Tag Archives: John Bolton

Bowing to the Enemy

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With Amb. John Bolton, Luis Fleischman, Zuhdi Jasser, Bill Roggio, and Chris Farrell

Amb. JOHN BOLTON, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations:

  • Is Obama’s Cuba policy a surrender to a U.S. adversary?
  • Predicting Iran’s reaction to recent events in the Western Hemisphere
  • Voters asking for more Republican leaders to oppose the President’s foreign policy direction
  • Reestablishing the G.O.P. as the “national security party”

LUIS FLEISCHMAN, author of “Latin America in the Post-Chavez Era: The Security Threat to the United States”:

  • Venezuela and Cuba’s exchange of subsidized oil for security and medical personnel
  • The role of the global oil market in the timing of the Obama Administration’s normalization of relations with Castro’s Cuba
  • Why only a complete economic restructuring will enable Cubans to enjoy benefits of U.S. recognition
  • Barack Obama’s failure to gain concessions from the Cuban government, aside from the prisoner swap

Dr. ZUHDI JASSER, President and Founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and author of “A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot’s Fight to Save His Faith”:

  • Self-radicalized lone wolves in the global Shariah movement
  • How to promote a peaceful, tolerant form of the Muslim faith currently under threat from “Islamo-patriotism”
  • The need to understand ideologies instead of just fixing symptoms
  • Why the canceling of “The Interview” is a bigger issue than simply that of North Korean cyberterrorism

BILL ROGGIO, Managing Editor of the Long War Journal:

  • The Taliban massacre in Peshawar and the Pakistani government’s complex relationship with jihadist groups
  • How the Sydney hostage crisis reflects the inability of Western governments to identify domestic extremist threats
  • The battle to combat the Shariah ideology

CHRIS FARRELL, Director of Investigations and Research at Judicial Watch:

  • The U.S. Border Patrol being utilized as facilitators for resettlement
  • Criticism’s of the President’s broad-sweeping directives on immigration policy
  • Political ramifications of the Senate Intelligence report on enhanced interrogation
  • The importance of HUMINT and its ability to discern threat intentions

 

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Rebuilding A Stalwart America In the Face of Turmoil

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With John Bolton, Andy McCarthy, Peter Huessy, Kevin Freeman

JOHN BOLTON, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations:
  • The John Bolton PAC’s support for national security-oriented candidates
  • The Obama Administration’s assessment of Iran’s nuclear program
  • Wendy Sherman’s policy shortcomings towards Iran and North Korea
  • Returning to the ideal of “Peace Through Strength”
ANDY MCCARTHY, former federal prosecutor:
  • Embracing a realist perspective to guide America’s role as a world leader
  • The Khorasan group’s position as a sub-entity of core Al Qaeda
  • Lackluster progress in the air campaign against ISIS
PETER HUESSY, Senior Fellow in National Security Affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council:
  • Iran’s work towards a nuclear weapon under the guise of a nuclear energy program
  • Questions surrounding Iran’s assertion that its supposed peaceful nuclear program needs centrifuges
  • What the U.S. can learn from Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system
KEVIN FREEMAN, Founder of GlobalEconomicWarfare.com:
  • Chinese and Russian cooperation on supplanting American financial institutions
  • The weakening reliability of the American dollar
  • Vladimir Putin’s success in forming meaningful economic relationships with China

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Floundering Around on Iraq

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With John Bolton, Bill Gertz, Bill Roggio, Andy McCarthy

“I just want to note this historic moment–that after more than a decade of criticizing President Bush and many others for their terrible, evil policies of regime change, that Barack Obama appears on the verge of calling for regime change in Iraq. This is irony of ironies.”

Ambassador John Bolton discusses a broad spectrum of issues related to the conflict in Iraq. He looks at the United States response, the role of Iran, the potential for a similar destabilizing event in Afghanistan, and the long-term implications for the Kurds.

On today’s show:

JOHN BOLTON, former US Ambassador to the United Nations:

  • Analyzing the as-yet unclear administration policy on Iraq, and how the US response will be shaped by Iran’s role in the conflict
  • Concerns the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will produce a resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda similar to that of ISIS in Iraq
  • What is the future for the Kurds in Iraq?

BILL GERTZ, senior editor of The Washington Free Beacon:

  • An attempt by China and Russia to use international treaties to prevent the US from developing space weapons, even while they continue to do so covertly
  • A Congressional effort to block the US from sending attack helicopters to the el-Sisi government in Egypt
  • The need to modernize the U.S. Air Force’s strategic bomber fleet

BILL ROGGIO, editor of the Long War Journal:

  • Capture of Benghazi terror suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala—if he was watched by the U.S. “from day one,” why did the administration blame the attack on an anti-Islam video?
  • Likelihood that Iranian troops in Iraq will create a full-scale civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites
  • How ISIS’s desire to create a new Caliphate might lead to the creation of a Kurdistan made up of the Kurdish areas of Syria, Turkey and Iraq, all of whom would be expected to strongly oppose any loss of territory

ANDY MCCARTHY, former federal prosecutor:

  • Problems with trying Benghazi terror suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala in federal court—namely, that the start of the discovery process gives Abu Khattala access to US intelligence, and the government is prevented from interrogating him further
  • Overview of the newly-established Benghazi Accountability Coalition

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The Conditions Iran Must Meet Before The U.S. Thinks of Lifting Sanctions

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With John Bolton, Dan Bongino, Rep. Doug Lamborn, Jack Devine

JOHN BOLTON, former US Ambassador to the UN:

  • Predicting the legacy of President Obama’s foreign policy
  • How the United States is viewed by its allies and adversaries
  • Are there any actual moderates to arm and train in Syria?

