Tag Archives: ISIS

Attack ISIS in Syria Even If It Helps Assad

Three questions are being raised by pundits and politicians about how Iran and Syria’s Assad regime should figure into possible military action by the United States and its allies against ISIS — the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, also known as ISIL and the Islamic State.

  • Is it a mistake to attack ISIS in Syria since ISIS is also an enemy of the Assad regime and such attacks may ensure Assad holds on to power?
  • Should the U.S. team up with the Assad regime to attack ISIS in Syria?
  • Should the U.S. work with Iran to destroy ISIS?

Some are arguing we should not bomb ISIS in Syria because that would strengthen Assad. Others argue since the ISIS threat is so dire, we should work with Assad to destroy it.

A few believe we should work with Iran against ISIS.

These difficult questions reflect how messy the situations in Iraq and Syria have become as a result of numerous policy mistakes by the United States and Europe over the last few years.

Doing anything to prop up the brutal Assad dictatorship is obviously an unpalatable course of action. Some experts have proposed clever ways to prevent the Syrian army from benefiting from U.S. airstrikes against ISIS in Syria by also bombing Syrian airfields and attacking the Syrian army and Iranian-backed militias to buy time to train and arm the moderate Syrian rebels of the Free Syrian Army — FSA.

Such proposals are fantasies. Attacking the Syrian army would get the United States into a war with Syria and put U.S. planes at risk of being shot down by Syrian air defenses. Moreover, the Free Syrian Army is badly outmatched by ISIS and the Syrian army. After withholding arms since 2011 from the FSA, attempting to arm and train these rebels now to make them a force capable of taking on ISIS and the Syrian army would take many months, assuming this is even possible.

The truth is the United States and Europe effectively conceded the Syrian civil war to Assad years ago. If the West had attacked Syrian forces in 2011 when they began their bloody crackdown against anti-government protesters or created humanitarian safe zones in Syria in 2011 or 2012, the Syrian rebels may have defeated the Assad regime before it was shored up by Iran and Russia.

Given the seriousness of the ISIS threat and the likelihood that Assad is not going to be defeated, attacking ISIS in Syria even though this may benefit the Assad government is the right move. However, the U.S. should not do anything to further legitimize Assad by allying with him to defeat ISIS. We should instead warn Damascus that we will retaliate against any Syrian government attacks on Western aircraft. I believe the Assad government probably would go along with this.

There is a temptation to team up with Iran to combat ISIS.

I suspect senior Obama officials are already exploring this idea with Iranian diplomats on the margins of ongoing talks on Iran’s nuclear program. This would be a serious mistake. Iran bears significant responsibility for the outbreak of sectarian tensions in Iraq since 2011 due to its strong support for the Maliki government and by its training of Shiite militias that have massacred Iraqi Sunnis. America’s policy should be reduce Iran’s influence in Iraq and Syria and do nothing to increase its influence.

To defeat the ISIS terrorist army, the United States will need to make some difficult decisions that will have significant downsides. Boosting Assad by attacking ISIS in Syria is a price the U.S. and its allies should be prepared to pay given the situation on the ground in Syria and American and regional security interests.

That is as far as we should go.

The U.S. and its allies should not cooperate with the Syrian or Iranian government to defeat ISIS because of the destabilizing impact of such actions and to avoid legitimizing these regimes.

ISIS on the border: a clear and present threat to the US electric grid

The Secure the Grid Coalition convened a panel to examine the danger and possibility that the Islamic State, either directly or through proxies like the Knights Templar drug cartel, or other enemies of the United States – could inflict existential damage upon this country by attacking its vulnerable electric grid.

