on China.

“[China] owns a lot of our debt,” he observed. “And one of the strategies that China uses in third world countries — and I fear that they may already be implementing this strategy in the United States — is a thing called ‘debt trap strategy,’ where they loan countries money on certain infrastructure projects … knowing they will never be able to pay it back. And then, like a bank, they go in and foreclose on that asset. … [A]nytime Joe Biden has a program to pay off student loan debt or has another stimulus program or … gives money to Ukraine, we’re borrowing from China, and I fear that in the back of China’s mind, they realize the United States is going to be just like some of these African [and] South American countries [who are] never going to be able to pay it back.”

“As Scripture says, we don’t want to be indebted because the borrower is slave to the lender,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins remarked.

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. ©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.

Citizenship Application Now Allows for ‘X’ Gender Designation

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The Biden administration is allowing immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship to identify as an “X” gender on their paperwork. U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Monday that, effective immediately, immigrants applying for naturalization may pick “male,” “female,” or “X” as their gender, denoting “Another Gender Identity.”

Furthermore, applicants do not need to provide any supporting documentation in order to select an “X” gender. “You do not need to provide supporting documentation to select X as your gender initially or to change your gender selection for Form N-400,” USCIS stated. “The gender you select does not need to match the gender listed on your other immigration documents or on supporting identity documents, such as your birth certificate, passport, or state identification.”

“Historically, USCIS forms and associated documents have only offered two gender options: ‘Male (M)’ and ‘Female (F),’” the USCIS announcement explained. “This has created significant barriers for requestors who do not identify with either of those options.” The agency cited the example of other federal agencies, such as the U.S. State Department, which have allowed for a self-identified “X” gender on official documents as justification for its decision.

The agency advised, “Form N-400 is the only USCIS form that offers the X gender option at this time. Therefore, until we complete additional form revisions that add the X gender option, naturalization certificates are the only USCIS-issued secure identity documents that can reflect the gender X.” Form N-565, a request for a replacement naturalization or citizenship document, is reportedly still being revised to include an “X” gender option. Those who have filed an N-400 form which is still pending need only contact USCIS to request a change to “X.”

USCIS also updated guidelines in its Policy Manual to reflect the new gender option available, adding that there will be “other forthcoming form revisions that will add a third gender option…”

Referring to the death of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) posted on social media, “I’m sure Laken Riley’s family is relieved to know that immigrants can now register as ‘Gender X.’” He added, “Biden’s Department of Homeland Security is too busy implementing woke DEI gender policies to protect Americans and secure the border. … Close the border.”

The USCIS decision follows similar moves by other federal agencies, most notably the State Department. In 2022, Biden’s State Department announced it was adding “X” gender marker options to U.S. passports, a decision explicitly cited by USCIS in its own announcement. Additionally, the State Department has spent its time issuing warnings to staffers about “misgendering,” funding training programs for LGBT “allies,” and endorsing LGBT “Pride” events across the globe.

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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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.

General: Afghanistan Withdrawal Enhanced New Terror Threat to America

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Resurgent Islamist terrorism poses a threat to the U.S. homeland, experts warned after a deadly attack in Moscow. “The deadly attack … has raised concerns that the terrorist group could potentially move to carrying out attacks in Europe and even here in the United States,” Family Research Council Action President Jody Hice summarized on “Washington Watch” Monday.

On March 22, terrorists armed with rifles, pistols, and knives opened fire at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow and lit fires that caused the roof to collapse, killing more than 100 concertgoers and injuring more than 500. Russian authorities have charged four men from Tajikistan with terrorism in the attack, for which the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) has taken credit.

General Erik Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, recently warned that ISIS-K “retains the capability and the will to attack U.S. and Western interests abroad in as little as six months with little to no warning.”

ISIS-K’s Rapid Expansion

ISIS-K “morphed from a series of radical groups that were in eastern Syria [and] northern Iraq years ago, during the Obama administration,” Lt. Col. (Ret.) Robert Maginnis explained on “Washington Watch” Monday. During the Trump administration, a U.S.-led coalition dismantled the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but not before its radical jihadis “spread elsewhere in the Middle East all the way to Afghanistan,” said Maginnis. Additionally, “they have tentacles not only in Central Asia, but all the way to northern and central Africa.”

The ISIS offshoot is “as radical an Islamic group as we’ve ever seen,” Maginnis described, to the point that they target other Islamists for their alleged compromises. Not only is ISIS-K “in contest with al-Qaeda and the Taliban,” as Maginnis said, but they have also attacked neighboring Muslim countries. In 2023, ISIS-K killed more than 60 people by bombing a political rally in Pakistan, and two ISIS-K suicide bombers killed 90 and injured more than 200 Iranians in January.

“They’ve got tentacles located in places like Tajikistan to the north … where the four suspects that were involved in the Moscow attack on the 22nd of March came from,” Maginnis continued. “One of the reasons I suspect they went after the Muscovites was because of the Chechnya battle that claimed tens of thousands of Muslim lives in 1990, but also because of the history of the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.”

ISIS-K’s Deadly Tactics

From suicide bombings and assassinations directed primarily at the Taliban, ISIS-K “has grown more ambitious and aggressive,” according to Clemson University professor Amira Jadoon, launching an international, “multilingual propaganda campaign and expanding the types of attacks it conducts.” The Moscow terror attack is among ISIS-K’s deadliest and most hazardous operations to date.

“They’re a very vicious group of people, very radicalized with their radical version of Islamic faith,” Maginnis noted. “They’ve always had, like al-Qaeda, an interest in using weapons of mass destruction (WMD): chemical, biological, radiological instruments. … These things are very, very serious.”