DAN BONGINO, former Secret Service agent

  • Dangers of putting politics above public safety
  • The purge of data on people with ties to terrorism from a watch list used by ICE
  • President Obama’s documented location during the Benghazi attack, and what can be inferred about his behavior there

Congressman DOUG LAMBORN:

  • Amendment in the NDAA that outlines three conditions for lifting sanctions on Iran
  • The call from the Hill for the resignation of the VA’s Erick Shinseki
  • How Lamborn and his colleagues are working on keeping America armed
  • Freedom of religion in the military

JACK DEVINE, author of “Good Hunting: An American Spymaster’s Story”:

  • His personal experiences as a career CIA agent
  • The decades old secret about American covert operations in Chile
  • His personal outlook on Edward Snowden’s motives and actions

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Russia is Playing the US “Like a Violin”

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With John Bolton, Charlotte Florance, Adam Kredo, Gordon Chang

Former US Ambassador to the UN JOHN BOLTON:

  • The crumbling state of Ukraine and the lack of response from the US government
  • U.S. inability to handle multiple international problems at once due to the ongoing hollowing out of the military
  • The American stance in the Middle East and towards Iran
CHARLOTTE FLORANCE, Research Associate for Economic Freedom in Africa and the Middle East at The Heritage Foundation:
  • Key takeaways from the recent reelection of Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and the domestic challenges he will face during his next term. Is this ill, mostly-absent man being used by the Algerian military to maintain domestic stability?
  • Understanding the political and ideological transition underway between Islamists and secular groups within Algeria.
  • Algeria’s role on the global market as a key natural gas surrogate to Russia
  • The ongoing violent rift between Muslims and Christians in Central African Republic (CAR), and concern from neighboring states of a possible spill-over of violence

ADAM KREDO of the Washington Free Beacon:

  • More delays in the Guantanamo Bay pre-trials of some of the 9/11 perpetrators. Amidst claims that the FBI asked a defense attorney to act as an informant, relatives fear the federal government is purposefully trying to cause a mistrial and force a move to civilian court.
  • Questions over Iran’s compliance with deal to scale back its nuclear weapons program

GORDON CHANG of forbes.com:

  • President Obama’s upcoming visit to Asia and the importance of this trip in maintaining US allies in the region
  • A growing nationalistic outlook in China to make up for lagging economic growth, and the resulting changes in the political system that are leading it to resemble the old Mao regime

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Don’t Expect Putin to Stop At the Ukraine, Warns Amb. John Bolton

John Bolton, the former US Ambassador to the UN, warned on Friday’s Secure Freedom Radio that if Vladimir Putin is successful in Ukraine, “all of the former Republics—including the three NATO members, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—are going to be coming next.” And after that, Bolton predicts, Putin will set his sights globally.

Bolton argued that Putin’s boldness is due largely to the lack of western resistance he is receiving.  He blamed European inaction on economic fears, and American inaction on President Obama’s foreign policy.

“The Europeans allowed themselves to become increasingly dependent on Russian oil and gas. Putin is going to exploit that. He’s going to exploit the fears in the Western European countries that their economies, their fragile economic recoveries, will tank if sanctions are imposed and trade is cut off, and, in turn, if Russia imposes sanctions on the West,” said Bolton.

Ambassador Bolton maintained that the current crisis could have been prevented had Western Europe been braver about incorporating former Soviet republics into their economic sphere.

“I think Europe flunked one test back in April of 2008 at the Bucharest NATO summit, when President Bush put on the table the idea of bringing both Ukraine and Georgia on a very clearly defined timetable into NATO. That was intended to avoid exactly what happened four months later when the Russians attacked Georgia, and what we’re seeing now in Ukraine,” Bolton said. “The Europeans were too worried, too nervous about Russia’s reaction, and they wouldn’t accept the idea. And we’re now playing out the consequences of that.”

Bolton was also sharply critical of President Obama’s handling of the entire situation.

The Russians, he said, “are operating under a grand strategy and they’re going to continue to pursue it.” On the other hand, Bolton said, “the President just doesn’t pay attention to national security issues. He doesn’t care about it. He sent John Kerry to negotiate with Sergey Lavrov: that’s like sending a warm stick of butter to negotiate with a steak knife.”

After host Frank Gaffney brought up the underreported use of cyber warfare by the Russians in Ukraine, Bolton said he is not optimistic about the choices Obama will likely make in the near future on that front.