  • Frank Gaffney, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (Acting) and President and CEO of the Center for Security Policy, Moderator
  • Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, with nearly 30 years of federal service in the U.S. Defense Department and as a specialized trainer for border guards and Special Forces, and author of A Nation Forsaken: EMP: The Escalating Threat of an American Catastrophe. Mr. Maloof will give an overview of the threats posed to the U.S. electric grid and the critical infrastructures that depend upon it.
  • Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, former career CIA analyst, member of the staff of the congressionally mandated Electromagnetic Pulse Threat Commission, Executive Director of the Congressional Task Force on National and Homeland Security and author of Apocalypse Unknown: The Struggle To Protect America From An Electromagnetic Pulse Catastrophe. Dr. Pry will address the particular danger posed by the Islamic State and similar jihadist groups, the risk of naturally occurring events that could take down the grid and the impediments to the needed corrective actions.
  • Amb. Henry F. Cooper, PhD, is a mechanical engineer who formerly served as the Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Research, Development, and Logistics. In those capacities he oversaw steps taken by the Defense Department to ensure the resiliency of critical weapon systems against EMP effects. Dr. Cooper will explain what can be done to protect the grid against all hazards and the necessity of doing so.
  • Kelly Carlson, an accomplished Hollywood actor who has been active on national and maritime security issues and serves as member of the Secure the Grid Coalition. Ms. Carlson will present several videos aimed at raising the awareness of the American people to the vulnerability of the electric grid and to encourage action by federal and state governments to protect the bulk power distribution system. (Via Skype)

Kelly Carlson briefs the panel (via Skype) on U.S. Grid Vulnerability along the southern border.


For more information visit: http://www.securethegrid.com

Drawing the U.S. into Armageddon?

What if the Islamic State (IS) staged an Armageddon – and nobody came?

With the savage videotaped beheading of a second U.S. journalist, Steven Sotloff, by the IS on 2 September 2014, it’s becoming impossible to ignore how desperately the group wants to draw American forces into its End Times scenario.

The repeated, explicit incitement embedded in statements accompanying first the beheading of American reporter James Foley and now of Sotloff, was aimed directly at President Barack Obama in order to goad the U.S. and its allies into a military reaction that would give IS the common infidel enemy it needs to consolidate its own Sunni ranks against any possible regional backlash. Without the return of U.S. and other Western forces into the region, IS may well fear the sort of Sunni Awakening (or “Sahwah”) that eventually defeated its al-Qa’eda (AQ) predecessor, Al-Qa’eda in Iraq (AQI), along with the 2007 U.S. surge.

Issue 3 of IS’s slick online magazine, ‘Dabiq,’ is titled “A Call To Hijrah” and gives us a revealing look at the new Caliphate’s strategy.

The number one priority for the moment is consolidating territorial gains made during the blitzkrieg advances of June and July 2014. IS needs a continued influx of Muslim fighters from around the region as well as abroad to accomplish this and make the Caliphate an established, governing reality—hence, the heavy emphasis on encouraging Muslim youth to join the latest jihad caravan.

According to the 7-Phase al-Qa’eda timeline outlined in a 2005 Der Spiegel interview with Seif al-Adl (the AQ military commander who’s been running joint terror operations out of Iran ever since 9/11), the period 2013-2016 is marked by the establishment of a Caliphate, so this puts them right on track.

The latest Dabiq issue also makes reference to a hadith that declares “The Hour of Resurrection” cannot come until the ‘Romans’ (Christian Westerners) land forces in Dabiq, an area near Aleppo in northwestern Syria. According to Muslim eschatology as recounted in Dabiq, this sets up the great battle, or “Final Confrontation” of the “Al-Hamah” (meaning Armageddon) in which Muslim forces will triumph, go on to conquer and slaughter all remaining on earth who will not convert to Islam, and usher in a millennium of ‘peace’ and ‘justice’ under the universal rule of shariah.

Thus far, though, even as Obama’s own military leaders are urging immediate action to destroy IS, the administration has hesitated to commit more than some targeted air strikes, humanitarian aid, and limited numbers of Special Operations Forces (SOFs) on the ground, who are working alongside the Kurds to blunt the IS advance.

But as IS sees things, the only way it can forestall the possibility that regional Sunni tribes might unite against its brutal shariah enforcement, involves pulling U.S., Australian, British, and other Western military forces once again into a high casualty confrontation in the land of al-Sham.

If videotaped beheadings don’t do it, a spectacular IS attack on the American homeland might—just as with the original 9/11 attacks, when Usama bin Laden (along with Hizballah, Iran, and Saudi Arabia) provoked the U.S. into the massive invasions of Muslim lands that launched the “Islamic Awakening,” according to the AQ conquest timeline.

A parade of Islamic Caliphates, from the Ummayad and Abbasid, to the Fatamid and Ottoman, has come and gone over the centuries of Islamic history. It is impossible to tell at this point how this latest would-be Muslim empire will fare in the long run but even as the U.S. reacts with both fear and fury, it will be to our advantage to understand how the IS enemy is manipulating our natural responses, deliberately seeking to instill terror that corrodes our confidence and trumps our better judgment.