Maginnis added that ISIS-K “would do everything they can to come to this country.” Even if they couldn’t bring a WMD to the U.S., he suggested they might “attack a nuclear facility, or they would let off some sort of bomb near a chemical site that would have a mass casualty impact.”

U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan

Terror attacks perpetrated by ISIS-K have already resulted in the deaths of American citizens. This group was responsible for the 2021 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, which resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. servicemembers, among nearly 200 casualties. That terror attack occurred amid the chaos of America’s precipitous withdrawal from the country.

In fact, Maginnis said the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan is one reason why ISIS-K has expanded its reach. “With our departure, they had not only more equipment that the Taliban didn’t claim, but also more freedom of navigation,” he said.

General Frank McKenzie, former head of U.S. Central Command, offered a substantially similar analysis Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “The threat is growing. It began to grow as soon as we left Afghanistan and took pressure off ISIS-K,” he warned. “We should expect further attempts of this nature against the United States as well as our partners and other nations abroad.”

U.S. Vulnerability to Attack

To Maginnis, this expectation of a radical Islamist terror attack heightens the urgency of securing the southern border. “With the open southern border, we’ve had many, many people that have crossed over that don’t have our best interests in mind,” he said. Even more concerning, many illegal border crossers evaded capture, leaving U.S. authorities “totally clueless on who they are, what their intentions are,” Hice added. “You would think those who sneak in … [are] probably here for nefarious reasons.”

ISIS-K “has a strong desire to attack our homeland. We should believe them when they say that they’re going to try to do it,” McKenzie declared. Maginnis agreed. “They would like to attack the ‘Great Satan,’ the United States, and will do everything possible to do that.”

Maginnis predicted that “there will be an effort by ISIS-K, which likely already has a number of its terrorists deeply embedded in the United States.” These terrorists “would like to use any mechanism of terror that they could,” he concluded. “There’s no doubt we’re vulnerable.”

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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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.

House Launches Broad Probe into China’s Infiltration of U.S.

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On Thursday, the House Oversight Committee announced the launch of a wide-ranging investigation into the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) efforts to infiltrate “every sector and community” in the U.S.

The probe, which has the stated objective to “thwart the CCP’s political and economic warfare campaign,” is being initiated with letters sent to nine different federal agencies requesting reports on what the agencies are doing to counter the communist regime’s efforts, along with how the agencies are coordinating their efforts with each other.

“Without firing a single bullet, the Chinese Communist Party is waging war against the U.S. by targeting, influencing, and infiltrating every economic sector and community in America,” Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) stated. “The lives and security of all Americans are affected. The Oversight Committee has a responsibility to ensure the federal government is taking every action necessary to protect Americans from the CCP’s ongoing political warfare.”

The sectors that the investigation will focus on include education, agriculture, critical infrastructure, research, energy, business, space, and technology. Examples of the CCP’s incursion into these sectors have been making headlines for decades. Here are some recent examples in each sector.

Education: Almost 150 U.S. K-12 schools have been linked to “Confucius Classrooms” which attempt to spread communist propaganda. In higher education, “Confucius Institutes” (which have now been rebranded but have the same communist goal) have popped up in dozens of American universities. In addition, the regime has given over $426 million to U.S. universities since 2011, which experts say has led to increasing influence behind closed doors.

Agriculture: Chinese companies have purchased hundreds of thousands of acres of American farmland, some of which are near U.S. military installations.

Infrastructure: The Chinese government is attempting to “covertly plant offensive malware inside U.S. critical infrastructure networks,” which is currently at “a scale greater than we’d seen before,” according to a report from FBI Director Christopher Wray in February.

Research and Technology: The CCP’s efforts to steal American scientific research and technology are well documented. Comer wrote to the National Science Foundation noting that the regime’s efforts to steal and influence research “takes a holistic approach and includes covert and legal means” and that it is attempting to weaponize “U.S.-backed research and technology for uses that are contrary to U.S. national security and competitiveness.”

Energy: In a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Comer writes that the CCP has “successfully pressured U.S. environmental players and industries into adopting initiatives that plainly benefit China at great costs to American businesses and consumers.”

Business: China’s influence over corporate America was illustrated quite clearly recently when a room full of U.S. corporate executives gave Chinese President Xi Jinping multiple standing ovations in his visit to the U.S. last November. Comer also noted the CCP’s efforts to launder money through America’s real estate and casino industries. “These activities allow the CCP to engage in corporate espionage, feed the fentanyl crisis in the U.S., influence our nation’s schools and culture, and otherwise advance destructive goals on American soil,” he wrote in a letter to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Space: As previously reported, the regime is currently pursuing “a ‘space coercion’ strategy that includes the use of both ground-based missiles ‘capable of hitting satellites orbiting at all altitudes,’ as well as orbital missiles — including nuclear warheads.” Comer argued in a letter to NASA that China’s space program should be “properly understood for what it is: an arm of its military, the People’s Liberation Army.”

Many other threats to the U.S. posed by the CCP abound, such as a massive influx of Chinese nationals of military age being apprehended at the southern border, balloon surveillance, the discovery of CCP “police stations” in U.S. cities, and the discovery of a suspicious biolab with ties to China in California. In a letter to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Comer also voiced concern over the CCP engaging in “chemical warfare seeking to poison America with fentanyl, and how the Drug Enforcement Agency is responding.” Reports indicate that “nearly all the precursor chemicals that are needed to make fentanyl come from China.”

In a press release announcing the House investigation, Comer concluded, “Actions taken by the Committee today are just the beginning and I look forward to full cooperation from agencies as we work to thwart China’s efforts to influence and infiltrate the United States of America.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, ChinaAid Founder and President of Bob Fu stated, “It is indeed way overdue for the American people and government across the political spectrum to pay close attention and take an all of society approach to address the serious threat of the CCP’s well designed, decades in the making, comprehensive infiltration effort with unlimited warfare strategy.”