He doesn’t “doubt that [Russia would] be delighted to negotiate a treaty with us that would solemnly foreswear the use of cyber warfare in international relations—and then they’d probably violate it. We, on the other hand, especially in the Obama administration, would adhere to it. So the Russians would advance, the Iranians, the North Koreans. Everyone would advance except us. This is exactly the wrong way to proceed, so I have no doubt it will become a priority for Barack Obama,” he commented wryly.

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Perceived Western Weakness is Strengthening Putin’s Attempts to Regain Supremacy Over Post-Soviet Territories

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With Fred Fleitz, Ilan Berman, John Bolton, Bill Gertz

FRED FLEITZ, a Center for Security Policy senior fellow, dissects the allegations recently made by Senator Feinstein that the CIA has been spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

ILAN BERMAN, of the American Foreign Policy Council, examines the Ukraine crisis as Vladmir Putin’s attempt at reinterpreting Russia’s borders, with the ultimate end goal being “to encompass [Ukraine] and erode their sovereignty.”

Former US Ambassador to the UN JOHN BOLTON discusses Vladimir Putin’s attempts to reestablish hegemony over the territory comprising the former Soviet Union, and argues that he is encouraged by perceived American and European weakness.
Washington Times and Washington Free Beacon columnist BILL GERTZ reports on the Chinese apparently having been successful in copying the American F-35 to create their own stealth fighter, the J-20; the Russian use of cyber warfare in Ukraine; and the US hold on sending military equipment to the Egyptian government.

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Lack of U.S. Accountability Tips Arm Control Treaty in Russia’s Favor

With John Bolton, Kori Schake, Mark Krikorian, Gordon Chang

JOHN BOLTON, former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, outlines the arms control enterprise and Russia’s recent violations of the New START treaty.

KORI SCHAKE, of the Hoover Institution, explores the issues Robert Gates has raised in his new book about US involvement in Afghanistan.

MARK KRIKORIAN, of the Center for Immigration Studies, shares some of the possible implications of the immigration agenda decided on at the recent Republican retreat.

GORDON CHANG, of Forbes.com, sheds light on the security threats that could arise should Chinese computer company Lenovo—currently buying up IBM technology—become another Huawei in scope and power.

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Counter-NSA Recommendations Will Hurt US Intel Gathering

“I’m very worried about the degradation overall of our intelligence gathering capabilities,” says John Bolton, former US Ambassador to the UN, in response to new proposals for severely curtailing the NSA’s ability to monitor the communications of potential terrorists.

On Wednesday, the White House released a report entitled “Liberty and Security in a Changing World.” Written by The President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology, it came in response to the public uproar over revelations that the NSA was collecting call data of American citizens.

Ambassador Bolton and former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz joined host Frank Gaffney on Secure Freedom Radio on Thursday to discuss the problems that will arise should the review group’s recommendations be followed. Both maintained that the NSA program is vital to US national security, and that a fundamental misunderstanding of the NSA’s intent was behind the severity of the backlash.

“This is not the 1920s or 1930s. Technology has made a huge revolution and our intelligence gathering techniques need to keep up with that,” said Bolton. “The notion that the gathering of this so-called metadata about phone calls or pursuit of patterns of communication through the internet, the idea that munchkins at the NSA are reviewing your emails to see what you say to your girlfriend, is just crazy.”

Fleitz argued that judicial rulings mean the legality of the NSA program should not be in question.

“Fifteen separate judges in thirty-five separate court decisions had looked at this and said that it’s legal. It’s legal according to a Supreme Court decision, Smith versus Maryland, that when you make a phone call, the phone records are not considered protected. You don’t need a court warrant to go after that,” according to Fleitz.

Expressing criticism for President Obama’s decision to appoint a review group in the first place, Bolton said “the idea that you appoint an independent review panel is a classic way for a president to duck responsibility. This president happens to be particularly good at it, and he may well simply adopt these recommendations en bulk.”

Fleitz detailed the problems with the final product itself, pointing out the absurdity of the report’s recommendations, which would mean “we [would] have to have some type of agreement with our allies on how or whether to spy on them.”

Even worse though, Fleitz told Gaffney, was that “on a report of this complexity and of this much controversy, if it was a fair report there should have been disagreement and some dissenting views. The fact that these five guys supported such outrageous recommendations suggests to me that this was not a fair evaluation.”

“This sounds like a panel that was almost stacked, and this is just too important to be playing politics with,” finished Fleitz.

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What Obama’s Intelligence Panel Is Saying About NSA Surveillance

With John Bolton, Adam Kredo, Fred Fleitz, Bill Roggio

JOHN BOLTON, former US Ambassador to the UN, critiques the recommendations about the NSA made in the report by the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies that was released by the White House yesterday.

ADAM KREDO, a senior writer for the Washington Free Beacon, comments on the unraveling of the Iranian deal, and examines the benefits the Iranians will garner as a result.

FRED FLEITZ, a former CIA analyst, discusses the backgrounds and motivations of the five men who wrote the President’s Review Group report, titled “Liberty and Security in a Changing World.”

BILL ROGGIO, of the LongWar Journal, talks about John Kerry’s characterization of known Islamic terrorist groups as “moderates.”

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