2016: International Security Challenges & U.S.Preparedness

Thanks to The Hoover Institution.

FBI Director: The San Bernardino litigation is about the victims and justice.

FBI Director James Comey explained last night, in a blog post at Lawfare, why the FBI is involved in litigation over the cell phone usage of the San Bernardino terrorists.

Here's the whole post:

ENCRYPTION

We Could Not Look the Survivors in the Eye if We Did Not Follow this Lead

By James Comey Sunday, February 21, 2016, 9:03 PM

The San Bernardino litigation isn't about trying to set a precedent or send any kind of message. It is about the victims and justice. Fourteen people were slaughtered and many more had their lives and bodies ruined. We owe them a thorough and professional investigation under law. That's what this is. The American people should expect nothing less from the FBI.

The particular legal issue is actually quite narrow. The relief we seek is limited and its value increasingly obsolete because the technology continues to evolve. We simply want the chance, with a search warrant, to try to guess the terrorist's passcode without the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a decade to guess correctly. That's it. We don't want to break anyone's encryption or set a master key loose on the land. I hope thoughtful people will take the time to understand that. Maybe the phone holds the clue to finding more terrorists. Maybe it doesn’t. But we can't look the survivors in the eye, or ourselves in the mirror, if we don't follow this lead.  

Reflecting the context of this heart-breaking case, I hope folks will take a deep breath and stop saying the world is ending, but instead use that breath to talk to each other. Although this case is about the innocents attacked in San Bernardino, it does highlight that we have awesome new technology that creates a serious tension between two values we all treasure: privacy and safety. That tension should not be resolved by corporations that sell stuff for a living. It also should not be resolved by the FBI, which investigates for a living. It should be resolved by the American people deciding how we want to govern ourselves in a world we have never seen before. We shouldn't drift to a place—or be pushed to a place by the loudest voices—because finding the right place, the right balance, will matter to every American for a very long time.  

So I hope folks will remember what terrorists did to innocent Americans at a San Bernardino office gathering and why the FBI simply must do all we can under the law to investigate that. And in that sober spirit, I also hope all Americans will participate in the long conversation we must have about how to both embrace the technology we love and get the safety we need.

Obama vs Reagan "How to handle a terrorist".

Admiral James Lyons: Islam is Islam

Retired Admiral James Lyons, former Commander U. S. Pacific Fleet (1985-1987), speaks candidly in the below video about the problems we have been facing since the Iranian hostage debacle when then President Carter showed American weakness rather than strength to the Muslim world.  Interestingly, he paraphrases the quote of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan concerning Islam, which you can revisit HERE.

Here's the video (just click on the below link)

http://www.westernjournalism.com/military-expert-calls-congress-stop-infiltration-radical-islam-within-obama-administration/#vHuXBpxTUs0WTiQM.97

Words of Relevance: President Reagan on Foreign Policy Strategy

While the world struggles to learn something, anything, that will shed light on the foreign policy strategy of America's current administration, we should always remember there was no such ambiguity during the white house tenure of Ronald Reagan.  Characterized by intellectuals as overly simplistic, it nevertheless worked to perfection.  When asked to state his strategy on ending the cold war, President Reagan kept his reply short and, yes, simple.

Here's the quote:

“Here’s my strategy on the Cold War: We win; they lose.”

Words of Relevance: Presidents, Strong and Weak

John F. Kennedy gave the strongest speech of his young presidency in 1962 during The Cuban Missile Crisis.  You can read the whole speech Here.

After the disastrous "Bay of Pigs" affair, Kennedy's credibility was in need of repair, but there was no feeling on the part of the American public that his speech, or the plans he outlined that night, were in any way political or self-serving.  The speech was full of memorable lines, some very powerful.

Here's the quote:

"We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth; but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced...

"It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union."

Ronald Reagan gave one of the most memorable of his speeches at The Berlin Wall in 1987.  You can read the whole speech HERE.

One short admonition in that speech (written by Peter Robinson), was taken out and put back in by White House staff more than once, until finally President Reagan insisted that it stay in.

Here's the quote:

"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

(If the video doesn't appear, you can watch on YouTube by clicking the below link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1rtoP4l_yg&feature=player_embedded)

George W. Bush spoke to the crowd gathered at the site of the fallen World Trade Center Buildings, three days after that horrific event of 9/11.  Here's the video of his short impromptu speech that rallied that crowd and the rest of the nation, a nation of which he was proud to be the president.

