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Our World: Michael Flynn and what he means for Trump’s foreign policy

December 5, 2016

Our World: Michael Flynn and what he means for Trump’s foreign policy, Jerusalem Post, Caroline B. Glick, December 5, 2016

(Please see also, Mosul offensive folds, waiting now for Trump. — DM)

flynnRetired U.S. Army Lt. General Michael Flynn in 2014. (photo credit:REUTERS)

Mattis argued that Iran’s nuclear program was far from the only threat Iran constituted to the US and its allies. By empowering Iran through the nuclear deal, Obama was enabling Iran’s rise as a hegemonic power throughout the region.

With Mattis and Flynn at his side, Trump intends to bring down the Iranian regime as a first step toward securing an unconditional victory in the war against radical Islam.

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In the US and around the world, people are anxiously awaiting US President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement of his choice to serve as secretary of state. There is no doubt that Trump’s choice for the position will tell us a great deal about the direction his foreign policy is likely to take.

But the fact is that we already have sufficient information to understand what his greatest focus will be.

Trump’s announcement last week that he has selected Marine General James Mattis to serve as his defense secretary is a key piece of the puzzle.

Mattis has a sterling reputation as a brilliant strategist and a sober-minded leader. His appointment has garnered plaudits across the ideological spectrum.

In 2013, US President Barack Obama summarily removed Mattis from his command as head of the US Military’s Central Command. According to media reports, Mattis was fired due to his opposition to Obama’s strategy of embracing Iran, first and foremost through his nuclear diplomacy. Mattis argued that Iran’s nuclear program was far from the only threat Iran constituted to the US and its allies. By empowering Iran through the nuclear deal, Obama was enabling Iran’s rise as a hegemonic power throughout the region.

Mattis’s dim view of Iran is shared by Trump’s choice to serve as his national security adviser. Lt. General Michael Flynn’s appointment has been met with far less enthusiasm among Washington’s foreign policy elites.

Tom Ricks of The New York Times, for instance, attacked Flynn as “erratic” in an article Saturday where he praised Mattis.

It is difficult to understand the basis for Ricks’ criticism. Flynn is considered the most talented intelligence officer of his generation. Like Mattis, Obama promoted Flynn only to fire him over disagreements regarding Obama’s strategy of embracing Iran and pretending away the war that radical Islamists are waging against the US and across the globe.

Flynn served under Obama as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He was fired in 2014 for his refusal to toe the administration’s mendacious lines that radical Islam is not the doctrine informing and inspiring the enemy, and that al-Qaida and its fellows are losing their war.

What Obama and his advisers didn’t want to hear about the US’s enemies and about how best to defeat them Flynn shared with the public in his recently published book Field of Fight, which he coauthored with Michael Ledeen, who served in various national security positions during the Reagan administration.

Flynn’s book is a breath of fresh air in the acrid intellectual environment that Washington has become during the Obama administration. Writing it in this intellectually corrupt atmosphere was an act of intellectual courage.

In Field of Fight, Flynn disposes of the political correctness that has dictated the policy discourse in Washington throughout the Bush and Obama administrations. He forthrightly identifies the enemy that the US is facing as “radical Islam,” and provides a detailed, learned description of its totalitarian ideology and supremacist goals. Noting that no strategy based on denying the truth about the enemy can lead to victory, Flynn explains how his understanding of the enemy’s doctrine and modes of operation enabled him to formulate strategies for winning the ground wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

And win them he did. As he explains in his book, Flynn oversaw the transformation of the US’s strategies for fighting in both theaters from strategies based on top-down decapitation of the enemy’s leadership to a groundup destruction of the terrorist networks.

Flynn’s strategy, which worked in both countries, was based on the premise that it wasn’t enough to kill “high value” targets. The US needed to develop a granular understanding of the terrorist networks from the village level up the line. Only by taking out the local terrorist leaders would the US be able to destroy the ability of the likes of al-Qaida, the Iranian-controlled Shi’ite militias and the Taliban to quickly mobilize new forces and reignite fighting shortly after every successful US operation.

Flynn’s book contributes three essential insights to the discussion of the global jihad. First, he explains that the Bush and Obama administrations were both unable to translate military victories on the ground into strategic victories because they both refused to join their military war with a war of ideas.

The purpose of a war of ideas is to discredit the cause for which the enemy fights. Without such a war, on the one hand the American people sour on the war because they don’t understand why it is important to win. On the other hand, without a war of ideas directed specifically at the Islamic world, Muslims worldwide have continued to be susceptible to recruitment by the likes of ISIS and al-Qaida.

As Flynn notes, the popularity of radical Islam has skyrocketed during the Obama years. Whereas in 2011 there were 20,000 foreign recruits fighting for ISIS in Iraq and Syria, by 2015, the number had risen to 35,000.