For a national security leadership that variously armed, trained and then contemptuously dismissed these jihadis as the “JV team,” Obama and his advisors have backpedalled rather dramatically in recent days, issuing a stream of panicky assessments about the “barbaric” “cancer” of “ugly, savage, inexplicable, nihilistic, and valueless evil” “beyond the pale of humanity.”

Before we rush headlong into the fray of intra-Islamic sectarian fitna once again, however, let’s understand what we’re up against: it would help, of course, if the Obama administration hadn’t purged all mention of Islamic terror and its inspirational foundations in the Qur’an, hadiths, Sirat, and shariah from the USG training curriculum, but a quick dive into a few of the Qur’an’s key jihad and terror verses (Q 8:12, 8:39, 8:60, 9:5, 9:29) should prove instructive.

U.S. strategy towards IS must include an aggressive defense of our own people and interests at diplomatic facilities and military bases as well as those of partners and allies in the region (Israel, Jordan, the Kurds). The U.S. is uniquely capable of organizing humanitarian aid to assist the Christian, Yazidi, and other ancient peoples targeted by IS for annihilation or subjugation. There’s no substitute for a robust intelligence and Special Operations Forces (SOF) capability to provide warning and options for application of U.S. power and influence as required.

But with nearly a dozen missing Libyan civilian airliners, thousands of loose surface-to-air missiles, hundreds of Muslims carrying Western passports (including our own) all fired up to join the jihad, and a collapsed southern border through which no one knows how many Islamic terrorists already may have passed, IS efforts to drag the U.S. into its Armageddon scenario could reach an even more alarming level as the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 date approaches.

Will ISIS Strike America’s Achilles Heel?

According to the indispensable government watchdog group Judicial Watch, the U.S. government has evidence that the jihadist Islamic State (IS) is present in Juarez, Mexico – across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.

Worse yet, the Texas Department of Public Safety believes there is evidence that IS plans an imminent attack in this country. In light of the latest murderous attack by this organization against an American journalist, Steven Sotloff, among other atrocities, such threats must be taken with the utmost seriousness.

Among the targets national security professionals fear may now be in the jihadis’ crosshairs is America’s exceedingly vulnerable electric grid. A panel discussion being held at the National Press Club in Washington Wednesday afternoon will show how a spate of recent attacks involving sabotage and destruction of property at various electric substations here and elsewhere could be leading indicators of the next 9/11 – one potentially vastly more destructive than the original which occurred thirteen years ago next week.

One of the experts participating in the event organized by the Secure the Grid Coalition (www.SecuretheGrid.com), Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, has warned that the sort of collusion that has been taking place between jihadist groups like the Islamic State and Latin American drug cartels could allow such a scenario to be actualized. After all, last October, the Knights Templar narco-traffickers blacked out the grid of the Mexican state of Michoacan to murder law enforcement personnel and others. And last June, a substation serving the border and city of Nogales, Arizona was nearly destroyed by an improvised explosive device.

Dr. Pry and two other nationally renowned experts on the grid vulnerability issue – former Defense Department official and author F. Michael Maloof and former Air Force Deputy Assistant Secretary and Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative Amb. Henry F. Cooper – will discuss the various naturally occurring and man-induced phenomena that threaten our bulk power distribution system and, with it, all the other critical infrastructures that depend upon the grid to supply the necessities of life in 21st-century America.

Of particular concern is the prospect that, in the event attacks are mounted successfully against a handful of critical U.S. facilities operating high voltage transformers, widespread and protracted blackouts could occur across the United States. By one official estimate, should the power go out and stay out for over a year, nine out of ten Americans would likely perish.

Such a horrifying prospect has moved some in Hollywood to lend their celebrity and skills to raising public awareness about the need to make the electric grid more resilient. A leader in that effort is Kelly Carlson, an accomplished Hollywood actor who has been active on national and maritime security issues and serves as member of the Secure the Grid Coalition. She will be participating in the panel discussion via Skype and will present several videos that will begin rolling out nationally this week.