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. ©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.

China Funnels Machine Gun Parts into U.S. while Expanding Space Weapon Arsenal

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A new book has revealed that the Chinese government is inundating the U.S. with illegal gun parts that transform handguns into fully automatic machine guns as part of a strategy to create chaos within America. The news comes as a report has surfaced indicating that the communist regime is pursuing a plan to use weapons in space to threaten U.S. satellites.

On Monday, Breitbart revealed that a new book by Senior Contributor Peter Schweizer details how Chinese manufacturers, under the watchful eye of the regime, are shipping “thousands” of boxes of illicit “auto sear switches” to America, which are small metal devices that can convert semi-automatic handguns into fully automatic machine gun-style weapons. The devices are illegal for virtually all gun owners in the U.S.

As Schweizer argues in “Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans,” the auto switch shipments are part of the regime’s “Disintegration Warfare” strategy, which seeks to undermine the U.S.’s “national will, values, and cohesion” by flooding the black market with the devices, which then fall into the hands of criminals, gangs, and drug dealers.

After U.S. authorities began discovering and blocking direct shipments of the switches from China, Schweizer observes that the porous southern border resulting from the Biden administration’s lax policies is aiding China’s efforts to get the switches into the U.S. via Mexico, just as the crisis is also aiding the distribution of Chinese-manufactured fentanyl. In recent years, the number of switches seized by law enforcement rose “570% during a period of 2017 to 2021, compared to the previous five years.”

Illegal auto switches aren’t the only illicit gun parts making their way into the U.S. via China, Schweizer writes. He reported that a “huge influx” of firearm suppressors, or “silencers,” began to hit America beginning in 2019. “[C]landestinely imported Chinese suppressors enabled criminal gangs and drug cartels in America to get around those requirements and buy them in large quantities,” he wrote. “And over the next three years, federal officials traced an astonishing 42,888 suppressors arriving from China. Those were only the devices they traced. How many more got through?”

Despite the high volume of illegal gun parts originating from China ending up on the streets of the U.S., Schweizer noted that the Biden administration and congressional lawmakers have been curiously silent on the topic. “President Biden has pressed for gun restrictions on ordinary Americans but has never publicly discussed this problem,” he writes, nor has Biden brought up the issue with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping during his recent visits. Similarly, a bill introduced by 11 senators to restrict the switches did not propose any action against China, nor did Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) in their 2021 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland expressing alarm over the switches.

Similarly, lawmakers have so far not expressed alarm over a Washington Times report published Monday that China is pursuing deploying weapons in space that threaten American satellites, including a nuclear warhead that currently orbits the Earth. The lack of reaction stands in stark contrast to what occurred two weeks ago with the uproar surrounding reports of Russia’s intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space.

The Washington Times story, based off of a U.S. Air Force think tank report, details how the Chinese military has adopted a “space coercion” strategy that includes the use of both ground-based missiles “capable of hitting satellites orbiting at all altitudes,” as well as orbital missiles — including nuclear warheads — which would target “reconnaissance and early warning systems, communication hubs, and command centers; logistics systems, military-industrial bases, electric power and energy systems, and other infrastructure; and counter-force targets, including missile positions, airfields, naval bases, nuclear bases, and information warfare installations.”

While reducing conventional U.S. military power, the report notes that the biggest threat of China’s “space coercion” strategy would be its ability to undermine U.S. nuclear deterrence through a precision-strike nuclear warhead “backed by spaced-based intelligence and tracking,” which would give China’s military “a greater ability to track, target and attack American nuclear forces.”

In addition, the strategy calls for non-nuclear “electronic warfare strikes against satellites, radars, and communications nodes and computer network attacks.” These “[k]inetic attacks would be conducted suddenly, used in short duration, and limited,” according to the report.

During testimony before the House in January, FBI Director Christopher Wray gave a succinct summary of the threat he believes the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) poses to the U.S. “The CCP’s dangerous actions — China’s multi-pronged assault on our national and economic security — make it the defining threat of our generation.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED VIDEO: Exposing Chinese Organized Crime Rings Operating in Maine | TIPPING POINT

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.

The TikTok Tussle of Concerns and Legislation

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The TikTok Tussle of Concerns and Legislation

BY SUZANNE HARP

Currently, the TikTok ban debate is swirling through the USA and raising concerns about national security and parental frets. Like vigilant conductors, the concerned moms lead the chorus against TikTok’s potential negative influence on their children.

The composition includes worries about inappropriate content, age appropriateness, psychological impact, behavior influence, and safety, as well as the content maestros at TikTok potentially exposing their little ones to unsuitable tunes. Indeed, on the parental front, it is the age-old melody of parental anxiety that echoes, questioning the appropriateness of content and its potential influence on the impressionable minds of children.

A trio of lawmakers is tuning their instruments to legislate a ban on TikTok. The proposed bill to ban TikTok, known as the RESTRICT Act, aims to prevent transactions with social media giants from countries deemed foreign adversaries. The bill seeks to empower the Secretary of Commerce to decide which technologies Americans can or cannot access, and it could potentially exempt lawmakers from providing details about their decision process.

A new movement begins as lawmakers draft legislation forcing app owners to disclose ownership information. Transparency becomes the critical refrain, potentially harmonizing trust among users and attracting a larger audience to the app.