Flynn’s second contribution is his forthright discussion of the central role the Iranian regime plays in the global jihad. Flynn chronicles not only Iran’s leadership of the war against the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. He shows that their cooperation is global and predates 9/11 by several years.

Flynn recalls for instance that in 1996 British troops confiscated an al-Qaida training manual written by Iranian intelligence in a terrorist training facility in Bosnia. Six Iranian “diplomats” were arrested at the scene.

Flynn is unflinching in his criticism of the Obama administration’s moves to develop an alliance with Iran. And he is almost equally critical of George W. Bush’s war against terror.

For instance, Flynn argues, “It was a huge strategic mistake for the United States to invade Iraq militarily.”

Iran, he said was the main culprit in 2001 and remains the main enemy today.

“If, as we claimed, our basic mission after 9/11 was the defeat of the terrorists and their state sponsors then our primary target should have been Tehran, not Baghdad, and that method should have been political – support of the internal Iranian opposition.”

Flynn’s final major contribution to the intellectual discourse regarding the war is his blunt identification of the members of the enemy axis. Flynn states that the radical Islamic terrorist armies operate in cooperation with and at the pleasure of a state alliance dominated by Russia and Iran and joined by North Korea, Venezuela and other rogue regimes. Flynn’s frank discussion of Russia’s pivotal role in the alliance exposes the widely touted claims that he is somehow pro-Russian as utter nonsense.

In Flynn’s view, while Russia is Iran’s primary partner in its war for global domination, it should not be the primary focus of US efforts. Iran should be the focus.

In his words, the best place to unravel the enemy alliance is at its “weakest point,” which, he argues, is Iran.

Flynn explains that the basic and endemic weakness of the Iranian regime owes to the fact that the Iranian people hate it. To defeat the regime, Flynn recommends a strategy of political war and subversion that empowers the Iranian people to overthrow the regime as they sought to do in the 2009 Green Revolution. Flynn makes the case that the Green Revolution failed in large part because the Obama administration refused to stand with the Iranian people.

Flynn is both an experienced commander and an innovative, critical, strategic thinker. As his book makes clear, while flamboyant and blunt he is not at all erratic. He is far-sighted and determined, and locked on his target: Iran.

Whoever Trump selects as secretary of state, his appointment of Mattis on the one hand and Flynn on the other exposes his hand. Trump is interested in ending the war that the forces of radical Islam started with the US not on September 11, 2001, but on November 4, 1979, with the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran.

With Mattis and Flynn at his side, Trump intends to bring down the Iranian regime as a first step toward securing an unconditional victory in the war against radical Islam.

Categories: Foreign policy, Iran, James Mattis, Michael Flynn, President Elect Trump, Radical Islam, Trump appointments
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Mosul offensive folds, waiting now for Trump

December 5, 2016

Mosul offensive folds, waiting now for Trump, DEBKAfile, December 5, 2016

qayyarah_iraqi_forces_12-16

Altogether 54,000 Iraqi troops and 5,000 US servicemen – supported by 90 warplanes and 150 heavy artillery pieces – were invested in the Mosul campaign when it was launched in October. They proved unable to beat 9,000 jihadists.

Aware of the crisis on the Mosul front, the Pentagon has drawn up plans for sending out US reinforcements in the hope of turning the tide of the stalled battle. Those plans repose in their pending trays to await the decisions of the incoming US President Donald Trump and the new Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis.

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The failure of the US-backed Iraqi army offensive to liberate Mosul – nine weeks after it began – could no longer be denied when a delegation of ISIS chiefs arrived there Sunday, Dec. 4, traveling unhindered from Raqqa, Syria.

DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that they arrived to discuss how to synchronize the operations of the two jihadist strongholds, after the Islamist leaders occupying Mosul changed course about leaving the city and decided to stay put.

This decision followed their assessment that the Iraqi army and its American backers were incapable of bringing their offensive to a successful conclusion. It was also evident in Washington that the US commanders in the field would not be able to meet Barack Obama’s presidential directive to capture Mosul by the end of December, so that he could exit the White House next month with a successful Mosul campaign behind hm.

Altogether 54,000 Iraqi troops and 5,000 US servicemen – supported by 90 warplanes and 150 heavy artillery pieces – were invested in the Mosul campaign when it was launched in October. They proved unable to beat 9,000 jihadists.

Iraqi forces have gained no more than one-tenth of the territory assigned them. This lack of progress has damped their initial impetus and sapped their morale. While Baghdad keeps on pumping out reports of good progress and new fronts opening up, the Iraqi army has come to a virtual standstill and does nothing more than exchange fire with ISIS fighters.

The first sign that ISIS had reversed its tactics and decided to hold out against the Iraqi assault came in the form of a slickly-produced video released by the jihadists on Dec. 27 to display their defenses inside Mosul. It showed commando units in battle formation, sniper positions in place, bomb cars parked at key points and well-barricaded streets. In the terrain from which they pulled back, they had strewn shells and rockets loaded with poisonous chemicals as a warning message to Iraqi troops that they would storm the city at their peril.

