Tuesday, September 30, 2014
From: Gary L. Bauer
Briefings? What Briefings?
In yesterday’s report, we commented on President Obama’s passing the buck by appearing to blame the intelligence community for missing the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. As we noted, there really was no excuse for anyone being so uninformed. Last year, Iraq’s prime minister came to Washington pleading for help in fighting ISIS.
Even the liberal media are refusing to drink the Kool-Aid on this one. ABC’s Jonathan Karl noted that top administration officials warned about ISIS on at least three occasions between November 2013 and February 2014.
NBC’s chief foreign affairs correspondent Richard Engel said, “It’s surprising that the president said that U.S. intelligence missed this one… Everyone knew that Islamic extremists were on the rise in Syria and in Iraq; it was well documented. The extremists were publicizing their activities online — they were bragging about it. Journalists, including us, were interviewing foreign fighters. This was no state secret.”
A new report may shed some light on one possible reason for the president’s confusion. According to the Government Accountability Institute, Obama has skipped roughly 60% of his daily intelligence briefings.
During his first term, Obama attended 42% of his daily intelligence briefings. And halfway through his second term, he’s made just 41% of his briefings.
Liberal apologists will no doubt argue that the president is so smart he doesn’t need in-person briefings. He can just read the intelligence memos on his iPad over breakfast. Perhaps.
But what that means is that he is not asking questions. He is not engaging his top officials and experts. He’s winging it, and the results speak for themselves.
The Leader Of The Free World Speaks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations yesterday and delivered a speech rallying the free world against the forces of radical Islam. Netanyahu connected the dots so that free people could clearly comprehend the threat we are facing.
Meanwhile, our politically correct elites are doing their best to blur the lines between acts of terrorism and terrorism’s root cause.
They don’t want you to connect the jihadist who cut off a woman’s head at a food processing plant to the jihadist who walked onto Fort Hood and mowed down 14 people to the jihadists from Minnesota who went to fight for ISIS in Syria to the jihadists in Gaza digging tunnels into Israel. The left does not want you to see the obvious connection to all these incidents: Radical Islamism.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech was incredibly powerful. I encourage you to watch the whole thing. Here are some excerpts of his remarks yesterday:
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the people of Israel pray for peace. But our hopes and the world’s hope for peace are in danger. Because everywhere we look, militant Islam is on the march. . . .their ultimate goal is to dominate the world. . . .
“Some are radical Sunnis, some are radical Shi’ites. . . .But they all share a fanatic ideology. They all seek to create ever expanding enclaves of militant Islam where there is no freedom and no tolerance. Where women are treated as chattel, Christians are decimated, and minorities are subjugated, sometimes given the stark choice: convert or die. . . .
“Ladies and Gentlemen, militant Islam’s ambition to dominate the world seems mad. But so too did the global ambitions of another fanatic ideology that swept to power eight decades ago. The Nazis believed in a master race. The militant Islamists believe in a master faith.”
Referring to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Prime Minister Netanyahu said:
“Imagine how much more dangerous the Islamic State, ISIS, would be if it possessed chemical weapons. Now imagine how much more dangerous the Islamic state of Iran would be if it possessed nuclear weapons. Would you let ISIS enrich uranium? Would you let ISIS build a heavy water reactor? Would you let ISIS develop intercontinental ballistic missiles? Of course you wouldn’t. Then you mustn’t let the Islamic State of Iran do those things either.”
Referring to Israel’s fight against Hamas, Netanyahu said this:
“ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree. ISIS and Hamas share a fanatical creed, which they both seek to impose well beyond the territory under their control. . . .As Hamas’s charter makes clear, Hamas’s immediate goal is to destroy Israel. But . . .Hamas shares the global ambitions of its fellow militant Islamists. That’s why its supporters wildly cheered in the streets of Gaza as thousands of Americans were murdered on 9/11. And that’s why its leaders condemned the United States for killing Osama Bin Laden, whom they praised as a holy warrior. . . .
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the fight against militant Islam is indivisible. When militant Islam succeeds anywhere, it’s emboldened everywhere. When it suffers a blow in one place, it’s set back in every place. That’s why Israel’s fight against Hamas is not just our fight. It’s your fight. Israel is fighting a fanaticism today that your countries may be forced to fight tomorrow.”
Who could disagree with that? Unbelievably, the State Department — YOUR State Department — did disagree.
At a State Department briefing yesterday, Spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked about Netanyahu’s connection of ISIS and Hamas as “branches of the same poisonous tree.” Psaki replied that while both were terrorist organizations, ISIS “poses a different threat to Western interests and to the United States. And that’s just a fact.”
Really? Perhaps one might argue that ISIS poses a more immediate threat. But Hamas has killed Americans and has also threatened to attack the United States.
Psaki also rejected Netanyahu’s statement that radical Shiite and Sunni groups were “are all part of the same kind of militant Islamic attempt to rule the world.” Psaki said, “We would not agree with that characterization, no.”
How is it possible that the United States and Israel could be so far apart when it comes to defining a common enemy that has killed Americans and Israelis and is threatening Judeo-Christian civilization? It is clear to me that Netanyahu takes his intelligence briefings seriously. It is also clear me to that the leader of the free world resides in Jerusalem, not Washington, D.C.
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