In the ongoing symphony of the TikTok debate, the security movement takes the lead, orchestrating concerns about data safeguarding from the Chinese government. The FBI has also raised the curtain on national security concerns surrounding TikTok’s U.S. operations. The potential for the Chinese government to sway American users or gain control over their devices is immense. FBI warnings give rise to apprehensions about data collection, algorithm manipulation, and the ominous prospect of device compromise on a massive scale.

The ability to compel data sharing upon request and concerns about gathering intellectual property and personal data add a dissonant note to the melody. TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, acknowledges a potential breach in fortifying U.S. user data by allowing non-U.S. employees access – a revelation that resonates like a haunting refrain.

However, there are several legal and constitutional challenges to this bill. The First Amendment protects American freedom of speech, and the Berman Amendment restricts the President’s power to regulate or forbid the free flow of information in and out of the country. These laws make banning TikTok for all American citizens an unconstitutional decision. Another critical point is who owns the data garnished from these apps or any other platform? I strongly believe Congress should pass laws or a Data Bill of Rights into the constitution as inherent no different than our identity or image.

Moreover, the RESTRICT Act could be used to challenge these constitutional protections. It would require any ban to be justified by a significant governmental interest and would have to be narrowly tailored to address that interest. This means that ByteDance, the Chinese-based company that owns TikTok, could easily challenge a possible ban in court on constitutional grounds.

China’s National Intelligence Law, a law with an absolute stance on supporting national intelligence efforts, injects an element of suspense. Skepticism surrounds the law’s potential for punishment, raising questions about the compliance dance that foreign and domestic firms may be forced to perform.

The symphony turns unexpectedly as critics argue that the data issue is merely a prelude. The genuine concern lies in TikTok’s potential to manipulate opinions, a potential front-runner in controlling political discourse. The platform’s influence on shaping public sentiment becomes a haunting refrain in the minds of skeptics.

The accusation that TikTok allows access to American data, including sensitive biometrics, heightens the concerns about national security. The risks posed to individual privacy and the broader national security landscape amplify the circumstances surrounding this digital symphony.

Amidst the security overture, proposed legislation emerges as a regulatory intermezzo, introducing potential impacts on app owners and their operations. This legislative sonata could reshape the tech industry’s landscape in significant ways.

The curtain rises on the Increased Transparency Act. App owners may need to pull back the curtains on their ownership structures and operational bases, creating a more transparent tech industry. This shift could harmonize trust among users, potentially attracting a larger audience to the app.

The demand for increased regulatory compliance will only increase, and due to this, App owners may find themselves at the center of this regulatory maelstrom, necessitating robust data security measures and policy updates and potentially altering their business models. Like echoes through the concert hall, the impacts could be felt across financial, operational, and strategic dimensions.

The concerns and legislation continue as the TikTok turmoil reaches its zenith, leaving audiences anticipating the final movement. Will the security overture find a resolution, or will the discord persist, impacting the digital stage? Only time will tell as this intricate symphony unfolds its final notes.

ABOUT SUZANNE HARP

Suzanne Harp (Republican Party) candidate for election to the U.S. House to represent Texas’ 3rd Congressional District. She declared her candidacy for the Republican primary scheduled on March 5, 2024.

©2023. . All rights reserved.

Border Patrol Calls In Reinforcements To Help Area Overwhelmed By Migrants

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Border Patrol called in reinforcements to help as agents grow increasingly overwhelmed by migrants in an area of southern Arizona, according to an internal Sunday message to agency officials obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Border Patrol agents from the Douglas, Arizona, station are being called up to help agents at the Tucson migrant processing center, which temporarily holds migrants who illegally cross the border. Border Patrol has roughly 4,600 illegal migrants in custody as of Sunday evening in all of the Tucson sector compared to nearly 20,000 nationwide, two Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, told the DCNF.

The agents in Douglas are being called up for “processing and transportation support,” according to the memo. The assignments will also entail sending specialized units, such as horse patrols, and manning sensors for illegal aliens running from law enforcement.

“Until further notice, all specialty units (Sensors, HPU, BCL) will report to the Douglas Station and attend musters on their scheduled shifts,” the memo reads. “HPU will maintain one agent to care for the horses, but all others will be deployed as needed by the Watch Commander.”

The situation in the Tucson sector has become so dire that the Tucson Border Patrol announced Sunday it was temporarily shutting down its social media.

“At this time, all available personnel are needed to address the unprecedented flow,” John Modlin, Chief Patrol Agent of the Tucson Sector, tweeted late Sunday. “The social media team will return once the situation permits.”

Border Patrol has recorded record illegal immigration at the southern border in recent years. In fiscal year 2022, Border Patrol encounters topped 2.2 million, followed by more than 2 million in fiscal year 2023.

“This is embarrassing,” one of the DHS officials said, adding that the blame is on the Biden administration.

“Everybody is getting pulled off the line for processing,” the official added.

CBP didn’t immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

JENNIE TAER

Investigative reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Illegal Chinese Pot Grows Are Taking Over Rural Blue State And Law Enforcement Isn’t Stopping Them

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©2023. All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

7 Lies, Distortions, or Abominations in Joe Biden’s 9/11 Speech

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On the 22nd anniversary of 9/11, Joe Biden once again made history for all the wrong reasons — ignoring grieving families, lying to U.S. soldiers, and attempting to cut a plea bargain with terrorist masterminds while sending billions of dollars to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Here are seven examples:

1. Location

Joe Biden became the first president not to take part in ceremonies in one of the three cities associated with the 9/11 attacks: New York City; Washington, D.C.; or Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Instead, he spoke at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a location his remarks attempted to tie to the attacks. Add Biden — whom NBC News dubbed the “consoler-in-chief” — skipping this 9/11 memorial to his historic firsts of admitting the most illegal immigrants into the United States ever and the highest number of Americans to die of drug overdoses (problems which are correlated), and it paints the picture of a president who does not care about U.S. citizens or their losses.