The timing of this discussion not only responds to the growing evidence of our vulnerability to a truly existential threat. It also anticipates deliberations in the Congress later this month on legislation sponsored by Reps. Trent Franks of Arizona and Pete Sessions of Texas and strongly supported by House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul. Known as the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, this measure would require the Department of Homeland Security to make a focus for a new “National Planning Scenario” a particularly destructive means of attacking the electric grid: a high-altitude nuclear detonation unleashing electromagnetic pulse (EMP) over large areas.

Dr. Cooper will draw upon his experience overseeing the sorts of techniques that the Pentagon has used for more than fifty years to protect its critical assets (principally the nuclear deterrent forces, missile defenses and associated command and control) to illuminate measures that could be used cost-effectively and reasonably quickly to secure the grid against EMP and other perils.

The death and destruction now being meted out routinely by the Islamic State and assorted other shariah-adherent terrorists calls to mind one of the lessons drawn by the 9/11 Commission about the murderous suicidal aircraft hijackings of that black day thirteen years ago: The Commissioners described our unpreparedness for that act of jihad as “a failure of imagination.” We dare not indulge in such a failure again – especially in the face of mounting evidence that today’s terrorists have the imagination, the ability, and the desire to take down our grid.

ISIS is the President’s Intelligence Failure

Obama officials made some dubious claims over the summer that the White House was caught off guard by the rise of the terrorist army of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) because U.S. intelligence agencies underestimated the ISIS threat.  Many have disputed this, including Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI), the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who said in June that the Iraq crisis is a policy and not an intelligence failure.  Others pointed out there has been press on ISIS activities for almost a year and that Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee last February that ISIS “will attempt to take territory in Iraq and Syria to exhibit its strength in 2014, as demonstrated recently in Ramadi and Fallujah, and the group’s ability to concurrently maintain multiple safe havens in Syria.”

It now looks like the real intelligence failure has been President Obama’s decision to ignore critical U.S. intelligence analysis and warnings.

Fox News correspondent Catherine Herridge reported today that according to a former Pentagon official, “detailed and specific intelligence about the rise of ISIS was included in the PDB, or the President’s Daily Brief, for at least a year before the group took large swaths of territory beginning in June.”  The source also described this intelligence as “strong” and “granular” in detail.

The PDB is a highly classified daily intelligence report prepared for the President and a handful of other high level officials by U.S. intelligence agencies.  The former Pentagon official told Herridge that unlike his predecessors, President Obama reads the PDB and does not receive a PDB briefing.  The source also said U.S. intelligence agencies rarely receive follow-up questions from Mr. Obama on the PDB.

Herridge’s story tracks with a September 12, 2012 Washington Post op-ed by Marc Thiessen that despite White House bragging about President Obama receiving a daily PDB briefing, Thiessen found the president had skipped more than half of them.

The president’s supporters in the news media went after Thiessen over this op-ed.  For example, in a September 24, 2012 column, The bogus claim that Obama ‘skips’ his intelligence briefings, Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler gave Thiessen’s piece three “Pinocchios” for being inaccurate and said in an update it may have deserved a fourth.  According to Kessler, Presidents Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Clinton also did not receive daily PDB briefings.

While Kessler is right that presidents have had different styles in dealing with intelligence and the PDB, the real issue is whether the information in the PDB reaches the president.  President Carter and both Presidents Bush often sent comments and feedback after reading the PDB.  Presidents Ford and Reagan sent also sent feedback but less than these presidents.  (Kessler also claimed President Reagan almost never wrote questions or comments about the PDB.  I dispute this since I once received a comment from President Reagan written on a PDB I authored when I was a CIA analyst.  Several of my CIA colleagues occasionally received comments and questions on the PDB from President Reagan.)

President Bill Clinton had a very different approach to the PDB and his morning intelligence.  It was well known at CIA that Clinton rarely read the PDB.  Clinton skipped so many PDB briefings that CIA management stopped sending daily read-outs of them to analysts after someone at CIA leaked word about Clinton’s skipped PDB briefings to the press.  I believe Clinton’s ignorance of U.S. intelligence analysis contributed to his underestimation of the threat from al-Qaeda and his timid responses to the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks which occurred on his watch.

Some will interpret Herridge’s report as an explanation for President Obama’s claims that he did not know about the ISIS threat as well as the much-criticized comment he made last week that his administration has “no strategy yet” to deal with ISIS.