Our sources report meanwhile that some of the ISIS fighters who quit Mosul in the early stage of the Iraqi offensive are turning back, along with some of the administration officials.

The Kurdish Peshmerga, which three weeks ago turned their backs on the campaign, now realize they will have to live with ISIS as a dangerous next-door neighbor, after all. They are bending their energies to establishing a strong line of defense against Mosul, to secure their capital Irbil and other towns of the semiautonomous Kurdish Republic of Iraq.

Aware of the crisis on the Mosul front, the Pentagon has drawn up plans for sending out US reinforcements in the hope of turning the tide of the stalled battle. Those plans repose in their pending trays to await the decisions of the incoming US President Donald Trump and the new Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis.

Categories: Iraq war, Islamic State, Mosul, Obama and Iraq, President Elect Trump
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Green Berets in Islamic State fight frustrated with top brass micromanagement

December 5, 2016

Green Berets in Islamic State fight frustrated with top brass micromanagement, Washington Times, Rowan Scarborough, December 4, 2016

(Perhaps the new Secretary of Defense will do something useful. — DM)

124_2016_berets8201_c0-0-3488-2033_s885x516Colonel Kevin C. Leahy is receptive to the complaints of his soldiers about the command structure’s micromanagement, but said he allows his forces to figure out how to do the job. (U.S. Army)

The secretive teams of Green Berets guiding rebels in northeast Syria have expressed frustration with the amount of micromanagement they receive from a top-heavy headquarters in Iraq and the United States.

Special Forces sources tell of support staff watching the free-spirited Green Berets on reconnaissance aircraft and then criticizing their performance as they conduct the mission officially described as “train, advise and assist” the multi-ethnic Syrian Democratic Forces. The Americans and SDF are fighting their way toward Raqqa, the Islamic State terrorist army’s home base in Syria. Some of the “assisting” has drawn the Americans into firefights.

One officer chalked up the complaints to the sensitive political situation of U.S. troops on the ground in a chaotic country amid competing groups of Arab, Kurdish and Turkish forces, all converging with different objectives. The Green Berets, known officially as Army Special Forces, must act under strict combat rules after President Obama approved their insertion one year ago.

“Based on the very high-level approval required to conduct operations, it can be extremely frustrating for the teams,” the officer told The Washington Times. “We just don’t have the latitude we had during our years in Iraq, and that can be frustrating for the teams. The progress over the last year has been slow. Each team may not see it during their rotation, but cumulatively we’ve made significant progress against Daesh while maintaining relationships with Turkey and Jordan. In my many years in Special Forces, I’ve never been involved with a more complex mission.”

The Islamic State is also called Daesh, ISIL and ISIS.

The officer said that any foreign assistance operation governed by Section 1209 of the annual National Defense Authorization Act, as is Syria, “comes with lots of rules and scrutiny from Congress and the Defense Department, so we had to be very deliberate on how we execute this program.”

A second Special Forces source told of Green Berets in Syria being criticized for not immediately answering a phone call from overseers in Iraq. Others get critiqued back at their forward operating base in Syria after supervisors watched their actions on surveillance drones.

Said the source: “They sometimes take risk and do stuff, and when they get back to camp, they get a phone call. ‘What the [expletive] were you doing?’”

Pentagon press officials have provided scant information on operations by Green Berets in Syria.

The second Special Forces source told The Times of a recent incident: A group of Green Berets and their partner rebels were taking sporadic long-range fire. Tired of waiting for permission to return fire, they killed the sniper. That, in turn, brought more fire from Islamic State fighters. The Americans found themselves in a firefight and then evaded the enemy.

“Why even have the guys out there?” the second Special Forces source said. “It’s literally that they are watching you and watching you, and they’ll call you, and if you don’t answer — it’s kind of like having parents. As an organization, we have become incredibly risk-averse.”

The second source said the number of watchers versus the number of Green Berets in Syria is 50-50.

“For every guy you’ve got on the ground there, there’s some staff guy that hasn’t ever deployed,” the source said. “Or some colonel who wants to be involved, and he’s the assist to the assistant to the assistant.”

The first Green Berets to go into Syria were from the 5th Special Forces Group, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The 5th Group is the go-to Green Beret unit for fighting radical Islam in the Middle East and North Africa. They were the first to enter Afghanistan, and rode horseback over rocky terrain with allied Afghans.

This source said that many Special Forces soldiers believe the entire cadre has become more careerist as the war on terror continues in its second decade. “Too many officers worried about promotions,” the source said.

‘Careerism and compromise’

The Washington Times asked Col. Kevin C. Leahy, 5th Group commander, about his soldiers’ complaints.