Barack Obama spoke to the nation, on September 10, 2013, to outline his plan to address the situation in Syria.  You can read the whole speech HERE.  There were many memorable quotes from that speech.

Here are a few:

"So even though I possess the authority to order military strikes, I believed it was right, in the absence of a direct or imminent threat to our security, to take this debate to Congress...                                                                               

"My answer is simple: I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria. I will not pursue an open-ended action like Iraq or Afghanistan. I will not pursue a prolonged air campaign like Libya or Kosovo...                                           

"However, over the last few days, we’ve seen some encouraging signs. In part because of the credible threat of U.S. military action, as well as constructive talks that I had with President Putin, the Russian government has indicated a willingness to join with the international community in pushing Assad to give up his chemical weapons...                                                                            

"I have, therefore, asked the leaders of Congress to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force while we pursue this diplomatic path." 

            

Navy Seals: Osama and Benghazi

Romney's Military Advisory Council

Boston, MA
United States
Today, Romney for President announced its Military Advisory Council.

“I am deeply honored to have the support of so many of our most accomplished military leaders,” said Mitt Romney. “Together we will restore our military might and ensure that America can defend and protect our interests, our allies, and our people, both at home and abroad. I will never forget that the greatest responsibility of an American president is in exercising the role of commander-in-chief. That role is sacred, and when I am president, I will never put my own political interests ahead of our military and our men and women in uniform.”

“I’m proud to be supporting Mitt Romney in this critical election about our nation’s future,” said General Tommy Franks, USA (Ret.), Past Commander, U.S. Central Command. “Governor Romney is committed to restoring America’s leadership role in the world. Instead of playing politics with our military, he will strengthen our defense posture by reversing the President’s devastating defense cuts. The fact of the matter is that we cannot afford another four years of feckless foreign policy. We need level-headed leadership which will protect our interests and defend our values with clarity and without apology.”

“I consider the unprecedented national debt amongst the five greatest threats to the security of our great nation,” said General James Conway, USMC (Ret.), Past Commandant of the Marine Corps. “And yet, I see no indication the current administration, if re-elected, is intent on changing that trajectory.  Clearly Defense should bear a portion of the burden in order to regain control of our debt, but the idea of massive military cuts -- at a time of increased global instability—should not even be in the cards. As I listen to Mitt Romney, I am convinced that he 'gets it'.”


To see the most impressive list of former Admirals and Generals who enthusiastically support Mitt Romney for President, go HERE.

H/T: edscis

An Ignored Plea for Help

Lots of people have to answer for the Benghazi catastrophe, among them: Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta, General Martin Dempsey, President Obama, and, as usual, the mainstream media.

Caroline Glick:U.S. Embassy Attacks Not About a Movie

Here are a couple of facts:

On June 4 the White House confirmed that the US had killed Abu Yahya Al-Libi - OBL's Libyan lietenant who had moved into Al Qaeda's #2 spot after Ayman Zahawiri after the Navy SEALs whacked OBL. 

On Tuesday 9/11, a tape was released of Zawahiri announcing that Libi had been killed earlier this year by a US drone attack. The Zawahiri tape was made during Ramadan which ended in the middle of last month. Zawahiri called for his terrorist underlings to avenge Libi's death and especially exhorted Libyans to take revenge.

The attack in Libya was well planned and executed. It wasn't about a spontaneous protest against some ridiculous internet movie of Muhammad. The assailants came armed to the teeth, with among other things, RPG 7s. They knew that the US Ambassador was in Benghazi rather than Tripoli. They knew how to track his movements, and were able to strike against him after he and his colleagues left the consulate building and tried to flee in a car. As Israel Channel 2's Arab Affairs Correspondent Ehud Yaari noted this evening, you don't often see well trained terrorists participating in protests of movies.

Then there is the attack in Cairo. They were led by Mohammad Zawahiri - Ayman Zawahiri's brother. According the Thomas Josclyn in the Weekly Standard, the US media has been idiotically presenting him as some sort of moderate despite the fact that in an interview with Al Jazeerah he said said, "We in al Qaeda..."  

To read the rest of the article, click the link below:

http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2012/09/the-911-attacks-on-the-us-emba.php

Trifecta: Impeachable Treason or Politics?