I don’t buy such an explanation.  Consider that National Security Adviser Rice, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Kerry and Secretary of Defense Hagel also are PDB recipients.  I’m sure most if not all of them receive daily PDB briefings and read the PDB.  If this is the case, why didn’t any of them tell the president about the growing ISIS threat that U.S. intelligence agencies reportedly were warning about?

The answer is that the president did know about these warnings and was told about them by his senior officials but chose to ignore this information because he is still in denial about the threat from radical Islam.  This was obvious by the way Obama officials misled the American people about the 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.   It is now clear Mr Obama did not learn from this mistake.

The most worrisome conclusion I draw from Herridge’s report is not that President Obama ignored or played down information about the ISIS threat and radical Islam.  I’m more concerned that Mr Obama’s reported refusal to do PDB briefings or send feedback on the PDB suggests he may be ignoring intelligence across the board just like President Clinton did.  This raises the question whether there are other urgent threat warnings by American intelligence agencies that Mr Obama is aware of but has chosen to ignore.

ISIS and America’s Achilles Heel: A Clear And Present Danger To The Electrical Grid – And How It Can Be Prevented

MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
For more information contact:
Nik Hanlon | nhanlon@securefreedom.org | 202-719-2418
 
ISIS AND AMERICA’S ACHILLES HEEL: A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO THE ELECTRIC GRID – AND HOW IT CAN BE PREVENTED  
National Experts to Discuss ‘Imminent,’ Existential Threat and Need for Urgent Action
 

Washington, D.C.: According to Judicial Watch, the U.S. government has evidence that the jihadist Islamic State is present in Juarez, Mexico – across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas – and the Texas Department of Public Safety believes there is evidence it plans an imminent attack in this country.  In light of the latest murderous attack by this organization against an American journalist, Steven Sotloff, such threats must be taken with the utmost seriousness.

To examine this danger and the possibility that the Islamic State, either directly or through proxies like the Knights Templar drug cartel, or other enemies of the United States – could inflict existential damage upon this country by attacking its vulnerable electric grid, the Secure the Grid Coalition is convening an panel of leaders in the fight to prevent such an eventuality.
WHO:
  • Frank Gaffney,former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (Acting) and President and CEO of the Center for Security Policy, Moderator
  • Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, with nearly 30 years of federal service in the U.S. Defense Department and as a specialized trainer for border guards and Special Forces, and author of A Nation Forsaken: EMP: The Escalating Threat of an American Catastrophe. Mr. Maloof will give an overview of the threats posed to the U.S. electric grid and the critical infrastructures that depend upon it.
  • Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, former career CIA analyst, member of the staff of the congressionally mandated Electromagnetic Pulse Threat Commission, Executive Director of the Congressional Task Force on National and Homeland Security and author of Apocalypse Unknown: The Struggle To Protect America From An Electromagnetic Pulse Catastrophe. Dr. Pry will address the particular danger posed by the Islamic State and similar jihadist groups, the risk of naturally occurring events that could take down the grid and the impediments to the needed corrective actions.
  • Amb. Henry F. Cooper, PhD, is a mechanical engineer who formerly served as the Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative and formerDeputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Research, Development, and Logistics. In those capacities he oversaw steps taken by the Defense Department to ensure the resiliency of critical weapon systems against EMP effects.  Dr. Cooper will explain what can be done to protect the grid against all hazards and the necessity of doing so.
  • Kelly Carlson,an accomplished Hollywood actor who has been active on national and maritime security issues and serves as member of the Secure the Grid Coalition.  Ms. Carlson will present several videos aimed at raising the awareness of the American people to the vulnerability of the electric grid and to encourage action by federal and state governments to protect the bulk power distribution system.
WHERE:

National Press Club
Murrow Room
529 14th St NW, 13th Floor
Washington, D.C.
WHEN:

Wednesday, September 3, 2014, 2:00-3:30 pm

-30-
About the Secure the Grid Coalition
The Secure the Grid Coalition is an ad hoc group of policy, energy, and national security experts, legislators, and industry insiders who are dedicated to strengthening the resiliency of America’s electrical grid. The Coalition aims to raise awareness about the national and international threat of grid vulnerability, an encourage the steps needed to neutralize it www.SecuretheGrid.com.

Shouldn’t fighting for ISIS disqualify you as a US Citizen?