“No one knows how to work with rebels better than our Green Berets,” Col. Leahy said in an email. “We provide lots of latitude on how guys work with various groups. Of course to accomplish goals we have to tell them what we want done, but we let them figure out how to do it. I can only discuss Syria, but can firmly say I and my subordinate leaders do not micromanage.”

He added: “They are right on top-heavy. There is a sizable amount of people required to provide intel, fires, logistics and vetting of rebels/groups, liaison with host nation partners, U.S. country teams, etc. The teams really are the tip of an inverse triangle of support/Hq needed to enable the mission. Unfortunately, whether you have one team or ten in the field, you still need all of the support.”

Rep. Ryan K. Zinke, Montana Republican, is Congress’ lone former Navy SEAL. The retired commander says part of the problem with the Syrian troop mission is that commandos do not have sufficient firepower support if they get pinned down.

“I can tell you with zero doubt about the level of frustration from our forward deployed troops because they feel like they are micromanaged,” he said. “They feel like they don’t have the appropriate decision authority to make decisions and, even in contact, if you have a supporting asset, that supporting asset doesn’t have the authority to target opposition forces without going through a series of assessments by an armchair quarterback.”

A belief by some Green Berets that careerism has overtaken the officer corps was bolstered by a Special Forces soldier fighting in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on the night an AC-130 gunship mistakenly pummeled a Doctors Without Borders trauma center.

This soldier’s Operation Detachment Alpha (ODA) was assigned the task of fighting with Afghan security forces to repel a flash Taliban invasion.

In his sworn statement to investigators, the Special Forces veteran said: “There is a fine line between not conducting operations to keep people out of harm’s way and not conducting operations in such a fashion that it actually increases overall risk to force and risk to mission.”

He said the special operations commanders back in Kabul abandoned the “A-Team.”

“When an ODA’s mission runs headlong into national strategy, and the detachment asks for guidance on the level of commitment and receives nothing back over a 96-hour period, that’s an abject failure of leadership,” the Green Beret said.

When the team asked Kabul for guidance, the response was, “How far do you want to go?”

Said the Green Beret in his statement: “It’s not a strategy, and in fact it’s a recipe for disaster in that kinetic of an environment. How have we, as a force, as a group of officers, become so lost from the good lessons that our mentors taught us? I will tell you how. It is a decrepit state that grows out of the expansion of moral cowardice, careerism and compromise devoid of principle, exchanged for cheap personal gain.”

Categories: Department of Defense, Green Berets, Islamic State, Micromanagement
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Keith Ellison: “We are Able to Take Muslim Presence on Capitol Hill from Zero to a Real Player… AND We got to do it in Every State House in America”

December 5, 2016

Keith Ellison: “We are Able to Take Muslim Presence on Capitol Hill from Zero to a Real Player… AND We got to do it in Every State House in America” Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, December 5, 2016

keithellisonnoifinalcall_1

Sometimes the enemy slips up and tells you his agenda.

Keith Ellison had a clear path to heading the DNC. He had the backing of Harry Reid and Schumer. He was the leading prog candidate. Howard Dean dropped out to clear the path for him. But the Investigative Project has stayed on this. It’s released audio of some of his speeches, particularly to Muslim groups, and the content is certainly revealing.

The fundraiser for Ellison’s re-election campaign was hosted by Esam Omeish, a past president of the Muslim American Society (MAS) who was forced to resign from a Virginia state immigration panel in 2007 after an exclusive IPT videotape showed him praising Palestinians for choosing the “the jihad way … to liberate your land.” Omeish was a candidate for Virginia’s general assembly the previous year, and Ellison spoke at a fundraiser for that losing effort.

There are rants about Israel in this one. All the stuff you expect. But there are also revealing comments like these about the larger Islamist plan for America.

Here’s Ellison on ObamaCare

“”Salaam aleikum brothers and sisters. First of all let me tell you, this day, this huge day where the President signed the healthcare bill, should know that the Muslim community was at the very forefront of this effort. There is not 25 Muslim clinics, there is not 30; there is about 35 clinics founded by Muslims throughout the United States. And it seems like every single day there is a new one being formed yet again. We got big ones in Chicago, in Los Angeles, but also throughout Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Maryland, New York, all through Florida”

“Things are going well because not only this healthcare debate there was a group of Muslim physicians and medical professionals who beat the doors down and talked about to every member of Congress about the need for federally qualified healthcare centers. I mean can you imagine?”

There is a larger strategy to gain and build influence.

“We need to have so much goods and services going back and forth between this country and the Muslim world that if we say we need this right here, then everybody is saying, OK. Do you understand my point? If you, I mean you’ve got to be strategic. And these things are not overnight, they’re not a one and done. It takes time to build these relationships and they got to be built.”

