Rep. Trent Franks’ NDAA Trifecta

Listen to the interview here.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Welcome to Secure Freedom Radio. This is Frank Gaffney, your host and guide for what I think of as an intelligence briefing on the war for the free world. I honestly don’t know many people who have been bringing more intelligence to bear more effectively, particularly of late, with greater effect, certainly not in the United States Congress, than has our first guest. He is Congressman Trent Franks. He represents with great distinction, and has now for seven terms, the people of the 8^th district of Arizona. He is the chairman of the subcommittee on the Constitution and civil justice of the House judiciary committee. Perhaps more importantly, he is a member of the House armed services committee, serving as the vice-chair of its subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities. He is the chairman of more caucuses and task forces than you can shake a stick at, including ones involving missile defense and electromagnetic pulse. And it is for those reasons in particular that I’m thrilled to have him here on the occasion of a trifecta that the congressman achieved. If you ever want to know whether one person can make a difference, Trent Franks is proof positive of the principle. And I know he’s very modest and he’ll credit a lot of other people, but we’re going to talk about some of his successes in the National Defense Authorization Act. Congressman Franks, welcome back to Secure Freedom Radio.

TRENT FRANKS:

Well, thank you, Frank. You know, I don’t know of any group in America or certainly not on the Hill that are doing more definitive, persistent, relentless work to strengthen this national security than the Center for Security Policy.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

We stipulate we have a mutual admiration society. But let’s talk about why you are so admirable. Let’s talk, first of all, I was at an event you attended on Friday of last week called The DuPont Summit, where a gathering of the country’s preeminent experts on the vulnerabilities of our electric grid came together to compare notes and map strategy and I think you stole the show with an announcement from the podium. Tell us what you shared with the group.

TRENT FRANKS:

Well, you know, I always want to be cautious in that the president has not signed this bill, as you know, but we were able to include the entire Critical Infrastructure Protection Act with only some modifications, minor modifications, but as I’ve looked at it since, I’m thinking that we have had a profound breakthrough. We were able to include that in the defense bill, which has a ninety-nine plus percent chance of passing the Senate now. And I’m told will definitively be signed by the president. Which would give us our first true historic milestone in addressing the danger to the country of electromagnetic pulse, or weaponized electromagnetic pulse. Really, or either one. Either natural or man-made. And I think it’s an incredibly significant thing and I want you to know that I don’t feel all these feelings of accomplishment. I feel the feelings of gratitude and that is the truth. Gratitude towards people like you, who were involved in this early on and who, when they were trying to maybe pull it in different hands, you stayed with us and I just got to tell you, Frank, I literally don’t know that this would have happened without Center for Security Policy. You guys were in the middle of it. Day one. And I don’t – if we had been successful, it would have probably been years from now.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Well, thank you, sir.

TRENT FRANKS:

And to now be – well, that’s the truth.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Back at you. It would not have happened without you, Congressman Franks, and I want to acknowledge, as I know you would, too, Congressman Pete Sessions and Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House homeland security committee, and, of course, Senator Ron Johnson, who also were very much supporters of this. But your leadership was absolutely indispensable.

TRENT FRANKS:

Well, absolutely. I said that publicly, as you know.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

And it creates a – it creates a plan for the Department of Homeland Security, requirement for a plan from the Department for Homeland Security to protect the grid. It is an incredible breakthrough. As are two things that you accomplished also in the National Defense Authorization Act, Congressman Trent Franks, with respect to another of your passions and mine, missile defense Talk quickly about those if you would, please, sir.