Fox News is reporting that a second American citizen has been killed while fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group in Syria.  That same report goes on to note that federal investigators estimate roughly one hundred American citizens have gone to Syria to fight for various jihadist organizations.  Other sources have indicated that the number of US citizens joining up with ISIS is as high as three hundred.

Homeland security officials are rightly concerned about this development.  American citizens fighting for ISIS and other groups can potentially return to the United States and apply their battlefield-acquired skills to carry out attacks against American targets – a list of which was just published in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) publication, Al Malahem.

One way to inhibit such operatives from coming back to the United States to carry out such plans is to revoke their US citizenship, a move that would invalidate their US passports and make it that much harder to set foot on American soil.  Revocation of citizenship would have the added benefit of making such individuals eligible for trial by military commissions (assuming such individuals fall within the purview of an Authorization for the Use of Military Force, be it the one currently in effect or one passed in the months to come).

The United States government arguably already has the authority to revoke citizenship under these circumstances.  Title 8, Section 1481 of the U.S. Code lays out the various scenarios through which a US citizen could lose his/her citizenship, and states in part:

(a) A person who is a national of the United States whether by birth or naturalization, shall lose his nationality by voluntarily performing any of the following acts with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality—…

… (3) entering, or serving in, the armed forces of a foreign state if

(A) such armed forces are engaged in hostilities against the United States, or

(B) such persons serve as a commissioned or non-commissioned officer; …

Could existing law perhaps be tweaked to include US citizens who join the ranks of non-state actors like ISIS or al Qaeda?  Perhaps – then-Senators Joe Lieberman and Scott Brown introduced legislation a few years ago along these lines.  Such an effort may need to be undertaken again.

It is true that especially these days, ISIS and company need only cross our southwest border to do us harm from within.  But a vulnerable back door is no reason not to lock the front door.

The Islamic Terror Orchestra

It has been 13 years since 9/11 and the West is still reluctant to link the non-ending parade of jihad groups with Islam. The West is also in denial about the similarities all radical Islamic groups share. It is important for the West to realize that there is a natural division of labor between the different terror groups. Some groups specialize in terror against non-Muslims and Western governments while others specialize in terrorizing Arab governments that refused to follow Sharia. But the truly sophisticated groups are those who reside in the West, calling themselves ‘moderate’ while at the same time defending and controlling the direction of Islamist goals through advocacy, diplomacy, negotiation and PR.

All of the above types of Islamist groups work together in perfect harmony like an orchestra that sings to the tune of “Allahu Akbar.” And when Islamic terrorism and beheadings anger the world and turn public opinion against Islam, that orchestra starts playing a different tune to confuse and prevent the world from uncovering their coordinated handy work. While one group proudly takes credit for the terror, another publicly denounces it. But most groups, while enjoying the power and attention the terrorists have bestowed on them, stand by with a look of victimhood saying: “I am a victim too because you condemn me and my peaceful religion when I did not do anything. That is not Islam and you are an Islamophobe.”

Not only is there division of labor amongst Islamist groups, but these groups also often change roles, tactics and appearances — after birthing other more radical terror groups to do the dirty work of terror. Because the West and some Arab governments refuse to deal with terror organizations, these organizations play a game of presenting a face of rehabilitation and moderation, while delegating the terror and assassinations to newer groups. Old guard terror groups like the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and Fatah were able to change color and they assumed a new, but only cosmetic, appearance of moderation, but not before birthing the more violent Al-Qaeda and Hamas.

The West was told the MB and Fatah were now the moderate and humanitarian face of Islam that could be counted on and that could run Islamic government. Islam will present itself as working with the rest of the world only for the sake of establishing the Kalifate. The West has been only too happy to welcome the new face of the old terror groups to the camp of moderation. But the new face of evil after the MB became Al-Qaeda.

When the MB won the Egyptian elections, Islamists believed the Kalifate could be achieved through elections, avoiding the usual violent jihad. But when Egyptians realized they had made a mistake by electing the MB and 35,000,000 Egyptians revolted against Islamist rule, the dreams of a Kalifate through peaceful elections were defeated. The only solution for Muslims to achieve their Kalifate is the old fashioned way of 7th century Islam: pure violence, savagery and terror; thus the rise of the newest Islamist terror group, ISIS, while the MB takes a back seat.