“These business relationships can be leveraged to say that we need some, a new deal politically. Do you understand what I am trying to say? And so, and bring some of your, you know, friends who may not be Muslim along too.”

“I’m telling you now, with some of the money that you give to me, one of the things I do is I make sure that in Minnesota that whoever I’m supporting wins. And I tell them, this is the hard-earned dollars of Muslim-Americans. OK, so they know.”

The larger goal is influence and domination.

” Sometimes people run for office and I always tell them, brother you remember when you were running, I say you know what, you may not win, but you run like you’re going to win. Right? Because only Allah knows who’s going to win and sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose the first time, win the next time. You know what I mean [audience – yes, yes]. So we gotta keep on running, cause I lost the first time I ran. But what I am saying is we can decide whether we are going to fight hard, right? And I am telling you, that with your help, we are able to take Muslim presence on Capitol Hill from zero to a real player. And this is what we’re trying to do and we got to do it in every state house in America, we got to do it in the Capitol Hill.”

“The message I want to send to you is that what you’re doing by donating to this campaign is positioning me and positioning Muslims in general to help steer the ship of state in America. You understand what I am saying? [Another person says, “Yes”] Steer it in a direction that makes sense”

“CAIR has not fallen, they are fighting and struggling every day. Right? I am telling you that every Friday my brother calls the adhan in the Capitol. Is that right? [Male replies ‘Alhamdulillah.’] Under the Capitol dome. [Male says, ‘Yes sir.’] And whenever, is that right? [Replies of “yes” and “Alhamdulillah”].”

Along with bursts of triumphalism.

” Do you know that there is a Muslim brother about to buy the Los Angeles Rams? [One guys says ‘Saint Louis.’] Saint Louis Rams. [Laughter and commotion over few words] Rams, but the Rams. Muslim guys getting ready to buy the Rams. [Male says, “not Rush Limbaugh] Not Rush Limbaugh. [Laughter.] You know those players said we will not play for that racist, we will not play for that racist. But they’ll say, we’ll play for the Muslim guy. [Laughter, someone claps.] You know alhamdulillah. So, so, and do you know that Ethan Allen, owned by a Muslim, right? ”

“If you measure progress by the day, you might not see it. If you measure progress by the week you may not see it. But if you measure progress by the year, in two years, in three years, in 10 years, in 20 years, it’s unmistakable progress, unmistakable, unmistakable progress”

Categories: Democrat National Committee, Islamisation, Islamist organizations, Islamists in America, Keith Ellison
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US Leaders Don’t Answer to Beijing

December 5, 2016

US Leaders Don’t Answer to Beijing, Center for Security Policy, Fred Fleitz, December 5, 2016

redflag

Instead of piling on Donald Trump for taking a phone call from the leader of a U.S. ally, Trump critics should be focusing on how the lack of global leadership by Barack Obama created a power vacuum in the Asia-Pacific region that emboldened China to engage in belligerent actions to seize control of almost the entire South China Sea.  This action is endangering the economies and security of America’s friend and allies in the region and also threatens freedom of navigation in a crucial sea area.

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According to the mainstream media, foreign policy experts and Democrats, President-elect Donald Trump made a serious error when he accepted a phone call from Taiwan President  Tsai Ing-wen congratulating him on winning the 2016 presidential election.  Trump’s critics apparently believe Mr. Trump is not allowed to speak with the president of one of the world’s leading democracies and a close friend of the United Stats because the Chinese government forbids this.

Sorry, but China does not tell American officials who they can and cannot talk to.  Despite the 1979 decision to open diplomatic relations with China and withdraw diplomatic relations with Taiwan, America and Taiwan remain close friends.  We sell Taiwan billions of dollars in military hardware.  America may have an unofficial relationship with Taiwan, but this does not mean our leaders should shun or insult Taiwan’s president.

Trump’s critics claim his decision to accept Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s congratulatory phone call indicates he does not understand foreign policy.  I disagree.  This was an act of leadership by a president-elect who plans to enact a new U.S. foreign policy that rejects President Obama’s failed foreign policy of retreat, appeasement and leading from behind.

The Donald Trump-Tsai Ing-wen phone call also could reflect an intention by the Trump administration to reevaluate America’s relationship with Taiwan and possibly upgrade relations.  Such a move is long overdue. Taiwan is by any measure a thriving democracy and an independent state.  Although the United States in 1979 recognized that China and Taiwan believe in a “one China” policy, the U.S. government has never officially endorsed this position.  Instead of a U.S. embassy or consulate in Taipei, the United States maintains a nonprofit center known as the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), which operates as a barely unofficial embassy.  Trump advisers are right in considering whether it is time to reevaluate  U.S.-relations with Taiwan and the AIT.  These advisers include China expert Peter Navarro, who contributed to the Center for Security Policy’s recent book on the growing threat from China, Warning Order: China Prepares for Conflict, and Why We Must Do the Same.