"Obama was overheard on a microphone delivering a secret message to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev regarding the US missile defense. What is Obama up to, and what does his secret message mean for allies like Israel? Is Obama about to hang Europe out to dry? Is this message treasonous? Find out." 

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=105&load=6784

Scott Ott, Bill Whittle, and Steve Green discuss the open microphone incident involving our president and the Russian president this week in South Korea.  What Obama was overheard saying to Dmitry Medvedev could not have offered "hope" or encouragement to the Poles or the Czechs (both of whom have already been abandoned by Obama on missile defense), nor could it have done anything for the Israelis but reinforce their feelings that they are on their own against the lunatic in Iran.  

The Few, The Proud, The Marines

You can contact a recruiter by clicking on the parachutes under the flags on the right side of this Blog.  Semper Fi!

H/T: rutusmc

Progressives Hate Natural Gas. Why?

Jon Entine, a Senior Fellow at George Mason University wrote a piece on The Enterprise Blog today in which he explains why the Environmental Left has entered into "bizarre alliances" with "the Russians and Iranians who thought they were going to corner the gas market in the coming decades," and now "demonize natural gas, and shale in particular, as a 'bridge to nowhere.'"

As they did in their previous quest to demonize carbon because it was heating the planet, these environmental wackos ignore the work of "independent researchers from across the ideological spectrum who have found shale gas to be environmentally safer than coal or oil."

 Here's a short video of Jon Entine:

The Islamization of Turkey IV

Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum and a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, wrote a piece today at National Review Online titled: Is Turkey Going Rogue? You might surmise from the title that Professor Pipes thinks there are big problems with Turkey. He does. Here are some of the problems he highlights in today's article:

When four out of five of the Turkish chiefs of staff abruptly resigned on July 29, 2011, they signaled the effective end of the republic founded in 1923 by Kemal Atatürk.

Ironically, secular Turks tend to be more anti-Western than the AKP (the party in power).

Turkey faces a credit crunch, one largely ignored in light of crises in Greece and elsewhere. As analyst David Goldman points out, Erdoğan (pictured above) and the AKP took the country on a financial binge: Bank credit ballooned while the current account deficit soared, reaching unsustainable levels.

Some 15–20 percent of Turkey’s citizens identify as Kurds, a distinct historical people; although many Kurds are integrated, a separatist revolt against Ankara that began in 1984 has recently reached a new crescendo...

In the tradition of Gamal Abdel Nasser and Saddam Hussein, the Turkish prime minister deploys anti-Zionist rhetoric to make himself an Arab political star. One shudders to think where, thrilled by this adulation, he may end up.

As economic troubles hit, a once-exemplary member of NATO may go further off track; watch for signs of Erdoğan emulating his Venezuelan friend, Hugo Chávez.

There are a number of other reasons that lead Pipes to consider a rogue Turkey "the region's greatest threat." You can read his entire article by clicking on the link below.

Is Turkey Going Rogue? - Daniel Pipes - National Review Online


For earlier posts on Turkey, click on "Turkey" in the Labels below.

The Palestinian Myth is Just That - A Myth

Sol Stern writing at National Review Online today exposed the total myth of the plight of the Palestinians, who will try to set the Middle East on fire tomorrow by calling for a vote on Palestinian statehood.

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times last May titled “The Long Overdue Palestinian State.”

From Stern (emphasis added):

In his Times op-ed, Abbas also wrote, “Minutes after the State of Israel was established on May 14, 1948, the United States granted it recognition. Our Palestinian state, however, remains a promise unfulfilled.” Abbas didn’t explain how any country could have recognized a United Nations–designated Palestinian state that the Palestinians and the Arab states themselves rejected. The Arab Higher Committee (AHC) was the recognized representative of the Palestinian people at the time of the U.N. partition vote. The Zionists accepted the partition plan. The AHC and the Arab states rejected any proposal to share the land and vowed to drown the fledgling Jewish state in “rivers of blood.”