His handlers blamed a scheduling conflict for Biden’s whereabouts — but who sets the president’s schedule? In any previous administration, the question would be rhetorical. Biden, or his handlers, felt it more important for the president to attend the G-20 Summit in India (or “the G7,” as Biden called it), followed by a trip to Vietnam — conveniently putting a younger, more “diverse” Democrat center stage during the event. (Biden’s disastrous performance at his Vietnam press conference may explain why.) Still, the president’s absence seemed anomalous enough that Biden felt required to explain the trip constituted “an essential part of how we’re going to assure the United States is flanked by the broadest array of partners and allies who will stand with us and deter any threat to our security.” If Biden thinks Vietnam will send troops to defend the United States, much less join a future U.S.-led nation-building exercise, he’s delusional — which may explain…

2. Joe Biden Lied about His Location on September 12, 2001

During his speech, Biden shared vividly invented memories of “Ground Zero in New York — I remember standing there the next day and looking at the building. I felt like I was looking through the gates of Hell, it looked so devastated.” In reality, video footage proves that Joe Biden attended a session of the Senate in Washington, D.C., on September 12, 2001. But self-aggrandizing fables hardly surprise coming from Joe Biden, who has embellished his past more than anyone since Walter Mitty. He also falsely “remembered” being “shot at” during a trip to Iraq (a shot landed outside his hotel) and searching for Osama bin Laden over “the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan where my helicopter was forced down” (due to a snowstorm), as well as being arrested in the 1980s while trying to meet future South African President Nelson Mandela (they met in 1990 in the Senate Foreign Relations executive committee room), taking part in sit-ins in the 1960s, meeting with members of the Tree of Life Synagogue after a mass shooting, and presiding over an America thriving due to Bidenomics.

3. Biden Praises the Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden — Which He Opposed

During his remarks, Biden tied himself to “heroes like the 9/11 generation … who followed Osama bin Laden to the ends of the earth and ultimately send him to the gates of Hell 12 years ago. And then last year, I made the decision to take out [Ayman al-]Zawahiri, the number two, who met the same fate.”

But Joe Biden opposed the mission that killed Osama bin Laden, as he boasted to an audience in 2012. Once again, video footage captures Biden telling a different audience a different tale:

“The president, he went around the table with all the senior people, including the Chiefs of Staff. And he said, ‘I have to make this decision. What is your opinion?’ He started with the National Security adviser, the Secretary of State, and he ended with me. Every single person in that room hedged their bet, except Leon Panetta; Leon said, ‘Go!’ Everyone else said ‘49/51,’ this …

“It got to me. He said, “Joe what do you think?” And I said, ‘Ya know, I didn’t know we have so many economists around the table. We owe the man a direct answer. Mr. President, my suggestion is don’t go. We have to do two more things to see if he’s there.’ He walked out, and he said, ‘I’ll give you my decision.’” (Emphasis added.)

Barack Obama dithered for 16 hours while the military waited for his decision. The Navy’s SEAL Team 6 succeeded in raiding bin Laden’s compound on May 2, 2011. Then-Vice President Biden blurted out that Navy SEALs killed the terrorist mastermind at a Washington dinner one day later. That August 6, a Taliban RPG blew up a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan, killing 38 U.S. soldiers, including 17 members of SEAL Team 6. “In releasing their identity, [the Obama-Biden administration] put a target on their backs,” said the father of one of the soldiers killed that day.

4. Biden Seeks a Plea Bargain to Spare 9/11 Masterminds the Death Penalty

Just weeks before the speech, the Biden administration quietly initiated proceedings to cut a deal that would spare the death penalty for the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and four other co-conspirators currently held at Guantanamo Bay. The families of 9/11 victims expressed outrage that they learned of the impending plea deal in “a form letter.” Sparing the terrorists a trial would suppress “information that no doubt would shed light on the identity of the 9/11 conspirators — secret and hidden — not only from the 9/11 families but from the American public.” Even now, as U.S. officials have just identified two more of the victims at the Twin Towers, the Biden administration seeks to conceal the identity of its perpetrators.

5. Biden Gave $6 Billion to Iran on 9/11

As Biden rhetorically crusaded against terrorism from a military base, his administration released billions of dollars to the leading state sponsor of terrorism. Under the terms of an agreement announced last month, Biden transferred $6 billion and five imprisoned Iranian assets in exchange for five American prisoners. Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, notified Congress he had authorized the payment on 9/11.

“We used to call funding a terror state an act of treason,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). No one denies Iran remains the global leader in terror sponsorship — including the Biden administration. “Designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1984, Iran continued its support for terrorist-related activity in 2021, including support for Hizballah, Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, and various terrorist and militant groups in Iraq, Syria, Bahrain, and elsewhere throughout the Middle East,” according to the most recent terrorist report from Biden’s State Department.

Iran’s terrorism barely outdates Joe Biden’s desire to send the Ayatollah U.S. taxpayers’ dollars. Biden also wanted to send Iran a check for $200 million with “no strings attached” immediately after 9/11/2001 to prove America’s goodwill. The New Republic reported in October 2001:

America needs to show the Arab world that we’re not bent on its destruction. “Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran,” Biden declares. He surveys the table with raised eyebrows, a How do ya like that? look on his face.

The Obama-Biden administration went on to give Iran $1.7 billion in 2016.