Instead of piling on Donald Trump for taking a phone call from the leader of a U.S. ally, Trump critics should be focusing on how the lack of global leadership by Barack Obama created a power vacuum in the Asia-Pacific region that emboldened China to engage in belligerent actions to seize control of almost the entire South China Sea.  This action is endangering the economies and security of America’s friend and allies in the region and also threatens freedom of navigation in a crucial sea area.

We need a new approach to China that deals with Beijing based on strength and principle.  Donald Trump’s phone call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen could be the beginning of such an approach.

Categories: China, President Elect Trump, Taiwan
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Trump Assembling Team of Fierce Iran Deal Opponents

December 5, 2016

Trump Assembling Team of Fierce Iran Deal Opponents, Washinton Free Beacon, , December 5, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a "USA Thank You" tour event, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)President-elect Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a “USA Thank You” tour event, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Cincinnati. (AP)

President-elect Donald Trump has been assembling a national security team stacked with fierce opponents of last year’s comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran, signaling what is expected to be a major departure from the Obama administration’s final bid to preserve the deal before leaving office, according to multiple sources familiar with Trump’s transition plans.

Trump has been installing well-known opponents of the deal to key national security posts for the incoming administration, including at the White House National Security Council, the CIA, and the Department of Defense.

This includes his selection of retired Marine Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) as CIA director, and retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser, picks that have won plaudits for their vocal opposition to the nuclear deal.

“It’s no secret that Flynn considers Iran to be the linchpin of a global alliance of hostile rivals seeking to undermine American interests,” said once source familiar with the backroom talks about future national security picks. “He was in the Middle East during the Iraq war and knows first-hand how Iranian proxies killed hundreds of American troops, and he has seen the intelligence showing that they’ve targeted Americans around the world.”

“As long as Iran keeps acting like an enemy of the United States, his NSC will accurately convey that to the president, and he’s building a staff that will make sure of that,” the source added.

Other recent national security picks include KT McFarland, a longtime national security analyst and commentator who has vocally criticized Iran and the nuclear deal, and Yleem Poblete, who served for nearly two decades as a senior staffer for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

A senior congressional aide familiar with Poblete’s work on key national security matters told the Washington Free Beacon that Trump’s picks would not back down from a showdown with Iran as it continues to fund terrorism across the Middle East.

“It’s apparent that President-elect Trump is taking a fundamentally different approach to national security and foreign policy than the current administration,” the source said. “Selecting Rep. Pompeo to head up the CIA, General Flynn as national security adviser, and General Mattis as defense secretary shows that the new administration will not recede from the world stage as the current administration has done, but is willing to reestablish America as a global leader.”

The source said that Trump’s selection of Poblete is a sign that the next president is serious about rewriting America’s policy approach to Iran and other rogue regimes.

Selecting Poblete for the NSC landing team sends a clear signal that the next administration is looking to reverse some of the damage that President Obama has inflicted when it comes to Iran and Cuba and will legitimize and improve the totality of Trump’s foreign policy agenda,” the source said.

Poblete played a key role in crafting sanctions against Iran and was the senior staffer on the Foreign Affairs Committee when they were initially signed into law.

“Poblete is a tough negotiator with the policy chops to advance U.S. national security interests; her vast experience of being one of the main architects of the current sanctions against Iran, her advocacy for freedom and democracy in Cuba, her ardent promotion of transparency and reform at the UN, and her vast experience and expertise with the Middle East will no doubt help strengthen our relationship with Israel,” the source explained.

Trump’s selection of these foreign policy heavyweights comes as Congress overwhelmingly voted last week to extend economic sanctions on Iran for 10 years, a move that elicited an angry response from Tehran.

With Poblete, Flynn, and others steering the ship, the Trump administration is expected to go even further with new sanctions on Iran for its behavior, which includes testing advanced ballistic missiles and threatening actions in the Persian Gulf.

The next administration will likely have to unwind the Obama administration’s final push to provide Iran with continued sanctions relief and cash payouts.

“The Obama administration has 48 days to try and nail down the deal to make it more difficult for the Trump administration to negotiate a follow on agreement that addresses the fatal flaws of the Obama nuclear deal,” Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Free Beacon. “Anything they try to do will be at the top of the chopping block when the new administration gets into their seats.”

Categories: Obama and Iran scam, Trump and Iran scam, Trump appointments
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Islamic Republic of Iran detains dozens of converts to Christianity

December 5, 2016

Islamic Republic of Iran detains dozens of converts to Christianity, Jihad Watch, , December 5, 2016

Obama’s cash contributions to the Islamic Republic of Iran at work.

housechurchiran

“Iran Detains Dozens Of Christian Converts As Rights Group Urge World To Intervene,” BosNewsLife, December 3, 2016:

TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)– A group of 19 influential human rights groups have urged the United Nations and the international community to help protect Christian converts in Iran saying scores of believers were detained for leaving Islam. In a statement to BosNewsLife the activists said that the “Islamic Republic of Iran” has been “homing in on converts from a Muslim background”.