TRENT FRANKS:

Well, as you know, Ronald Reagan said it’s better to protect our citizens than avenge them. And as deeply as I am committed to maintaining a clear, delineated mutually assured destruction deterrent, I am convinced that for the kind of world that we live in, in a terrorist world where a terrorist could get hold of a potential ballistic missile and do some terrible harm and catalyze a greater conflict, that missile defense is vital. And we have thus far, for years, approached this only on a limited basis. The amendment I was able to offer successfully in the defense bill now says we’re going to go after a robust and more comprehensive system, not only to protect America, but to protect our allies. And it puts America on an entirely new trajectory in terms of missile defense. And it turns loose the genius of our private sector and the commitment of our Defense Department. The second – the second –

FRANK GAFFNEY:

But before we leave that, though, sir, let me just ask you, this is incalculably important, especially as a new administration that seems committed to defending the American people comes to office. Because instead of this limited missile defense, which was at best going to have some capability against, well, rogue states like North Korea and Iran, apparently both this particular commitment to a robust defense and what you’re about to share with us would actually protect us against other bad actors as well. So tell us about the second bit.

TRENT FRANKS:

Well, that’s true. That’s true. And all of the missile defense capability that we have now was essentially derived from a very simple little mission statement that called for a limited effort. And now we have tremendous advances that have occurred. Many more need to occur. But now we’re basing our forward motion on a very robust mission statement. And I will tell you, it will supercharge everything that we’re doing in missile defense. And I couldn’t be more grateful for the outcome of that amendment.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Let’s talk about the second of your two amendments in the missile defense area.

TRENT FRANKS:

The second one, as you know, one of the challenges that we have with either hypersonic glide vehicles or cruise missiles, is always about telemetry in missile defense and the ability to be able to shoot down a missile that’s coming in very, very low and doesn’t give us time to respond. There are a lot of disabilities. The horizon or –

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Or coming in fast and maneuvering, too. I mean, these are other threat factors, right?

TRENT FRANKS:

Maneuvering, yeah. There’s all kinds of elements. And I think, you know, laser is going to be a critical part of what we do going forward. But from the vantage point, you know, all through history when we are fighting battles, having the high ground is very important. And space is the ultimate high ground. And the second amendment that we did would – it directs the Defense Department to begin to research and develop a space layer for missile defense where at some point the ultimate end to that would be having interceptors in space where we could shoot down at – all a defensive measure, now, but shoot down at ballistic missiles or missiles coming in to hit the United States or our allies.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

TRENT FRANKS:

And this is enormous – enormous significance.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

The combination of the two, a space-based layer and a commitment to a robust missile defense is a complete game-changer and I look forward to working with you, Congressman Trent Franks, to fulfill and actualize that promise. Congressman, very quickly, you were one of the sponsors of a concurrent resolution that was adopted, as I understand it, by a very substantial bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives last week, concerning an ill-advised and, frankly, appalling idea that president Obama has been playing with of going to the United Nations to sabotage our friends in Israel. Would you talk a little bit about this resolution and what’s at stake?

TRENT FRANKS:

Well, you know, this is predicated on the fundamental premise that Barack Obama has essentially betrayed Israel for the last eight years. And he might talk the talk, being committed to our most vital ally in the world, but when it comes to really protecting them, he has railed against Israel more for building homes in their own territory than he has Iran for relentlessly pursuing a nuclear weapons capability with which to threaten the peace and security of the entire human family. So his priorities are so desperately off. And there’s great concern now in a lame duck situation that whereas America has consistently vetoed any UN resolutions that were overtly against Israel, that he might not let that happen this time. That he might just let it happen, you know, something that would be very damaging to Israel. And a bunch of us wrote a letter and we’ve done press conferences and we’re committed to making sure that anything that he might do to damage Israel these last few weeks will be temporary and we’ll try to respond to this. So I would just say in closing, Frank, with this new administration, our missile defense capability, these new breakthroughs that we’ve had in policy are going to dovetail, I think, with an administration that wants to implement these things and we truly have an opportunity to at least make defense great again. And to make our national security more – and to back up our precious friend, Israel.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

Amen to all of that. And we’ll be following this closely as I know will you. Congressman Trent Franks, God bless you and thank you for the difference you are making, my friend. Come back to us again very soon. In the meantime, all the best. Next up, we’ll talk with Henry Cooper about that space-based missile defense, a man who actually started building one. Right after this.