6. Biden Boasts of Protecting the Troops

During his remarks, Biden reassured the troops, “I will never hesitate to do what is necessary to defend the American people, just as I will never forget our sacred duty to those of you who serve.” Can anyone believe Joe Biden will protect Americans from another Taliban attack when his precipitous withdrawal abandoned possibly thousands of U.S. citizens to the Taliban’s tender mercies, and left soldiers so vulnerable that a suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. servicemembers? The Taliban incorporated numerous terrorists into its newly minted government — much as the Obama-Biden administration’s unconstitutional war put al-Qaeda affiliates in charge of Libya and its machinations installed a regime favorable to the Muslim Brotherhood, the fundamentalist group where Osama bin Laden met Ayman al-Zawahiri, in Egypt.

Yet the Biden administration seemed more interested in firing the Marine who criticized the collapse of Kabul, Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, than the political advisers who engineered it.

To the extent Biden intends to keep a “sacred duty,” he certainly defines it differently than any of his predecessors: Pentagon spokesman John Kirby called funding abortion-related travel the “foundational, sacred obligation of military leaders.”

7. Praising ‘National Unity’ while Sowing Division

As the bipolar Biden administration frequently does, Biden mouthed the right words about “national unity” — fluffy phrases that belie his dedication to Balkanization, division, and enacting a racial spoils system for his supporters while demonizing, surveilling, and imprisoning his political opponents. Biden waxed nostalgic that after 9/11, “American flags sold out in every store and were placed in front of seemingly every home. … This day reminds us we must never lose that sense of national unity, so let that be the common cause of our time.” Americans must resist being “pulled apart by petty, manufactured grievances” inflamed by “the poisonous politics of difference and division.”

Such inspiring words make one wonder if the president remembers his “Dark Brandon” speech, flanked by soldiers, in which he denounced his political opponents as an existential threat to American survival in front of a black-and-red colored Constitution Hall. That speech flowed more naturally from the Biden administration, which has placed intersectionality and “equity” at “the center” of a “whole-of-government” plan to redistribute wealth and respect toward solidly Democratic-leaning voting blocs.

One need look no further than actions taken by Biden’s Department of Homeland Security last week — again, on the eve of 9/11. The DHS doled out Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention grants, which are intended “to prevent targeted violence and terrorism,” to:

  • The Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League ($530,000) to provide “in-school” indoctrination “for LGBTQ+ youth ages 6-24” in D.C.-area schools. (You can read the details here.);
  • American University’s Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab, or PERIL ($784,276), for “teaching children in grades K-5 how to recognize harmful online content.” PERIL (get it?) partners with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, the pro-gun control Everytown for Gun Safety, and the Anti-Defamation League. To “prevent radicalization,” PERIL encourages teachers to have “classroom conversations” about “the Movement for Black Lives and protests against systemic police brutality, to the far-right insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th.” PERIL’s leader, MSNBC columnist Cynthia Miller-Idriss, also claims that young people who “are more committed to a kind of gun culture also have higher scores on racial resentment and male supremacist ideas” and worries that Americans might be “easily persuaded by false information … about why they need a gun”;
  • Boston Children’s Hospital ($820,990), which carries out transgender surgeries on children as young as 13, to train mental health practitioners how to identify and deal with people allegedly at “risk for targeted violence and terrorism”;
  • University of North Dakota ($386,682.78) for an “educational module [that] expands understanding of Indigenous culture”;
  • Columbia University ($820,332) to develop “an interactive program focused on storytelling”; and
  • Michigan State Police Michigan Intelligence Operations Center ($425,485) to “raise awareness of how the community can identify and properly refer individuals who may demonstrate behaviors that suggest they may be going down a path toward violence.” This comes after investigators exposed an alleged kidnapping plot targeting Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D), creeping with allegations of entrapment involving more than a dozen FBI agents or informants.

Such “anti-terrorism” grants seem more intended to target the soldiers Biden addressed than Osama bin Laden’s spiritual progeny.

Taken together, the picture of Joe Biden that emerges is one of an exhausted vessel shafted by his handlers, whose decades of foreign policy experience have created a more dangerous world — and whose victims will receive either his animus or indifference.

AUTHOR

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

RELATED ARTICLE: Biden Admin Violated Americans’ Free Speech Rights during Pandemic, 5th Circuit Rules

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.

Drone Video of Illegal Aliens on Rio Grande Setting up Camps Before Biden Ended Title 42

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I wish to thank the Texas Department of Public Safety for the drone footage contained in the below article. May I further thank each and every law enforcement officer, National Guardsman and fireman/medic standing post along what use to be America’s southern Border. The southern Border of the United States which helps define the national sovereignty of this exceptional nation, has, by all accounts, collapsed. This has been the plan, written and spoken about by Obama when he declared that he would “forever change America.” The well-stated and written plan is to collapse the United States into the New-World Order, a global community where nations no longer have sovereign status but are part and parcel of the global community which is divided into ten regions world wide.

Not only are approximately 1 million illegals from 160 countries coming into America commencing with the abolishment of Title 42, but you need to add the approximate 6 million illegals already here. These numbers are law enforcement and threat assessment close working estimates, minus the “get aways” who could not be interdicted, recorded, checked or even detained. It is well known that hardened criminals and gang members along with military age Chinese males have made their way across the border already, NOT counting what is now crossing. The danger being allowed into America is beyond comprehension. May 6th at the Douglas, Arizona border crossing, US Customs discovered and IED (explosive device) being smuggled into our country. Cartels and Chinese military have been sending weapons and munitions for many months securing them in storage lockers at various locations across America.

Another dimension not even discussed is the medical crisis looming. My national show ARIZONA TODAY will have a presentation on this sobering and alarming dimension shortly. I already did two shows on this subject, but as I write this report one of my nationally recognized medical specialists contacted me with updated medical concerns of a serious nature now landing on our lands.

Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and each elected office holder who has not vigorously fought to protect and defend the sovereignty of the United States should be impeached or arrested for treason. Deliberately, publicly and consistently pushing to weaken our national sovereignty is a High Crime and Misdemeanor – Treason as outlined in our Constitution. Such acts are far and above political rhetoric or grandstanding. Very shortly, within days even, Americans will witness, firsthand, the effects of said treason as 1 million pour into America. Do your very best to get ready…an ugly human tidal wave is about to become reality, and quite possibly in your city or community as they are deliberately transported across America, especially into historically conservative communities and regions. That is the well thought out plan to bring disruption and even chaos to America.

Drone footage shows makeshift camps built along Rio Grande by migrants waiting for Title 42 to end

Drone footage taken along Rio Grande, the river that serves as the natural border between most of Mexico and the United States, shows sprawling tent encampments stretching out all over the border.

Hundreds of people reside in a massive camp made of tents and other dwellings with thin blue plastic sheets acting as roofs right outside of Brownsville, near the southern tip of Texas. (Related: Thousands of migrants set to flood the US once Title 42 expires this week.)

The drone footage also shows an “enormous line” of illegal immigrants who recently crossed into Brownsville. Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, who shared the footage, noted that a large majority of the illegals are single adults.

“Nonstop flow of illegal crossings here in Brownsville. Working on scripts in my car and look at the window and see another large group gathering for processing after crossing over,” wrote Melugin on his Twitter account. “Border Patrol buses have been coming and going constantly. It’s going to be a very busy week.”

Brownsville is one of the key spots along the border where officials have noted that the illegal immigrants are congregating in the thousands in order to cross, with the other notable crossing points being El Paso, Texas and Yuma, Arizona. But similar situations are developing and getting worse all along the nearly 2,000 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.

[ … ]

Watch this clip of Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Lt. Chris Olivarez talking about the illegal crossings along the Rio Grande.

Read more.

©2023 Lyle J. Rapacki, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

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Trump’s Indictment Damages the U.S. in World Politics

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A fundamental aspect of politics is that domestic events impact international ones and the reverse.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen deserves praise for demonstrating that the House leadership stands with Taiwan. That is an important deterrent message to communist China as its leader, Xi Jinping, weighs his consideration of an attack against Taiwan.

Half a world away, New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg’s indictment of former President Donald Trump is another seemingly wholly domestic event. But it is not solely a domestic matter—it has major international consequences for U.S. global interests, its allies and partners, and its enemy, the Chinese regime.

The United States is a valuable ally for three reasons.

First, due to its power, it possesses the military, diplomatic, and economic might to advance the interests of allies and partners for security and prosperity.

Second, the United States is also respected and prized as an ally due to the health of the U.S. political system. Global allies and partners understand that the United States has been a reliable ally since it entered World War II in 1941.

To be sure, at times of domestic political turmoil, U.S. credibility has waned, as former President Richard Nixon’s fall due to Watergate emboldened China in 1974 to conquer from South Vietnam all of the Paracel Islands. A year later, it did the same for North Vietnam. Hanoi knew that the United States was paralyzed, and so it could conquer South Vietnam without fear of U.S. intervention to save Saigon.

The “fear of another Vietnam” hindered the U.S. response to the Cambodian genocide, the Angolan civil war, the Iranian Revolution, Somoza’s overthrow in Nicaragua, and support for El Salvador’s effort to defeat a communist insurgency. Most importantly, it aided the expansion of the Soviet Union and Soviet Bloc power in the Third World. In the 1980s, it also weakened Washington’s ability to support insurgents fighting Soviet-supported regimes.

Third, the United States is an example to the world due to its ideology and political culture. The Washington Consensus model of democratic governance, free market capitalism, and low levels of political and economic corruption serve as the template for developing states to follow, unites allied governments, and distinguishes the United States from its adversaries. Washington’s model for the world demonstrates that states can be democratic, prosperous, and stable—all of which provide better allies for the United States and better protection for human rights.

Thus, the U.S. example is important for the values that the country projects but also as a political lodestar. It is a force multiplier in ideological warfare with China. This is significant as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has realized that its grand strategic goal of dominance is hindered by the absence of a strategic narrative that will allow it to advance its ambitions while minimizing balancing and other forms of resistance against it. Beijing’s new strategic narrative, the “common destiny of mankind” or Xi’s Global Civilizational Initiative announced in March is intended to advance that aim and legitimize the CCP’s tyrannical surveillance state as the model for world governance. Thus, as it did during the Cold War, the world has two competing ideologies and worldviews.

Although these considerations were probably far from the minds of those who authorized the indictment of a former president, that act weakens that distinction and violates American principles and political culture. The world expects Xi to employ every means against his domestic political enemies. The United States is different. Its political culture did not allow current presidents to indict their political enemies, particularly a former and possible future president. Those who came close to violating this understanding—however indirectly like Nixon’s cover-up after the Watergate break-in—were disgraced and hounded from office.

The political culture and history of the United States forbade such an act. Now it seems possible, thus eroding important distinctions between the United States and most countries. U.S. political principles and culture are thus eroded. The distinction between the political systems and their respective claims to global leadership is not as sharp as before.

Through the indictment against a former president, the Biden administration has handed the CCP a weapon to expand its influence in international politics and challenge the position and legitimacy of liberal democracy in the minds of the Chinese people and others around the world.

The indictment and likely trial, and possible additional indictments in other cases in Georgia and by the Special Counsel for Trump Inquires, Jack Smith, have multifaceted domestic effects that will play out between now and the Republican Party nomination process, and if Trump is the nominee, to November 2024. Moreover, these events have myriad and adverse international ones. The great strength of the United States in its competition with communist China is that its ideology, political culture and values, rule of law, and respect for human rights stand in direct contrast to an odious and repressive regime that is the CCP.