Between May and August 2016 security forces forces arrested at least 79 Christians, according to activists, family members and friends.

“The majority of those arrested were interrogated and detained for periods ranging from a few days to months.” the groups said.

“At the time of writing some of these 79 Christians remain in detention and have still not been formally charged.”

Rights groups say “the true number of Christians apprehended by the authorities could be notably higher” as “many” arrests would have gone unreported.

In 2012, Iran’s government began to bar converts from Muslim backgrounds from attending services in official churches. Instead Christian converts “are forced” to gather in informal groups known as “house churches”, the activists said. “These gatherings are considered illegal by authorities and are often raided. In August 2016 alone security agents allegedly raided at least four house churches and the house church members were arrested and interrogated.”…

Categories: Iran - human rights, Iran and Christians
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BREAKING: Italy’s Renzi Is Big Loser in Referendum, Says He Will Resign

December 5, 2016

BREAKING: Italy’s Renzi Is Big Loser in Referendum, Says He Will Resign, PJ Media, Michael Walsh, December 4, 2016

renziMatteo Renzi (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

The result is another blow to the European Union, which is struggling to overcome a number of crises and was keen for Mr Renzi to continue his reform drive.

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Norbert Hofer may have lost his bid for the presidency of Austria, but in neighboring Italy, prime minister Matteo Renzi and his center-left government seem to have suffered a catastrophic defeat:

Italian PM Matteo Renzi has suffered a heavy defeat in a key referendum on constitutional reform, according to a projection. The projection by the Piepoli Institute/IPR for state broadcaster RAI estimated 57-61% will vote “No”, compared to 39-43% for “Yes”.

The projection points to an even wider margin of defeat for Mr Renzi than was suggested by three exit polls released immediately after polls closed. Mr Renzi had staked his future on a “Yes” vote, vowing to resign if voters rejected his plans to reduce the role of the country’s Senate and take back powers from regional authorities.

Renzi is scheduled to address the Italian nation right about now.

Opposition parties were quick to call for Mr Renzi to go. “Renzi is going to go and with him the powerful lobbies who were also defeated”, Renato Brunetta, the parliamentary leader of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia party. Matteo Salvini, the head of the Northern League party, said Mr Renzi should quit “in the coming minutes” and called for early elections.Spearheaded by the populist Five Star Movement, the biggest rival to Mr Renzi’s Democratic party, the “No” campaign took advantage of the PM’s declining popularity, a struggling economy and problems caused by tens of thousands of migrants arriving from Africa.

The vote is a major victory for Five Star leader Beppe Grillo, who had urged Italians to follow their gut instincts.

If Mr Renzi resigns, it could plunge Italy into political turmoil and cause economic instability in the struggling eurozone country. The result is another blow to the European Union, which is struggling to overcome a number of crises and was keen for Mr Renzi to continue his reform drive.

It seems likely at this moment that the Renzi government will fall.

UPDATE: Renzi has resigned, according to the AP.

Categories: European establishment, European populism, European Union, Italy, Matteo Renzi
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Trump persuades Ben Carson to take the HUD Cabinet seat

December 5, 2016

Trump persuades Ben Carson to take the HUD Cabinet seat, American Thinker, Thomas Lifson, December 5, 2016

(“House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is calling the decision to tap Ben Carson as head of Housing and Urban Development a “disconcerting and disturbingly unqualified choice.” — DM)

Newt Gingrich this morning on Fox and Friends gave away the real story behind the announcement today that Dr. Benjamin Carson has been “chosen” (AP’s word) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.  According to Newt,  Donald Trump has spent two weeks persuading Carson to take the job.

It’s pretty clear to me that the reality show genius about to be inaugurated as president intends to make good on his promise to America’s inner cities quite visibly.  As a real estate developer, he know which incentives to use to attract investors in the inner cities. What’s needed is a sense among African-Americans in particular, but also among everyone afflicted with a sense of hopelessness and economic impotence, that a new era has dawned.  New possibilities are opening up. As Trump proclaimed, “What have you got to lose?”

Now it is Dr. Carson, whose personal story is so inspiring Cuba Gooding, Jr. portrayed him in a hagiographic biopic, who needs to become the spokesman, the embodiment of the new opportunities America is offering under Trump. As Scott Adams rightly points out:

Remember what I taught you in the past year: Facts don’t matter. What matters is how you feel. And when you watch Trump and Pence fight and scratch to keep jobs in this country, it changes how you will feel about them for their entire term.

The thing about hope is that, like fear, it can be contagious.

Dr. Carson is just the man for the job, and that’s why Trump never gave up in persuading him to take the job.