When Al-Qaeda’s reputation tanked after 9/11, even inside the Middle East, the terror jihadists were forced into working under a new name — same goals, but with a more ferocious appetite for terror and torture. After the defeat of the budding Islamist State through elections in Egypt in 2013, the restrained beast of public beheadings hidden in the Islamic genie bottle finally exploded for the world to see in the form of ISIS; an organization that declared itself as the true long-awaited Islamic State. Force became the only choice. Coincidentally, this follows the example of Mohammed who tried to peacefully Islamize Mecca for 13 years but failed and could only Islamize Arabia by force, terror and the sword when he became a warrior in Medina.

ISIS rushed to declare itself as the Islamic State even before finishing the job of conquering all of Iraq and Syria. It was flaunting its savagery to the world in the hope of giving the message to reluctant Arab countries that they will be next. The plan is very similar to what Mohammed and his followers did in the 7th century: conquer Arabia quickly by force so they could move to more important goals of taking over the outside world, now the West and Israel. By doing that they are confirming to Muslims around the world that terror works and that their prophet Mohammed was correct when he said: “I have been victorious through terror.”

Bottom line: What legitimate Islamic organizations must adhere to is obeying Islamic commandments to conquer the world for Islam, defeat and humiliate non-Muslim nations and establish the Kalifate — to be ruled by sharia. That is the plan. It is not the opinion of the writer of this article, but it is the basic objective of Islamic law books, scriptures and preaching, which explicitly define jihad as a war with non-Muslims to establish the religion of Islam. To facilitate this mission, Islamic law freed Muslims from any restrictions on their behavior; they can wage offensive wars, kill, terrorize, behead, lie, deceive, humiliate, slander, use corporal punishment on women and children, and sacrifice the well being of the family, all for the purpose of the empowerment of Islam.

But instead of properly facing the 21 Century Islamic challenge, the West has chosen denial. Obama is being criticized for resorting to golf in a time of trouble, but that is perhaps his only outlet when he feels paralyzed, because what he believed and advocated Islam to be and what it is turned out to be polar opposites.

Also, instead of facing the incompetence and many obvious weaknesses of Islamic terror groups, the West has chosen to appease an enemy that only respects power. Thus, the Obama administration decided to be more concerned with appearances and saying instead of doing the right thing. For example, Obama likes to correct Americans on the proper pronunciation of Arabic names and expressions such as Pakistan and ISIL instead of ISIS, etc. But when the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria was declared the West was too embarrassed to call it what it called itself, the Islamic State, and found the English abbreviation ISIS more appropriate than the Arabic name that linked the new terrorist state to Islam.

I was recently asked by visitors from Egypt, “What is ISIS?” My answer was, it is the preferred name the US administration and media use to refer to the newly declared Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Their response was, “Why? In Arabic they call themselves ‘The Islamic State?’” I told them it is a long story, but the West does not want to offend Muslims who believe that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism, tyranny and hatred.

Obama insists on presenting himself as more of an expert on Islam than the founders of ISIS when he stated, “ISIL speaks for no religion.” It is not appropriate for the US government or media to define what is or what is not Islam to Muslims who are reading from their books statements that command them to kill infidels. All we should do is take them for their word.

Both the US government and media have decided, long before Obama, that it would be the wise thing to do to keep US citizens uninformed about the true goals of Islam. The goal of this policy was partially to convince Islamic terror groups to leave the West alone and perhaps in the long run Islam will reform on its own one day. But unfortunately history was not on the side of this theory. Appeasement did not work for Coptic Christians in Egypt nor for Zoroastrians in Persia when in the 7th century the two ancient civilizations fell to the Arab Islamic invasion in the same year. Both Egypt and Persia tried to appease but failed to win hearts and minds of the Muslim invaders who used the most barbaric forms of terror and tyranny to Islamize and Arabize both civilizations. Both Egypt and Persia never saw their glory days again and today they are incapable of ruling themselves without the usual Sharia-enforced oppression and tyranny.

What everyone misses here is the right of the American people to know the full truth about their new enemy directly and honestly from their politicians and media. By caring about the feelings of Muslims more than American citizens’ right to the truth, and without naming Islam by name, the US government and media will usher America into a dark phase marking the beginning of tyranny and the end of liberty.

Media Confused as Boko Haram Claims to Join the Islamic State

In a video released over the weekend, AbuBakr Shekaku, head of the Nigerian jihadist group known as Boko Haram, appears to have declared allegiance to the Islamic State, proclaiming lands currently under Boko Haram control in the province of Borno part of the “Caliphate.”

