From: Gary L. Bauer
Putin Strikes
Putin is tightening his noose around Ukraine. While Russian troops on leave have reinforced flagging separatists in eastern Ukraine, two columns of Russian tanks and armored fighting vehicles invaded southeastern Ukraine and seized a town on the Sea of Azov, creating a second front.
A Ukrainian military spokesman said, “Our border servicemen and guardsmen retreated as they did not have heavy equipment.”
The White House announced this morning that Obama will meet with his National Security Council this afternoon. They certainly have a lot to discuss. For example, how will Obama respond to Putin’s latest act of aggression?
So far, Obama has refused to do the one thing that could make a difference — arm the Ukrainian forces. For months they have been requesting access to better, heavier weapons. Instead, we are giving them socks.
This seems to be Obama’s preferred approach. The Kurds have also been asking for better weapons to combat ISIS. After months of dithering, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel implied this week that we might finally be getting around to it.
But guess what? Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said Tuesday, “We asked for weapons and Iran was the first country to provide us with weapons and ammunition.”
By the way, the Kurds are doing what the Iraqi government has seldom done in recent years. They are protecting Christians and Christian sites that have not yet been razed by ISIS.
Stark Warnings
While every anniversary of 9/11 should be a cause for greater vigilance, there are a number of reasons to be particularly concerned in the coming days. We have written repeatedly about Western jihadists fighting on the battlefield. We have no idea how many may have come home.
Yesterday in Ohio a school was locked down when it received a call from an individual with a heavy Middle Eastern accent warning of a mass shooting due to anger at Israel. Thankfully, nothing happened. (The odds are overwhelming that a terrorist wouldn’t call in a threat. But the venom aimed at Israel is a marker of the radicalization going on around the world and here in the U.S.)
Referring to a possible attack this coming September 11th, retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney raised eyebrows Monday when he said:
“I believe that we should go to DEFCON 1 and be prepared for another strike. There are too many indications. …I believe American cities will be attacked and we should be prepared for it. …9/11 is a very attractive date for [ISIS].”
Underscoring the danger are warnings in the latest issue of an Al Qaeda magazine. This one provides instructions on how to build car bombs. It calls on Islamists to attack targets such as Times Square, Las Vegas casinos, oil tankers and military colleges. It includes a cryptic question regarding a timeline of possible attacks, suggesting one could be imminent.
Meanwhile, “mainstream” Muslim groups are doing everything possible to make the prevention of future attacks harder. These groups recently sent a letter to the White House demanding “a mandatory retraining program for all federal, state and local law enforcement officials” to make them more sensitive to Muslims.
Some jurisdictions are already caving in. New York City, under the left-wing direction of Mayor Bill de Blasio, shut down a surveillance unit within the New York Police Department aimed at exposing Islamic extremism.
U.S. intelligence estimates that as many as 300 Americans are waging jihad overseas with ISIS, and yet these groups refuse to admit there is a problem.
Obama Prepares Amnesty Defense
Polls have consistently shown overwhelming opposition to Barack Obama’s handling of immigration. Voters want the border secured and our immigration laws enforced. But Obama is doing the exact opposite, and he’s getting ready to do even more of it.
He’s not oblivious to the polls and he’s not oblivious to the law either. White House lawyers are busy crafting a legal defense for his new amnesty order, anticipating “an expected onslaught of opposition.” But the Associated Press adds:
“Obama may have undermined his case… In a 2012 interview with Telemundo, Obama defended his decision to defer deportations for children but said he couldn’t go any bigger. ‘If we start broadening that, then essentially I would be ignoring the law in a way that I think would be very difficult to defend legally. So that’s not an option.'”
That statement should be Exhibit A in every legal challenge seeking to overturn Obama’s order and uphold the rule of law. But before this gets litigated in a court of law, it will be fought out in the court of public opinion and at ballot boxes across the country in the coming weeks.
The Washington Post writes: “Both political parties are in a state of high anxiety about the possibility that President Obama will allow millions of illegal immigrants to remain in the country, fearing that White House action on the issue could change the course of November’s midterm elections.”
Stay tuned!
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