Categories: Deptartment of Housing and Urban Development, Doctor Ben Carson, President Elect Trump, Trump appointments
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Iran’s Qur’an Reciter – And Child Rapist

December 5, 2016

Iran’s Qur’an Reciter – And Child Rapist, Front Page Magazine, Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, December 5, 2016

tousu

The Supreme Leader of Iran has called the child rapist a “model to be followed.”

It is crucial to point out that this is not a rare case. There are tens of thousands of religious Islamic figures, from every village and city of Iran, who use their Islamic authority to rape, abuse, and molest children, girls and women. Raping children, boys and little girls is not considered an important issue for the Islamic judiciary of Iran. In addition, if such rapes are conducted by a religious figure, he can be confident that there would be no legal case against him. In fact, the victims who speak up are the ones who would be charged for endangering Iran’s Islamic establishment.

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Iran’s best-known Quran reciter, Saeed Tousi, has been molesting and raping children as young as 9 years old, for years.

Tousi is very close to the political and religious establishment of the Islamic Republic.  He is a personal friend to, and Quran reciter for, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is a member of the Supreme Council of the Quran, and has been given many awards by Ayatollah Khamenei.

The Supreme Council of the Quran was founded 26 years ago and it is operated under the supervision of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

The Supreme Leader of Iran has called the child rapist a “model to be followed.”

According to the Economist:

For years, the victims say, he touched boys memorizing holy texts at the Supreme Koran Council in Tehran. On trips abroad, the Koranic reciter would allegedly lure Islam’s equivalent of choirboys, some as young as 12, to his hotel room.

The Iran Wire wrote:

According to the victims’ accounts, Saeed Tousi took advantage of young students he was supposed to be offering support to, discussing private sexual matters with them before raping them, often in public bathhouses or hotel rooms. Victims filed their original complaints against Tousi in 2011, but Ali Moghadam [who is the president of the Supreme Council of the Quran] interfered in the judicial process, thereby protecting Tousi and saving him from the consequences of his actions.”It adds: “Tousi’s alleged victims say that when they accompanied Tousi on trips, he showed them pornographic videos and magazines and tried to arouse them by talking about sex.

The victims finally talked to Voice of America’s Persian-language TV network, after losing hope on bringing Tousi to justice. The chief justice, Sadegh Larijani, immediately warned that anyone who talks to a foreign news outlet “in opposition to the values of the Islamic Republic” would be guilty and could be encountering charges for “abetting and giving assistance to a crime.”

BBC Persian conducted an interview with the victims as well, which “was viewed an unprecedented 400,000 times on its Telegram channel.” According to the BBC: “One of the accusers described to the BBC an assault which he said took place in a public bath house when he was 12 years old.”

The victim, who was 12 years old at the time, recounted:

I was so shocked I couldn’t understand what was going on….I was so afraid to say anything because of the shame it would bring upon my name, but then I found out that there were so many other cases among his students. So I broke my silence.

People reacted fiercely. “Another shameful page in the history of the Islamic republic,” wrote Meysam. “People are being abused under the banner of religion… and no-one is going to be held accountable.”

“If the victims had been girls, [the authorities] would’ve accused them of being dressed inappropriately and provocatively. And they would argue that the assault was understandable” wrote Somayeh, according to BBC.

Efforts to bring the child rapist to justice have been fruitless. A spokesman for the judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, argued that there was “insufficient evidence” to look into Tousi’s case.

The intriguing issue is that Tousi has confessed to his crimes:

In 2012, Tousi signed a letter in the presence of Ali Moghadam stating that he repented for his actions. He promised there would be no further instances of sexual harassment. In most courts of law, such a letter would serve as evidence of guilt and wrongdoing. But not only did the letter protect Tousi from any punishment, it did not appear to signal the stopping point for Tousi’s abuse. According to plaintiffs in the case against the Koranic expert, the rapes and abuse continued, and students were left vulnerable to his predatory actions.

Instead of investigating the case, the Islamic judiciary is now accusing his victims of being anti-establishment and foreign conspirators for speaking with foreign media outlets. The religious authorities would have preferred that the children remained silent.

The famous Quran reciter is not only currently walking free, but is also being continuously invited by government officials to recite the Quran at major official ceremonies. He is totally protected by the religious establishment.

It is crucial to point out that this is not a rare case. There are tens of thousands of religious Islamic figures, from every village and city of Iran, who use their Islamic authority to rape, abuse, and molest children, girls and women. Raping children, boys and little girls is not considered an important issue for the Islamic judiciary of Iran. In addition, if such rapes are conducted by a religious figure, he can be confident that there would be no legal case against him. In fact, the victims who speak up are the ones who would be charged for endangering Iran’s Islamic establishment.

Categories: Iran - human rights, Iran and rape, Iranian judicial system, Iranian religious leaders, Khamenei
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