Despite this, much of the Western media seemed confused about the nature of a Caliphate and what it means. From the AFP report:

In a July video, Shekau voiced support for the leader of the Islamic State and the Levant (Isil) militants Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who in late June declared himself “the caliph” and “leader of Muslims everywhere”. But there was no indication from Shekau in the latest video that he was associating himself with Baghdadi, whose Sunni Muslim fighters have taken over parts of Iraq and Syria. As such, it was not clear if Shekau was declaring himself to be a part of Baghdadi’s call or if he was referring to a separate Nigerian caliphate.

The position of Caliph is one with purported dominion over the entire “ummah” the total collective of the Muslim faithful.There can only be one legitimate Caliph, and one Caliphate, as Shekaku is no doubt aware. Given that the  laudatory language Boko Haram has in the past offered towards the IS Caliphate, the most likely conclusion would be that Boko Haram either has joined, or intends to join the Islamic State of Al-Baghdadi. It would be incongruous for Shekaku to praise IS, and then negate its primary achievement by denying it legitimacy by claiming he was the true Caliph.

It’s worth noting that while this confusion over whether or not Boko Haram was declaring for the IS Caliphate or declaring its own Caliphate was echoed in all the western reporting which followed from the AFP report, the same confusion is not at all present in an OnIslam.net report, which draws from the same AFP wire.  The OnIslam.net report also ignores the extraneous historical detail of the Sokoto caliphate, a 19th century Nigerian Islamic state which laid claim to the Caliphate title. This is a classic example of how the disinclination to study Islamic law on matters leads to injecting unnecessary complexity into the analysis of events.

If it is the case that Boko Haram has acknowledged the territory it controls as part of the IS Caliphate, this is a major development for the Islamic State. The claim of authority by its “Caliph” Al-Baghdadi has largely been rejected by other Jihadist groups, with only minor exceptions. Yet being recognized as receiving the bay’at (oath) of notable scholars and jihadi emirs who hold actual territory is central to Al Baghdadi’s claim of legitimacy. Of course whether either group is capable of meeting the perceived obligation of such an oath, sharing and exchanging resources, personnel etc, is an entirely other matter.

 

 

Obama’s Post-Foley Fraud About Shariah

President Barack Obama found time between golf rounds Thursday to condemn the beheading of American journalist James Foley by the Islamic State (also known as the Islamic State in the Levant or ISIL) and to assure the American people that he was all about protecting them against similar fates.

Unfortunately, aside from the President’s welcome condolences to the Foley family, the rest of his remarks amounted to serial misrepresentations about this latest act of terrorist violence at the hands of shariah-adherent jihadists. Such conduct can only assure that more of us will die at their hands.

For example, Mr. Obama declared: “No faith teaches people to massacre innocents.” Actually, the authoritative Islamic doctrine (or ideology) known as shariah explicitly calls for violent jihad to force infidels to submit to Islam and, as the Koran puts it, “to make them feel subdued.”

The President sought to reinforce the notion that, because ISIL’s “victims are overwhelmingly Muslim,” the group’s terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. In fact, practically from Islam’s inception, innumerable Muslims have been massacred by their co-religionists over such matters as Sunni-Shia differences concerning fine points of theology or insufficient conformity with shariah.

Mr. Obama also asserted that the Islamic State’s “ideology is bankrupt.” Calling that ideology bankrupt at a moment when it is palpably on the march from North and sub-Saharan Africa to the Far East and Latin America bespeaks a contempt for the intelligence of the American people. It is approximately as delusional and misleading as Obama’s previous, electioneering claim that one of shariah’s other jihadist franchises, al Qaeda, is “on the path to defeat.”

In short, President Obama’s comments marking the decapitation of James Foley are but the latest in a series of instances of national security fraud on his part. Intentional or not, they have the effect of engendering a false sense of security at home, even as they embolden our jihadist and other enemies – who are ever-alert to weakness, lack of seriousness, or irresolution on America’s part.

A particularly unsettling example of those qualities was evident in the President’s closing assurance that “we will be vigilant… and relentless” in protecting the American people. Actually, at the moment he is being clueless, disingenuous, and ineffectual in doing so. And that puts us all at risk.