No administration should be allowed to jeopardize U.S. values and global image. The Biden administration did this with a raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 and by not stopping the indictment. The administration just gave the CCP an unearned and undeserved victory in the ideological fight. The raid at Mar-a-Lago, the indictment against Trump, and his future trial, likely in January 2024, now have a life and legacy in global politics that is to the detriment of the United States and its allies in the struggle against the Chinese regime.

Originally published by the Epoch Times

AUTHOR

Bradley Thayer

Director of China Policy

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Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore  is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

EDITORS NOTE: This Center for Security Policy column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

House Unanimously Votes To Declassify COVID-19 Intelligence

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The House of Representatives unanimously voted Friday to declassify intelligence detailing the emergence of COVID-19.

All 215 present Republicans and all 204 present Democrats voted to pass Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s legislation, which previously passed the Senate by unanimous consent. The White House has not signaled whether or not President Joe Biden will sign the bill, but it passed both chambers by more than the two-thirds support necessary to override a presidential veto.

“Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the country with almost every household feeling its effects. The United States death toll from this virus has surpassed one million people. Although concrete data is hard to lock down, millions of people are suffering from the long-term effects directly attributed to this virus. It is becoming increasingly clear that school-aged children face hurdles because of long-term school closures. The American people need to know all the aspects, including how this virus was created and specifically, whether it was a natural occurrence of the result of a lab-related event,” House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Turner of Ohio said in a floor speech.

The U.S. intelligence community is split on whether or not COVID-19 leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Department of Energy recently concluded with “low confidence” that the virus emerged from WIV, joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its assessment. The FBI views a lab leak with “moderate confidence,” while four other intelligence agencies view natural spillover as the virus’ likely origin. Two agencies are undecided.

The Chinese embassy reached out to Hawley’s office Wednesday to object to his bill, asserting that its only purpose is to “politicize and stigmatize China.”

“The move by the U.S. Congress just shows that the U.S. is going further and further down the wrong path of political manipulation. The so-called traceability report by the U.S. intelligence agency is an attempt to ‘presume guilt’ on China. It is an attempt to shift the blame from its own failure to fight the epidemic to China,” government attorney Li Xiang wrote.

AUTHOR

MICHAEL GINSBERG

Congressional correspondent.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Question Isn’t if Biden Will Fund the Taliban, The Question is How Will He Fund the Taliban

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The question isn’t if Biden will fund the Taliban, the question is how will he fund the Taliban.

There’s a split on that with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan suggesting that US aid may go directly to the Taliban. (Whether it goes directly or indirectly, the Taliban will still unquestionably cash in.)

Sullivan also would not rule out giving the Taliban aid in the future. He said that the US will continue to provide humanitarian assistance “directly” to the Afghan people, which, he said, would not flow through the Taliban but through international institutions like the World Health Organization and other nongovernmental organizations.

But, going forward, aid to Afghanistan through the Taliban directly will be conditioned upon the Taliban’s behavior, including whether the remaining Americans are able to safely evacuate.

“That will be about the Taliban’s actions. It will be about whether they follow through on their commitments, their commitments to safe passage for Americans and Afghan allies, their commitment to not allow Afghanistan to be a base from which terrorists can attack the United States or any other country, their commitments with respect to upholding their international obligations. It’s going to be up to them. And we will wait and see by their actions how we end up responding in terms of the economic and development assistance,” he said.

Then it was Jen Psaki’s turn to insist that Sullivan hadn’t said what he had said.

Q    And then on — on the future aid to the Taliban that Jake Sullivan was talking about this morning.

MS. PSAKI:  Yeah.

Q    He said, when it comes to economic and development assistance, the relationship with the Taliban will be about Taliban actions.  Should we understand that to mean that economic and development assistance could translate to taxpayer money eventually going to the Taliban at some point?  I know that’s different from the humanitarian aid we’ve been talking about — the World Food Programme and things like that — but these specific references that Sullivan made this morning.

MS. PSAKI:  Well, I would — I would just go back to kind of the earlier question on this.  There’s an enormous amount of money they have at the federal — in the Federal Reserve — I shouldn’t say “they” — the government of Afghanistan has in the Federal Reserve, which they don’t have access to right now.  That’s actually their money that’s being held there.  So that’s one of the questions here.

There are also sanctions that are in place on a number of leaders.  Obviously, that prevents them from doing business in various parts of the world.  I think that’s really what Jake Sullivan was referring to.

That’s not what Sullivan was referring to since he mentioned “economic and development assistance”.

But few in the media bother calling out Psaki on her constant stream of lies.

Psaki calls the money in the Federal Reserve, “their money”. As I reported in, “Biden Tried to Send Pallets of Cash to the Taliban as Kabul Fell”, that’s not really accurate.

Ahmady estimates that $7 billion of DAB’s assets are being held by the Federal Reserve which includes the gold, the bills and bonds, $300 million in cash, and another $2.4 billion in World Bank funds for aiding developing countries.

A whole lot of money came from us in the first place.

The question is whether Biden is bargaining with the Taliban using the money we already had been giving to Afghanistan or whether he’s playing with new taxpayer monies.

As I wrote…

The Taliban were hoping to get their hands on Afghanistan’s money, but much of it is in the United States. The most tangible part of Afghanistan’s assets, $1.3 billion in gold, is sitting in downtown Manhattan, a little bit south of Ground Zero, in the vaults of the Federal Reserve. If there were any justice, that money would be used to compensate the police officers, firefighters, and workers who died on that day or later on from ailments related to 9/11.

COLUMN BY

DANIEL GREENFIELD

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.