Following instructions from the AHC, Palestinian militias and volunteers from neighboring Arab countries began attacking Jewish settlements after the U.N. partition plan was announced in November 1947. The irregular Arab units were ordered to take strategic strongholds and hold on until the expected invasion of Israel by regular Arab armies after the British withdrawal on May 14, 1948. What happened in Safed was typical of the bloody inter-communal warfare that soon convulsed the country. Elements of the Arab Liberation Army — the main Palestinian armed force — plus Jordanian irregular units, entered Safed’s Arab neighborhoods and began sporadic attacks on the Jewish quarter. Facing a full-scale invasion of Galilee by the Syrian and Jordanian regular armies, Jewish military commanders couldn’t afford to have armed Palestinian units behind their lines. On the night of May 8, reinforcements from the Palmach, the elite Jewish strike force, counterattacked and took the key Arab strongholds in the city. Almost immediately, Safed’s Arabs began streaming out toward the Syrian border. There were no expulsions of Arab civilians by Israeli forces.

The entire Sol Stern piece can be viewed by clicking on the link below:
The Palestinian Big Lie - Sol Stern - National Review Online

This should not be a tough vote for us (but it will be): if we vote for Palestinian statehood, the Obama administration will be continuing its sordid treatment of our greatest ally in the Middle East; if we vote against it, the other Arab nations will be furious and make all kinds of threats against Israel (and us). There's only one right thing to do: vote for truth.

Afterburner: What We Did Right

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=56&load=6021

September 11, 2001: Never Forget!

World Trade Center

Pentagon

Shanksville

Trifecta: Seal Team Six and the Political Aftermath

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=105&load=5877

Cutting Our Military: An Open Invitation To Agression

Frank Gaffney, writing today at National Review Online, addressed the problem of possible drastic cuts to our military as a result of the deal reached this week on raising the debt ceiling.

Under President Obama, the Defense Department’s budget has already been reduced by some $430 billion. Now, thanks to this “compromise,” the security portfolios will be reduced by a further $350 billion in the first round of cuts.

Then, in the fine print of the debt-ceiling deal, a twelve-member bicameral “super committee” will recommend a second round of cuts, to be voted up or down by the House and Senate. Call this the “player to be named later.” Here’s the worst part: As an incentive for the honorables to take action before Christmas, failure to enact budget reductions will automatically “trigger” a fresh round of cuts totaling $1.2 trillion — with half of it coming from defense-related accounts.

Offering up America’s national security on the altar of fiscal responsibility would be short-sighted and foolhardy. According to a recent study by the Heritage Foundation, by the end of this year, the U.S. Navy will be smaller than at any time since 1916. The Air Force has the smallest number of aircraft and bases since its founding in 1947. This sorry state of affairs has come about even as we are engaged in ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and waging a “war on terrorism” on a global scale.

History demonstrates that previous military drawdowns invited aggression by our enemies. After World War I, America drew down forces until the U.S. Army had fewer than 100,000 men in uniform. That weakness invited Nazi aggression in Europe and the imperial Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. The post-Vietnam drawdown invited the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and proxy wars for Communist domination from Central America to Angola. After America won the Cold War, some believed we had come to the “end of history,” and budget-cutters celebrated the so-called “peace dividend.” As a result, we ignored the toxic mixture of militant Islam and terror that ultimately led to 9/11.

Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, conservatives have succeeded by adhering to a platform that rests firmly on three legs: smaller government, faith and family, and a strong national defense. These three legs do not merely represent a political coalition; they are three necessary components of a strong and secure America. The absence of any one of the three would diminish our national strength and increase our vulnerability to enemies, foreign and domestic.

Click below to read the entire article.

Don’t Hollow Out the Military - Frank J. Gaffney Jr. - National Review Online

Muslim Soldier Granted Conscientious Objector Status Arrested. Admits Intent to Attack Ft. Hood

Remember Jason Abdo, the U. S. soldier who refused orders to go to Afghanistan because he didn't want to kill muslims? You'll recall he was granted conscientious objector status, then charged with Child Porn, which kept him from being discharged from the military until those charges were adjudicated. Well, he went A.W.O.L., and was arrested today after a tip from a gun dealer (the same one patronized by U. S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, another muslim who killed 12 fellow soldiers and a civilian employee, and wounded 32 others while shouting "Allahu Akbar!" at Ft. Hood back in November 2009).

This is our earlier post on Abdo, on June 27, 2011.

And here is the latest from CNN on today's arrest of Abdo. After his arrest, according to the police chief in Killeen, Texas, Abdo told investigators that he wanted to attack fellow soldiers at the Ft. Hood military base.